Strawberries and Hearts

Valentine's Day is coming up! I decided to use my Olivia pattern and my newfound t-shirt neckline abilities to create this cute tunic dress. Knit is organic with pink and brown hearts from The Fabric Fairy. Very soft and cute!


And this is the first of two strawberry dresses for local customers. Strawberries are grown just 10 minutes from here and strawberries are often seen in clothing around the time of the Florida Strawberry Festival. This is a beautiful fabric. Linen from SuperBuzzy with a red linen underdress.

A Challenge Met

A good friend suggested a sewing contest. I decided to create 6 boy items and 6 Christmas gifts by Christmas. So far I'm 2 down on the boy items. (The hoodie sweatshirt was made before the challenge.) Here is a tee I made for Harrison. More of a lounge/hunker shirt, but he loves it and is wearing it today.



And a shirt for me from a Jalie pattern. Either I measured myself wrong or the pattern just needed a lot of alteration. I had to take in 1 1/2 inches from each side of the shirt and the neckline needed some major re-doing before it was presentable. But FINALLY this gorgeous fabric was made into this cute shirt (for me!). And you get a rare glimpse of me without makeup.

A sweatshirt and a hooded tee for my boys

I made Austin this sweatshirt out of hemp fleece and dyed it with a LWI method in greens and blues. He loves it and it is the perfect weight for our cooler mornings. I used a Kwik Sew Hooded Sweatshirt pattern.



This hooded tee has a solid, brick red front and back with cowboy sleeves with a matching cowboy hood. Perfect for my 6 yo who loves to play Cowboys and Indians. I used a raglan tee pattern from Ottobre Design magazine and used a hood from a hooded dress. Shhhh - don't tell him part of the pattern was from a girls' pattern.

Vida dress using Melissa Averinos' Sugar Snap fabrics

I fell in love with these fabrics by Melissa Averinos! The bold colors and patterns are so beautiful together. With the main fabric, I really felt pattern placement was key to making the panel really pop. And my buttonhole feature - I am amazed at how such a small thing can make me so happy. Perfection every time. And it even sews the button on in about 2 seconds.

The Beanbag

This beanbag was easy to do but I was so intimidated by it. Maybe it was the 6 yards of fabric or the sheer size of something like this on my sewing machine. Maybe it was just my trepidation about doing something new and messing it up. This beanbag was a gift for my oldest for Christmas. I bought a bolt of this fabric to help decorate his room. He has coordinating pillowcases, but I thought a beanbag chair for my super-reader would be fun. He loves it and tells me it was his favorite gift this Christmas.

I used the tutorial from Michael Miller. Super easy!



I think the best part about this beanbag chair is the story/adventure of how to find the pellets for the inside. JoAnn Fabrics sells the pellets, but it would have cost me close to 100.00 for the pellets alone - not to mention the money in 6 yards of fabric. NOT worth it! I went online and found a place in Tampa that sold it. I went to Ann's Waterbeds and Beanbags and met the owner (nice guy) and saw his small manufacturing plant. I had such fun seeing his industrial machines and how he ran his sewing shop. I loved it! And the beanbag pellets came down this bag tube into a bag. He tied it up and off I went. Next time he said to bring the bag and he would fill it up and put it on his sewing table to sew it up for me. Very nice guy!