I make other stuff too ;)

My summer sewing is coming along and getting plenty of wear, too! Here are a couple dress I've made and have already worn a fe times.

This is Simplicity 1612, one of the newer patterns for knits.

 I really wasn't sure about this at first, it's much louder of a print than I usually wear, but it's such a soft knit, the fit is perfect and it's really comfy, plus I got a few compliments from strangers on it that day, so now I feel better about it. The back is really cool:

Annnnnd, I haven't only been sewing clothes for summer! I simply could not resist this pattern for a new pool bag. Then, when Hobby Lobby recently started carrying several prints of laminated cotton, I knew it was meant to be. I bought a yard (way less than the pattern recommends, but the stuff was not cheap and I determined to eke it out). So, here's our awesome new pool bag (Natalie named him Hangry):

Isn't is so funny!? His mouth is a zipper pocket Ha! We love it. It's lined with the same laminate cotton, so water will not be a problem. Bring on pool time! I also got a new swimsuit from Land's End. It has an underwire AND it's really cute *gasp*. Highly recommend.

And I make other stuff too. Last week I made Play Doh because I had tossed all ours, intending to buy new and start over and then forgetting to do that. Kelby wanted to play and I wanted him to stay occupied for more than 2 minutes, so we made some.

It was fun. But super messy. I still think I'll buy new, haha! When Casey asked what we did that day and I told him, he said something like, "You made what?? Huh. Just when I thought you'd done it all." HA! Like that will ever happen ;)

around the house

Seems like we've been spending our days enjoying home lately! I uploaded photos just now and realized how many memories we make right here at home with each other and with others. Since school is winding down and the weather is warming up, we have been able to relax quite a bit, while I take random photos of it all along the way.

Here's a dress I made recently and that I really love:

Knit dresses are my Summer uniform, there is nothing more comfortable on a hot day, in my opinion. This in an older Cynthia Rowley pattern that I've made before, only this time, I omitted the waistband. 

 We had a play date last Friday. It was so much fun to hang out with a couple other mamas, just chatting for hours while our kiddos played! And the weather was perfect. This is my lovely friend Jennica and her gorgeous little one :)

 The boys...

 It is SO adorable how excited Kelby gets on mow day. He puts on his mow clothes (a hat) and follows Casey and the mower around the whole time. It's super cute. d

 Awana awards night!! These little girls are the best of buddies.

 Natalie and Mr. Al:

 The Cubbies, waiting anxiously to sing their Cubbies song:

 We are continuing some low-key school time throughout the summer. Math for the girls, mostly, but Kelby likes to spread out with his workbox.

 We have a beautiful snowball tree in our backyard and watching it come to life is one of my favorite things about Springtime.

 Today I made play doh! It was super cool, the kids helped.

I have some more sewing to share! Several things, actually, but we are going to stay busy planting flowers, playing with friends and going to the pool (starting next week, yay!) too, so I will share it when I can!

Mother's Day sewing, among other things.

I had a lovely Mother's Day! I hope you did too :)  After a veritable feast of steak and lobster at my mom's, we came home and I sewed the rest of the day away! I finished up a knit dress and then cut out a rayon top. I just snatched up Simplicity 1614 the other day when they went on sale for 99 cents, but I was very unsure of this flowy style on me, although it's a style I've been wanting to try.

I am very pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up loving this top! It really might be the most comfortable thing I own.

I really like the back and the nice butt coverage ;)

Kelby totally photo bombed my first attempt:

Yes, he still wears the dino costume. Makes the sewing time worth it when they love their costumes this much!

In other news, I did quite a bit of cleaning on Saturday and then took that rare opportunity to take a picture of my granny couch, which we scored at an estate sale for $25 several months ago (it was marked $90, but it was the end of the day and she was practically begging us to take it, haha). I updated the look with pillows and new lamps from Ikea. Then, after touching up that wall behind the couch, I only hung up the one piece of art, rather than the collage I used to have there. I really like the look now!

 Then I moved a chair over to the bookshelf side because it occurred to me that not all furniture must be pointed at the TV, hahahaha! I like to sit over here and it makes a much better conversation area now.

I snapped this pic of Kelby splashing in puddles. His new camo pants were soaked and he *made* me wash them right away so he could wear them to bed that very night. I just get so happy when the kids love things I make for them that much, so I couldn't say no ;)

It's supposed to reach the 80's this week!!! We are so excited, that we went to Target this morning and bought our annual kiddie pool and the kids are happily playing in it even as I write this. I'm also working on a super cute new pool bag and can't wait to sign the kids up for lessons! AND, I spotted the first green bud on our huge front yard tree. She's always a late bloomer, but oh, how I love waiting and watching for those first buds!!

chairs!

I told you I found an awesome chair at the Goodwill in Pueblo last weekend!! Here she is:

 Isn't is gorgeous!!?? It's in perfect condition and it looks to have been professionally reupholstered (lucky me). It's a perfect peachy color and so comfy. I think she was made for me.

 We decided we wanted bedroom chairs well over a year ago and so we began keeping our eyes peeled. You may remember me blogging about this green one after we found it last year (also at Goodwill) for only 10 bucks! It was a lucky find, most mid-century modern pieces like this have ripped vinyl, but this chair is perfect. It's a man's chair, though, so we kept searching for a girly one. Casey spotted my peach chair first and it was $45. I told him it could be my Mother's Day gift and he said he would have bought it for me anyway. Aw :) I then sat in it until it was paid for and got it's "sold" sticker, just so no one would steal it, hehe.

And now the manly green chair gets to live on Casey's side :)

And now for a couple thrifting tips:

I have a few friends who think we get really lucky all the time at thrift stores. But, really, we are just patient. We keep going and looking and wait until we find what we've been hunting for--for the right price and in the right condition. It can take some time. You can't just decide what you want, go check every thrift store/antique store in the vicinity in one day and then give up when you don't find it. Same goes for Craigslist--when I'm looking for something, I just check CL a couple times a day, sometimes for several weeks, until I find what I want. This is how I got my 8x10 wool Pottery Barn rug for $100.

Also, you have to be careful when shopping for vintage items because it can be tempting to snatch up anything vintage and you end up with too big of a collection of things you only bought because, well, they were vintage and cheap. We learned that lesson the hard way! Now we pass up lots of things that are cool, but just not useful in our home. More on this topic when I show you the new Corning ware pieces we found the same day as we got my chair :)

Spring!!!!!!

I thought it would never come!! There's a reason I didn't blog last week. It was cold. And it snowed. And I was trying to keep a good attitude--or if I couldn't do that, at least not outwardly complain about it ;) But the weather was really getting to me and I was unmotivated to do much of anything extra.

But now the weather's nice and I can think of lots of things to blog about, ha!

I made a maxi skirt:

 See my awesome stripe matching?!? I can't take full credit, easily matched stripes are a sign of quality knit fabric. I got a striped knit at JoAnn recently (and made a dress out of it that I have yet to wear or photograph--like I said, the weather...) and it was impossibly off-grain. It had a pattern running both ways and it made me want to pull my hair out trying to cut it to match. In the end, it just didn't. Poor quality right there, folks. Leave it to JoAnn's! But, don't get me started... I think I'll just stick to Denver Fabrics whenever possible. No pattern for this skirt, I just winged it (wung it?). I've seen a lot of large scale striped skirts like this out there this season, so I was thrilled to find this fabric.

 The girls had no matching socks. I bought them each a 6 pack and then labeled them to keep them straight! Stroke of brilliance.

 Spotted this in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist it. This tote bag pattern is on my wish list and I think this fabric would make a pretty cool lining!

Wait until you see the super awesome chair we found at Goodwill in Pueblo last weekend!!!!! It's exactly what I've been searching for, but thought I'd never find in good shape for a good price. But, patience paid off!!

I'll be back with that soon.

Cheers! :)

Hope of Spring and Kelby mischief

I don't want to speak too soon, but Spring may finally be arriving in Colorado. The snow melted in pretty much one day and we have sunny warmth in the forecast! Yahoo!! I would say I've never been so relieved for winter to be over, but I think I say that every year ;) I think I'm just a Summer girl and become more so as the years go by!

I made a pretty cute skirt a few weeks ago and still haven't had an opportunity to wear it other than for these pictures. The weather will hopefully change that this coming week and I'll get to wear this little cutie!

 I love a good shirttail hem!!

It was very windy this day! I couldn't keep my hair out of my face!
The pattern Simplicity 1617, one of their new Summer line.

I was drawn to the hem and the unique pockets, although when I finished mine, I thought the drapey pockets just added bulk to my hips, which I do not need ;) So I fiddled around with them and put some hand tacked pleats with cute buttons on there. So now they look like this:

They lay flat now and I like the skirt a lot after that little adjustment!

I've been sewing for my kids too! I found some knit army fabric recently and had to get it for Kelby. Anything camo print, he calls "Daddy clothes". Some days he wear his army pants, army shirt, army jacket, army beanie and army sandals and is so proud that he matches ;) Casey works in a recruiting unit, so there is a reason why we have so much stuff that says "Go ARMY.com" or "Army Strong" on it. Like sunglasses and beach towels and coffee mugs, for example :)

Anyway, I whipped up some knit pj pants for Kelby and he is very happy. They took my less than one episode of Bones, so it really was instant gratification.

Speaking of the little dude, he's been up to a lot of this lately:

He sure can make a good Lego mess, but I'm okay with it because as long as he's making a mess that I can see, he is not off making a mess that I cannot see ... like spilling a can of paint in the basement  and then painting the futon ... or giving himself a nosebleed while climbing on an upside down laundry basket (same way he attained the paint can) in his room to get the framed pictures down, which he later broke--on his bed, after which he fell asleep with a pile of broken glass. Eek! This kid takes mischief to a whole new level! I thought it was just a boy thing because although my girls were curious, it wasn't like this. But then, yesterday a mom of three boys told me none of her boys took mischief to the extent that Kelby does either! So, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, hehe :D

If I sew it, it will come

Can you believe that it is snowing AGAIN!?!? Enough with the "Colorado needs the moisture" already, how about a nice warm Spring rain?? That's moisture! I'd be down with some rain! But, the snow is getting old. It's not just the snow, it's the lack of sunshine. Maybe I should throw in the towel and get a vitamin D supplement.

I keep hoping that sewing for Summer and wearing sandals and refusing to buy a new pair of jeans, even though I could really use one, I can will Spring upon us. But, alas...

I made this dress last week and managed to photograph it in between snowstorms. I couldn't wait to share because I really, really love it!

 The pattern is McCall's 6700. I bought this pattern assuming it was for wovens , only to read later that it's a pattern for knits (the fabric on the cover doesn't look like a knit to me). I was bummed because I had some gorgeous rayons begging to be made into Summer dresses. After a couple months of debate, I decided to try it in my rayon anyway. I whipped up a muslin and since the bodice pieces are cut on the bias anyway, it worked great with my fabric!

I'm glad I read the reviews because everyone said the back ties were too skinny to turn and they ended up leaving them off. I really liked that feature so I simply cut them wider. My bodice looks drapier than some on patternreview.com. I wear a cami under mine because I really don't like having to watch my p's and q's. Next time I might cut the bodice down a size. Maybe.

I'm very happy with this dress! Rayon is hands down my favorite fabric to wear and I have a few more beautiful pieces in my stash to sew up. I'm glad I took a chance sewing this pattern in a woven because I have another pattern for knits I'd like to try the same thing with. I think as long as I cut the bodice front on the bias, I should have no problems. Also, I bound the armholes with bias tape rather than the hem suggested for knits.

Now, let's all close our eyes and wish for SPRING!!