Some New Nightgowns

I made a couple nightgowns the other day. Nightgowns are ridiculously hard to find for some stupid reason and we Rowe girls--minus Julia--are big nightgown fans. I used this pattern that we had on hand and just sorta faked it.....

We ended up with these two beauties.

The purple ended up looking more like a maxidress, and it happens to match her glitter flip-flops so....


This one I did like the pattern suggested and made a bias tape for the neckline...nightmare. And I dont like the look of it very much, so next time it will get elastic like the other one.

A Big Girl Room Remodel

The baby girl is getting bigger and bigger by the day, unfortunately. She is now completely potty trained--day and night. She has felt free to climb out of her crib and wander at her leisure for some time now. And, let's be honest, I never really "decorated" her room the first time. We bought one pack of vinyl pink sticker thingies to put on the wall and a fancy bedding set from Babies'R'Us and that was about it. We didnt even repaint the loft turned nursery for her arrival (LAZY).
So, it is the time!! On my first excursion to Atlanta to visit my sis, we hit the ever-fabulous Ikea. I had been looking for some color inspiration for this potential room and found a great comforter cover there. A few accessories to match and we were out of there for less than $50. Deal of the century. Add onto that another $35 in paint and about $20 in odds and ends and it brought me in just barely over $100 for the entire project....well, that and about 2 days of my time, but I will give her that for free.

This was the starting wall color with sticker things still in place. Obviously we had already started dismantling things. We are messy, but not quite this bad!


Now, I am going to start right here and now and say that I blatantly stole lots of ideas straight off the internet and particularly etsy. There are some of the cutest wall decals on etsy, for pretty reasonable prices, too. But, not within my budget and frankly it is easier for me to just wing it with a paintbrush than to actually take the time to order anything. I am a big proponent of "you can always paint over it".
So, here goes.
All things start with a proper tape job.

And a new wall color (BAM!!).


And so, we begin the design portion of our show.....
Gigantic branch coming out of the wooden wall.

Embellishment of said branch.

Add a little branch on the other side for symmetry....we MUST have symmetry...

Hmmm, perhaps i forgot to mention the red stripes on the back wall......oops.....we like some two-tone rooms around here...

Anyway, must tie the red stripes into everything else. The poppies were kindof an afterthought....also stolen from etsy....I was getting a little over-swirled with the branches. I had planned for some kinda graphic swirlyness under the window, but changed at the last minute.


Now this "over-doing it" portion of our show....the mural branch was lacking something. I decided it was a worm....and a crown on the bird.

A valance and some ribbon over the existing curtains.

And finally, some linens and a handmade bedskirt added to a bed made of two footboards so it is low and my baby wont fall far when she tumbles out in the middle of the night.

Oh, and a gigantic orange bolster and the cute night light lamp from ikea. And the handpainted sign from Aunt Katelyn.

Ta-daaaaaa....


Here she is trying it out for the first time....she seems a little freaked....

......sharing her spot with the big bro....

....oh, did I mention the awesome green sheets....oops.....

...fake sleeping....

.....fake sleeping only lasted for seconds, then the jumping began....


I know she is bad! There is no covering it up. But, she is like the cutest thing ever, so what am I going to do?!

The End!!

Jealousy

This is my sister-in-law's.




It makes this.





I now have much jealousy.

-- Post From My iPhone

Being lazy sometimes pays off

Here is a picture of a pumpkin plant that is growing right next to my front porch steps. It is not a coincidence that it is growing in the exact spot that our Halloween pumpkin sat.
Gardening tip for you--let your pumpkin sit on the grass after the holidays and throughout the winter. By spring it will have planted, composted and fertilized a new plant naturally and you don't even have to dig a hole:-)
As a side note, I finally made the baby girl something out of the "kisses" material we bought months ago. It is kinda goofy, but I did kinda just freehand it, so it is what it is. She is still cute regardless, IMHO.



-- Post From My iPhone

How cute is this trim?!

Julia found this at textile fabrics when we went. We had to buy a yard, but I have no idea what we are going to do with it.



It is hula girls in case you can't tell.
-- Post From My iPhone

Placemat Pillow Project

I found this fabulous and crazy simple idea to make throw pillows out of double layered placemats at this fabulous site. How I didnt think of this before now, I have no idea....but I give full credit for this to the artsy-crafty babe.

Anyway, I found this placemat--two acutally--at World Market. (The best store ever.)

Match my couch and have a different print on back which I thought would be cute.

So here is how you do this...so totally easy.
First, take a seam ripper and tear out the stitches on one end. You dont have to go all the way across if you are using batting as a fill, but you probably do if you use a pillow form.

Next, you cram it full of batting.

You can kinda see the pillow in the background that came with our couches and that I detest. We have 4 of them and I have them stuck in a trunk because I hate them--they are all 80's geometric print. Barf. I decided this would be a great use of the batting in them so i ripped them open with the same seam ripper and am stealing the stuffing out of them.
Anyway, the final step is to sew up the seam you ripped out. I suppose you could do this by hand, but I used the machine. You could also embellish these at this point if you wanted. I didnt.
This is the final result which honest to goodness took me 5 minutes to make both of....

That is the hated pillow shell hanging over the top which I will probably just pitch unless i can think of some better use.
These arent huge, but perfect for a little back support while sitting on the couch. That is all we use them for anyway. If I want a sleeping pillow, I will go to bed.
Here are others that I got to do the same thing with.

We have two matching beige couches in the other room that are very plain--since I refuse to put the hideous 80s pillows on them. I am going to make these to go on those couches and then I have my eye on a really cute elephant pillow at World Market, but so far I am too cheap to buy it. Maybe next trip.
My sister has this same project in the works...you can see hers here.

New Project Supplies!!

This is the new fabric for an upcoming project that I think is super cute.

The stripe is Michael Miller and the horses are some imported something something by Kokka--a Japanese fabric. I have never heard of them, but the fabric lady was all enamored with them and Cariboo (Baby Girl) picked it out. They arent really meant to go together, but i think they do so they will!! If Chris does his part and gets my project started this weekend, I will post more pics later. It is going to be soooo cute.

Sewing...all day long

I managed to get a lot accomplished today for some reason. I dont understand how some days I get absolutely nothing done the entire day and then other days I just knock things out left and right. We even managed to fit in a nice outdoor Mexican food lunch in the middle of the day. The kids were off all day and actually entertained themselves. The Wii is broken and sent off to Nintendo, so they are actually "playing" if you can believe it.
Anyway, first thing today was finish Chris's pants for Ren-fest. This involved a bias tape maker for the ties and lots of threading through casings...

Next, I made some quicky black pants for Baby Boy's costume and finished the Liver lip's reversible corsety thing for her costume. I think i covered both in this picture. The pants still need hemmed and so does the pink shirt, but that didnt happen today.

Here you can see what it reverses to since it isnt visible in the hanging photo. I am trying to make some multipurpose pieces. Since you cant see the back, the two sides dont have to match at all. She shirt matches both sides and i am going to make her a brown skirt to go with the other brocadey print.

Then, since I am trying to use up some of this random fabric that is cluttering up my laundry room, I made these pajama pants for the bacon fiend in the house. They are too big, but I am too lazy to fool with making them smaller. They have a drawstring...she hasnt complained so I am pretending I dont notice. And for God's sake, dont look at her bedroom...

It is cute Michael Miller flannel fabric with bacon and eggs.

Finally, the Baby Girl got this super nice crown-ladyish (per her) hair do.

So, to go with the do, she got these pants. They arent supposed to go with this shirt. The shirt they go with is cut out but not made. That is as far as I got with it today...maybe tomorrow. She tried them on and then was wanting to pose for lots of pictures. Far be it from me to deny her...


See that laundry basket up there in that last picture...that was the rest of my day. I hate laundry.

Simplicity 3835-part deux

I made another one of these. I thought I would post the picks here quickly and so you could see my awesome Heather Bailey Paisley fabric I bought. Why? Because Heather Bailey is awesome.
I stuck to the pattern except made the arms longer and the length of the shirt longer. I also did darts in the back like the dress pattern so it isnt so loosey goosey in the back. It's cute. I like it. So there.


And yes, that is Edward behind me because I suckered my Liver Lip daughter into taking this. I also buy her posters of cute guys for her room so that I can look at them without having to have posters in my own room...that would just be weird.
Also, yes, I am so super photogenic and never, ever have an "eat poo and die" look on my face. Get used to that if you read this blog very often. "Pissy"--that is how I roll.

Beer Cozy

So, Chris does not often make special sewing requests but he wanted this and I accommodated. He made beer today and it has to sit for a couple weeks in the dark. He prefers a 6 gallon glass carboy...you'd think the goofballs that make them would make dark colored ones, but no. And, he fully expects this thing to sit on the kitchen counter for all two of those weeks.
I just so happened to have this silk curtain that I bought 3 yrs ago for $3 on clearance at Lowe's.
I planned the Baby Boy's entire room around the color and then didnt use this curtain because I only had 1 and he has a 6 ft wide window. It is lined with a cotton fabric--therefore very dark.
So, with this curtain and some braided stuff you make piping with...oh, and a cute ribbon left over from costume making, we now have this little beauty sitting on our counter.

Really, probably not much cuter, but it is appropriately dark under there and at least I made an effort. Beer that is trying to do its thing is sorta gross looking--lots of bubbly, weird, yeasty foam. Now I dont have to see it until it is ready for drinking.
So, TADA!! Beautious beer cozy. You know you want one!

Simplicity 3835

I wear too many t-shirts and I need to remedy this. I need one of those hip and groovy mom looks that some people manage to have--no not "mom jeans" but cute stuff. Hip little shirts with nice jeans and some ballet flats--or something... I dont know what or I would be wearing it already. I have trouble finding shirts that I like because my torso is like 500 miles long. With as many costumes and the like as I make I have learned that I have to drop the waistline 4 inches to get the fit right. Very annoying. So, I went and got a couple cute, easy patterns to make a couple and supplement my Target tshirts.
This is the shirt I made today.
It was a trial version--done exactly like the pattern told me with no improvising or altering. The ubiquitous Simplicity 3835 from Built by Wendy.
You can google this pattern and find a billion versions because it is a much talked about and well loved pattern with modern crafty sewing girlies. I used some paisley-esque cotton that I had lying around. I still LOVE some paisley--any color, any style--because I am a good 80s girl. It is this guy's fault.
This pattern is very easy-peasy. It only has 3 pieces and an elastic measurement. I cut the arms out a little wonky because the dresses have the same body as the shirt. I had to fold the pattern all bunchy to not cut off the dress part and it pulled the edges up funny.

I will fix this next time.

Getting this neckline perfect was the hardest part but even it only took a few minutes of fiddling.


I will share my favorite tool in the whole entire world with you here. Essential for threading elastic and drawstrings through casings.
This is called a bodkin and it is the bomb.

I used it for the neckline of this shirt and I use it constantly for costume making. They are cheap and everyone in the world needs one.
Anyway, I like the shirt and I will make more. Good everyday shirt and takes hardly any time at all.