Fall sewing

I saw a smocking plate in a Sew Beautiful magazine last year that I knew would be perfect for Peter. I asked for Daddy's approval to smock something for our boy and received it. It took me a while, but I finally finished three little mallards - perfect for our future duck hunter.

Aren't they adorable?

Once the smocking was done, the outfit went together very quickly (like during two nap times). I used the Children's Corner "Johnny" pattern.

Just in time for duck season

Helen is wearing a dress I made four years ago for Caroline. Peter's Johnny has the same brown tattersall as the sunflower dress. I wanted something coordinating for Caroline's dress, but without all the smocking. I'll have to get a picture of just Caroline in it. I used the Children's Corner "Ruthie" in a purple floral cotton print and a butterscotch gingham for the collar and trim. This is a great pattern. The sleeves and yoke are fully lined, which means very little hand sewing! I say this about every project, but this is one of my favorite dresses. Plus, it suits Caroline's sweet personality so well. And she loves purple. Win all around.

Now I need some ideas for Christmas sewing? Any suggestions? Another Johnny for Peter? Ruthies for both girls?

Easter outfits

I know! It's been almost a month since Easter. I just today took pictures of the girls in their dresses.

For the girls' dresses, I used a Bonnie Blue pattern called "Jenna Leigh". It's a wrap dress that buttons in the back. I've made this dress a couple of times before (my goodness - Helen was little!), but hadn't done the smocked yoke version. I'm hoping this floral print will make a good transition into the fall and winter months.

For my sweet baby boy's outfit, I made a bubble (Maja's Heirlooms). The pattern has 2 inches of smocking, which takes no time at all. I decided to mix some embroidery with my smocking and created a little bullion stitch bunny. I'm completely obsessed with how cute the bunny is. It's a Peter Rabbit for my Peter!

I had so much fun putting this boy outfit together. Isn't it adorable? I love it. I'm so happy there are more little boy outfits in my future!

And it just wouldn't be a photo shoot at our house without some drama and silliness.

Peter's gown

We have an heirloom baptism gown in our family. It is over 60 years old and was handmade by my great-grandmother. Six girls have been baptized in this lovely gown. It's beautiful - gathered lace, hand-embroidered flowers, pintucks, puff sleeves. But I just couldn't see our son wearing it.

I was probably just looking for an excuse to sew something new. Peter's gown is not too frilly, so I feel like he can wear it on regular Sundays. The pattern I picked out is #101 from Creations by Michie. I used a scrumptious (Caroline's new frequently used word) striped swiss voile for the gown and satin batiste for the smocked insert. I added tiny swiss edging to the neck and sleeve edges. I loved making this gown. It was the perfect garment for our son to wear to his baptism. Our beautiful boy...

Easter dresses

I went all-out for the girls' Easter dresses this year - satin batiste, smocking, lace, ribbon, pearl beads. These are some fancy dresses!  I got my inspiration from a picture in a magazine.  Would you believe that the Monday before Easter these dresses were in 8 separate pieces each?  Yikes.  I kicked it into high gear.  I wound up hemming Caroline's dress Saturday night, but thankfully the girls didn't have to go to church dress-less.  :-)

I love my girls in blue!

Helen is such a character.  This picture makes me giggle every time I see it.

I even smocked and embellished the backs.  See what I mean by "all-out"?


So here's the deal: I told Kevin that next year when I start talkin' crazy about birthday dresses AND Easter dresses, he needs to slap me. Birthday dresses and Easter dresses will be one and the same in Spring 2011. Help me remember that, will you?

The Day of Resurrection

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Get your own

We've been preparing for Easter all week long. We hunted Easter eggs. We dyed eggs. We made special treats like marshmallow sheep and bunny rolls. And most of all, we are so grateful to celebrate by serving a risen Lord! We hope your Easter celebrations were as special and blessed as ours were!

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;
And listening to His accents, may hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.

Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.

The dresses

It wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't have hand-made dresses for the girls! Caroline still fits into the dress I made 2 years ago. I was so happy when she tried it on and it still fit. Three Christmases in a row is an awesome run for one of my favorite dresses ever! Sweet Pea will be wearing it next year, I guess. I'm pleased that this dress has gotten and will continue to get a lot of wear.

For Helen's dress this year, I wanted something similar to Caroline's dress, but not an exact match. I bought the same fabric (satin batiste) and matched the lace from Caroline's dress. I used the same pleated daygown pattern that I used for Helen's Easter gown and embroidered 3 sets of holly berries with leaves. It's simple and looks so sweet on her.

My daughters are just beautiful - no matter what they are wearing!



Helen is saying, "Please rescue me! I'm all done here!"

Sunflowers

Remember this dress? I made sure it was plenty roomy so Caroline could wear it at least one more fall season. This year Helen had to have a dress to match! I decided to make Helen's a coordinating dress instead of an exact match and that's my favorite thing about them. I love how they both turned out.

Sunday morning

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. -Deuteronomy 4:39-40

Helen's bonnet

I smocked a bonnet for little Helen. How adorable is she?

Little Peanut

Our Helen is such a petite little girl. We really can't believe how tiny she is. Caroline was showing Helen her new dolly and I swear the doll's head was almost as big as Helen's. We finally found socks that are small enough, but they won't stay on!

Things are going really well for the four of us. Caroline is a great big sister - loves to pat Helen's back or give her a sweet kiss. We are just enjoying these early days with lots of snuggles and a few quiet moments. It's so fun getting acquainted with this new little addition to our family.

She loves sleeping with her knees scrunched up.

I love a swaddled babe.

Helen had a little bath.

This was in the hospital right before we got to pack up and go home. I made her little "coming home" gown. I'm really glad I made the preemie size - the small size would have swallowed her whole!

Lazy daisy crazy

Here is Caroline's fall dress - finally finished! Hooray! I started working on it back in July, but then that pesky first trimester hit and I could hardly muster up enough energy to make dinner, let alone smock. When fall arrived, I kicked it into high-gear to get it done. I finished it last night, just in time for church today. I am very proud of the sunflower dress. Here's a little math problem for you: there are 32 sunflowers on the dress. Each sunflower is made up of 10 lazy daisy stitches. That equals 320 lazy daisies. Yikes.

This is the back of the dress. This is one of my favorite dress patterns because of the back.

Yes, it was a very sad morning for some reason. She was not going to smile at all.


I think she'll wear it to church every Sunday until Advent!

School days

Caroline started school this week! We've enrolled her in a sweet little mother's day out program at a church not too far away from our house. She had the best day. Her teacher (Ms. Emily) filled out a report sheet that had all kinds of activities she had participated in - play-doh, puzzles, numbers, ABCs, colors, Spanish, playground... The sheet also said that she had a very good time sliding on the playground with her friends. She even took a nap there, which impressed me since naps are hit-or-miss at home. After I picked her up, we went to McDonald's to redeem our free ice cream cones from our last dentist visit. What a busy day! I'm so proud of her... She hasn't stopped talking about school (and the ice cream cone) since!

(As an aside, I made her dress - an adorable new apron dress with a little smocked birdie. I had a great time making this one. I hope I can make another before I have to return the pattern to my friend.)

Two-year pictures

We had sweet Caroline's pictures taken last week. She wasn't really in the mood, but we forged ahead anyway. We actually wound up with a selection of photos that was much better than we had anticipated. I included one of the teary pictures just for fun.

Both of her outfits were made by me. The swing top is a dress from last year, but too short this year for her. So I made some shorts to go with it. The smocked dress is new - green and white micro-stripe with pink baby rick-rack on the sleeves and pink smocking. I'm so pleased with this dress. I got the inspiration from a dress in a children's clothing store. It had an $80 price tag. I didn't spend nearly that much!

Easter

Here are some pictures from our Easter celebrations. I had the pleasure of making the kids some very pretty Easter frocks. I had so much fun. Ian was sick on Easter morning, so I didn't get to see him in his outfit. Hopefully, he won't grow too much and he can wear it next time I visit! We had a great holiday weekend and hope you did, too.

My pretty girl in her pretty dress

Here is my gorgeous girl in one of her Christmas dresses. This is her "fancy" dress. It's the same pattern I used on this fall dress. I am so proud of the work I did on this, especially when I look back on the trouble I had last Christmas. And the icing on the cake is seeing Caroline's sweet smile in these photos.


The back

The front

New dress

Here is the latest creation from my sewing sweat shop. (And, boy, is it ever hot up there! The poor window unit can barely keep up!) This is "Bessie" - smocking, lace collar, lots of piping, puff sleeves, very full skirt, sweet little buttons. I think I did a pretty good job on this one. The next one will be even better! I think this might be the pattern I use for her Christmas dress. Click on the last picture if you'd like to see the smocking up close.

Sewing the summer away

I'm getting braver with my onsie appliques. I did it all on my machine. I do like the look of hand-embroidery, but I wanted to play on my machine. I made this for one of Kevin's fellow residents who has a new daughter. I'm thinking I need to find some tee-shirts so her older sister can have one that matches. I think it's pretty cute!


This was the first successful onsie applique - made for Caroline for the 4th of July. I won't discuss the previous unsuccessful attempts.


And - surprise! - another bubble! (What number is this? Four?) This is for a dear friend's daughter. Her first birthday is next week and I thought she needed something sweet and smocked. I'm very proud of this one and can't wait to give it away. I went to a sewing session at a local store for help with the collar and sleeves. Sorry for the terrible picture. I've got to get a better one in the daylight of the smocking and the miniature piping around the sleeves and collar.