Totally Impressed!

I've been needing a break lately- a time where I could get away for more than a few hours to do whatever I wanted, without Avery with me.

So my very supportive and understanding husband let me have all day Saturday to myself. Oh the choices of what to do! My friend Nikki and I decided to head to downtown Los Angeles and visit the fabric district. Now we've been there before- a few years ago before her wedding, so we kind of knew the lay of the land so to speak. We walked up and down the streets and popped into and out of any of the shops that looked interesting. I was looking for fun fabrics for handbags, and Nikki was just looking.

It was probably over 100 degrees outside, and we spent about 2 hours or so. The result: 1 yard of beige linen for $8.00 and 4 silver rings for attaching straps to a bag. Bleck! I was so disappointed, I was hoping to find a mecca of undiscovered fabrics that would make fabulous bags. Oh well, next time we venture downtown we will probably only hit one or two of the big stores that carry all the popular name fabrics.

Later that afternoon when I arrived home, I was a little worried about what I would find when I walked in the door. This was the longest I have been away from her- would my poor hubby be ready to jump ship and wish he never volunteered to give me the day? Well imagine my surprise when I opened the door to find Avery sitting on the floor reading a book and squealing with laughter at the pictures! Oh my, it was the cutest thing ever. I forget about reading with her, I get into a set routine and quite frankly I think Avery gets bored with me. So having a whole day with dad all to herself was probably the most exciting thing ever for a 6 month old!

Oh yeah, and I came home to find that Franz had re-caulked the bathtub, WD-40'd her squeaky bedroom door, washed three loads of laundry, washed all her bottles, and gone on the weekly Target run!!! I LOVE my hubby :)

I really should get away more often :)

Before/After Project #11

Here's another quick before/after. I found this lone placemat at Homegoods the other day. I loved the embroidered palm leaf and figured I could somehow manage to incorporate it into one of my handbags. It was a really nice shade of chocolate brown and the fabric looks like silk although it's not (why would anyone make silk placemats anyways?).

Before: Placemat $1.00 on clearance
After: A little tote- perfect for that weekend getaway!

It's Poll Time!

Okay everyone, I need your help. If you could answer these questions I'd really appreciate the feedback!

1. Do you have a tv?
2. If yes, do you watch the commercials?
3. If you don't watch the commercials, what are you doing instead?
4. Do you have tivo or some other type of recording device?
5. Do you fast forward through the commercials?

Thanks!

Look at Me!

I'm on Dollar Store Crafts today!!! Check it out here !!!!

A Simple Before/After- Project #10

Our living room is - blah. While I like the individual pieces of furniture we have, I don't really feel like it looks "put together"- anymore. Avery's stuff has taken over what little space we had, so I've put away a lot of our things to make room.

Have you seen these blankets at Target? I'd been eyeing them for a few weeks- I guess I was drawn to the bright multi colored dots. They remind me of my favorite childhood toy- Light Bright! Remember those? Am I dating myself? I don't care, Light Bright ruled. Anyways, I wanted to do something to "help" our living room, and I had the perfect idea.

Before: Throw Blanket from Target, originally $9.99- I found them on sale for $8.00, so I bought two. (They are now on sale for $6.00! Too bad I didn't save my receipt...)

And here's our blah living room before: snooze city, very brown and neutral.

After: I made two giant throw pillows- complete with zippers and all!

These pillows are super comfy- the material is so soft. I found that orange pillow cover at Ikea and slipped it over one of the ugly brown pillows. I love all the color they add to our blah space, and as a bonus now I'm slightly less intimidated about sewing with stretchy fabrics and inserting zippers!

Chillin at the pool

Last week we visited some friends and Avery got to go swimming for the first time. She LOVED it- can you tell? She took to the water very well and had a great time :)

Freebie Friday Winners...

#1- Steph D! (you get first pick, so let me know which color you want- red or green!)

#2- Mindy!

Congratulations :)

Dressed in her Sunday Best

A couple of you have asked if I would start showing pictures of Avery wearing the clothes I make for her. I'll try to do that from now on.

I'm sad about this dress. After I finished it, I realized it was way too big around the top. So I took the dress apart and took some of the fabric out of the side seams. Bad idea. Avery only got to wear this dress one time- now its time to move it to the clothes bin of things she's outgrown. Sigh...

A Proud Moment

Our Miss Avery, she brings us so much joy. We are constantly in awe of her little personality that is starting to emerge more and more each day.

For the past two months she has been working really, really hard at being able to put her pacifier in her mouth all by herself. Every time we try and help her out a little by putting it in for her, she pulls it right back out and will fiddle around and struggle to get it back in. Her little hands are still a little uncoordinated, but she's getting more adept the older she gets.

So, to my surprise the other morning, I watched her go through this same routine only this time she got it in!!! She was so happy and proud of herself! I could see her smiling behind the pacifier, I could tell she was so pleased and wanted to show me what she finally accomplished!

I grabbed the camera and started snapping pictures. I even got a little bit on video. The whole time she just smiled away :)

Okay, so we've got a bit of work still to do, but she's almost there!

It's Freebie Friday!

Well I wish I could say I was giving away another bag today, but I'm running out of bags for my shop!!! I've got to get busy this weekend and sew a few more.

So today I'm giving away 2 key fobs. These are all the rage in the sewing world these days. People love being able to have their keys at their fingertips, but still have their hands free.

Contest ends at midnight next Thursday the 13th. Random.org will choose the two winners. Winner #1 gets to pick which color they want.

Good Luck! And YES, shipping is provided by yours truly :)

Before/After Project #9

I'm on a roll lately with all the before/after posts! Are you all getting bored with them yet?

Last week I went to my favorite thrift store in town (okay fine, the only thrift store in town) and found this women's dress for $3.71:Here's what the back looked like:
It had cute little embroidered lady bugs, I couldn't pass up. So I made Avery a little summer dress: Here's the back:
To re-cap my thrift store post about what to look for when shopping for items, here's what I liked about the dress:

1. Material- it was a nice medium weight 100% cotton
2. Color- the lime green caught my eye, it was a cheery color
3. Structural Details- it had a lot going for it that I could work with. The embroidered ladybugs, contrasting pink piping around the neckline, back and armholes, and buttons up the back.

Have any of you been to the thrift store lately? What did you find? What are you going to make?

Etsy update and Thanks!

Thanks to all of you for your overwhelming support and good luck wishes in this new little endeavor I'm embarking on. Etsy is like a little game, you have to learn what tricks will get you sales. I've been paying lots of attention to other successful shops and making mental notes about what they do that seems to generate views and sales of their items.

Thank you all who have mentioned me on your Facebook pages, in emails, or just in passing when talking to your friends or family. Every little bit of exposure helps!

So it seems like I'm off and running- I had my first sale on Monday and another one yesterday. Not sure if the first sale is going to actually go through (they haven't paid yet and I can't seem to get them to respond to any emails, etc.), but I did go to the post office today to send out the other bag that sold. It was a good feeling :)

Thanks again- and come back for a visit on Friday for the next Freebie Friday giveaway! This week I'm giving away two items, so your chances of winning are even greater!

Before/After- Project #8

Before: Skirt
I loved the coral color and the cute butterfly and flower print. It just looked so summery, I knew I could make something cute from it!

After: What else? A handbag of course :)

Thrift Store shopping, Part II- "You turned that into that?!?"

Many of you have asked me how I come up with my Before/After projects. Sometimes I repurpose an item (that's when you use an item for something other than what it was originally intended) as you've seen in my handbags made from dish towels or napkins, and my diaper clutch from a placemat. The real fun though comes from my thrift store finds. When I browse the racks, here's what I look for:

1. Fabric content- I like natural fibers, I avoid synthetics (polyester, rayon, acrylic). Cotton, linen, silk are good.
2. Pattern- I look for fun prints, funky retro patterns, a good scale (patterns that aren't too small or too large), and colors that are trendy.
3. Structural details- ruffles, pleats, embroidery, serged hems, buttons and zippers, etc.

I don't always go to the thrift store thinking "I want to make a dress for Avery, so I'm going to just look for items that would make a cute dress." I like to look at the clothes and based on the three items above, then try to see them as something different- would this shirt make a cute dress for Avery because it's already kind of shaped like a little dress, or would this skirt lend itself to a chic little handbag because it has great tailored pleating at the top, you get the idea.

Then I come home and wash all my finds because eventhough thrift stores have come a long way (see my previous post), there's still a little eww factor when you don't know where something came from. The next part of the process is picking the item apart- literally. Out comes the seam ripper and I have at it. By now I know what I want to make so this is when I deconstruct the item so I'm left with the pieces I want to reuse. Sometimes this involves ripping open a seam so I have one large piece of fabric, or it might be removing zippers, buttons, snaps, etc. if I won't be using them (don't throw those items away, keep them for your stash- you never know when you'll need a zipper or a button!). Once that's done I can finally start to layout my pattern. The laying out of the pattern is one of the most important steps. I'm a lazy sewer- if the item already has a nice finished or serged hem, I'll usually lay my pattern out so that I can use that existing hem. This way I don't have to hem it myself. This gives my new item the added benefit of a professional looking hem (if it's serged) that my machine can't do and will give my item less of that "homemade" look to it.

Pattern? If I'm making a dress for Avery, I will go to her closet and find a dress with the shape that I want to make. I'll turn it inside out and trace around it (be sure to trace it a little larger to accommodate seam allowances) on my new thrifted fabric. Cut it out and I'm ready to start sewing. Handbags are a little different. I've made enough of them by now that I've started making my own patterns/templates for the basic shape of the bag. I'll pin it to the fabric and cut it out.

The last part of the process is the embellishing of the new item. Can you sew on those buttons you removed earlier for a cute little detail? Was there a serged edge that you can reuse and sew on as a ruffle? It's the little embellishments that make your new item unique and have character.

So there you have it. Now go to the thrift store and see what you can find!