Challenge - Week 3 & 4

Here I am, late AGAIN with my sewing challenge entry. ….lol. I was completely ready last night to sit down with the ipad and type out my entry. I even have a sweet app on the ipad for blogging (Blogsy…and I paid for it too!).

But, while I was rocking Liv, I got a text from my sister in law asking if she could borrow the car so that she could go out with her friends. I told her I didn’t care (I really don’t) and she said she would be by with her friends to get it in a little bit.

After Liv went to sleep and I tip toed (and I mean tip toed, this kid is the lightest sleeper ever), down the stairs I realized that the sink was full. Not wanting the friends to see the squalor I live in, I mustered up all my housekeeping strength and did the dishes. But, the trick was on me….they never even came in.

So the dishes were done for nothing, except cleanliness. What a waste! Somehow we have been living in our house for over a year and it still looks like we just moved in. Can I just keep blaming the toddler? Please? pLease?

Alright, It’s probably time for the actual topic of this post now. Since I was a delinquent last week with the challenge post, I am going to do #2 and #3 here.

Challenge #2 - Polka Dots

I GREATLY, GREATLY underestimated how long this dress was going to take me to make. It honestly looked so simple to me, and even seemed simple the first time I read through the instruction. I was wrong.

 

The pattern that I used was the Oliver & S Birthday dress. This was the first time I had ever used a pattern from an independent pattern maker. I have basically always made Simplicity or McCall’s, with a few Butterick mixed in (but they aren’t really my style for the most part). I thought this garment came out absolutely beautiful, but I felt like I had a really hard time visualizing what they were telling me to do in the directions. I had to read through them a bunch of times to actually understand what I was supposed to do.

 

Attaching the Hem facing nearly killed me. I just COULD not understand how I was supposed to do it. It seemed from the picture in the instructions that you were supposed to unfold the overhang on each side, and line it up to the edge…. But then it was just way too short. I sewed, and unpicked, and sewed and unpicked and sewed and unpicked. Finally, I actually thought that I may have cut out the wrong pattern size. I pulled out all of my freezer paper patterns (I’ve been doing this lately, and am not quite sure how I feel about it yet), and the actual patterns. Turns out I did make a size Three….I was absolutely stumped.

 

Out of sheer desperation I decided to Google, “Oliver and S birthday Dress Hem facing”. Turns out they have a user community on their website!! YAY!! I was able to find a forum post about the dress, and FINALLY understood what to do!!

Also, I had a hard time with the pleats. I never mark lines on the right side of the fabric when I’m supposed to. I’m okay with how they came out….but I wouldn’t say I’m in love with them.

I am excited to try my other Oliver & S patterns. I thought that the dress looked so finished and professional looking. Mass produced patterns just don’t take the same care to make sure that the inside looks nice.

Finally, the more clothing I sew the more I feel like I need a serger………….

Challenge #2 – Zip me Up!

I know you are all going to think it….so I’ll just say it….I called it in on this challenge. I KNEW that I wasn’t going to be able to finish a project from scratch this week, since I was working on the polka dot project until Wednesday. Zip it up was more of a refashioning project for me….

I was shopping in the clearance section of Target (baby free…one of life’s great pleasures) and saw this cute high low tank top. I thought to myself, “This would be just adorable with an exposed zipper”. Eight dollars and an hour later and TA DA!! Sewing challenge #3 is done!

 

I think it looks really cute. Thanks to Hubs for taking the pictures, and to Olivia for just having to be in them.

Next week’s challenge is Swim Cover-up. I’m pumped. Already have my fabric and pattern picked out. My fresh husband actually said to me, when I told him I was stopping at the fabric store on the way home from work yesterday to get the fabric, “Wait, you aren’t just going to sew zippers onto already made clothes from now on?”. Freshy ……..fresh………….. fresh.

Don’t forget to head over to my sister’s blog and look at her projects (she’s way more on the ball than me)!! I want her polka dot project by the way………

 

Sneak Peek

So......I'm two days.....almost three on my sewing challenge post/project this week. 

Oops!

Lots of factors have gone into this delinquency. To start things off I GREATLY under estimated how long it would take me to sew the garment I chose.

 Also, I greatly OVER estimated how easily I would be able to get Olivia into Minnie bed at night. This girl has been acting like the typical two year old for the last week. I used to be able to get her to sleep really easily if I wore her out during the day or she skipped her nap. Lately, this has only made her more cranky and harder to get to sleep. 

Finally, I chose an Oliver & S pattern as my inspiration this week. I'd never used an Oliver&S pattern before, or anyindependent  pattern maker for that matter. I found some of theinstructions difficult  to understand. 

That all being said, its coming out beautifully! 

Here's a little sneak peek...full post with   pictures soon

Photo a Day - Project Life 365

I love taking pictures. For a short while during my senior year of high school I thought about going to Photography school. But, I thought about doing a lot of things....

For my VERY first Mother's Day (2011 - Liv was one day old!) Hubs got me a DSLR camera. Basically, that gift solidified my obsession. 

This past January I decided to take part in ProjectLife365. What's that you ask? WELL, its a SUPER fun photo a day project. Each week we are given seven hashtags for inspiration. I share my photos (labeled with the hashtag of the day) on Instagram, but you can share on Twitter and Facebook too. 

I have missed a few hashtags along the way but I have REALLY enjoyed playing along. 

I plan on updating the blog weekly with my ProjectLife Pictures. Ill probably do it on Friday because my friend Andrea (who may be my only reader) misses my photo Friday posts :)

Until then, here are a few of my favorites. 

  #daily_life

#lucky

#upside_down

#satisfying

#9_to_5

#skyline

#type

Challenge - Week 1

This week's prompt for the sewing challenge was "Work and Play". I had sewers block. Bad.

I failed week one.

The week started with promise. I had a day off the Thursday before, new patterns and new fabric. I decided to do a little shopping and gardening on my day off before I started sewing...... Bad idea. Right around dinner the vomiting started. When all was said and done I was sick for about a week.

When the vomiting ended, a fever set in. I had a fever for a couple days, which i think caused my mouth to erupt in canker sores. Canker sores all through my mouth and down my throat. It was excruciating. All this time I tried so hard to decide what to do for the challenge. I just couldn't do it. I kept obsessing over my choice, thinking that maybe there was a better choice i could make. It was insane. So, nothing got started.

Also, there was a lot of sleeping on the couch.

I did start making a quilt for Olivia's baby. The quilt top went together pretty easy, minus a small mistake i made while cutting (I need serious practice with my rotary cutter). I'm having a SUPER hard time quilting it though. Ive tried hand quilting machine quilting and it just keeps bunching. I'm tempted to just tie it....but maybe i'll do a little quilting research today at work before i resort to that.

Next weeks challenge: Polka Dot.....and I'm actually doing this one. I already have an idea, fabric, pattern and supplies. Just need to start cutting.

Hubs is working a lot this week, maybe Ill have enough time to do last weeks too.....maybe.

Sew What it's Summer Challenge

A few weeks ago I decided to try to force myself to sew more of my own clothes.  While talking to my sister about it, she came up with the idea of doing a sewing challenge to keep us motivated. I thought why not ...right?

We decided to call the challenge "Sew What it's Summer".....cute right?  The challenge goes from May 19th to September 2nd, and has been divided into 16 weeks.  Each of us came up with 8 challenges.  Apparently, Manda came up with challenges that she had plans for..... me....I just thought of cool things I wanted to wear........

Here they are.....

Week#1	Starting Date	Challenger	Challenge
1	5/20/2013	Amanda	Work and Play
2	5/27/2013	Margie	Polka Dot
3	6/3/2013	Amanda	Zip Me Up
4	6/10/2013	Margie	Swim Cover Up
5	6/17/2013	Amanda	Ombre
6	6/24/2013	Margie	Maxi Dress (2 week challange)
--	7/1/2013	BREAK	BREAK
7	7/8/2013	Amanda	Retro Rundown
8	7/15/2013	Margie	Chambray
9	7/22/2013	Amanda	Bejeweled
10	7/29/2013	Margie	Nautical
11	8/5/2013	Amanda	Waste Not Want Not
12	8/12/2013	Margie	Anthropologie Knock off
13	8/19/2013	Amanda	Hidden Treasure
14	8/26/2013	Margie	Black & White
15	9/2/2013	Amanda	My Style icon would wear that.
16	9/9/2013	Margie	Inspired

Rules of the Game:
All challenges last a week. Start the week's challenge on Monday, finish by Sunday @ midnight and blog about it by Monday @ midnight.  Make sure when you blog about about that you include the tag or label #sewwhatitssummer.

That's it - everything else with the challenge is fair game. Get ready for some great projects and looks soon to be displayed on this site :) And don't forget to check out my sister Manda's Blog.

Do you still have that blog?

It’s a question I get asked a lot…

And I’ll answer “yeah, but, I also have a really active 2 year old……..”

Which brings us to my biggest question.

Where do two year olds get their energy?? 

Who ever can find the answer to that......and bottle it....will be a MILLIONAIRE....seriously.  From the second Liv wakes up to the second right before she falls asleep...she's moving.....at 500 mph.

I’m absolutely exhausted at the end of the day.  Work, taking care of myself and taking care of Olivia is just overwhelming.My poor husband and dog…..

I can’t even think about having another child…...not yet.  How do mom’s of multiple children do it?
Back to the blog right??  Looks like I haven’t updated since January?  Wow. ….so much for  that resolution.

I have been doing a bunch of projects sewing and the house decor, since I've updated though, and will try to update you on them as we go.Since January, I've been doing a photo a day project on instagram and am going to try to figure out a good way to update you on my progress doing that.  I don’t get to post a picture everyday for this, but I just love being able to do this project.  Plus, it’s super easy, and I can post the picture with the appropriate hash tag while Liv is taking a few breaths (or drinking from her bottle that she isn't supposed to be drinking from anymore).


This summer, my sister and I have come up with a blogging/sewing challenge to keep ourselves motivated.  It started this week.  Basically, each week we have a prompt and will need to sew something to match that prompt and then blog about it.  I’ll blog here, she will blog over at her new (and fabulous) blogI came up with half the prompts, she came up with the other half (separate post for that coming up shortly)

Have I started working on this week's prompt yet?
You know I haven't
Some things never change........but isn't that what's comforting about life?

HELLLLOOOOOO 2013!!

New Year's Eve may be one of my favorite holidays. Christmas is great with all the gifts and everything, but on New Years, you get the chance to start completely fresh in the new year, whilst (love that word...did I use it correctly?) celebrating for the year that past. It's the feeling of accomplishment and anticipation all rolled into one night.

Before Olivia, I would ring in the new year in downtown Boston, in a crowded bar, with a few of our friends and lots of alcohol. January 1st was never a very good day for me.....as most of it was spent with a hangover. The last few years, we've spent the night at home, relaxing, watching tv, and just having a good time with friends. No hangover. Thank you Olivia for coming into my life and stopping me from being hungover on the first day of every year :)

Another thing that I like about New Years is the resolutions. I know lots of people say that they don't keep them.....but I like the idea of being introspective and trying to better yourself. It's always nice to take a long look at yourself and see what needs changing. So, of course.....I've come up with a few resolutions of my own.

1. Take better care of myself
Since Olivia's been around I've made every excuse in the book not to exercise, eat right or drink enough water. Lately, I have even been sleeping in my clothes and not washing my face or teeth before bed. It's just bad. I put EVERY single ounce of energy I have into Olivia. I need to make sure I take care of myself at least as much as I take care of her......so that I can be around for her for a good long time.

2. Go to the Dentist
I HATE the dentist. Hate hate hate. I haven't been since before I was pregnant....which is just stupid. I pay for dental insurance monthly...and eventually I'm going to have a little girl that is going to need to go to the dentist. I need to be a good example. Right?

3. Take more time do hobbies....and blog.

We'll see how it goes!!