Ice Cream Dress

I am really enjoying sewing clothes for Aurora, it’s so relaxing to work on in the evenings after the little ones are in bed. I’m currently in the middle of making them each a matching little Christmas present (to be revealed later!), but for now, I thought I would blog this dress that I made for Rora awhile ago, but is just starting to fit her now. She’s worn it a couple of times and adores the large pockets in front, I always find little treasures hidden in there each time I go to wash it!

Puppet Show Dress

This is another Oliver + S pattern, the Puppet Show Dress this time, I’ve already shared how obsessed I am with this brand, their dresses are just so cute! Especially for the younger years, what little girl wouldn’t love the darling peter pan collar and puffed sleeves!

Book Report Dress

Aurora and I are working on a very exciting, Halloween themed, multi-day science project, so while that’s under construction, I thought I would share a few more sewing projects that I made with my mother in law, Anna, over the summer. I am really enjoying sewing kids clothes, not only can they be sentimental and beautiful, but they’re also immensely practical!

I’m sure I’ve already gushed about my love for Oliver + S patterns, they are seriously adorable! Modern sewing with a bit of a vintage feel in many of their styles, they even have patterns for adults! I haven’t taken the dive yet and made anything for myself, it seems much more complicated fitting and adult body… maybe someday I’ll get brave enough.

Bargello Wave Quilt

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I adore Grayson’s baby quilt, his grandma, our friend Lanae and I spent countless hours cutting and piecing the top. Cutting, sewing and bonding was about all we did during the weeks of my visit to Nebraska when I was pregnant with Gray. So many decisions we made, concerning which of the twenty fabrics involved to use in which row, and how to cut the pattern down to a manageable size. I think we did pretty well. Lanae and I aren’t the pro quilters that my mother in law is, but I’d like to think we helped make this quilt the work of love and art that it is.

Explorer Vest

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Yesterday I shared the kid’s Halloween costumes, they’re going to be a butterfly and a bug catcher this year! I’m really in love with how they turned out, and so today I wanted to share a little bit more about the making of Gray’s explorer vest.

I’ve sewn quite a few dresses for Aurora, so it was really gratifying to find something to make for Gray. Boys clothing is so much harder to make, I feel, it almost always involves collars and buttons, and those are two of my least favorite things!

Not only will this make a cute costume for him, but I’m sure he and Aurora will wear it for dress up and for going out and about too, all of those pockets are so useful, it will be exciting (and possibly scary) seeing what they decide to put in them!

Halloween Costumes

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Here they are! I’ve thrown out several hints about what the kids were going to be for Halloween over the past few weeks, but no one guessed quite right. After much deliberation, I give you the explorer and his butterfly!

We had talked about nerding out and doing family fantasy theme costumes, but that just wasn’t going to happen this year, so instead, I scaled back the time investment and the budget and decided to work with what I already had. We had been planning on getting Aurora a set of fabric butterfly wings for Christmas, so I ordered them a little early along with the antenna and completed the outfit with black leggings, shoes and a shirt she already had. Yay for a cute, cheap, reusable costume!

Gray’s Felt Book

Well, it turns out that we’re not the best travel planners… The USO trip that we had been planning to take this weekend is sold out. Bummer. But, while we may be poor planners this week, we’re instead choosing to be spontaneous! The location is still TBD, but we’ll be driving and shopping and eating out, and that means we’ll still need plenty of tricks to entertain the kids!

Rora’s Felt Book

Lastly, in my series on keeping busy on the go with kids, I wanted to share our quiet books. Today Aurora’s makes it’s blog debut, and tomorrow Grayson’s! I absolutely love these books, they’re so handy to grab when I’m running out the door with 500 other items and two kids in tow!

This little book was a huge work of love for my daughter, there’s no other way I would have had the patience to complete it otherwise! But, I’m really glad I did. I wanted to make an heirloom quality quiet book for my kids, one that they could pass on down through the generations and so I was very meticulous with which pages I chose to make and the construction of them.

Our New House: The Playroom, part 2

Designing spaces, especially kid spaces is a serious hobby of mine, so curating my own kids’ playroom has been a very enjoyable work of love over the past few weeks. I carried over most of the decor we already had going on in our last home but added a few more special touches that I thought they would really enjoy. We’ll hopefully be in this house for at least four years, so I wanted a space for them that would meet the current needs of a 1 and 3 year old, but would also grow with them as they move out of the toddler phase and become more independent.

Our New House: The Playroom, part 1

I LOVE things that are multifunctional! Using an iron to make grilled cheese, a blow dryer to remove stickers, and the many, many things you can do with a mason jar have lead me to believe that the more functions an object can perform the better! It was with this philosophy in mind that we designed the kids playroom.