Easter Dressing

For some reason Easter is the time of year I feel the most motivated to make an outfit for my daughter.  Maybe its the expectation that everyone dresses up for church on Easter Sunday.  Maybe its that the dreary weather of winter is finally gone and with its departure comes the desire for bright colors and breezy clothes and something new.  This year I started with a skirt.

I used a fat quarter pack I had bought last fall, cut strips of varying width, sewed them vertically into a rectangle and made a simple gathered skirt.  I trimmed it out on the bottom and added a nice comfy waistband in a coordinating knit.

I scoured Anna's drawers for a tank or t-shirt in coordinating colors that I could embellish to match the skirt,  but just couldn't come up with what I was looking for.  I did, however, have a ton of the knit leftover so I decided to throw caution to the wind and work up my very first t-shirt.  I'll be honest, sewing with knit fabric scares me.  Inset sleeves scare me. adding a neckband scares me.  Making up my own pattern scares me.  This was a BIG leap for me!  I took a t-shirt I knew fit her and used it as a pattern for the new one.  I kinda just winged it, but I think it turned out pretty nice!

I whipped up a little flower in matching fabric to add some feminine charm.  Turns out the outfit is great for jumping,

spinning,

and overall looking sweet :)

*lets all pretend we don't see those weeds in the patio, ok?  I can only handle on task at a time these days :) 

Catching up

So, my blogging has been pretty non-existent lately.  I can make lots of excuses, but the largest and most realistic one is that my baby boy has needed me.  Alex is healthy, smart, and full of energy; but he is also a bit anxious, clingy, and needing my full attention for large portions of the day.  This comes with the territory of adoption, especially adoption of children 6 mo or older.  So, upon the advice of some dear friends and other adoptive mamas I decided to set aside eagerly pursuing business and instead keeping myself free to just be a mom.  The good news is I have gone from seeing this most of the time:

To seeing a lot more of this:

Its totally been worth every moment away from my craft.

That's not to say I've done nothing over the past few months.  I just haven't been cranking out project after project like I was over the early part of the winter :)  Here are a few pics of the last couple of projects I've worked on:

These are decorations that go on a camera lens.  Professionals use them to get babies and children to look at the camera rather than the person holding it!  I made these for Jill from Raindancer Studios.  She's trying them out and giving me suggestions on how to improve them! (these photos are awful because I had to take them with the camera on my phone in order to show how they looked on a lens.)

I made a cute custom set of coffee wraps for a dear friend.  She is getting married in a few months and picking out all kinds of handmade goodies for her bridesmaids.  I was so honored when she requested personalized wraps for each of them.  We made them in her wedding colors and they are personalized with flocked lettering.  LOVE how they turned out!

And last but not least I finally got around to making one of these little birdie rattles.  I have seen this idea floating all over the internet for a long time but never had time to sit down and work out a pattern.  I had an excuse while making a baby shower gift for a friend.  I love how it turned out and will definitely be making more of these in the future.