Throw Down

I can't really say why throw pillows have been one of my greatest struggles as I have decorated my home.

Silly me.

They are fast, easy, and cheap to make, especially if you make them as slipcovers. No hand sewing necessary. (I do everything I can to avoid hand sewing) Thanks, Ashley, for your inspiration.

Plus, they add so much to a room!

I smile every time I look over at mine. I am thinking I need to make two or three more ...

Project One Hour: New Look 6796: Part Two

My mom bought me this material (from JoAnns) to go with a dress pattern she had on hand. When I went to cut it out, though, I couldn't help but pair it up with this New Look pattern instead.

The funny thing about this project is that the vision in my head was a sweet little top paired with bermuda length shorts. The vision was so clear that while cutting out and sewing the pattern I didn't even pay attention to the fact that the pattern was for pants. How's that for absented-minded? I was a bit disappointed when I tried them on her. So, in reality, this project isn't done yet. I need to make the pants into shorts, which is a bit trickier than it may seem, but still doable.

Pants or not, I couldn't resist having her wear the outfit today.

P.S. This material is seersucker. Seersucker is a bit of an old school material, you don't see it a lot in the stores, but I don't know why. I think it is darling and it is wash and wear. No ironing needed, ever. How can you resist that?

Project One Hour: New Look 6796

I did pretty well getting my hour of sewing (or rather, cutting!) in each day at the end of May. Now that June is zooming past me, I am attempting to bring all the unfinished projects to a conclusion. The first finished product with much more to come ...

Father's Day Gifts

Dear Father and Father-in-Law -- STOP READING NOW!

One afternoon

Two Shirts

Three fat quarters

A bit of inspiration:

1. I have seen tie applique t-shirts and onesies all over blog land. Here, here, and here ... just to name a few. I thought I would do a little grown up spin on it.
2. I recently bought a shirt for the hubby with this logo on it (on clearance for $3, yay!). I thought to myself, I can do that ....

The results:

My Favorite Photo Action

For the record, I use PSE 7.

OK, moving on.

I really don't like to spend a lot of time editing photos, but I like to make my photos to look their best. Enter photo actions. My current favorite for portrait style pictures is from Rita over at Coffeeshop. It is called Perfect Portrait. Really, it is the only one I use. I like it so much, why spend a bunch of time finding more? Check out the before and after and tell me you aren't a fan, too:

Before

After

Project One Hour: Day Seven: kimono shoes

made with Aimee Larsen's kimono shoes pattern

It kills me that I hadn't discovered all the adorable baby shoe patterns out there when my little ones were babies. They would have had the best dressed feet this side of the Mississippi, for sure. On the other hand, maybe it is a good thing. They might have also been seriously neglected.

"I know the baby is hungry. Just a sec, I need to finish one more pair of shoes. Yes, I know she has been crying for 30 minutes. Just a sec."

"Oh sweetheart, you can sit in that yucky diaper for a few more minutes. I need to finish these shoes."

Not a pretty picture. I guess I better get the shoe sewing out of my system before we decide to bring even more chaos into our lives with baby #3.

Another item to add to the queue

What an ingenious idea for making reusable placemats. Ideas for variations are already spinning around in my head!