Stella's Summer Dress

I forgot to post pictures of this dress I made Stella! My friend Morgan turned me on to this pattern (Smashed Peas and Carrots pinafore - google it) - and it is super easy, and nice because it can be a dress at six months, and turn into a top as they get bigger!

Don't be deterred by the fabric buttons - turns out they are easy-peasy!

And how adorable is their croc rack at the back door? 

Bibs for Lindsay and a Quilt for Morgan!

I just realized that I have 13 (!!!!) draft posts sitting on my blog that I didn't know about.  So I've started going through them to see which ones I can delete and which ones I just plain forgot to hit 'publish' on. This post from September I obviously just forgot to publish!  Oops!


Babies, babies everywhere!  That seems to be the theme here in Portland where we have friends expanding their families right and left!   Margi and Scott had a healthy little bambino just last night (wee Spencer Allan - 5 lbs. 12 oz. long, lean and healthy!)

Mini-quilt for MiMo! Just large enough to use with a car seat . I loved the fabric I found with the orange slices on it!

Anyhow - i've been a virtual baby shower gift factory all summer! (true! all my crafty items that I've worked on this past spring/summer have been baby gifts!).   Here are the latest pieces that I gave to friends Lindsay and Morgan this past weekend.

A Quilt for Margi & Scott

I put together another one of these little car seat quilts for our friends Margi and Scott who should be getting their new little bundle of joy...oh...any day now!  I used a lot of the same colors that I put in the quilt for Nico earlier this summer - next time I make one of these I'm going to have to switch up my color scheme!

Quilt for 'Bart Brad' - my chosen nick name for the lil' nugget (short for Bartholomew Bradway. I don't think the parents like my name suggestion!) 

Sewn Pants in Action!

Earlier this year I made a couple pairs of pants for various friends of ours having babies - and the little guys are now big enough to fit into them! I love getting pictures of the stuff I've made IN USE. It's super fun to see - and these three are such a group of cuties!

Avery - chilling in blue floral 

Jackson in action - check out that belly!

Sweet Ella - looking just like Katy.

Nico's Quilt

My good 'ol buddy Joanna from high school x-country running is expecting her second little munchkin! She and her husband are going to have a little boy, Nico, in early June. Her baby shower was this past Tuesday, so in typical Sarah-fashion I waited until the very last minute to decide I was going to make something.

I decided to make a mini-quilt, 2'x2', for them to use with the baby carrier so there wasn't a lot of extra blanket getting in the way of the straps, etc.   In my head I estimated that this should take me about 3-hours to complete, the perfect evening project!  WRONG!  Try more like 8-hours. I was up until about 2:30 in the morning - oof!  But it was fun, and I figured it out, and fortunately I have an incredibly sweet husband who went to the video store for me to rent the fourth season of Mad Men so I could watch it while I worked.

Quilt front: made with fabric scraps, and polka-dot border from Cool Cottons!

Quilt back: Put a bird on it! 

Rodeo & More Sewing

Last weekend Thor & I hit up the Professional Bull Riders tour stop in Portland with our friends Katie & Joe - it was a great time, we saw a few cowboys get tossed, and the main rodeo clown was an amazing dancer - he was hilarious!  It was also a great venue for us to proudly display some of Thor's grandmother, Tat's, south-western jewelry.  Tat had an absolutetly amazing collection, and Thor & I don't attend too many events where we can show off the pieces we have - we always enjoy it when we can though, and it's a fun way to remember Tat!

I also did some more sewing over the weekend - and was able to finish off a third pair of pants for our friend Jenn who is due in April.   Jen's having a boy - so I left off the ruffles this time around. I love the fabric on this pair though!

It's Baby Girl Season - Ruffled Pants for Little Ladies!

Last weekend I got busy at the sewing machine and cranked out two pairs of sweet, ruffled pants for some friends of ours who just had baby girls.   The purple pair is for Becky & Daren's new daughter, Avery - and the pink pair is for Andy & Katy's daughter, Ella.

Initially I was worried that the pants were going to be too small, but once I delivered them Katy showed me that the pants were practically taller than Ella right now, so no worries.  Apparently I have absolutely no concept of how big a newborn is. =)

I used the Britches & Bloomers sewing pattern - and it was pretty straight forward and easy to follow. This is a great beginner sewing pattern that can be accomplished in one evening if you need to whip up a quick gift!

Avery's Pants!

Ella's Pants

Thor's 2nd Pair of Pajama Pants!

I didn't waste any time making Thor a second pair of pajama pants after he said he liked his owl pants! I found this great trout fabric - and whipped up a second pair - the stitching is all done in bright green thread and they turned out just as well as the first pair!

Thor's Birthday Suit!

Just kidding! Thor's birthday pajama pants! I realize these are a couple weeks late, but I have a good excuse - my sewing machine broke mid-project and I had to take it into the shop. I had a love/hate relationship with the pattern I used (I can't remember the brand off-hand, but it was a $2.99 pattern from Fabric Depot). HATED: Because I thought the pattern was poorly written without enough detail so I had to go back and redo a couple steps. LOVED: because the pattern was true to size and they fit Thor perfectly - he loves them, and has already said I can make him a second pair!

Here's a close-up shot of the very masculine print I selected for thor's pj's: owls on chartreuse background.

And Thor proudly displaying his new pants. There are a number of changes I would make the second time around - and I've made notes to the pattern so I will remember what I want to do differently. Hopefully my second pair will be easy with no ripping out!

Lindsay's Quilt

Here's a picture of the quilt that a bunch of people got together and whipped up for a friend of ours who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring. Some of you knew I was working on this - so here's the final pic! (although it's a terrible picture! I was hoping to get something better - but a shoddy iPhone pic is going to have to do).

Log Cabin Pillows

I finally finished these log cabin pillows that I've been working on for our living room. I totally poached the idea (and most of the fabric scraps!) from Michelle. (Thanks again!) These are super easy and fun to make!

Mother's Day Pillow (very late post!)

I made this pillow for my mom for Mothers' Day and forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it off! I made this pillow using all sorts of different scraps from my mom's fabric collection - which I thought was fun because then she recognized them from all the various projects she has worked on over the years!

The pattern is made up by my friend, Michelle, and it's not really a pattern at all - more just like an idea that you work with. It was fun, quick, easy & creative! And also nowhere near as complicated as I thought it would be. =)

L3's Petal Dress

This past weekend was my friend, Michelle's, baby shower. Michelle is having a little girl, and they affectionately refer to her as 'L3' right now since they're keeping her name a surprise until she is born.
Michelle made a sweet dress for her niece, Anja, so I borrowed the pattern and made this little petal dress for L3. It's the 6-month size and it looks HUGE! I have a hard time believing she will ever fit into it. The name of the pattern is Petal Dress & Hat Pattern and it's from Sew Baby.

Here are a couple shots of the dress I sewed up last week!

Daphne's Bag

October 8 is Daphne's birthday! Earlier this fall I took a class at Cool Cottons to make this bag for Daphne for her birthday. (I don't think Daphne reads my blog so I don't think there is any danger of this post spoiling the surprise!) This bag uses an Amy Butler pattern called the Swing Bag. It was pretty easy and straight forward - which was good since I hadn't sewed anything since my mom taught me how to sew a pillow case! I think the bag turned out pretty well and I have some fun fabric to make one for myself too (whenever I actually have time!)