Flower Power Baby Outfit!

My cousin is having a baby girl! A baby girl! Let me explain the weight of this statement. We hadn't had a baby girl in our family for sixteen years. We were going boy crazy, lemme tell ya. Don't get me wrong, my boys are the BEST. We just needed a little balance, you know.  Thankfully, my aunt and uncle had a little girl who is almost 2 now, and we get to see her frequently. And now another girl on the way! My Mommy and sister are hopping on a plane for her baby shower next week, so I'll be sending along a little package full of handmade love. Yippee! I can always use an excuse to make something with flowers and the color purple.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been reading Growing Up Sew Liberated, and it has given me the confidence to try sewing with knits. (And here you are thinking, "she calls herself The Stitchress, and she doesn't know how to sew with knits?") But you see, I know how, I just haven't been gutsy enough to let the needle sink into that pretty piece of fabric!

Yo-yo flowers are so much fun to make! If you don't know how, here's a good tutorial from Tea Rose Home. Make sure to attach them to your main fabric securely, especially if it is for a young child.

The pants are made of a lightweight seersucker, and the t-shirt is a cotton/lycra blend. I can't wait to make some t's for E with little-man personalizations. :) Tomorrow, I'm making soft shoes to complete the outfit! <3

P-Jam Party

A few weeks ago, I made some cozy flannel PJ pants  for myself using an old elastic waist pants pattern and adapting it a little. They're my new favorites. If they didn't have ridiculous (and by ridiculous I mean cute) looking monkeys all over them, I'd wear them out of the house. 

Wait one hot minute. Is posting photos on the internet of me wearing them sort of the same as wearing them out of the house? Oh my, I'm going to have to think about this one.  

I used some easy modifications to make these pants just right. 

1) I used satin baby blanket binding to make the casing for the drawstring. It's wonderfully smooth and doesn't require any finishing on the edges! So easy.

2) I actually stole this idea from another old pattern by McCalls. Instead of just using a basic drawstring, I cut the drawstring in half, and sewed each piece to either end of a 5 inch piece of elastic. Voila, now the drawstring is stretchy! This is truly the key to making drawstring pants comfy.

Here's a few photos of me and my littlest modeling our Pjs. E's longjohns are my absolute favorite. :)

<3

Spring Dreaming Skirt + Family Photoshoot

Happy Sunday! I've been blessed by so many people and things today. 1) My creative husband, who so graciously took pictures of me. 2) My sister's DSLR camera. 3) My beautiful children, who braved the 20 degree weather with me. 4) My sweet mother in law, who went thrifting with me. 5) My Husqvarna Lily. She's the best stitcher in the world.

Here's a few peeks at our fun photoshoot today!

The B.E., sitting on his own. I love clear January skies! 

I love this springy skirt. Even though I was freezing wearing it, I could just see daffodils popping up around me and robins digging up worms in the backyard. (Wishful thinking, eh.) My mom gave me a bag of old bedsheets the other day, and inside was a set of lovely flowered sheets that I had on my daybed as a little girl! I was so happy. The sheets were my grandma's, and when she gave me the daybed, the sheets came along with it. 

All sentiment aside, the fabric is really cute. In searching for skirt ideas, I came across this pattern by Jess from Running With Scissors. You can find the tutorial for it here. I goofed it up at first by making it too short, hence the plain white border. :) This pattern is really exciting for me, because it gave me the confidence to sew with elastic thread. (Apologies for not including the detail, but around the waist is about 8 rows of shirring, made using elastic thread.) I just couldn't believe how easy it was. Thanks, Jess!

I adore these pockets! 

Isn't he gorgeous? His little suit is made out of the most leaf-attracting material I have EVER seen. You know that went straight in the washer.

I wore:

Sweater: thrifted, Banana Republic

Cami: Forever 21

Skirt: handmade

Knee Socks: Target

Boots: Steve Madden

E wore:

Snowsuit: Baby Gap

Sweater Booties: Target

<3

Baby Pants: Funny Farm.

Greetings from 1:28 AM. I'm currently listening to my husband and dog snoring together down the hall. They've got rhythm. I just feel like posting again. These baby pants make me laugh. I made them the other night, just to try out a new pattern with some scrap fabric. I love the pattern, and will be using it to make lots of pants for The B.E. And I must say, the fabric is growing on me as well. ;) I'm pretty sure it's left over from a project my Mom made in the early 90's. <3 Goodnight!