Simply Playful

I wanted to make Heidi Sage some dresses to play in for the summer.  For this dress I used McCall's 2213.  The exlarge size is about the same size as a 2.  I found this fabric at City Craft in Dallas and they also had the premade bias trim by the yard in several colors.  Butterick 3846 also has a top very similar to this dress.

Remember back in the fall when I had purchased all those different color leggings?  Well, they have been handy.   It was chilly this particular morning so we added the leggings for some warmth, just as cute with or without the leggings.

Get your summer cute on,

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Egg Grams

The other day I saw an update on my FB page from a blog I like to check out from time to time.  They were featuring THIS blog and their idea of what I like to call Egg Grams.

Seeing as I'm a mother of young children with an endless supply of craft items and a small Target addiction, I had all the supplies I needed...except the stamps.

We had a big bag of Skittles, some small pill ziploc bags, stickers, a few hair clips for some of the girl eggs, and some pink paper for little notes.

We packaged up the skittles, put together a few stickers, folded up our notes, and put our little packages together.

Once the eggs were packed, I taped around the seams with Scotch tape.  I made small address labels to put on the egg out of white sticker labels.  And I adhered a 98 cent stamp and a Forever stamp for shipping.

Clinton dropped them in the big blue mail box at the Post Office.

He thought it was awesome.

Once we got home, he decided he also wanted to send some to his Bebe and Hop (my parents).  He picked out special items for their eggs.  Hop got Skittles and a Matchbox race car out of his highly coveted car collection.  Bebe got Strawberry Shortcake stickers and a Dora Matchbox Jeep.  Clinton's been trying to get rid of that "girl" car ever since it found its way into our house.  :-)  I put extra postage on those...hopefully they'll make it!

Feel free to check out the original post I found to see more ideas of things you could put in your eggs.

Hoppy Mailings,

Beach Towel

Each year Rodney and Courtney take a trip to the beach with his family.  Each time they have a new child that needs his or hers own personal beach towel.

This year Rodney and Courtney decided to take a spring break beach trip so I decided to jump in for the fun filled adventure.  But first... we have a new baby who will need a beach towel.

I found a plain beach towel and used knit applique.  I first cut out my dinosaur pattern.  Then I cut out my sail boat to fit the dinosaur.  I added his name before attaching to the towel.  I did not get one picture of him laying on his towel but did get some cute pictures of him at the beach.

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Beach Bubbles

For Spring Break I went with Courtney and her family to Destin.  Courtney had found some vintage-styled boutique swimsuits she loved that she wanted to buy for Heidi Sage for the trip, but at $70 each, she had to show some self-restraint.  And don't be fooled...it took me and Chelsea to talk her out of it...more than once.  As her father will tell you, "She's a hard head."

In an effort to keep her on track, I came up with an idea for something I could make for Heidi Sage that would give us the same effect...without an uproar from Courtney's "Budget Committee"...aka Rodney.  :-)

I bought this pattern years ago and never used it for my girls so I am using it for Heidi Sage.


I thought this would be the perfect pattern to use to make HS some beach attire.  The fabric was from one of Chelsea's projects and she gave me the left overs.

The fabric for this outfit was scraps from an outfit I made for Julianne when she was little.  I hope Julianne doesn't mind that I used her scraps.  Julianne is a special friend to our family. When she was a little girl Chelsea and I would make her Halloween Costumes every year  and we also made her dress up clothes.  As well as some other outfits.  When I was sewing for Julianne the girls were in high and college and no longer needing me to make them outfits.  Courtney was always worried that I would run out of ideas before she had her children....looks like she was wrong.  Just sayin'.

In this photo HS's big brother Clinton digging in a big sand hole.

Since you probably can't buy the first pattern (shown above) I used these two patterns and got the same results. For the bloomers I used Simplicity 9784 and I shortened the Poppy Patterns dress into a short top.

Feelin' Bubbly,

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Our Big Boo Boo

Courtney, here.  A couple of months ago we were featured on another blog called Today's Top 20.  Amanda was sweet enough to share our Fuzzy Blanket Tutorial.  I should have linked back to her then, but it seems a big pirate party, followed by a stomach bug, followed by 2 sinus infections, and a case of RSV led me to a brain fart.

Amanda has a tear-jerking story that she is making peace with by making a difference.  I love people like that.  You can read her story here.

Gabe's Gift is something everyone can help with.  A great way to practice your sewing skills and do something for others.  I don't know about you, but I love multi-tasking.  :-D

I have already committed myself to one blanket...which I need to get started on.  I'm taking suggestions for a "theme" for my blanket.  What sounds fun to you???

Daisy Crazy

Chelsea sent me a box with 2 daisy prints and some checked gingham for me to make Heidi Sage something for spring.  I decided she would need an outfit to take on our spring break trip so I changed up the fabric combinations for the spring and will soon be adding a different top for the summer.

I found the knit jacket at Wal-mart.  I decided to use one of Chelsea's ideas from one of her previous posts.  I added a knit flower to the jacket and used embroidery thread to stitch around the flower and added a button for the center of the flower.  I got my mom (Jean Zimmer/Grammy) to help out.  She did the stitching around the flower while I worked on some other project.

For the pants I took a plain elastic pant and cut the pattern shorter and added a ruffle.  The ruffle is 45" long for each leg.  I cut some bias strips to sew above the ruffle and added some rick rack.

For the bow I used gray and white dot ribbon with a smaller yellow bow on top with a small daisy made out of knit topped with a yellow button.

I decided to also make Courtney a coorinating shirt to wear when Heidi Sage is wearing her Daisy Outfit.  So I got my mom busy stitching around the two flowers we put on Courtney's Shirt.  I found this shirt at Academy.  They come in lots of colors for around 6 bucks.  Nice and heavy also.

Courtney is a HUGE fan of big ruffles on the bottoms of pants for little girls.  I wasn't so sure, but don't you know we got stopped over and over while in Destin so that people could tell us how cute her outfit was.  I guess Courtney does know a thing or two...now and then.  :-)

Ruffled Up,


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Pretty Puppies

Heidi Sage's birthday package also included a puppy dog outfit very similar to Miss A's.  This time, however, I created look A on Sew & Sew B5199.  This version is a halter top with capri pants.  Heidi Sage suffers from having no "play clothes" because everything is too fancy.  I was trying to make this outfit "play clothes" worthy but it turned out too cute!

I used the cute dog print for the top and the contrast pink print for the pants and ruffle. 



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Birthday Present for Miss A

My friend Jill's daughter, Miss A, is about to turn 3.  She is adorable and she LOVES to wear dresses (and only dresses, pants just won't do it) and pink!!!  We're still trying to figure out how that happened because Jill only wears dresses when she's going somewhere special and she is NOT a pink girl!

Jill, her husband, and Miss A are all dog lovers, in fact, they have their very own herd of sweet, gigantic dogs at home.  Three German Shephards and a Golden Retriever to be exact.

When I saw this adorable dog fabric, I knew I had to make Miss A something.  Fortunately, her birthday is just around the corner.

I used See & Sew Pattern B5199.  I love this pattern!  It's cute, it's fast, and it's easy!  I made dress B but I shortened it slightly and added a ruffled  band to the bottom with a cotton ric-rac trim.  I highly recommend this pattern, even for beginners (hint, hint, Courtney)!

I also added a bow made with the pink contrast fabric.  A bow tip: when you get your bow tied perfect, place it on the dress and sew through the center so that it can't come untied in the wash.

Miss A in her dress!  She is such a cutie and funny to boot!

Happy sewing,

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