Fleece socks

I'd had this pattern for fleece socks since the sales around Thankgsiving, but finally used it during a snowstorm in January. Dillon's friend Emilee was over, so she got a pink pair and the boys each got a blue pair. This pattern was SO easy and everything went together very quickly. Of course, the serger helped a lot, but still!

Luke's Tent

A lot of people ask me how I have time to sew, with two kids running around. I mainly sew at night once the boys are asleep, or on weekend afternoons, during Lucas's nap while Dillon watches a movie. But the other day I was trying to get some things done, and Lucas was getting into everything.

I had laid three yards of corduroy that I'd just ironed over the backs of two chairs, so it wouldn't wrinkle while I was getting ready to cut it up and sew it. Lucas thought it looked like a tent, so in he went, and called it "fabbic tent for ME!"

Here's what the rest of the room looked like while he was playing:

Stroller seat pad

In an attempt to "orange up" my boring blue stroller, I made a reversible seat pad for it from some awesome corduroy. One side is solid orange fine wale cord, and the other side has a cool multi-striped cord. I love these cords so much I don't want to let Lucas sit on them!

I just LOVE this striped cord! It reminds me of the circus, which I hate, but it seems so bright and cheery to me.

Wild Pink Emilee

A few weekends ago it snowed BIG, and Dillon and Lucas spent hours playing outside with Emilee, our neighbor. They had a blast, and while they played (with my Mom) I got to sit inside and sew. Emilee somehow inspired me, and since I had some girly stuff from a big bag of fabric my friend had given me recently, I made a girly pair of fleece pants for her. YES, the fabric IS that loud and bright in person, it's not just your screen! She LOVED them, and the following weekend she was over when I was making fleece socks, and I made a solid magenta pair to match her pants. The pics of the socks are still on my cam's memory card, but here's the pants.

I *LOVE* the lettuce edging on the hems; it was SO easy and turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.

And the modeling shot. Can you tell that Lucas just adores Emilee?

Flannel crib sheet

After not being able to find any crib-sized flannel sheets for under $30/pair, I found some directions online to make a pillowcase-style crib sheet for Lucas. He rarely sleeps in his crib, but I figured I'd make the sheet anyway, just in case. We found this flannel at Joanns, and Lucas, who adores Rolie Polie Olie, thought this looked like Olie. It has velcro at one end, so he can't take it off himself. Not that he's ever tried, but the sheet looked weird and floppy on the mattress, so the Velcro really helped.

It cost me $3 for the flannel, as I bought it on "Black Friday" when JA's had flannel for $1 per yard. I already had the Velcro in my stash, but I probably paid $3 for 3 yards of it, and used about 1 yard on the sheet. So $4 for a flannel sheet isn't bad!

Pillowcases...aka BUFF

Last Friday Dillon asked me to *finally* make him something from a length of red soccer balls flannel that we've had around for ages. Since he's got so many pairs of Mama-made pants already, and there's not a lot of things I am able to do with flannel, we decided on a pillowcase.

I liked it so much that I made one for myself also, from a cute ladybug flannel.

Ducky tags

Lucas loved the little T@ggie that I made him last fall so much that I wanted to make him a larger one for Christmas. I found this cute rubber ducky fleece and yellow fleece, and ended up with enough to make him a matching pillowcase as well. He wasn't interested in them at all on Christmas, but he does sleep with them every night now.

Christmas beanbags

Back before Christmas, I let Dillon pick out some fabrics for me to make into beanbags for the boys. I got it washed, ironed and cut out, and then moved on to another project, and totally forgot about this one. I finally got these Christmas beanbags stuffed (with navy beans) and sewn up. And only a month late!

Lucas's flannel pants

Some of Lucas's flannel pants. He picked out the fabrics, of course.

Firetrucks and police cars, Blue's Clues, and random vehicles.

A modeling shot; this pair is his favorite because it has "fie truts" on it. He did actually wear the BC pair today though.

Dillon's camos

More flannel pants, these are Dillon's favorites, his camo pair.

Apple Cord Bag

Ok, so I finally broke down and made myself a cute diaper bag. I *adore* corduroy, so when I saw this red wide wale cord at JA's, I knew it had to be a bag. I came across an apple blossom cotton woven at the evil Mart, which became the lining. I found a decent pattern and modified it a bit, and here is what I came up with.

The blue thing peeking up on the right side is the top of a sip cup, which shows the depth of the side pockets really well.

That's the antennae of my cell phone sticking up out of the other side pocket.

From the front, the white thing is a travel wipes box in the front pocket, to show the size of the pocket. I use that one for my sunglasses and cell phone.

Another side shot, you can see the wipes box in the front pocket, and the sip cup in the side bottle pocket.

This is a size comparison shot next to my Land's End Little Tripper bag.

Open and packed, you can see all the space I have in this bag for diapers, wipes, change of clothes, snacks, my own wallet and things, etc.

Tags N Bags

I recently fell in love with the http://www.taggies.com blankets/loveys that I saw at a local baby store. I thought they were overpriced, but had to have some, so I made my own. Each one is made of two layers of polar fleece, with silky/satiny ribbons sticking out on all side like tags. They're about 14 inches square; the green is Dillon's and the blue is Lucas's.

I end up with loads of larger sized scraps when I'm sewing, so Dillon and I came up with a creative way to use them, rather than hoarding them away in a box: I've been making beanbags! I finally finished up the ones I cut before Christmas, too!

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat Bags

Made from corduroy and woven Halloween fabrics. Left one is Dillon's, center is Lucas's, right was sent to a friend's DD for her bday, along with some coordinating beanbags. They're approximately 10 inches tall, by 7 inches wide. The inside and outside pockets are the same, and were sized to hold a flashlight. Dillon and Lucas picked out their own fabrics for these bags.

Tigger for Alex

My cousin Melanie's little boy Alex was born on Dillon's 5th birthday. For Alex's first birthday (9-18-04), I made him a fleece jacket and matching hat made from some Tigger fleece I found just in time for the occasion. Melanie has always been a Winnie the Pooh fanatic, with Tigger being her fave, so when I saw this fleece, I knew it needed to become something for her little man. Lucas is modeling them, because even though he's 11 months older than Alex, they are just about the same size.

This was the first non-invisible zipper I've ever gotten in perfectly on the first try!

Hood up, he didn't want to look at me for this one.

Back view. Luc's wearing a black pocket dipe a friend made for him, it has a bowl of noodles with chopsticks embroidered on the tush. The inside is microfleece with sushi all over it. :)

With the hat. The cuff is rolled up here b/c it's too tall for his head. I ripped out the cuff and shortened it after trying it on him to take these pics, but forgot to take a pic of it once it was fixed.

Halloween, 2003

For Halloween, Dillon decided that he should be a magician, and that Lucas should be his White Rabbit. Thank goodness, I got off easy! I don't seem to have a shot of Dillon is his costume on this computer, but here's what I do have:

That's his magician cape, and a store-bought hat. He wore a black turtleneck and dark pants, and we painted a dowel rod with poster paint to be his magic wand.

Sarah's Coffee Quilt

For my sister Sarah's 22nd birthday, I made her a wall-quilt from fabrics that reminded me so much of her. It's about 30ish inches square, and it now hangs on the back of her bedroom door.

Close-up of one of the blocks.

The center, and my lame attempt at applique.