Fancy Nancy Nightie

While shopping at JoAnns one day, I spotted some Fancy Nancy fabric that would be perfect for a little girl nightie. Fortunately I have a little girl and she would love a new nightie.

I did not know that the Christmas dolls would need new pjs too!

For the nightie I took a nightie that fit my daughter and designed a pattern from that. Because it is Fancy Nancy we are talking about, we would need extra ruffles too.

My daughter loved it and said her doll needed one too. So off to design a doll nightie. I had some doll clothes patterns, but also used other doll clothes as a guide.

Then apparently the boy doll couldn't sleep without pjs either. I used a button down shirt as a guide for the top and a pants pattern for the bottoms. Fortunately I had enough fabric on hand.

Texture Quilt for Babies

I love when ideas just come to me. My very first quilt I made was for my daughter, Sydney, when she was a baby. We were at JoAnns and she was in a front carrier. I was looking at fabric and she kept reaching for this one print. It had butterflies and was a deep purple. She really liked it!

I decided to buy the fabric, but wasn't sure what it would turn into.

Finally the idea for a baby quilt came to mind. But I wasn't sure I had time or energy for a quilt as I had a young baby and also a preschooler.

Back to JoAnns we went in search for coordinating fabric. I knew then that I would like to find materials which had very distinct textures. We looked through the clearance area and found all kinds of great things: corduroy, bumpy, lacy, slippery, satiny, dotted, and more!

After finding 9 different fabrics, I started making my squares and trying to get the pattern to look right. Then I had a very tired baby on my hands. I never liked having to take a break in my sewing before having kids, but now I have seen the benefits of having extra time to think about things.

During that nap and some computer time, I learned about sashing and how nice it would look. I was hooked. The butterfly fabric would have a place in the middle with lace over it, be the sashing, and the backing. After the nap or the next day, everything came together.

Here are some more texture quilts I've made as gifts. They are always pretty small and just right for some tummy time. Later the small quilt has become a blanket for a doll.

Nutcracker Gifts for my Little Performer

The summer before Sydney was in Kindergarten I remembered a friend telling me about her daughter's experience performing in the Nutcracker. I did a quick search and found that auditions would be the next month! Great timing!

She tried out and got a part as a Page. It is a very small part where a group of children march onto the stage with their horns, raise their horns as if to play, and then march off stage. Because all of the pages are between five and seven years old, this part of the ballet is especially cute.

I was at JoAnns for some reason and saw all the shiny metal ornaments. They seemed to be all musical instruments. Kyle was a saxophonist now, so I looked around for a saxophone. No saxophone, but I found a horn that looked identical to the ones the kids used in the ballet! I was certainly going to get one for Sydney and then thought about getting some for the other kids.

The horn was the same shape, but it was missing something. The horn the kids used had red cording around it. I looked around for red cording and had a plan. I hot glued the cording on the horn and it looked great!

Because the Nutcracker experience seemed so significant for my daughter I thought about what else I could do for her to help her remember. I was able to take backstage pictures and also saved the letter of acceptance and the program. With these items and some Christmas themed stickers I made a little photo album for her.

But one more idea was in my head. I wanted to make a little doll Page, just like Sydney's costume. We already had doll clothes pins and fabric wasn't a problem. A little glue, a little cutting, and we had a little Page.

Sorcerer Mickey Costume

We were planning a trip to Disney World and planned to attend the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Sydney already had a Minnie Mouse costume I had purchased. I talked Kyle into being Sorcerer Mickey.

I found some costumes, but they were vintage and very expensive. I decided to try to make it myself. I thought a lot about the cape part and how to make the collar. I looked at many, many images on Google. Finally I was ready to cut my fabric. It went together pretty well. I purchased a Sorcerer Mickey hat and found blue shiny athletic pants which I shortened to long shorts. I also got black leggings and a long sleeve black shirt. When it was all put together, there was no mistaking, Kyle was Sorcerer Mickey.
Unfortunately it was unseasonably HOT in Disney that October and Kyle couldn't tolerate the costume for long.

Quilt for my son

Having one bed sized quilt under my belt, I was ready to take on one more.

After searching for patterns again I came across the idea of the disappearing nine square quilt. I thought it would be great and liked it even more with only three colors.

I made one square out of construction paper and then asked my son to help me design it. He had great ideas of how to reposition the cut pieces. Using the paper really helped.

Using fairly large squares made everything go quickly and then deciding to use sashing gave the quilt a nice look and made it bigger without having to add more squares.

My son wanted all the colors to be solids, but we compromised with some patterns.

Love that disappearing nine square!

Disney Bound Inspirations

Planning a trip to Disney World can give you all kinds of ideas!

My daughter was coincidentally dancing to the Mickey Mouse March as we were planning this trip. I decided to make the girls little hobo bags and a tote for me.

The dance teacher was expecting a new baby and already had a baby and preschooler at home. So I thought a nice carrier would be the perfect gift. The other moms chipped in and the Mickey Mouse carrier was created!



Around this time another friend was having a baby and lived near Disneyland. I made her baby one of my texture quilts with a Mickey Mouse theme. Some of the squares have vintage Mickey mouse fabric from my mom's old stash.

Quilt for my daughter

I had played around with quilting and had even made a few small quilts. I've always bee a big fan of one day projects. Then I thought, why not make a bigger quilt, how hard could it be?

I did a lot of Google searches for a basic quilt pattern. I wasn't having much luck. Then I searched for baby quilt images and found one I loved! I didn't know what it was called and wasn't sure if I could figure out the pattern.

I started with the image and then brought it up into a paint program. I started making lines on the photo and trying to figure out where the blocks started and ended. Finally it was making sense. Along with my husband's help, we simplified the repeating pattern and I was ready to make it.

I started with a butterfly fabric that we had already chosen for window valences. Finding matching and coordinating fabrics was more time consuming than I expected. Finally we had all the fabric and I was ready to cut, piece and sew.

The quilt went together fairly quickly. Then I needed to learn about sandwiching and binding.

After reading some tutorials and buying some new sewing machine feet I was ready to go.

Working on a larger quilt really is trickier. Stitching in the ditch, making designs and just getting from one area to the other is challenging.

Another thing we did to help with the quilt sewing was to lower my sewing table. I use a small wooden kitchen table I got from a friend. My husband shortened the legs for me and also made a cut out in the "apron" for my legs to fit comfortably.

Finished quilt! Now on to one for my son.