The tension on my sewing machine was all messed up this weekend while I was in the middle of sewing a bajillion things. The upper thread kept showing through the bobbin thread no matter what tension I was using. I fiddled and changed needles and fabric and fiddled and re-threaded and fiddled.

And then I went to Google.

Found out it doesn’t necessarily mean that my tension setting is wrong. It could also be the little screw in the bobbin. I loosened it up a touch, and voila! Fixed.

It reminded me of life. Sometimes, we have tension in our lives, and we try and try and try to fix all of the things that we *think* are causing the tension. But sometimes, it’s a too tight screw inside that really needs loosening.

Anyway, once I got my machine fixed, I got into a groove and started sewing away.

I finished up another lazy day skirt for Emma and then decided to try my hand at some capri-length leggings from old t-shirts. And then, because I’m not crazy enough, I added a ruffle at the bottom of the leggings.

Okay, I’m not tooting my own horn here, but … aren’t they kind of perfect?

Skirt was from some fabric in my stash, ribbon was new ($1.50’ish) and red striped tee for leggings was $2.

Okay, I’m going to do it …

toot, toot!

While I had my ballpoint needle in my machine, I thought I’d cut up two $1 bin t-shirts from Goodwill and make a skirt with matching leggings.

I originally intended to do this tutorial, but my computer battery died while I was in the middle of figuring everything out, so I scratched that. I ended up making the leggings just like I did the previous pair and not attaching them to the skirt, because Emma mixes and matches like crazy, and I didn’t want to tie her down to one combo.

The “flowers” [if you can even call them that] were just strips of fabric wrapped around and then sewn on there willy nilly. No rhyme or reason.

And the skirt (with different leggings – see? I’m a smart mom!) was the first thing she put on this morning, and it stayed on all day. So that’s a winner in my book!

I also made some removable pillow covers out of Dwell dishtowels from Target (snore) and started working on Emma’s Easter dress. Yes, I realize Easter in in just a matter of days, but I aim to procrastinate.

I really really needed these few hours in a back bedroom sitting in front of my machines.

I also promised Erin a tutorial on the ruffled leggings, so I’ll try to get to that in the next week.

Also, I was telling my mom that I haven’t made anything for Lucy, yet [besides some crib sheets and a quilt] but it’s for mostly selfish reasons. She grows out of everything so fast, and I’m thinking that by the time I measure her, cut the fabric and then sew it all together, she’ll have grown and inch and a half. I think I’ll wait a bit before I go sewing her any clothes.

Okay, maybe just ONE skirt.

if you sew and have a girl, you *must* use this lazy days skirt tutorial to make the cutest and easiest skirts ever.

I know what you’re thinking … I don’t sew that well.

Lucky for you, you don’t really have to!! I mean, if you can sew 4-5 straight lines, you’re good to go!

And since you’re just using the width of the fabric, you don’t need to buy that much of it! So they are inexpensive.

I am all about not spending a ton of money on kid’s clothes, because they grow out of them so fast and usually trash them in the meantime. But I’m sick of buying clothes that fall apart after 4 washings.

So these are a great alternative. I can whip up a couple while Lucy naps … and if I get so lucky as to have Emma napping at the same time, I can do more than a couple!

And the best part? I finally have a use for this vintage ribbon I’ve been collecting.

Hey, Erin … I’m talking to you! Alice needs a few of these, yes?

I started on a baby quilt for Lucy on July 24. Almost exactly one month before she was born.

Obviously, I had planned on having it finished before she was born, and I might have actually done that had she not come 5 weeks early.

I may use that canned excuse for the rest of my life.

I’m sorry the house is a wreck. My baby came five weeks early.

I’m sorry I spent so much money at Target. My baby came five weeks early.

I’m sorry that I keep forgetting to {fill in the blank}. My baby … AHEM.

In the meantime, I’m sorry I didn’t get any pictures of Lucy with the quilt.

She’s currently napping.

She came five weeks early, ya know.

fabric used: Anna Maria Horner Folksy Flannels, MonaLuna Urban Blooms {tangerine polka dot} and solid flannel handmade binding

I made a crib sheet out of the most dainty yellow and white seersucker for baby girl’s crib using this easy peasy tutorial (by the way, threading 80” of elastic around the sheet may or may not give you a hand cramp while you’re watching The Closer – just sayin’)

But I love the tutorial SO much that I’m absolutely going to make more. With more seersucker. Because I heart seersucker, especially in a Southern baby girl’s nursery.

And they really do fit like a dream without having to pull and tug and throw your back out (or in my case, put myself into labor) to get them over those crib mattresses.

Seriously, why are crib sheets so flippin’ HARD to put on!?

Oh … I’m thinking with the money I saved from making our own sheets and buying inexpensive white crib bumpers instead of a $$ crib set (which I did for Emma and have NO regrets), I can maybe get a 35mm lens so I can actually get a shot of the whole crib.

Anyway, when Emma came into the dining room while I was sewing the sheet to ask what I was making and “is it for me?” I knew I needed to whip up something for her. I’ve been making stuff for baby girl for so long that I’ve neglected our little monkey.

Enter the world’s easiest skirt.

[tutorial here]

Hint: use wider ribbon.

Since it’s the width of fabric (usually around 45”), it’s perfect for twirling and jumping … both of which Emma does a lot.

J’adore.

We’ve been struggling a little with the pending arrival of baby girl. Emma just doesn’t quite understand why she is not the center of attention anymore, so the least I can do is crank out something to make her feel special.

It’ll all work out.

There are two things you should know about our house …

1. I’m constantly changing things around. I’ve had my office in about 12 different locations since I moved into this house. I’m currently wishing I could put my desk in front of the window, even though I know that the late afternoon sun shines right in my eyes when I do that. Anyway, I change my mind a lot. I read that people with a lot of disposable income overhaul their interior design every 5 years. That sounds like Heaven to me.

2. We are not shy about dirt. Emma plays outside every day, the dogs practically live outside during the day, Emma jumps on the couch and chairs and bed with her shoes on, she eats snacks on the couch, we eat a lot of our meals in the living room (but we’re working on that), and we’re just generally not overly careful with our messiness. So while I would absolutely LOVE to have a white couch, I know that would never ever ever happen. And also? Our cushions end up on the floor at least once a day for optimal jumping from couch to floor.

All of that to say, I decided today that I wanted different throw pillows for our couch, and due to our nature as a not-going-to-have-President-Obama-sitting-on-our-couch-anytime-soon kind of family, they had to be washable.

But I’m not a fan of washing pillows, because 9 times out of 10, the washer gets imbalanced and slings water all over the laundry room.

Enter removable throw pillow covers!

I sketched something out in my handy dandy moleskine, and the rest was easy!

I just used some pretty green dandelion’ish home dec fabric I bought on sale a long time ago, and it took all of about 15 minutes to make it.

The back is just some white home dec material I bought for a project way back when I overestimated yardage like crazy. I thought it would be cool to do a contrasting stitch on the “hems” but then I remembered … I don’t sew straight! Oh well. At least it’s just for us.

I decided that I needed to use smaller measurements so it can be a more snug fit on the pillow, but other than that, I like how it turned out.

I made another one last night, and if I had more pillow forms, I’d make about 20 more.

Or maybe I’ll just make 20 more and put them in Etsy? Hmmm …

The best part is that I can take the cover off, throw it in the wash, iron it a little (oh, who am I kidding, I don’t iron) and then put it back on.

And then I can change them out every 2.5 months. Weeks. Whatever.

The last piece of the Easter outfit puzzle for Emma – a super easy headband made from leftover fabric using this tutorial.

The flower is just a mixture of flower shapes and circles held together with a pink button and embroidery floss – nothing fancy and straight out of my head. I hot glued a safety pin on the back so that it can be removed and applied to a dress or a shirt or a purse or a different headband. Plus, the headband is reversible, so I pretty much had to make the flower removable.

Throw in a pair of white sandals from Target for $7.99, and we’ve got a complete Easter outfit for less than $10.

Yes, I’m totally patting myself on the back right now.

I’m a good Southern girl who loves seersucker for Easter. I think my bloodstream is 2 parts seersucker, 2 parts madras and 1 part linen. So when it came time to think about Emma’s Easter dress, I decided to raid my Goodwill pile of clothes that’s been sitting there for months a while. Sure enough, I found a skirt that no longer fits me. And not just because I’m pregnant, either. *ahem*

It’s a green and white seersucker wrap skirt that I bought off of eBay years ago, and I wore it religiously as soon as Spring reared it’s allergy-ridden head. And then I had a baby and … well, my hips don’t lie.

In about 45 minutes, it became Emma’s seersucker Easter dress. It mostly took that long, because Emma wanted to cut the ribbon and choose the color of thread and iron the hem and break the rowing machine and catch the shards of fabric and string that fall out from under the industrial serger.

By the way, it’s not crazy longer in the back – the wind was blowing and due to the way it was hanging on the hanger, it just looks that way.

Total cost was $1.25 for the roll of light pink ribbon I used at the top.

I still need to fray check the ends of the ribbon and get her some white sandals, but other than that, she’s ready for Sunday!

Since it was a wrap skirt, it was very easy to just cut enough width for a comfortable dress and serge the sides together. A double blessing was that the skirt was cut on the bias, so the dress has plenty of flare. Then, I used a mixture of this and this tutorial to make the actual dress. And lucky me, the hem was already finished.

I can’t wait to get pictures of her in it on Easter morning. I’m thinking about making a matching headband with the leftover fabric if I have time …

Yeah, I know I should be resting and all of that, but Ken took Emma downstairs this morning around 8am, and I said, “I’ll be down in a minute,” and then promptly slept until 10am. Wheee! So I had more energy today than I’ve had in a while!

Instead of catching up on cleaning, which I so badly need to do, I sewed a couple of skirts for Emma.

These are SO SUPER EASY to make using this tutorial. On the first one, I followed all of the instructions just as they were (except I constructed the skirt with an industrial serger, so I didn’t have to sew and then overlock). But on the second skirt, I pieced together two pieces for the top layer and 2 pieces for the bottom layer to make the right width, because the fabric I wanted to use wasn’t wide enough (most of my fabric is leftover from converting prefolds, so I rarely have selvedge to selvedge).

I also added a few inches to the width of the bottom layer to add more ruffle. We love ruffles! I may add even more width to the next skirt, because I’m wild and crazy like that. ;)

When Emma puts them on, she says, “I look like a princess!” so that’s a winner in my book.

I also made her a twirly skirt using this tutorial, but it’s too late to take pictures for tonight’s post. I’ll get some action shots tomorrow.

Wow, I’m so surprised at the “I could have written this” responses to my last post. I honestly sat on that post for quite some time before I felt brave enough to share it, but now that I have, I feel like talking about it more! It’s always comforting to know that there are others out there just like me.

This morning’s message in church was about plugging into the power of God, and one of the ways we receive it is through the power of love. Well, my spirit has definitely been renewed just reading that we’re all going through similar things, and we all have our battles to fight. We have such love for each other, even though many of us have never met in real life.

The online community is such a powerful thing.

On that note, I took another baby step towards simplifying. Instead of going to a store and spending money on some cheap Made in China crap, I took some fabric and a sewing pattern and made a dress for Emma’s Baby. That’s her name – Baby.

{Emma was real original when she got the doll last Christmas.}

You see, Emma got a new doll and a gorgeous papa-made bed this Christmas, and included was several outfits made by Emma’s great-grandmother (my Mema). Well, now that this new baby doll (which Emma has named Princess) has wardrobe choices, Emma changes her clothes at least 10 times a day.

But as much as she loves Princess, Baby is her most favorite doll. So she asked me to make some dresses for Baby. ACK! I’m a fairly decent seamstress, but I have never made a baby dress, so I kind of panicked. Because if you’ve ever dealt with a two-year old, you know that you must finish the project they have assigned to you by the time they get up from their nap or they will flip the freak OUT.

Luckily, I did have a dress pattern that I had bought from Sarah at Bit of Whimsy Dolls last October when I had all these glorious plans to make all of Emma’s Christmas presents *ahem* – so I mocked up one from the original pattern and then figured out where I needed to enlarge it to fit Emma’s doll.

Lo and behold, it fit!

And then I made Emma a smiley face pancake for supper and she stabbed and ate the eye first.

The end.

lazy days skirt from oliver + s

took me all of 30 minutes to make this skirt, and that was only because i sewed up the waistband before i put the elastic in — it should only take about 25 minutes ;)

i foresee a LOT more of these to finally use up all of this fabric i’ve been hoarding saving

today is “national don’t use caps day”

at least, that’s what MY calendar says …