Happy Birthday To My Hot Rockin' Hubby!

Happy Birthday my darling Don!

You are still my favorite!!

I love you forever.

Sivje

Ahnalin Is Now 8 Years Old!!!

Today my precious baby Ahnalin turned 8.

I can hardly believe it. 

In my mind, she is still this yummy little dumpling.

And I am so grateful that she is mine.

Ahnalin decided she wanted a tea party with a sewing lesson

for her birthday party.

This is a very blurry photo,

but Ahnalin designed, cut out, and created these invitations herself.

And India created the banner to celebrate her baby sister.

I have quite a large stash of scrapbooking supplies

from the days when I actually still made scrapbooks.

So the girls went shopping for supplies in my 

stash of papers.

She chose Janet Gilbert's pattern

"Vintage Natalie".

You can order the pattern here:

Martha Pullen Company

I didn't get great photos this time because 

Ahnalin was so excited about the party that she 

was jumping around like a frog!

But I adore this pattern!

Ahnalin chose the fabrics from my stash

and it had to be polka dots.

This dress twirls well!

I had originally added the band of larger dots

so that I could enclose the hem.

But Ahnalin wanted the dress long,

so I just made the teeniest rolled hem.

 

I love how the piping frames the center panel

of the dress. 

Ahnalin has already requested another dress

from this pattern for the first day of school.

And it must be polka dots as well.

Well, yes, of course!

But let's get back to the details of the party, 

shall we?

The birthday princess requested

strawberries and Nutella sandwiches.

The tea server belonged to my grandmother.

And she wanted her favorite mango oolong tea 

served in my Alice In Wonderland tea pot.

And the sugar and creamer set belonged 

to my aunt.

 

I made honey cupcakes

from scratch.

(Don told me they were too dry, 

so I am glad I didn't eat one.)

India picked some flowers for the table.

Ahnalin was so excited because she wanted

a Barbie Doll very much and her friend

Mikayla gave her one!

She also requested Top Ramen!

I am NOT KIDDING!

Her friend Julia made her the sock monkey

and the card and we loved them.

Brynn gave her a little pink caddy

filled with goodies for doing her nails!

Oh the joy and excitement!!

 And Annette gave her a bead craft kit,

sticker, and sparkly shoes!!!!

After Ahnalin opened her presents 

from her friends,

we had a little sewing lesson.

Ahnalin thought it would be fun for her friends to sew

their own "goody bags" using the leftover

fabric from her dress.

Some of the girls chose to sew theirs 

by hand and some chose to try out my sewing machine.

After they finished sewing their 

goody bags, they got to fill them with 

Hershey Kisses!

After the party, Ahnalin thanked me

and hugged me so tightly.

She told me that this was the perfect birthday

party and she said it was exactly what she wanted.

She loved all of her gifts and was

so grateful that all of her friends were so kind and generous.

This is the first
"friend" birthday that Ahnalin has had in many years.

She was always nervous about birthday parties

and never wanted to have one.

She is usually nervous about attending parties as well.

But she really wanted a party this year,

so we threw it together 

just a few days ago.

And my girl handled it beautifully.

I am so proud of her 

and so grateful of the progress she has made.

Happy birthday my precious girl.

I love you and am so grateful that

God gave you to me.

My Math Skirt Featured On The Sew Beautiful Blog!

Oh My Goodness!

My Math Skirt Tutorial is featured today on the

Sew Beautiful Blog!

I am so very excited!!!!!!

(Can you tell from the extreme abuse of my exclamation points?)

The post explains how to make

a simple skirt using just math!

Ahnalin loves math so much

that she insisted this skirt must be named as such.

This is the same way I made her corduroy skirt

shown above.

So, go check out the 

Sew Beautiful Blog

and make a Math Skirt for 

"Back To School".

And I want to wish a very wonderful
birthday to my darling mother
Barbara Jean The Teenage Queen!!!!
(hint, she has been out of her teens for 50 years. Shhhhhhhh.)
I love you Mom!

Happy Sewing!

McCall's 6503- A Dress For Me

I made a dress for myself.

I don't do it often enough.

I make darling dresses for my daughters

and other little girls.

But I wear ratty jeans and tshirts most of the time.

There really is no good excuse for it.

I have plenty of fabric and loads of patterns.

I know how to alter and fit clothing.

I just don't like to sew for myself,

especially in the size I am now.

I always think I will wait until I lose weight.

But then I don't do it and still wear

the ratty jeans and tshirts.

And my wardrobe was getting to be ridiculous!

So...........

 I pulled out McCall's 6503

and chose view A.

I pulled out some gorgeous fabric that I have been

hoarding for just the perfect dress.

This is "Anthropology 2005" by Dan River.

Yes, I have had it awhile. 

I have most of the bolt left....

Actually, this was kind of my "muslin"

because I had never made this pattern before.

But it turned out so well!

I was nervous about the sizing,

so instead of just cutting out my regular dress size,

I cut the sizes according to the measurements.

Yeah.....no. 

It was HUGE!!!!

I should have just cut it a size 16,

which is my normal size.

So I fussed with it,

and cut it down,

and resewed it,

and tried it on

 over and over until it fit perfectly.

Next time I make this pattern,

and there WILL be a next time,

I will just cut the 16 from the beginning.

Please excuse the dorky look on my face.

Don was taking the photos and he was being goofy.

You know,

when I take photos of my girls in their outfits,

I fuss over the collars and sleeves so they lay correctly.

He didn't get that part of the deal......

But I LOVE this dress.

I love the collar and the surplice neckline

and the little ruffle.

However, I didn't love how "gapey" the front got 

when I bent over or slouched.

So, I added a super cute vintage button and buttonhole

right under the collar.

Don couldn't understand why I asked him to 

take a photo of the back.

But I reminded him that my blog was mostly read by 

sewists who would like to see how the back looked.

There is a side zipper in this dress 

so the back is very smooth and nice.

The ruffle is a little scrunched on the 

back of the neck because I had been wearing

my jean jacket that morning at church. 

I love this dress so much!

I will definitely make this pattern again,

maybe next time in a denim or linen.

I plan on wearing this,

 with my cowboy boots,

when the HRH takes me to the 

Brad Paisley concert on Thursday!

We bought the tickets in March,

and I am so glad we did!

Don (my Hot Rockin' Hubby) was laid off 

from his job last week,

so this concert is a huge treat coming 

at a hard time.

And I am so glad I made a new dress to wear 

with my hubby.

We would so appreciate prayer

as Don looks for a new job.

Thankfully, he still has his part-time church job.

 Happy Sewing!!!

 

Ahnalin Sewed Her First Dress! (or, Learning To Pick My Battles)

This summer, I decided to give my daughters

some special assignments.

In addition to the usual sleeping-in-late,

going to the beach,

library, 

playing outside with friends,

lemonade stands,

and other summer past times,

my girls get to accomplish some things!

Each of my girls must:

1. Write a story.

2. Learn a song on the piano or guitar to accompany themselves.

and 

3. Sew a dress that they will wear.

So far, Ahnalin has learned to play

"You Are My Sunshine" 

on the piano.

She sings it hundreds of times a day,

much to the unending JOY  chagrin 

of her big sister.

But she also sewed her dress!!!

Last Tuesday, 

Ahnalin and I went to Joann Fabrics 

to buy some thread and look at the Mccall's pattern books.

McCall's patterns were on sale for 99 cents each.

 Ahnalin had been mooning over a certain jumper pattern

for quite some time,

and had decided that she wanted to make the jumper herself.

While sitting at the pattern table,

a large group of ladies sat down and grabbed the books.

One of them kept "shushing" Ahnalin!

 Ahnalin was actually behaving beautifully,

so it was very rude for this lady to do this.

The lady had already grabbed the McCall's book

away from Ahnalin, telling her that they were not for children.

she said they were only for "real seamstresses".

I informed the lady that Ahnalin was an "award winning seamstress"!

She won a Blue Ribbon for her quilt 

2 years ago at the county fair.

That makes her a "real seamstress" 

for sure!

And then the store manager walked by

and said hello to Ahnalin, by name,

and asked her what her next project was.

Ahnalin proudly showed her the pattern

and told her what fabric she was using.

 So after this little showdown,

you can bet I was going to let Ahnalin buy her pattern!

Off we go, leaving the nasty ladies to 

hog the pattern books.

Ahnalin had been begging to use a pink and white

gingham print from my stash,

for many years. 

So, I mistakenly assumed that she planned to 

sew the red gingham dress (View D),

because of it's similarity to the picture on the pattern.

But NO WAY!

She wanted to sew the view with 

the pear fabric (View B)

because she loved the curve of the bodice,

and the pretty pockets.

I explained to her that I felt View D would be simpler

for her to sew, with straighter lines,

and gathers instead of pleats..

However she had her heart set. 

She reminded me that when I first started sewing,

I chose the most difficult dress I could find,

because I assumed everything would seem

easy after that. 

Why, oh why did I tell her that?

I mean, it was true, but I was 14 when I did that,

not 7.

She also told me that she fully intended to finish her dress,

so she could wear it to church on Sunday.

Oh my!

I was flashing back to all those Saturdays in 

high school, when I would start sewing in the 

afternoon and finish a dress to wear to church the next morning.

She cut her dress out on Friday and when she started to get 

frustrated, I told her it was time for bed.

Saturday morning, she was up with the sun,

begging to work on her dress.

After struggling with the pocket,

she decided her dress would be fine without it.

This was not accomplished without 

a few screaming fits from her,

and I had to really make every effort to hold myself together.

I knew how badly she wanted to finish her dress,

and she wanted it to be perfect.

She is SOOOOOOO much like me!

Which is why I tend to jump to react

when she freaks out. 

I reminded her that if she had chosen

the simpler design, she may have been less frustrated.

Yes, it was an "I told you so" moment,

and it wasn't helpful.

She picked out trim and buttons

from my stash. 

Watermelon is her favorite fruit,

so once she saw those, her choice was made.

And I think the lime green trim was chosen because

it is my favorite color and she was desperate to 

please me after her nasty tantrum. 

Part of me,

a very, very big part of me,

was tempted to tell her that because of her horrid tantrum,

she could not finish the dress today.

But another part of me,

the part that is working on giving grace,

and showing love even when I want to react in anger,

knew that she NEEDED to finish this dress. 

And she NEEDED that one-on-one time with me,

where I was not working on things for clients,

or even sewing a dress for her. 

She NEEDED to finish this dress

to prove to herself that she could do it.

There are areas in this dress that are not perfect.

She is a perfectionist and so am I.

She freaks out when something is not perfect.

But in a strange way,
I had to show her that striving for perfection,

when it leads to extreme frustration,

is not good. 

She made close friends with her seam ripper, 

which is good.

But some curves were not as round

as she wanted.

I told her that self control (not screaming and 

throwing the dress across the room) 

was more important that perfect curves.

That was hard for me. 

I am not sure who is learning more in this process,

Ahnalin or me. 

But she finished her dress!

And she loves it.

She is already planning the next dress.

I am so proud of my little one,

for the achievements in sewing lessons

and the harder lessons in life. 

Happy sewing!

Freshening Up My Bedroom For Summer

My cozy bed.

It needed some freshening up for summer.

And I had to do it on a pretty snug budget!

I love bright colors and vintage cottage looks.

I managed to achieve my goal for less than $50.00.

What I had:

Antique Dresden plate quilt

(handed down from my great grandmother)

Green French quilt

(birthday present from my parents last year)

Silhouette portraits of our family

(my favorite souvenirs from Disneyland)

Swing arm lamps

 (ordered from Pottery Barn a zillion years ago)

Blue and white chintz euro shams and bed skirt

(made by me with fabric bought at a garage sale)

Red rick rack

(my embarrassing stash)

Blue rick rack

(same embarrassing stash!)

Elastic, thread, bias tape

What I bought:

1 set of white sheets from T.J. Maxx 

($32.55 including tax)

2 pairs Ralph Lauren floral pillowcases from Marshalls

($10.85 including tax)

My old lampshades

were darling black and ivory check fabric

from Pierre Deux.

I still love them

and didn't want to permanently alter them.

So I made lampshade covers

out of one of the pairs of floral pillowcases.

 

And I made throw pillows

with the rest of the fabric from those pillowcases.

I used the other pair as regular pillowcases.

I sewed a row of red cotton rick rack onto the 

white sheets and pillowcases.

And after making special pillowcases

for a bazillion different people,

I finally made some for me!

I decided to use the phrase

"I am my beloved's 

and he is mine" 

from Song of Solomon 6:3.

I love it and so does my beloved Hot Rockin' Hubby!

Happiness Is Homemade - A Giveaway!

I am so excited!!

Last year I fell in love with 

a book called 

"Twenty Eight And A Half Wishes"

by Denise Grover Swank.

I interviewed her on my blog

HERE

 and then pined away waiting 

to hear what would happen next to 

the heroine Rose, her sister Violet

 and the handsome Joe.

Well,

the next book,

"Twenty Nine And A Half Reasons"

just came out and I LOVE IT!!!

So, when Denise

asked me to make an apron

for a giveaway on her blog to celebrate

the launch of the new book,

I was thrilled!!!

Denise is giving away this apron I designed 

and created 

and some other goodies as well.

You can enter at her blog,

Denisegroverswank.com

And you can
buy the book and load it right to your
Kindle here:


Twenty Nine And A Half Reasons

So pop on over to Denise's blog and
read all about her fabulous books,
and enter the giveaways too!

Thank you Denise for letting me be a part
of the fun!

And thank you for writing such wonderful books too!