It was Christmas... So Grammie Created!!

It's been so long since I have created anything, I've missed it. Thankfully Christmas always brings the occasion to do so. We have a grandson that absolutely loves Toy Story and Woody. I went to the fabric store to see if I could find a pattern to make him a sheriff's vest, well I didn't find anything I liked so I decided to hop on the internet on my new favorite toy, my iPhone to see what I could find, I struck gold I found this site and there it was Woody's vest made from felt and I didn't even have to sew, (which worked out well since my daughter had my sewing machine). I bought all the supplies and here is the end product.

I was so excited to get it done, I forgot to take pictures of the process

His momma told me he carried it around all day :-) success.

So, if you have a Toy Story fan in your life and you can use a hot glue gun you should make this, it is sooooo cute.

A Blanket for August

When we found out were getting another grand-baby, I just knew I had to make something for it. Since it was due in May I decided not to make one of these blankets, because it would be too hot for mom to hold baby in it. Then came the news that the parents weren't going to find out ahead of time what the baby would be, so I knew then I would need to make something gender neutral.

One day while my daughter and I were brousing around an antique store, we found a baby quilt. It had blocks of muslin on the front that were embroidered with baby animals and the name of the animal. That was gender neutral and it was cute too, so I decided I could do something like that. I began my search for some fabric for the back of the quilt, first I found "ABC's" thought that was really cute, and I could embroider things such as "apple" "ball" you get the picture. Then I came upon this pretty Mother Goose fabric, it is so vintage looking, and mom and dad love vintage, that was it, I knew what I was going to do. This is a picture of my inspiration fabric. Isn't it soooo cute.

Then I searched on-line for Mother Goose embroidery patterns, here are a few of the ones I found. The patterns came from the same place, but some had a different font for the lettering, though it still came out really cute.
Jack and Jill, this was my first one, it's pretty detailed so it took a while to complete.
Four and Twenty Black Birds, this was probably the easiest one.



This is my finished project, it came out soooo cute. So much better than I ever imagined it would. Well the baby came May 16, it is a boy, this is their 2nd boy, we were lucky enough to be there to see him shortly after he was born. He was 10 pounds, 21 inches long, named August Penn Gardner, we can't wait to see him again.

Banana...in banana pajamas

When you can't find the exact pattern pj pants you want, you just have mom make them for you...She was actually looking for dinosaur pj's couldn't find them, and couldn't find any really cute dinosaur fabric. So when she saw this banana print she decided to go with that since "Banana" is her nickname (rhymes with Hannah).

Here is the pattern it called for pockets but she didn't want them. I had Thursday off thought, "no problem, I'll have them done in no time", well when I was cutting one of the leg pieces I cut about six inched on the xs size instead of the small size. Well the pattern was salvageable, but the fabric wasn't so I had to go to the fabric store and pick up another 1 1/2 yards. After school and the usual evening routine, I wasn't able to get back to them till 7:30-8:00, finally got them done about 9:00pm. She wanted to wear them for pj day at school the next day, that was the urgency.

This is a close up of the fabric, aren't the banana peels so cute.

Creation from way back

My oldest daughter was cleaning up her room and came across this picture of my youngest daughter when she was about 3. We were on a weekend trip to Monterey, this was in Pacific Grove where we stayed. The creation is the little sundress she is wearing. I had gotten a sewing machine for Mother's Day that year because I wanted to teach my oldest how to sew from a pattern. So we went to the fabric store, found a fairly simple pattern, it had been since 7th grade home ec when I had last looked at a pattern, so I didn't want to get anything complicated, we picked out this cute fabric, and the ric rac trim. We had a great time sewing it, and when you can make an article of clothing out of a yard of fabric, it is pretty cheep too. Oh, and isn't she just the cutest thing.

Let's go back to October for a moment

This was a semi-creation. Two days before Halloween, Hannah still didn't know what she wanted to be for Halloween, so we went off to the thrift stores. When she walked in to one she saw a fur coat and announced "I can be Cruella DeVil." I said "yes you can", because to my girl's disgust I already owned this "fine faux fur", and yes, I wore it. We bought the black dress and the red pumps at the thrift store, the hair paint, gloves and cigarette filter at a Halloween store and turned my baby into this "classic creepy character".

When she grabbed her pumpkin trick or treat bag, it just wouldn't do. So I decided to make her this more fitting trick or treat bag. A half yard of white felt, cut out some black felt pieces into spots, hot glued them on and sewed the handles on and she has a lovely "dalmation" bag. No animals were harmed for this costume. We thought about spraying black spots on our white Maltese, Bentley but thought twice and didn't.
As a footnote. This is my baby Hannah on her first Halloween, October 1997. Wasn't she just the cutest dalmation you ever saw. I went to the thrift store (as usual) found an all white blanket sleeper, put spots on with a black sharpie, sewed black and white felt ears on the hood. You can't see it but I sewed a piece of red felt around the neck to look like a collar, it also had a round gold sequin (from one of her sisters dance costumes) for a dog tag. Too bad we didn't have as much imagination back then, her sister should have been Cruella DeVil, but I didn't think of it, and she wanted to be The Cat in the Hat.

Saga of Sweet Hannah Sue

A year ago, my sweet Hannah was in a play called The Saga of Sweet Hannah Sue, which took place in the pioneer days. She played "the Storekeep". After going to every thrift store in town, in an attempt to throw something together cheep, we had no luck. So I had to make her costume, this is the creation we came up with. (The apron was bought at an antique store.)