The Layla Beret by LKG Patterns and Tutorials

I was lucky enough to test the Layla Beret pattern by LKG Patterns and Tutorials this week.  I must say I love the result!  It's a sassy little girl beret and it's easy too!  The best part?  It will be offered as a free pattern to those who subscribe to Shannon's new newsletter.  You can find her blog here.  I have been a subscriber to Shannon's blog since Project Run and Play and I am so happy that I am.  I love Shannon's Motivation Monday's and her love for her family really shines through when you read her posts.

I am not a very good photographer so please don't riot when you see the pictures!  I will also be posting a digiscrap layout sometime in the coming week.  It feels really good to be scrapping again.

This pattern was a quick sew.  I think it took me an hour and a half but if I hadn't started late at night when I was already tired I think it would have gone faster.

Shannon included a link to her Easy Peasy Flower Tutorial in the pattern.  I didn't try it for this version but I will for the next.

The beret fit Allie very well.  She is 7 and I used the size small for her.  It stayed on her head, even with all her dancing and running (and there was a lot!!!  She wanted zooming pictures!).

I love the expressions that flit across her face so fast, almost as fast as I can press the button on my camera.

The sun wasn't co-operating with me and a lot of the pictures look bleached out but I still love them of course!

I am still learning this pictures on your blog thing and I think next time I will save them a bit bigger.  I found the ones in my Scirocco Dress post were way too big and took forever to upload.  These ones are a bit too low quality however so it looks like I don't have it just right yet!

I love the open back on the Scirocco Dress but when I first saw this pattern I remember thinking it was a bit risque for a child.  Now that summer is here I am comfortable putting it on Allie as long as she doesn't wear it like this for school.  For school I make her wear a shirt under it.

I love the above picture of my youngest!

Sisters!

Don't forget to visit Little Kids Grow to get the latest from Shannon and remember if you sign up for her newsletter (this option will be available soon) you will get the Layla Beret Pattern FREE!!!

Happy Sewing from me to you.

Tracy K.

Scirocco Dress from my brother's old sheet!

 

I LOVE this dress!!  Yes it's made from a sheet which used to cover my little bro in the 70's!  When I found it in my Mom's linen closet recently and asked if I could have it, I think she thought I was crazy.  Then the other day when I was looking through my patterns to figure out what to sew for KCW I came across the Scirocco Pattern by Figgy's on my hard drive.  I think it was meant to be. 

 

I put all my thread on top of the sheet and asked Allie to pick which one she wanted.  She chose purple so I then used purple binding tape to accent the pleat.

 

I loved sewing up this pattern but I did change a few things.  The instructions for how to avoid top-stitching just didn't make sense to me.   Besides I love top-stitching and used the purple thread for a reason!  So in the end I stitched around everything in purple.  I also am not very good at narrow hems.  I don't have a rolled hem foot and I know my weaknesses, because of this I chose to cut double the flounces and line each one.  This allowed me to sew around the hem and then turn the flounce right side out.  Looks much better than it would have if I had tried to narrow hem them!!

 

My oldest daughter is a bit miffed at me for using the sheet for a dress for Allie.  She wanted me to use it for her but c'est la vie.  Sorry Jess I will make you something else soon :)  Speaking of Jess, she took the pictures of Allie.  The baby bunnies are about a week and a half old now.  Their eyes are still closed but they are looking more and more like bunnies everyday.  I can't believe how fast they grow!

 

I know it may be hard to get a real sense of the dress from these pictures but I love them anyhow.  Great job Jessica!

 

My little model!  Jessica also did her hair.  It's Jess's chore every morning to get Allie's hair brushed and pretty.  She figured out a few weeks ago that if she takes the time to braid Allie's hair on Sunday night she can leave it in all week!  I also hope it helps keep the dreaded lice away.  The kids school is horrid!!!  I get a notice every week that there is lice in the class.  Now that I've grossed everyone out, scroll down and check out more pics of my youngest cutie pie.

 

Happy Sewing!

Banyan Pant and Scirocco Dress Digital Layouts

 

I used one of my all time favorite kits to scrap the Banyan Pants I made.  It's called Allie's Pals Moose.  I used to sell my digital creations and despite the fact that I loved this kit it never really sold very well.  I still love it though and I especially love it for scrapping Allie.  The fact that the pants are almost the same color as this background paper is a bonus.  I am loving orange lately!  The pants are actually red but the bright sun made them look almost orange I think.  My Allie is such a character!

 

I scrapped the Scirocco Dress with a few kits.  Since they were all created by me I don't feel the need to label each thing here.  I do love how it turned out though.  I haven's scrapped in (cover your eyes Digi Scrap Friends!) over a year!!!  After selling my kits for 5 years I was just burned out.  I do wish I had not given up my digital scrapbook freebie blog but I plant to eventually upload some freebies here.

New Babies at our House!

 

 One of our bunnies had babies!  This will be a one time thing but I really wanted the kids to have the experience of raising babies.  Fudge, the momma bunny, has been such a great mother.  She was really aggressive while she was pregnant but she is surprisingly willing to let us pick the babies up.  As long as we bring her grass or some other treat to keep her happy.  Like all nursing mommies she is very hungry!  There are 7 babies.  Two black one which look like seals to me :) and 5 white and broken.  I haven't counted how many are grey broken and how many are black broken yet.

Banyan Pants in Red

 

I'm starting a new thing on my blog.  I'm going to let my kids take the majority of pictures.  I know this will drive some of you nuts.  So not professional!  But I am hoping it will give them each a sense of accomplishment when they see their pictures up here for the whole world to see.  These pictures of my very first pair of Banyan Pants by Figgy's were taken by my son A.J.  He's almost 12.  I think you did a great job of capturing your little sister on camera A.J.  You certainly show her energy and style :)  Now if I ever get a pattern testing gig I will do two posts.  One where the kids take the pics and one where I take the pics.  I am not much better to be honest.  I just don't have the patience and I am really hoping that my oldest daughter will take over picture duty soon.

 

I uses some heavy weight red fabric that I purchased at a garage sale last summer for these pants.  I chose white thread because I love top-stitching and I love contrasting thread.  It shows my mistakes off so nicely :)

 

I have to say that I love this pattern.  I love the fit, I love the style and I loved the instructions.  I am not good at following directions, it just goes against the grain for me for some reason.  One of my goals for the next few years is to learn to follow patterns and sew much better.  The problem with always drafting my own items is they are almost always first drafts.  Unless I want to sew them multiple times to make changes they will always be flawed.  So I am going to try to use more patterns.

 

Allie likes these pants a lot.  They are a bit big on her, which I planned.  She doesn't really need any clothes right now so these will be for the fall.  I know right, fall sewing already!  Well I do have 4 children and I want to make them each a few pieces plus sew for myself a bit so I figured I would start early.

I would still like to take some pics of these pants myself or get Jess to do it but for now I am just happy that I got them onto the blog.  I think they turned out beautifully.  Some firsts for me when sewing this pattern were, the zipper fly (yay I did it!!!), the cuffs at the bottom and the 3 piece waist band.  All in all I would say these pants were a definite success.

Happy Sewing :)

Can I do it? Thrift challenge.

I'm giving myself a challenge for 2013.  Sew a functional wardrobe for myself and my family using entirely thrifted items. There are so many clothes out there on the world. They are worn and loved and then thrown away or given to goodwill. I challenge myself to use them and thrifted fabric from goodwill or garage sales for all my 2013 sewing. I LOVE buying new fabric but as we enter 2013 I know my family will not be able to afford many luxuries. Sewing isn't only a hobby for me though, it helps keep me sane. If I go for too long without creating something I start to feel lost and depressed. I'm not sure why, I only know it happens. For some reason sewing or creating digital scrapbooking items helps keep me centered. Keeps my brain from going in too many directions and thinking (worrying) about all the things in life that I can't control. Maybe it's because I can control what I sew or design digitally?

My first thrifted projects will be birthday presents for Allie. I can't believe she will be 7 in less than a week!  Here is a list of thing I will attempt to get finished this week using only what I already have on hand. I may have to buy thread though as I am running low on it!

Skirt with matching Cabbage Patch Skirt (maybe tops of I can find the right fabric in my stash)

Mohawk winter hat  http://thismamamakesstuff.com/tutorial-semi-homemade-mohawk-beanie-cap-no-knitting/

Fox scarf  http://prudentbaby.com/2012/12/baby-kid/diy-fox-scarf-with-free-pattern/

Something Minecraft. I'm not sure what yet but Allie will play Minecraft for hours if I let her so I think she'd love a Minecraft stuffy or shirt. I'll post a link if I find something on the net to make. If not then I will blog about how and what I created. 

Organizer for her markers. This must be 7 year old friendly. Maybe hang on her wall?  She if horrible at keeping her craft supplies together but loves to craft. I want to figure out a way to help her keep her supplies together and at least accessible of not organized. 

Wish me luck and happy sewing and creating :)

AJ`s Gym Shirt - By Request

 AJ doesn`t ask me to sew things for him very often.  So when he does I do my best to create what he asks for.  This time he asked for a gym shirt.  He was very specific.  It had to be out of the grey sweatshirt material, it had to be a tank top and no it couldn`t be embellished in any way.  Even adding the black ribbing was a stretch but in the end he really liked it.

The bands turned out perfect on the sleeves but the neckline I am not proud of.  Since I didn`t have a ready made pattern and as usual created my own by tracing an existing shirt, I wasn`t sure exactly how long to make the ribbing.  Turns out less is more in terms of necklines.  It looks pretty good until he puts it on.  The it gapes a bit with the black ribbing sagging in the middle at the front.  I hate looking at it to be honest but AJ loves the shirt and wouldn`t let me take the neckline apart to make the ribbing smaller.  He was too impatient and wanted to bring it to school right away.  Oh well, live and learn!

On the plus side he really does like it and for me that is the best compliment.  Especially from a boy who grabs whatever his hand lands on first (whether it`s clean or dirty!!) and throws it on in the morning.  So this one is going in the success column despite it`s mistakes.

I hope you have and are having a wonderful day!