New Year's Bloggin' Resolution

So it should be no surprise what my New Year's Bloggin' Resolution is going to be. That is, if you notice that the last post before this one was this summer. Maaaaan, I'm a bad blogger!! I do tons of blogging over at Craft Gossip, but that's all focused on what other people are doing. My personal blog is where I get to show off what comes out of my studio and what's going on in my crazy life. Sooo.... this year I'm going to focus on giving more attention to ye olde Casserole Blog. Say, at least two posts and one project a week? That should be doable, no?

And to start it off, I'll show off a little number I whipped up for Liv this morning. This morning, noon, and early afternoon to be honest.

Santa brought these killer red and white boots to her, but we didn't have a thing to match. Can't have that, can we?

Anyway, last night a friend of mine gave me a hand-me-down long sleeved knit shirt. At first I was going to make it into a fitted shirt for myself, but then I pictured it on Liv as an A-line dress with a dropwaist, button placket, and little fake pocket flap.

I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

Toodles,

It's official

I had a sneaking feeling when I started washing out my baggies. But I pushed it back, reasoning that I was only washing the gallon-sized ziploc baggies.

Later when I was cleaning out my fridge, I found myself looking at the tail end of some salsa I made and thinking, "Hmm... Half a cup of salsa. That might be just exactly what I'm wanting for a snack one day." And then, as if on autopilot, I pour the salsa out of the larger container and into a smaller one. But I didn't break out a grease pen and label the contents, so really I wasn't being over the top.

And then tonight. I was going to refashion two old tees into one cool new tee, but I miscut and I was faced with two large rectangles of knit fabric that needed to go into the trash can. Except instead of throwing them away, I start cutting them into 7" squares. I stacked two squares and serged the edges together to make a dishrag. I got 5 double-layered dishrags from the old tee.

As I was admiring my thriftiness, I realized that there was no more fighting it. It's official. I have become my grandmother.


Over the years we've made fun of my grandmother for all of the above acts of thriftiness, so I have to laugh at myself when I find myself repeating them. I suppose it's in the blood, the need to stretch the usefulness of all that you have at your disposal - whether it's a wad of food or a bit of fabric. She raised two babies during WWII rationing, and did so for several years in a house with no electricity and no indoor plumbing. This woman knows about thriftiness, about repurposing, and making do. So while I laugh at myself for washing out baggies and hoarding little morsels of food, I also find a certain bit of pride in seeing my grandmother's traits in me.

I need to find me a denim jacket

...so I can make a jacket like THIS one at HodgePodge Farm.

Seriously. I NEED that jacket.

Toodles,

Yellow halter dress from hell

So Liv loved the dress-shirt-turned-kid's-dress I made her. So much so that she asked me to make another one. I had another shirt that I snagged at the same time I got the shirt for the first dress. I was all ready to repeat the process when she said that she wanted it to be a sundress for summer.

I was all planning on just making a simple elastic band across the top with thinnish straps over the shoulders when I saw the pieces left over from the first dress. (I'm not the best at cleaning up after my sewing self.) In particular, what I saw was the collar I had cut off.

At first I thought the collar would be really cool placed across the top of the elastic band, like a wide shirt collar across the dress. Then I realized that the points of the collar are shaped for the collar to be in a circle around your neck, and that when you straightened out the collar the points overlapped. No good.

But then... but then... inspiration. What if the collar wrapped around the neck? What if the collar was the strap of a halter dress? Yes, yes!

And with that, I began the project I now know as "The Yellow Halter Dress From Hell". Without any instructions or any templates or any patterns to work from, there was a lot of ripping and resewing, re-ripping and re-resewing. But in the end, I came up with a dress that I really, really love. Even better, Olivia loves it too.

The fit of the top is a bit off in these pictures. I realized the day after I took these photos that the reason it seemed too bunchy at the top was that the collar was too long. I had already taken one bite out of the back when I made the dress, but I went back and took out another tuck. Now the fit is perfect! (But the dress is dirty so I'm not retaking the photo...)

Here is a close-up of the front. The tab in the front is actually a bit of one of the cuffs. The collar is stitched down on one side, and buttoned down on the other. To put on or take off the dress, you just unbutton the one side. The buttonhole is actually the original buttonhole on the front of the collar. The bow is just something I made with a bit of the extra fabric from the sleeve. It snaps on and off (snap is hidding by the cuff-tab) so it doesn't end up in a wad after being laundered.

Toodles,

More of what I've been sewing

Here's another peek at what I've been sewing lately. This dress was made from a man's dress shirt. Isn't that just the cleverest thing? I can't take credit for the idea - I used this tutorial from MADE.
Liv loves it so much - she wants me to make a yellow one next, except she wants it to be a sundress. I've got some ideas knocking around in the skull, but haven't had a chance to actually try them out yet.

Oh, and gotta share a few pics from the Mom's Day celebration at Liv's school on Friday.

First some pics from the little music program. Nothing says childhood like songs with accompanying hand motions!

And then Liv presenting her Mom's Day gift to me.

And the two of us on the playground.

Altogether a very sweet day at Liv's school.

Some of what I've been sewing: baby dress & matching shoes

A couple of weeks ago, Tony's cousin & his wife welcomed their first child into the world. A red-headed girl named Avery. I wanted to make something special for this little bitty girl, so I grabbed up some fat quarters with soft colors, ultra feminine prints. I ended up with a handful of prints from Anna Griffin's Fiona line. (The exception is the celery and white polka-dot. I have no idea who made that print, but it coordinates so perfectly.)

For the dress, I used this tutorial from Made By Petchy, but followed RedInstead's tutorial for the neckline so that the ties would come up from the armhole rather than across the top. (This makes a safer neckline for a little baby, as it does not involve a drawstring casing around the baby's neck.)

I also made a pair of shoes to match using a free pattern from New Conceptions Sewing Patterns.

Here they are from the front. I pieced the front of the dress because I didn't have enough of one type of fabric (fat quarters, remember) to make the whole dress. Then, because of a piecing foobar, I ended up having to recut the back. Except I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric to match the front, so I ended up raiding my stash for another print. Here's the back:

And a close-up of the little shoes cause they're just gosh-darn-it-cute.

Toodles,

What to do on a rainy day...

Make a clubhouse.

No, make that a movie theater.

And invite all your Webkinz to watch a movie with you.

Toodles,