dress making and a day at the fort

Wednesday was eventful. I finished the dress I started the other day, its the first dress I have made without a pattern. Its made from denim, but I didnt like the right side of the fabric (thought it looked sort of matronly for a dress) so I used the wrong side and really like the way it looks. I used an existing dress that I love and sorta just “copied” its shape. changed the sleeves, neck line, length, hem etc etc and viola I have this….

I dont have a dress form so I still need to make some adjustments in the tummy, ribs and shoulders but they are easy fixes as soon as I get my hands on a form I will alter it. so for now it is what it is. but I must say it is COMFY! after my early morning sewing we took the girls to Fort Pulaski. its our favorite place to walk around during the winter. the girls were not interested in having their photos taken but we managed to sneak a few.

wheezy did not appreciate the wind

Abby enjoyed sniffing around for creatures

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appliqued tops for children

I was trying to think of a gift for my nephew that already has too many toys. I wanted something that he would be excited about. So I made these ultra simple appliques. Jacob LOVES my girls so I thought he would be excited to see them more often. The transfer ‘paper’ I used isnt my favorite but hes three and will grow out of these before they they need to retire. these little appliques take hardly any time to do (once you have your image) and are an easy way to make a personalized gift they will love. I got the shirt and the hoodie at target both were under ten dollars. Have you done this? I want to see other versions. maybe different ways to jazz these up.

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tag solutions for the holiday

I have been wanting to have tags professionally made but never have had the extra cash to do so. this year all gifts we are giving are handmade (most by us) so I needed to come up with a tag that I could make myself. I just threw together some cute images of Wheezy and Abby and printed them out on the iron on transfer paper and then onto unbleached muslin and viola a tag. in this case I sewed it into the jacket I gave my mother in law for her birthday. the picture is terrible I have the shakiest hands.

I am working on a few mini quilts for my grandmother who lives in a nursing home. She was a seamstress and is so excited that another woman in the family sews. A little while back my mother gave me a ton of her childhood photos and they are beautiful. I chose a few I thought Franmaw (we started calling her that like ten years ago as a joke and it just stuck) would enjoy seeing again. heres the photos I will post the quilts as soon as they are done.

in addition to trying to get everyones hand made gifts accomplished I put a couple (literally two things) up on Etsy today! I opened an account a while back with the intention of selling stuff but never made the time to make extra things to sell.  so here we are months later and I posted two things. one is the brown quilt that I made after a much need camping trip. the other is a needle book left over from when I made one for Kate. Please check out my Etsy account I called it Wheezy & Sanchez.

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cutest stuffie ever made!

Kate made a stuffie that looks just like my Abby. its the cutest thing EVER! please look at it (her) in all her glory.

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sewing for cooler weather

I want it to be cool so desperately that I decided it was time to make Abby a winter coat. what perfect timing since today my thermometer just outside my kitchen window said it was around 80 degrees. well anyway I had done some felting last year. and had a large piece that was pink on one side and white on the other and decided it would make a pretty coat for Abby. I still have to make the tummy straps that will use velcro for closure. I am thinking that I will use a cotton belt type material. I am stuck on the design. shes not a floral girl so I thought stripes. but it is starting to remind me of a bad 80’s cosby sweater. hmmm. well here are some photos any feedback would be loved. Zack has the camera so please excuse the computer photos.

I used a decorative stitch its a bit inconsistent; my machine was not real thrilled that I was feeding this fabric through.

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Abby was not really that excited about modeling it but I thought it was cute. I will get a better photo of her looking mighty fine when Zack and the camera are home and the coat is finished. and maybe just maybe it will be cool enough for her to wear it.

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food

I love food. a lot. but recently I have been kind of bored with food. I am a vegan and I also have celiac disease. so this being said its pretty tough to find new easy recipes and ever harder to find new places to eat out. but I have one website that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. they dont focus on the celiac but cooking at home its really easy to make replacements (wheat flour = rice flour) I just wanted to share with you my favorite recipe site. its DIY the gals are amazing and so are the recipes.
post punk kitchen
they also have a new book, I dont have it but I really wish I did!

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craft

I went to “christmas made in the south” today with my mother. we were both extremely underwhelmed by what was there however there was one booth that artist Allie Ryan had… she made these awesome little dolls. you can tell she had so much fun making them. she uses recycled fabrics, quilts, clothing etc and natural dye techniques with a bit of paint to get this interesting finish. she sold all of her things for hardly any money. she is this CUTE older (I wont dare say that she could be my grandmother) woman wearing a long vintage looking dress with some sneakers (the type you might see on a young skateboarder) I asked if she had a website, blog email or anything like that and she sort of laughed at me and wrote down her telephone number and home address. I loved her! I dont think that I could ever feel comfortable giving a stranger that information. I am so intrigued by her. heres a photo of a couple things I picked up. if you love them too I can pass along her number to you.

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mini quilts

these quilts were one of two series (or at least the begining of a series) that I showed as my final project for the art quilt class. I forgot to take pictures of them during the critique. I will post the other series; its called “blankets for the american people during terror”; as soon as I find a place in my house to hang them. it sort of takes up a lot of space.

this is a jacket I made. it was the first time i have ever made something like this. Its a bit too small for me so I will be gifting it to my mother in-law. I cant wait to make another one.

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totally unrelated

I am putting off any and all work I could and should be doing right now to have quality nothing time with my girls. and while Abby snoozes half on my lap and wheezy snoozes next to me I am looking at blogs I havent looked at in too long. I found the post that highlighted the food from my wedding on Back in the Day Bakery’s blog. Cheryl did such an AWESOME job making all the pretty desserts. everybody loved them. However she doesnt make any vegan gluten free foods so we had the magical Jess Kolko make our wedding cake and some other goodies. I think about her every time I get a sweet tooth (which happens to be every day) she has moved away and now I am with out a local baker that can make anything even close to the deliciousness that were her cakes.
ther is a bakery I have heard tons about called Baby Cakes. they have great recipes but I havent tried any of her treats yet.
so now that I am hungry for cake and without any ingredients to remedy this I will settle for a cookie and move on to cleaning the house.

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notebook cozy and quilt class photos!

this is the notebook cozy I made to keep my gigantic notebook closed and tidy

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today was the last day of The Art Quilt. I am so very sad it is over. it was such a great class and all the other quilters were AMAZING! following are some of the quilts from the other students.

Jess looking at her quilt

look at Sara wearing her quilt! I love that thing! they are all standing around Elliot’s quilt. it was so big!

this is Nikki’s quilt. I love this.

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