Why did I buy a pattern?

So my 13 year old daughter keeps growing, as they tend to do. So she has no church clothes. I made her a skirt awhile back and looked in vain for other dresses. They all have spaghetti straps or are too short these days in the store. So I tackled a dress this week. At the fabric store I told her to look at patterns while I did some other shopping. When I met her at the patterns she had found a really cute dress, but the pattern wasn't on sale. I am not in the market to pay full price for patterns ($16.95!!!). PLEASE don't EVER buy a pattern at full price. I wait for the $0.99 or $1.99 sale and then stock up on any pattern I think is cute. So we looked at the $2.99 "See and Sew" rack. There were parts of several dresses that she liked but not one pattern had everything. She wanted a summer dress but she likes long sleeves and most real summer dresses are sleeveless or spaghetti straps. So she found this pattern and really liked the SASH.
So I was supposed to build a new dress around the sash. Since I had SIX children with me (not recommending shopping at a fabric store with 6 kids), I grabbed the pattern and away we went. When I got home, I realized the pattern only came in size 8-16 women's. Well my daughter is between girls and juniors sizes so she was too small for women's size 8. So I had to figure out how to make this dress with the cool sash and

1. add sleeves
2. change the bodice lining since it has sleeves now to a yoke lining
3. Make the V neck not so deep
4. change it to a smaller size to fit a 13 year old

So after a phone call to my mom who asked "What were you thinking?", I started cutting out the fabric. I cut out a size 8 instead of cutting it out smaller, in case I cut it out too small. The yoke wasn't as hard to figure out as I had thought it would be. I used sleeves from another dress pattern, made the bodice a little shorter, tried it on several times, and hoped for the best. She is thrilled with the outcome and likes the bright, springtime colors, and she especially likes the SASH! I think it's way cuter in person and the pictures make it look a little frumpy, which it isn't.

Giveaway

I entered another giveaway. I'm always a sucker for free stuff and I love vinyl.

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/2011/06/blog-link-party-and-giveaway-from-say-it-on-the-wall.html

Puffy Pillow

I'm always on the look out for free projects and that usually means coming up with something from my fabric scraps. I remembered that I had a few squares left over from my pink/green/yellow puffy quilt, so I used them to make a puffy pillow. Turned out pretty cute huh? Took about an hour to make and I didn't even have to buy a pillow form! The two sides together make it soft and full enough. I think I'll have to make one of these for all of my future puffy quilts!


Linked to:

http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
http://sewchatty.blogspot.com/

Kitchen art

I found an example of some art I want to try for my kitchen. I didn't want just any old thing in the kitchen and I wanted something with texture and interest. I have always thought I wanted something with silverware in it. I'm going to use the blog found here and try to do some type of silverware picture. It should only take a few years!

The fabric choice...

So I think I decided on the 3 designer fabric blankets that I'm going to do. I appreciated some people telling me their opinions and I chose some of those fabrics but went a totally different direction for the others. The green and black fabrics are for a gender neutral blanket and I'll add in one other solid color after I get the fabric, maybe black, just for some of the squares on the top of the puffy quilt. The blue, red, and plaid cowboy fabric is for a boy quilt and I'll use the paisley blue for the backing and peaks border. The pink, green and brown will be a girls quilt with the 2nd fabric from the top being the back and ruffle border. I'm so excited to start these! I still get to choose fabric for 3 more quilts out of a little bit less expensive fabric.

Fabric poll

So I'd love some feedback on which fabric samples you like in the following pictures. I'm doing an order of 6 puffy quilts for a baby store and I get to pick the fabrics. I'm just playing around with different combinations. Let me know which ones you like and why and which ones you don't like. Love to hear your comments!

Just love these little owls. I'm tending to like green right now too.

There are 5 rows in this next picture, stacked on top of each other. I love #4 and #5.

Managing the summer chaos

With six kids, there is chaos. No way around it. There is also a mom who wants to stay sane and accomplish something each day. I want the kids to learn to get things done first and then they can play for most of the day. I want the kids to learn that we have to work together as a family to keep things running smoothly. So a few years ago we started "Summer Stations". The kids have to get their regular chores done first (dishes, laundry, bedrooms, garbage, sweeping etc.) and then we spend an hour and a half or so rotating through different stations. They change periodically but usually include piano practice, reading, writing, playing with a younger sibling, outside work (weeding or watering), and sometimes a 'mom's choice' chore. We are usually done with all the work and stations by 10:00 and then the kids get to be free for the rest of the day. It helps me feel like we accomplish something and get the stuff I want done (piano, reading etc.), helps dad in the yard, and helps them in their responsibilities.

I recently made a chart to keep it all straight. The pictures of the kids are all velcro-ed on and can be moved around so they can start on different stations each week. I included the 2 little kids but they don't usually do stations as one is napping and the other is being played with.


Along the bottom I have a pocket for the bigger kids to earn good behavior computer time. Every stick is worth 10 minutes and they have to earn 30 minutes before they can redeem their minutes. Sticks can be taken away for bad behavior and added for doing extra chores. This way I don't have to listen to kids whine to play on the computer all the time. If they have the minutes and their chores are done, they can redeem them. Everyone is happy.



This is our regular chore chart. I'm not thrilled with the nails but haven't changed it to be something cuter yet. We just move the sticks around each week to rotate the jobs.Linked Here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/06/06/made-by-you-monday-53/
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/