BOWS!

Blue and Brown - Don't you just love the Christmas color theme? Shouldn't it be 'silver and gold'? I'm finding that at the ripe ol' age of 30, I have become way too practical for my own good. Why purchase 4 matching dresses that the girls can only wear a total of maybe 4 times? Of which, just finding can consume a lot of my extra time. (Really? Extra time?!)

So, my solution this year, besides just skipping the purchase altogether, was to find something cute but that could span time, defy weather and have hand-me-down potential. This was the result. Cute - If I do say so myself.

Now the challenge? Making them snazzy enough for Christmas. Dilemma was solved by creating these pretty and fun hair accessories.

The cute little flower loop hair bow tutorial can be found here along with many other free tutorials on The Ribbon Retreat. Another great site I've used for bow making is Girly Things.

This is a little different shot of the loopy flower bow. I hot glued this directly to the plastic headband. I had originally planned to cover this with ribbon, as well, but ran out of ribbon. A crafter has to be ready and willing to improvise, right?!

I had SO much fun making this woven headband. I've seen these different places and just love the look of them. It looks much more complicated than it really is. And, thanks to a great tutorial by Laura at HairHardwear on YouTube, both woven headbands were completed in no time.

My ever present, always helpful baby girl is modeling the loopy flower bow that was put on an alligator clip. In the first picture above, it is clipped to an elastic headband. I didn't want to attach the two permanently, and I'm very hopeful that one of these days she will have enough hair to hold the bow in longer than just the time it takes to snap a photo. :)

So Proud!!!

This is what came walking around the corner to greet me the other day. That's right! My one year old had the tape measurer draped around her neck, smiling from ear to ear.

Does a momma's heart good to have an aspiring seamstress in the house, no matter what age. :)

Cozy Blanket

I really have been busy with a little creativity and not just the mundane, everyday house work. It's hard to sneak in the time, but I did.

Here is one such project. My brother-in-law recently married a wonderful lady, and I wanted to make them something special. Plus, it's been a bit of a running joke that I would make a blanket like this for him when he got married. (I made one for the in-laws a few Christmas's ago.) When the ring was on the finger and the date set, I started planning - and sweating.

This cozy blanket was so much fun to make! Plus, I loved working with all the soft, beautiful flannels. It's been a while since I've done a project of this scale, so it wasn't finished by the wedding deadline. However, the recipients have been very gracious and forgiving in the lateness of the gift. (Sorry for the sideways pics. At least I remembered to take them this time!)

The blanket is big enough to be placed on a twin bed, if desired. My main goal, though, was making it big enough for both newly weds to be able to fit under comfortably. No complaints about stolen covers, here!

The full blanket:

The panel:
Here are a couple of close-ups of the panel. All the pieces are ironed on and then satin stitched around to secure and keep the fraying at bay.
I did just a little bit of hand stitching in different areas. The smoke coming from the chimney is just a running stitch placed a bit randomly. Obviously, the buttons, eyes and beads on the snowmen where done by hand as well. The last hand work was a blanket stitch around the bear. There was just no way I wanted to try and maneuver those curves through my machine.
I have enough left over material for a good start on another blanket. My husband is now wondering when HE gets a blanket! At least it's a good excuse to do some more sewing in the near future.