Little Lizzie

Machine makeover

I have decided that any new sewing machine I get is going to be an industrial one. I love my Bernina but to be honest I don't use over half the functions on it. The nice machines also have hefty price tags and it's because there are so many functions on one machine. They can do everything but make you coffee. An indutrial will do one type of sewing, either straight stich or an overlock/serge stitch but it will do it better and faster than your home sewing machine. I loved my old Bernina serger too but I used it so much I burned the motor out on it. So in the future I want to get industrials but in the mean time I needed some kind of serger to use and I had no money to spend on one. I found an old Bernina on Craigslist and Kenny talked the guy down to $50 for it. When I got it, it had rust on some of the metal parts. I was hoping I could get something to remove it but wasn't sure. One trip to the hardware store and I found Naval Jelly. This stuff really worked!

Here are my before pictures

And here are my after pictures

 

 

I was able to thread it and figure out the tension and it works like a dream. Now I just need to get busy sewing.

Reflections on June...

Wow it flew by fast... :)       Wyatt turned One on the 13th.                         

We spent our two weeks in Tyler (East Texas) with my Grandmother. The kids had a blast at camp. They had the neatest train museum in the old Cotton Belt depot in Downtown Tyler. My boys are obsessed with trains so we visited a couple of times. Here are the older three outside the depot. Don't they look thrilled that I'm making them smile for a picture lol.

                         

Here's a trackside view of the  Cotton Belt Depot in Tyler.

They also have a wonderful park in Tyler aptly named The Children's Park. There are two beautiful waterfalls with plenty of rocks to climb. Please visit the link above to read the story of how this park came to be. It is a wonderful memorial to children. Strolling through the park and reading the names of children who are no longer with us made me sad, it reminded me of the three babies I have lost and it also made me so greatful for the four I have running around now. I got some great pics of the kids but my favorite has to be the one of Mac and Wyatt sitting at the bottom of the waterfall. Wyatt is like a little copy of his oldest brother.

 

 

I know I haven't posted in forever!

It has been crazy around my house. My Grandfather passed away and we've had to move my Grandmother to an Alzheimer's facility . It's the end of the school year and I'm getting ready to take my four kids by myself to visit my other Grandmother for two weeks. They are going to day camp thank goodness!

There are many things I've meant to post but haven't. I did another wedding and it was a special one. My closest friend got married and it was a very small wedding. It was lovely! I did the flowers and the flower girl dresses.

I bought a dress that I wanted Claire to wear Easter but it turned out to be too big. It's a sweet potatoes dress that's linen with bias trim around the collar belt/sash and hem. I decided to make my own version for the girls to wear for the wedding. I chose a basic pattern but the collar gave me fits. The pattern collar was just too fat and round so every time I put the bias trim on it would pucker. I re cut the collar so it had less of a curve and that did the trick. I was really happy with how they turned out.

I had so much fun with the bouquets because I got to pick the flowers. There was a lady at the flower market buying up bunches left and right so I had to grab flowers quick and hope they all went together.

Horrible flash photos of the flowers.

Thanks SEW much!

A big thank you to the girls over at Sew Mama Sew for featuring Claire's Easter dress on the blog under "Featured Creativity". There are tons of other cute things featured too.

The pattern for the dress is a Butterick pattern from around 5 years ago #6611 (sorry couldn't find a pic of the pattern). The only thing I did to it was add piping at the collar and at the bottom of the bodice. Working with this pattern reminded me why I hate patterns from the big pattern companies. I despise 5/8" seam allowances! Seriously, I think it's the biggest reason why people get frustrated that their finished item doesn't fit or look like the picture on the pattern. It's a lot harder to eyeball 5/8" than it is to just line up the edges with your presser foot for 1/4" allowance. Am I the only one?

Ok I'll stop ranting about patterns for now ;)

Thanks again for the feature Sew Mama Sew!

Easter and 4 years old.

Like the procrastinator that I am, I didn't start making Claire's Easter dress until Friday afternoon. I made the collar Friday and the rest of the dress on Saturday. I don't have good pics of them but I embroidered little daisies all around the collar. I did that while we watched the third season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I love this show!

I really love how the dress turned out too.I realized if I'm not trying to design for another person's taste then I always end up with simple design and lots of details.

Claire turned four on the 26th. It's hard to believe!

Here's a couple pics of her and the rest of the gang on Easter Sunday.

9 months old

I forgot to post this yesterday. My little Wyatt is 9 months old!!! I can't believe it. It flew by so quickly. I took this pic of him on the front porch. The weather is so beautiful today!

Fun with Flowers

I helped with the flowers for a friend's wedding last weekend and had a lot of fun. The pics I took are really bad because the place was dark and I had to use the flash. I worked with Calla lilies which was a new thing for me. The bridal bouquet was all Charlotte red roses with baby calla lilies. I forgot to get pictures of the boutonnieres and of the kissing balls that I made. I had never tried those either. They turned out beautifully but took so many roses! I started with a 3" oasis foam ball and they ended up taking over 2 dozen roses each, but they were beautiful. The cake topper I made looks very much like what the kissing balls looked like but they were completely round and hung from ribbon at the end of the aisle. Here are a few pics with bad lighting.

Cake topper

Table arrangements: the branches are willow branches and then of course Calla Lilies.

Bridal Bouquet

We just "got the job" a week before the wedding and had to pick up the flowers on Friday and drive 100 miles with them all in the back of my minivan. Then we cleaned and prepped in my Grandmother's living room. My mom and I have a habit of helping with weddings and we are always very last minute. Our best ideas come from being pressed for time lol. I stayed up Friday night and finished the boutonnieres, and bridal bouquet and the kissing balls. We were able to get everything else done and set up on Saturday and rush home and change and get back to the wedding and were only about 5 minutes late. All in all a very successful endeavor. My pics are so bad that I lifted this one from the site so you could see how pretty the reception area is

It's called the the Villa di Felicita and their facilities are beautiful. I saw their gardens and where they have outdoor weddings and I can see how wonderful it would be. So if you are looking for a beautiful facility in East Texas for a Wedding or special event, definitely check this one out.

Go see Juno!

I've now seen Juno twice in the last few days. I saw it with my Mom this weekend and then with Kenny last night. I really loved this movie! It was really genuine and funny. We laughed out loud many times.

Juno is up for a few oscars including best film, best director and best actress.  Here is a great article by Roger Ebert on why he thinks Juno is the best film of the year. He says it better than I could ;)

Go see it if you get the chance!

Oh and the soundtrack is great too! I added "All I want is you" and "Sea of Love" to the playlist.

Totally pooped

Yesterday was one of those days. I know all of the Mother's will relate. It was just full of poop. One kid was sick with a stomach thing and the baby decided to dirty his diaper multiple times too. By the end of it I was truly convinced if I had to clean up one more poopie disaster I would just run from the house screaming ;).

I was talking about this very subject with a Dad the other day. We were talking about how we would have found it humorous and horrifying if we knew before we had kids how our lives would be effected for better or worse by the "regularity" or lack of it by our children.  We were gathered at a friends house and most everybody there had kids except for a couple of single people. Of course one of the single guys happened to walk in right about the time we were discussing this and voiced his displeasure " do we have to talk about this". Well this guy had already annoyed me with comments on other occasions so I snapped just a tad and said  "Yes we do. We're parents, these are the things we talk about and your outnumbered!" to which he replied rather sheepishly, "ok". LOL

So yesterday was poop. Today we have a fresh start and it promises to be a better day. Or at least less poop themed. :)

Wonderful Shirring tutorial

Go to Sandi's blog to find a wonderful tutorial on shirring. Just scroll down and it's on the sidebar on the right. Shirring is so addictive and fun! When I first started selling on ebay I made a very basic tutorial for some friends who wanted to learn to shir. Sandi's tutorial is wonderful because of the beautiful clear pictures and instructions. The only thing I do differently than Sandi is that I do stretch the elastic when I hand wind it on the bobbin. This works on both my Bernina and my old Janome but it might be different with every machine.

You can shir on many different materials. I love the look of the guaze when it's shirred but I've also shirred velveteen before and it worked really well. My favorite part is blasting it with steam after you've finished the shirring. I love watching it shrink up right before your eyes! Yes, I'm easily pleased lol.

Sandi also started a flickr group for all things shirred called Shir Madness. Check it out! I added a few of my own.