A gift for an Angel

A Salvation Army angel that is. I made this dress for their angel program. Every year Ellie's preschool picks several children through the Salvation Army's Angel program to provide clothes and toys for the holidays. I asked if they thought it would be okay if I made something and they said yes. Our angel was the same size as Ellie so it was nice to see if everything would fit. Just perfect with room to grow.

Ellie helped pick out the material from my stash (a pink sweatshirt knit from fabric.com). All I had to get was the butterfly applique since I don't have an embroidery machine and wanted to add something to liven up the dress. Pattern is Kwik Sew 2708. It was very easy to sew up-much easier than Macy's dress. It was the fabric.

I would definitely enter this in the fair if I were to keep it. I think I'll enter Macy's dress that I gave her for her birthday. Remember her coat? It already has ink stains and a big black smudge from who knows where. If those don't come out, it's not going in the fair. That's why I like to make most of my items in July before anyone has a chance to wear them and ruin them for the fair!

Den Flag Completed

This is not the best picture, but here it is finished. I wanted to have my children hold it up, but they were busy doing other things today. I put it on the floor and stood on a chair to get the picture.

As I mentioned before, I got help/ideas/suggestions from Mary. I actually found her site while googling the words den flag or cub scout flag-I don't remember which. She was nice enough to write to me and post an extra post about her flag making experience. There's not much out there. So if you look at her flag, you'll see some similarities. I did make a couple of mock ups for the boys to vote on and the above design is what they chose.

I wish I could say this went as planned or smoothly, but of course that would be too easy! I had this great idea that I would have the boys draw pictures of what they liked about scouting on paper, scan those in and then print them out on fabric that I had soaked in Bubble Jet Set. I would then apply the fabric to the flag and outline the pictures with yellow ribbon. I had been wanting to try out the Bubble Jet Set ever since I read about Rowena using it to make dolls for her daughter.

I already had the Bubble Jet Set. Soaked the fabric (although not as long as I was supposed to because I hadn't read the directions in a while), let it dry and then ironed it onto freezer paper. So far, so good. Then I tried to use it in my printer. Sometimes it worked, but more often it didn't. The paper/fabric would jam, get folded over or get these black streaks. The colors were just okay. I could see I would need a plan B. So I thought about it and remembered I had some iron on transfers I had tried after reading about Debbie using them to make T-shirts for her sons. They worked like a charm! I applied them to the fabric I had left over (but hadn't soaked) and then cut them out and applied as planned. The colors were much more vibrant and the pictures turned out really well. Here's Ben's (the invisible man is camping and roasting marshmallows apparently):


My application of the pack and den numbers is a little off, but hey, that's the story of my life. I told my husband you won't notice from a galloping horse!

I'm glad that's done, although I'm glad I volunteered to do it. I'm still waiting on one more picture and hopefully can add that by next week. It will go in the blank space above the pack number.

I just finished a dress for the adopt an angel program my daughter's preschool participates in this time of year. I want to apply a bit of embellishment and hope to have that up by tomorrow.

I'm famous!

Okay, I'm not really famous, but I did get a little blip posted in our local newspaper, a little publication called The Washington Post.

In the metro section they have a column called page three which appropriately enough is on page three of the metro section. It covers all sorts of topics that people write in about with their personal experiences-random acts (of kindness), observations and one I submitted for called "What Bugs Me". Without further delay here's the blip (it's the very first one!):

Put on hold at a Parent-Teacher Talk

You may have to register to see it, but it's free and I haven't been bugged with spam or anything so it should be safe.

Hopefully by tomorrow or the next day I will post a picture of the den flag I've been working on for my son's cub scout troop. Special thanks to Mary for giving me tips from her den flag making experience.

Christmas Chocolate!!!

It has been a rough couple of weeks with the goings on with life. Mainly feeling poorly with nausea, tired with running around for all the things I have to do just being a wife and mother and to top that off a particularly contentious woman who I should be grateful to for taking over my daughter's brownie troop next year (since I will have a hard time being the leader with a baby) but instead she has been the bane of my exsistence. She has caused me all sorts of grief and in the end I will be unceremoniously pushed out and really who will care as long as there is a troop for everyone's daughter.

What does that have to do with Christmas chocolate? Nothing, but today was the first day that my children were able to start opening their Chocolate Advent calendars. Each year I go to Trader Joes and get these for my kids. I think I do it because one year someone gave one to me when I was a child and I loved it. My children are no different. It's amazing how a $1.00 worth of cardboard and chocolate can make someone so happy. It's all they've been able to talk about since I got the calendars last week. Godiva has nothing on these chocolates let me tell you. The fun of watching my children write their names on their calendars, search for the number one, wrestle the little spot open and popping out that chocolate was just what I needed.

On top of that, today was the secret shop run by my daughter Macy's old preschool. This is the fourth year we've participated and my children love it so much they talk about going as early as January! They love getting presents for Christmas, but not as much as they love going to that shop without my husband or me and buying presents for us and the rest of the family. They are so excited and can hardly wait to give everyone what they bought. You can tell they are thinking about what they bought by the way they get all giggly and keep looking under the tree. Most of the gifts are handmade, although nothing fancy, but it gives my children an inexpensive way to give presents to everyone in the family. I've had the hardest time keeping them away from the packages which are now stored under the tree.

Now if I could only get that silly woman out of my head. Compared to Christmas chocolate and presents picked especially for me by my children who is she?

Pretty in Pink

It only took me almost two years to finish this for Macy, but it is finally done. It's what we call in our house a "pretty" coat, usually reserved for Sunday mornings, going to church, etc. In the past the girls have either received a Rothschild coat for a Christmas or Birthday present but a few years ago I thought, "I can make one of those" and so I did. My first (and I thought last) attempt at a pretty coat resulted in this:

I had the hardest time with this coat. I hated it by the time I was finished. On top of that it fit Macy perfectly so that she was only able to wear it for a couple of months and then it became her sister Ellie's (which I have to say it looks much better on Ellie than Macy). I had wanted to make it out of pink with cream trim, but Macy wanted it to look just like the pattern envelope (Vogue 7792). I wasn't going to enter it in the fair because it was just awful, but my husband disagreed. I reworked the buttonholes, gave it a good pressing and brushing and this is what I received:Yes, I was very surprised! This was last year and the very first time I took grand champion/best of show in clothing at our county fair. I did not think the coat was "fairworthy" by any stretch of the imagination, but the judges did. They loved it. So I thought, I would attempt another pretty coat for Macy last winter.

Needless to say a lot of things happened and the pink pretty coat never was finished. It was a much easier pattern (Butterick 4650) but I could never get much done with it. I started it last summer. It was too hot to apply the necessary interfacing. Then I didn't have enough hymo canvas for the shoulders and this thick wool needed something to give it shape in the shoulder area. Weeks later I finally got not one but two shipments of hymo canvas after buying the wrong thing at G street fabrics (where I bought the pink wool and cream velveteen). Then I was very sick for a while and the weather didn't get cold until December. It hung half finished on our office/sewing room door until last month. It's been a struggle with my pregnancy sickness to finish, but it's done.

The coat fits Macy nicely and I think she'll be able to wear it next year as well. It was still difficult to sew due to the fact the wool was so thick. I like it okay, but not great. I need to fix the stationary buttons on the front since they are a bit lower than they should be.

Will it win a ribbon next year? Hopefully, although it seems too simple to win the "big" one. I was hoping to embellish the collar and cuffs with some bullion roses, but it was just not going to get finished if I waited to do that. The construction is fine. The buttonholes are as bad as the red coat but that's my machine's fault and I'll just suffer through until I can remedy that problem! Will I make another one? Well I'm not planning on it, especially when you can get Rothschild coats for $45.00 at Costco at the beginning of the season. The materials for this coat easily cost twice that. I also bought too much material thinking I was going to make another version of the Vogue pattern. I do think I might attempt to make a matching coat for Macy's American Girl Doll. We'll see.

Ellie is getting too tall for the red coat and wants me to make her a new coat now or definitely for next year. I'm too tired to think about that right now. Maybe I'll feel up to it after the baby is born. Then again, maybe not.

Happy Birthday Macy!!!!!

Thursday was actually Macy's birthday, but today was the first chance she had to wear the one present I made for her, so I'm posting now.

Since Macy was turning 7 we asked her if she would like an American Girl "Just Like Me" doll and she said yes. Of course that meant I needed to make matching clothes! The dress for Macy is Kwik Sew 2708 size 4 but arms and skirt lengthened. The doll's dress was Simplicity 4654 with the sleeves lengthened. Both dresses were made from a very soft pink velour I think I purchased at G street fabrics or maybe it was fabric.com-I can't remember. It was a bear to sew. I actually tried to make the same dress for Macy last year for her birthday, but it was a disaster and I had good intentions of trying again before now, but obviously failed. I mentioned to her that I made the dress and she was very surprised. She said, "I thought you bought it.", but was pleased nonetheless. I'm planning on making at least one more matching outfit for her and her doll for Christmas. Here's a full length shot of the dress:
Now Ellie wants a dress just like it but in Red. I have the red velour and so that's one Christmas present I'm planning on for her. I'm not looking forward to sewing with it though! Even with my differential feed to the max and some major stabilizing and the use of elastic here and there, this material is wobbly. The neckline isn't as nice as I would like it so I'm not sure if I'll enter it in the fair. We'll see. Of course I already noticed some marker spots on the sleeves. If those don't wash out, then it won't be entered in the fair since they require things to be clean and unmarked. Hard when you have children wearing them!

Overalls for Claire

I made these overalls for Claire last year and entered them in the fair. They earned a red ribbon. They were too big for her last winter, but fit now. She really wanted to wear overalls and I remembered I had these. She was very pleased. These are the from the Kwik Sew pattern (sorry don't know the number and not sure where the pattern is.) for toddlers.


The material is an embroidered corduroy that I bought at JoAnn's a long time ago. I've made three items from the fabric and still have some left over.

If you look behind Claire in the first picture, you'll see her halloween bag from last night. She won't go anywhere without it. You'd think my children never get any sweets!