Christmas Geranium Dresses

If you read sewing blogs, chances are you've seen Made By Rae (or at least heard of her excellent blog). I read several sewing blogs, most of which have projects for girls, so I'm pretty familiar with Rae's work and her most famous pattern, the Geranium Dress. I've seen many a blogger sew up a Geranium top or dress from this super versatile pattern and I decided it was my turn to test it out for the girl's Christmas dresses.

I downloaded the pdf pattern (though you can also order a paper version) and made a size 4T for Charlotte and size 3-6 months for Elise. The sizing is spot on--these both fit really well, no adjustments needed. I made the faux cap sleeve version for Charlotte out of some soft cotton/flannel plaid I had left over from yardage I bought last year. For Elise, I made the sleeveless version out of a large print red gingham using fabric from a curtain I had made years ago and no longer used. Repurposing=excellent.

This a super quick and simple pattern and with so many ways to change it up it will surely be in heavy rotation!

If you want to see tons of samples of what you can do with the Geranium dress pattern, check out Craftiness Is Not Optional  for tons of inspiration! She's made dozens over the years.

Happy Sewing!

~Stacy

Three Months

Oh, this baby. This baby is just the sweetest little thing; I can't get enough of her. She hasn't made much of an appearance on the blog yet since I've only blogged a few times since she was born. Between adjusting to having two kids, coming back down to earth after the hormonal hellstorm that is pregnancy and childbirth, and then recently going back to work I just haven't had the time or desire to do much in terms of blogging.

But I'm slowly but surely getting my groove back and I've got a long list of projects I'd like to make. Plus I'm just feeling better overall, and along with that comes the motivation to make time for hobbies again.

Through all of this though, the one constant has been this baby's sweetness. From the moment she arrived (not counting the first 60 minutes of life, when she screamed her head off and was completely displeased with everything) she has been so laid back and an easy baby. She's a good sleeper and eater and she rarely fusses. She isn't bothered by chaos or loud noises and seems to nap best in a loud restaurant. She has the biggest, cutest smile that is often on display. She wakes up happy and giggles easily. She loves her sister, watching ceiling fans, and when Chad and I make ridiculous noises in her face. She's been sleeping through the night for awhile now--something I'm especially grateful for since Charlotte was a champion sleeper and I was warned by many that having one good sleeper meant the second baby would be a nightmare sleeper.

She could use some work in the daytime napping department and prefers shorter power naps several times a day to a longer nap (or two), but it's easy enough to deal with since she's almost always in a good mood when she's awake. She has a cold right now and every time she sneezes she grins because sneezes are funny.

It doesn't matter what kind of day I've had or what else is on my mind--if I hold her it's like being plugged into a charger and having my battery filled back up. She's a snuggler and prefers being held to not. Since I know that she is my last baby, I'm happy to oblige and hold her as much as possible. All too soon she'll be running around and not needing this holding business any longer.

She has completed our family in the most perfect of ways. Of course I can remember life before she was here but I can't imagine life without her. She's already racked up about a million nicknames, the most common one courtesy of Charlotte: "Lisey." We also affectionately call her "The Little Bald Lady", though many times "bald" ends up pronounced "balbed" since that's how Charlotte says it and it's too cute to correct her.

Her list of things that tick her off at this point is pretty short. She doesn't love her car seat but does okay on car rides provided the car is moving. If it's stopped, she's usually irritated. She also does NOT like to be kept waiting for milk once she's determined that she's hungry. When it's eating time, you've got about 3.67 seconds to work it out before she's angry.

She's doing a few things quite a bit earlier than Charlotte did, which makes me wonder if she'll be an early walker. She started rolling over from her tummy at five weeks, and just yesterday she rolled from back to front. She holds herself up really well and will plant her little legs firmly upright when you hold her that way. Charlotte couldn't care less about that until a few months later, but Elise sees Charlotte playing and probably wants in on the action. I won't be upset, however, if she ends up being a late walker like her sister :)

She's completely delicious and I'm so thankful she's here. She's our best.

~Stacy

Frozen Halloween

I haven't been doing much sewing lately, but I did manage to make two little Halloween costumes this year. Charlotte decided, after going back and forth a lot, to dress up as Princess Anna from Frozen. I knew there were patterns out there to make an Anna dress and I decided I was up for the challenge, though there were a few moments where I wanted to toss the whole thing into the garbage can and drive directly to the Disney store to be done with it.

But I persisted, and I'm glad. This is one of those projects that stands out as one that I'm most proud of. And it didn't hurt that the dress fit her perfectly and she LOVED it.

I made a few minor tweaks to the dress but stuck pretty closely to the pattern. For the cape, I used comfy fleece so it would be warm and sewed rick-rack around the edges. I skipped the collar and clasp and just added a ribbon to tie it closed.

Are you ready for Princess Anna, in all of her adorable-ness?

But I didn't stop there. Princess Anna would be lost without her loyal sidekick Olaf, so behold Baby Olaf:

That is one cute snowman :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

~Stacy

Saugatuck Getaway

This past weekend Chad and I took a belated 10th anniversary trip to Saugatuck, MI. It was wonderful! Truthfully, just sitting in a car together for almost five hours and being able to talk in complete sentences and listen to whatever we wanted on the radio without having to console a crying baby or put on Disney Princess songs was a blessing. We stayed two nights--two gloriously, uninterrupted nights--at a cute B&B right in the center of town so we were able to walk to just about everything. The food there was incredibly good (stuffed blueberry French toast, anyone?) and we spent our time walking around, coffee in hand, going to all the cute shops and visiting a few beaches.

It was lovely. And I took lots of pictures.

And despite the peacefulness and lack of responsibility, we missed these two like crazy and couldn't wait to get home to them. Lack of silence and all :)

~Stacy

DIY Bean Bag Chair

Last week I found a tutorial on how to make a kid's bean bag chair on Pinterest, which you can find by clicking here. It looked like a super easy and quick project to make--and it was!

I bought some cute fabric at JoAnn's that was in clearance for $4 a yard. I bought 1 5/8 yards--which was just enough with a tiny bit extra to make this (I used regular quilting weight cotton, which was 43" wide. If you use home dec fabric, like the tutorial suggests, you won't need as much yardage since it's wider).

I also found the bean bag filling at JoAnn's, which came in a giant bag full of small foam balls. This stuff isn't cheap, I discovered, and I needed two bags (one bag was 2 cubic feet and the chair requires 3.5). Thankfully I had coupons, otherwise I wouldn't have made this project since the cost for the bean bag filling would have been quite a bit more than just buying a finished bean bag chair somewhere.

I also only used a 12" zipper instead of a 22" since that was all I had on hand and I forgot to buy one at the store. This was fine, other than making filling the bag a bit of a challenge. A messy challenge.

Behold.

Filling the chair is the most difficult part of this project, and really it isn't that bad--it took about 10 minutes to get the chair full. In total, this was a 30 minute project--seriously. I made it while Elise was napping and Charlotte was eating lunch. Those are my favorite kinds of projects!

Charlotte has quickly become a huge fan of her new bean bag chair. Since it's filled with foam balls it's super light, so she carries it from room to room as she pleases. It has also been outside and used as a landing pad off the deck--which I vetoed after several dozen jumps, fearing that the seams would just burst apart and I'd have to refill the thing completely. So now the rule is that the bean bag chair must remain indoors and not get jumped on from a height greater than two feet. Sigh.

I tried it out myself as well--and it really is quite comfy!

Happy Sewing.

~Stacy