Sally Dress

This dress goes back to the summer.  I was super fortunate to be chosen by Shannon of luvinthemommyhood to test the adorable Sally Dress.  I love the look of this dress.  I'm a sucker for vintage/modern looks; and this fit perfectly into that category.  I know we've seen lots of this dress recently but thought it was about time I shared mine.  

I think my reason for being a bad blogger, and not posting this dress earlier is that Peyton is not into this dress. :(  She absolutely will not wear it!  She wore it for pictures and now is unwilling to even entertain the notion of wearing it!  I'm unsure why; but it is a beautiful dress just hanging in her closet.  I don't think I am the only sewing mama this happens to, but it is a bummer. 

Here are the details of my dress.  I sewed up a size 7 and it fit nicely for the most part, a little snug in the bodice/sleeve area, but I think that is my fault.  I didn't do the best job attaching the lining to the sleeves. 

I want to try this dress again, I think I'll make a sleeveless version and see if she likes that more.  Also I should let her pick the fabric too.  We are entering the age where she really wants more of a say in her wardrobe.  (Knit clothing seems to be winning right now.)

It is fun to look back at summer she was only missing one tooth, now all 4 are gone in the front!  Hope you have a great Friday and are planning some fun fall activities for the weekend.

Peg People

Just a quick post today.  I have about a million crafty things to do, but these little people were begging to be made.  They were very fun and a nice change from sewing.  I have a pinterest board with my inspiration for them.

 

I want to do some more advanced hair for the ladies next time, I did try a braid out for the little girl.

I am thinking about painting a house like this one, but for right now they are living in a "previously owned" home. :)

If you want to keep up with me make sure you follow me! Bloglovin is proving to be my favorite reader. Click on the link if you aren't already a follower.  Follow my blog with Bloglovin  Tomorrow I'll have another dress to check out.  Happy Fall, hope you have a beautiful day!

Another Anywhere Dress

I really do like this dress, it just looks super cute and modern and is SO easy to sew up!  Andrea the creator of Go To Patterns even has the pattern on sale right now.  So go get it, if you don't already have it in your collection!

I blogged about my stripy version of this dress here, which was back in April. It is fun to see the change in our yard from the beginning to the end of the growing season.

 I was able to use the same size (7) this time around so no need to trace out a new size. And I didn't even change the sleeve length, I must really like elbow length! :)

The fabric came from Girl Charlee quite awhile ago, I really like the metallic hearts; they make the fabric have some movement.

The headband I added just because they're cute. I don't think she ever leaves a headband in all day at school, they always come home in her backpack, but they make me smile.  I used this tutorial for it.

She likes to help with her poses these days and thought hiding in our evergreen was a great idea. You can't see much of the dress, but it is kinda cute!

 Love the pop of color with the red salvia.  Hope you are having a great Wednesday!  Thanks for visiting!

Bright Plus Quilt

Do you ever just fall in love with a particular bolt of fabric and just HAVE to figure out something to do with it?  This happens to me from time to time and usually results in a project I didn't even have on my "to do" radar.  When shopping at my local quilt shop during a great sale (buy 10 yards, get 10 yards free) I came across this fantastic print from Rebecca Bischoff's first collection called Blythe. 

I quickly decided to make a plus quilt since I have been admiring them for quite sometime. I picked up all the fabric for this at the sale. I made my own pattern using 3.5" squares.  The top is mostly Kona cotton solids.  There are a few prints mixed in, they come from my scrap bin and one print from Blythe.  

I've always quilted with my machine and although I love some of the patterns long arms can do, I really prefer straight lines anyway. For this project I sewed a line on each side of the seams a quarter inch each way. I LOVE the texture it added!

 I used another print from the collection for the binding.  It is chevronish, I was thinking I would like it more than I did, but it is fine.

I didn't get a shot of the back I was completely happy with but here is something. :)  

When I took it into my local quilt shop to show off I heard a lady comment that it was a nice "kids quilt".  I admit it did turn out very bright but I really am impressed with the overall effect of the design and I am totally fine curling up with it on my couch on these colder mornings we are beginning to have.

 I have a couple of dresses to blog about later this week so hope you'll check in again soon!

Back to School Dress

This year I let Peyton chose a pattern and fabric from my stash for her back to school dress.  She started Kindergarten this fall and I wanted to continue my tradition of making her a dress for her first day.  I made this dress during my week of peaches I talked about here,  it was a stretch to get it done but luckily she chose a pattern I've made a few times!

She picked this Simplicity pattern and wanted it with the 3 tiers as shown.  I only had a yard of the fabric she picked but also lucky for me it was from my local fabric shop so it was easy to go grab another half yard!

I only got 1 good picture of her where the whole dress is visible.  It was an easy sew and looked quite cute for her first day!  The fabric is Robert Kaufman 'Spot On' and I made a size 7.

Here is a close up of the sign she held up, where exactly I first saw it I can't remember, but was just what I was wanting!  Here is the link if it trips your trigger too, she has all grades! :)

 She is loving school and happy to get on the bus every morning!

Peaches!

We have a 'Contender' peach tree in our yard.  This is it's third year to bear fruit and it's only 4 years old.  This year it was loaded, this picture shows only one branch.  I think we picked about 80-90 lbs of fruit!

I truly believe the best way to eat a peach is fresh, however we weren't going to be eating 80 lbs worth so I gave some away and we ate a many as we could possibly stand to eat and bake with and I preserved the rest. 

My counter looked like this for about a week, each time I'd get it almost emptied off I'd go pick again! 

This was the first time I'd used a canner alone and I felt like such a grown up doing almost everything solo! :)  First I tackled basic canned peaches.  And to be honest I must have read 15 different blog post on doing so and really can't remember whose I used. I think I just took information from all of them and went to work! I used a lighter syrup and between 3 different sessions ended up with 18 quarts and 9 pints.  We've eaten one so far and it was fantastic! 

I also made peach butter, raspberry peach jam, peach preserves all in half pints.  The peach butter is great on pancakes and waffles, the raspberry peach jam doesn't use pectin so it is a bit runnier but awesome mixed into vanilla yogurt (I like Chobani), and the peach preserves take awhile to cook down but they're great too!  It was fun to experiment and to have such great success canning made the week even better! I also froze quite a few slices on cookie sheet and then transferred to freezer bags, these I can bake with or perhaps just eat? 

I will say I didn't do much cooking during that last week in August and I had to recover for a few days afterwards but now that we are starting to open a few jars it was well worth the work!  As most things in life are.  Thanks for stopping in!

Where have I been?

I see that I haven't blogged since summer KCWC ended!  I wish I had a list of really good reasons but the best one is just life.  We tried to pack as much summer into August as possible with things like swimming, gardening (love my tomatoes), trip to an amusement park, and a State Fair visit.  Peyton started Kindergarten August 27th and that same week I was drowning in peaches and processed them everyday of the week!  More on those peaches next post.

Oh to be young again!  This girl loves the water.

I feel like all this just happened, how can life move that fast!?

Yes, that is a giant tractor wheel!

I've also been on a big reading kick since the end of July, I've read 11 books.  (This number shocked me, I guessed 7 before I double checked!)  I decided to add a Goodreads widget to my sidebar in case anyone is interested in what I've read.  Anyone else out there a big reader, any books to recommend?  Of my recent reads I loved Beautiful Disaster and the first two Selection series books.  I would say my happiest solo moments are spent cutting out fabric or reading a good book.

I have been sewing too, just not sharing!  I have quite a few posts written to share in the next few weeks.  I really did miss being here, but thoroughly enjoyed the break.  And my sincerest apologies for the summer post in early October! :)