Taxes and Pattern Testing

What a crazy week! I had planned on keeping up with Project Run and Play, but for many reasons it was out the window this week. First of all, Mens shirt refashion totally stumped me. There are tons of amazing ideas out there, but the ones I really wanted took too much time to make. I have a half finished project that I will eventually finish. The second reason is that I was asked to pattern test by Popolok Design and I asked to test some yoga shorts from Peek-a-boo Pattern shop. Here's a couple pictures from the work-in progress of both:

I'm still wanting to make a dress version of the top, but with sleeves, and I need to add a little more rise to the back of the shorts. 

Now on to my final reason for not keeping up.

TAXES!!!!!

We had already planned that debt would be paid off, so the whole "rich" feeling was very fleeting, but nothing beats having debt all paid off. :D 

Since we had some extra left, we thought we would have a fun day. Now, I know I'm paranoid, so anytime we are going to out and about at busy places, I always take individual pictures of my kids so you know, if by chance they get lost, we have a picture of exactly what they were wearing and how they looked. No ones ever gotten lost before, but hey, doesn't hurt to be prepared. :D Moving on.

My kids were being super silly so this is what we got.

We were going to have the kids ride the train in the mall, but is seemed to be missing, so instead they got to ride the carousel.

And of course Corey was holding Jude.

While waiting for our friends to show up, the guys went into a game shop and the girls ran around the common area. And yes, Aevarie got to dress herself.....

Now this picture is one of my most absolute favorites of Paisley. 

After meeting up with friends, we ate which took FOREVER. And after that we took all the kids to Build-a-bear. Why I didn't get pictures then, you've got me, but they all love their furry little creatures. 

Anyways, that's what we've been up to. Fabric shopping later today and a baby shower tomorrow. Oh, did I mention the child that didn't get sick last time is now sick?? I'm sure thanks to the weather changing again. :D Ah well, spring shouldn't be too far off! :D

Boy Valentines Fashion - Layers of Music

I am warning you now : This entry is going to have TONS of photos. I couldn't resist. :D

 I wanted to make Jude a fun little outfit for Valentines day. Boys get so left out I think. With the theme being "Love is in the air" the first thing that came to my mind for a boy was music, and hey, with Jude basically being named after a song, what could be more perfect than a music shirt? 

For the button-down (which I keep calling a button-up shirt - ha!) I bought a pattern from Lily Bird Studio.  I tried the pattern out with another fabric first and did end up making changes. I made the collar wider and slightly bigger, since I didn't like where it landed on the original shirt, and I also made the back placket(?) a bit wider and then instead of a square bottom, I shaped it to how most button-up shirts are. 

Have I mentioned I love layers? I love the look of a t-shirt over a dress-shirt, and with all the really cute faux-suspender shirts I've seen, I really wanted to try one. I refashioned it from a super soft t-shirt with one of my patterns I made a while ago.  This picture is horrible since it was at the end and my little guy was D-O-N-E. But I wanted to show one with him in it alone. 

For the jeans, I just tweaked a pair of my girls old jeans. They were some of my absolute favorites and went through all 3 of my older girls. They were flare jeans though, so we just made them skinny jeans. No pink thread or girly embellishments, so hey, who would ever know they were actually girl jeans??

Then for the very last piece to tie it all together - The Faux bow tie. 

I really like how it turned out. Here's some other pics:

    (This picture is with one of our "Potato People". Grandma came up with the design and it's SUPER easy to make. My kids all have one and LOVE them.)

 And this is what Jude thought the bow-tie was actually for:

And one more to show off my little guys eyes. I love this little boy! 

 Here's a link to my girl style. 

Thanks for looking!!

Project Run and Play sew along - Week #4

I have been super excited about this weeks theme. As soon as I saw what the theme was, I knew I had the perfect fabric for it. 

Of course I had this awesome idea for what I wanted to do. My inspiration for the skirt is from Matilda Jane.


I love the pockets and the overall look. Even though I know it isn't a circle skirt, I wanted to have it be a circle skirt, so I used Dana's Circle Skirt pattern as a starting point and added ruffles and pockets.

For the shirt, I absolutely LOVE Gap's embellished shirts and have been wanting to make one for the longest time. Of course I used "Love is in the air" for my saying. I first used some Freezer Stencil's for some of the letters. Then decided which would be fabric appliques, buttons, sequins and embroidered. I also decided to add an "envelope" pocket for any and all love letters. I love how it turned out!

Here's some other close ups of it:

So this lovely shirt was washed and although I did prewash the fabric, it still shrank! When we put it on Aevs, It barely went past her belly button and definitely was a belly shirt whenever she tried to move. The bad thing was, no more blue knit......I looked at what I had to try and go with it and saw that I had an old dusky pink tank top in my stash. So I kind of tried to make it look like a double layer. It just really wasn't working though, and that's when the huge ric-rac came in. Besides my apprehension, my daughter really wanted it and hey, if she loves it that's all that really matters! So here is the complete shirt. Her favorite part is the little butterfly at the bottom. lol

I really really wish weather was better, but the last 2 days there was TONS of fog everywhere and last night it started snowing. Yay for such lovely weather! That doesn't make for awesome light for pictures, but here's a bunch we took. You can tell my daughter was in a very silly mood too and not one that was very cooperative..... :D

So overall, I love it. I do have a boy post too, but for now check out all the other awesome talent and ideas at Project Run and Play!