Lily's Berry Hat

A friend of mine had a baby last month, a sweet little girl.  And doesn't every little girl need a berry hat to keep them warm and snuggly through the winter snow?

I used the Berry Baby Hat pattern from Ravelry.com.  It was simple, fast, and super cute!

Happy New Year!

Tractors and Gingerbread Men

The other day I posted this ballerina I made for a little friend of mine.  Today I'm showing off the ornaments I made for her brothers.

I had originally planned to make a train ornament for the older boy.  Then I asked him if he likes trains or trucks better.

And he said trucks.

As I was rethinking my plans, I noticed he played with tractors almost the whole time I was there.  A tractor it was!

It's unbelievably difficult to find a cute pattern for a felt tractor.  In fact, I couldn't find one at all.  But I did find a few inspirations that gave me a place to start for drawing my own pattern.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

For the five-month-old I wanted to make a baby's 1st Christmas ornament, but I couldn't find very many baby boy ornament ideas that were cute.  I decided to go with an old favorite and make a Christmas stocking with a gingerbread man on it.  Not particularly baby-ish but very, very cute.

Have a very Merry Christmas full of blessings as you celebrate the birth of our Lord!

You Can Never Have Too Much Pink

I babysit a precious little girl who loves ballerinas, so when I discovered this cute ballerina on Pinterest one day I decided I wanted to make her one as a Christmas ornament.

You may notice that the blog is not in English...  It took me a few minutes to find the pattern, but I did find it here.  (And then discovered the "translate" button, haha)

Here's my ballerina:

The bead flower in her hair and her tulle tutu make her somewhat 3D, which I really like.  And instead of having a solid background there is actually a back of her body.  She turned out so well, I almost wanted to keep her and make another one for my little friend.  Almost.  ;)

I hope she'll love her as much as I do!  Next the ornaments for her little brothers...

Too Early

I love Christmas!  Every fall I have a hard time waiting until after Thanksgiving to turn on the Christmas tunes and get out the decorations.  But I do wait.  Because I must.

But I have a confession to make.

I bought Celtic Thunder's new album Christmas Voices.  And listened to it.  All the way through.  Just one time and then dutifully put it on the shelf until after Thanksgiving.  I may or may not have hummed a few festive tunes afterwards...

Not only did I commit this unthinkable crime, I also indulged in some Christmas crafting!  My excuse is that a friend is visiting from across the country and I wanted to introduce her to wool felt...

I had a pattern for Santa and the tree, but I made the mushroom based on a picture I found on Etsy.  When I finished I was told it looked like Toad from Mario Brothers.  Not really what I was going for...

My friend had never made anything with wool felt, but now she's addicted.  ;)  I love how her ornaments turned out!

And this little one did a wonderful job learning to sew buttons.  It took some patience to sit still and concentrate on the tiny holes, but she did a terrific job with her ornament!

I'm looking forward to Christmas time...  But now it's time to go back to fall and Thanksgiving thoughts!

Dress Beginnings

While trying on some dresses as Old Navy I found one I really liked, but would have preferred it to be a little longer on me.  So I decided to make my own!

New Look 6936 was almost exactly what I wanted, but the sleeves weren't quite right and I wanted the waist to be closer to my actual waist instead of empire.  My mom had a vintage 70s pattern in her sewing stash that had a perfect sleeve shape, but I didn't particularly care for the neckline options.  So I decided to be brave and try to combine the two patterns to get the look I want.

After an evening of drafting, I think the two combined rather well!  I'm hoping it goes together quickly and without mishap so I can wear it to a conference next weekend.  :)

Now if this little guy would just move off my fabric so I can sew...  Who am I kidding?  I'll let him sit there as long as he wants.  :)

Pink Ruffles

Ruffles are so delightfully adorable that every girl should have several ruffled pieces in their closet, right?

Having seen a few online, I started daydreaming about making a ruffled skirt.  Then it occurred to me that a pink fabric I'd been given a few years ago would be perfect - I'd get a new skirt and stash bust!

I looked up a few tutorials (most helpful being here and here), but liked the look of the larger ruffles on this skirt:

http://allnewfashions.com/archives/5105

I used Simplicity 5462 which is a pretty basic straight skirt and just added ruffles (approximately 6" width) to each skirt piece before attaching them.  It worked pretty well, and - besides a weird zipper snafu - everything went rather smoothly.

I don't know what kind of fabric this is, but it ravels quite easily.  After I cut out each piece I zigzagged all the edges, and didn't do any hemming.  I rather like the look of the unfinished ruffles.  :)

Ruffles are just so feminine, and this made the perfect girly addition to my wardrobe!

Dress Corilynn

I recently found myself on Dress Corilynn admiring some very lovely skirts.  Just check out the really cute pictures scrolling on her site header.  Instant love.  :)

I recommend checking out the blog.  I haven't read much yet, but I really like what I was able to read quickly.  I'll definitely be visiting her site again!