It's been a busy summer. Now we are getting in gear to get back to school.

I learned a good sewing lesson this summer.

Don't wait to sew in season!

I was so excited when summer came and had so many ideas of what I wanted to make for the girls. I went out and bought the boys clothes and then after the warm weather hit had to get clothes for the girls as well. Why? Because I should have sewn their summer clothes during the winter!

I haven't been sewing very long and at times have gotten frustrated when I need something, have an idea of what I want to make but run out if time to implement it. So I stopped thinking about the ruffled summer skirts I want to make the girls for this summer that's almost gone and pulled out the velours, cords, and wool. I have sewed up two Farbenmix Roxy dresses for Eta. One is a velvety dress for the upcoming holidays and one is a super fun owl dress for school.

I love the Roxy pattern and I can see myself making her another school dress in corduroy with it and covering it in fun embroidery.

I did end up sewing a bit this summer.
I found two not so cute dresses at tjmaxx on sale and cut off the bodices and attached wide elastic for the waistband. They look adorable.

I also sewed a skirt for Eta and embellished it with embroidery, a hand sewn flower, lace hem and hotfix Swarovski crystals. I made the same basic skirt for Esther but embellished with a ruffled design made of the skirt fabric. Unfortunately the skirt started fraying at the seams:(. From now on I won't try to shortcut with my serger. Everything woven will get stitched on the regular machine and just finished on the serger.

Here are some pics. They aren't the best. I'm going to have to start taking better pictures of my stuff. Oh, and it would help to figure out a way to get my girls to cooperate :)

Here is Esther's skirt which started coming apart and I need to fix.






This is the dress from tjmaxx before





And after





I just cut off the bodice and gathered the top of the skirt in to the elastic. It took 5 minutes :)





Here's my favorite of the summer













The holiday dress.



Doesn't it look fun all opened up like that? Just needs a zipper and hemming.












Here's the owl dress. As you see it not finished yet I put the red polka dot ruffle on one cuff it's going on the other of course and on the hem of the skirt. There will be another post dedicated to these dresses when they're done.











-That's my update for now. I really do owe you another post on the state of my sewing room. Remember my basement disaster? Well the basement is redone and my sewing room is almost ready for it's debut. I just need to get it photo ready which is hard when you're working in it but it will come. Here is a little teaser.


















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Accountability

Ok so not as embarrassing as it could've been although I was hoping to get at least 1 skirt completed. Skirt and waistband cut and sewn (forgot 1st ruffle had to go in that seam doh!!) I cut out the ruffles, hemmed them all and started gathering when I realized that for the look I was going for I would need wider ruffles. I started cutting out the new ruffles to work on tomorrow. Sigh....
Happy sewing


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Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll sew tomorrow. It's only a day away.

I actually did sew last week. I almost finished two skirts for myself. I just need to sew in zippers and hem them. I'll post pics when they are done.

Meanwhile what's more exciting is what I have planned for the next couple of weeks. I really want to make my girls some fun summer stuff so that should come first considering they start camp tomorrow. Then I'm going to embroider these gorgeous beach towels I bought with my kid's teacher's names and stick them in the mail. I thought that would be a great end of the year gift.

Accountability: I will post tomorrow..... With pictures ..... Even if my progress is embarrassing. I'll at least start!!!

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Purim as promised

Ah! I don't even think I can tell you how awesome this is! I'm blogging from bed :). The kids are still asleep and in the few relaxing moments I have before I must get up and dive into my nonstop busy day, I can blog, from my phone :D I love it!!

Anyways, here are the Purim costumes I promised. First let me tell you about Purim. This year I planned a biblical themed holiday. Not just biblical but time specific to the time of the patriarchs and matriarchs. I researched the clothing, fabrics and food. Our Purim feast was pitas, chumus, olives, cucumber salad. Red lentil soup (what Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for) tongue with mustard (what Abraham served the visiting angels) lamb stew (which I'm sure they ate back then, Moroccan carrot salad (which they might not have but I needed another side dish) almonds, dates and figs. Oh yeah and wine which there was plenty of :)

I made a tent in our library with a rug on the floor and a folded folding table. The kids ate their feast sitting on pillows on the floor. Before and after the feast many adults migrated there to sit and talk and for photo ops as well ;)

Unfortunately my girls weren't super comfortable in their costumes my older on wore hers half of the day and I got some pics but my 4 year old wasn't having any of it. I barely managed to get her in her dress for the family pic, forget the headdress. There are more costumes (I made costumes for some of my visiting family) but didn't ask for permission to post them online so for now here's what I can share.
This is mine before it was done.






Front


Back





Josephs coat


And on


All of us and yes those are lambs!





They came with their mom for the day :)


The tent (like the moroccan lantern?)


Later in the tent with some friends who dropped by. Btw the guy with his back to the camera is one of the angels.


My father brother in law and nephew were dressed as the three visiting angels and I had headdresses for some of the ladies. If I get permission to post from my guests then I have some cooler pics to update with later. I'll work on it.

Phew! Gotta go dress the kids for school. This was fun.
Happy sewing!

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I'm back for real?

Curtesy of blogpress app for my iPhone. I've been finding it near impossible to sit down at my computer to write a blog post for a while. I think it's a combination of having 5 young kids and 2 holidays to make, Purim and Pesach ( Passover). I think I expended about as much energy as Pesach cleaning takes preparing an incredible themed Purim with mom sewn costumes of course. Problem is Pesach follows 4 weeks after and it might be a better idea next year to start planning and preparing Purim much much earlier so that when the festivities are over I have the energy to dive into Pesach cleaning and not feel like I need a month vacation because I'm certainly not getting one now.

So you may ask why would I resume blogging a week before Pesach? Well that's because I miss you guys and have so much to share. Last time I looked for an iPhone app to blog with, there wasn't one that supported blogspot but this morning I found it and I'm so glad. I'll blog soon with Purim costumes and later with pictures of the basement!!! The remodel is done! I still need to clean up and set up all my stuff but I have such a gorgeous sewing room now!

Happy sewing!



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