My signature style: Cheerful Casual Wear

 

This week on Project Run and Play, we are asked to create an outfit based on our signature style. This was a little bit hard for me, because usually I just sew whatever pops into my head or something based on an inspiring online tutorial. I really hadn't given it much thought before.

So I started looking back at some things I've sewed this past year:

I noticed some trends:

- I have never mixed non-solid prints. Some pieces might have a crazy print, but if I mix in a different fabric it will be a solid color.

- I really like to use neutral colors (browns, greys, white) with a pop of color. 

- I am not scared to use bright colors. And it seems I like hot pink.

- Although I do sew dresses from time to time, I prefer to sew pieces like shirts and pants. I love sewing everyday clothes. If I do sew a dress, I tend to stay on the casual side. (Unless Eve has anything to say about it. She loves fancy. Remember week 1 of Project Run and Play?)

I've decided to name my style "Cheerful Casual." I think it fits.

Still I wasn't sure what I was going to sew. 

Thankfully, Erin from the Office saved the day for me. Several weeks ago, she wore this awesome cardigan on an episode of "The Office"

I was sold! I think I punched Jason in my excitement.

"Jason! That cardigan! I have to sew it!"

When he didn't acknowledge the importance of the situation, I continued.

"Did you even notice how awesome it was? Where is the remote? Rewind, you have to sit and stare at it for a second with me."

Which we did. It was a glorious second.

I still don't know if he thinks it was as amazing as I do or if he just humored me a little, but I'm going to choose to believe what I want.

I found the picture of Erin on the "worn on TV" website. It said the following cardigan from Nordstrom is an exact match. It does look the same, but the colors seemed much more saturated when I saw it on The Office.

 

Ok, so I know my style and I have my inspiration. Time to sew!

I decided to sew a little tank top for under the cardigan. Living in Kansas, where the temperature fluctuates a lot, we like layers! I used the tank top pattern that came in my new Ottobre Magazine, issue 01/2013. 

(Not the mesh one obviously, although I wish I had a little boy to rock it!)

It sewed up really well. I pretty much stuck to the pattern, which I tend not to do most times. I added a faux button placket to the front. I love a little preppiness!

It's real cute in the back too!

She was a good sport letting me take pictures outside in the cold! It wasn't too bad, but definitely not tank top weather!

For the cardigan, I used a V-neck T-shirt pattern from the same issue of Ottobre magazine:

Instead of cutting on the fold, I just cut out 2 front pieces adding some allowance for the buttons and button holes to overlap. I also rounded it off a little at the V to make the placket a little easier to sew. It turned out great:

And the true test of my sewing skills is how my daughters react to it. Thankfully, Eve loves it! The knit is so soft on both the tank top and the cardigan, comfortable and huggable. She had a blast running around in it!

To finish off the look, I put Eve in a pair of skinny jeans. Originally, they were regular, old purple jeans that were too loose but just the right length. So a couple of months ago, I took them in on both the outseam and inseam and she's been wearing them ever since! They are her favorite pants. Before I sewed them up, she had asked me for a pair of skinnies because she said she really liked mine. So technically, these were her idea in the first place. I think I need to sew her up a few pairs, she looks so cute in them!

Yes, the skinnies were a little dirty. This girl plays hard. And she had just worn these the previous day. And the day before, don't judge! They would have been in the wash if I hadn't needed them for the photoshoot.

She looks good even while jumping, lucky girl!

As my sister lovingly calls her, she's our little "Goober" She has so much joy!

Kicking the leaves. I love a good action shot.

Now, I really need to make Kylie some more clothes. I didn't intend for this season of Project Run and Play to be mostly for Eve. I actually intended on making this outfit for Kylie, but when I sewed up the tank top, I made it too tight and ended up tweeking it for Eve instead and so made her the cardigan to match. When I took Kylie's measurements, the difference between her height measurement was several sizes bigger than the sizes that corresponded for her waist and chest, she's tall and slender. So I made the pattern long and made it more narrow. It ended up very tight on her, so it made more sense to cut it shorter for Eve. Good thing for little sisters!

To see what other people have created for their own signature style, click here. It's so much fun to see other people's creations!

Update: I am also linking this post up to the open auditions of "The Sew Off" hosted by Naptime Crafters.

Best Valentine's Day Gift Ever?

Jason is the best.

He seriously is.

He always gets me the best presents. And by best, I don't mean the most expensive, lavish or extravagant. By best, I mean he always gets me something personal he knows I want.

Like the giant box of Kinder Buenos he bought me for Christmas. Amazing.

Mmmm... Kinder Buenos... what were we talking about again?

Oh yeah, I love Jason.

He surprised me this Valentine's Day by buying me an Ottobre Magazine (=a magazine filled with patterns for children's clothing.) I was so excited when I opened it, I think I squealed.

I had mentioned it to him in a facebook conversation (He's away in Kansas City for classes frequently, so we stay up late "talking" to each other on facebook.) I decided not to buy any issues because it really intimidated me, but I thought the clothes in it were so stinkin' cute.

Jason bought it for me and told me he knew I could do it.

Like I said, he's the best!

So I sat there pouring over the magazine, eating potato chips and staying up way too late. All while pointing out every single outfit to Jason and explaining to him why it was so cute. And he listened to every word. I'm keeping him.

He will be in Kansas City all day and night on Valentine's Day, so we won't get to spend it together. Usually he cooks for me. A couple years ago, he made me the best Croque Monsieur. I'm still drooling over it.

Now that he does all the cooking in our house(What can I say? I'm spoiled, this I know.) it really doesn't matter that he won't be here to cook me a Valentine's Day dinner. I'll still miss him, but I'll console myself by pouring over my Ottobre magazine and making heart shaped pancakes with my girls for dinner.

Seriously, how cute are these patterns? I already sewed up the tank top in the top left corner on the second page. It turned out great!

Jason just bought himself a smoker and said it was his Valentine's Day present from me. That's ok, I'm not as good of a gift giver as he is. Thankfully, he is so excited to use his new smoker, he doesn't care. Apparently, we are eating "bacon explosion" tomorrow. All of Jason's wildest dreams are coming true.

The girls are so excited for Valentine's Day, they are cracking me up. Kylie is obsessed with all the lovey dovey stuffed animals in the stores right now. She kept saying cute things like "Oh my word, this is just so adorable!" and other such nonsense wandering the aisles of the grocery store earlier today. She is a sucker for all that cheesy stuff.

Now if you'll excuse me... I have some little girls I need to go measure in centimeters!

Tiered Ruffle Shirt from Men's Button Up Shirt

Descriptive titles are so boring aren't they? I'm too tired to be creative!

This week on Project Run and Play, the challenge was to refashion a man's button-up shirt. I had one of my dad's old shirts in my refashion pile, but on a whim decided to call him up and ask him permission first. I just had a feeling. My mom was the one to give me most of the clothes and this was the only one that belonged to my dad.

So I called Dad and emailed him a picture so he could see what I was jabbering about. His response? "Oh, I haven't seen that shirt in years, so I guess I haven't missed it. Hmmm... I guess you can cut it up if you want."

Thanks Mom for giving away Dad's clothes! That was all the permission I needed!

Here's the original shirt:

For the record, that's my husband's arm holding it up. I would like everyone to know that my arms are not that hairy and I do not have man's hands.

And here is the shirt refashioned for my sweet little Everz:

There is a mark where the pocket was, which I feel adds to the upcycled charm.

 Here is Eve pointing out the pocket mark:

 

And here she is showing off her new shirt, I'm pretty sure life doesn't get any cuter than this:

Seriously, I love that girl! I can't believe she will be 4 years old in just a month! She is getting big too quickly! Well I take that back, she is actually very short, so technically that's not true. Sorry Eve, but you should just embrace it! You are such a cute little thing, so don't worry about it!

I drafted the top part of the shirt using a raglan style for the itty bittiest little sleeves just perfect for Eve. I used double fold bias tape for the collar and button placket. Since I got over my fear of making button holes for the Valentine's Day challenge last week, I gave it another go. The buttons are fabric covered buttons, my favorite. 

For the ruffle construstion, I used this tutorial for a layered skirt from "Made." The only difference I made was to make the connector pieces less wide so that there would be more overlap on the ruffles. I used my handy rolled hem foot to hem the bottom of each ruffle piece before putting it all together.

The ruffles are cute in the back too:

We visited my grandma at a nursing home over lunch today. She is only there for some physical therapy, and will be going home soon. I knew she would want to see Eve's new shirt: she's the one who got me started sewing a little over a year ago, and she always loves seeing what I make! We took pictures there and I was planning on getting some with Grandma Ginny but my camera died. I was also planning on getting some more detailed shots, but obviously I couldn't do that either. I have no idea where my charger is, this might be bad!

Thankfully Eve gave me some good shots before my camera stopped working:

I love this one. It makes me want to scoop her up and give her big bear hugs all day long:

 Kylie was posing her in this next one, oh dear!

 She is such a little model, much better than I was when I was her age! (and it was my dream job!)

Galette des Rois

 

So now that January is over... it's time for a post on baking a Galette des Rois... FALSE. Let's just pretend I posted this in the middle of January when it would have been more appropriate. Everyone knows you only eat this dessert in January right?

Well since that doesn't seem to be common knowledge and since I don't live in France anymore, let's live a little and do a blog post now! Feel free to make one anytime of the year, I promise not to tell anyone.

My mom requested I make her a galette des rois (That's King's Cake for all you non-frenchies) for her birthday since it falls in January. I had never made one before, so my mom pulled a recipe off the internet for me to follow. Click here for the original recipe.

I took some pictures of the process and some of the actual birthday party to also note some of the traditions that go along with the King's Cake festivities. Please note that this will not be a history lesson and maybe different people celebrated it differently than our family did. This is more of a celebration of the memories of my childhood. This was always a favorite time of the year, since I have three sisters my parents bought this cake quite frequently the whole month at the local patisserie to ensure we would each have a turn finding the fève. 

Fève? I'll explain that too.

Do you like dessert? Do you wish there were toys hiding in your food? Do you wish you could be a king for a day? Then Galette des Rois is for you! Bonus points if you don't like your cakes too sweet!

Since there are so many pictures, I'm breaking this post up. Click below to see the full post

Vintage Sweetheart (Project Run and Play week 4)

Photo Credit: JG Design Photography. More on that later in the blog post!

I'm back with another sewing project! I'm sewing along with Project Run and Play again this week after sitting out last week. It was boy's week and although I'm sure, ok I know, I could have found a cute little boy to sew for, the weeks went by too quickly. Jason is starting his counseling internship and commuting to Kansas City for classes, and I could go on and on about our crazy schedule right now and how busy I've been with work, but more on that later! Let's talk about cute little girl clothes, shall we?

Ahhh.... Valentine's Day...hearts and hearts all over the place! So brainstorming for this week's Valentine's Day challenge, I started wondering how I could use hearts in my design. Heart pockets? Buttons? Appliques? Fabric paint? Then going through my fabric stash I came across some lovely vintage fabric my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas (She gave me an awesome Christmas gift by the way: a box full of fabric she had picked up at garage sales throughout the year! I was just telling Jason all I wanted for Christmas was a box filled with fabric and bam! I was given my exact wish.)

Some of the vintage fabric had cute little heart prints and I was initially going to go with that. But the fabric I ended up using just begged me (literally!) for me to cut into it and sew it into a cute little shirt. Sorry, I know I misused the word "literally". I just crack up when people do that. Seriously, I know it's incorrect. I know fabric can't talk, and I don't know if it enjoys being cut up or not.

The best part about this fabric choice are the little flowers. Are they roses? Carnations? I'm really not good at flower identification but either one would be an excellent choice for a Valentine's Day shirt. A single pink flower is a great symbol for Valentine's Day! I've been sewing kind of over the top, flashy clothes the last couple weeks for Project Run and Play, so it was refreshing to sew something a little more subdued.

I purchased the Molly School Girl Pattern from Peek-a-Boo patterns. I wanted something sweet, and the peter pan collar, button down shirt was just perfect! For an extra dash of sweetness, I decided to change the sleeves to petal sleeves with the same piping to match the collar. I found a great tutorial here at "My Sparkle" to help me draft the sleeves. I also sewed my very first button holes, I was so nervous! I'm so happy with how it turned out! Check it out for yourself:

For the pants I used Melly Sews Clean Slate Pants Pattern as a guide but altered it with more specific  measurements. I used bias tape to edge the hem and added another bias tape stripe for a little more flair. I love the extra "pop" the bright pink gives the pants. Hey it's Valentine's Day, the pink is totally necessary!


As for the pictures, I cannot take credit for them. Nor can I take credit for the cute girl wearing them! My friend Jodie is in the photography business and she has taken our family pictures in the past. In fact, she took my picture which is on the left sidebar of my blog as well (the one of just me.) I asked her if she wouldn't mind taking some pictures of Kylie when I sew her next outfit and in exchange I make her some clothes for her daughter and she agreed! She takes lovely photos, and the best part is, she also gives her clients a CD with edited pictures and full copyright release so you can print as you please!

Check out her out on facebook here: www.facebook.com/jodiegerlingdesigns and if you are anywhere close to the Manhattan, KS area (go K-State!) I would highly recommend her as a photographer. She also posts giveaways from time to time on her facebook page!

I introduced her to the crazy world of sewing blogs and she was very impressed with the sew-a-long entries for Valentine's Day!

And check out her cute girl wearing the clothes I made! I was really nervous about sewing for someone else (another first for me!) because I'm so used to sewing for my girls, but it worked out! Phew! I still have some to learn about sewing for other kids, I'm used to sewing for their build, so this was a good experience to sew for someone else.


Isn't she adorable?

I love little toddler painted toes!

She says this next photo is her "saying cheese" face! I know she pulls it off much better than Kylie bear did at that age (check out this old blog post, that I lovingly named "Smiling Issues" haha!)

Such a cute little lady!

I was hoping that getting involved in sewing along with Project Run and Play this season would help me blog more frequently. I haven't been the best, but there is a very special post I need to get up today, because it involves a very special (and yummy!) French January tradition and today is the last day in January, so hopefully when the kids are in bed tonight, I will get it posted. Right now Kylie is at preschool and I need to go pick her up in a few and Eve is sitting next to me coloring and eating her weight in peanuts. She loves peanuts, she is telling me all about going to the grocery store to buy them with daddy.

"Isn't Hy-vee a great store? We got to buy all these Peanuts there!" She says such cute things.

And she keeps sneaking sips of my coffee (Can't be good for her, she's already a shortie!) So maybe I should stop blogging for now :) Hopefully I will get that very special French tradition posted before January is over, the clock is ticking!

Striped Confetti Dot Sweatshirt

This week's theme for Project Run and Play is... Polka-Dots and Stripes. Fun! I had purchased an athletic shirt for my sister for Christmas that was grey with hot pink mesh stripes, similar to this one here, but the mesh part was a little meshier. Ok, so meshier is not a word but the holes in the mesh were a little wider, it reminded me of... Polka-Dots! I loved it so much I considered going back and buying one I could refashion for Kylie, but I wasn't so sure about her having a shirt with all those holes in it. Maybe not so appropriate for my little girl. But I was digging the athletic/girly vibe and I was still thinking hard about it when I was browsing Jo-Ann's website and out popped some bright fun Confetti Dot Fabric! So that filled the polka-dot theme for this week and sewing them in stripes filled the other half of the theme, perfect! I found an old sweatshirt in my stack of clothes to refashion and I was good to go!

So I present to you Kylie's new Striped Confetti Dot Sweatshirt:

 And a bonus pair of flashy confetti dot leggings:

Do you think the leggings are a little much? I hope not because I seriously LOVE them! I'm not really a blingy (also not a word) type of gal, but when it comes to a five year old's wardrobe, I find it completely adorable. I can imagine those leggings paired with a simple black tunic or tank top, anything simple would work. The leggings are lined with a pink jersey because the confetti dot fabric is see-through. 

I had never sewn with Confetti Dot Fabric before, so I did a little research before tackling it. The number one piece of advice was USE WAX PAPER. Otherwise the glue that holds the confetti dots gum up the needle and you start skipping stitches. So I took the advice, everything went smoothly until halfway through I thought "I wonder if this stupid wax paper is even necessary?" and guess what? It was. The needle would get all gummy after only sewing a few stitches. Eve loved pulling off the wax paper. Every few minutes she would run over to see if I would need help peeling it off. She was actually very helpful and meticulous with it.

This was actually more time consuming than I originally thought, but I love the end results. Many times I kept telling myself  "Just one more stripe, just one more, you can do it and then you can go to bed!" I'm not a fast sewer and I highly value my sleep, so my projects are usually on the simple side. But I kept with it, and Kylie is very happy that I did. She told me that one of the kids in her preschool told her she looked "fantastic!" Haha, I love the preschool age!

My favorite part? The stripes actually match up! I was terrified that they wouldn't and I was wasting all this time just to have sloppy results, but I kept measuring as I sewed and finally breathed a sigh of relief when I sewed up the finished project and they matched up: 

The pattern was self drafted, but extremely basic:

The selvage of the confetti dot fabric did not have any dots and was stretchy, perfect for the neck and for a simple band at the bottom of the sweatshirt: 

Because the fabric had dots in a uniform pattern, it was pretty easy to cut the fabric in straight strips of equal size: just count the dots! It was also easy to sew on straight because I just folded the fabric over two dots thick as I pinned:

Kylie really wanted to set up the exact same set-up that I had for Eve's pictures of her pouffy dress. I told her the lighting was awful but she told me the lighting was not awful. Guess who was right? Yep, that lighting is pretty bad (and so is my set-up, I wasn't going to put any effort into it knowing it wouldn't work!) We didn't have much options for picture taking though, it was starting to get dark but I was working every other day of the week and by the time I would come home, it would be dark. And no pictures outside either, way too cold!

And Eve was not about to let her big sister steal the spotlight! Little photobomber! Notice her big pouffy dress? It's her favorite, one I had hidden back in the back of the closet thinking maybe she would wear it to her sister's dance recital. But Eve found it. And wants to wear it all the time.

And a shot of Kylie dancing, this girl loves to dance! Dramatically!

This next one reminds me of the pictures I took as a child: I was convinced pouty model was the way to go! My parents hated it, but laugh about it now! (Right, Dad?) I'm so proud of Kylie, what a natural she is!

 This next one is so Kylie.... that's my girl!

 

And one more shot of the pants, just for fun!