Flashback Friday

Here's today's Flashback Friday...

I have a great flashback for you today!  Sabra from Sew A Straight Line is joining us!  Sabra's blog is full of fun tutorials, and I promise you won't be able to help yourself from becoming a regular at Sew A Straight Line!  Here's Sabra...

Thanks, Abby, for inviting me here today for Flashback Friday!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of the importance of tradition and the value of sharing something of yourself. And because it’s almost Halloween, I’ve thinking about that, too. 

I made bat costumes for my son and his cousin in 2004 when they were 1.5 and 2, respectively. 

  

The bats were simple, but exactly how I’d pictured in my head and I was ridiculously proud of them. 
Three years later, my second son wore one for Halloween 2007.
 

 
Even though my sewing had improved over the past three years since I’d made it and I could see all kinds of things I’d change, it was so fun to pull it out and have it worn and loved again.  It wasn’t perfect, but I had made it and I was still proud to have my child wear something I created.

Ever since I was pregnant with my first, I’ve made my children’s Halloween costumes every year.  Including in utero, when I altered my maternity shirt to be a backboard complete with hoop, and the kid-filled belly as the basketball.  I don’t do it to save money, as anyone who has made a homemade costume can attest that you can usually buy a cheap store bought one for half what you’ll pay in fabric and materials to make your own.   Some of the costumes I’ve made over the years have been unique with no ready-to-wear alternative, but the main reason I make these costumes is because I love the tradition of it.  It’s my thing.  Even before I really was into sewing, and the only time I even dragged my machine out was the last week of October, I looked forward to this time of year and coming up with something new.  I still look forward to it, and now my kids do, too.  I love that they expect it of me now.  I love that they have such confidence in my ability to recreate what their imaginations dream up.  And I love how excited they get when I’m making their costume of choice, and especially when it’s finished, and they beg to wear it right away, and then to bed, and then the next day.  I love being a part of their creativity and imaginations by sharing my own through sewing. 

Sewing, and other creative arts, has such permanence.  There are so many things that I do for my family every day that just doesn’t  last.  Dishes get put back in the sink dirty, laundry gets soiled and thrown back in the hamper, toys get dragged from their bins, and bums have to be wiped over and over and over.  When I make something for my family and friends, it lasts.  It’s a tangible piece of my love and appreciation for them in my life.  It’s cheesy, but I love that about sewing for others.

And so this year, the bat costume has been dusted off and washed for another year of trick or treating, this time by my third son.

It’s a little short on him and is starting to show some signs of wear, but this kid doesn’t care.  When asked, he’ll proudly tell you his momma made it.  He’ll also tell you the history of his brothers wearing it before him.  The other day he sat on my lap looking through pictures of Halloweens past and giggling that his brothers were small like him and wearing “his” costume.  It’s simple and maybe a little bit silly, but this ill-fitting costume is now a firmly-established holiday tradition around here.   And I made it.  I’m still proud of that.

Thanks for sharing your flashback with us today Sabra!  Take a moment and say hi to Sabra on her blog!

We Did It! Wednesday

Welcome to We Did It! Wednesday.  Last week was great as usual!  Here are some favorites:

Anthro inspired headband from If Life Was Like A Cupcake:

The Grandview Bag TUTORIAL!!!! from The Boy Trifecta (yes, this is the Purse Week winner!):

Painted keys from The Speckled Dog:

Here's a button for those of you who were featured:

Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.

<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAlogobrownandpinkfeaturedbutto-1.png" /></a></center>

Okay, onto today's party!  Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:

1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share.  It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.

2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.



Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.
<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAbuttonWDIWargylecopy-1.jpg" /></a></center>

Bridesmaid Dress

I was excited when Lexi's mom asked me to sew a bridesmaid dress for Ashley, Lexi's identical twin.  Since Ashley lives here in Utah and their mom lives in South Carolina, it would have been tricky for her to know that the dress would fit like it should.  Plus, she had two other dresses to sew, and along with planning a wedding from across the country, I think her hands were full enough!

It was fun to sew (except for the rolled hem on the sleeves, let's not go there!), and even got me to switch my serger thread color for the first time in about 5 years!  Hopefully it won't be another five years before I change it again :).  Who am I kidding?  It will probably be six.

Ooh, and on another note, the Copycat Challenge is happening!  Thanks for all your input, you guys are so great.  I'm so excited, and I'll be letting you know all the details later this week!

Ties and Bowties!

Another project I did for my brother in law's wedding last weekend were ties and bowties for all the nephews in the two families.  Remember Lexi from this post?  Yep, they got married!  Don't they make a cute couple?

For the two littlest boys, Weston and Hudson, I made bowties using Christie over at A Lemon Squeezy Home's tutorial.  I know that there are a lot of bowtie tutorials around, but I definitely like her's the best.

I made them slightly smaller than Christie's directions since the boys were only 10 and 16 months old, but it was a super easy tutorial, and I like that they were still kind of big.

They were really fun to make too!  Weston had fun wearing his...  Sometimes :).

For the three older boys (can Wyatt really be considered an older boy now?  Yikes!) I made real ties using the free pattern from Ottobre Design (you have to scroll through the images all the way to the left and then click on the tie image).

Kayden's grandpa helped him with his tie.  And yes, he always looks that sweet (unless you mess with his Star Wars Legos).

 I hope you all have a good weekend!

I'll be linking to some of these parties!

Copycat Challenge?

Hey ladies (and man, in case there is one of you out there that actually reads my blog, which is doubtful).  So I've been wanting to do another themed week or contest of some sorts (Go Green Month feels like years ago now), and wanted to get your imput as usual.

After the great response on my dress, which is still keeping me grinning from ear to ear (THANK YOU), I thought it might be fun to have a Copycat Challenge.  I'm thinking we could include any sort of item that you want to copy, whether it's jewlery, clothing, or home decor.  There are so many great knock offs around lately that I think it would be fun to gather them all up in one place!

What do you think?  Would you like something like that?  And of course we'd have prizes for the winners, and you could all vote for your favorites.

I'm just throwing it out there, so if you have any ideas or input, let me know.  Would you rather it just be a clothing competition to keep things simple, or would it be more fun to have it as anything goes?

p.s. I've never heard of the movie Copycat before until I found the image above, so please don't judge me if it's creepy or inappropriate :).

We Did It! Wednesday

I love Wednesdays and seeing what you all have been up to!  Thanks for stopping by today's We Did It! Wednesday.  Before we get to today's party, let's see a few of my favorites from last week:

Not Just Another Pretty Purse (and a great PDF tutorial) from Sabra at Sew A Straight Line:

Apple purse and tutorial from Mommy Creations:

Peanut butter cupcakes with Nutella frosting from Sourkraut Krafts (post ANYTHING with chocolate and peanut butter and I'm bound to feature it!):

Here's a button for those of you who were featured:

Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.

<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAlogobrownandpinkfeaturedbutto-1.png" /></a></center>

Okay, onto today's party!  Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:

1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share.  It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.

2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.




Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.
<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAbuttonWDIWargylecopy-1.jpg" /></a></center>

My Anthro Inspired Dress

It's done!  After re-doing the hem four times (yes, FOUR times -- I told you I'm well aquainted with my seam ripper), my dress is done.  I finished it just in time for my brother in law's wedding this weekend, and have to say that it was so much fun to make.  If you missed it, I was debating between a couple of dresses to make (thank you SO much for all the suggestions!), and eventually decided to make one inspired by Anthropologie's Ruffle Plaid Dress:

For my version, I used a charcoal herringbone fabric, although you can't see the detail in the photos.  I added cap sleeves, a higher neckline, and a flounce hem.  I also lined the whole dress, which makes it SO much nicer to wear.

I used my serger to do a rolled hem on all of the ruffles, which I have to say was a dream.  Since I was wearing flowers in my hair, I left off any fabric flowers on the dress (although I don't think I'll ever put any permanently on the dress).  And I found the belt at Forever 21 (cause we all are, right?) for $3.50 for a set of two.  I know it's off centered in the photos, but that's just the way things go sometimes :).

I think I'll be making some more dresses soon.  One of my goals this year was to sew more for myself, so at least I've done something towards that now.  Oh, and I've got a couple of other things I'll show you soon that I made for the wedding.

I'll be linking up to a few of these linky parties!

p.s. Sorry!  I accidently deleted the last 10 or so comments from this post, and when I restored them couldn't get the original dates and time back so they won't match up to when you wrote them :).

I am entering...

Flashback Friday

Here's today's Flashback Friday...

Today I'm pleased to welcome Wren to Sew Much Ado for Flashback Friday.  You're going to get a kick out of her flashback, I promise!  Here's Wren...

Many years ago, we lived way out in the county and never had any trick-or-treaters. When my in-laws moved to town, they asked us to come over each year and hand out candy. The first year, I made a giant old paper mache pumpkin head because I didn't want to scare kids (I got over it the next year!) I did the whole scarecrow look and sat in a chair on the porch. Unfortunately, this costume scared more kids than the meanest one I've made since. I think they thought I was one of those porch decorations that you buy at the craft store, so when they walked up and I talked, it sent more than one running off in tears. I felt awful, so I started waving constantly, but even that didn't work--I guess they thought I was mechanical. I felt terrible for scaring the little ones, and a little bit bad when I even managed to startle some older ones and even a few parents.

The next year I was a witch and didn't scare anyone! ;-)


Hehe, I can just imagine all the kids getting scared!  Heck, it would probably even scare me now!  Thanks so much for the flashback Wren!
Do you have a Halloween Flashback Friday to share?  Email me!

We Did It! Wednesday

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a fabulous week!  Thanks for stopping by Sew Much Ado's weekly linky party! 

Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:

1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share.  It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.

2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.




Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.
<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAbuttonWDIWargylecopy-1.jpg" /></a></center>

Black Bean Brownies



Photo source Every Food Fits

I've heard about Black Bean Brownies from a couple different places recently, and finally tried them the other day.  You just need a regular brownie mix and a can of black beans.  After pureeing the beans and the liquid from the can (I drained the liquid and filled the can back up with water to reduce the sodium), just mix it with the brownie mix instead of adding the oil, water, and egg.  You can bake them as normal.

I don't have a picture of mine, which is a testament that these really are good!  They were gone by the next day (but my sister was visiting, so give me some credit), and I promise you can't taste any bean flavor.  The texture was slightly different than regular brownies -- almost more chewy than fudgy -- but still super moist.

Next time you make brownies, try it and see if your family can notice a difference!

On a side note, although you couldn't tell, I've been sewing like crazy lately.  Definitely more than I have in a long time.  I've sewn a bridesmaid dress, 3 ties, 2 bowtie, and a dress for myself (yep, the ruffle plaid Anthro dress... I just finished sewing it and is it sad that I'm sitting here typing at 1:30am while wearing it and debating whether I should take the hem down a 1/2"?).  I'll show you pics soon of all the finished products :).

Flashback Friday

Here's today's Flashback Friday...

In the spirit of Halloween...  My mom made the cavewoman costume on the left for me and the jail bird costume on the right for my brother Andy when I was in grade 5. 

The best part is that she still has these costumes, and they've been used a million times since then.  I even wore the cavewoman costume for Halloween my first year working as a dental hygienist, which was over 10 years later!  My hair was down to my waist then, so I backcombed it like crazy onto the top of my head (still keeping it out of my face and my patient's mouths, of course), and colored a front tooth in with a black Sharpie.  Actually, even the next couple years when I was a cowgirl for Halloween at work (my excuse to wear jeans for once), I colored in a tooth or two.  You should try it!  It's hilarious, and believe it or not, the permanent ink comes off pretty easily... at least with a dental polisher :).  I think the dentist I worked for wasn't quite sure what to think about it, and I'm sure my patients were even more nervous, but it was fun!  I wish I had a picture of me in the costume then.  It was more of a tunic than a dress on me by that time.

My mom cracks me up -- the bone necklace was a real bone that came from who knows where!

I think I may actually make my own cavewoman costume for this year, maybe Joel will be up for being a caveman... 

If you have any homemade Halloween flashbacks you'd like to share, email me!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?

Which dress to make?

I'm planning on making a dress this weekend, and here are a couple of my options:

One of my FAVORITE dresses I've seen online is the Coffee Date Dress by The Selfish Seamstress.  Elaine May is so wonderful to share the free pattern with all of us.  I love the ruffle detail, but I want a dress with sleeves, and I think for my body type I would look better with a slightly more fitted skirt area rather than the A-line that the pattern has.  So I guess I'd probably find a better dress pattern for my shape and add the ruffle to it from the Coffee Date Dress pattern.

There are about a million coffee date dresses you can see online that people have made.  You can go here to see a lot of them.  Here are a couple that I especially like:

I think this green color is great, and I love it with the belt.  Image from here. 

I think it's cute in grey too.  Image from here.

I also love this dress from Anthropologie:

I think the asymmetrical ruffles are so pretty, don't you?  I think I like the shape of this dress better for me, it's more similar to what I want to make.  Do you think a wide belt would be too much with these ruffles?  I'm kinda set on a wide belt, but maybe not if it'd be getting a little crazy up in there :).

Okay all you smart blogging friends of mine, which dress (or maybe I should say, which ruffles), would you make?  You know I'll listen to you, right?

We Did It! Wednesday

Welcome to Sew Much Ado's weekly linky party, We Did It! Wednesday.  Thanks so much for joining in last week, once again it was our biggest party!  Here are some favorites from last week:

Skirt by Jenny at The Southern Institute (love her!):

Sweater pants from Finding My Aloha:

Beanie by The Creative Maven:

Here's a button for those of you who were featured:

Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.

<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAlogobrownandpinkfeaturedbutto-1.png" /></a></center>

Okay, onto today's party!  Here's how We Did It! Wednesday works:

1. Enter a link (specific blog post, not your homepage) using the Linky Tools below to something you made that you want to share.  It can be something you sewed, crafted, painted, baked, or anything else you made that you want to share.

2. Try to check out at least one other link on the list (and I'm sure they'd love it if you left a comment too).
3. Post the We Did It! Wednesday button below to your post or sidebar to let others know your participating.





Copy and paste the HTML text below to your own blog or website.
<center><a href="http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy351/jdsmit21/SMAbuttonWDIWargylecopy-1.jpg" /></a></center>