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!

Q&A with the Authors of One Yard Wonders, and announcing the winner...

Continuing my love of the fantastic new book One Yard Wonders (Fabric By Fabric), I get to share with you a little email Q&A that I got to do with the authors, Rebecca and Trish. When I found out that I got to do this, I thought a lot about what I would ask them. I mean, if you got to ask two super crafty and super successful people that you really admired anything at all, what would you say?

So this is what I asked, and what they answered. I love their answers...

How have your lives changed since hitting it big with a bestselling sewing book plus a sequel?

Christmas love + giveaway reminders

Hey there, hope you're getting things done and wrapped up. I think we could be onto the hourly countdown by now, if someone cared to check how many hours are left until Christmas. I love the feeling of getting something finished. The satisfaction is too sweet, and the anticipation of starting a new project might be even sweeter! That's why I'm posting pictures of my Cadie's little quilt which I just finished not 10 minutes ago.


I think this is my favorite quilt that I've made so far. The color combination came out just to my liking. And that binding - well let me tell you that the quilt sandwich sat on my table for about a month with me having no inspiration to finish it. Then I saw this brown gingham in my stash and I was all excited to work on it again.

One Yard Wonders (Fabric By Fabric) book giveaway!

Sooo... look which book recently came out, and just in time for Christmas:

And do you recognize this???

The Button Up Bolero

And this???

The Pretty Pinafore

Yes, I was lucky enough to have two of my patterns selected for the new One Yard Wonders sequel. It's called Fabric By Fabric, and its STUFFED with projects using all kinds of fabric. I have been waiting so long for my copy to arrive so now I can finally try out some of those projects. I actually got one almost done on Saturday, so expect a post about that soon.

Meanwhile, the publisher (Storey Publishing) is letting me give a copy of the book away to one lucky reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment below and you'll be entered.

One bonus entry is available too: just go to our sister site SewCanShe.com and sign up for the awesome newsletter so you can get a free sewing tutorial delivered to your inbox every day. (Oh, and while you do that, you'll be entering to win 2 lucious yards of  Amy Butler Fabric - talk about bonus entry!) Be sure to come back to leave another comment telling me that you did.

Comments will be closed at midnight (Eastern Time) on December 25th, 2011. You must have a US Delivery address to be eligible for this giveaway. I'll choose a winner using random.org on December 26th. Who says all presents have to be given on Christmas day???

P.S. A bunch of the blog contibutors are doing a blog tour so if you want to check it out, here are the dates and links:

12/12/2011 Becka's Project Journal

12/13/2011 Craft Buds

12/14/2011 Patch Work Duck Designs

12/15/2011 Patch Work Duck Designs

12/15/2011 A Spoonful of Sugar

12/15/2011 Nifty Kidstuff

12/15/2011 Becka's Project Journal

12/16/2011 Nom Nom Nom Nom

12/16/2011 Quaint and Quirky

12/17/2011 ikatbag

12/17/2011 Two Brown Birds

12/18/2011 Sharon Sews

12/19/2011 carolina fair designs (that's me!)

12/19/2011 Under Construction

12/20/2011 Little Blue Cottage

12/21/2011 Craftzine

12/21/2011 Neuroses Galore

12/21/2011 Emily Steffen

12/22/2011 Jenna Lou Loves You

12/23/2011 Spincushion

12/27/2011 One Inch World

12/28/2011 Sew Sew Etc.

January ‘12 Lu Lu Carter

January ’12 Fiberosity

January ’12 Zuhause

January ’12 Obsessively Stiching

January ’12 No Bad Days

January ’12 Craft & Cackle

January ’12 AfricanKelli

(You can still visit and read the old ones too!)

Comments are now closed. The winner will be announced soon!

Introducing SewCanShe.com plus an Amy Butler Fabric giveaway!

I'm so excited to share my new site because who doesn't love something free??? For years now my browser's bookmark files have been filling up with project ideas that I need to try. It's helpful because people often ask me if I know how they can make such-and-such, and I tell them I'll just go home and email them the link to a tutorial. Well, now I get to share those tutorials with anyone who will look (or sign up for the newsletter). I'm going to update the page with a new tutorial every day, so you may want to subscribe to the newsletter so you won't miss anything. I've already contacted a bunch of my favorite tutorial writers so they know what's up, and if you have a tutorial you want to submit, there's a place for that too!

And, here's the best part... I'm giving away two yards of this most beautiful fabric from Amy Butler's new Lark collection:

All you have to do is sign up for the newsletter, which I'm sure you'll want to do anyway. I mean, you'll get a new sewing tutorial delivered to your inbox every day. I'm going to rotate through the categories holiday love (for the next 10 days), home love, kid love, crafty love, and self love. Who just freaked out when I hinted that Christmas is only 10 days away? Okay, I am freaking out so I need to get back to my sewing now. Bye!

Pretty, Easy, Pillowcase (with a tutorial)

When I was putting away my Amy Butler Lark fabric after making this tablet cover, I decided it was just too beautiful to stop looking at yet, so I had to make something else with it.

After rifling through my stash I found some vintage crocheted lace that I picked up a yard sale last year. Suddenly I was inspired to make a pillowcase. Not just any pillowcase, but one fit to be made into a pillowcase dress someday. Because who is making the pillowcases that will be turned into dresses 50 years from now? We are, of course.

I took pictures along the way so you could see what I did...

Tablet cover for me!

Thanks to black-friday specials and a very generous dad (thank you!!!!!) I desperately needed to sew a case for this cute little tablet computer. If you google kindle cover or ipad cover there are tons of tutorials and I picked this one because I wanted something I could leave on the tablet while I used it (opposed to the little pouch type which is also nice), plus I loved the way you could stand it up.

The tutorial is found here at chicaandjo.com. Instructions are included for customizing the pattern to any size device, which is just what I needed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three days of cooking and baking have culminated in a feast of turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, three kinds of cranberries, relishes, potatoes, and then the dessert...

Family has come from near and far to gather and visit and soon the shopping will begin! I love getting out there in the middle of the night to get those good deals. 

My etsy shop is now running it's annual black friday sale with any two patterns for $10.

I hope that somehow the frenzy to get more stuff won't make us less thankful for what we have already been blessed with!

Chloe's secrets to perfect sugar cookies.

Tonight I had to make sugar cookie stars for my second grader's school class to decorate tomorrow. I made the dough early and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours to get firm. But then when I tried to roll it out and cut out some cookies the dough was sticking everywhere, I was ruining every star trying to get it off the table, and my two year old was sticking her little chubby hands in everything.

I was getting ready to scream when I heard a calm little voice beside me say "just sit down mom and let me help you. I'm really good at making cookies."

I thought about it for a second and then backed away because she was right, she is good at making cookies, better than me, and she is only 6 1/2.

Another cute version of Cadie's top, plus some naked babies...

Okay, good morning all of you who are just getting up from a twilight induced hangover. If you don't know what I'm talking about then I think I'm happy for you. I'm not sure how I feel about this installment. It was... too graphic and... too graphic. Honestly I had to put my head down between my knees at one point because I thought I might pass out and that has never happened to me in a movie before. But I'm not usually sitting in a movie theatre at 2 in the morning either so maybe that has something to do with it.

Anywho... I am so happy that another one of my patterns just got reviewed. Kristen over at Three In The Nest has made her own "top" version of my pattern Cadie's Wrap Around Dress and Top. It's so darling with a little bunny applique on it and you get to see her own little Caroline modelling it. (pssst... love the name ;) ). And, she's hosting a giveaway, so head on over for your chance to get the pattern for free.

And here's a hint of what I've been working on lately...

Making your own rib-knit waistband.

I know it's technically Halloween today, but all our costumes are done, so I got started on my Christmas sewing (yay!) by making these soft and comfy pj pants. I've made a bunch of things lately with rib knit waistbands (underwear, a skirt, shorts) so I thought this pattern might be cute with one too.

This is a waistband that I really like because it's cute and comfortable and easy to adapt to almost any skirt or pants pattern that would normally have an elastic casing. If you are worried about it holding the pants or skirt up,
you can still put elastic inside.