Category: Sewing

Sounds silly, right? I mean, it’s only January! Well, after talking to you guys on Facebook, I realized many of us are in the same procrastinate/leave your stuff for the last minute boat, and many of us spend the days leading up to Christmas in a total sewing panic. And honestly, I’m tired of it! I want to do a handmade Christmas every year, and every year I bail at the last minute. Well, NO MORE!

So I decided this year I was going to spend all year making my Christmas gifts so that when the holiday rolled around I’d have this stack of handmade goodness to choose from. 15 gifts sewn in December seems like an overwhelming number doesn’t it? How about 1 a month instead? That sounds totally reasonable!

Every month I’ll post one Christmas project (maybe more!) and a tutorial to go along with it. We’ll have a little linky party and keep each other accountable to knock out our holiday sewing list early. I thought the 25th would be an appropriate date! I’m going to blog about my projects, but if the gift is for someone specific, I’ll leave that detail out so they don’t know it’s theirs (the ladies in my family read my blog (hi girls!)). I’m also going to do some home decorating things, maybe my girls Christmas pj’s, stuff like that.

So join me, will you? Have a project ready to share by the 25th of this month and we’ll kick off our best handmade Christmas yet!

Everyone else is doing it, so why not? Thank you for the overwhelming support and success for Sew Like My Mom this year. I appreciate each and every one of you!

11. Katie Dress

10. Easiest Pillowcase Dress Ever

9. Game Day Gym Bag

8. Peasant Dress

7. Makeup Bag

6. The Great Cover-Up

5. Applique Curves

4. Applique

3. Cosmetic Bag

2. Little Red Infinity Dress

1. The Shirt Skirt

For years I’ve been putting “tags” in the clothes I make. They’re nothing special, literally just loops of ribbon that tell the wearer (or the parent dressing them) which is the back side of the garment.

But I’ve wanted labels. I’ve researched, planned, and hunted everywhere for them, but nothing I found really pleased me. I don’t want to buy 500 labels at once. What if I change my mind? I also didn’t like the idea of not really knowing what they’d look like and feel like until I had them in my hand. So when I ran across this tutorial on Pinterest recently (find me here), I was stoked.

The idea is about all I took from the tutorial, though. I figured out a decently easy way to make these in Microsoft Word and went at it. I’m thrilled with the outcome!

The best part about making my own labels is that they’re DIRT CHEAP. Like 4 cents each!

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Happy Veterans Day! Today I have a really special project to share. And since I grew up an Army brat, this one is near and dear to my heart.

Usually I share projects I make for my friends. But this time I was contacted by a friend who was making the bag for one of her friends. She wanted some help on construction so I documented our process to share. I love this idea and I’m completely excited with how it all turned out!

These totes are all the rage with military wives and Moms and with an ACU jacket and a few hours, you can have your own!

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For months now Sofie’s been obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake. She’s got tons of “Strawberry Cake” toys and they’re the most treasured playthings in our vast collection. We record the show on The Hub and she spends a decent amount of time every day lost in her own little world, playing with her “friends” and asking me to visit Berry Bitty City. As her love for Strawberry grew, I knew she’d be excited to emulate her for Halloween. I started planning the costume in my mind this summer and as the weeks have grown closer, I’ve been itching to get it made. I finally caught up on my orders this week and was able to give my girl the outfit of her dreams!

             

It was ridiculously easy to make, taking just a few hours, and I love that it’s real clothes, not a cheap, overpriced store-bought costume that either a) doesn’t go in the washer or b) falls apart after several rounds of laundry. But my favorite thing about it is how happy it makes my girl.

             

She’s been wearing it all week, fighting me over any reason I ask her to take it off. She wants to sleep in it, wear it to preschool, and show everyone she knows that she is now her beloved Strawberry Cake.

We argued a bit about whether she was going to have a hat (which she REALLY wanted) or Strawberry’s hair bow (which was more what I was thinking). But I’m a sucker for my kids, so she got her hat.

Making this costume was very inexpensive and really fun. In total I spent $17, and still have about 1/2 yard of fabric left over!

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