Now Contributing....

...to The Sewing Rabbit!! Jess at Me Sew Crazy reached out to Shannon and I recently and asked if we'd like to become monthly contributors, and after about 2 seconds of consideration, we said a big giant YES! We love Jess and her blog, and couldn't be more thrilled to be working alongside the awesome Sewing Rabbit team that Jess just announced this morning.

If you recall, we're also contributing to another of our favorite blogs, The Lovely Cupboard. We love both of these girls, and are so grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such fantastic blogs. So what can you expect? Well, Shannon and I think you can't get too much of a good thing, so we'll still be keeping up regularly with Eat. Sleep. Make., but now you'll also get to visit us at Me Sew Crazy and get bonus sewing tutorials each month. Yay!

If you're new here and you're wondering, "Who the heck are these people?" you can learn more about Shannon and I here. You can also check out some of our favorite projects below, or take a peek at our craft, food, and party tabs for more crafty goodness.

1. Flutter Tee  2. Gem Earrings  3. Faux Stamped Necklaces  4. Rose Trim Shirt  

5. Snowy Road Fudge  6. Earbud Makeover

Meet Beatrix!

I have a new lady in my life and her name is Beatrix, or Bea for short. She is my new Dritz Twin Fit dress form, courtesy of Shannon and my brother-in-law! I have been hunting for a good dress form at every estate sale we visit and I finally found one this past weekend.

The lady who owned her had an amazing sewing room FULL of fabric, notions, and a giant quilting machine in the middle of the room. I could tell by her collection that she really loved to sew, and must have made a living selling some of her work. She she had a little of everything, and I had to take some deep breaths to keep myself from buying all of it. While I was gleefully digging through all the goodies (I snapped up some denim, sweatshirt fleece, and the unicorn ribbon I posted on Facebook) I spotted her in the corner. An adjustable dress form in really good condition, and a size small. It was meant to be.

Shannon is such a thoughtful SIL and got her for me for Christmas. I was so giddy I don't think I shut up about it the entire way home.

Shannon got to name her since she got her for me, so Beatrix it is! I think it's a pretty appropriate name for a dress form, don't you?

She's completely adjustable, which is great because I'm sure I won't be getting any smaller anytime soon :) We found her at the perfect time becuase I've been trying to sew more things for myself lately which has been a lot trial and error because I don't usually sew anything bigger than a 4T. When making clothes for myself, the pattern peices look disproportionate and HUGE compared to the tiny bodices of a 4T.

I actually went to sew Shannon a Flutter Tee recently and ended up sewing her a muu muu because I added wayyyyy too much width to the pattern. Hopefully Bea will keep that from happening again. Either that, or Shannon needs to start really liking muu muus.

CRAFT: Kid's Arrow Flutter Tee + FREE Pattern

Happy Memorial Day, and thank you to all the men and women who serve/have served our country! I hope your day is full of BBQ and time spent with loved ones :) We're celebrating my husband's big 3-0 today, so my day is pretty much full of junk food and cookie cake. Sounds like a pretty good Memorial Day to me! Even though it's a holiday, I still wanted to share a fun tutorial with you (since maybe you'll want to slip in some blog reading while you're recovering from all the delicious BBQ food :)

Did anyone notice that Haley is sporting a mini flutter tee in the Riding Pants post? After I got finished making the gray riding pants, I decided that Haley needed a shirt that would go perfectly with it, so why not a mini Flutter Tee with a southwestern vibe? I used fabric transfer paper for the arrows and you guys....I'm hooked. Why haven't I tried using transfer paper sooner? It's fun stuff.

I'm a little obsessed with the Flutter Tee pattern. It's just so comfy and flowy! And with the addition of a custom design, this shirt is quickly becoming my favorite shirt of Haley's right now. Oh, and I also included a free downloadable kid's flutter tee pattern in 4T for you so you can make one too!

SUPPLIES: Kids Flutter Tee pattern in 4T (download HERE), knit fabric (approximately 1 yard, or do what I did and cut up an old men's t-shirt), fabric transfer paper, printer and ink, an image that you like, iron, sewing machine and basic supplies.


ONE: you can print out and piece together the free Kids Flutter Tee pattern in 4T HERE. If you need another size, follow the basic instructions on the Flutter Tee tutorial to draft your pattern.
TWO:  if you're cutting up an old shirt like I did, just place your pattern on the fold of the shirt like shown in the pictures above (cut off and save part of the bottom hem of the shirt for the neckline to save some time!)
THREE: find an image that you want and follow the instructions on your fabric transfer paper to transfer your image to the paper. Make sure to cut out as much of the white space as you can (I used my Silhouette Cameo for this, but you can easily cut out your image by hand.)
FOUR: transfer your image to the front of your shirt, then follow the instructions for the Flutter Tee tutorial to assemble your shirt.

I hope you enjoy the pattern! It's perfect for the hot summer days ahead.

Have a happy Memorial Day everyone!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

A Winner and a New Pinterest Board

Hi everyone, you made it to Friday! There are just some weeks when you look forward to the weekend more than others and for me, this was one of those weeks! We had one sick kiddo and some rain that kept us indoors. Now that school is out, that's a recipe for disaster! Thankfully, everyone is feeling better and we're looking forward to spending time with family on Memorial Day.

Have you been enjoying our 'We Are Loving Right Now' posts? Shannon and I have been having a lot of fun compiling all of our favorite things and sharing them with you each week! If you already follow us on Pinterest, you may have noticed that we recently made a board dedicated to the things we post in our "We Are Loving Right Now" posts!

You can find that board HERE (and if you don't follow us on Pinterest yet, go do it :) We'll be pinning all the things we include in the weekly "We Are Loving" posts to that board so that it'll be a little easier for you to find the things we've posted about now that they will all be in one convenient place.

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Now onto our giveaway winner! Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks especially to our sponsor, Southern Fabric, who is providing the credit to buy some gorgeous fabrics in their online store.

And, by the way, there's a SWEET Memorial Day sale going on at Southern Fabric through the 31st! They have some great new arrivals you should definitely check out.

And the winner of the $25 credit to Southern Fabric is...............

#121, Beth F! Congrats! The winner has been emailed.

 Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Thank You for Helping Me Grow Printables (Teacher Gift)

School is winding down for most of us, and maybe some of your kiddos are already out. With preschool being a new venture for me, I tend to forget about things like bringing snacks on my snack day and buying teacher gifts on holidays. Luckily, my MIL is a teacher, so she periodically reminds me about these things :)

I know that many teachers tend to get food gifts - and hey, don't get me wrong, I love getting 5 pounds of chocolate as much as the next girl - but I'm sure all the chocolate can be a little overwhelming at times. Not that I know, I "helped" finish my kids' Halloween candy within the month, and there's definitely no leftover Easter candy.

I'm just living for the next holiday people.

With that in mind, I decided to give a non-food gift, and instead came up with this cute printable to add to some potted flowers that says, "Thank you for helping me GROW!" Corny? Maybe, but I love it and I hope they will too!

I just love these flowers. I have no idea what kind they are (anyone else know??) but they remind me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

If you want to do something similar for your child's teachers, you can download my free printables by clicking HERE .

 

 

To attach the tag, all I did was punch a couple of holes in the side and string some baker's twine through the holes.

If you're not into the large potted plants, I also made a smaller tag for individual potted plants. I hot glued the tag onto a paper straw and tied some ribbon on. Voila!

Both versions of the tag are available in the download. Have fun making gifts for your favorite teachers!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

An Anywhere Dress

I've been looking for a simple, versatile dress for my daughter that doesn't take me hours and hours to sew (I don't know what I'm going to do when my kids give up napping), so when Andrea of The Train to Crazy and Go To Patterns offered to let me try out The Anywhere Dress, I jumped at the chance.

The Anywhere Dress is one of my new favorite go-to dresses for Haley. There are several different options for sleeve length, which makes it perfect for all seasons, plus it has a fully faced neckline so I didn't have to bother with hemming the neckline (yay for laziness!) This was such a quick sew too, and you know I love that. Since this dress is so simple, there's also a lot of room for creative variations. A ruffled bodice, maybe? Color blocking? Oh the possibilities!

I decided to jazz it up a little and add a sash. I simply cut a long strip of black knit fabric and tied it around her waist. I think it dresses it up a little bit.

I actually had plans to use this polka dot fabric for me, but I gave in and let Haley have it for this dress. Oh the things we do for our children :) I think she looks way cuter in polka dots than I do anyway, plus I have some left over, so maybe I'll get around to making myself something one of these days.

She loves her new dress, and so do I! Haley's at the age when she actually appreciates the things I make for her now. When I showed her this dress she asked, "Mommy, did you make it for me?" After I told her yes, she gave it a big hug and asked to wear it right away. Hopefully she feels the same way when she's a teenager!

Photo shoots, on the other hand, are still not her favorite. I'm working on that.

To get your own Anywhere Dress, go HERE.

Lights, Camera, Giveaway!

That's right, we've got another giveaway!!  Our awesome sponsor, Southern Fabric, loves you all so so much that they've decided to give you another chance to get some free fabric!  Cue the applause!  I'm on a purple kick lately, so I searched through all the amazing digital swatches and found some that satisfy my purple craving.  And grey just goes so perfectly with purple.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

To win a $25 certificate towards some amazing fabric, enter our giveaway using the widget below. The winner will be announced here on ESM on Friday May 24th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We Are Loving Right Now - Volume 6 (Mint Madness Edition)

1.  Seaside Blouse - Anthropologie -I love how flowy and springy this blouse is! With 2 kids, I'm all about comfort - and this blouse fits the bill.
2. Clover Pant Pattern - Colette Patterns - I love my skinny pants and need this pattern to make some mint ones ASAP.
3. Terrerium Pendant Necklace - Yellow Owl Workshop for Leif - I'm obsessed with terrariums, and I'd love to add this pretty necklace to my collection.
4. Marvis Strong Mint Toothpaste - Marvis - This is actually one of the products I sampled recently in my Birchbox. The flavor is wonderfully minty without being too strong.
5. Revitalizing Eye Roll-On - Simple - This is my new go-to product in the morning when I have puffy, tired eyes. This little roll-on goes on smooth with a cool finish to relieve puffiness and help me feel more revitalized in the morning.
6. Spring House Fabric - Stephanie Ryan for Moda- I would love to make a dress out of this pretty fabric!

While I was putting together my post yesterday, I realized most of the things I chose had one thing in common - mint! - so I ran with it :) I guess spring has given me mint fever. I just love the color; it's so cool and refreshing!

We've been spending lots of time outdoors enjoying the spring weather (which is something I wasn't able to do as much when we lived in Memphis) but I know that summer is right around the corner. School is ending for my daughter, and I'm trying not to think about what I'm going to do with two very active children under 5 all summer. Yikes.

Happy Friday everyone! We have a few fun festivals we plan on attending with the kids this weekend (and maybe we'll squeeze in some estate saling too.) Hope yours is fabulous as well!

Some Riding Pants

Can I just say that I love the blogging community? There are just so many wonderful, supportive people out there (including our wonderful readers, we love reading your emails and comments!) Ever since I started writing about 5 years ago, I've been lucky to "meet" some truly nice people who leave sweet comments, give me blogging advice or simply just send an encouraging email. Jess at Me Sew Crazy is one of those wonderful people. I was thrilled to open my email last month and see an email from her with her Riding Pants pattern attached! I just love all of her patterns (I'm still itching to make her Forget Me Knot Dress for Haley.) We had quite the busy month last month with Made It for Me that I wasn't able to post them sooner, but better late than never, right?

Haley's favorite pants are leggings (or "soft pants" as she calls them.) I don't know what your stance is on whether or not leggings should be worn as pants, but Haley is obviously in the "I'll wear them however I want" category. She was only too happy to have a few new pairs of leggings!

I really wanted to use up more of my leather stash so for the first pair of Riding Pants, I decided to make some simple gray ones with leather patches on the inside. I love how they turned out! The steps to make the pants were really easy to follow - and I even learned how to make my first faux fly. I'm addicted; I want to make all my daughter's leggings with a faux fly now! They just give the pants more of a "finished" look.

And the button placket down each side is adorable!

Of course, being the girly girl that Haley is, she insisted on wearing her sparkly TOMS.

After making the first pair (which I totally tailored toward my own taste), I decided to make Haley a pair that was more her style - and that means lots and lots of pink. I'm loving all of the floral printed jeans and pants out there this spring, so I dug into my stash and made her this cute pink polka dot version with floral patches. (In case you're wondering, I got both the knit and cotton fabrics from Walmart, and the gray knit from the pair above from JoAnn's.)

I didn't get a close up of the buttons on this pair, but I used little flower buttons on the side placket. These are SO girly, and definitely Haley's favorite.

You can get the digital pattern for The Riding Pants HERE in sizes 18mos-8 years. I know I'll be using this pattern to make plenty more in the future!

MAKE: Snaz Up Boring Matting w/ Hand Carved Stamps

So, I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets bored with plain matting around my photos/art.  I did a little tutorial here on making your own wooden matting.  This little fix is soooo much less time consuming, though!  You don't even need the fancy shmancy stamp carving tools.  You could just use a craft knife if that's what you have.  

You can buy these big blocks/sheets of rubber for carving stamps at most craft stores.  Oh the possibilities!  I carved a simple geometric design for mine and I've actually used it SO many times.  Hand carved stamps are a great way to dress up boring gift bags and wrapping paper, place cards or stationary... seriously, so much can be done!  This particular time, I decided to dress up some plain white matting... just to give it that extra oomph.  I'm loving the results and the fact that it only took 5 minutes to do!  This is in my upstairs hallway.  I think spaces like this so often get overlooked in the decorating process, but if you really think about it... so many people see and move through this space, so having something brilliant to catch their eye is never a bad idea!

Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!