Flower Shirt for Mama!

It's not often that I make something for myself. It's even more rare that I take pictures of myself (or even allow myself to be in them!), but here ya go!

I made this shirt months ago and it was the first shirt I ever made. That collar was somethin' else to make. I'm really not very good at gathering. I would much rather pleat. This is from the McCall's M5640 pattern. Looks cute enough on the cover model, but it turned out like a big tent! I wore it that way for quite awhile until I realized that the back really did look like a big flowery circus tent. Then I saw on someone's blog how they fitted a shirt on themselves, so I tried it out.
Turn the shirt inside out, put it on & go stand in front of the mirror. Carefully pin the shirt until it fits the way you want it to. Then very, VERY carefully take it back off, sew and/or cut as needed. I tapered 3 inches in the middle on each side so that it went from looking like this /   \  to looking more like this )  (    This has now caused some funny little extra folds on the sides at the bottom, but is now much more flattering.

I bought a bunch of patterns for myself when they were .99 cents a piece, but haven't made anything else yet. (I did re-fashion a t-shirt for myself, which I may show later.)

I have a bunch of this fabric leftover so I am thinking about making the girls some matching peasant dresses. What do you think? Do you know of a really cute pattern that would work for this material?

I was featured!

The Train To Crazy featured my pleated t-shirt dress on Make It Wear It! I am so excited! I may have to link up more often.

Thank you Andrea from Train to Crazy!

4th of July outfits

The 4th of July oufits!

Finally!

 I {heart} red, white & blue!

 The boys shorts were SO super easy! They were made from CarlaC's Easy Fit Pants pattern. It took me about an hour to make both pairs of shorts. Don't let that beautiful patchwork fool you, I didn't do all that! I bought the fabric already all patchworked up. Do you think patchworked is a word? I'm gonna say yes.

I did find that the waist on these pants is a little too long for my taste, so I shortened Boo Boo Bear's. Bug, however liked it just fine, so I left it. Apparently, it's a matter of personal opinion & can easily be tailored to fit the wearer. I'm thinking about buying this pattern for adults, too. It's nice that it can be used for both genders!

Oh, these dresses were so frustrating! Unlike the one hour shorts, these things took days to make. This is probably due to the fact that I sort of made it up as I went along. I had a vision in mind, but no pattern that matched. I made the halter top from McCall's M5419 pattern, then extended it to ankle length & added a 4 inch ruffle. It turned out nothing like I imagined, but still cute.

4th of July

Luckily, during my blogging strike I was still making digital layouts, so I can remember what we did over 3 months ago! We took the kids down to Corpus Christi because they always have fun stuff for the kids to do. The kids activities this year were good (check out my girlies climbing rocks in dresses!), but the parade was less than mediocre. There was literally like 10 entries. Last year there was closer to 100! I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was very disappointed. It was so super hot & we had been sitting out there waiting after doing all the activities just to watch a 15 minute parade. Frustrating. The kids enjoyed what there was though, so all good, I guess.

 The kids loved the pony rides!

(good thing too, because we waited for over 30 minutes!)

Later, we went over to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier turned museum, to watch the fireworks. They launch them from the end of the ship, so you can sit on the beach & watch them right overhead. This was our first year to watch them from this vantage point and it was AWESOME! Other than the noise, the kids loved the fireworks, so it was a great day!

*Coming up next, the kids 4th of July outfits!*