January Finished Project Mosaic

I just noticed I wrote this a long time ago but I left it as a draft.  I think my life got crazy busy and I forgot about it.  I'll try to remember to hit the publish button in the future.



I blogged 18 finished projects for January!  























Top Row- Beige Driving Cap, Gray Dress, Junebug Remix Dress, Leather Driving Cap, Junebug Dress, Gray Sweater
Middle Row- Leather Messenger Bag, Fixed School Skirt, Dress Coat, Black Golfing Cap, T-Shirt Leg Warmers, Polka Dot Dress
Bottom Row- Denim Driving cap, Sweater Leg Warmers, Sweater Pin, Golfing Cap With Stripes, Hello Kitty hat, Striped Leggings

I made about the same amount of things for each child.  I blogged Demi got two more things than Zee but I didn't blog everything I made.  It looks like Zee got the nicer dresses... The girls share a lot of clothes so I feel I was fair and spread my crafty/sewing time even between all my kids. I can't promise it will stay that even (my son doesn't like many mama made things but I might be on a roll).

I've been busy sewing new things, altering the golfing cap pattern into other sizes, and making up some other tutorials... I hope to find a few free minutes to share it all soon.

A lot of party dresses

I was asked by a member of my husband's family to make a bunch of party dresses.  It took me 7 days of crazy sewing to get them done but I was able to finish in time.  I finished a few days before the party so she could look them over and try them on to see if they would all fit the girls. 

 

I can't believe I made 12 dresses in 7 days of sewing!   It wasn't an easy thing for me to do.  I sew every day so I think I'm quick with a sewing machine but this project didn't go quick enough.   I felt that my family needed something from me every time I sat down at my sewing machine.  I'm sure my family felt that I didn't have any time for them.  That was hard for me to live with.

I suggest if anyone asks you to sew 10-12 dresses in under 12 days you take a few minutes to think about it before saying yes.  I'm not saying you need to say no... BUT thinking about it before saying yes is smart (I never said I was smart).  If I ever did this again it would have to be for a close friend!

They are not the most spectacular set of dresses I've made but I feel good that I was able to get them sewn in 7 days.

 

I learned a lot with this project!  I've made 4 dresses in one day a few times in the past but thinking I could make 3-4 every day was bad judgement.  In the future I need to remember my children will only give me a full day to sew 4 dresses IF I spend the day before AND the day after giving them all of my attention. That does not help at all when you have to make more than 4 dresses to make up in a rush.   I need to remember that I spend almost as much time adding decorations as I do sewing.  The dresses look very simple but all of that cutting, pinning, and stitching satin and taffeta fabric takes time.  They slip so easy you have to take your time.  the dresses are cotton so they went together quicker than the trims. I also forgot how long it takes to sew on buttons.  I need to remember that everything takes a lot longer than it should when I'm making something for someone other than my kids.  My kids never care if I use the serger on the inside seams.  I'll be honest and tell you some of my kids dresses don't have the zipper tacked down at the bottoms.  My kids don't care if I have a dozen threads hanging from the dresses.  Corners like that can't be cut when I'm  are sewing for someone other than my kids!

I felt that so many people NEEDED me to do for them when I was in the middle of this project!   I felt that I had let my family and friends down the entire time I was sewing.  I felt sick telling people I'm sorry I have a dozen dresses I need to finish before I can help.  Seeing friends and family looking so sad that I couldn't help them broke my heart!  This project has taken away my desire to sew. 

If I had more time for this project I would have been able to keep working on small projects for my friends and family.  I wouldn't have felt like I was neglecting my husband and kids.   I would have been able to make nicer dresses.... I feel that I should have said I can't do this project. Honestly, I didn't have a chance to tell the person that this job was too big for me.  Sometimes people don't give you much of a chance to say no and if they can hear you might not say yes they give you a big story of why you HAVE to do it. 


Now that I'm done I am happy I challenged myself and gave it my best shot but I don't think I'll ever do it again.  I hope everyone understands why I haven't been blogging lately????  

Zee's Dancing Dress

I have to tell you my reason for going MIA is I got busy doing stuff for Valentine's Day.   I wasn't done with that when I got a call to make 10 princess dresses for a little girl's princess birthday party.  I have less than 2 weeks to make them!  I did finish my last dress for the Project Run and Play sew at home challenge.  The challenge is your signature look.  I know people who know me and my sewing in real life know princess/dancing dresses are my signature look.  I love making them and that is what my girls ask me to make every day.

  It's a crinoline dress so it is VERY FULL!   It sticks out like the old time hooped dresses.  

I made a red chiffon tie that adds a large bow to the back of the dress and 3 large red flowers to the front.   I added another red flower to the shoulder.  

I made this for Demi but she gave it to Zee.  It's so nice that my girls share with each other.

I only had an hour to take photos and load them to Flickr to enter the sew at home challenge so it was a rushed photo shoot (and she was very tired).  I only got one photo that I LOVE... 

I know the photo above doesn't show off the dress but I think it's a sweet pic. of my little girl.

She loves her new dancing dress so much.  That make me so happy.

 I am still working on getting that golfing cap pattern different sizes (I have sized it up to an average man size but still need to make it larger and smaller).  Because I'm working on the hat sizing, in a rush to sew 10 princess dresses that I was hired to make, along with having a bunch of tutorials I haven't found time to blog yet I think I'll skip saying I'm going to post a tutorial for this.   If I get caught up I will but I don't see me catching up any time soon.

 Now I have to rush off to make some princess dresses.  I will be back in the next few days.  Happy crafting everyone!

Striped legs

I have to post one more project from back in Jan. so I can make a mosaic for the month.  I'm not getting all my projects blogged but I'm doing much better than last year.  I'm blogging the last thing I made in Jan. because it was a quick and easy project so it will be quick and easy to blog.

Do you ever have to whip up something late at night for school the next day?  I always seem to have this happen.  This story is how an ice skating school trip had me sewing late one night.  My kids got to go ice skating with the school because they both made A level honor roll.  I was happy they got to go on this fun school trip.  BUT!  I was worried about Demi's little legs (silly me never thought to worry about this until after midnight the night before).  The school requires girls to wear dresses/skirts even on school trips.  I thought her legs might get cold skating on the ice all day so I made her some very warm striped leggings. 

I made them out of a striped sweat shirt (XL men's shirt) so they're thick and warm.  I made them wide in the leg so she would have lots of room to move around (fall down and get back up on the ice).  The striped leggings with this red sweater dress was a warm comfy outfit to play on the ice.

 This dress is one of the 7 Christmas dresses I made my girls (yes that's right I made SEVEN "Christmas dresses" for my 2 girls).  This dress was originally made for her to wear to the school Christmas party.  She needed to wear a dress that she could run and play active games in.   This simple ribbed knit dress fit the bill (I made it in under 30 minutes from a ladies turtleneck sweater).  It is a no frill dress because I had to follow the school's (no frill) dress code.  The dress looks nicer with a belt but I thought a belt might bother her ice skating so she wore it like this to go skating.

Keep reaching for the stars Demi (I have no idea what she's doing in the photo above but to me it looks like she's reaching).   I'm sorry I had to go back to Jan. when I have so many other things I need to blog about from this month.   It bothered me that I couldn't make an even mosaic with the projects I blogged about last month so this makes it all nice and even for me.  Thanks for being so understanding.  I will make 2 more pairs of leggings from that men's shirt soon. I can make 3 or 4 pairs of leggings out of an XL men's shirt.  I like projects like leggings because they only take 10-15 minutes to do.  I feel so much better knowing I can check Jan. off my to list. Now I need to find time to blog all the things I've made the last 9 days in Feb.

Mustard Party Dress

I saw a very pretty yellow sundress at ModCloth.   It's called Yellow, Gorgeous! Dress

 

I thought it was a very pretty dress.   I wanted to make something a bit like it for Zehira.

 

 This is my version of the dress for my 4 year old.

 Cap sleeved, rolled hem, gathered skirt, waves of ruffles, with brown thread top stitching.

Accessorized with brown ribbed knit tights, polka dot tie at waist, and burgundy rosette necklace.
Please forgive the poor quality photos.  I have been so short on time everything is rush, rush, rush right now.

I will post a tutorial on how to make the necklace sometime next week.
I know I still need to post the tutorial for the messenger bag...  I promise I will get caught up soon.

I've linked up at

Dress coat

Once again I'm a bit behind.   Life at my house is a bit out of our normal routine but I think I'm getting it back on schedule.   I made this coat last week for Project Run and Play (at home competition).   I didn't have enough free time to blog about it.   I hope to take some nicer photos over the weekend but if I don't get around to it at least I blogged another finished project (even if the photos are kind of crappy). 

This coat was made from two layers of corduroy.

Coat details- I made a very large peter pan collar, flared sleeves, covered buttons, with a below the knee gathered skirt.

I had lots of fun dusting off one of my embroidery machines (I forgot how fun it is to embroider).

OH!  It's reversible.  Here is the reverse side.

The newsboy cap I made using this free pattern.