Lovely Liv's 18-month Dress

Featured here on our wall of art are two corduroy dresses for Little Lovely Liv's 18-month pictures! Well, one for Liv and one for Katie. Of course, I haven't quite gotten around to the pictures because it takes more than one adult to wrangle our two energetic kiddos. I made the dresses for fall pictures in our beautiful October autumn gold yard, but two days ago the wind blew so hard that all the leaves blew off the trees. And not only that, but the intent was to pair them with a nice cream colored turtleneck, which cannot be found anywhere! Ugh. You'd think I'd be able to find something on the vast Interwebz.

But you should have seen me go! I had two sewing machines and a serger threaded while working on both dresses simultaneously. Craziness! My husband laughed pretty hard when he saw me going at these dresses with two sewing machines.

The purple one is embellished with a cream and gold ribbon and a trio flower pin (which I also made for the dress). The pin can be removed from the dress for washing. The green one is embellished with a muted pink and green three dimensional embroidered and beaded iron-on applique along with the cream and gold ribbon. Both dresses also have non-functional (expensive!) buttons on the shoulder straps.

It was the first time I've worked with an iron-on applique. All I can say is that it takes a little more practice than I obviously have, haha!

My Big Plate

What else has been keeping me busy lately?

Well, I made a fabulously gorgeous quiche. Paired with blueberry pancakes, it was beyond delicious. Bacon, onion, heavy cream, and cheese. I'm drooling just writing about it.

Another project I finished was a couple of covers for the couch pillows. The pillows were originally bought from Kohl's and made with a satin back and a front with a textured velvet floral pattern. After about 4 or 5 years of having the pillows, the backing and front broke free of the serging and started to ravel. I was starting to hate them anyway.

So I decided to take on a pillow recover. I didn't figure it could be too hard, but what do I know about sewing home decor?? (Pretty close to null.) I picked up a 1/4 yard each of a nice upholstery fabric that has more color variation that the previous covers and a camel colored gabardine for the back.

I deconstructed the pillow covers and set aside the linings and invisible zippers for use in the new covers. Then I cut out the upholstery fabric and backing to 19"x19" and began pinning and constructing. It took a little longer than I anticipated and the only snafu that I ran into was closing the openings next to the zippers. But in the end, it was worth it, and I came out with some very nice pillow covers that I hope can endure the abuse of (soon-to-be) three "childebeasts." ;o)

(Un)Fashionably Late

Alrighty. Back to the Interwebz, where I can find a million things and nothing all at the same time. Which is what I seem to be doing a lot of lately. And while I was doing all this looking and not finding anything I was totally neglecting to share my most recent accomplishments (that's what I like to call them).

So even though I promised pictures a million years ago of my tantrum-throwing, banshee screeching toddler wearing a harness to keep her from going where I don't want her to go, I'm just now getting around to it.

We went to the zoo with our new reversible harness and it worked fabulously, except that my almost 3 year old wanted to be the "leash holder." I did get lots of funny looks, but I also got a lot of smiles and a few older ladies commented that I'll always know where she is! Case in point! I also didn't end up taking any pictures at the zoo...this pregnant mama was way too tired to fool with it, so you get pictures of the girls in the yard. :)

It even fit the almost 3-year-old.

^^ I swear I didn't tie Liv to the fence!