Reversible Vintage Baby Bonnet

I'm back from my week in California. My mother in law is doing swimmingly well considering she had her chest and heart opened up just recently. She looks so fabulous I accused her of having cosmetic surgery instead. Honestly, I am so very glad she is doing well. It is much too scary to think about potentially losing the important people in our lives and she means the world to me. You all should be jealous. Not only is my mother in law super awesome but she sews too! We enable each other.

The weather in California is too damn nice. Especially when compared to Maryland's hot and humid ones. If it weren't for a lack of room I would have just had my things sent out to me. I could totally be a West Coast girl, right?

While I was away I was commissioned by my friend, Stephanie, to sew her newest baby girl a reversible bonnet that had a vintage feel for it and that is what I tackled first thing this week. Please note that the bonnet is a 3-6 month size but my Jimmy is 10 months old and large headed. (Ten months?!? Really? Yikes!)

My husband was not too happy I used his son to model baby girl bonnets. I told him that Jimmy hated it the whole time...

I wonder if it is possible to make one manly enough that the hubs would let Jimmy wear it?

Kimono Dress

I've been intending to make a kimono dress from this knit fabric for a few months. This style of dress is so easy to wear and comfortable. The solid black one I got at Target is taking a beating. So today I took the scissors to the stash! (gulp)


The whole project went much better than expected. And by that I mean that I ended up with a garment that is not only wearable in public, but cute. I have never sewn with elastic thread in the bobbin before. Also, I didn't use a pattern. I kind of just winged it and used my black dress as a guide.


If I had the time and no kids, I would have done a cute little photoshoot of me in an orchard picking peaches or riding my rustic bike down a dirt road next to a lavender field.


Instead you get little ole me next to the neighbor's fence. I'd really like to find a sweet dress form someday to avoid having to post pictures like this again so I can better photograph the dress itself.

I'm a bonehead: Noodlehead clutches

I've finally finished a batch of six Noodlehead clutches. Two I sent to their owners without taking pictures. (facepalm)

This is for Chrissy. She wanted something badass. She's from Baltimore.

It is in the mail on it's way to you, girlie. I hope you love it.

I made two of these bags; one for my sister-in-law for her birthday and one for me. SIL's has an awesome free hand embroidery rose done in red to dark variegated thread. It was the best one so I gave it to her. This Tequila Sammy one is for me.

The lining is this awesome orange and teal print from Joann's. I also added a strap with a lobster clasp to attach keys too. I hate digging for my keys.

I love the skeleton Guadalupe on the back. She will be a large part of one of my tattoo sleeves one day. Once we're done paying off our legal debt.

And now, the most boneheaded of them all. I am so pissed at myself. I bought this beautiful Heather Ross linen from Ayumi of Pink Penguin when she did some destashing. I'm working hard at being a fabric user, not a horder. So I cut it up and made two smaller sized Noodlehead clutches from it. I had the most perfect lavender dotted fabric for the lining. I stitched these awesome scissors onto the flaps. I was in L. O. V. E.

Then I put the rest of the bag together. And tried not to cry. Sigh. It never even occured to me to leave enough room for overhang. Grrrr...

Let's just go back to where they look lovely.

At least one of the bags is for me. The other is a gift and I'm hoping it's recipient will still think it's pretty swell.

On a positive note, DS Charm swap packages are still coming in! My postal carrier is still super happy about it, huffing and puffing it up to the porch. I can't wait to see what everyone makes with their charms!

I'm off to clean up my disaster house a bit since my parents are coming to stay for a few days starting this evening.

My postal worker hates me

She's a lazy woman and doesn't like to get out of her mail truck which is what she has to do when I get large or more packages than she can jam into our mailbox. For someone who gets to wear jeans to work and sits on her tush all day she complains a lot. I want to tell her that the UPS and FedEx men never whine about the number of packages I get. And, quiet frankly, are much more attractive.

I won Fern's Frocks first SMS giveaway which was a set of 4 coasters made from this awesome owl fabric. When they arrived this week my daughter confiscated them along with a cute Hello Kitty ring. She loves it and wears it day and night on her index finger, like a mob boss.

To a two year old and an infant, coasters are great toys, so I decided to tear open a teeny hole in the seam of each and filled them with rice. Now they have a sweet set of owl bags to toss around. I also plan to microwave them so my husband can give me a faux hot rock massage. He thinks I'm kidding. I think I may need to make more.


Packages for the DS Charm Swap have been arriving everyday (much to postal worker's chagrin.) There are piles and piles of lovely Denyse Schmidt charm squares all over my cutting table. It's a shame I have to send the all back. I am fighting the urge to just run to the Mexican boarder with my sewing machine and live out the rest of my days in hiding, but with an impressive sized DS quilt.

I was checking off packages from my charm swap participant list and had one I couldn't find on my list. I was worried someone sent me fabric and had not signed up for an official spot. Or that I had royally screwed something up. Turns out it was the fabric I won on ImagineGnats' SMS giveaway from Contemporary Cloth Store!

It was a seriously generous offering of a half yard of each print. Thank you! I can't tell you how much I love the colors in the Stockholm line by Kaufman and the hand is amazing. I'm browsing for a fun quilt pattern for them right now. I need to make a new quilt so I can photograph it wrapped around my husband, shirtless, eating a spicy burrito.

You think I'm kidding, but I intend to have him be Mr. March in the 2013 Q.S.M.A.S.B.C. by the Bitchy Stitcher.

I wonder, do you think these colors compliment a naked man eating a burrito? :D