Bean's Dress for the Wedding

I have been working on some custom school hats but last weekend was my sister-in-law's wedding.  I worked on Bean's dress for 2 days last week and put those hats on pause (and have resumed on Monday).  I posted this on my personal blog as well, but thought I should let y'all know what I've been up to!

For the wedding, I wanted Bean to match the rest of us in the family who were in it.  I looked everywhere online for the perfect dress.  I had thought I found one but once it arrived the Tuesday before the wedding, I noticed it was way too light of a purple to match the rest of us even remotely.

Here's a shot of the dress.  The sandal in front was the color of my dress and the sash for Peanut's Flowergirl dress.

So I had a thought...  (which is never a good thing). I figured I could put some black tulle around the skirt and do something fancy with the top to 'darken' the purple shade.  So out came the seam ripper.  I pulled out the hem between the bodice and the skirt but left it stitched together on the inside.  I measured two pieces of tulle for the front and back portions of the skirt and sewed the sides together.  The fabric I had purchased already had a sewn edge that I used for the bottom.  Once the sides were sewn, I attached the top to the skirt piece and rehemmed the line around, making sure not to stitch over where the button flap went.  I also cut around where the dress opened on the back so that we could get it over Bean's head.

Here's the dress with the black tulle around the skirt (photo taken on my phone which is why the color is off)

I was stuck for a bit attempting to figure out what to do with the dress top.  I knew I'd attach a new ribbon around the bottom of the bodice but aside from that, I was lost.  I posted on my FaceBook and had several friends reply.  I wanted to make a puff sleeve out of the tulle, and even got so far as to make the full template.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to complete the sleeves and get a decent night's sleep.

Instead, I doubled up the tulle and wrapped it around the top, sewing it over the ribbon and around the neckline and arm holes.  I made sure to pin everything down and still 'cut corners' so I ran out of some fabric on the back.  Luckily it was on the part that would be covered by the button.  After I sewed the tulle, I grabbed some ribbon.  The purple I had found wasn't the right color so I managed to have some sheer black and overlaid it.  The color was perfect, but now it meant I needed to sew two ribbons on.  Sigh, I am a glutton for punishment it seems!

Here's the two different ribbon colors.  See how the black makes the purple slightly darker?

I started by sewing the ribbon along the backing where the top came together.  Then, I sewed the ribbon around the middle, between the bodice and the skirt.  Next, I sewed around the neck line, and finally, sewed the arm holes.  That was the trickiest part, since the arms were too small to have the fabric go around the sewing machine!  But I loved the outcome and received numerous compliments.  I was even impressed that I managed to make it so cute (not to toot my own horn too loud)!

Bodice

Ribbon along the bodice/skirt line

Arm hole

Neckline

Back button (see where I missed the tulle overlay?  oops)

The bottom of the skirt

Overall dress

Little Lady Bug Hat

My friend's daughter has her 2 year birthday party!  For her birthday, I wanted to make her a hat, either an owl or ladybug since that's what she loves.  However, with my other orders, I was afraid I wasn't going to get it made in time.  But I decided to go ahead and try starting Friday afternoon.  The party was today (Saturday).  I actually was able to complete the hat portion last night as well as whipping up all the 'spots'.  I sewed on 4 spots last night, but was too exhausted to finish, so I completed them this morning.  Hooray for kiddos waking at 6?!?!

I found the Ladybug Hat Pattern for free on Crochet Every Day's blog (I think I might need to follow this blog!) and decided to go to work.  Since the recipient is 2, I decided to up my crochet hook to a K size (6.50mm) and added a row of black {R5: ch2, *3 dc, 2dc in each dc* [rep 12 times] (60 dc)}.  Instead of 13 rounds, I made 5 rounds of black and then 11 rounds of red, in addition to the last shell row for a total of 17 rounds.  I also created 10 'spots' to place around the entire hat, and decided against putting the center seam and antennas on.

Here's Peanut modeling the newly done Ladybug Hat

A view from the back (these colors are the correct shades)

Up close shot of the 'spots'

Andy the Android

A friend of my hubby keeps seeing the "little guy" he's got on his desk at work.  So, he requested one as well.  It's made of Sugar & Cream yarn.  After I completed it in a day, hubby stated it didn't look like the one I made him.  Hmm...  That's not too surprising considering the one I made hubby was my very first crochet project.  I've learned how to correctly do the stitches now, but since the one he saw was the one I made my hubby, I'm in the process of making another one.  So if anyone wants to purchase a Droid guy, let me know.  He's $20 plus shipping unless you're local, then I can get it to you.

This is the pattern I followed for him!  Check it out if you crochet and want to make one of your own!

Baby Flapper Hats

I had a request for some cute newborn hats and a toddler hat.  I searched ravelry for another super cute free pattern. I found AnnaVirginia Fashion's Baby Girl-Flapper Hat *Pattern*.  Instead of using a ribbon, I decided to crochet flowers on each.  I used Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in white and was able to easily follow the newborn pattern and the toddler hat.  Here are photos!

Bean modeling the toddler hat and holding her baby doll modeling the newborn size

The three hats with their flowers

Up close of the cute flower!

The newborn hats are $13.50 and the toddler size is $18.00

Bean's 1st Birthday - Pinwheel Party

Bean's first birthday went off wonderfully! I was able to accomplish everything I wanted to have done for her party. I had one item on my list that I was going to make IF I had time. Well, at 6:00 Friday night, I thought to myself, "I've got everything else done, but there's nothing left... I'm skipping the party hats. I doubt my kid will wear it anyway!" 

Hubby and I decided... well, let me rephrase that one. Hubby decided after Peanut's party back in April, we weren't having anymore kid parties at the house unless it was under 10 people total. That's fine, I didn't have to clean my house. Unfortunately, it meant we needed to bring (and get) a grill for the park and all the decorations.  The decorations I made was a "Happy 1st Birthday" banner, pinwheels (although they didn't spin because I couldn't figure out a good way to use a grommet), baby food pinwheel jars filled with jelly beans as favors and smores pops.  

For my pinwheels, my first attempts were to follow Create Studio's: How to make a pinwheel blog post.  I can use a grommet tool easily when I'm only punching through one or two sheets of paper, but apparently, I'm horrible at doing it through 5 (the folded over pinwheel edges plus the center for those of us who can't count).  Instead, I followed Salt Tree's blog and used wooden dowels instead of pop sticks.  I found my double sided paper in the scrapbook aisles of the closest A.C. Moore.  I believe I ended up making roughly 30 pinwheels.  They were extremely easy to make!

Here's Bean modeling with one of the pinwheels.  I was amazed how well it matched her outfit!

For the birthday banner, I used Our Home From Scratch's tutorial on Birthday Pennant Banner.  It took me a bit to figure out how big I wanted the individual pennants to be.  Then I needed to figure out how I wanted to print the lettering.  I should have just opted for all one color.  Oh well, live and learn, and I know better for next time.  Still, I loved it.  I also used a 9 foot ribbon and strung the entire banner through it.

Birthday Banner, with the Pinwheels in a bucket, and smores pops in an old formula can!

 My baby food jars were the perfect size for my next project, the party favors with Jelly Beans, you know, for the Bean!  I used Simply Real Mom's DIY Baby Food Jar Favors and modified them a bit.  I first spray painted the lids pink, white and blue (didn't realize my awesome American theme when I started it).  Hubby laughed at my inability to correctly use spray paint.  I'm not sure anyone noticed (or at least they didn't say anything to me).  While those dried, I used nail polish remover to remove any excess glue on the jar itself.  I then ran the jars through the dishwasher several times to make sure any chemicals were removed.  Once those were dried, I filled each jar with jelly beans.  I made small pinwheels (using an eighth size of paper I used for the larger pinwheels), and attached them to ribbons.  The ribbons were then glued to the sprayed jar tops.  Getting the pinwheels on the ribbons was a fun task.  Getting the brad pins through both the pinwheel and both ends of the ribbon (this way, the edges weren't sticking out and could be hidden by the pinwheel and brad pin).

My instagram photo of my working station!  Including my Clover Hill Spiced Apple wine!

Completed pinwheel jars, just waiting for jelly beans to fill them up

A close up of the favors' table

I also managed to make smores pops.  I used microwavable melting chocolate.  I heated that until it was melted.  Using one bag of marshmallows, I used lollypop sticks you can get at any craft store to dip each in the chocolate.  After I let it drip off excess chocolate, I dipped it in crushed graham crackers.  Once they dried, which was about 20 minutes later, I put small baggies on each and tied with a colorful twist tie.  I also attempted pinwheel cookies like I saw on Food Art Party's blog, but those didn't come out as planned.  Oh well. 

Pinwheel cookies and Bean's Vegan cake

Oh, and I made a vegan chocolate cake for the birthday girl since she's got so many food allergies.  I used Allrecipes.com Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe.  I spent a bunch of time on the icing lettering too.  Too bad all she did was mush it between her fingers.  She didn't even attempt to eat any of it.  Bah!

A view of the party table from behind