Back to school outfit #1

Today was the first day of school for my two oldest children. Sigh. Summer is over. We went to the community pool 5 times, to the zoo 4 times, to the free morning movie 5 times, to grandma's a bunch, and to the emergency room only once {thank goodness!}. That doesn't sound like a lot now. It sure seems like we were busier than that... probably more things will come to me later.

This is a silly picture that they took as we were going into the zoo one morning. A girl with a big camera tried to make us all stand in front of a green screen but I smiled and stepped aside. As you can see we are all perfectly coordinated in a combination of stripes, florals, polka-dots, and one adorable humpty-dumpty print on Connor. That coordination makes it easier for me to pick my kids out in a crowd. Side note: this picture now stands in a cardboard frame (that it came in) on our piano. Cadie (the youngest) loves to take it down and tell the story of how she sneaked into the giraffe pen when I wasn't looking. Never mind that her siblings are all present or that there is a cheetah there too, the story is always about her sneaking into the giraffe pen and about how easy it is to get away from mom.



You are probably expecting something about sewing here so I will tell you that I stayed up late last night sewing this little number for Chloe's first day. It's a totally new free pattern that Anna Maria Horner designed for Janome and I love it. I started it because it looked really fast and easy, and then I was delighted to see that the pleating detail is more complicated than I first noticed. I absolutely adore the little part that sticks up below the bodice and I'm tempted to try another one and make it stick up a lot more, kind of like a paper-bag effect. Here's a link to the free tutorial.

Last night I took this awful phone pic of the dress on my kitchen floor so I could show off to my invisible fb friends.

Soon after that Chloe stumbled out of her room to get a drink of water (this was at about midnight - yes I am crazy like that) and she was allowed to oooh and aahh just a bit over her new dress before we sent her back to her bed. She feels very lucky that there were no openings for her at the school her brothers now go to. They have to wear uniforms.

Anyway, a few more pictures of our morning madness and then I'm off to try out my new rotary blade...

Happy Back-To-School everyone!

Sewing Tutorial with Pattern: The Classic Romper

We have a new free pattern for you and this one is so darling it's to die for! Do you remember wearing these little rompers back in the 1980's? I do.

The other day Cadie was wearing one and when she put on her jelly shoes and carried around a 'My Little Pony,' I swear she could have been me some 30 years ago.

This particular romper is made with soft and smooth organic cotton from Fabricworm. I love how well this fabric holds up in the wash. When you iron it, it's like new again.

If you've never used a pattern from carolina fair designs before, here's your chance to peek inside and see how easy the pattern piece parts are to print up and put together. Most pdf patterns from carolina fair have only one pattern piece and this one is a perfect example. You won't believe how fast and easy it is to sew something when there's only one pattern piece.

The pattern comes in sizes 12mo. through 6. It works great with wovens and knits.

Click here to open and save The Classic Romper pdf pattern by carolina fair designs.

Announcing Purse Palooza 2012

Hello girls! I am so excited to tell you that I was asked to guest post in the new Purse Palooza. {click here for my guest post and review} This is a fun event taking place in June over at Sew Sweetness to get you sewing a purse for the summer! Not only will we review all of the best purse patterns for you, but the purse you sew might win you a fabulous prize pack!

Here's how it works: 

 1. Every weekday in June, there will be 2 amazing guest bloggers scheduled to share with you a purse sewing pattern review. The review will contain detailed information about what they thought about the sewing pattern, modifications they made, what kind of interfacing they used, and more! Get inspired! 

2. Even more exciting...THERE WILL BE A GIVEAWAY EVERY WEEKDAY IN JUNE! That's right, 20 GIVEAWAYS! Your Giveaway Fairy Godmother is Kim from My Go-Go Life - she has some unbelievable giveaways planned! 3. At the end of the event, you will get a chance to show off your purse in order to win some amazing prizes!

Sara's free tutorial: Caliti Convertible Clutch

Cadie has another swimsuit from me, and the Fabric Fairy is giving away $30 in fabric!

Last month I got this beautiful swimsuit fabric from the Fabric Fairy, and as much as I wanted to make myself a suit with it, I knew I had to test out a free little tutorial that was destined to be featured on SewCanShe.com.

So here it is... I am just thrilled that someone came up with a tutorial for such a darling little suit and posted it for free.

I'm in the Forty Toes Spring Market Giveaway!

Okay everyone... big news!!! Jennifer from Forty Toes Photography (who did those gorgeous pics of my Ruffle Romper) is hosting a humungous giveaway with 84 very talented designers giving away prizes. Yes, even me!!!

Someone is going to walk away with either a darling Ruffle Romper made by me, or a pattern pack with 5 carolina fair designs pdf patterns (winner's choice).

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's little dresses, leggings, pattern packs, headbands, fabric, rompers, even a fairy door. Eight lucky winners will get a package worth over $475!!!

And if that doesn't excite you, almost all of the designers have provided coupon codes for their shops in case you feel like shopping right now {I provided a 20% off coupon code for carolina fair designs on etsy}.

New swimsuits!

Yesterday I finished sewing the matching swimsuits that I've been wanting to make for my kids for over a year now. Then I rushed out the door with the youngest two so we could pick up the oldest two from elementary school and make it to the zoo in time for a couple good hours of swim and play time.

Our zoo has the neatest swim/water play area and I must admit that sometimes we stay there until closing time and never make it around to look at the animals (sorry giraffe, alligator, and sea otter friends). That's what happened yesterday.

The Ruffle Romper is now available!

Yay! I'm so excited that the ruffle romper pattern is finally done.

It's available in my etsy shop and website along with a few finished pieces that will be sold for a limited time.

This little romper is just so versatile because you don't have to use ruffle fabric, any knit will do - even upcycled tee shirts (for the smaller sizes). The ribbon tie at the top is reminiscent of a pillowcase dress and makes the romper adjustable if your little girl is in-between sizes. Use stretchy ribbon if you would like the romper to be easier for little ones to get on and off quickly.

Surprise! The Ruffle Romper Pattern (coming soon)

So I finally felt inspired to put together another pattern. It's been a while since an idea came into my head and I couldn't find a pattern already out there for it.

I love making these little ruffle rompers so much I think they will be both my girl's summer staple!

And, like most of my other patterns, there's only one pattern piece to cut out.

The biggest giveaway I have ever seen!

I guess I'm not an expert on everything giveaway, because I have never seen one as big as my friend Britny invited me to be in over on her Lola Wraps blog.

I mean, there are over 40 prizes!

And it's so easy to enter (yes, I was allowed!!!). All I had to do was scroll to the bottom of the page, log in using facebook, and 'like' a bunch of super pages. Then I had about a million entries. Okay, not a million, but I was able to earn more than I could count.

I really hope I win the $35 credit to Britny's store so I can buy my girls some wraps like the beautiful one pictured above. And here are some more of my favorite prizes, just to make you want to head over there and enter...

What I've been stitchin' up...

Long time no post, I know. The new website I started last month has been taking way more time than I had anticipated. But it has been lots of fun. I really could not be keeping up with it if I did not love sewing and web browsing so much. So in case you haven't been keeping up with the new sewing tutorial every day on www.sewcanshe.com, here are the sample items that I have sewn for it:

(in no particular order)

a dress for Cadie

 some pot holders

an ear warmer for myself

a bapron that I mistakenly made way to big ;)

a 'monster 5' shirt for Connor

little valentine books

a new bag for myself

a few Christmas cards (which all got sent)

and a nice little wallet (Chloe quickly claimed this).

Links to the free tutorials for all these projects can still be found on SewCanShe.com under the tab "more Tutorials and Patterns."

Except for the Christmas cards, all of these things were sewn this year. Whew! And I'm currently working on some sweet little fabric snack bags which will be featured soon. So back to work. And I hope you all are having a new year that is just as productive!