More pics when I'm finished!

Aria Gets Cool Gifts for her Birthday!

Our oldest Niece, Aria, turned three this last week and I LOVE making girl clothes...I need to get better at boy clothes or the twins and Roegon will feel left out...

I made her a coat and a dress:

I used Simplicity Pattern #2745 for this super cute twirly coat!

I seriously want one of these for me! I love this fleece! I need to find more of it!

This might be the cutest dress ever! I used Simplicity Pattern #3588 (thank you 5 for $5 sale!)

I added piping to the front piece...you can't tell, but the neck/collar piece continues down the front and is sewn down all the way around...

I put tiny little bows on the sleeves...fyi - it's totally hard to tie a tiny bow...

She doesn't quite fit into it yet...one of these days I'm going to learn how to make things actually fit people!

Christmas Presents - Better Late Than Never

So once again, I decided to make a bunch of stuff for Christmas...here is some of the bounty I made!

A Super Hero Cape for our Nephew Roegon...we wrote and illustrated him a book in which he is Super Roegon, so of course he needed a cape to go with it!

Using Simplicity Pattern #9784 I made our new Niece Isabel this Pink Dress with a super cool Cinderella pinafore! This fabric I got from a woman in Australia as a sample...I got it in hot pink and blue...it's from Japan and super soft cotton...I don't really see what playing cards have to do with Cinderella, but it's cute so I keep my mouth shut...kind of...

Oh yeah, she got some bloomers too!
One day she might even be able to wear it...Aunt Shannonegans makes things too big...

The new twins, Reuben and Denny, get matching fleece sweaters...you can't really tell, but the hates are vintage inspired football hats...I used Simplicity Pattern #2523.

I used brown ribbon for the detailing and letterman jacket letters for the "H" (for "Herzbrun", their last name).

They look way adorable in them!

They aren't very good models...and they kind of look like Jedis...but still super cute! It's nice to know they wear them!

Shorty needs a new skirt!

Once Upon a Time...

I found a super pimp zebra print skirt at a store in So. Cal.

Yeah, well I don't buy anything that's $50...so I decided to make myself one.

The hard part - Finding the right fabric. Not cotton, not faux fur...hmmmm...

So "thank you" Halloween because I found the fabric at the fabric store in the costume fabric section!

It's some sort of stretchy suede!

Problem number two - the pattern.

In order to fit properly around my booty, I needed a bigger size than appropriate for my height.

Apparently I have the a** of someone 8 inches taller than me.

Behold!

Now, Presto, Chango!

(Ruth wanted to get in on the picture taking fun.)

Patterns - A bit of Inspiration

So as I sit here reading my local fabric store flyer, I see the glorious Ten Patterns for Ten Dollars Sale! So of course I go down to said local fabric store and I pick out a few, or seven.

So then I start thinking, "when on EARTH am I going to have the time to make all of these things!" Let alone the dozens of patterns I have purchased in the past...and let's not forget the wealth of patterns/tutorials/etc they have on the Internet! What is a girl to do?!

So in a moment for brilliance at work today, I came up with the idea of scanning all of my pattern envelopes and making a slide show out of all of them for my viewing public!

For example, I have four to five different apron patterns. If someone wanted an apron, they could look at my slide show and see what I have at my immediate disposal. Nice, right!? Well, what if I offered to make someone a birthday gift, but they didn't want something necessarily from my etsy store? Then they have to ask, "What all can you make?" Well I can't really tell them EVERYTHING I've made...it would be hasslesome :) and tedious. What a great way to get some inspiration if they had something to look at!

So I spent most of my night scanning pattern envelopes instead of taking pictures of my new awesome purses...nerd, right?

So On this blog, near the slide show of my fabric, you can see the slide show of my patterns! And tell me what you think of it - we tried getting a little creative...tell me if it's lame or not...thanks!

Dresses and Such to Cover my booty Part Dos

This blog is all about the other dresses I have made from New Look Pattern 6457.

Ok, first off, don't make fun of me and my attempt to be 1. a pin up girl and 2. America's Next Top Model. Some people's dreams and body shapes don't match (like how I'm too short to be a Rockette).

For this dress I used view A (the white one, second from the bottom) and Alexander Henry's "tattoo" fabric. I ended up having to lengthen the bodice pieces to make me not look so squatty, and I pinched the front to create a gathered "sweetheart" affect.

I also used view A for this dress and Robert Kaufman's "Our Lady of Guadalupe" panel cotton fabric. I made this pattern as instructed and added cute little satin bows where the straps meet the bodice front.

Oh yeah, I also cut the pieces vertically instead of horizontally like the dress below, because I really didn't want to cut through the Virgin Mary's head, nor have her head right on my chest!

I found this same dress in a ship in San Clemente, Calif last April when visiting a friend (hey, it was actually Stephanie's wedding, which is why I made the first dress I ever made...funny how we've come full circle). Anyway, the exact same dress style, little bow detail, fabric, etc, was EIGHTY DOLLARS!!! Forget that! How much did I pay for the pattern? A dollar! How much did I pay for the two yards of fabric to make this dress? $16. I don't know where they got freakin' $80 ass dollars for this dress. Which is why I made it myself!
(Um, does anyone else find it amusing that I am wearing the first dress I made, because we were shopping before we headed out to Stephanie's wedding!)

First, please excuse the horrible picture. A fatty thunderstorm last night prevented me from taking a super awesome picture of my super awesome dress.

Ok. I ALSO used view A for this dress with a black cotton/polyester blend. The top leopard accent is velboa. I even added a bit of lace, gathered, at the bottom. Like the Tattoo dress, I lengthened the bodice pieces. Note to self when lengthening the bodice pieces on this pattern - widen at the bottom too - I made this dress SO SMALL around the waist the first time b/c I'm not as skinny as the pattern would like to think I am. Weird.

Lastly, I made this dress using view C - but like I did with the first dress I made, I changed it from a Halter to two straps.

I first made the dress and lined it in black - it looked AWFUL! But I had enough seersucker and enough patience to re do it and line it in that.

The black around the neck is just black satin ribbon. I made a belt out of the same ribbon (which I was a moron and forgot to put on when we were taking these pictures) but it really does make all the difference in the world...

I was inspired by this dress (please excuse the photo, it was taken from my camera phone is that same store in San Clemente, which obviously has way cool stuff, but I don't need to pay $60 for this dress).

Remember, like I could let you forget, that this is the pattern I used to make my first dress ever. Isn't it amazing how I can get 5 completely different dresses from ONE pattern! Best $1 I spent ever!