Sporty maxi

I was lucky enough be asked to test out the size 8 for Heidi and Finn's Sporty Maxi pattern that will be released soon!

Let me tell you I love this pattern and Mia loves the dress! I made 2 of them and Mia loves them both!

This is my first pattern from Heidi and Finn, and honestly my first maxi dress and test. That is a whole lot of firsts! The directions were super easy and very straight forward with lots of color pictures in case there are any questions. It comes with directions for those that have a serger and those that do not, actually it even had 2 sets of directions for attaching binding without a serger!

I actually took off work early the day I got this pattern so I could go to Jo-Anns and pick up some fun, spunky and most importantly "not babyish" knit.

We went to the park for a pretty Spring photo shoot! Of course I had to bribe Mia with an extra 30 minutes before bed this week, but that is a small price to pay for the level of gorgeousness I got in return!

This is the Sporty Maxi dress. It is floor length in the back like all Maxi dress, except this one also has the sporty fun twist of the racer back! I will admit I was a little intimidated by the racer back, I was worried Mia's head wouldn't fit thru the head hole. I was so wrong and so silly for thinking it.

Another fun twist of the Sporty Maxi is that it has the high - low skirt. For those that worry about tripping this is the Maxi dress for you!

Mia even turned model for a while and gave me some stunning random shots. Don't you just love when the picture looks more natural, like they were just leaned back thinking about something?

But of course she had to run around too! Seriously this is the perfect dress for those girly tom boys!

Even had to stop to take a call lol

Played in the water a bit.

And stood looking way too pretty and grown up for this mama's comfort!

We tried a few random poses, just trying to find good shots.

Overall we had a blast at the park and Mia said she is more than happy to do more photo shoots like this one. :)

Then I was asked to make a second one with some revisions and I got creative. I already had this onion skin and knit sitting in my "knit tub" so I thought what the heck I will make a two fabric piece. All I did was lay the two fabrics over the pattern with a small overlay for the horizontal seam where they meet, pinned and followed the directions for the rest.

Mia even asked if she could wear it to school! And for those that don't know that is quite the honor as Mia is very picky about what clothes she will wear to school! However I had to take some before school pics at the house to show so my cell phone pics will have to do. (ps I have no idea what she was doing with her hands here LOL)

Overall I think that anyone that loves Maxi dresses should definitely give this one a shot! It is so easy and quick to make! Oh and an added benefit straight from Mia's mouth "I feel so grown up and tall!" Anyone that knows Mia's knows those are two very high compliments!

So as soon as this dress available (which rumor has will be tomorrow!) everyone should grab a copy! This will be a must have in Mia's summer wardrobe for sure!

Happy Sewing!

I actually think I like the 2nd one better! But it may be because it makes her look more her age where the other made her look older lol

A 3 piece suit!

Not sure if anyone noticed or not but I have been M.I.A for a couple of days because I have been doing some exciting stuff! I was chosen to be one of many testers for HeidiandFinn's new Sporty Maxi Dress! I was SO excited to be chosen and I cannot wait to show off the dress and tell you all about the pattern. But Mother Nature had other plans. Between record setting SNOW at the end of April .. like the last time this happened was in 1918 and was on the 22nd whereas ours was the 23rd... and then Miss Mia's refusal to cooperate with a fun photo shoot at Grandma and Grandpa's I will not be able to get a good picture until Sunday when it is supposed to be a beautiful 80* and Sunny. Mia and I will go to the park and she will get to run and play in the new Sporty Maxi <3

 Here is a small taste of the dress I made. once I get her playing at the park running in the sun I will have some gorgeous pictures to show and a wonderful review to write!

Ok now onto my previous makes :)

After I did Taevy's Willow Dress I knew it was time for Mia to have another turn at a "Mommymade" There just so happened to be an awesome Sew-a-long going on at the Create Kids Couture Sew-a-long group on Facebook. April's sew-a-long was for the Britney Bubble top in girl's sizes or tween sizes! I couldn't wait to be a part of a sew-a-long it just sounded like "sew" much fun! And let me tell you there were SO many adorable finished products! And since the mama's loved the patterns so much and begged and pleaded with the Ladies that are Create Kids Couture they made a WOMEN'S version too! Actually they came out with a 6 piece line of women's designs! Talk about adorable Mommy and Me photos! Anyway let me get back to the point. I seriously LOVE Create Kids Couture. Their patterns are just so easy to follow and so far I have had absolutely no problems or even questions about how to do something. I have not had to go back and reread the directions over and over again hoping to figure it out. I read it once and understand and anyone that sews knows that is how it should be!.

I did more muted colors than most but I had a very good reason.

You see I didn't want just a top. I wanted a whole outfit. I happened to come across some awesome black with pink pin stripe knit fabric for ... get this ... $1 a yard! I just pictured little business suits on little girls. So when this sew a long came along I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Which is where the 3 piece suit comes in. :)

I had the top, now I needed a bottom. Insert Jocole's Basic knit Leggings and we have a winner! Oh my goodness, anyone that has sewn for any amount of time will tell you that knits are kind of scary to work with. And if you are one of those that worry about knits you need to go get a pattern from Jocole! She is the knit master! Everything is so well written and so easy and oh my so quick to sew together. I actually did 2 pairs of these leggings because Mia likes them a little loose and she thought the first pair was too tight. Seriously, coming from the world's slowest sewist, These took me like 1.5 hours to do from start to finish, and that was only because I am so OCD about things and have to stop between every step to do one thing or another (from laundry to letting the dogs out). So then the leggings were born.

Seriously cute right!? And after this picture I added a large white button to the outside of both legs to add some white to the pants.

But wait! There is still one more aspect of this suit. Obviously I have only shown 2 pieces so what could the 3rd be?

I wanted a jacket but couldn't find the right style or one that would work with the knit fabric I wanted to use. I poured over different descriptions and just couldn't find what I wanted. I had it narrowed down to 2. Sent both designers a quick note asking if it would work ok with a knit fabric. Well Cali Faye Collections to the rescue! She said I should be able to use her Hippie Haute Crop Jacket, but suggested I don't do the lining and to maybe add some lace. I did just that and I LOVE this jacket! I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the pattern. I thought it was going to be stupid hard. Because look at it! It looks hard! I could not have been more wrong! I had it done in 1 day, which would have been shorter if I had not melted some of the lace and had to go buy more!

Seriously how much cuter can it get!

Anyway I realize this post is getting stupid long and if anyone is actually reading it I apologize. I just can't stop raving about how much I love these 3 patterns! So I will end it with a picture collage of all 3 put together. Again Mother Nature was not cooperating with outside pictures but I made due and set her up for some teacher pictures :) and if you know Mia you will know that is her lifelong dream, to be a teacher. :)

 I mean seriously, how much cuter could this whole outfit be?!?

Happy Sewing!! 

The WIllow Dress for Taevy

Well some of you may not know but Anita, from Banku Pho and Fried Spiders, is my big sister! And my beautiful niece Taevy wanted a dress, with kittens on it!

Taevy on Easter 2013

Here is the tricky part! I live in Kansas and they live in Oklahoma which is 180 miles apart. Not a huge amount but not an easy drive across town either! So I went to Jo-Anns and took pictures of multiple "cat" fabrics. Taevy picked her favorite and we had a starting point.

Then came the challenge of meeting modest moms needs and a tween almost 13 year old desires. We came to a compromise of the adorable Willow Dress from Pink Poodle Bows.

Now this dress is absolutely adorable and I had a blast making it! I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the criss cross corset tie back and while looking at the pattern it was lined in the bodice as well. I was scared and was sure this was going to be a pain and outside of my ability as a beginner.

I could not have been more wrong. The directions were so well put and thought out that I was able to understand what I was doing and couldn't help but be excited about how professional the finished product was going to be! I love how all the seams were encased. It just turned out beautiful!

As of right now Taevy and Anita have only seen this same picture since we have not seen each other since it was completed a few weeks ago. And I cannot wait until I can post a picture of Taevy wearing it!

So if you are a beginner and would like to get a PDF pattern that is simple to follow but gives such a professional clean product in the end, you should most definitely check out Pink Poodle Bows!

Something for me!

This time it was time for me to make something for myself, and since I am not comfortable with my own body I went with an awesome purse design by Ailivo Charlotte Designs

It is called the Pouf Purse and I chose it because it was small enough not to overwhelm my petite size but still big enough to carry my Ipad to and from work in without sticking out.

Let me be honest with you, I was a little nervous about this. I mean this is something I want to carry around with me every single day and have people see and possibly ask about every single day. Yea, for a person that doesn't like to stand out in a crowd this was outside my comfort zone to say the least!

But I stuck to my decision and picked out mysome of my favorite fabric from the stash. This mint and chocolate Damask and polka dot combo are awesome together and the coordinating stripes and floral will make a hidden statement for the lining.

Starting out I of course read thru the pattern and cut my pieces as directed. Easy peasy no problem. As I went along I got more and more excited! I just had to show off my handy work!

The straps are the perfect length for carrying. Not too long to hit my hip all the time and not so short that it dug into my armpit!

I was so excited when the shell came together and I loved it more and more with every step!

I even conquered my fear of zippers and put in an interior zipper pocket. One thing I added that was not on the pattern was a cloth divider. Just to give a slot for the Ipad to slide in and out of without falling over all the other things us women carry around.

Overall I love this purse! I plan to make it over and over again with different fabrics as the mood strikes me! All the directions were well written and easy to follow and makes certain things optional (like the magnetic closures I did not do since I never close my purse up anyway). I loved it so much that I went on to make a key wristlet I found on Pinterest, you can find that tutorial here, and just for kicks I made a matching zipper pouch that I use for lipstick and my handy flash drive to store my PDF Patterns. I used this simple tutorial for that.

Overall I highly recommend that anyone, whether learning or experienced, go check out all the different designs of Aivilo Charlotte Designs. There are so many to choose from as well as clothing designs! You won't be disappointed!

Happy Sewing!

The Cottage Mama Giveaway

The Cottage Mama, who is a pattern and sewing master, is having a giveaway for some awesome books and fabrics! She recently hit her 10,000 fan followers on Facebook. Thought i would share in case anyone is interested in a super talented Mama. Find her on Facebook and/or follow her blog. you will be inspried daily!

Ruffle Fabric

I am going to give you all a little bit of personal information about my girlie, Mia. As you can probably tell we look nothing alike. That is because she is adopted, from Guatemala. That is also why I use the instagram name pink_guate_mama and you may find me talking about Guatemala in different aspects of life. It is a truly beautiful country and I love that Mia is lucky enough to call it her birthplace. Now the other thing you may need to know, to understand why I do some things, is that Mia is visually impaired (VI) technically she is legally blind. She reads Braille and has a white cane and all that you think of when you hear the word blind. However she does not "look" stereotypically blind. Her eyes may roll and bit unintentionally and she gets "happy hands" but overall no one would really know she has a disability without the aid of the cane or being told.

Mia was born with Optic-Nerve Hypoplasia  (ONH). Basically her optic nerve didn't fully develop in the womb. We are beyond blessed that she does not have the typical secondary condition of Septo Optic Dysplasia, which can effect growth as well as many other things physically and developmentally. When Mia first came home in September 2006 we took her to an endocrinologist and it was determined everything on that end was normal, petite but normal. MIa is at or above grade level in school and is actually ahead of some of her "regular" education peers. She is socially mature enough to equal her grade level, with maybe a bit of immaturity thrown in because she does not have the same visual cues that other children have that force them to grow up more quickly than you or I did. She doesn't play video games or watch TV and moves with sex and violence. She is 9 years old and still whole heartedly without a doubt believes in Santa and the Tooth Fairy! However there are things I personally have to do to make adaptions for her to be involved. She is a 9 year old girl after all, who is newly in love with Blake Shelton LOL, she wants her own style and to be able to choose her own clothes and how her hair or nails are done. I mean what girl doesn't want that option? So I have to get creative with her. I try to take her fabric shopping so she can feel the fabrics and decide a color or I will describe a pattern for her and she will say yes or no. I will let her choose the color of the zipper or button or ribbon. A lot of time we look for buttons with texture. Texture is what excites her!

And that brings me to the topic of the day.

Ruffle Fabric.

Glorious beautiful texture ridden ruffle fabric. The very first time that Mia felt it at Jo-Ann Fabrics she HAD to have some. We happened to find it on sale so we bought a few yards of some hot pink. I knew I had some cotton woven fabric in my hoard stash that I could mix it with. All that was left was finding a good pattern. I had recently joined the PDF Pattern Promotion and Sales Facebook group and I knew I could look thru the list of Designers and find something. Sure enough I found Create Kids Couture! They have many patterns to choose from and they are all so girlie and ruffly! They are a ruffle lovers dream! I did a site search for "ruffle fabric" and came across the pattern for Josie's Ruffle Fabric Peasant Dress.

I mean how much cuter can you get!?! Mia wanted to wear it on a warmish day and I was happy to oblige, as long as leggings were worn because it was still chilly lol

Overall I am finding that I LOVE Create Kids Coutures patterns. This pattern was so easy to follow and has such a good finish to it. Their directions and explanations were right on and made perfect sense to me too. And coming from a fairly novice sewer that means a lot! I am currently working on my second Create Kids Couture pattern with a Facebook Sew Along and it has the same easy flow as this one did. I highly recommend them to any new to PDF pattern sewer. You will be spoiled for sure and have people knocking down your door to have you sew things for them in no time at all!

I have so many more things going thru my head to share with the projects I have just finished or am currently working on or new tricks I have found for things. But I am also trying to go in order with how I made them!

Happy Sewing!



First go with a PDF pattern

Well I had plans on how things would go and using all my pretty PDF patterns I had. I was going to take them nice and slow and go step by step learning new things as I went. Then I saw a picture on Facebook of an adorable green camo dress on a baby girl meeting her dad coming home from deployment. Well I happen to have a very good friend whose son was coming home from Boot Camp and training and she asked if I could whip someting up for his baby girl to wear to his Graduation. How could I say no to that! Unfortunately it was Friday evening and they were leaving Sunday around noon so I didn't have a lot of time to sit down and take it slow going step by step, learning as I went. Lucky for me I had an easy peasy shirred sundress pattern by Aivilo Charlotte Designs! So I whipped it up and this is my final result!

The only problem I had was an operator error. You see I learned to shir on my very first machine the Singer Sew Simple.

The Singer machine has a front loading bobbin. Super easy for using elastic thread to do the shirring with. Just hand wind the elastic thread and load the bobbin as usual.  

But I had upgraded my machine from the Singer to my awesome Janome Magnolia 7318! I absolutely LOVE my Janome machine.

 However it has a drop in bobbin

Now as many sewers know drop in bobbins are tricky for shirring. If you don't get the tension just right it won't work right. It may be too tight or too loose and is a mess. But I did the best I could and after 2 shots at it I thought I had it right.

Baby girl wore her pretty camo dress to her daddy's Graduation. However it had to be pinned to make it fit... lol I guess I didn't do as well with the shirring as I thought!

I am pleased to announce that I have officially gotten shirring conquered on my Janome and am working on a sew along with shirring this week.

By the way for those that don't know. Shirring looks so incredibly difficult and many people are scared to attempt it. if this is you, please give it a shot. Look up on youtube all the many tutorials on the subject. Once you do it and watch the steam shrink up the elastic, you will be hooked! So grab some scraps and some elastic thread, load the thread in your lower bobbin and have fun!

And be sure to check out Aivilo Charlotte Designs on Facebook for a ton of super cute patterns!

Yay for starting fresh!

I figured I needed a better outlet for my love of sewing than Facebook so I thought I would try a blog. Going to start off by catching up with some pictures of where I started vs where I am now.

It all started in the Spring of 2011 when Mike and I moved into a big 2 story 100 year old house with HUGE windows. To buy curtains for all of these windows would have cost so much! I bought the cheapest sewing machine I could find and went shopping for sale fabrics.

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Front door even has windows

These windows are 6' tall!

My first little sewing area

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After that was done I had the sewing itch. I went and bought some patterns and fabric to make some stuff for Mia!

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Very first ever outfit I ever made. I don't remember the pattern number but I was SO proud of it lol

She had a few summer outfits and I thought I was gettting the hang of things!

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Then life happened and I did not have the time or money to make a whole lot more. It was almost 2 more years before the itch hit me again. I started seeing all these super cute tutotials on Pinterest. (pinterest name nicholefoster79)

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Simple circle skirt with soft satin and sparkle

Shirred circus dress for a friends daughter

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This meant it was time to update my sewing area!

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And update I did!

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Then I started trying to come up with my own skirts and designs.

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Double tulle overlay on satin bubble skirt

Super poofy princess skirt. Satin with sprakle trim over satin and sparkle bubble skirt with rose pin pick up.

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After that I read about tracing clothes you know already fit your kids and using those tracings to make patterns and remake those clothes in new fabrics.

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Raglan top with cinched roushing made with chiffon sleeve and polyester solid fabric and a chiffon bubble skirt to match.

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Unfortunately it is still too cool in Kansas to wear dresses and skirts without leggings but Miss Mia wanted skirts and dresses so she got them!

After that I discovered the world of PDF patterns! Oh my what a HUGE world that is! I have fallen IN LOVE with PDF patterns. Between them and fabric I am becoming a hoarding addict LOL. Here are a few of my most recent creations. I have to admit I have become a hoarder of patterns and fabric!

I will leave the posts with the actual patterns and my version of those patterns so that they can each have their own post with my thoughts and such. But I have to walk before I can run so I will leave it here for the weekend.

Have fun and sew on!!!