Micaela sews again

This weekend we were at the fabric store and Micaela asked to buy fabric to make a dress.  After much discussion, we settled on some smocked fabric that could easily become a dress.
Here she is sewing the single straight seam along the back.

Here she is during her fitting...  She wanted the dress to be strapless.  I am a mean Mom and said no...lol. 

Here she is ironing the straps--- remember she wanted strapless.  Not happy, but is thrilled to get the opportunity to iron.   

The finished dress. After much discussion, settled on v straps that attached to the dress in the back (she did not want them to tie). Had to bribe her to add ric rak. Embellished with yo yo and button (nuts about yo yos these days).

She looks too grown up, what are we going to do!!!  Nine dollars on fabric, very well spent!

More Sewing Room Artwork

Here is my second artwork addition.

Hard to tell in the picture, but it is 20 inches wide and 12 inches tall.  I have had this idea in my head for several months and finally got around to making it. 

Here is a brief tutorial on how I did it:

• I used a 12 x 20 oval embroidery hoop that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I spray painted the oval black. Before I spray painted it, I removed the screw so that it would be silver.
• I cut the sewing machine out using my Cricut Expression 12x24" mat and the Heritage cartridge. I tried several sizes before I settled on this size.  I backed the black fabric with Thermo-web and cut it out using the flip feature.
• When I placed the black sewing machine on the red dot fabric it needed a little something so I decided to mat the sewing machine cut out using white fabric. The single layered fabric turned out to be too transparent so then I backed it with heavy interfacing. I had to cut that out manually because it was too thick to run through the Cricut.
• I did not intend to stitch the project at all, but the fabric didn't seem to stick on the edges.  I did a straight stitch on the white layer and then zig zagged on the black layer. 

• After all of the stitching and adding the heart button, I hooped the fabric, trimmed and glued the fabric to the inside rim of the hoop and held it in place with clothespins to dry.   

Here is how the completed hoop looks on my wall. Thanks for stopping by.

New Sewing Room Artwork

Allow me to share what Micaela drew for me the other day. 

In case you can't tell, it's a sewing machine.  The heart item in the lower right corner is scissors-- I am told.  Isn't this adorable!  I had to frame it and hang it in a prominent place in my sewing room.  Love that girl!  Here it is on my wall above my shelf with my shrimp glasses full of buttons. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a great week!

Owl Needlecase

Eeek, I did not mean to be MIA this last week.  I made it to the Needlecase Exchange at my LQS, Quilt Asylum (last Monday) and the rest of the week flew by!

The Needlecase exchange was fun,  in all the excitement and rush, I barely took photos of the needlecase I made.  I made this owl...

This is a duplicate of the owl I made back in April, the wings open up to hold needles and the pocket holds scissors and other small accessories.   This is an In the Hoop pattern from Embroidery Garden.   I love this grey and pink color scheme.  It's hard to tell in this picture--  the pink fabric has a needle and thread design.  The recipient was a new lady that I had not met before and she was very happy to get my little owl so that was fun.

As I mentioned last week was nuts, during the week I was preparing for three workshops I was coordinating and hosting at work..... Composting, Rain Barrel Building and Firewise Landscaping, chaufering Micaela to art camp and I am getting prepared to go to a conference for a week with work so I have been busier than usual.

I've got some fun projects I am finishing up and I am looking forward to posting them in the next week or so...  Stay tuned, thanks for stopping by.

Oreo Sculpture

Micaela is attending an art camp this summer.  Last week they created with clay..  Today she came home with a 'plate full' of sculptures.  The frog shaped business card holder for me and the 'vase' are quite lovely but my favorite is one of her dog Oreo.

Here is my favorite of all the masterpieces.  Do you see the resemblance?  We do!

She is so proud of all of her creations. 

Thanks for stopping by... hope you have a great day.

Sunday Sewing

We've been so busy on weekends lately.  Yesterday we had the afternoon free and guess what Micaela wanted to do?  Sew!  I liked to sew when I was young but, I don't remember bugging my Mom to do it quite as much as Micaela bugs me.  LOL.  I might need to put a padlock on my fabric stash cause she's bound to get into it sometime.

Micaela wanted to sew yet another pin cushion, aka little square pillow to fill with walnut litter.  She has like 6, one for every season and some of her favorite themes. 

She begged to use my Janome machine instead of hers, claiming better lighting in front of the window.  Maybe we'll move on to pillow cases this week.  Hope your weekend was great.  Tonight I hope to post pictures of my Needlecase Swap at the Quilt Asylum.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Cup Cozy

I am not a fan of coffee but I do like hot chocolate/cider in the winter.  When I saw this coffee cozy on Pinterest, I thought it would be fun and easy to make some for friends and family.

Source: kimberlykesti.typepad.com via Martha on Pinterest

I followed the tutorial by Kim Kresti on her blog and decided to use some strips of fabric I had left over from the pleated pillow a few weeks ago.  Here is the completed cozy flat.

And here it is on a cup (please pardon the dust on my shelf).  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I look forward to making more of these.  These will definitely be teacher gifts next school year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Back to sewing

This week we've had a lot of rain and since I couldn't spend time outdoors, I decided to catch up on some of my sewing projects.   I've been wanting to make a sewing caddy for a while and finally got around to making one.  I used some of the same fabrics I have used throughout my sewing room on other projects, mainly the Sew Now, Sew Wow fabric from Alexander Henry I used on the sewing sewing stool, lamp, cornice and embroidery machine cover. 

The picture is not great, it was raining outside and had very little natural light.  I sorta followed a  tutorial for an ironing board caddy by Sew4Home featuring one of the other fabrics I am using in my room Half Moon Modern by Moda.  I am happy with the way it turned out, now Micaela wants one for her machine.  Thanks for stopping by.

Dallas Children's Theater

We've been back from the valley for more than a week and were busy with end of the school year festivities the first week.  To celebrate the end of the school year my friend Kristi and I took our daughters to see "Diary of a Worm, Spider and a Fly" at Dallas Children's Theater over the weekend. 

The show had great music and was very educational because it profiled not just the worm, spider and fly but also the monarch butterfly, bee and ant.  We sincerely loved it, this was our first time at DCT and we will definitely we back for more shows.

Here are some pictures of the girls with the spider, fly, bee, butterfly, ant. and of course the four of us. 

  Hope your weekend was great.