Craft Fair

It has been a busy holiday season in our home!  We had family in town 2 weekends in a row!  My parents came for Thanksgiving and my in-laws came the next weekend to watch my husband and I run our annual Jingle Bell Jog in town.  We do it with a group from church for our Run for God class.  Our son ran the 1 mile with my sister-in-law (who is an amazing runner!  she did the 10k and 5k too!).  She said he ran the whole way!!!!  I'm so proud of him!!!

 

Since I last posted I took part in my very first craft fair.  It was exciting!!!!  I did more in sales than I thought and then I put what I had left in my Etsy shop.  Here's some of what I had.

 

 

I had this brilliant idea when I was roaming through Joann's one day.  They sell this grid-like material that's like those no-slip mats you put under rugs for $7.99/yd. 

 

I bought 1/2 a yard and cut 12x12 squares from it.  Then I bought some different colors and textures of yarn.  I pulled out my handy dandy pom-pom makers and spent LOTS o' time in front of the TV making yarn poms.  When I tied them off I made sure I left enough hanging to tie them onto the grid.  It was pretty time consuming but I think they turned out soooo cute!! 

 

 

 

Then I found these LED touch lights at the Dollar Tree and thought, hmmmmm, I can wrap some of that same yarn around this and have some dangling and it could be a cute little light to hang from the top of the locker.  To me the black and white one kinda looks like an octopus.  :)

 

 

I made a brown and pink one too.

 

 

I also bought some little plastic bins and painted them then put some yarn on those as well.  These can be used to hold pencils, cell phones, etc., like so:

 

 

I did some pink polka dots on the brown one b/c I ran out of yarn. 

 

 

So what do you think?  I've put some of them in the shop if you're looking for a Christmas gift for a special middle or high schooler in your life!!!  And if you say pretty please I might can make some in the colors of your choice!  :)  I can't wait to make some for my daughter someday!!!  Hope y'all are enjoying this time of year!!!  I just wish it were a little colder out here!!!!

 

Linking up to these great parties:  Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Tatertots and Jello

 

Not Just Sewing

OH MY WORD!!!!!  Has it really been a month since I last did a post?!?!?  I knew it would be hard for me to keep a good posting schedule but wow!  It didn't help that a virus kept me sick for a week and got dear hubby as well.  I went out of town 2 weekends in a row and started running again.  I am also the Baby/Bridal Shower planner at my church and my sweet, sweet friend Nadine is having her FOURTH little girl in a few weeks so I had a shower for her.  I seriously adore owls and she knows this so she asked for an owl shower!!!!!  I was elated and planned away!!!!!!!!  Here are some pics, I'll let them do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All those pictures I took and forgot to get one w/ the guest of honor!!!!!!!!!  The precious owl petit fors were made by an awesome local bakery called "The Cakery."  I always use them for our showers and they never disappoint.  They had never done owls before (shocker!) and I took a pic of the style I wanted to them and they delivered!!  The owl stuffy was made using this great pattern from New Green Mama.  The "wishes for baby" print out on the Welcome table is from Lauren Makes and she has it available in different colors!!  I made the garland using paint chips and punches in the shower colors.  Same with the mini diaper cakes and glass jar owls.  It was such a great party and we can't wait to welcome this precious little girl into my friends family and to our church!!!

 

I will try not to be so long between posts from now on!!!!!!!  :)

 

 

A Lot of Firsts

As far back as I can remember growing up my parents told me, "you can do anything you put your mind to.  Don't you ever let anyone tell you you can't do something!"  There was so much encouragement and positive reinforcement from my parents.  I knew I could trust them and have always believed that about myself thanks to them.  I love you mom and dad!!!!!  My Grannie taught me to sew on a machine that had a pedal and a wheel to make it go when I was 9 years old.  Like this one:

  Sadly, I didn't keep it up all these years.  It just wasn't a big thing at that time like it is now.  So when I decided 4 years ago to give it another shot I went to the fabric store to start my stash.  I found some great thermal fabrics on sale for $3 a yard and got some.  Aren't they so cute?!!!

The lady cutting it for me asked what I was making and I told her I was going to try a shirt for my daughter.  The town I live in isn't very large and she knew I wasn't a regular.  She said, "are you sure?  That sounds hard.  Thermals are hard to sew with."  Now I'm not a competitive person but I could hear my mom saying to me, you can do anything you put your mind to.  Don't you let anyone tell you you can't do something!!!  I decided that day that I was never going to turn down a sewing job just because I had never done it before.  So I got my first custom order the other day and it was FULL of firsts. I was nervous for sure.

 

I've never made a shirt.  I've made a dress that of course had a top part to it :), but never just a shirt. . . with a lining. . .and a ric rac trim sewn into the seam.  But my momma told me I can do whatever I put my mind to so I did!  Thankfully I've saved a bunch of my daughter's clothes from when she was a baby for a quilt someday so I grabbed an 18-24 mo shirt and drafted a pattern.  There's lots of tutorials online on how to do that so I won't bore you.  It wasn't quite as challenging as I thought it would be to sew in the ric rac, just time consuming pinning it all.  But I did it!  And the lining wasn't that hard either.  What did throw me for a loop was the pants that I've made 7 times already using this great pattern from Fleece Fun.  I guess because it was gingham fabric and not fleece but I could not get the leg lengths to match up!!!  After another date with Mr. Seam Ripper (I need to name him) I worked it out and here's the finished product:

 Sorry for the not great pic.  I have a much better one on my camera but stinkin' blogger won't let me upload it so I had to take it with my webcam.  I am very happy with how it turned out and hope that my customer, Jamie, will love it!!!  Happy Saturday everyone!

 

Linking up to Tatertots and Jello today!

 

New Items in the Shop!

On Mondays and Fridays I volunteer at my son's school.  He's in the 1st grade and they work really hard on getting these kids reading so I listen while the kids read their AR books to me and then they take a test.  It's so fun to put names with faces of the kids my son talks about.  It's right smack dab in the middle of my day so it kind of puts a kink in my blogging/sewing/Etsy stuff.  I'm trying to revamp my schedule some so I can do more of the latter.  Yesterday I was finally able to sew the 5 sizes of denim ruffle pants that I wanted to get in the shop.

 

I don't know if you can really tell from the pic but one leg is inside out.  I had already had my coffee so I'm not sure what I was thinking.  :)  Thank God for these:

 

Oh seam ripper how I love thee! 

Here are the finished products in the shop now!!

 

 

My preacher's wife and I are hosting a craft fair at our church in November.  I am sooooo excited to have a booth and try to make some new customers!  It will be my first time doing this so I'm nervous as all get out.  I have a board on Pinterest called "For My Someday Business."  I remember when I started it thinking that someday was so far away.  Well, now it's here and I can hardly believe it!  I guess I should retitle the board "For My Right Now Business!"  LOL!!  For those of you who have done a craft fair what would your best piece of advice be?

Linking up at these great parties:  Lil' Luna, Primp, Ginger Snap Crafts, Crayon Freckles

Halloween!!

So I'm learning that I've gotta come up with a schedule for blog posting.  Eventually I want to start doing one every day but I'm trying to ease into this.  I figure since we're getting into the Halloween season and I'm seeing so many awesome projects to go along with it I'd post one too!  Last year I found some cute dish towels in the dollar section at Target.  I sewed them together, encased some black ribbon in the top, added some ric rac trim on the bottom and a black cat from an old t-shirt and voila:

A Halloween pillowcase dress for my little girl.  I also made some black and white striped leggings trimmed in black lace from a t-shirt to go w/ it but I can't find them!!!!!  It's going to be too small for her this year but I may tear the sides open and add a panel of fabric on each side to make it bigger.

The "Happy Halloween" was already on the front and back.  I cut this cat out and painted in the eyes then ironed it on with heat 'n bond.  I found that ric rac at Joann's.

I just folded the tops in 1 inch and sewed a casing, threaded the ribbon through and it was ready to wear!  If I do add the panels I'll take a pic of it on my little Fin and post it.

 

So you experienced bloggers out there, how do you make time do post on your blogs?  Linking up to these great parties today:  Primp, Lil' Luna, Someday Crafts, Ginger Snap Crafts, Crayon Freckles, Christie's Cuties, Somewhat Simple

 

 



Bustle Backpack

Over the summer I found this precious backpack on Pinterest from Me Sew Crazy:

 

How gorgeous are those!!!!!!!  My daughter's favorite color is purple so I made her a purple one:

 

 

She loved it!  Now I've just gotta teach her how to tie a bow because when I pick her up in the afternoon it's unsually undone and dragging on the ground.  :)  Jessica offers Limited Commercial Licenses on a lot of her great patterns so you can make and sell them.  I haven't bought one yet but am going to very soon!  We're having a craft fair at my church and I'm going to have a booth.  I have some color scheme ideas that I think are going to get me lots of buyers.  :)

 

Linking up at these great parties:  Thirty Handmade Days, Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest

 

Happy Friday!!  Hope you have a great weekend!!

Boutuique Style Pants

I made my very first Etsy sale last night!!!  What a rush!  Right now all I have are key fobs and a couple of headbands in my shop.  I came across a great blog called Fleece Fun last year and noticed that not only does she offer her patterns for free but she also lets you sell your items made from them for free as well!  How nice is that?!!  Yesterday I decided to test this pattern using a gray knit turtleneck I got from my Grannie.  I forgot to take a before pic but here's what's left of it:

Pardon my messy workspace.  :)  I added some of the pretty lace around the bottom and here's what they look like now:

 

I love to repurpose clothing, especially for my little girl because she's pretty rough and tumble on her clothes.  :)  The pattern was very easy to go by and I used the 4T/5T size on this one.  The only thing I had to adjust was make the leg part longer.  It was a little long in the crotch.  I will definitely be making these in all sizes to put in my shop!  Tune in tomorrow for something else fun I've made!

 

Linking up to these great parties:  Lil' Luna, Someday Crafts