Blog Inspiration...

.. I made this little shirt for Zoe after finding this tutorial from one of the blogs I follow. It was so easy and came together in a whim. It is perfect for hopefully these last hot and humid summer days. Can you hear the underlying tone here? Enough is enough I need a season change.

Anyway I added buttons to the front straps as seen here. I used 1/4 inch elastic for the straps in my version and not the recommend half inch elastic. It just seemed to bulky for a size 2T. I am very happy with how this ruffle sleeve top came out. I am pretty sure there will be more of these in the future. Maya of course wants to have one as well.

These shots were taken after there was ice cream and juice. So forgive my messy model.

I guess you can never keep a toddlers shirt clean too long... Just what this was made for.....

A little something for my mom.....

... so last week I send of these pillowcases to my mom in Germany. And of course I had to wait until she received the little package in the mail to showcase them in my blog (she is probably the first one I showed my blog to and of course and avid reader). Well yesterday was the day she received the package. She really loved them.

The idea for the pillowcases came from "Last minute Patchwork and Quilted gifts" by Joelle Hoverson. I got this book from my mom for my birthday in April. So obviously the first project from the book had to be for my mom.

Ohh boy do I adore this book. It is absolutely great. The ideas are very inspiring. She even gives time frames in which you can sew the projects.

I think these pillows were in the four to 6 hour gift range. That was very true time wise and they came together really easily. I had to sew a zipper in the back since I couldn't send them with inserts. So obviously that added to the sewing time. But definitely a project that can be done in half a day.

The pillowcases look so funky and modern. Completely different from the usual stuff I sew. Definitely a step out of my comfort zone.

But I like them a lot. And so does my mom.

For the Love of Burlap..

....and a little more insight into our house...

Lately I have been seeing pillows made out of Burlap everywhere. So of course I had to sew one (or maybe two) as well.

I was in desperate need to lighten our Living Room a bit. Everything is taupe and I really wanted some white/ cream pillows for our couch.

These are simple envelope style pillows with two buttons added. They measure 16x16. So small compared to the last few pillows I made. The pillows came together really quickly and definitely a lot less of a hassle then putting zippers in to the pillow covers. So needless to say these are not the last envelope pillows I have sewn for our house. I think it is time for me to join "Pillowcase Anonymous". Hmmmm... Do I have to worry???

A new rocker for Maya

So Maya had this little baby rocker in her room for pretty much the last 3 years. A few weeks ago we decided it had to retire into Zoe's room. Hmmm "but Mami where do I sit to read books?". Well off we went to a local consignment store. We found this old rocker that wasn't quite as big as the real adult rocker but still much bigger then her little retired one. At home we decided to spray paint it a plain white semi-gloss. Of course I had to add a little (or actually quite big) pillow. I wanted to try stenciling her name on it to personalize it and to make it her own reading chair. So I got this fabric paint and printed out a font I liked using word and just stenciled it onto a piece of bleached muslin. I added a few straps of 1930's fabric Maya had picked out from my stash. And then of course ruffles... Oh we love ruffles in this house.....

More pillows..

... so after making these I kind of got into a pillow rush....

I felt like every room in the house is in desperate need of some new pillows. So the first room I tackled was the playroom/ guest bedroom. The room has a queen size bed on which we read our bedtime stories at night with the girls. To make it a little more cozy I sewed three 26"x 26" pillows with a zipper in the back for easy washing. And of course I couldn't help it to add ruffles to the pillows. Ohhh so so girly. The tutorial for adding the zipper to the back can be found here. I love how these turned out. I will definitely sew more pillows soon.

9 Patch Pillows..

... And another one...

So I finished these pillows last weekend. For some reason I haven't gotten around to blog about them.

The tutorial can be found here. I used Denyse Schmidt "County Fair" fabric. I have to say I really love the fabric. I was a bit sceptical about the home decor weight for the pillows especially with the interfacing and the bulky seams. But it really wasn't a problem at all. The fabric feels nice and sturdy. I guess sturdy enough for every day use for my two little girls but yet cozy enough to nap on them. And of course I just had to make 5 of them for our entire sectional. So I guess next thing for on the couch would be a quilt out of the fabric. Hmmmm......

Summer project...

.. so Maya got this Butterfly project from one of her friends for her birthday. We finally got around to ordering the larvae. It got here last Thursday. Over the weekend the caterpillars turned into cocoons. Only a few days later the first butterfly emerged out of its cocoon. It was amazing to watch it fly for the first time.

At first I was a bit sceptical about ordering caterpillars and the putting them into this mesh cylinder to watch them grow and turn into a cocoon and later into butterflies. It was weird to purchase caterpillars strictly for that purpose. We watched all 10 butterflies emerge out of their cocoons.

But as soon as they were flying around in their "home" we decided to let them free. Some of them flew out right away, whereas others needed some time and even crawled on our hands and feet. Amazing.