If you couldn’t tell already, spring time is the time for Birthdays in my home. First comes Marcus’ then Thom’s followed by Molly’s and rounding out with Thomas’. This week was Thom’s turn. His birthday was this past Thursday. The kids love parties, so we use birthdays to really do it up.
Thomas even learned how to play “Happy Birthday” on the piano and played along {which was quite appropriate, considering this week’s life photo theme just happened to be play} while we brought out the cake.
Which means that since Friday, it’s Molly’s birthday prep time. Which also means that I’ve been sewing. She wanted a doll this year for her present.
Which is also coincidentally perfect for this week’s portrait photo theme of anticipation.
She is so excited about her new doll that she hardly will put her down long enough for me to finish her, as evidenced by her having to hold her last night, sans her matching knitted dress. Oh yeah, remember that rainbow dress that I’m making for Molly? Her doll is getting one too.
Better get back to it! T-minus 6 days until her birthday party!
After seeing all the fun things that one can do with an “elf on the shelf” over on see jane blog, and *sniffle* not winning her awesome giveaway, I decided we needed our own elf to make a little mischief during the holidays.
I gathered up my wee wonderfuls pattern, got to sewing yesterday, and by day’s end we now have our own “Elfie” as the kids named it.
Elfie is all ready for her {Molly told me, certainly Elfie is a she!} job. In the wee hours of the morning, I found her on the dining room table…
We signed up for a two week free trial to Speekee TV yesterday and I have to say, the kids have really been loving it. It’s a video-based Spanish immersion program with a 40-week suggested lesson plan accompanying it.
Yesterday, we watched “El parque”. When I say we watched it, I mean they must have played it at least 5 times and then we watched the little excerpts that go along with it at least a dozen more times.
Especially the puppets Lupi and Dino.
The lesson plan suggests that day 2, you are to make puppets like Lupi and Dino. Yeah, we were all over that today. The kids ran around the house collecting items they thought would make for perfect puppets, and we came up with these cuties.
They then begged to make a video with them. They had one specifically in mind, so they went right to work, watching it, and practicing their parts.
Without further ado, here it is.
Oh yes, the kids are really loving Speekee TV. You will certainly be seeing more of our adventures with it here! So stay tuned.
Disclaimer: Speekee TV has no idea who I am, and didn’t pay me to write this. We just truly enjoyed it so much that I felt like I had to share the love. Te quiero.
Have you checked out Sew Can She? It’s run by a wonderful mom named Caroline who scours the internet for sewing tutorial and posts a new one up everyday. Did you get that? EVERY DAY there is something new and FREE to sew? That is my kind of site!
Today, I’m the featured sewing tutorial! Well, more accurately the Spin Around Dress is, but you got the idea, right? Caroline asked if I would like to be a part of it and naturally I jumped at the chance.
So head on over to Sew Can She and check out some other freebies while you are there. Older featured tutorials are neatly sorted by category so it’s super easy to find a tutorial you love and get to sewing! Which we all know is a good thing.
Seems like this week is centered on the kids. Heck, who am I kidding, every week revolves around them. Last week, Thomas had me make clothes for Monkey. He was convinced that Monkey’s lack of clothing was an issue and he meticulously chose fabric and oversaw the sewing, adding important things such as tail holes and selecting the perfect snaps. Upon its completion, Thomas immediately dubbed them Monkey’s pajamas and has dressed him in the every night since.
Today? Thomas came to me and said, “Mommy, I have a problem.”
Whatever could it be?
“Well, when I tuck Monkey in at night, he’s not big enough to reach my pillow, you know, because he likes to be under the covers?”
…and?
“Well, I think he needs a pillow… I know the PERFECT fabric! Oooh! I’ll go get my scissors!!”
And off he went and brought with him his own pillow to size up how big to make Monkey’s pillow, respectively of course.
Here’s what we came up with:
He even helped stuff it and blind stitch it shut. Not too bad for a 6 yr old, huh?
I finished up the second Spin Around Dress with short sleeves.
Actually, I have two options now.
I totally made up this cute pdf and I totally had plans to release it tonight, but I totally stayed up too late and finished way after Molly’s bedtime, AGAIN!
Sooo… you’ll totally just have to wait until tomorrow until she tries it on, and then I promise I’ll totally share.
I really need to break this habit of late night sewing.
With all that talk yesterday about updating my cover art on the Little Starter Cloth Diaper pattern, I couldn’t help but sew up a…
…spin around dress with sleeves.
Ha! Got you, didn’t I. I’m so sneaky like that. I really wanted to sew up a diaper, but today was a crazy day and when I finally sat down to start I realized that I didn’t have the fabric I really wanted, and since this will be my new cover I didn’t want to settle.
Molly was so excited that I decided to sew her another dress instead that she waited patiently in my bed as I sewed. Poor girl didn’t even get to see it finished, as she finally passed out for the night about 5 mins before I was done.
It will make a nice surprise in the morning, right?
As I was updating fixing my website links yesterday, I got to thinking about how the Spin Around Dress is one of my favorite patterns, and from the looks of it, it’s one of yours too. Which lead to more thinking and I arrived at the sad fact: Molly could no longer fit in to the 2T pattern that I designed for her back in 2009. So, what else could I do?
I started out this morning with this:
But now I’m…
Introducing, the updated Molly size Spin Around Dress:
Instructions are the same as the old spin around dress, but this one comes in XS(4/6). I decided to mix Molly’s dress up a bit and instead of hemming the bottom I finished it with bias tape as well as using the remaining bias tape to make a waist tie.
Want to make your own?
All you need to do is head on over to Facebook and like me. {already like me? aww how sweet! you can skip this step then}
Once you like me {you really like me!!} just click on the:
{it’s in the left hand sidebar}
Then download your freebie Spin Around Dress.
Happy Sewing and Enjoy! {and don’t forget to spin!}
Me? Oh I don’t think I’m headed anywhere but home… But NOW since Thursdays in 2012 will be sewing days {insert happy dance here}, I can be all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Sew What?
Well, I started out with Simplicity 2180…
…and modded it for knits…
…oh yeah! I was toying around the idea of adding rosettes to the neckline, but ended up putting them in my hair instead.
Voila!
Oh, that’s right… the skirt was pink in that picture up there, isn’t it?
It’s reversible too.
(please ignore the dorky pose on this one, well, I guess ignore the dorky poses on all of them, but this one especially as Molly jumped in front of me at the last second.)
So, I’ll ask my question again. What are you doing new year’s eve? Or more importantly, what are you wearing??
She is so excited about her new doll that she hardly will put her down long enough for me to finish her, as evidenced by her having to hold her last night, sans her matching knitted dress. Oh yeah, remember that rainbow dress that I’m making for Molly? Her doll is getting one too.
Te quiero. 
I finished up the second Spin Around Dress with short sleeves.
As I was 
