Happy Birthday Kate!!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Kate!

Happy Birthday Ben!!!!

You may be 15, but you'll always be my little boy! Happy birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Macy!!!!

Happy Birthday to my fun, creative and smart Macy!  Here's hoping you have a fun first year being a teenager!!!

Happy Birthday Eleanor and a Halloween sneek peak!

Happy belated 11th birthday to our sweet Eleanor! So hard to believe you are 11 now!!! She's modeling this year's Halloween costume. The main part of the dress is made from Simplicity 1557, which is actually a Merida dress, but I just used the main part for what we wanted. The sleeves are from Simplicity 5520. I would have used that pattern for the entire dress, but it only goes up to size 8. Simplicity 1557 is the only pattern of this style that goes up to size 14. A lot of them go to size 8 and then start with adult sizes. While Eleanor can wear some adult sizes, the one pattern I purchased was just wrong in so many ways, so this was a much better "fit" for her.  I cut a size 12 based on her measurements, but I think a 10 would have been a better fit. It's not all bad in that because it's big, she can easily wear warm clothes under the dress for trick-or-treating.

The dress is a black costume satin from JoAnns-very slippery and hard to sew! The overlay and sleeves are made from a drapey tulle like fabric from the Halloween section of JoAnns. Eleanor picked it out herself. I made two dresses, put the spiderweb one on top of the black one and then treated as one dress when adding the zipper, neck facing and the sleeves. We attached cloth-like spiderweb to the neckline from the dollar store. The hat is one we already had, but I need to get a bigger one as this is meant for a smaller child. On the hat is the cutest owl we purchased at the dollar store. Finally we made a belt from cording from the drapery section at JoAnns and added a spider belt buckle that I made from a spider we purchased from a costume store and glued a tough twisty tie inside to attach to the knot of the belt. I'm tempted to find some little spiders and glue them in the center of all the webs. I don't think I have the time and patience to do that, but I think it would really add something!

On a fairworthy scale from 1 to 10 meaning 1=absolutely unfairworthy and 10=totally fairworthy I would rate this dress a 7. The invisible zipper gave me a bit of trouble so it's not as smooth as it could be a the base of the zipper-there's a pucker, but the overlay fabric is difficult to rip out without ripping, so I tacked it down the best I could. The hem is a bit wonky in the back, but since I may re-hem this dress for fair to cut off what is sure to be dirty, I'm not too worried at the moment.

Next on the docket-Tinkerbell and Princess Leia.

Fair? What fair??

Once again, the fair has snuck up on me and I have been very bad about posting what I have been making, etc. It's so easy to pop a picture up on Facebook and leave it at that. Entries are going well and there are only 2 short weeks until they are all due. The baby hat count is obscene-I'll just leave it at that. I think I have the most entries this year (not including the baby hats) that I have ever made and that is exciting. I'm also the co-chairperson of Hand Embroidery this year and that is very exciting! I think after this year, I will make a more concerted effort to get back into the blogging mode and actually chronicle my creating for the fair. So for now, I will just leave you with this pictureless post and go work on those last few entries waiting to be finished.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Happy 8th birthday to Claire! You always make life a bit more sweet!

Happy Birthday Kate!!!

I can't believe it's been five years since that wild ride to the midwives! I don't know what I will do without you next year when you go off to Kindergarten!!