While you were sleeping:

One of my dearest friends has a  little girl who is about three weeks older than baby M. This past weekend we celebrated her first birthday. I took this opportunity to make a cute outfit for such a sweet little lady.

I had so much fun choosing the fabric for this project. As I'm sure you know, one of my favorite things to do is shop for fabric. After I made my fabric decisions, I made sure I pre-washed everything to reduce shrinking. Then I cut out all my pattern pieces and got to work.

Next, I pinned the pattern to the fabric and cut out all the pieces. This is the most time-consuming (and my least favorite) part.

It all went together easily, although I have some issues with the pattern and directions.

I had some issues with the button holes as well but I fixed it all. And I'm really happy with the final product. Can't wait to see that little girl in her new outfit soon!

I made this outfit as part of Kids Clothes Week (see more here and here). Can't wait to share the rest of my week's creations soon!

New reads:

This week, I'm reading (or rereading) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I actually started this book over two years ago (yikes!) but never finished it. As part of my book club, we decided to read it in thirds and discuss it but I never made it through the first third. Then, after finally finishing The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder recently, I was inspired to give Wolf Hall another go. 

You can see my initial review of it here. I chose it as #26 on the "26 Books to Read in 2015" list: a book based on a true story.

Like I said before, it's a real piece of work. A beautifully written story but it can be hard to read sometimes. If you aren't familiar with Thomas Cromwell (most people aren't) and Henry VIII, I suggest a quick internet search before picking up this book. And I actually feel like reading (or watching) The Other Boleyn Girl might help you here. Don't feel too badly if you have to educate yourself before attempting Wolf Hall. I had to read an English history textbook before jumping in.

Happy weekend:

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Happy Friday! What are you up to this weekend? Anything fun? We are celebrating the first birthday of a dear friend's little girl. It's M's first birthday party experience so we are excited to see what he thinks of it all.

Here's a little of what we've been up to lately:

1. I've been under the weather this week and have felt like doing nothing but sleeping. Unfortunately my schedule won't allow it.
2. This week is Kids Clothes Week and I have enjoyed getting to sew up some fun things for the babies in my life. Look for more info on that next week.
3. M is standing. Standing! He went from crawling to standing in less than a week. Slow down, little boy!
4. Tillie has been acting strangely lately -- she tore up some of the baseboard by our back door and has been staring at it ever since. We suspect we may have a mouse under the house.
5. Andrew got some much-deserved recognition at work and got to take some time off to spend with little mister. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Fabric love:

In preparation for Kids Clothes Week, I went on a fabric hunt. Dangerous, I know. Expensive, too. Because I've got fabric on the brain, here are some of my favorite finds:

Not sure why I'm suddenly so drawn to animal prints these days. Maybe it's the whole sewing for kids thing. And the name of that last one cracked me up -- cats at a sweater party.

As you probably know, I've been collecting fabric for M's weekly photo project (see here) for a while now. His last one, the big 52 weeks, is coming up quickly and it's the only one I haven't gotten yet. I can't decide if I want to buy something or design my own. Here's one option I'm leaning towards:

Kid's clothes week -- day one:

This week is kid's clothes week! I've been eagerly anticipating this day. I've spent way too many hours deciding what I should make this week. I spent far too long than is acceptable browsing fabric. I had grand ideas of what I would make for little baby M but sometimes what you imagine just isn't completely possible. Sure, I could make lots of fun, really cute, detailed garments for him but (a) I don't have hours and hours of free time to devote to sewing and (b) if I made something fancy, I probably wouldn't dress him in it anyway for fear of messing it up. He's growing so fast these days, he'd probably never even wear it before he outgrew it. What he needs are casual, comfortable pieces that he can wear every day. Simple and practical.

So, here's what we're going to be creating this week:

• 2 pairs of leggings
• 2 shirts

I'm also going to be working on an outfit for a friend's little girl. 

Here's a sneak peak of the fabric I'll be using:

Stay tuned for more Kid's Clothes Week! Can't wait to share our creations with you! Want to participate? There's still time to join! Go here for more info.

Happy weekend:

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Happy Friday, friends! Got any plans for the weekend? Now that our house is clear of all the garage sale stuff, I am looking forward to doing a deep clean. I can also get around to doing all of the small organizing projects that have been waiting in the wings. I love projects like that -- small enough that I can tackle them in a few hours but make a huge impact on how I feel about the space. I'm hoping to get some sewing done, take lots of naps, and get in at least one good run. Weather looks a little questionable though so we'll see about that last one. Fingers crossed!

Have a great weekend, everyone! XO!

Pattern love:

I've been making lots of baby things lately but haven't had the time or energy to make anything for myself. We've committed to buying more high-quality pieces from US-based factories that treat their workers fairly (more on that here and here) and with that comes the obvious decision to make more of our own clothing. This is a challenge for me because I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day and the last thing I feel like doing is sitting down to some sewing. It's a real problem.

One of the issues I have with store-bought clothing is how much they expect consumers to pay for a sub-par product. The construction is poor. The seams are not clean and finished. The patterns aren't matched. There is usually no lining. They use cheap, man-made fabric. I can no longer, in good conscience, spend my money on these things, especially taken in to account who is making them and how they're treated. They say you vote with your money, right? Well, I vote no.

Of course this requires me to get off the couch and get to work. I'm working on this. Step one is to evaluate my wardrobe to determine where the holes are. Step two is to decide what I want/need to fill those holes with. I've been looking around and here is what I've found.

I've never been one for the patterns you can find from Butterick, Simplicity, etc., however, I really love Named. They have such great patterns. Clean, modern, classy. You can see more of their patterns here.

I'm also planning on making this shirt from Grainline:

Now that I've figured out what I want to make, the hardest part for me is picking out my fabrics. 

If you're looking for new and interesting patterns, these are some of my favorite independent designers:

1. Grainline
2. Named
3. Colette
4. Victory
5. Blank Slate
6. Go To Patterns

Check out Craftsy and Etsy, too. I have found some really great patterns there!