Birthday invites

Made these invites for my kids birthday party. It was a quick job as I didn't have as much time as I would've wanted. Plus my kids didn't have too many demands!

The numbers are cut using Silhouette Portrait. The stars are from a Lawn fawn stamp set and the hippo is from MFT Happy hippos stamp set. Colored using copics. Added glitter using Wink of Stella pen.

Iron-on vinyl t-shirts

DH was participating in STP and we were going to welcome him in Portland at the finish line. I wanted to make t-shirts for all three of us. With some designing in Silhouette Studio, I came up with the above design. I used the Circuit iron-on vinyl since that was the one available in my color. Kids t-shirts are from Old Navy and mine from Jo-ann.
Here's a photo of my t-shirt

 I was very happy with the t-shirts! It did take a lot of ironing - simply followed the instructions on the package.

Pop-up card

I forget where I saw this kind of a card - I think it was either Lawn fawn blog or Jennifer McGuire's blog. I really liked the idea and the fact that I could make it without any additional dies etc. Oh yes now I remember it was the Lawn Fawn blog and they did use dies for it. However, with the die the complete card size is very small. Moreover with some calculations and a circle die (I used nestability die) it was fairly easy to make it.

For the base I used a 4" X 8.5" cardstock. Scored it in half along the long side - at 4.25".
For the pop-up panel, I used a 4" X 4.5" cardstock. Scored it along the long side at - 0.25", 2.25" and 4.25". Cut a circle in the center of this panel. Create your scene as you would like to. If you need to align the scenery on the base panel with this pop-up panel, like I did, then you need to stamp on the pop-up panel as well when you're stamping on the base panel. To attach the pop-up panel, lay it flat on the base panel - aligned at the center. Then using double sided tape adhere down the 0.25" border scored on both the sides.

Here's how the front looks:

Supplies: Lawn Fawn "Life is good" stamp set, distress inks, copic markers, nestability circle dies

Peasant dress for my little one

I had a yard if fabric lying around from some time back. It's a fabric I just love (unfortunately it is not enough to make any apparel for myself!) so I was looking around for some dress pattern for my little one that would not only not require more than a yard of fabric but also be simple enough. This pattern fit the bill! I used the measurements for 2/3 yr old for my 3.5 year old. She was very happy to have it!
The pockets were my own addition (so proud of that!). This was the first time I tried shirring. It took quite a bit of reading, watching YouTube and some accidents before I got it right. Other than that the pattern is very simple and only takes 2-3 hours. I would highly recommend trying it out!

Window scene

Lately there's been a surge of all kinds of shadow-type of cards. I forget which card gave me inspiration for this one but I just loved this idea! It was quite straight forward to make as well - even without any specialized dies. Just a circle die and paper trimmer is all you need.

I cut the card panel to 4" X 8.5". There's a front panel and an inside panel. The front panel is scored at 4.25". The inside panel is scored at 2.25", 4.25" and 6.5". Then cut a circle with the 4.25" scoring line as its vertical center. You can then decide how you want to create your scene.

The waves are create using scallop scissors. I colored the images using Zig Clean Color brush pens and the background is sponged using distress inks.

Here's the front of the card:

Supplies: Avery Elle Knotty stamp set, Lawn Fawn Critters of the sea stamp set, Neenah solar crest white cardstock, Distress inks, Versafine black onyx ink, Scallop scissors.

Pattern review: Simplicity Project Runway 2848

As I’ve already mentioned here I have hoarded this pattern for a long time. Like a really long time. Think years. There was a time when just like people get tempted by fabrics, I would get tempted by patterns. Ooh this dress would look so nice, let me buy this pattern. It’s only a $1. I’ll have the dress ready soon (yeah right!). Fast forward a few years. The dream did come true! I do have a dress made from that pattern and I love how it looks! You can see it in the picture below. No I did not stitch the shirt, that is ready made. Very happy that I could find just the right shirt for it.

The pattern was on the simpler side. Not too may pieces to sew. It has pockets too and there is a side zipper. What I realized is that I could have avoided the zipper (and all t he time it took) because I can basically pullover this dress. The fabric is a linen blend that I bought from a local store - Pacific Fabrics; so it’s a little on the stiffer side. When reading the pattern I felt that such a fabric would be better suited than a regular cotton and I’m glad I went with that. The dress hits about an inch above the knee. Overall quite satisfied with the pattern. Not as easy as the Burda one but still not bad.

Pattern review: Burda Style 6401

Here’s my dress:

The dress came out very much to my liking! Unfortunately I couldn’t get as good a photo of it. It was just what I wanted. The fabric was perfect – light and soft with a really nice print and color. The dress was simple, one-layered and hassle-free. Exactly the things I was looking for.

The fabric I used is Robert Kaufmann’s Millefiore Tomato. It’s slightly lighter than regular quilting weight cotton.

This is the first time I was using a Burda pattern and I’m a fan now! What I liked so much about this pattern company:

1. There is no wastage of paper. They try to optimize every inch of paper.
2. Instructions were so straightforward and intuitive. Most of the times, what I was thinking on how it should be done is how it would be done. With Simplicity and McCall I always notice that they do things in a more complicated fashion.

Starting with my last couple of dresses I’ve been paying more and more attention on doing things the right way no matter how many times I’ve to rip apart the seams. So I read the instructions carefully and do all the due diligence. I think that is also helping. Well also the fact that it is supposed to be an “easy” pattern

I’m also glad that I used my judgement with this dress. With my last one I realized that I didn’t need a zipper because I was able to pullover the dress without the zipper, So with this one, I decided to baste it without zipper and then try it on. Since I was able to pull this over as well, I skipper the zipper. This made it super easy from easy Also, I love pullover dresses so it made me like it all the more! The other thing I did was to use mny sewing machine to stitch the hem rather than doing it by hand. I feel it didn’t make any difference and saved me so much time!

This is not a fitted dress – so if you’re looking for something that fits your form this is not it. This is your dress for those days when you’re looking for something easy to get into, that is comfortable and (with the print I chose) very cheerful!

You can see from my description I’m one happy camper after making this dress