So Vintage

My camera broke not too long ago, and I was so sad. I ended up getting one at a consignment store for $20. It’s not the best in the world, but it serves it’s purpose. Everyone once in a while the picture comes out looking kind of vintage. It’s usually a happy surprise since I like vintage-y things. I was trying to take pictures of some peter pan collars I had made. My wood cabinets help the vintage look, but the color is right on. So here is modern 1950’s version of myself. Hope you have a great day!

 

Birthday Bubble

It was a year ago today that the most precious wonderful miracle would entered into our family. She’s probably the best thing that has ever happened to us. We waited at the hospital all day and half the night until we heard the news. Alex, my sister, had finally popped her baby out. Well…I don’t think it popped out quite that easily. She did decide to make a turn half way out, but those are minor details. Never the less, the baby had arrived and it was a perfectly healthy little girl. I think we were all in love before we even saw her.

Over the year we have seen her grow and change and grow and change and….She has a sassy little defiant personality that is pretty adorable, but might be a pain when she’s 10-18, but most girls are anyways. Right? She has been a wonderful baby. She is very sweet and loving. She has always slept amazing. She hardly ever cries. She will be the class clown one day. She doesn’t like to be told no. And I’m pretty sure she eats more food than I do.

With a year of life comes a birthday bash. Now I still can’t wrap my head around this concept of a gigantic first birthday party. The baby will not remember it, but WOW! People go all out. You shouldn’t expect anything less than over the top when it comes to my sister. She invited 75 people. I wasn’t even sure if I actually even knew 75 people. The party was last weekend. It was beautiful, successful, fun, and creative. Blow up water pools everywhere, sprinklers, a slip-n-slide, photo booth, treasure hunt, arts and crafts, and a food table that was Pinterest worthy. We took plenty of photos and videos so that tater-tot would see it one day because we know her sweet little brain can’t remember stuff liked that quite yet.

In all of my sister’s crazy over the top-ness she requested a birthday bubble. Bubbles are those cute little ruffle-y summer outfits/rompers for little girls. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It was one of the most difficult and time consuming things I’ve ever made, but she was so stinking cute in it. We went to pick out fabric and looked at a million pictures online to kind of get an idea of what she wanted. This is what we came up with…

The Front.

The Back.

Anchor buttons.

They make this cool ribbon with snaps on it, so you don’t have to be able to put them directly onto the fabric. This stuff proved to be amazing for me.

Here she is in her outfit playing with the toys she opened. The cell phone was a favorite.

This is Tater-tot on my birthday present to her. A Radio Flyer Adjustable seat bike. I know she can’t ride it yet, and it might be a while before she can, but it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, besides her of course. Also, I found it at a thrift store for $5 and couldn’t resist such a great deal. She got a matching blue helmet too. (Thanks for the pictures Gran. I stole them)

I have no kind of tutorial or advice for making something like this. Actually, my advice is: just purchase a cute outfit in the store. I should have gotten a pattern or something to help guide me, but I’m stubborn. It turned out great and I’m proud of it, but it might be about a million years before I make anything else like this. I now know why these bubbles are so expensive at the store.

Happy Birthday Today my little Tater-Tot!

Aunt Sammie loves you soooooooo….. much! I think you are perfect, wonderful, and special. I can’t wait to see you grow another year!

Tater-Tot Tar Heel

Football season is upon us. Sometimes we learn to follow certain teams later in life, but sometimes we are born into a fandom. I was born a Carolina Tar Heel. No if ands or buts about it. It’s just how it was. (Quite frankly now that I’m older I could really care less about football, but if I do cheer for a college team it is Carolina.) Tater-tot, my niece, was born a Tar Heel also. She was at her first football game before she was even a month old. She toughed it out through the entire season of home games and even had a Carolina Blue fuzzy bear suit looking thing to keep her warm. She was definitely the cutest thing in Keenan Stadium last year.

I had her an amazing first Birthday present, but I also like to give a handmade gift too. It needed to be a good one. A really cute light pink Carolina t-shirt came into my store, but it was a junior’s large. No problem for me. I enjoy a challenge.

 

It’s cute, but it definitely needs some bling, so I took care of that problem.

I used E600 glue and size 20 aquamarine ab stones. I got them at Hobby Lobby, but other fabric stores might carry these stones or anywhere that has dance costume supplies.

I filled in all the letters with these pretty stones.

I used a shirt she already had to cut this one down to size and then I sewed the sides and shoulders together with a slight zig-zag stitch.

I just rolled the fabric in the arms under once and sewed it with a slight zig-zag stitch. Then I reattached the neck of the t-shirt to the new neck of the dress.

I used what was left of the bottom of the shirt to make the bottom of the dress. I set my sewing machine on a zig-zag setting and lined up the bottom of the hem with the needle. I then stretched the fabric as I was sewing right over the edge. The stretching creates the ruffle. I stitched around twice to have a good amount of blue on the edge. (Confession: this ruffle technique isn’t my idea. I saw it on a tutorial once. I would really love to give the other person credit, but I can’t figure out where the tutorial is. I swear I pinned it on Pinterest, but it’s not on any of my boards. If I find it again another day, I will share.)

I then sewed with a wide straight stitch on the other side of the ruffle boarder and pulled a thread to make the other side have a bit of ruffle too. I sewed this ruffle piece onto the bottom of the dress.

I then used excess sleeve material to make little ruffle sleeves/wings.

I used the same technique on these as I used on the bottom of the dress. I then sewed these over the shoulders of the dress.

Here it the front.

Here is the back.

Here is a silly little girl modeling. It’s kind of long because I didn’t want to cut off any of the design on the front of the shirt. The length makes it look a little bit like a gown, but she is still precious in my opinion.

Crazy girl.

Hello kitty cat. So nice to see you here.

I did make her try this on after her birthday party. I’m sure she was exhausted, but I still think she is the cutest little tater-tot in the whole world!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

I like to give themed presents. For instance, at baby showers it’s fun to give a whole tub of bath supplies and some books about bath time too. Everything goes together and the presentation is so cute. This time it wasn’t a baby shower, but a 3 year old birthday party. (It’s the same 3 year old that is having a pirate party.) It all started with a puzzle. A giant Dr. Seuss floor puzzle. At that moment I knew I had to have a Dr. Seuss theme. In the present there were also multiple books, a cat in the hat bag, a water bottle, and a dress/tunic (thats what this post is really about). I’ve been gathering items for a while now, so when a super cute “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” shirt came into the store I knew I had to do something with it. It couldn’t go as is because most 3 year olds don’t wear juniors size XL.

Here is the shirt. It’s actually very cute. The fish are metallic and in general, it’s just fun!

I laid the shirt out flat and started by measuring out how wide the top of the dress needed to be.

I then drew a rough outline of where I needed to cut, and cut out the shirt. I had to make some tiny adjustments as I went, but when I work with t-shirts I feel like they don’t have to be exactly perfect and it usually works out just fine.

I sewed down the sides and sewed the shoulders together on the inside. I used a small zig-zag stitch to make sure the seam would stretch a little bit. I used the same zig-zag stitch for this entire project.

I turned under the neck and the arms just once and pinned them down. I stitched them into place.

The next thing I did was make 2 bows. I used the scraps from the sleeves of the shirt. I cut 2 rectangles and folded both of the long ends together to make a little pocket like the photo above. I sewed down both sides. I then flipped this little pocket and turned it over. I used other scrap material to gather the middle together.

Here are my 2 finished bows. I just tied the material around the middle and sewed it into place and I was sewing the bows onto the dress. I gathered both shoulders of the dress and sewed a bow onto each shoulder.

Here it is. It’s kind of a dress, kind of a tunic, and it kind of looks like it would be a great pool cover up. It’s pretty comfy so it might even be a night gown. Either way, I liked it.