Bunny Party

We've been having a Mooshy Belly Bunny party over here!

I made one for a friend awhile back, and I wanted to make one for Penelope since she prefers to chew on soft, squishy things vs. the hard teething toys.

Well, once Phoebe saw what was in the works, she promptly claimed it for her own.  So that led to mooshy bunny number two.  Then my mom saw the bunnies and immediately put in her request for two more to give as gifts.  So I made two more.  And then we had a party.

Sleepy bunny.

If you want to make your own Mooshy Belly Bunny, you can find the pattern here.

A quilt for ME - over a year in the making

I first posted about this quilt waaay back in February of 2011.  And then again here, and then when I finally finished the quilt top back in April of last year, and one more time when I finally got the darn thing basted while I was nine months pregnant.

I guess since it is the largest quilt I've ever made - a queen size at 90 x 108" - it makes sense that it took me forever to finish it.  Plus, the thought of quilting this beast made me exhausted just thinking about it, so I put it off for a long time.

But once I sat down and got started - it wasn't quite as tough as I had led myself to believe.  I went with my standard, all over loop-de-loop free motion pattern.  This quilt definitely gave me a lot of practice!

I backed it in a whole mess of pieced vintage sheets and favorite fabric remnants.

Aside from being pieced with lots of my favorite fabrics (Nicey Jane!), and sashed with one of my favorite vintage sheets, my favorite part is that our whole family can cuddle up under this giant without anyone's toes poking out the end :)

Big Tee Tiny Tee

One of my ongoing projects this summer is to try to keep up with my crazy little growing-like-a-weed Phoebe's wardrobe. 

I've been making her these incredibly quick and simple tops by using Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern (a must-have for making clothes for kids), and these retro vintage shirts that have been thrifted - or in the case of the Pippi shirt - was actually MINE in high school.  Eeeks!

I love sewing using up-cycled clothing because you get to finagle around your pattern pieces to take advantage of things like already sewn cuffs and hems.

With these shirts, I first disassembled the original shirt and cut off the neck ribbing to reattach at the end.  I positioned my pattern pieces to center the graphic on the front, and to keep the cuff ribbing on the sleeves so I wouldn't have to finish them later .  Then I just sewed it up according to Rae's pattern, and shortened and attached the neck ribbing.  The whole thing seriously took about 20 minutes.

And even though Phoebe has no idea who Pippi Longstocking is....

.....I think she embodies her character pretty darn well.