Swinging around outside

Kaylee swinging around on a leisurely Saturday afternoon.


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Kaylee's one year old birthday bash

Here is a picture of the Winnie the Pooh Bear cake I made for her.

My angel baby Kaylee is going to be one year old in a few days. I can hardly believe that a year has passed since that tiny angel baby arrived a year ago. This year with Easter being so late we decided to do her birthday the same day when the family was all together. I will try to make it a point not to have her share her birthday with Easter in the future because she deserves her very own special day just like the rest of us. This year she wouldn't really know any different.




We sang the usual Happy Birthday song with the number "one" candle. Before we finished the last line of the "Happy Birthday" song, sweet little Kaylee reached over to the cake plunging her tiny strong hands into the spongy yummy sweet cake and shoved that huge piece into her mouth like she just couldn't wait to try it. This girl knows what is good.




Here she is shoving more cake into her mouth.




You have to wonder what she is thinking right here as she grabs and squishes yet another piece of decadent yumminess.




Mmmmm!




And more




Maybe I can eat it faster if I use both hands.




Then, she paused for a moment.




And got her second wind.




That was so good. I just can't stop at half a cake, mom.




Well, maybe half a cake is enough! Whew! Mommy, take me away please before I eat too much.  She was covered from head to toe in cake and icing. I threw away her icing stained blouse. The house and highchair will never be the same with all the cake crumbles and icing everywhere no matter how much we clean it.    Happy First Birthday Kaylee! We love you little sweetheart.

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Kaylee started walking today - April 19, 2011.

Kaylee has discovered that she can walk.  She started walking one week prior to her first birthday.

Here she stood up and turned around and is saying "Yeah!" with mommy and daddy.

There she is walking like a big girl.

Run run as fast as you can, you can't catch me.  I am the running Kaylee baby girl.

The Angels were playing Golf in my backyard. I think they need a little practice.

We have had some very turbulent weather this year starting December 31 and continuing throughout the winter and spring.  Today the Angels decided to pelt my house with golf-ball sized hail as they practiced playing golf on the golf course.  At first,  it was just a few misses.  You can barely see the hole on the green with the Winghaven flag removed here so I can understand why they missed.

And then they missed and hit the golf cart path and my backyard several more times.

Then, I think the Angels just got angry and started beaming golf ball sized hail at my deck table. I was praying it wouldn't break the glass.  The effect of it bouncing off the glass was neat.

And when the Angels were all through playing golf on the golf course, the blanket of icy white covered the green.  I don't know if they hit any into the hole but they sure made a mess of the green.  Looks like the golf course maintenance is going to have lots of cleaning up to do today.

The no tie scarf

This is the basic scarf before you pull it through the loop on the end. I serged all the way around the fabric and then sewed the loop on the end to pull the fabric through.


The bow tie scarf



The ascot scarf



neckerchief scarf

I love using my serger for quick little projects like this one. This scarf is made out of taffeta. The purpose of making this scarf was to practice one-step inner and outer corners on a serger. It is a little trickier than a regular sewing machine because you have more than one needle to deal with and the cutting knife that trims the fabric as you serge. I will admit the outer corner is not as easy as serging off the edges but it looks pretty when the corners are so smooth.

The hardest part of this project was serging an inner corner and not cutting the fabric deep into the corner. I will need to practice it a bit more to perfect it but for a first try, I think it turned out fairly nice.

I used a three thread rolled hem on this scarf. I used serger thread in the needle and woolly nylon in the upper and lower loopers for a beautiful edge. The machine stitch length was set on one to create a closed edged look.

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Golf ball size hail

Hail Covered the golf course. Here are a few pieces in my hand. I will try to upload more from the good camera later.

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Easter Bunny visit 2011

Kaylee and Sophia visiting the Easter bunny 2011.





We got up really early today and took the girls out for breakfast for a treat. I was super careful to cover their dresses I sewed with bibs so they wouldn't get food on their little dresses and matching floppy hats.

We told our sweet girls we were going to visit the Easter bunny. Kaylee just looked at us with an unknowing blank look but Sophia knew what we were talking about.





Here is Sophia smiling when she found out where the Easter bunny was located.

This photo was taken shortly after we were ambushed by the mall stores and St Louis magazine papparazzi. They wanted photos of these outfits I sewed for my girls. Who knew we would feel like celebrities just by going to see the Easter bunny. In fact, quite honestly I would never have expected to have been approached for a magazine photo shoot in the mall, but I guess they find you sometimes wherever you go. I will let you know if we get published.

It made me feel good that the women liked the dresses and hats I sewed and wanted to know if I was on Etsy so they could buy them. Guess I better get busy making more of my floppy hats and dresses.






The girls telling the bunny what they wanted. I overheard the conversation. It went something like this, " Easter bunny this is Kaylee Mae. She is my sister and she wants surprises. I want surprises too. Here is what I like. I want Squinkies and a chocolate bar. Daddy wants M& Ms so can you bring those for him. Please come to my house and hide the eggs. We love you

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Sophia drew the Easter bunny

Sophia got out her markers when we got home from visiting the Easter Bunny today and drew this picture. She came to me and said, "Mom, look I drew the Easter Bunny. He is purple because I have allergies to white bunnies! He has whiskers, ears, and arms too."

Well, who am I to argue with that? I love children's interpretation of the world around them.


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OMG! I just made a matching hat for the dresses.

So, I have always wondered if I could make a hat. Well, I think the answer is "Yes! I can!"




I serged up this little reversible hat on my serger this afternoon.




I am so excited that it was so easy.




Obviously, my three year old was goofing off when I let her be my model. Sophia was so excited that she actually wore her hat to bed last night.

I guess I will making the mini version for Kaylee tomorrow so they both have matching bonnets.

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The mini dress

I serged a quick mini version of the ruffled flowered zebra print dress for Kaylee.


Here is the back. It is even although the photo doesn't look that way. It is hanging crooked on the hanger on the doorknob.


Here is where I made the basic mini dress patterns. They are a little hard to see because the reflection of the light on the vinyl.


The second time making this dress was easier. I cut out all the same shapes as the original for this dress just a little bit smaller for Kaylee's dress.


Kaylee is always on the move so it is hard to snap a good picture of her wearing the dress.


Here is another view under Sophia's bike.


She is such a busy girl.


This is where everything landed when we got home


Standing but crouched over.


Now, my next challenge is to make the accessories for this dress.

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Kaylee Baby playing baby dolls

Kisses




Time to play

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Ruffled Zebra and Flower Print Dress

My daughter Sophia just loves zebra print so I stopped in my tracks when I saw this adorable zebra flowered print.  I am personally a little tired of the zebra print with hot pink look so I thought I would switch it up a bit with turquoise polka dots.  Aware that spring fashion this year is showing flowers on everything, shoes, clothes, purses, hair barrettes and headbands, I figured might as well get my flower girls in on the girlie styles of spring.  I love little girls in super frilly cute ruffled dresses but they cost a lot.  I thought well, why not design one for my girls.

If I were taking an advanced sewing and serging course this would have been the "Final" project of the year because I utilized everything I have been learning throughout my sewing adventure to create in sewing this little dress.

This time I wanted to make an original fun dress without a store-bought pattern for my girls. I started by sketching out the idea on scratch paper and writing in what colors I wanted and where.  That was the easy part.  Then, I started to draw the pattern on a scrap piece of vinyl that I had lying around. I did use a partial pattern for the size estimate.   I drew the front.  (Pardon my sketches, I am terrible at drawing but I know what I mean.)





Here is the back of the dress pattern.  Then, I assembled it.  I started by serging the straps which wrapped around the shoulders and down under the arms.  Then I attached them to the main front and back of the dress

Then, I serged and sewed the gathered ruffles and attached them at the hem and around the shoulder straps before sewing the side seams.  Then, I serged all the seams together and added the ruffled scrunchy patch pockets.  I made almost the entire dress on the serger except for the topstitching which my serger cannot do although some can with a coverstitch.


The idea was for this to be a spring/summer sundress.  

Sophia tried it on before I added the pockets to see if I needed to tweak the size a bit.  She told me she liked it without the pockets. I told her I was going to sew them on and as you can see she loved it even more with the ruffled scrunchy patch pockets.  Its all in the details.

Here she is showing off and dancing.

"Mommy, I like my new dress!"

"Are you going to make Kaylee one too?"

 Here is a side and back view of Sophia's new dress.

Now that it is complete, I better start working on Kaylee's dress so she doesn't get jealous of big sis in her new ruffled zebra flower print dress.

Notes for me:   I finished all edges of the dress in a three thread rolled hem even though this was a cotton fabric.. I also used a new technique.  I placed embroidery thread normally used with embroidery sewing machines in the upper looper and lower looper to finish the edges beautifully. I love the way it looks, almost as much as using woolly nylon in the loopers although it does not spread out like woolly nylon on the seam.  It appears more shiny like embroidery on fabric.  I have wanted to try this technique for a while but was scared of all the tension dials and adjustments required to use another kind of thread I was unfamiliar with thus far. I finally tried it and just might have to use embroidery thread in my serger again.   I especially like the way it turned out on the ruffles like a ribbon edge.

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