Handmade in the Wild: A Bad Deal

This was an interesting evening early last fall. 

We were walking up the steps to a church - we had music class for the kiddos in there that evening. The kids absolutely love the music class! JT was being stubborn and wanted to climb the concert steps himself, but he slipped and bonked his mouth on one of the steps. I immediately scooped him up and hugged his head to my shoulder. It wasn't until we were inside and I saw blood drops that I realized he was bleeding... a lot! The teacher (who we are good friends with), helped by bringing paper towels, cleaning up the drips and distracting Ev, while James and I hung out in the bathroom. Normally, you apply pressure and the bleeding stops, but it's hard to apply pressure to a 16-month-old's bleeding lip! He just would not let me keep it there! Eventually, the bleeding did stop, and we did start music class - I just wore a bit of blood on my shoulder through it all. 

Thankfully, I soaked it once we were home, and it came right out. Woohoo! JT just had a bit of a fat lip for a day or two, and he was right as rain. It definitely wasn't the last time he had a bleeding accident ;)

Post about the Seafarer Top

Another set of Matching Tops!

I recently posted that I made a shirt for a MOPs meeting. Well, before I used my "good" fabric, I wanted to make sure the pattern fit me correctly. 

Pattern: Seafarer Top by Sew Much Ado 

Fabric: Cotton Lycra Print and Solid both from Raspberry Creek Fabrics on Etsy

Pictures Taken during our Black Hills "vacation" that I'll post about later...

I added the color-blocking myself, and after creating this top, I wished I had added the color blocking to the back as well. So, although the size fit me fine on this practice one, I did learn from it and thus made my next one better.

Of course, E kept asking me if she was going to get one, too. Lucky for her, I had just enough fabric left over to make her a matching Skipper Top (also by Sew Much Ado). You can see on hers that I added the color blocking to the back and how much better that looks! 

So, while I'm not one who loves-loves-loves being matchy-matchy with my daughter, the fact that it's a great way to use up scraps of fabric and it puts a huge smile on her face made me give in :)

PS: James decided to photobomb our pictures. Fun times ;)

Magrath Tunic {Testing}

Sew Much Ado just released her latest pattern... 

The Magrath Dress and Tunic

This was the second version I made during testing week. I'll post the other one next week sometime!

(Link to my dress post!)

View-A Tunic with 3/4 Sleeves

18-24 month width with 1-1/2" added to the length of the bodice and size 3 length of skirt 

The yellow was a remnant in my stash (probably JoAnns), and I had just recently purchased a yard of the border print from my local quilt shop - they send out coupons during your birthday month (ahem, January). It is a batik by Alison Glass. Abby decided to add the tunic length early on during testing week, and I was so thankful... I don't think I could have squeezed out a full dress out of the border print, but I really wanted to use it! Tunic length to the rescue :)

The pink exposed zipper brings out the pink flowers for a fantastic pop in the back! Abby's instructions are wonderful - there is no reason to be scared of this zipper! Really, this will probably be the easiest zipper you ever put into a lined bodice of a dress :)

I added the buttons because the solid yellow bodice looked just a little too plain. E had fun playing with my button jars; I don't take them out as often anymore with a little 9 month old crawling around! To be honest, I keep envisioning making this dress using eyelets in the bodice to make it look like a corset... wouldn't that be so sweet?

Our weather was horrible during testing week... cold, windy a little snowy but still there was ugly brown grass everywhere. Sigh. I love our Midwestern winters, I do, but they are just not conducive to photo shoots of spring and summer outfits! So, it was time to put up our wooden backdrop in the sitting area next to our large window. I'm still not super pleased with the pictures, but hopefully you can see that it really is such a sweet pattern!

Again, Abby has put together a wonderfully versatile pattern. It was released today! Go check it out!!! (Link)