Lalaloopsy Birthday Shirt

I recently had a friend contact me and ask me if I could make a shirt for her little girl's 5th birthday. She's got a cute Lalaloopsy Theme - complete with a Lalaloopsy costume picked out for her, BUT... just in case it was too hot or she gets tired of it my friend wanted something for her to wear that still went along with the theme. I was thrilled that she asked me to make something for 2 reasons - # 1 I love to do these & help people find the right shirt, #2 because I think Lalaloopsy dolls (big, mini, soft, medium... all of them) are so darn cute. :)

Here's what I came up with after she said she wanted something with a doll holding a balloon & some buttons on it. She mentioned that one of her daughters favorites was the Sugar Crumbs doll (if you've seen some of my other Lala appliques you'll note that in the past I've just put fabrics together that I liked) so this time I did a pretty close remake of the original working with what I had on hand & could find. I did use real buttons & hand stitched them all on + hand stitching for the mouth - all of which prompts me to really recommend a wash on gentle & line dry (which I always recommend anyway). 

I hope she likes it!

A little something for the boys...

I have posted before how my boys are obsessed with the new Lego Ninjago series... well I'd been promising them Ninjago Shirts for a while, so I finally got around to making them... which then has resulted in some more orders of them.

I'm finding that the little details on these, combined with having the kids home for summer (no preschool) is making it take a bit longer to get my projects done. But I'm starting to get back into a groove.

Here are the ones I've done so far...
1.) Jay (my son)

2. Kai (my son)



3. Zane (customer)

4. Jay (customer) 

I've got some more orders for more Jay & Kai - those seem to be the favorites of all the kids. :)

My boys request to wear them multiple times per week - looks like I need to find time to make more for them too!

If you'd like to order one - here's a link to my custom information, though I currently charge $20+ship for these because of the extra little details on them. :) CUSTOM SHIRTS

Preppy Baby Birthday Shirt

A friend asked if I could make a shirt for her daughter's first birthday. She had picked this cute Preppy Party theme -

from Birthday In A Box


So once she decided how she wanted the colors used (bright pink shirt, lime whale, and light pink "1") I was able to get to work.

I came up with this

I saw a few pictures after & she looked adorable with some cute leggings & a tutu!
Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Girl!

Oh baby! Fun & simple gift

When I had my daughter I was all about wanting some girly things (obviously - you've seen her room). But at the same time I knew it didn't mean going out and buying ALL new baby things. One thing that I reused was the burp cloths for the boys - they were this great soft cotton cloth diaper (mostly Gerber brand) - I took them all (about 18) soaked them in bleach for a few days to get them nice and white, and then added fun fabrics to them all (pinks/flowers/etc - girly). 

Well once I started sewing more I wanted to make some as gifts for friends. Imagine my surprise the first time I went to the store to buy some new cloth diapers (since I wasn't going to use recycled from my own kids :p ) and the quality felt horrible. They were scratchy & thin. YUCK. So I started looking for better options. I've found 2 good methods I think. 

*The first is to use a bath towel/toweling fabric as the plain side and then get cute/pretty flannel for the other side. They are both soft and absorbent.
*The other option I've tried with good luck is to buy some pre-quilted fabric - there is the solid white that just has pre-quilted diamonds that I use for the back side, and then I have found some really cute pre-quilted/patchwork quilt in baby fabrics (mixture of prints/solids, flannel, chamois) - this really gives a boutique look.

I do plan on doing a full on tutorial soon - but for now will just share a few quick pictures of a recent baby boy gift set. I loved this car print flannel and then found that it was a pretty simple design to just add a coordinating knit fabric applique car to a onesie. I think this set turned out adorable!

What I did was cut out 10x20 rectangles (2 on the flannel print, 2 on a towel)

then sew the edges using about a 1/2 in. seam allowance w/ the right sides facing each other - but be sure to leave about a 3 in opening (or however big you need to pull the whole thing through). 

Trim the edges and corners and pull right side out. Tuck in the opening and top-stitch the entire rectangle with a 1/4 in allowance - sometimes I will double top-stitch w/ an additional 1/2" allowance -but this last time ran out of time.

Next time I'll take pictures along the way. I really ought to just make up a stash since they are cute and sweet little gifts. :) 

 If you can sew a straight (or semi - straight line) then you can make a burp cloth for a gift or bulk up your own stash because... well, spit happens with babies and you can never have too many. ;)

We're going to the zoo!

We are taking the kids to the zoo today. YAY! I knew I wanted something fun for the kids to wear, so I asked the boys what animal shirt would they like to wear. 

Dominic immediately replied "A monkey with no hair" and do you know what!? I already had one of those made for him about 2 years ago - and because I had made it on a shirt too big it still fits!

Then Vincent said he wanted a lion. So I found a cute design for him. He wants to find the lions & say "ROAR. Because that is saying hi to them." So funny!

And then for Gabby... she's a baby so I picked. ;)  I had really wanted to make a skirt for her but I just couldn't find a tutorial like I wanted and so I am going to just wait and make one when I have more time - we'll go to the zoo again. So instead she's wearing a Matilda Jane skirt that we already had - the style name for it is Gabbi.

And now its time for me to stop blogging & finish getting ready for the zoo! Have a wonderful day! 

Gabby's Girly Room

I recently posted some pictures taken inside my daughters room and have had people ask to see more. :) So here's pictures of her very girly room. After having two (sweet) boys I was totally ready for a 100% girly space for a little baby girl to call her own.

This is the view when you first walk in. Please note - that we switched the nobs on the dresser, but needed new screws - when I sent my husband to the store to get new ones, he left the extra knob in his truck... and we never saw it again! lol. Guess I need to get a new one from Hobby Lobby :) 

 

   The mirror came from my parents house - I just spray painted it a cream color. its plastic, but made to look like carved roses. 

I made these bow hook/hangers from some metal flower hooks at Hobby Lobby - I just found some metal washers out in my husbands toolbox, painted them cream, then ran a cute ribbon through it & hot glued it in place. :) They work great! I can hang up knit hats/headbands on the hooks too! 

Next to the dresser is a rocking chair that is from my parents house. Its part of a pair - but this one was always in their attic, my mom rocked my brother & I in the matching one that's still in their living-room. The patchwork quilt on the rocking chair is one that my mom (Nana to my kids) made for her. Its so sweet and there is even one made from the scraps for her dolls too. ;)  

 Then is her crib (this is the first time for us to have a baby still in the crib past 17 months due to how close our kids are in age - I am loving it! lol). Her crib bedding is from Land of Nod -  Winter, Spring,Summer or Patch Percale Crib. I only recently took out the bumper because I had to wash it and just haven't put it back in yet - its so cute, sweet & girly.

The pictures hanging of the bed are special to me - the carousel painting is from my Grandma (and a perfect match to the room - THANK YOU!) and the picture of the little girl & puppy used to be in my room growing up (I am sentimental can you tell?).

The curtains were made by my talented second cousin Patty - the fabric is from Joann (but I saw it at Hobby Lobby too) and is a decorator weight - ivory/pink damask print. I made the pink/yellow/green bunting as a decoration for her 1st birthday party. I never intended for it to be hung like this over the window - but haven't figured out how I wanted it hung. I am thinking over the crib and around that side of the room.

 

The newest acquisition for the room is this sweet little fairy/flower table & chairs set I found on clearance at Big Lots. I moved her crib around to fit this and her tent in last week (basically these 2 things are what prompted this post & the pictures). Its cute & she's had lots of fun with tea parties & her babies already. we had to add a little high chair for baby dolls and the rocking chair (from my Grandma) for extra seating - 3 kids + 2 chairs is not a good thing! The pink rug is from the Pottery Barn Outlet store in Ohio. Got it on clearance. 

This pink gingham tent is from Land of Nod- it came from the outlet store. The floral hanging wreath inside it is something that I made as the mobile for over Gabby's bed . Here's the post how I made it - Pretty little mobile

Next to the tent and by the door is a nightstand with books and a cute little lamp that I found at HomeGoods. 

There are two big pink canvas buckets from PBK that hold various toys & stuffed animals. 

Across the room from her window is a large wall with 2 full sized closets - usually 1 holds current season clothes and the other holds a combination of clothes from past seasons & for the next season. :) 

The letters for her name I picked up at Hobby Lobby and then painted them myself using a stencil set & painters tape for the stripes (those ended up being my favorite. I used some of the left over paint from her room to paint them and some cream craft paint. 

And just because I love girly clothes - making them and buying them here's a peek at some of her clothes. Those bright & cheery fabrics all just make me smile ;) 

Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the peek into my little girl's room. Feel free to leave a message if you need any help finding something similar to what we've got going on in here. 

Some Sesame Street friends

My daughter has a new found obsession with Sesame Street characters Elmo & Abby Cadabby. I decided to humor her passion for these cute little monsters with some applique shirts for her. I already had these striped shirts in my stash of plain shirts and think they are a fun new addition to her wardrobe. Definitely much cuter than the glittery Elmo shirt my husband brought home a few weeks ago from the store (unfortunately it was too small). ;) He tried so I can't tease him too much I guess. What do you think?

She hasn't worn Elmo yet. 

Abby was put on right away this morning - she loved it & is so proud.

Outside coloring with chalk. Notice her matching pigtails... - not quite straight - but she doesn't like to hold still, so this is about as good as this momma gets.