Little Sister Dress to Big Sister Skirt

Last year I found this cute dress for my 3 year old to wear for Christmas events.

However the zipper head snapped in two.  I hate sewing zippers.  But the dress was REALLY nice with a soft lining fabric.  So instead of fixing it, I upcycled it to a skirt for my older daughter.  (3T dress to size 6/7 skirt)  This is how I did it.

1. Cut the dress right under the armpits, leaving a few inches of fabric attached to the top of the waistline.
2. Next, cut the zipper out of the dress.
3. Turn it inside out and sew the lining fabric to the top of the waist line.  (I used pins for this because the lining pops out a bit on the bottom and I wanted to make sure that it would be even)
4. Then sew about 4 or 5 inches of waistband elastic to about 15" of ribbon of the same width.  Don't forget to burn or melt the ends of the ribbon so it doesn't fray. (My daughter wears a size six, but you might need to adjust the elastic length depending on your daughters size.)
5. Turn the skirt right sides out.  take the end of your elastic and line it up with the side seem of the skirt on the inside so it is sandwiched between the pieces  (keep the ribbon trailing out towards the back.)
6. Sew the side seems to secure the elastic. And rrepeat steps 3-5 for the other side.
7. Examine your skirt's waistline.  You will probably need to use a seam ripper to take apart a few stitches where the waistline meets the back seem where the zipper used to be.
8. Stitch the edges of the hole you just made with a blanket stitch so it doesn't fray.  But DON'T stitch it closed again!!!
9. Thread the ribbon through the hole.
10. Repeat steps 7-9 for the other side.
11. Pin the ribbon and elastic in place so it stays out of the way for the next step.
12. sew the bottom of your waistline to create a casing for the elastic and ribbon to stay in place.
13. If there is a gap in the back, sew a panel of fabric to one side of the opening in the back to flap over the opening and keep your daughters undies hidden.

The elastic/ribbon bow should make it so you don't have to re-tie the bow with each use.  You can sew the bow in place once you know it fits so it always looks perfect, or just double knot it so it can be adjusted as your daughter grows.

Is that not the cutest free holiday outfit ever?  I can't wait for Santa pictures :)

Macintosh Applesauce Mmmmm

Everyone around here seems to be making applesauce, so we decided that in order to be considered New Englaners we should jump on the wagon and try it out.  I had a food mill that my Mom gave me a few years ago and a pressure cooker that I inherited from my grandma so I was excited to finally be able to use them for the first time.

 I got a half bushel of apples at a local farm stand and it ended up being way more than I could use.  I had time to make 6 quarts of applesauce while the kids were in school and I still ended up with enough apples to make 2 more batches of the recipe.

The recipe was so yummy, but we did make a few changes.  I put it through a food mill before pouring it into the jars so it would be fine with no chunks.  (This step is not needed though because I gave some of the sauce that was left in the food mill to my kids and they said they liked it chunky.)

 Then We pressure cooked it for 5 minutes at 5lbs of pressure.  Since I didn't know anything about using a pressure cooker I watched this youtube video so I didn't blow up my kitchen.

I was excited that it all worked out and the lids all sealed.  I think that next time I am going to try to find a recipe that doesn't have sugar in it.

 And here is my helper.  My father-in-law, who was such a good sport about helping me in the kitchen and keeping me company.

 I think the next time that I make applesauce I will buy smaller jars so that I can hand it out as gifts because it was that yummy :)

Navy Ball 2012

tonight we went to the Navy Ball for the first time in a since 2009.  We had a great time and were so glad that my father in law could come out to watch the kids for us.  I of course worried about everything going okay while I was gone but when I got back he told me they were all angles.
This is the hair do I went with.  It's not my favorite that I've ever done, but I think that style wise it went well with the dress and old fashion look I was going for (It was a cold night so I wore a fur cape with it that added to the old fashion look.)  If I try it again I think I will twist the hair on the side instead of braid it.  I had a hard time feeling like the braids were just right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf2oZwSehWQ

Some other hair styles I considered were
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bBblo-8x90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOTc822hTaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyr2FJtYllQ
(I read that you can make your own hair padding by folding some tulle into the same oblong shape as in the video then wrapping it in a hair net.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2YYlVuC6_w&list=UUeRF3k69cJnxB87lwk9KbrA&index=4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VtLMniWzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGsx2f822fs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOdNneU3djw
http://www.princesshairstyles.com/2014/09/waffle-cone-ponytail-easy-hairstyle.html

My hubby is working with the boy scouts in our area and had a court of honor tonight.  So I made some cookies for him to take.  I was excited when I thought of the gingerbread scout idea.  But I think they look more like Chewbaca from Star Wars than a boy scout.  Either way, they were both yummy :)

Garden's bounty & Summer Nightgown

I've posted in the past about my gardening failures and how I have a brown thumb.  Most of my gardening efforts since my last post have proved to fall far from what I had hoped.  So I guess that most of my gardening efforts can be categorized more in the exercise category because weeding and planting often makes me sweat and occasionally I'm sore the next morning.

So for Christmas my wonderful Mother-in-law got me a special planter that is supposed to be fool proof.  (It is self-watering and called an Earth box.  Check it out if you are as poor a gardener as I am.)  I thought carefully about what I should plant in it, something easy to grow, I went with beans.  Today we finally picked them...

...washed and cut them...

...and ate them for dinner :)

(I was hoping to can them, but we barely had enough to satisfy 4 people.) 

 Another thing I wanted to share today was this nightgown pattern.  

I can't remember if I have ever posted it before.  My girls LOVE this night gown.  They have these matching ones and then I let them both choose a second fabric from my collection and I made them each a second nightgown from the fabric they picked.

I think that what they love the most about them is that they are

1.  Cute
2. Made of breathable cotton fabric
3. The gathered part at the top is an elastic casing so it is supper easy for them to pull the nightgowns on and off.

HERE-are the instructions

HERE-is the arm hole pattern piece

HERE-are the dimensions for the fabric needed

I keep wanting to make some more with the rest of my extra fabric but I have run out of bias tape and need to buy or make some more so that I can donate some dresses to the website.  But when I finally make them you can be sure I'll post about it again.  Also, I am thinking that I should make a sleeve pattern to go with the dress because my girls want to wear these nightgowns as dresses around town, but I'm a stickler on modesty, so I always make them change.  I think I might try to combine this pattern with the flutter sleeve top I just posted about.  If I come up with something that looks good, I'll share it and make a tutorial on it if I can find the time.
-Busy Bri

I had a left over scrap of the border fabric from Amelia's Butterfly quilt and wanted to do something with it.  I have been wanting to try a summer top pattern that I found online, so I figured I'd finally do it.  The Tutorial is HERE and it is by Candace at Sparkle Power.  

 I think it turned out supper cute, My scrap was just a little too short according to her measurements so I used ribbon to make the elastic casings and to cover the raw edge on the hem and sleeves.  I think it made it supper cute.

Butterfly quilt

I saw this quilt on line last year and fell in love with it.  So I got some blue fabric and started collecting my scraps to make the butterflies.  Sadly, I am not so good at piecing together blocks.  They ended up to be all different sizes and there was no way I was going to be able to sew them into the quilt that I wanted.  I was frustrated that I put so much wasted time into it and money for the fabric.

If anyone is better than I am, here is the link.  The pattern is called Frolic'n Butterflies.

But last Month I came up with a solution where I could salvage a bit of what I lost.  Instead of making a pieced block, I could make an un-pieced block and add the butterfly to the top.  I LOVE how they turned out.  So cute and 3 dimensional.  So fun for a baby to pull on and chew.

I started with a pattern for the butterfly that I made myself.  I guess it is sort of shaped like a cloth diaper.  (But much smaller)  I cut out a front and a back, sewed right sides together with a 1/4" seem allowance, leaving a gap at the bottom.

 Then I clipped the curves and corners, turned it right sides out, and pressed into place.
Next I folded the fabric so it looked like wings and basted them by hand.
After that I took the quilt top to the sewing machine and sewed my butterflies onto the white blocks.
Once I made my quilt sandwich I tied the butterflies with brown yarn to look like the body of the butterfly.

If I had more time I would have liked to have put a brown binding around the edge of the quilt, but with a new baby at home I just didn't have time to go out to the fabric store before it was time to give it away.
The blanket found a new home in the arms of one of my friends out here in New England.  She had a baby just about 1 month after my Toby was born and I took the blanket to her when I went to meet her beautiful new baby.  I hope you like it little Amelia!