Easter Project

I have always wanted to make my girls some Easter dresses, but never got on the ball fast enough to get them done.

Well, I did it this year!!!

I have been wanting to do this tiered dress since last summer when Grandma K shared it with me. Apparently, her Grandmother made a dress for Mr. Prince's oldest sister, RaRa, when she was a little girl. So, that makes it even more fun!

For money reasons, I had to go with some fabrics I had picked out last year for dresses. I happened to have pink and yellow butterfly fabrics, and similar pink and green flower fabrics that all coordinated. I knew I was going to make up a pattern for Miracle's dresses out of a combination of the fabrics.

Grandma K will hopefully help me with the button holes tomorrow. I'd rather not do them all by hand...

Angelica Pickles' and Princess Pea's dresses

Miracle Myra's dress

I had no idea what I was doing with Miracle's dress. I ended up just measuring her and making the first tier to fit around her chest and then making successive tiers like in the original pattern. I knew that would be easier than making up a shoulder pattern to fit her size. Then, as I was making some straps, I thought of using all three colors. I was going to tie them, but as I sewed them together, they just laid so nicely that I left them and just sewed them exactly the same onto the back. I also sewed a pink, green and yellow seam on both the top and bottom hem of the dress for some extra decoration.

Here they are, all three together!

The girls are going to be so excited in the morning! I'm looking forward to making a few more sets of matching dresses for all three this summer.

Crafty Things

Well, with limited ability to leave the house these days since little Myra hates doesn't like the car, I've had to find extra things to do here at home. So, on a craft spree I went!

I relearned to crochet and made these adorable hats for Myra:




I also made this hat for Myra that was slightly too small, but Angelica Pickles found it just perfect for her dolls. I think Myra was upset we were giving it away, ha!


I saw these flowers on a friend's Facebook page and had to have one. I had no idea where to get them, so I just figured out how to make them. I have quite a few now to sell, too. I can also make bow clips and I bought these headbands to go with both the flowers and bows. They also look great on her crocheted hats and this brown hat I bought. My big girls love them, too.




I learned to stockinette knit to make these adorable leg warmers for the girls' ballet class:



I made another sling for myself in my two favorite colors. I can't believe there was a time that I hated didn't like pink!


I added a panel to my wrap to fancy it up a bit, but I think I might take it off and put a different, more stretchy fabric instead....someday:


I actually made these prior to Myra being born, but since I'm showing off my crafty self, I LOVE them......my diaper bags:


I posted a lot of my baby bazaar stuff on Facebook this past month and have sold almost all of it! These are the taggy blankets I have left, though I still have lots of fabric to make more diaper bags, slings and blankets someday, too....maybe.


I didn't finish my Valentine's Day project with the kids yet. We are making felt sugar cookies, with sprinkles and all! They are going to be so cute, but I found out I didn't have the right beads so I have to get back to the store before we move forward with them. I'll post pictures when they're done!

Now I must want to finish a year overdue project for my dear friend, Cherry. Her baby boy is now almost....how embarrassing to admit....14 months old....and she STILL doesn't have her diaper bag I promised her! I could give all the excuses about how Christmas 2008 was busy, I found out I was pregnant in January and was sick for weeks, how spring and summer buzzed by, how tired and pregnant I was at the end of my pregnancy, and then how my baby was in the hospital and it's been a long 5 months, but...I won't do that. I'll just say I am a BAD friend and I WILL finish it THIS month. Love you, Cherry!

I have hopes of other fun projects this Spring, like Angelica Pickles' birthday, summer dresses to match all three girls, floppy hats for the two littles.....sigh.....

For some reason it is very satisfying to make something with your own hands. And, I think having a FINISHED project when my life as a Mommy is full of unfinished business like laundry, dishes and diapers, makes me feel accomplished, too.

Homemade Dresses for the Girls!

This summer I have already altered two flower girls dresses for a friend and altered a few shirts and dresses for myself. I haven't had any time to sew projects at all this year. My biggest project still awaits: a diaper bag for a friend who's baby was born in DECEMBER!! I've probably had the fabric for a year, too.

Bad friend, bad friend!

So, although I said that was my next project, I got preoccupied with figuring out how to smock during a sewing night with my friend that I'll call Cherry.

I've had 1 yard of multiple fabrics since last year that I purchased for dresses for the girls. I made a handful last year, but never got to them all. I probably over-bought anyway. My girls only like to wear dresses, though, so I really need to have enough of them so I don't have to force them to wear shorts. Anyway, Princess Pea is 4.5-years-old and the dress pattern I have always used for their dresses doesn't quite fit on 1 yard of fabric for her because she's so tall now. I wasn't sure what I was going to do because I had many coordinating fabrics for the girls' dresses and I was going to be bummed if I couldn't have them wear them together.

My sewing expert mother-in-law, GrandmaK, came to the rescue! She found an adorable smocked dress pattern in a book from the library. You only needed 3/4 of a yard and it seemed pretty easy the way they described it.

During my sewing night I completed all my mending projects and all I had left was these dresses to try. (I didn't want Cherry to see me make the diaper bag, although she knows it's coming, so I had to find something else to do.) I probably read online and in a sewing book and practiced smocking for over an hour! I could NOT figure it out! My machine was not doing what the instructions said it should and I wasn't about to try to do it by hand! I was quite frustrated by the end of the night thinking I'd never get theses dresses made. But, after reading through the instructions one more time at almost 11pm, I decided to adjust my stitch length the opposite way, and.....it worked! Dorky me was adjusting it backwards!

I didn't get the dresses started that night because it was too late, but yesterday I didn't have anything better to do and I was curious to see how quickly they could be made. Working with elastic thread is a pain! They say hand-wind it. I did that, but then I got tired and decided to find a quicker way. So, I put the bobbin on the machine and ran it while I gave it some tension.

Now I know why they say hand-wind it.

The bobbin actually grew in size! When I tried to put it in the machine, it was too tall! So, I set up a new bobbin and held the tension while the elastic thread came off the warped bobbin onto a new bobbin. I figured I would just watch closely and stop if it started to warp again.

Wrong. There really is a reason why they say hand-wind it!

I am just too stubborn, I guess. This time the bobbin popped. So, I eventually hand-wound it. Annoying. After that drama I finally got started and it took me a while to get the hang of the elastic thread. I had to reinforce the ends 3 and 4 times and I had to adjust the tension often it seemed. In the end I got the hang of it. The first dress took 2 hours, the second took only 1.

I decided to start with these adorable ladybug fabrics. The girls picked them out last year. I like them, but knew I had other fabrics I would be really upset if I ruined, so I started with these.


I think they turned out great! I made them extra long so they would last two years, but I do prefer this style dress to be a little longer anyway. The other dress pattern I've used looks better right at the knee and usually won't last two seasons. Angelica Pickles' birthday dress was the original pattern. You can see it here.

The girls had fun posing for me. I never expected to finish them in time for church this morning! Believe it or not, the dresses were the first thing Angelica Pickles spotted when she came down the stairs this morning and immediately asked to put it on.


Two cute dresses for under $5, can't beat that!

Angelica Pickles Turns THREE!

Well, my baby girl turned three this week. It's a little odd because she has seemed three for at least six months now. And I've been telling people she's three for months now, too. I made this purple dress for her special day.

Save as Draft

For the first time in 13 parties, I decided to not hand-make a cake or have people over to the house. I purchased a cake from Meijer and we met her friends at a local park. I just needed it to be easy. She chose a Wall-E cake, even after coaxing from her Mom to pick Dora or Hello Kitty. I just didn't think her new purple dress I made her went well with the browns and yellows of the Wall-E cake. But, she disagreed. So, Wall-E it was! I also went out of my way to pick up a Wall-E 2-foot balloon (which, by the way, was $10!), but at the end of the party it ended up high in the trees of Foster Park. I told the girls they shouldn't have been fighting over the balloons and it wouldn't have broken and Angelica Pickles immediately said, "Jesus can help us Mom!" How do you respond to a 3-year-old that Jesus can't really help in this situation? I swept over the issue and distracted them and tried to get Princess Pea to stop crying over the balloon. She was more upset than Angelica Pickles! Mommy was upset, too! Such is life...



Angelica Pickles was very hard to shop for this year. I finally went online for ideas, hoping I wouldn't have to waiste money on gifts that she wouldn't play with. I had a few ideas, but most of which I figured I would have had to order weeks ago. So, I went to the local specialty toy store and found one of the items I had seen online! It is a wooden cake set made my Melissa & Doug with candles and topings. I have been looking for a cake set for a few years because my children love to play "birthday." So, that has definitely been a hit! I also got her these 3 inch cat figures that have clothes and furry bodies. I played with them when I was a kid! I got her a family with 4 kids, so each one represents a sibling....until #5 shows up! So, she was very happy when opening her gifts. She got a few gifts from family and friends that she has been enjoying, also. Overall the party at the park was a hit and I didn't have to bake or clean my house! I might have to try this again sometime. Although, for $26 I think I'll make the cake next time myself!