!!!!!Pom Pom Trim!!!!! Eeeee!!!!

Ok, I know I can't be the only one who swoons over adorable trim. Let me show you something I fell in love with...

Yep, this little yellow pom pom trim.  I had a scrap of this fabric and some eyelet left from another project so I whipped up a little skirt. The great thing is that it matches with the little crochet shrug I made for Maiden this fall. It was a little too big then but it finally fits nicely and matches so sweetly with this skirt and her little peasant blouse.  I will post some pictures of that whole ensemble as soon as I get the time to do something other than run shuttle to baseball practice for the boys. That might be in, oh, August?

Ps. How do you like that custom baby scribble mousepad? Tres chic!

A quick project for girls

My oldest daughter wanted to try a project last week that involved some of the elastic smocked fabric popping up in stores lately. She chose a fun spring print and some eyelet and ribbon to dress it up.

Here is our finished product. It looks adorable! She's a budding little designer. ;)

She has worn it as a tunic style top over a flutter sleeve tee and skinny jeans.

We were very pleased that it came out so cute!

A Christmas EVE for a special girl!

I have been trying to make this little plush toy for my neice for weeks. I saw a wonderful tutorial on Happy Together here. I attempted. I failed. miserably. It wasn't the tutorial. It was my crummy sewin'. So, I decided to come up with my own simplified version to suit the sewing skills I have now, otherwise we might be waiting till next year for EVE. So, here I give to you, the Felt EVE with Directive(that's the little plant in the boot, y'all).

I simply cut ot felt pieces in the selected colors using an oval lid. I stitched on the outside instead of turning the whole thing. I trimmed away the excess after I was finished. I trimmed a little more than the last picture but my daughter was eager to wrap something, anything, and she snatched it up and wrapped it before I made any more pictures. ;) I hope you can follow the photos. If not, feel free to leave me a question in the comments and I will answer as best I can. I know you can make one of these and probably a lot prettier than mine ; /  I'd love to see it if you do!

Patching, mending, fixing...

It seems we are always patching knees of pants in this house. I thought you might enjoy a little patch inspiration. For my daughter, a pair of heart shaped patches and a little embroidery floss embellishment made some fantastic designer looking jeans!

For my sons, it seems camo is always a hit. I patched under the hole with camo and on the other knee I used a sewing equivalent to scribbling followed by a cool piratey skull and cross bones. He loves them so much I can hardly get him to take them off and let me wash them! He even broke out the cool guy dance for the photo shoot. That kid is a hoot, I tell ya.

Our youngest son wanted me to make something cool for his jeans and brought me this pair. I found a bit of scrap fabric and an old jacket that had a broken zipper and was too itchy in the first place. I snipped the numbers off the track jacket and made a little applique together and viola'! Brit calls them his basketball pants. He's really enthusiastic about anything I make for him. It's nice. Everyone should have one of those guys in the house. ;)  

I have lots of creative patching ideas. I have used the pockets of outgrown cargo pants as patches. I simply cut away the pockets and place over the area to be covered and handstitch down in some contrasting color that makes it look more deliberate. I also try to use the same thread to add fun little embelishments like the skull and cross bones that ties the whole thing together. I like having cute boys clothes and they are kinda tough to find, so if I can spice their things up a little, it's worth the effort to me.

What are some of your patching tips?