Sister Love

I used to blog about my child a lot. I blogged with the detail that only a stay at home mother of one child can- monthly details of each aspect of her development were noted, along with more pictures than any one person should have taken of them. And then I had a second child and those posts nearly stopped. I mean, I can't remember the last time I did a monthly update, and poor Caroline has really only had her birth blogged about. Such is the plight of the second child. The thing is, I miss those posts, and I miss taking more pictures of my kids, and I definitely miss documenting their lives in writing. So I'm going to try to bring that back in some more sustainable form. This doesn't all have to be about sewing, even if my blog is called Stitched, right?

I had a moment the other day- Charly and I were at the Children's Museum, just the two of us, and we were both enjoying being able to do art projects at a leisurely pace, taking great care to choose materials and spending lots of time at the paint table. This is a stark contrast to our usual visits where I try to hurry her creative process as much as possible because wrangling a feisty almost-18-month-old in an art studio is a dangerous job. Scissors, open tubs of paint and glue with sticky brushes poking out- this is the nightmare of a mom of a toddler. The thought crossed my mind- "how many special moments are my children missing because I can't give either of them my undivided attention?" and it made me a little sad, for just a minute. It didn't take long for me to remember how much these sweet girls love each other. They aren't missing anything in life by having a sibling- they've got a playmate, a confidant, a partner in crime.

I took these pictures a day or two later. Caroline woke up from her nap and Charly went with me to get her. Charly joined her in the crib for a little post nap play session, and craziness commenced. Caroline's first words, each and every time she wakes up, are "sisser! sister!" These girls sure love each other. Aren't siblings grand? Here's to sisterly love, to siblings, to my sweet and sassy girls.

Kenzie's Wedding Dress

Two posts in one week?! I'm on a roll here, folks! I finished my sister's wedding dress on wedding eve with some last minute hemming and alterations. Last minute sewing is the price of making a wedding dress for someone who lives on the other side of the continent. We arrived in Utah on August 30, one week before the wedding, but I got a stomach bug shortly thereafter that set me back a couple of days. Luckily my laid back and patient sister didn't seem one bit bothered by the fact that her dress was one of the final pieces of the puzzle to come together before the wedding, so I just chugged along! I am so happy to have been able to add to her special day by making her dress. She was radiant- really and truly- and my pictures don't do it- or her- justice at all. Nevertheless, my pictures are all we have right now, so they'll have to do!

Sunki Village Dress & Pattern Parcel #5

Hello my friends! I've been a busy seamstress, and I should have a post up with pictures and details from my sister's wedding dress SOOOOOON!! The wedding was lovely and our trip was too much fun. I've missed the desert air. Utah was on the cusp of autumn when we left, and had I not known that the blissful Virginia autumn was soon to come I may never have left that dry and blessed state. I'm done with humidity, yo. Thankfully, the leaves are starting to turn and we've even had a couple of boot-and-soup days so I'm in my element. I even made pumpkin crap cookies, which is the official mascot of fall in this house.

But yes, enough blabbering about air and cookies, right? This post is about clothes! I'm happy to be sewing along for Perfect Pattern Parcel again with Parcel #5- girls and tweens! It's a stellar parcel, to be sure. Every parcel seems to have a few patterns I've been eyeing and a few new-to-me patterns, which is a perfect mix I think. For those unfamiliar, Perfect Pattern Parcel offers limited time sales of pattern bundles from indie designers, and donates all profits to a charity called Donors Choose. Donors Choose provides supplies to teachers and students for their classrooms. It's a win-win-win- support indie designers, help students, and get patterns!

This particular bundle of patterns includes sizes from toddler to tween- meaning these patterns will be in rotation in my house for YEARS to come! A few of the "tween" sizes may even fit me, so I'm excited to see how versatile these patterns become. Click through the links or pictures to learn more about the patterns in this parcel!




Oh, and did I mention that you can name your own price?! Yes. I know. Unreal. And hey, if you name a price of $28 or more, you'll be sent the bonus pattern as well- the Sunki Dress!

Hand Stamped Wedding Invitations for Kenzie & Abe

Hellooooooooooooo! (elloooo, ello, ellllo, elllloooooo) and welcome to my sporadic blog. It's funny, I'm ALWAYS making something. I have no shortage of projects I could share, but sometimes I can't stop my making long enough to take pictures and write about them. My maker minutes are limited and 90% of the ideas I have will never turn in to real things because I have more ideas than time. This is why most of the things I end up sharing lately have some sort of a deadline. I work well with deadlines- deadlines get things done around here!

My next deadline is September 5th. My youngest sister is getting married and I'm making her wedding dress, so right now my evenings are filled with lace appliqué. I'll get it done, and luckily my sis is laid back and doesn't mind that she won't actually try on her wedding dress until the week before her wedding when I fly out to Utah. Don't worry, we did a muslin fitting, so hopefully it will fit like a glove and all that will be left to do is hem. I'll share more about the dress (and pictures!) after the wedding. But before dressmaking commenced, Matt and I designed and made their wedding invites. Yes, sometimes I make things that don't involve a sewing machine. I don't profess to be any sort of graphic designer, but I am really happy with the way these turned out so I wanted to share. 

Beach Day Bonnet

We returned from our quick beach weekend, and while the sea worked her magic on my cranky kids, it is good to be back in the swing of things. Vacations aren't so much about relaxation when you have young kids, ya know? On our drive back, while Caroline cried (she's not a car napper, so cranky pants just wailed when she got too tired) Matt commented on needing a vacation from our kids after our vacation. Maybe next year:)

Flora and Fauna V neck dress

I'm at the beach. That has nothing to do with this post or this dress, but you guys. The beach! It's been a week with a cranky teething baby and the beach is the only remedy. We went and collected shells before dinner, and I tell you, the ocean worked her magic on my sweet Caroline, because for that half of an hour, she was filled with delight. I miss delighted (and delightful) Caroline.

Before we left I did two more projects for Kids Clothes Week. One is to-be-photographed still- a beachy bonnet for my babe, and the other, this dress.

Triangle Swing Tank

So, we just got an iMac. It is quite possibly the most expensive thing we've ever bought together to date, which is pretty crazy when you think about nearly 6 years of marriage. We have old cars and haven't bought our own house yet (but plan to buy both in the next year, so help me), but I digress.  I tend to have crazy bad buyers remorse for even silly little things, so I thought surely I'd have some buyers remorse over this beautiful beast of slick machinery, but so far I'm totally smitten. I'm totally lost, seeing as how I've only ever owned PC's, but I'm googling it all and figuring things out. Unfortunately, what I didn't figure out until it was too late, was that Adobe Bridge and iPhoto don't work so well together. Yes, we got a new computer, and some fancy new programs (upgraded to CS6 from CS3- woo!) and then I mindlessly tried to navigate, assuming surely it would work similarly to a PC, and somehow I ended up messing things up real good. I lost all the pictures from this photoshoot, but luckily everything else we have is hanging out on an external hard drive. I'm still not sure what I did, but I did manage to recover these pictures, so all is well for now.

Long story long, I'm happy I didn't have to retake these, because although my model is adorable, she's not always super cooperative:)