In Krasnodar, I think

Picasa just pulled this out of the abyss of my hard drive. I think the  blue and red are beautiful so I'm posting it. I can't believe I was ever there.

The Sea Animal Mittens are DONE!

Okay, if any of my neices or nephews are looking over their mommy's shoulders right now, close this page!

What started out as a jump start on the holiday gift making rush turned into my cutest pattern yet! I am so proud to show off these little guys. And since I want everyone to be able to make at least one, I'm offering a free peek - one of the patterns, here on my blog. You can download it from the column to the left.

Be sure to visit my etsy shop for a full description, I'm too tired to write it tonight.


xoxoxo

Chloe's nightgown

I am adding a new section to my sewing diary - a list of other blogs that I love. The first one I'm putting there is MadeByRae. Her ideas are so up my alley. And she has a new baby too!

I have been wanting to try her spring top tutorial (sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=791) for a while now. Today I did - but as a nightgown for Chloe. I decided to gather the bottom part instead of putting in pleats (this is a nightgown, for goodness sake!). But then when I was cutting that piece out I went a little crazy with the rotary cutter and cut too much off - so there wasn't very much to gather anyway.

I really like the combination of the boxy square neck top and the feminine ruffled sleeves. When I come across just the right fabric, I might be making myself a tunic - length version.

New (to me!) jeans and a tiny jean purse...

A couple months ago I picked up two awesome pairs of jeans at our church's swap and shop. If you can't find one of those a couple times a year, that's something I recommend putting together. Both my church and my kids' preschool hold them and I donate AND scavenge! Anyway, I found two awesome pairs of jeans that I have been dieting since then to fit in to (the joys of being a woman... what makes us do that?). Today they finally fit! Okay, I have to wear loose t-shirts with them because they still give me a bit of a muffin-top, but I'm celebrating.

So, now that I can actually zip them up and feel relatively comfortable -- I needed to cut a few inches off the bottom of these make-my-butt-look-good jeans because they are a size long and I mostly buy size short.

But don't they look cute?

And then I was sitting there at my sewing machine with my kids still asleep, looking at the cut off parts of those jeans, thinking, "what can I make with these?" That, girls, is the sewing disease. You can't just stop at hemming the pants, because that is totally thrifty and sane. You have to spend another 45 minutes making something totally useless and cute.

This is what I created...

All I can say is it's a good thing that I have a 4 year old princess who is going to wake up and love her new little purse!