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Holiday Dresses

Holiday Traditions Dress - Custom Size 18M 2 3 4 5 6
Since I have two little girls who will wear nothing but dresses, I’m always looking for inspiration for new designs. I love these holiday dresses. Here’s a very stylish one from willarie. I love the fact that it looks like something your grandmother might have worn to a cocktail party.

Fun Jumper, Blue Snowflakes
Check out this sweet snowflake jumper from adornique. Precious and looks like it will really twirl!


And this one from birdsong is modern and looks comfortable, too!

How about this fun peppermint swirls jumper? From Originals by Mary Elizabeth.

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Cleaning Out the Attic Crafts

t-quilt.jpgquilt-and-pillow.jpg

About a year ago I mentioned to my husband that I’d like to make a quilt from his old tees after we saw one at a friend’s house.  Justin had several large bags full of unnecessary tees dating from high school!  So for our anniversary I surprised him with this quilt.  It was only a little bit painful for him to see his tees disassembled and I think he liked the fact that he can see them all the time.  This might not make a pretty quilt, but it allowed me to recycle 24 t-shirts and it’s really warm and soft.  I backed it with a sheet and used an old throw blanket for the batting.  I did not quilt it because I think I would have made the knit fabric pucker all over the place.  I also made a couple of sweater pillows while I was at it.

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Holiday Felt Projects

I’ve got Christmas on the brain and there are so many felt projects that I’d love to try with the kids. We’ll be working on our felt mushrooms for an Alice in Wonderland birthday party and a felt Happy Birthday banner (it was poor planning to have two kids with December birthdays), so I’m thinking I won’t get to these projects just yet, but thought I’d share some of the ideas that I’ve found.

Below is an image of felt garland from Anna Maria Horner. This is a good project you could really work on with the kids and one that does not require a sewing machine. I’d like to try it with yo-yos as I’ve been meaning to learn to make them and wouldn’t that be a great scraps project?

Found some adorable felt trees on flickr here. You can find the pattern at little birds handmade.

I love the felt stockings that my brother and I had as kids, and until I can gather the energy to create some stockings for Monarch Monograms, I love these personalized stockings from rikrak:

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Russian Nesting Dolls

I’ve been seeing Russian nesting dolls, or matryoshka, everywhere! Go to Etsy and you’ll find jewelry, handbags, tees, stationery, hair clips, fabric, and of course, wooden nesting dolls. I am getting on this bandwagon as I love the sweet faces and bright colors of the dolls. I bought some fabric to make jumpers for the girls and I am working on an embroidery design for pillowcases. For more on the history, check here. Here are a few picks from Etsy that I particularly like. Click on the photo to view the Etsy shop.

matryoshka dolls patchwork cushion cover - tuttifruiti (optional insert)
matryoshka wrapping paper

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Happy Halloween!

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I made this banner from felt and backed it with fall-colored fabric remnants.  I just cut out the felt triangles and backing fabric, embroidered the letters and sewed them together with a quick overcasting stitch and connected with ribbon.  This was a quick and easy project and another good one for those fabric leftovers.  Happy Halloween!