Patchwork Dresses and Bibs

Today has been a great day so far (minus my icy cold shower this am...not sure why the hot water wasn't coming on...). The girls and I went to MOPS this morning, which I absolutely loved. I am only sorry it has taken me so long to try it! I will DEFINITELY be signing up for next year.  It was nice to sip coffee and enjoy a hot breakfast uninterrupted with other mommies. We finished up our lunch and Faith is working on her activity book, Lily is napping, and I decided to post another blog. My kitchen is even already clean! And thanks to Natasha at Samster Mommy dinner is in the crock pot. We are trying her crock pot enchiladas tonight, mmmm.

Over the past couple of weeks I have made two more of the little patchwork dresses I did for Faith and Lily. The first one was for my cousin in Kansas, Madison. The second is for a little girl's birthday this weekend. I love the fabrics in them both!

For the dress I just used a bodice pattern I had and then cut a bunch of strips. The dress itself is fairly simple, but time consuming to say the least! I really think if you use the right fabrics they just come out gorgeous!

Now...Lily wasn't the happiest for these pictures, but you get the idea. I did Lily's straps with ribbon and rickrack instead of making them with the fabric. Faith has a dress with straps like this that we got at Macy's, and I've been wanting to try it! It definitely saved a little bit of time on top of looking great.

I have a few little things I have done here and there that I haven't gotten pictures of yet...onesies, bibs, and burp cloths mainly. I'll try to throw in a picture of one with each of my few next posts.

Here are a set of three bibs for Jayde. I just drew up a pattern myself for the bibs, and it works great.

Getting Back to Normal

We have had an lovely past week. Now I sit here Thursday, and am just starting my week! Oh goodness, what a busy bee I will be today and tomorrow. We stayed in Austin a few extra days and really enjoyed the time with family. We all miss Austin so much, I truly believe it is one of the best places to live. Yesterday Zach got home and we went grocery shopping and had dinner. Of course by the time we got home it was almost 9:00pm, which means I was up until 1:00am sewing. Today and tomorrow will most likely be the same until I get caught up! Anyway, I have quite a few pictures of little things I have done here and there that I will try and post tomorrow. As for today, my wonderful friend Meljan took these pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses this week. They are breathtaking, and he is absolutely amazing. If you live in Austin and need a photographer, you should contact him.

I am, to say the least, so very proud of their dresses. I have only been sewing for six months now, and basically completely teaching myself, so these (especially Faith's) were very large accomplishments for me. This is a first look at Lily's little dress. The last picture is just one that I took (as if you couldn't tell), but it really shows the dress well.

Faith's New Dresses Part Two and a Tutu Set

My darling little Faith came home yesterday and modeled her two dresses (completely cooperating with me, I might add). Here she is in her Feliz Easter dress and my new wedges. Aren't they adorable? We got Faith a pair of Born sandals last year and they held up very well, and they were the perfect addition to her summer wardrobe. I got these at DSW and love them. I was browsing/swooning on their website and came across these. Whoa, I know I don't even have to go into how I feel about them. Alright, I didn't create this blog to indulge my shoe fetish so...here is my sweetheart.

On a serious note, she is not always so sweet...and I truly do wish I (I being me, my husband, the grandparents, great grandparents, teachers, friends, etc) could figure out an effective method of thwarting the "other" Faith's frequent appearances. The "other" Faith is moody, defiant, and has a bit of a temper. She refuses to do what is asked of her...
Exhibit A:
Me "Faith, smile and take a picture in your new dress"
Faith "No, I don't want to"
She, for whatever reasons, seems to believe that if she arches her back (as far as she possibly can without falling over) she will be more successful at conveying her message. 

Then she decides that a picture on her Time Out stool would be best (she obviously feels comfortable there, and it's very familiar).

 After we finished this lovely photo session we (inspired from Natasha's post at Samster Mommy) began our glittered egg project. I want to finish ALL of my Easter decorations for one post though, so no final pictures of those tonight. Here is a small preview-

Now for a few pictures of her partner in crime. This tutu set is a size 3-6 month, and it fits 18 month old Lily just fine. She is SO tiny, but really never stops eating. We ate dinner tonight (whole wheat banana chocolate chip pancakes, spinach/onion/turkey bacon omelets, and a kiwi/grape/clementine fruit salad), and she completely cleaned her plate. There wasn't anything on the floor below the high chair. I'd say there was a good fifteen minute period after dinner before she came running out of the kitchen with a Cliff bar for Zach to open. She is as powerful as a garbage disposal, literally. She really hammed it up for me today.

And just so that sweet little face doesn't fool you, here is a pic of the "other" Lily. Yes, unfortunately there is one of those too.

 
If you need even more of a laugh, you should go read Jessica's story she posted today about her two lovely pumpkins...she makes me feel a little more sane after reading her posts. And she makes VERY cute shoes =)

Faith's Dresses

I do not feel well at all right now, which is ever so aggravating. However, I do want to quickly share these two little dresses that I made for Faith. I will come back tomorrow and link to the patterns, appliques, etc. For now-

Here is Faith's Easter dress. This is made from the Feliz pattern, and the patterns tells the truth when it says it is for an "advanced seamstress". I really love it though. We all know that clothing looks SO much better on sweet little children, but unfortunately mine won't be able to try it on until tomorrow. These were the best I could get with the wind blowing.
***Added 3/20- Okay so I did have a few things to add about the Feliz dress. I got the pattern in a book called Sewing Clothes Kids Love after reading that my cousin purchased it. The book is AWESOME, and it is only $16.50. It comes with ~10 other patterns as well. The Feliz pattern itself is usually around $15.00 so I think it is just such a great deal. I will definitely admit that I was very intimidated about starting this project. I wanted Faith to have this dress for Easter though, and I had it planned out in my head and was determined. It took me a couple of days to finish (I took a lot of breaks). In the end, I am incredibly pleased with the dress. I am SO very proud of myself for finishing it. I also see why most places online charge close to $100.00 for a finished dress.

    

The last dress is a little play dress I made for Faith from the Sienna pattern at Lil Blue Boo. I made this out of a really old Guess T-shirt of mine with the little rabbit on it, an old pair of my pajama pants, and two of Faith's old knit play dresses. 

***Added 3/20- Isn't this dress adorable? I know that it is pretty wild, but Faith is very wild. I think she will love it, and that is what I was going for =). The next one I make her I will probably do the next size down and shorten the sleeves. This came out a little bigger than what I was expecting. Lil Blue Boo is where I got this pattern, I am in LOVE with all of her dresses that she makes. I found some adorable shirts at Target that I have seen her use before and got some yesterday. Next week I want to make Faith a Dr. Seuss one and a

"Give a Hoot don't Pollute" one. This dress was overall fairly simple for me to put together. I only had problems on the neck, which seems to be an area everyone has problems with. Any tips?

Now I'm going to clean and get ready to go get my babies!

New Clothes for the Girls

My friend Andrea had given me a pair of her daughter's old jeans a couple of weeks ago to turn into a skirt for her. They fit fine width wise, but were too short. She wanted some type of zebra outfit for the rodeo. I finished it up, and I can't wait to make one for Faith! Kailee is her best friend, and after modeling the outfit for a picture of Kailee's outfit, Faith wants one "soon". It looked adorable on Faith, and I am sure it will on Kailee. The Zebra K is from Lynnie Pinnie, isn't is cute?

Then Faith requested that I take a picture of her sitting "like a lady", now if we can only get her to act this sweet all the time...hmm...any suggestions? 

Before I make she and Lily little outfits like this,  I had to do these adorable little jumpers. I did Lily's last night and Faith's this morning (thank you to my husband for keeping them outside for a good couple of hours this am). Aren't they just precious? In the summer they'll be perfect without anything underneath. I used the Carla C Sweet Tops and Dresses pattern from You Can Make This. I did the jumper style bodice, cut all the strips and sewed them together, then added a strip at the bottom. I really LOVE them both. Of course Faith thinks Lily's is prettier, *sigh*.

Weren't the girls cute at Madelyn's birthday party? They had a really great time... that is, until we had to leave because of a full blown melt down. Look at little Princess Madelyn in her shirt-

She is such a little ham! 

Oh, and I didn't make this dress Lily is wearing (it has nothing to do with Ruffles n Ribbons), but I had to show you this picture. Isn't this the CUTEST thing you have EVER seen? This is my friends son Brayden, and look at Lily flirting! Wow!!!

Princess Madelyn

My friends daughter, Madelyn Grace, is turning one this weekend! She is having a princess party, and I had the pleasure of making her a special little shirt and birthday banner. I can't wait to see her in the shirt! I just bought this Shabby Sweet Ruched Princess Crown from Embroitique last week. The shirt is adorable. I did have to do the file twice, but once I did it the second time and made a couple of changes, it came out perfect. The PDF directions that come with the file say to cut ten inch long strips for the ruffles, and when I did this they were WAY too long. The ruffles were so thick that I broke three needles and had a mini freak out before quitting! However, I went and bought another shirt, and this time cut strips ~5 inches long. This worked wonderfully, and the shirt came out exactly like the picture!

On to her banner, which will look precious in her room after decorating her birthday party. Didn't I tell you that pinks and greens were a trend right now? Oh yes, they are. I am doing a cute little birthday outfit for baby Cambrie in the next couple of weeks that will be pink and turquoise- I'm excited! I have been doing SO many pink and green things lately! The colors just look great together. This banner is the Perfectly Posh Pennant Banner from Embroitique. Remember my adorable Valentines day one here? I LOVE these banners. The party one does take a LOT of thread ( I replaced the bobbin ~every 1.5 pennants), but it is so worth it. The embroidering is beautiful. I can't wait to make out Easter one! 

Of course I had to make Faith a little something yesterday. I got some cute polka dot knit at Hobby Lobby when I ran in for felt ( I can't ever skip the fabric dept). Lily's will be done today. I forgot to post a pic of Lily in her last little t-shirt and knit dress like I made for Faith. I do honestly make her stuff quite a bit too, just somehow forget to take pictures as much. Maybe it's because she is almost impossible to photograph? Anyway, here is Faith in her dress. We went to the park yesterday after gymnastics for our weekly picnic, and she played in it with her friends.

Aren't they sweet? Of course they are four year old girls (which in itself is DRAMA), so moments after this picture one was crying, because the others weren't her friend anymore or something of that nature...geez...it's only the beginning. They are precious though, and I love watching them play =).