~girls quiet book~

An old friend of mine has a two year old daughter

named, Sophie. In May Sophie was diagnosed with

leukemia. She started chemotherapy immediately 

and her treatment plan will take about two and a half years.

I wanted to do something for her and decided on a quiet book.

I thought it would be a good way to help entertain her 

at all her Dr's appointments.

I finished it last week and was able to hand deliver it 

to the sweet little gal. 

SHE LOVED IT!

 Here is the front cover.

As you can see, it's a lot smaller than the last one I made

for my little guy. I figured it would work best if it 

was in proportion with her little body....a small one would

be easier for a 2 year old to carry around and play with.

The cover is pink vintage denim and the handles are sewn onto it.

The first page is balloons that spell her name.

She can take them off and re-arrange them.

The second page is a bubble bath with rubber duckies that 

come out and a shower curtain that moves back and forth.

The next page is a pizza she can build.

The toppings store in the pan and I included little plates that 

say "yours" and "mine" for her to put the slices on.

 The center pages are a doll with clothes on a clothesline.

I love this page and so did Sophie!

I especially love the ballet costume and the dress form.

The doll comes off and the clothes velcro onto the doll.

The next page is a flower vase with felt flowers that button on.

Next I did a tic-tac-toe game with velcro x's and o's.

 The last page is a counting page with buttons that

slide along a ribbon. This was one of her favorite pages too.

On the back page I put a little pocket with some extra

x's and o's and felt flowers. She can also put a little tablet

and crayons in here if she wants. I'm not sure why I didn't 
sew the pocket onto the middle of the page???? It sure
would have looked better.

As you can see, it's A LOT smaller than my last one. 

The pages on this quiet book measure about 8X8 and 

the cover is just a tad bigger than that.

All the work put into this was well worth it to see

the happy look on this little gals face when she opened it.....

 We love you Sophie!


Linking up with Positively Splendid 

UPDATE:
to see my latest girls quiet book click (here).
11-28-2012  

~baby shoes~

I have tons of shoes for my little lady

but the ones that fit are all boots or

fancy little mary-janes that require socks.

I hate taking her into public places with no shoes.

I've been forced to do it the past month because

the sandals I have for her are too big and

it's just too hot to put her in the shoes 

that do fit. I finally got around to making

her some comfy little shoes that I 

can throw on her piggies when we go to the store.

I think these may be the cutest thing I have ever made.

I love them.

Click here to see the pattern and tutorial I used.

I have sewn other baby shoes in the past

but really wanted to find something a little

more girly. When I came across these I knew

I just had to make them. 

While it was fairly easy, I will say that 

the tutorial probably wouldn't be great 

for beginners. If I hadn't made baby shoes

already, I would have struggled a little.

I didn't follow the tutorial exactly, 

just used it as a guide.

 These were the first pair I made. 

I screwed up on the ruffle when I was cutting 

it out. I cut the ruffles on the fold so they

are twice as wide as they were suppose to be.

I do that a lot.

A pattern piece can make so much sense

in my head when I'm cutting it out

and envisioning how it fits and then

I go to sew it and it's totally off the mark.

Does that happen to any of you?

Oh well-they turned out cute anyway.

I loved these so much that I

had to immediately cut out another pair.

Both pair were made with fabric I had on hand.

 These purple shoes were made out of vintage fabric

that I got from my Mom a few weeks ago.

I'm already thinking about the next pair I'm 

going to make her. Shiny black with red soles.

You just wait.

These whip up in about 45 minutes.

So easy.

Remember that blanket I'm complaining about 

working on for the gal I hardly know? Well, I 

decided to make her a pair of these booties instead.

I'll still finish the blanket but will give it

to a close friend who's expecting (if she has a girl).

If all else fails, I will just keep it for my little lady. 

Guess what I'm working on today?

My jumpsuit.

Tune in later for pics of that.

~what the ????~

Most of us have experienced those

"What the hell was I thinking?" 

moments in our lives.

Whether it be with an outfit, hairstyle or old boyfriend.....

 Here's an example of one of my many "what was I thinking?" hairstyles:

...and I remember thinking my hair looked so good that day.

BAD. BAD hairstyle. My only defense is that it was the 80's....

there were a lot worse out there.

Occasionally I start a 

"what the hell was I thinking?" project.

Example:

I started a faux chenille blanket for a gal I know who's 

expecting a baby girl any day now. 

It's my first blanket of it's kind and it's safe to 

say IT WILL BE THE LAST.

What the hell was I thinking?

Although this is an easy sewing project, 

IT IS SO TIME CONSUMING AND MONOTONOUS.

It requires sewing together 4 layers of fabric with several 

straight stitch lines.....I'm talking the diagonal length of the fabric

in lines 1/4" to 1/2" apart.......across the whole piece! 

 

I am dying!

I'm only halfway done with the stitching and then I have to 

cut each area in between the lines. Then I have to bind it.

I am seeing double and triple when I sew these lines.

I'm reconsidering who I give this blanket to.

While I love making baby gifts, or any gift for that matter,

 I have become more choosy about who I 

make gifts for. I want to be sure the person I make it for

is going to appreciate the time and love put into it.

I barely know the lady I'm making it for and I thought this

would be easy, using materials I already had.

Boy was I wrong!

My friend who made one for me when I had my little gal

says only the first 50 lines are bad....after that it goes fast.

Well-I'm past 50 and I'm still hating this project!

She also said it will be worth it in the end when I see 

it come together. 

While I'm sure that is true, it's not true enough 

for me to want to make another one anytime soon.

MEGAN-THIS MAKES ME APPRECIATE THE 

BLANKET YOU MADE EVEN MORE!  IF I EVER QUESTION

YOUR LOVE FOR ME I WILL JUST HAVE TO LOOK AT 

THAT BLANKET TO HAVE REASSURANCE!

~might as well JUMP~

I rarely never sew anything for myself.

It's not that I don't have the desire or the ideas,

there are just always other projects and gifts 

that need to be done for other people.

I have been seeing a trend this summer that

may have given me the push to actually 

sew a little project for myself.

 At the expense of totally making an ass

of myself by admitting this I'm going to give it a go:

MY NAME IS PAULA AND I LOVE JUMPSUITS.

 Some will argue that they are totally 80's.....

maybe even 60's or 70's.....

actually, all of the above now that I think of it. 

But, I don't care. 

I love them.

I think they are adorable and I've been 

searching for a shorts jumper to add to 

my pathetic summer wardrobe.

Problem is, I can only find very short shorts jumpers

and I DO NOT wear short shorts.  

I think I'm going to take a crack at sewing one.

Here are a few I found online for inspiration:

 This one is from Target....I think.

I think it's around $25.

 This one is my favorite.....Michael Kors.

It was on sale at Macy's for about $70.

I love how casual, comfortable and effortless it looks.

This one is Bar III at Macy's...

on sale for $30.

I love the a-symmetric neckline.

 This one is capri's.....so basically, pants on me.

It was only $7 at Walmart on clearance. 

I think I might get it in black just to see how I like

the longer jumpsuit.....

come to think of it, maybe I'll buy it and cut it off 

into shorts. Now-there's an idea.

Rrrroar....sexy momma jumpsuit.

I love this. 

If only I had an exciting evening destination

to wear it to....(and the height to pull it off)

This is Rachel Roy at Macy's for $130.

I'll let you know how/what I decide.

I actually JUST ordered the $7 jumpsuit from

Walmart and plan on cutting it the length I want.

I ordered it in black.

I couldn't even get the fabric for that price so I 

figure I might as well try it.

Imagine it with a cute belt, ROCKIN jewelry

and some butt-kickin heels or sandals.

Ooh-I hope this turns out as good as I envision.

~princess dress-take 2~

Another birthday.

Another princess dress.

I learned a lot making the last one 

and decided to do a few things differently this time around.

 

As you can see, same concept as the last one

but different execution.

The first thing I did differently was the t-shirt.

I decided this time around to buy a t-shirt in 

the little girls clothing section instead of a generic Hanes t-shirt.

I was hoping it would give it a little more shape.

It did, but still not as much as I was hoping.

Aside from the shape, I ADORE the graphics

on this little shirt. The faux strands of beads

gave it just the touch it needed for the bodice.

It saved me the work of any embellishments up top. 

For the skirt I used fabric scraps I had on hand.

I didn't have to buy one single cut of fabric for this project.

This time I didn't sew the skirt together up the side until

I had all the ruffles on. So basically I was sewing ruffles

on a long straight piece of fabric. Once I had all the 

ruffles on I sewed the side seam up on the skirt

and attached it to the shirt. This was a total

no-brainer and I wondered why the heck I didn't 

do it that way last time??????

The colors came together so nicely with the t-shirt and 

I love how it turned out so "shabby chic". 

Once I had the skirt attached, I realized that I should

have attached it closer to the purple ruffle so I had to hand

sew the turquoise layer on.

I figured, "hey-why stop there?", and 

added the little pink blobs  rosettes to finish the look.

I like the final product but still ended it knowing that

I would do things differently yet again when I make another....

which will probably happen next month when we have

ANOTHER birthday in the family.

I figure by the time my little lady is old enough

for dress-up, I'll have this mastered.

Total cost-$5 for the t-shirt.

Not bad eh?

~embelished onesie dress~

I've had a few onesies I bought  BEFORE my

baby girl was born that I got with the intentions

of embellishing. Well-6 months into this and

I've finally got around to completing one. 

It was sooooo easy.

I did this in about an hour and if my sewing machine

wouldn't have given me grief, I would have been 

able to do it in about 20-30 minutes.

I used a tank top that I got from one of 

my friends D.I. bags. 

For the skirt I cut pieces off the bottom of the tank top

and did a gathering stitch after I sewed the two pieces together.

Next, I gathered it and pinned it to the onesie.

I then sewed it on. This was were my machine started

giving me grief. I need to have it serviced. 

Because the fabric was so stretchy I tried to use

a stretch stitch setting and my machine wouldn't have it!

Instead I used a zig-zag stitch, which worked fine

but I would have preferred to use a stretch stitch.

The stretch stitch will hold up longer.

-

Next I used the band I cut from the bottom hem of the tank

and attached them to the shoulders and tied. 

Finally, I cut the embellishment that was on the 

front of the tank top and used double stick fusible web

to attach it to the front of the onesie.

It's not as elaborate and cool as I had envisioned when

I first thought of it but I figure for my first, 

it's not too shabby.

I'm already working on another dress for her. 

This is fun!

~songs of life~

A very dear and close friend of mine 

moved out of state this week :(

I really wanted to give her a going away gift.

I wanted it to be something special

and personal but also needed to make

sure it wasn't adding to the crap

she already had to pack up and move.

  

Among many other things, it's safe to 

say that she's my "concert buddy".

Music is a huge part of both of 

our lives and has been a 

significant part of our friendship.

Over a period of 10 years we have gone

to many many concerts together.

I decided on a book of memories

with all of our concert stubs.

I got a blank board book at Michael's and 

decorated each page with scrapbook paper

I had on hand. 

 

Here is the front of the book.

I made pockets for each page with 

scrapbook paper and put a photocopy

of the concert stubs in each pocket.

 

 

 On the back of each concert stub

I wrote a memory of that 

particular concert.

Matchbox 20 is our favorite so

it got two whole pages.....

so many memories that I had to write

about them on a separate note and 

put that in the pocket instead.

I didn't take pictures of every page

but I think you get the idea. 

I wrapped it up and took it to her

the night before she left....

She loved it and we had

a GREAT time laughing and reminiscing 

about each memory before we said goodbye.

 

The back pages were left empty

and blank on purpose.....

signifying future memories that we 

will fill the pages with.

They may be fewer and far between

but they will happen.