Wedding collection complete

 Here comes the bride... all dressed in ivory.

I've blogged about this project a few times, so let's take a look back and see how it compares, shall we?  For instance, here you can see the pleated satin trim is totally silver, not taupe as it appears in the picture.  I also only used a tiny bit of the velvet leaves I ordered because they just looked flat.  Thankfully I found some silk hydrangeas in the perfect color.

Ring pillow, bow tie and garter

The color scheme also changed a bit from what we originally talked about.  Emily's bridesmaid dresses were originally going to be a taupe color but based on her bevy of blonde bridesmaids, she decided to go with a more complimentary crimson.

These were so hard to photograph – probably because of the colors and the ticking time bomb soon-to-wake baby – but hopefully you get the gist of it.


I'm a little sad I didn't take any pictures of the sewing process, but it was night time AND I was in the groove.  But I'd be happy to provide a step-by-step if anybody asks.

In the next month I'll add another photo of the headband I'm going to make Kate with all the leftover scraps.  She and Liam (the ring bearer) have to get a picture together!

Made with Dupioni silk and trim purchased on Etsy, the brown ribbon from the bride & groom's invite and rust silk hydrangeas found on a shelf in my living room.

I added a handle to the bottom for 2-year-old Liam to hold on to.  The rings won't actually be attached to the pillow.  He's just walking because he's so cute!

I sewed a two-inch strip of silk with a 1/2 inch pocket for the elastic to thread through.  The embellishments are hiding the issue of fraying fabric.  In the future, I wouldn't use Dupioni for something as over-worked as a garter.  And the feathers were found in my closet.  Goodness, I have a lot of pretty junk laying around!

Find the pattern for this tie at prudentbaby.com.

Back in the sewing saddle

Other than the appliques on these cute "monthaversary" onesies. I haven't done any sewing since Kate was born. 

But that's about to change as I just ordered the supplies I need to make my friend's ring bearer pillow and bow tie and her garter!  I first wrote about it here.

They were my first ever purchases on Etsy.  The Dupioni silk in the middle is from a seller in India so I'm excited to tell Emily it's made of "imported silk."  Hopefully that will minimize the disappointment when it comes out crooked with last-minute hot glue strings all over it.

I haven't even started the project and I already feel a little like Denise when she is commissioned to sew a shirt for Theo.  Anybody?  No?  Here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crnPfls0fHw.

Sweet cake!

I didn't take pics of the process, but I want to share this lemon raspberry cake I made for Kate's baptism.

It's made with two boxes of white cake mix and three nine-inch layers.  I made the filling and icing from scratch, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with using a cake mix.

Here's the recipe I used for the raspberry filling.  I skipped the raspberry liqueur since liquor isn't sold in grocery stores here and I was not about to make a special trip for two tablespoons of anything!

Once I baked the three layers, I cut the tops off to be as level as possible and slopped on the filling.  It becomes a nice gelatin-like texture if you leave it in the fridge long enough.  I was afraid it would be a little too thin and turn the buttercream pink around the edges, but it worked very well.  If you look at the picture of the cake on that site, you'll see it's better to circle the edges of your layers with icing (imagine outlining the filling on the layer) so it doesn't seep out, but I had to get it filled and stacked the night before I made the icing.

Here are the videos I used for the icing: recipe (plus lemon extract) and smoothing technique.  If I'd had more time I would have been more careful and decorated the edges for a crisper look, but it didn't work out that way.

For the cross, I rolled out some premade white fondant and traced a scallop pattern on top of it, then cut it out with a knife.  I punched holes in it (a must for the pretty eyelet look!) with a round tip and then made some royal icing to add the detail.  Royal icing consists of some meringue powder, a lot of powdered sugar and a little warm water.  I don't have the measurements, because I only needed a little bit so I just tossed it together.  I tried to do a star scallop around the bottom with the leftover royal icing but it was too warm from being in my hands so it got kind of melty.  At that point I just needed to get it done so I could get the rest of the house ready for the big party!

The rose is just a strip of fondant -- maybe 3/4 inch? -- rolled into itself.  I did it several times until it turned out right.

In love with my nursery!

BEFORE

AFTER!

It's funny – in some ways it's similar to the virtual nursery I made a while ago, but in other ways it's completely different.

I didn't put the finishing touches in there until a couple weeks after the baby came home.  I took a look around and instantly thought, "vintage!"  It wasn't really my goal, but it totally worked out that way and I love it.

Shall we take a tour?

This mirror came from my grandma's house.  My aunts gave it to me when she passed away.  It's made out of plastic.  I love the gaudy gold pop it gives the room.

The craft hoops are filled with leftover fabric I had after making the birds you'll see below.  The silhouette is of my mother-in-law at the age of 6, I believe.  I used a stamp to paint the face of that hamper, which I've had for a long time. If you can see the ivory pillow on the bed, that's made with with two Pier 1 napkins sewn together.  The little white shelf holds a bud vase of my mom's and my dad's silver baby cup and rattle.  The infamous sewing table sits beside the bed and is normally stacked with dirty bottles!

I spy a baby below!  Above her hangs my homemade mobile.  It turned out completely different than I intended, but I like the dimension that the branches add to the room.  I found the pattern for the birds here.

Like the crib skirt?  The look was inspired (stolen) from this website, but the pattern on that site made no sense to me.  A gal from high school emailed me a step-by-step of how she made hers, and I found that much simpler.  Not simple, but simpler.

This hand-stitched quilt is more than 60 years old!  It was my dad's.  It's pretty worn, but it's (mostly) clean and soft and has held together beautifully.

Here we have a gift from Kate's great-grandma, an owl from Pier 1 that I am obsessed with, and a little lamb from my friend that prays "Now I lay me down to sleep" when you squeeze it.  Kate doesn't sleep in the crib often.  Once she starts, I'll clear this stuff out.

 Here are my beloved grandparent photos!  I love the way the concept turned out, even though we're still missing one.  Workin' on that!

Austin made the little K above the dresser.  Before she was born I handed him a wooden block, a wooden K, fabric swatches, scrap paper, Mod Podge, paint, a staple gun and more.  He was instructed to do something -- anything -- to contribute a personal touch to the nursery. (Other than replacing that awful brass ceiling fan. PTL!)  He chose a sparkly gold knit to cover the block and painted the K yellow and gold.  Cute!  I wish the lampshade showed up in the photos.  It's killer.

And that's it.  What do you think?

A year's worth of birthdays

Hi, handful of blog readers.  I'm back!  It's been more than a month since I've posted anything, and for a good reason: motherhood!

Now that my little bitty baby is one month old today (which is the purpose of this blog post!) I'm a little more comfortable putting her out there, so to speak.

So since the trend these days is to take a picture of your baby holding a sign for how many months he/she is turning, I decided to take it a step further and whip up a little birthday outfit.  And by whip up, I mean labor over it for 30 seconds at a time all day long.

Since this is my first craft project since she was born, I wanted to make it special... so I went ahead and created all the numbers for up to 11 months now for both consistency's sake and to save myself time in the future.

I made number outlines in Photoshop and printed them large enough to fill up these little 4x4 fabric swatches that I received from Land of Nod.  I KNEW they'd come in handy one of these days!

I then ironed the swatches on to Heat&Bond and taped the pieces up to the front door to trace them, a la third grade art class.  I'm sure there was an easier way, but mommy brain got in the way.

Plus, I had a human strapped to me.

I cut out the one, ironed it on to a newborn onesie that's almost too small and sewed a zigzag stitch around it.  I saved the rest of the numbers in an envelope in my sewing box so they'd be easy to find and place on whatever size white onesie fits her on the 21st of every month.

And, without further ado, here's my beautiful one-month old!

 

Nursery update!

I don't have a lot of time to post right now but here's the crib skirt that my friends helped me tackle on Sunday!  We also painted the walls of the baby room and got a few other projects done.  I'm so grateful to them for making the 180-mile trip in the rain just to help a girl out!

I'll take better pics with my real camera asap... This grainy one was taken late into the dark hours on Sunday so it's really hard to make out how crisp and bright this baby is!

Son of a bench

"Bench of a relative" would be a better title, but it's just not quite as catchy.
This sturdy bench has been in my dad's family for a long time. I think. I don't know that anyone actually remembers where this thing came from, but I know it's very important. And, should any family members scroll down and be horrified by what I did to it, just keep in mind that it's been given new life, and is no longer serving as a storage shelf in a garage somewhere.
This bench sat on my parents' front porch for about 13 years. A homeless woman made herself comfortable there one summer afternoon, and I watched my mom welcome her and offer her lunch. I remember deliberately doing my homework on it several evenings in a row, for one of those teenage girl reasons. It was always decorated with a life-sized scarecrow for Halloween, and it may have been the only place we ever strung outdoor Christmas lights. Then, we moved into a different house and the bench never made it out of the garage.

My parents recently moved out of that house, and I decided to give it a new home. And a new look. I originally intended to give it a distressed, peeling paint look, and therefore chose this pretty turquoise. That's not how it turned out, but that's okay.

I sanded it down, which didn't take too long. The last time it was varnished was probably when I was in grade school, and the varnish had mostly worn off. Then I used a white primer spray paint that quickly ran out. The old wood soaked it up so fast! I had to go to Lowe's and buy three more cans.
Here's where I messed up. I should have painted the turquoise outdoor latex paint directly on top of the wood. That way the sand paper could have quickly distressed it. Instead, my primer was too thick and didn't easily come off with the sand paper.

Oh well! Trial and error. After I realized my technique wasn't going to work, I went back and painted a second coat. The whole thing took maybe 2/3 of the quart, so I have plenty for touch-ups.

Isn't it cute?!
My brother's first impression when he saw the color was girly, but thought it was awesome that something old had been refurbished and given new life. Awesome feedback! That's exactly what I hoped to hear.