BSU T-Shirt Dress

When I married this:

I didn't know that I was marrying this.

I think the fact that my husband never wore a hat that wasn't blue or orange or the fact that the first time I saw my future father-in-law in something other than a BSU shirt was the night of our rehearsal dinner, should have given me some sort of clue.

I admit to being a fan of BSU -- I even owned season tickets to BSU Football the first year after I graduated (several years before I met my husband). It is my alma matter, after all.  But I'm not sure I was prepared to bleed blue and orange

We registered for orange stone wear dishes, and while I loved them, I couldn't decorate with blue, for fear that people would think that I intentionally had a Bronco dining room.

Having fanatics as in-laws has some benefits -- I have never had to purchase game day garb for myself or my children, as a Bronco logo seems to be required on all gifts recieved.  (All joking aside, my inlaws are fantastic.)

So Ladybug has plenty of game day hand-me downs, but I worried that people would mistake her for a boy.  (Though her grandmother did buy her a cheerleader outfit it is too big, so it gives me some time to decide how I feel about that.)  I needed to girl up some of the hand-me downs.  So I up-cycled a t-shirt into a t-shirt dress for her.

The t-shirt is size 12M, but its really small.  I cut off about three inches of the bottom.  (I originally was only going to cut off 2 inches, and I should have stuck with that.  Oh well.)  Then, I took some old jeans and cut some 4 inch strips.  I didn't have as much jean material as I wanted.  (I had already used the other leg on a different skirt.) So I was only able to get one pleat on the front, and one on the back.  I would have liked the skirt to be more ruffly.  It turned out okay, but I'm not thrilled with it.  Of course, Ladybug looks adorable in it. 

Check out Ashley's tutorial for the headband.

Blessing Dress

When I found out I was having a girl, I immediately wanted to make her a blessing dress.  We blessed my boys at two weeks old, because my parents and sister were in town.  The boys weighed about 5 pounds, and nothing fit them, so they were blessed in too big onsies and the only preemie brown pants I could find.

They were cute, and it was special, but I feel a little bit bad that they didn't have special blessing clothes.

My mom had mentioned saving her wedding dress and making blessing dresses out of it, but after 6 grandsons she got rid of it. However, she surprised me with this dress. 

This is the dress that I wore when I was blessed or when I came home from the hospital.  My mom couldn't really remember.  It was a long time ago, I'm not sure I would remember either.

So, now I had this dilemma.  Should Ladybug wear the same dress I wore when I was a baby, or should I make her one. 

She does look cute in my old dress, doesn't she. But the dress isn't as long and flowy as I imagined a blessing dress would be.

I kept coming back to this post on "Make it and Love it"  and thinking, I can do this.  Ashely makes some fabulous tutorials!

I started off by making a bodice out of some yellow cotton I had lying around.  That was pretty successful, but attaching the sleeve didn't go over well.  I decided that I should stick to using the sewing machine for curves or tight spaces, and only use the serger for straight lines. (Heck -- I've had the serger for a couple of years now and just now replaced the thread that comes on it with big white cones.)

I headed to Hobby Lobby.  I bought fabric -- some crushed polyester and lining.  I can't 'actually' sew, so I was being brave --  I was going to sew something that wasn't just quilting cotton.

This is what I came up with.  I'm pretty impressed with myself.  The dress isn't perfect -- it's too big, the sleeves aren't as ruffled as I would have liked, and my blind hem isn't so blind.  But I made it.  I'm still debating putting a single satin flower on the waist.  What do you think?

Ladybug, who never spits up, spit up when I tried the bodice on her.  I'm pretending that doesn't mean that she hates the dress. I'm also not taking any chances and trying it on her again before Sunday. 

Maternity Skirt

Finding myself 5 1/2 months pregnant, with absolutely nothing to wear to church on Sundays, causes me to throw clothing and scream at my husband. It's not his fault I don't like the one maternity dress that I own, or that I don't shave my legs so I have to wear black tights, or that my belly is getting to large for said black tights.

It's also not this fault that not eating makes me extremely crabby. And I shouldn't get mad at him when (in the middle of my tantrum in the master closet) he suggests that perhaps I would feel better if I ate something.

So, in an attempt to save my husband from injury from flying clothing, I've been attempting to make myself a maternity skirt (and keep granola bars in the bedroom.)

I started with a wonderful tutorial from homemade by jill. However, when Jill suggested that I use wide leg pants, I promptly ignored her. I started with a pair of capris that never quite fit right, and had long been destined for the DI pile, but still sat on the shelf in my closet. The legs tapered at the kneees.

Please don't make my mistake. You end up with a skirt that you will be incapable of walking in. I tried to remedy this by sewing some extra fabric in the "slit", but couldn't manage to do it without causing a big pucker that made me look like my tail bone pointed the wrong direction.

So, I decided to start with a thrift store skirt. I found this nice jean skirt at the DI for $3.
I removed the waist band and zipper, and sewed up the front, where the zipper had been. Some of tutorials I read left the zipper intact, and just sewed up the front, but I didn't want the bulk of the zipper. I cut a "scoop" out of the front for my belly. I also shortened the slit -- it's really hard to sit modestly with two three-year-olds climbing all over you.
Using Jill's tutorial, I created the stretch band out of a stained stretchy t-shirt. (Why is it that ALL of my shirts have grease stains on them?)

I should have followed the instructions here, and cut a matching scoop out of the waist band, but I didn't. I ended up with a little bit of an awkward waist. It is much higher in the back, and the front seam is really awkward around the scoop. But I think the skirt turned out really cute. It is very comfy, and I even shaved my legs so I could wear it to church last Sunday.

Fabric Scripture Cover

Shortly after we got married, my husband and I were reading scriptures together. I was using the brown leather, triple combination and bible set that I had gotten as a baptismal gift from my aunts and grandparents. And while I cherish the set, I eyed my husbands quad, and lamented that I had always wanted a quad with my name engraved on the cover.

For my birthday, my dear husband surprised me with an indexed, green leather quad, with my new married name on the cover. I love it and am so grateful for his thoughtfullness, however, I really wanted the quad that closes with the snap. Of course, only being married 4 months, I didn't tell him that.

I wanted to be able to put my scriptures into my church bag and not worry about the pages getting bent when I shoved the manual in the bag too. And I dislike very much the zipper case I got in highschool to carry and protect my scriptures. But, my beatuiful new quad ended up residing in my ugly zipper case.

I came across a tutorial for fabric book covers at Sew, Mama, Sew!. I immediately thought of my scriptures and thought of modifying the pattern to include a 'wrap around' and snap. I decided to try to just make a cover first and see how it went. I put the boys to bed, and got started. It went really well, but all of my plans for the wrap around wouldn't have worked like I thought it would, so I'm glad I went the way I did.

I was able to make the cover with a single fat quarter. I originally planned on using a matching fabric for the inside part, but decided not too. I still plan on making one with a snap, and will let you know how I did it.