Living Room Update: Paint

It's been a few months...but I really HAVE been working on our living room update.  Remember where we started?

Dark walls, mismatched furniture, and really the farthest thing from cohesive you can imagine.

I have a wonderful friend who has been helping me with steps along the way to improve...THIS.  Her suggestions were to de-clutter our overflowing bookshelf, repaint, and start perfecting the little homey touches that make the house look a bit more sophisticated.  It hasn't moved as quickly as I've wanted, but I did some cleaning, re-organizing, and sewing.  (The sewing has so far been a flop; I tried to make some natural-colored curtains that ended up being too bulky and colorless for the living room, so it's back to the drawing board there.)  But our biggest change to date has been paint.  She really encouraged me to choose paint that would more unify our rooms (rather than the three colors we had).  She also challenged me to select a darker paint than I was really comfortable with!  But my hubby said it best:  "We decorated your way once before, and we didn't like it.  Let's try it her way."  So...

All parties except me chose the one on the right.  I wasn't even sure about the one on the left!  

We spent our spring break priming and painting with the same good friends who volunteered time to help us refresh the house.  Here's the final product:

And, you know what?  She was RIGHT.  I adore the color, and it made the room completely different. I feel like it's much more unified now.  And I'm eager to start working through the little nuances that will make it look "put together".  I'm going to be on the hunt for perfect curtains, and I need to sew some throw pillows and find a cute blanket.

What do you think?

peasant shirt

Last week I made a t-shirt dress for myself (like the one I helped Ella with).  This week I made some towel bibs - cut a circle in a dish towel and sew in some ribbing.  And then last night and this morning I followed the instructions on this website to make Cupcake a new shirt.  Although she is only 20 months old, I made her what they call a size 4.  It came together very quickly and I absolutely love it.  The style, the length, the puffy sleeves, the color!  I want to stash the rest of the fabric away to make her another one of these shirts when she grows out of this one.  I could make it longer and turn it into a dress, or add elastic around the bottom or the waist, or lengthen the sleeves - this will definitely be a project to repeat!

Dr. Seuss!

March holiday!

Even though we're homeschoolers, we still participate in our own way in Read Across America, which is a public school thing where they read Dr. Seuss books and do Dr. Seuss activities for a day. It's to encourage kids to read. We take an entire week of reading loads of books ... which, to be totally honest, is nothing new or different for us. But it's an excuse to set aside "boring" things like math and writing, and just read the whole week for school. This year, we added going to 3 different libraries in surrounding communities rather than our own. Aaaaaand ... we have Dr. Seuss clothes now!

This started as an accident. I was trying to order flannel for a baby blanket, and when the green character print arrived, it was not flannel. Just regular cotton. So I figured I'd make some fun skirts with it, and ordered the stripes and the spots. The stripes are actually from the Dr. Seuss line as well - I don't know if you can tell from the top picture, but the stripes are not clean, straight lines. They're a little bit squiggly. The red criss-cross on the top 2 skirts was something I had bought for another project that also worked with this. I got the Seuss fabric from fabric.com - it's the Celebrate Seuss collection from Robert Kaufman.

The 4 older girls all have tiered skirts - I used the directions in this old post from Craftiness Is Not Optional. SM and JE (#1 and #3) have their middle level wider than the top and bottom, and pockets. RG (#2) has no top yoke, just a ruffle around the bottom. She also wanted pockets. SM's pockets were from the dress pattern I made for the baby, but the other 2 just had squares cut and added. TA (#4) has the closest to the original tutorial with her tiers all even, or at least as even as I could get them. The seam allowances still throw me off a little bit, but I am going to declare the tiered skirt mastered and move on to something else. There are a billion and one skirt ideas out there. I need to not get so stuck on doing the same thing over and over ... even though if you want to use multiple fabrics, tiers are useful for that.

And the baby, down at the bottom, got the Oliver + S ice cream dress. It's my second pattern to use from them. The top cuff on the pockets threw me off a little bit while reading the directions, but once I got over the bump, they came together perfectly and the dress looks great. (The dress also fits TA perfectly as a tunic shirt, so I don't have to trace off another size to make her a top. Yay!)

Happy reading! Our favorite Dr. Seuss books are Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and The Cat in the Hat. Our favorite Dr. Seuss movie is The Lorax.

St. Patrick's Day Dress

There are so many things I love about this dress, and a few things that I don't.  I made this dress all by myself - no cheater t-shirts.  I started with a simple bodice pattern, and then tweaked it until I liked it.  I finally got flutter sleeves figured out.  I love the fabric, and the button loops and the green trim. 

 

Next time I need to make the bodice just a little bit bigger around the middle - it fits better than the shirt did, but it's still a bit of a pain to get on and off.  And most importantly, I need to cut the skirt at an angle, so it is fuller at the bottom - Cupcake struggles to run and play because it is a little constricting. 

 

I'm sad that it isn't perfect, but I'm still pretty proud of myself.  And I'm aware of the things I need to change for future projects.  Not sure what is next on my list of things to do.  I've been meaning to make myself a tote bag (need a nice big one for the library).  Easter is coming up, so I could work on that project (I have the fabric, not sure what it'll be).  I'm not happy with how all of Cupcake's shirts are becoming too short, so I want to try my hand at peasant tops.  Or I'll take a break until KCW next month and focus on some artwork.

 

afternoon dress

My friend's daughter, Ella, is being homeschooled this year.  She's been feeling rather lonely, and stuck at home, so I invited her over to my house every Wednesday for hanging out - sewing, drawing, talking about books, doing math, whatever we want.  This is just time for her to get out of the house.  She wanted to make a dress, and brought me some awesome Superman comic fabric to work with.  We were going to attempt a circle skirt, but came to the realization that we didn't have enough fabric.  So instead I came up with a non-pattern (just measured, drew some lines and cut), and it turned out exactly like we wanted.  We used a t-shirt for the top and added a sash in the middle, and we couldn't be happier.  It was finished within a matter of hours.  I drew the pattern, and sewed on the sash, but Ella did everything else.  It is incredibly flattering on her, and it hits the right length just below her knees.  She's going to make a crinoline with our friend Sherry to go underneath it to make it poofy.  I'll have to take better pictures when it is all done.