The Winners!

Here we go! Congratulations to everyone who participated in the October Stash Game. And thank you for bearing with me as I dropped the ball the last few weeks in keeping everyone motivated. I do have a good reason...but I'll post more on that soon ;) Anybody interested in doing this again, maybe next Spring?

Without further ado...

First place - Ultimate Destasher Award goes to: LisaW with a whopping 185 points!
Second place - Really GoodDestasher Award goes to : Felicia with 163 points!
Honorable third place: Carol with 150 points!

Congratulations!!!

Are everyone's point tallies correct?

If so, I'll list the winners and start emailing about prizes tomorrow. If you still have any pics to get up, you have until tomorrow. Great sewing everybody!

October is over!

Wow...that month flew by for me! Please make sure your pics up and tally list competed by midnight Sunday, November 7th. Thank you for playing the stash game!

Final costumes

The finished Bumble Bee

Darth Vader.....the mask and light saber were bought but the rest was homemade. I made the cape but his dad did the rest.

Hoping these count!

I am hoping these count since I'm posting them today. They were stuck in my camera with the dead battery. and I thought i plugged the battery in last night but I didn't. I'm blaming it on too much candy.

I made this felted wool beret for Augie and I embroidered a little felt heart on the top. I did something wrong though because it is way to small. It pops off of her head.

Have to love brown eyed girls...My kids sadly inherited brown eyes from me.

Another felted sweater project. I made a bunch of these coffee cup wraps for a friend of mine. She has Crohn's and was doing a fundraiser. I sent her ten of these to use in gift bags. I kept this one though. It was the first one and it was a bit wonky.

Another hat...there were actually 2 that I sent to CO to my mom for one of her friend's daughters. They have always been so sweet to me and my kids when we visit and I wanted to make something for their girls. My mom had sent me a pic of one of the girls wearing one but I can't find it now in my phone.

My dress for the swap. Not gonna lie...it was hard to send it off even though it won't fit August! I really love the way it turned out. I made a matching hat. It might be a little too matchy matchy but I couldn't help myself :)

And my last project of the month. Yesterday I made August an almost matching sweatshirt to the one I made myself. I put it on her this morning and she looks so cozy. I really love modifying the Sienna pattern.

Phew! What a month! My stash is really still out of control. We may have to do another month :)

Forgot -

This dress: My Stash game dress...

The Last Minute Post...

So a while back on the 18th of October, I made these two dresses for Maya. One sports the kanji of her middle name (Ai = love), and the other is made from a formerly boxy school spirit shirt, and some awesome owl fabric from JoAnn's. (Which is very fitting since the school's mascot is "Oakie" the Owl.)

Around that same time I was lucky enough to be chosen by the fates/karma/good luck to be the new mama of Serena (by Apple Treehouse). Maya immediately wanted to make a new outfit for her. I let her pick through the LBB scrap pile and she came up with this number:

Too Cute!

Then I started working on my swap dress.

Unfortunately, I had a few issues. The shirt

that was JUST perfect was a little too small to

work with a sz 5 Sienna, so I pieced the main design together with some coordinating fabric to widen it for the dress. Then after I had the rest of the dress cut (more of the coordinating, and some of this absolutely lovely plaid that I can't wait to a

dd to more dresses), I realized that I had never really worked with a hood let alone combined patterns before... Sooooo with that knowledge in mind, I put the swap dress on hold until I could practice adding a hood to the Sienna dress pattern. Sooo with the help of the fabulous directions directions Ashley provides and the combining patterns tutorial I made a hooded I heart NY dress. I unfortunately appear to have never actually posted a photo of this (will look on my other computer tomorrow). It was a really cute dress - worst case I'll see if I can get my cousin to send me a pic of it...

Anyway, I got a little side tracked and went

ahead with another asymmetrical dress with Stephanie Corfee's Astrid Garden fabric off of Spoonflower. I

LOVE this dress. This is probably my favourite out of everything I've sewn since I started following LBB and using the LBB patterns! Maya loved this dress too. She asked me to make Serena one as well...

Using the basic LBB doll dress pattern, I lengthened the sleeve, and surprisingly it worked to make a long sleeve for the doll. I didn't actually have Serena on hand to test out the dress pattern until after I had already sewn the dress. Maya and I were only too happy to find that it

worked!

Next it was back to the dress swap dress. I figured I had lallygagged enough! So now that I had the hood down, I cut my sleeve and hood fabric (and hood trimming), and started piecing the dress together. I love the way this dress came out! I can't wait to see photos posted of the swap dress being worn by its proud new owner! (And Maya rightfully points out that I've given away all the hoodie dresses I've made this month, so she says the next one I make is hers).

By now I was in sewing crunch time because I also needed to get Maya's Halloween costume out the door. I had never worked with a more regular sleeve pattern before (I'd mostly just sewn the raglan style used in the Sienna as opposed to the more regular sleeve used in the hoodie pattern), however when I looked at pictures of Maya's chosen character, they were pretty clear as to the style of sleeve... again, luckily for me I was working off of the LBB hoodie pattern and I had plenty of great photos and clear instructions to follow. And the hoodie pattern combined with the Sienna method of lengthening became Daphne from Scooby Doo!

Last Hurrah

Kids pooped out trick or treating after 45 minutes or so, so I got a few more stitches in this evening. A new Thanksgiving twirl with turkey applique, long sleeves into last month's Hello Kitty hoodie dress (was also going to sew some into the Chicago Bears dress, but I can't find them!!), and a pillowcase for a birthday party DD just got invited to.

Phew! How did everyone else do? My stash looks as bad as ever, but it was a fun month!

Swap Dress

Not quite done, but here it is. I made a cutting mistake on the white shirt and had to make it an applique. Then I accidentally used the 'no-sew' heat bond, which is thick and stiff, darn-it. Then, when it put the dress in the wash, it started to peel! I ironed it again and will wash it one more time to see what happens. Otherwise I'll zig-zag it down. The back panel of the dress is the same Caribean scene on the bloomers. I tried to flare the skirt by adding some side triangles.

I'm also including a bonus twirl...

More pillows!

I'll need to replace the Halloween pillows soon! One for me, one for Mom.

Gobble Gobble!

Hats for twins

I made these hats for a friend's twins....I don't have twins but I like the idea of coordinated but not totally matching.

I Heart Comfy Clothes

I have a severe addiction to cute sweatshirts. Who doesn't want to be comfy and still look decent :) I have had the green J Crew sweatshirt for many years and I wear it all the time. (I also have it in blue and black) The pink french terry I used has a metallic silver stripe and is Juicy Couture fabric....ooh la la so fancy. Now I have to make a few more because a bunch of my friends want them now.

Girl Pirate!

The colors are cooler than in the picture, some magenta around Elizabeth. The kids are seeing some not-often-seen cousins tomorrow, so this should be fun for Raegan!

Happy Birthday!

It's my friend Deborah's birthday today. I have no idea when I'll see her next, but her present is ready. Another buttercup bag by Rae. So fun!

It's Jessie!

While this doesn't follow the Pixar format, this is our little Jessie the Cowgirl. I started with a ladies skirt and a remnant bin piece of palomino faux-suede. Hat/belt/blouse all from Goodwill. My mom and I just winged-it for the vest, so it is a little wonky, but she's happy!

Bringing home a baby bumble bee

I finally decided to make August a bumble bee for Halloween. I figured cheap and easy and I had everything I needed for the main part of the costume in my stash!! I used this gigantic maternity dress that I pretty much lived in while pregnant, an XL yellow t shirt with another unfortunate embroidery, and a yard of yellow tulle that I had.
I used the LBB Sienna pattern and added ruffles of tulle and black knit to the bottom. I worked on it last night and when I tried it on Augie this morning I wasn't in love. So I'm about to add more of the yellow t-shirt ruffles to the bodice and sleeves. The yellow tulle isn't really showing up yellow but I only had a yard and I didn't want to go buy anymore ;)

I've Been Slacking -

Not so much with my sewing, but definitely with my posts! Hopefully I'll get around to playing catch up... this weekend (right after I sew Maya's costume, visit the Washington Capitals street festival, trick or treating at the zoo, and run a 10 mile race)...

Tonight's endeavor: practicing attaching a hood to the sienna dress so I can complete my swap dress! The swap dress is all ready to be sewed together except for the hood... Wish me luck with the practice dress!

Felted Sweater Coat

I have been super busy working on custom orders that I really haven't been sewing much for my kids/ myself. But last night I took a break and made this sweater coat for August using some old wool sweaters that I had felted ages ago and then forgot about.

Before of the main sweater. I really can't stand wool turtlenecks, they make me claustrophobic.

The after:
I did a blanket stitch around the open edge. And imagine that there are buttons on the tabs because I went and bought buttons today and when I tried to get them off the card I broke them.

Cool or dumb...

There are a handful of teenage boys who work at the after-care program at my kids' school. They are pretty awesome kids. I'm thinking ahead to holiday gifts that won't break the bank. I'm making lavender sachets for the girls, but what boy wants that? What if I filled them with activated charcoal for their shoes or gym bags. Dumb?

Skirts!

These are for a friend's granddaughters. One's dad is in a band, so she gets the Jem shirt I found this summer and the back says "It's okay, I'm with the band." The second girl's parents got married in Las Vegas. The M&M's are driving a pink Cadillac under the Vegas sign and the pink tie-dye reads "Who loves ya baby!"

This third is for a friend's daughter who just turned 2. Her older brother (age 4) is a drummer and loves the Beatles. She just got a brand new baby brother, too.

Slow week

Spent the night cutting pieces for my swap dress. I think I'm using 5+ sources, but it is only a 2T, so it isn't going to be a lot of points. But I'm using pattern parts from the Sienna, Hoodie, AND the halter. It has taken a different turn from what I envisioned, but I still think it will be great!

Also made a purse (Buttercup Bag from Rae) for my friend's birthday. Need to get that package in the mail.

Men's XL Tee to something for me

I made this today for myself but I may end up sending it to my sister-in-law. I think she would love it. I'll just have to make another one for me!

The shirt before:

Scooby for Girls

My cousin's daughter is a Scooby fan. Though I hear not a skirt fan. Her grandma says we'll just sell it as something to put on over leggings. That should help the waistband issue too. I tried putting a little elastic in this one.

Circles everywhere

They are just too easy. After I posted the orange one I decided to do another. This was a giant red shirt my mom sent that had an unfortunate applique on the front (Sorry mom). I stamped the flower/ snowflake things on the back side of the shirt and salvaged some of the shirt :)

Circle time

My mom got August the cutest Halloween shirt so I wanted to have a skirt ready to go for her to wear it with when the shirt arrives. I'm pretty sure she could wear this skirt with other fall colored shirts through Thanksgiving.

Finished for the party

So here is everything for Sophie's party. I did a ruffle on the smock from a black t-shirt left over from the Halloween scarf. The Eiffel tower was a 90% clearance item from Hobby Lobby that was banged up, so I spray painted with white primer, then used metallic acrylics. It should look cute in her bedroom. The scarf came together, backed with a denim shirt. My son says it isn't cozy enough, but it will do for the owls. Would anyone like the last piece?

Another baby set

My sis's boys are measuring 5 and 6 ounces at 16 weeks, so I figured I'd better start making clothes that were 3-6 months instead of true NB ones lol. Finally found my wunder under too. It makes a world of difference with appliques. The pants are based on Dana's (MADE) knee patch pants.

My Little Pumpkin

I'm not usually one for Holiday themed clothes because I feel like you have a very short window of wear but when you make it yourself at least you aren't spending a bunch of money. I was kind of experimenting with this skirt and I really like the way it turned out.

(Please tell me I'm not the only one whose pictures look mostly like this)

Some Ups and Downs -

So I decided I love the way this dress turned out on her! Its nice and drape-y and doesn't seem to get hung up on her leggings. (I also really liked the fact that she couldn't wait to try on the dress this morning!).

The rest of the week was pretty busy. I only managed to cut out the next dress on Thursday, and I played around a little bit with some of my scraps. I think I want to do some kind of patchwork twirl skirt, I just haven't decided which scraps I want to use or how oddly shaped I want to let them be... Actually, on second thought, I think I might just let Maya choose all the scraps and see what she does!

So last night when I returned home, my first priority was getting out the dress I had out on Thursday. I went with the flutter sleeves and a crazy lycra knit... The "A" piece from the sienna pattern is a little bit shorter than the Giants dress so it ended up being a little more tunic-like than the other. Either way, I still like the way it turned out!

Unfortunately, my other project for last night didn't come out as well as I liked. Back when I purchased the Juicy terry cherries fabric, Maya had requested a pillow. I decided to do a little ruffle and I think that was my undoing... More of an execution error on my part than anything else. It looks ok from far away, but on closer inspection its pretty clear that there are sections that aren't quite right. I think this will have to be scrapped into something else, and I'll make another attempt at it tonight or tomorrow.