Lil Blue Boo / Dharma Trading Design Challenge!!!

I have finally completed my entry for the Lil Blue Boo / Dharma Trading Design Challenge (I know I cut it close!) Here is what I came up with...

The parameters of the contest were very few which made it very hard for me to come up with a design/idea (the Wild  Thing Dress design came to me quickly once I picked the book). The first parameter was for it to be an original design and the second was for to use a technique from a list- I choose embellishment from this list and went with appliqueing.

I found an old notebook in my closet that had this bird and color palette on the cover and my head started coming up with this dress immediately...

 I am still getting the hang of appliqueing but I am getting better with all the curves, twists and turns!

She started off strong with lots of cooperation-

And then she was done with all the photos...

Here is the collage I sent to the judges:

Once Upon a Thread!

So I found “Once Upon a Thread” at “No Big Dill” and was instantly inspired. It is a month of sewing projects inspired by children’s books. Well, I finally finished my interpretation!

I created a Wild Thing Dress inspired by the book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

(My middle daughter reminds me of Max with all the mischief and talking back.)

She wasn't happy that as the king of the wild things I didn't make her a crown...

I am so glad that I participated in this series it really challenged me to do things outside of my "comfort zone." I created my own pattern and had to figure out how to accomplish my design. I am definitely going to go on a web search for more contests or themed projects to participate in to continue to challenge myself further!

Do you want to see others interpreted the challenge? Click Here for the flickr photos!

Piggie & Gerald Party

Piggie & Gerald Birthday Party (based off of the Mo Willems series- Piggie & Elephant Books)

Ok, so my baby boy is now 7. I can't grasp that fact. It seems like yesterday... I won't digress but all those reading this that have kids I am sure you understand. Anyways back to the party... So here is the cake I made:

I am still a cake amatuer. I only started making cakes, well 6 years ago for my son's 1st birthday. Here are a couple of my favorites over the years:

I also made cupcakes to take to school on his actual birthday. They turned out so cute! I got the idea from parenting.com

So for the party I made, with the help from my sister, a pig pinata. I decided not to make it look like Piggie from the books because I didn't want the kids to hit/beat up Piggie but I thought the idea of breaking up a piggie bank sounded ok, so I fashioned the pinata after that. (This reasoning sounds logical but my 2 year old still screamed and cried that the big kids broke her pig).

Here is a tutorial on how I made the pig: pig tutorial

Once the candy comes out of the pig where are the kids to put it? So I made cloth goodie bags big enough to hold a bottle of bubbles, a stencil and a pencil but also candy from the pinata.

I used the freezer paper technique that I read about on http://www.dana-made-it.com/

I used my Cricut and a program called Sure Cuts Alot to cut Piggie & Elephant out of freezer paper.

I ironed the freezer paper on to the fabric and then applied paint.

After they had dried it was time to make them into bags. I took 2 rectangular pieces, one with the character and one blank and rolled under the sides so that the exposed edges were curled under.

Next I rolled down the top to the width of the ribbon I used as the drawstring and sewed across it. Leave the sides open for the ribbon.

Sew the 2 pieces together at the bottom, with the right sides together.

Next sew up the sides and flip the bag right sides out. Pull a ribbon through one way and knot. Take a second ribbon and pull through the opposite way and knot on the opposite side. Now when you pull both ribbons at once the bag pulls closed.

Refashioning is new to me...

So for as long as I have been sewing I have never thought of using the fabric from an article of clothing to make in to something else. I guess I just figured that there wouldn't be enough fabric or their would be seams, darts, buttons, etc in the way.  But one day while muttering in disgust at the cost of knit leggings for my daughters I thought to myself- hey, I have a ton of XL tee shirts at home in a box for goodwill (every time I turn around my husband is bring home another XL t-shirt from some city event, he isn't XL, I am not XL so all the t-shirts never even get worn and most of them only have writing on one side of the shirt!). And so the idea was planted. After making multiple pairs for each girl- different colors and some long pant length and some short Capri length  (we do live in Texas but I think it is nice to have them on under their dresses when playing). I starting looking on the Internet and found out this re-using of clothes for the fabric not only has a name- some call it Refashioning, others Upcycling, but that their are millions of ways  to take unwanted clothes and make it into something usable!!

So here are some of my leggings:

and here is a sweater dress I made out of an old sweater of mine. I used the idea from Make It Love It's blog.

I love the way the fabric flowers turned out! I found a tutorial on them on this site: Hey Jen Renee

I think it adds a little something special to the whole dress. I have several more sweaters that I want to refashion into dresses but since here in Texas the weather has turned warm I might have to put that project on hold and go forward with some other projects.