sushi booties and onsies

I have to say that I feel like I am going to a lot of baby showers these days, and I am SUPER excited for the one I am going to go to tomorrow.  My brother (a fellow sushi lover) served as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in Japan.  (So did I! if you didn't know.)  And after 10 long years of trying to have a baby, he and his wife are happy to be expecting a baby boy this next month!  So, needless to say, at her shower tomorrow, I knew that I needed to do something really special. 

I got the idea for these sushi booties at the original sushi bootie shop on etsy.  They are so great, but to be completely honest, I have a hard time paying good money for something I know I can easily make.

And just to compliment the booties, I decided to throw in some onsies as well.  

Can't wait to give these to my brother and his wife tomorrow!!!! (as usual, sorry the pics are so bad....all thanks to me finishing all of my projects late at night after the little one sleeps...)

ruffle pillow

Yeah, I have pretty much fallen in love with ruffles lately!

This was a "quick" project that I put together for a birthday present.   They say that you should only give gifts that you would want yourself.  Aside from the many mistakes and the messed-up-looking borders, I think I would love to get this for a gift!  So, I hope that she likes it!

oh and P.S. sorry the picture isn't all that great...I had to take it at night, after the little one was asleep (because that's when I get all my projects done).

a new Easter dress

I think it is a pretty great tradition to give little girls a new dress for Easter.  This will be the first year that I have done this for my little one, and I am happy to say that this one cost me absolutely nothing! 

I have seen a lot of tutorials/images online (and by online we all know that I mean Pinterest) for how to turn a man's dress shirt into a dress for a little girl.  I have wanted to try it for a while and have been looking for ideas of how to make the final product look more like a dress than a hand-me-down shirt.  And I think that I have found the solution, ruffles! 

To be honest, this project was so much more fun than I imagined it ever being.  Like usual, I didn't have a pattern to go from so I just kind of made it all up, which means it fits a little funny, but for a first time DIY shirt-to-dress-conversion-project, I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  It did take a little more time than I thought, but that was mostly me being a perfectionist. 

So, first, I traced about 3/4" around one of Lynlee's dresses that currently fit in pencil on the original shirt.  Sewed up the sides and the top shoulders.  Next, I made a little bias-tape out of some extra scraps to make a nice edge on the front collar.  After that, I cut 4 more long strips (from the sleeves cause they were the longest) and used this tutorial for the ruffles.  What took the most time was ironing and finishing the edges of the strips so my ruffles wouldn't fray. 

After that, I am not sure where the idea came from, but I know I was inspired.  I cut the cuffs of the remaining sleeves and trimmed them to fit in place for the sleeves of the dress.  Genius idea, because I had no idea how to make sleeves.  I also feel like this adds a lot of "this used to be my daddy's shirt" personality to the dress but doesn't make it look too strange. 

Anyway, this isn't really much of a tutorial, but thought I should jot down some stuff just in case I ever want to remember this in the future.

winter boots

I finished them months ago, but  I have no good reason as to why I haven't put any pictures up yet.  I found the idea here on pinterest, but as you can see, there is only a picture, and all of the instructions are in Korean.  So, you know me, I just decided to figure out how to make them anyway.  After a long search for sherpa suade (that totally awesome double sided fuzzy fabric in the pictures) that came to a fail, I decided to feuse 2 fabrics together with interfacing.  If you don't know what this is, you need to look it up.  It's wonderful.

So, like most of my projects, these boots took a little more time than I had originally planned, but I am so happy with how they turned out, and Lynlee absolutely loves them.  Her favorite way to wear them is on her hands.

traveling ABC's

 

Now available as individual prints or as a set on etsy!

G is for Giraffe

Q is for Quail