Rainbow Knits

I am just obsessed with spoonflower.

It is so easy and so much fun.
You can make ANYTHING YOU WANT!  And whatever you think you may want to make but cant actually make, someone has made it and you can buy it.  And then they send you sweet messages saying thanks for buying their homemade fabrics.  It is the best feeling in the world when people buy yours or when you get to buy something that someone has made.  Can't say enough good things about it.  They also have wallpaper and wrapping paper options of your work. SO much fun.  I stay up wayyyy too late until my eyes glaze over making things that I then have to delete the next morning because I see them in the light of day and they are rough.  I am not an artist by any means.  I am merely crafty; the stepsister of artist that no one wants to own up to having.
But, some do pass in the early light of day, and then those I order a little swatch or fat quarter of.  I try and make them into something and see how it looks.  Some are better than others, obviously, and some look better once they are actually sewn into something.  It can be hard to tell online, but its so exciting to get in the mail.  And a fat quarter makes baby leggings or hats or headbands. 

I have been making baby blankets, lately, and trying all different ways to do them.
I made this one for Dylan and I dont know.  I wanted the scale to be big and for it to strong and simple.  It is a little bit BIG, so I think I am going to make one with his name a little smaller.  That way if I make pants and stuff for him you could actually read his name.
I did this one like a quilt without the quilting.  I sewed the binding on the inside of two fabrics and then flipped it over so there are not any seems.  Then I just left the fabric free. Hopefully it won't get all wound up and separated.

For my cousins babies Reef and Hilary, I made Hilary's with her name on it and I just ordered one for Reef with this awesome reef pattern.  I thought it was just so perfect for him.
Their blankets I just cut out and left them.  They dont have any binding or sewing around the edges.  They are knit so they shouldn't fray and I think it looks cute simple.


For my cousin's baby Bexar, he and his sister and brother are named after counties in Texas so I highlighted the counties they are named after.

For Bexar's I just bound the edge of the single piece of fabric and it is rough up close.  I am so thankful they love me because it is not any kind of perfect.  Luckily he is the sweetest, happiest, best baby in all of the entire world and he let me off easy.  He gave me that big grin of his to let me know he knows I meant well, though it may be hard to tell in the actual construction.
I am also working on tags for when I send them.  I am thinking of calling them Rainbow Knits since I just mostly use knit fabrics.  That way I can also use them for if I actually knit something too.  (I guess it will be confusing if I make something out of cotton or linen.  Cross that bridge when we get there.)

I think I like the white one? Thats what I am leaning toward.
I have done more for friends and other cousins but I never took a pic.  I'm so mad.  I want to document stuff, but I have gotten so bad at it.
I have made a few things for Shea bean too- mostly tights.

 I am not super great at sleeves or neck lines...

As is visible in this garment.
Oh well.  I am going to keep practicing.  Someday I will make a sweatshirt that the first thing people say is "Did you make that??" because it looks obviously homemade. Someone will say, "Where did you BUY that?"  Clearly not in the near future, but a girl can dream.  Lets just say I'm not ready for my project runway debut justtttt yet.

Shea's Quilt

So, I have kind of had a vision of making the crib sheets for the baby's bed for a while now with his/her  name on it.  My middle name is Shea and I knew that I wanted to use it for a first name if I had another kid, and since it is a gender neutral name we can use it for a boy or a girl!  I love a gender neutral name. I dont really know why. I really love a gender neutral anything.  Especially clothes.  I told Jeff I am buying Ben's entire outfit for myself the other day and he told me he really took a chance marrying someone who dresses so much like boy.  I know.  Give me a flannel and jeans any day of the week.  Do most people go off on tangents about crossdressing as a lifestyle choice.  I dont know.
 Anyway, so, Shea is the name for our baby and I thought it would be great if I could have the sheets on his/her bed that say that.
I went to spoonflower.com to make my dreams come true,

which I just LOVE, and made some different options with different fonts and spacing. I ordered lots of samples to see which ones I liked and which fabric I liked best.  They come in little 8X8 squares, and I ordered a ton of different ones.  I also made some with stars and arrows and triangles and dinosaurs, etc.  Since I had so many different samples, I thought it would be fun to put them all together to make a quilt.

I dont love that the back is two different fabrics, but I only had a yard of the back fabric and I had made that one too, so there was no way around it.

Sassy was a big help and she made a mini quilt of her own with some left over fabric.

It is def the very definiton of ghetto and the binding is-whew!-bad, but I am pretty excited that it happened and that its done.  I still haven't made the crib sheets yet, and if I know my inability to measure anything well, I do know they are going to be a big mess.  But hopefully they will fit on the bed.  Thats really all that matters, right?

Barbie Organizer

Oh Barbie.
You have so many clothes and tiny shoes that just seem to always be everywhere. 

I googled Barbie organizer in hopes of finding something wonderful and easy to keep everything together in one place. Our current plan of two baskets was not working anymore. Barbies were overflowing and needed something new.

I saw that lots of people use a shoe organizer hung on the back of doors to store all the Barbies in. Pretty genius idea. It got them all in one spot and off the floor. The only issue was that I couldn't hang it on the door because Ella wouldn't be able to reach them all. So, I bought a shoe organizer, cut it in half and hung it on the wall. It lasted for about 2 minutes before it fell down. It was too small so I decided to make my own version of a shoe/barbie organizer.

I used white denim for the main piece. The clear vinyl was not my favorite to sew with but I loved using bias tape for my first time. It was perfect for hiding my many uneven lines.

So far it has held up and Ella loves it!

Sorry for all the Barbie nudity in this post. 

Craft play-date!

When my friend Carrie and I went to Dana's book signing last month, we got 40% off 1 yard of fabric that night. We found some cute matching fabric and bought it in hopes of making a skirt. 

Carrie and her kids came over last week and we actually made skirts! I still can't believe it. We used this tutorial. When Carrie and I craft together, projects rarely get done. We were so proud of ourselves!

McKenna and Thomas were precious together. They would crawl up to sit with Carrie and I and then just look at each other and say Hi back and forth in the sweetest voice. 

McKenna took a very strong liking to Carrie, she never wanted to leave her lap. It was so sweet.

After we finished prancing around in our stylish skirts, we did a halloween craft with the girls. I saw this idea on Our Best Bites.

Cover mason jar with Mod Podge and then cover it with strips of orange tissue paper. Once all the tissue is on, put another layer of mod podge.

Molly and Ella wanted to add a little bit of glitter to theirs:)

 I printed my pumpkin faces with my silhouette onto adhesive black vinyl. This could easily been done with black construction paper too.
They look great with sunlight shining through or lit up with a candle inside.

I'm obviously short a candle, but you get the idea:)

Happy Halloween crafting everyone!

My first book signing!

Do you guys know Dana from Danamadeit.com? If you don't, you should totally check her out. She has got some great tutorials and always has something crafty or yummy up her sleeve. The cute Valentine heart breakers that Ella makes each year is from her. 

Anyways, she just so happens to live close by and was doing a book signing in Austin a couple weeks ago. My friend Carrie who lives in Austin told me about it and we both decided it was a must for us to go. Plus, I feel so cool and educated saying I went to a book signing. Makes me sound like I read books or something. It was at this super cute fabric store called the Stitch Lab.

The day of the book signing, I decided it would be fun (and extremely dorky) if I showed up wearing something I made from one of Dana's patterns. I decided to go with her Summer Skirt with Deep Pockets tutorial. I dropped the kids off at school and went straight to the fabric store. I was feeling very confident and had the whole vision in my head. The skirt was made with elastic thread which was a first for me. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but I really liked sewing with it. Everything was going along great. I had my two pieces shirred at the top and ready to sew together. 

I tried the skirt on to see where the pockets should go and my confidence went down the drain. It was pretty bulky and not the most flattering skirt. I tried cutting some fabric off and sewing it in but it just wasn't looking good. I decided to press on with the pockets and hope for the best. It just continued to get worse. It was very hard to line the pockets up straight. By this time it was time to pick the kids up. I tried it on for my very honest 4 year old and she was very quick to say no, no, no. I wasn't giving up. I decided to take one pocket off and see what that looked like. I then ran out of time and had to go in my store bought clothes. How boring. 

Don't worry. I stuck the skirt in my purse and sure did pull it out to show Dana. She was so sweet and only talked about the positive things about it. Which would be the color. 

Turns out my fabric was too thick and Dana's book is just what I needed! Her book is Fabric's A to Z. Everything you need to know about fabrics. 

Carrie and I bought some matching fabric that night in hopes to make something wearable.

Sewing 101

My mom came in town on monday to teach me how to sew.
My mom is one of those people that everyone loves.  Everyone.
 She is so hospitable, hilarious, smart, has the cleanest house in the world and is so self deprecating even though everything she does is perfect.
She has the most gracious and kind spirit and always want to build others up; always thinking of people more than herself.  (Sewing 101 being one of those times- I am sure she had a million other things to do).
It was really have not laughed so much in a long time.
She used to sew all her clothes growing up and I really just wing it when I am in front of my machine.  I needed her to tell me how to really do stuff the right way.  (Its sometimes hard to do things the right way when you don't read directions.)

I got this shorts pattern from colette patterns and it was the cutest thing ever.  I did not know that just seeing a pattern I would make me want to sew. The whole pattern book had the cutest colors, directions, a glossary and a pattern.  And the pattern booklet was sewed together. Adorable.
It was just so helpful.  

My mom showed me what all of the arrows and notches and what nots mean and that you really can sew with your pins in your material.

It was life changing.
She taught me the importance of ironing, how to hem by hand (which I completely ignored), how to do a zipper and actually baste it beforehand.  The woman is a sewing genius.
And so freakin cute.

I chose a light weight denim with a little spandex in it so they ended up being a little bit big (because they stretched. Duh Kristen)  And we used white lining for the pockets, which was a little bit noticeable. I think I would do a coordinating color or bright pop next time.



I also used wonder under for the interfacing and I it is crinkly sounding and broke all up after I ironed it.
So, unfortunately, unless I want people to think I am wearing a diaper, I cant wear them.
But other than that they are perfect! hahahh!
I want to make another pair and see if I can do it without my mom standing over me and reminding me what to do next (highly unlikely).
Maybe in a chambray?
I also want to lengthen the waistband so they are high waisted and try to move the zipper to the back and the pockets to the sides.  We'll see.
Overall, it was a blast of a day and I can not thank my mom enough for sharing her skills with me and being patient with my inability to pay attention to any detail whatsoever.
I love you mom.

A few sewing projects

I recently drug out the sewing machine from hiding and decided that I may try to leave it out... It is risky considering I have crazy kids running around, but I just have been so afraid of something happening to it, that I was leaving it put up and then not learning or doing anything with it.

I want to learn how to sew for real and I know that I won't be able to learn if I don't try and mess up and then try again. 

I am just not always the best at most things and then I have this way of completely glossing over the details and then doing it wrong and having to fix my mistakes and then quitting because I am over it. 

I am so much fun to do projects with.

Anyway, Ashley just had her beautiful baby girl, Layla Pearl and I went to temple last week to hold her until I couldn't anymore.  It was just the best day.  We went to allison's first and the kids played together and then ashleys and I held her until I had to leave.  Ash looked amazing and mason was so sweet.  It was just so much fun!

I made these diaper covers (using this tutorial) for her and next time want to add a tank or something to go with it with a little embroidery.  I don't know if I can do it, but julie says its not too bad.

They really were so easy and now I want to try some underwear!
(I got some fold over elastic.  Have y'all used that ever?  Is it hard?  Is underwear hard?)
Then I just kept going.

I made this shirt and tried to use bias tape around the neck with this tutorial.
It looked like a hospital scrub top so I scrapped it.
But at least I tried?
Then I made it again out of knit.


I pulled the knit when I was sewing so it puckers a little on the hem and the pocket is too high.  It was nice to just have to hem it once bc it doesn't fray.  I didn't use bias tape on this one and I am going to try to make my own next time.  you could for sure see the white from the bias tape that I used on the first shirt.  Which added to the scrub top look.  Lovely.
This is the beginning of the sewing journey, I hope.  My machine is out so hopefully I will keep trying and will get better...You just never can tell.

Dora X8

Lets just start off by saying "awwwww, poor Ben!"

I never got Ben's Diego shirt made and I just feel awful about it. Poor Ben. Someday Ben, someday.

Just a few days before McKenna's arrive I did finally finish all 8 Dora outfits for Ella to give her friends for a very belated Christmas gift.

All the girls loved them! Everyone sent me picture texts of their girls wearing them. Aves and Sassy wore theirs to school and Lillian and Elizabeth sported them in gymnastics class. I love it!