Long summer break

Hey ya'll! I know its been a while. We've had a long an interesting summer and I haven't had much time to myself lately. At the end of May we moved from Idaho to Maryland, leaving behind all our friends for a new journey. Its been a rough transition. Eva is taking it all in stride being only 18 months old now, but Tabitha has had a hard time. She misses her friends. I've had a rough time as well. I miss my friends. I miss having such an awesome support structure. I also really miss Rexburg. I miss the feel of it. Everyone was a member of the church, you weren't bombarded with inappropriate clothing or language everywhere you go. You didn't have to navigate the hundreds of people smoking at every exit, everywhere you go. There was also the feeling of community. Almost everyone in our complex would spend the afternoons outside chasing our kids together and helping each other out. I really miss that.
Maryland is beautiful. The trees are amazing, I love that there are little ponds everywhere. I love that there is so much historical significance to teach my kids. I love that I can take them to the smithsonian and teach and show them so many things I couldn't have back in Idaho. I have better medical care for Tabitha here. We have started the process to get Tabitha into ABA therapy and into preschool. There are so many programs that will help her that we couldn't get back in Idaho. Morgen has a great job. He just finished his training and will soon be starting actual work, which he is excited about.
I haven't had much time or a place to sew and most of my stuff is still back in Idaho in our storage unit, which is kind of a pain.
I really hope to get back to crafting, and writing soon. I pulled out a dress that I started when Tabitha was 18 months old. I will hopefully finish it soon so Eva can wear it. I have actually made a different version of this dress (its my own pattern) before and I have been wanting to write a pattern for it so you all could make one too so that is my current goal.
When we moved to Maryland from Idaho we couldn't come out first to find a place so we had to hope that we would find something good like we did when we moved to Idaho. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. We ended up in an awful place that was dirty and starting to fall apart. We were able to move again to a much nicer place but it was a stressful move and cost all we had to make a second move.
We are trying to get settled now and will hopefully get back to our regular routine soon.

Not that this has anything to do with the post, its just a fun picture we took before leaving rexburg. 

Basic top pattern

So I'm going to share with you my basic top pattern. I use this for almost all of my dresses, and it will be heavily used in my upcoming tutorials. I usually make it out of craft paper. I got a huge roll of Melissa and Doug craft paper, because it doesn't rip as easily as wrapping paper, but i've used that before too. I like the Melissa and Doug paper because it doesn't easily rip and i can fold it up and keep it nice a lot easier than wrapping paper. 

So what you'll need. 

Paper (wrapping paper, easel paper rolls, printer paper taped together, as long as it works for you, it doesn't really matter what you use, but I would probably not use toilet paper) =)

a shirt that fits your child

pen or pencil

scissors. 

1. Fold your shirt in half and lay on the paper

2. Trace around the shirt, follow the body of the shirt and the inside of the sleeves. This will just be the body not sleeves so flip them up and follow the curve of the arm hole. Follow the front neck line or you can do the back of the neck line and then draw the front in too, I do that for ones where I want the neck in the back higher and it saves on time if you don't have to make a new pattern. 

3. Cut it out. 

Thats it. Super easy. This will be the basis for a few tutorials I have coming up. So if you do this then you will be ahead of the game to start your dresses! 

Seamingly smitten double ruffle halter for girls pattern review

I was given the opportunity to test the double ruffle halter dress for girls pattern for Seamingly Smitten. And Oh my Goodness! Its so cute! This pattern is really easy to follow. There are no pattern pieces to cut out and it is written more like a tutorial. All the pieces of the dress are different size rectangles which means its so easy to make and put together. I got to make a 3t size for Tabitha and she loves her dress. I made it for St. Patricks day and she wants to wear it every day! Thats definitely a sign of a good design.

 I let Tabitha pick out the fabric for the dress, she really loved those shamrocks!

The back is definitely my favorite part. You can either have it tie at the neck or add a button hole in the back of the dress and have the ribbon ties come through that hole and tie. I love the versatility. I plan on making a shorter tunic length one with leggings too. This is definitely going to be one of my go to i need a quick dress patterns from now on. 

If you want to check out seamingly smitten and all her adorable creations check her blog Seamingly smitten>here , her etsy shop Seamingly smitten>here, and her Facebook page Seamingly smitten>here.