Mother's Day Gift...a little late

My mom's birthday is the first week of May and so many a year I have combined her gifts...this year was no exception. Well, the exception is that there are just a few days left in May and I JUST now giving her gift to her! I made her a custom cushion set for her deck swing (that's partly why it's late...I didn't tell her I was doing this until her birthday and then I let her pick the fabric so I had to wait for fabric to arrive). Speaking of fabric, she picked this really cute outdoor fabric by Diversitex at www.fabric.com I made two seat cushions, two back cushions, side arm rests, a center arm rest and two matching pillows. I am really pleased with how it turned out and I hope she is, too. (The kids and I snuck down while she was at work and left them for her to find). Check out the pictures below.

On a separate note...one of my diaper totes was featured on a rockin' blog today! Check it out here:
www.PunkRockerByeBaby.blogspot.com
and you can check out her Etsy shop at www.RockerByeBaby.etsy.com for funky finds for your little one.

Surf Girl

So my little girl graduated preschool! The theme was Hawaiian so I ordered some of Alexander Henry's Surfin' Pare fabric in pink (I am doing baby boy's room in the sand colored surf boards). I wanted to give the effect of a pareo in a sundress so I designed this sundress as a pseudo wrap dress. The surf boards create the wrap and the floral peeks out with a large ruffle. I think it turned out great and it was a hit with my little diva.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I did! We spent the day with my family at my grandma's house and played outside all afternoon. My daughter discovered the life in the creek that runs through my grandma's yard (that I played for hours in as a kid) and my son threw rocks and sticks to his hearts content. All in all, a nice day.
And yesterday...I MADE THE STORQUE on Etsy (that is Etsy's in house newspaper and the new articles are featured on the websites main/home page). WoooooHooooo! Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-vintage-a-handmade-tale-3915/#comment-103267
So as promised, here is my daughter in her skirt and matching shirt. I had a great idea come to me for her preschool graduation dress (they are doing a tropical theme) and I can't wait to get started on it.

Just a little note....

Well....I haven't done much since my last post. I did finish the cute applique t-shirt to match my daughter's skirt the other day, but she wore it before I could photo it and I now have to get the chocolate icing off of the WHITE shirt before I can show you all how cute it turned out.

I did a blanket and matching onesie for a friend to give as a baby gift. I FINALLY got to order some of Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo to do it and I sooo love it. I want to do my son's room in it, but my husband wasn't sold. So I think I am going to do Alexander Henry's Surfin' fabric with the surf boards, that will allow me to keep the yellow walls and the trees my husband painted when we prepared the nursery for my daughter. I went gender neutral with her because of the insane pregnancy hormone-induce phobia that she infact was NOT a girl and if I did her room for a girl she would definitely be a boy. So we ended up with a gender neutral farm animal theme that I am just shaking my head at....oh those wonderful hormones! (they also made us buy a light colored wood crib because the one we wanted, which was a Mission style red oak was backordered six weeks and although I wasn't due for about 3 or 4 months at the time, there was complete paranoia that the baby would get here and we would have no crib, so let's order this one that we really don't love so that the beautiful bundle of joy will have a crib to sleep in....5 months after we brought her home). Loooong tangent!

Anyway, I haven't been up to much but I have quite a bit in the works. I have a custom request for outdoor cushion covers that I'm hoping won't ruin my machine as the fabric is very heavy-duty. I am also making new deck swing cushions for my mom as her Birthday/Mother's Day present. She picked some really pretty fabric that I can't wait to show you all. I want to make my daughter a cute sundress for her preschool graduation in a couple weeks and I am making an early birthday present for my friend's daughter for the fourth of July. The baby's room is in the future...have to finish some other things first. And, I need to start increasing my inventory for the French Market next month. I am REALLY excited! Here's the link with all the info: 3FrenchHensMarket.blogspot.com

It's May!!!!

Yay! Spring is here and summer is on it's way! The occasional cool day will not deter the uplifted spirits in our house as the kids can FINALLY play outside!!! I recently started offering printed fabric labels in my shop (after needing some myself and finding them pretty reasonable to make) and they are selling like hotcakes!!! I am amazed! I'm actually considering opening a second shop because now if you want to look through my sold items for examples of sewing things I have done, you have to wade through pages of label orders!

Anyway, I haven't been doing a ton of sewing...I patterned a new apron that I am still working on. I made one and have made some adjustments and I have the next on cut and sitting down in the sewing cave waiting to come to life!







I recently did a set of pillows for a customer using the Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room fabric that was used on the porch swing cushions I did around Easter and they are sooo cute that the customer has already asked me to make her valances to match.








Don't miss out on the It's In The Bag Giveaway...you can click the button on the right for all the details.
I signed up to sell at an open air French Market in town this summer! There are six venues...I signed up for the first and am going to see how it goes on possibly doing one more. If you live in Illinois (in the Northern part of the state or the Chicagoland area), here is the link with all the details. Three French Hens

Beyond that, I just received an order of a couple t-shirts. I want to embellish one to go with the blue/lime Amy Butler skirt I made my daughter (I really wasn't happy with the shirt I made so...)
Enjoy your day!