7.30.2010
tour guide
7.29.2010
from the carpet
7.28.2010
what's in the weekly belly
commence climbing phase
7.27.2010
don't judge a book by it's cover
7.26.2010
for my gander
today is jesse's 28th birthday. so if you hadn't gathered from the title, i am doing a post answering all the same questions i made him answer for me last year on my birthday. i let him ask one bonus question to make it an even 28 (since he's so much older than me), the rest are the exact same ones i posed to him, but now flopped around as if he is asking me.
1. please list 28 things/traits/facts you love about me on this my 28th bday. (feel free to hyphenate): your mega-watt smile, fashion-sense, servant's heart, and navajo tan. i love that you never want to stop learning how to be more like jesus. i love your taste in movies, books, music and food, and that you won poetry recitations in grade school.
don't be fooled by the awesome foodtography, it's nast
same taste in food. aka 4 scoops of dairy
save yourself!
that's a favorite activity too. and we look so hot doing it
randy: front left. love him. and his wife even more. their kids were in our wedding
yeah, look which section jesse is holding. hmmmm, at least he doesn't seem exacted about it
this is just warmup wedding dancing moves/facial expressions for him
17. best date we've ever been on? hopefully tonight! but in our past, i have to agree with you that it was when we went to ted's when we were just friends and afterward both said, "wow, if that had been a date, it would have been a 100 out of 100." and both of us were completely honestly not dropping any hints or trying to be anything more. idiots! also this past father's day at red lobster wasn't flashy, but it was awesome conversation.
serenading becky with his musical gifts.
the eyes have it. and by "it" i mean "me melting on the floor"
the shoulders, people, those freaking shoulders.
thumbs up for perfect eggs
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE!
7.23.2010
it's taboo
7.22.2010
sew totally
i need something in this pic to show scale. it looks like a gypsy's little bag of herb(s) in this shot, but it's really the hobo bag from MADE. i got a little hyper with making mine out of quilted other fabrics and used a tad too many for taste, but the construction was some of my best. it's actually about a foot tall and 10 inches wide. the tentacles are drawstrings
pretty much the exact same picture. i just really like this thing
this is a picture of a $1 thrift store t-shirt i bought to use as knit fabric (way cheaper than buying new by the yard...especially if you're making kid-sized things). also pictured: layla in my lumpy asymmetrical stomach. hahahaha
here's what i made with it:
oh baby. so preppy i cant even stand it. it the warhol dress that i made before (and made judah model) but i added a freezer paper stencilled applique anchor. ahoy
i won't be forcing sewing stuff down your throat every day, i promise. i am going to add some tabs to the blog and hopefully sequester away all things crafty there so that if they repulse you, you can easily avoid them. this is just all over my radar right now.
i hope to write some posts soon about hilarious instances of the game taboo gone wrong, marriage fights that you wage over and over again for years upon years with no resolution, do some more giveaways to catch up to our now 93 followers (hi annie!), start cooking again, and then save the planet using my new found supercharged sense of smell, thimble-sized bladder and lack of balance. onward!
7.21.2010
the boo and her bum. plus a tutorial
yikes. one month olds ain't got nothing on the cuteness of a toddler.
on a white gerber long sleeved newborn onesie with fold over cuffs for little mittens. my fave ($3)
the best part of this was when i butchered the little white onesie into near oblivion. i was trying to applique just the gold oval with the L initial directly onto the onesie, but it was a new stitch i had never done before and it kept getting totally stuck in one place as the needle (which was the totally wrong kind of needle for a delicate little knit baby romper) pummelled the fabric repeatedly into swiss, nay, harvarti cheese. i ended up having to pick out about a million stitches while crying and sweating and pouting like it was my party and judy and johnny had just walked in the door, like a queen with her king. and when the dust and thread fibers settled, i had this lovely bit of artistry and about a kiloton of self-loathing on my hands:
i would have straight given up 100% at this point and just grabbed another onesie and salvaged this one later with a big applique, but i couldn't because a little something i had already committed hours to on the back of this onesie meant i had to stay the course.
so i measured out a brown rectangle and re-positioned everything on top of it and then appliqued it all on the onesie over the oval scars of destruction.
i actually really love how it turned out with the 3 different fabrics and the rectangle.
so about that little surprise on the backside that i had already invested in? well, it truly is on the backside and it's proof positive that i am fully sold out to the idea of a little girl:
those are ruffles! on the bum! of a baby onesie. (this is the part where you squeal)
little profile view of the rufflebumbum. can you even stand it?
wanna make your own ruffle bum onesie? if not, stop reading because here's where we get sewie.
here's the tutorial i used for the ruffles. though i went rogue, per my usual m.o., and did it way faster and with less fabric by just cutting rectangle strips and then ironing and sewing the edges under. i also didn't measure for the placement of the ruffles after they were gathered, i just eyeballed and pinned down and i think they still came out great.
and for the stencilled fabric applique details? i just used two techniques i have found before and combined them to do what i need for this project:
1. print off your design: letters, shapes, graphics etc. i would suggest something simple without too many details or shapes within shapes to keep track of.
2. trace them BACKWARDS onto the back (non-rough) side of a square of wonder under that is a little bigger than your whole design. (this is a type of fusible interfacing, ask an employee at joann). if you're artsy-talented, you could draw the design directly only the back of the interfacing rather than printing it off. just remember to put it on there in the mirror image of what your finished design should be since this will be the back of the applique.
3. iron the square of wonder under onto the back of a matching square of the fabric you want to use.
4. use an x-acto knife to cut around the backwards design that is drawn on the interfacing. make sure you cut through both the interfacing and the fabric so you don't have any danglers.
5. peel the paper off the interfacing of the part you cut out and then iron your design onto the fabric it's destined for (for instance, i would have applied my L directly onto the onsie if i hadn't wanted/needed the other layers of fabric shapes)
6. topstitch around the whole thing (apparently you don't have to do this and wonder under will keep the design on there even if you wash it, but i am untrusting and the sewn edge makes me feel safer and looks sharper and more homemade)
these two little tutorials are all i used to make layla her first real outfit! so easy, and such a huge payoff. please give it a whirl and let me know if anything is unclear or stupidly explained. this is my first time with a sewing tutorial and perhaps the last.