Little Monster

First, a note on my goals for 2011. I have the list on the right hand side, and I have updated my progress thus far. I will continue to update that list as I get things done.


Hooray! Another project completed! I embroidered a little monster on a white turtleneck from Carter's for Dorothy. Last winter, I bought some cute polka dot pants for her, on clearance. The problem was that I could not find anything that went with them. I finally found a plain white turtleneck and a pink zip sweatshirt. I used the colors of the polka dots for the monster, and I think that she turned out really cute.





And here is the whole outfit together:




It is really cute and cozy on her.

I promise to work on my picture taking abilities.

Goal Setting for 2011

Now that the birthday and holiday craziness is over, I need to get my butt in gear and accomplish a few things that I have been putting off. Here are a few of my goals for 2011:

1.  Spend two nights a week in my sewing room, or anywhere else working on a project, for at least one hour.  Once I get started I do pretty well, but just getting up there is sometimes a challenge.

2.  Put away all the odds and ends of fabric that are still out in the open in the sewing room.

3.  Hang the thread organizers.

4.  Set up my snap press in a permanent way.

5.  Make the curtains for my sewing room with the fabric that I bought a year ago.

6.  Recover my chair and lamp shade now that the colors in my room have changed.

7.  Make a dent in the giant pile of scrap fabric.

8.  Hang up the pictures I have framed.

9.  Finish at least one project that is partially done.

10.  Take a sewing class.

Goody Bags

We had a birthday party for Dorothy today and for the goody bags, I added cupcakes from the same pattern I used for her dress.  I used some old scrap booking paper that was left over from my failed scrap booking days.  A little rubber cement, and the bags were decorated and ready to be filled with a couple of snacks, cupcake soap,  and two cupcake crayons.



The bags that were opened before the guests left seemed to be enjoyed, and the birthday girl's big brother had to use his soap to wash his hands right away.  Then he needed some paper so that he could draw with his crayons.

Birthday Dress

I had big plans to make Dorothy a special dress for her first birthday.  I could picture it perfectly in my mind, but held off on starting it until the kitchen set was completed.  So, the night before her birthday, I came up with a pattern and almost finished sewing the dress.  Around two in the morning, I was making more mistakes than doing things right, so I headed off to bed with plans to finish up in the morning.  I put the finishing touches on it while she ate breakfast and it was done in time for her to wear it while opening her presents.

The dress is reversible.  One side is pink corduroy with a cupcake on the chest, the other is green corduroy with a black velvet panda.  I put a ruffle of the green corduroy around the bottom that shows no matter which side is being worn.  I used a dress she already has that fits as a pattern template.  There are a few changes I would make if I was to try this again, but overall, it turned out well considering I was pretty much winging it and did it (mostly) in one night.






When she wore it on her birthday, I only had one set of buttons sewn on. They way I did it, when the cupcake side was being worn out, the buttons faced the inside, but it wasn't laying quite right as you can see.



On the other hand, it looked great from the front. I have added a second set of buttons so that it will lay nicely no matter which way it is being worn.