Seeking to serge!

I have tons of fabric from all of these handbags that I make and with a Fall festival coming up in several months, I thought- why not try to make some little dresses to put in my booth?  I certainly can't make anything for my two boys with the floral, Spring Joel Dewberry fabrics and birdy patterned Heather Bailey fabric.  Never really dabbling in clothing much, I haven't used my fantastic serger (that seals the end of fabric like the inside of most of your clothing), and to be honest, the machine is rather intimidating.  Last month I sat down for a few hours just to learn how to thread it.... I'm not huge on reading manuals either.  And today, I finally said, "I'm taking my easy as pie pattern from babesofsweet.etsy.com, and I'm going to use this serger!."  So, that is what I did.  The dress is a little bit altered since I added a ruffle to the bottom, but I'm pretty excited about the finished product!  This one is a size 5T :)

Pretty pillows!!!

Need a little change of scenery for Summer? Re-covering some old pillows and even chair cushions can really give you an inexpensive, new look!

Teacher gifts!

Unsure what to do for the end of the year teacher gift? Well, put gift cards out of your mind and try this project with your little ones! Find some inexpensive, bright, Spring potters at your local craft store. You can even use a coffee mug, Tervis tumbler, etc. as your planter. Buy some Sharpie permanent PAINT pens (also at your craft store) and write the teachers name on one side of your container. On the other side write "Thanks for helping me to grow!" or something similar. Then purchase perennials (or let your child pick out what flower they want for their teacher) and plant the flowers in the containers together! This was so much fun and my little boys loved playing with the dirt!!

Graphics galore...And some sweet peeps!

Well, the past few weeks, a machine has been running, but it's not my sewing machine!  It's my CPU!  I've had THE most creative and wonderful ladies to work with on graphics, business cards, tags, banners, blogs and even PATTERNS!  Thanks to a group on Facebook called Made By Mommies, I've met and connected with talented ladies that have MUCH more experience with making pretties on their sewing machines than I do.  But they've been keeping me busy in Illustrator and that's my favorite thing to do!!!  So, this post is basically just to give a little shout out to those wonderful people and their shops- and if you LOVE hand-made clothing and other items, you'll definitely want to check them out!

I always love this little lady and she's got a new line out this week (it's SELLING OUT!)

 

And this sweet gal let me add a column to her blog this week for her- amazing clothes! 

Meagan is the "mama goose" of the sewing circle... always in the know!

 

Right now I'm working with fabulous Charlee Madison- check out her new line CITY LOVE!

 

And I'm going to throw Hilary in here too- she does it ALL!  Fabrics, bags, kids items!

 

My First Pattern - The Finch Wallet

This will be available for purchase at easelyerin.etsy.com AND on Craftsy.com.  What a long road this was to make this pattern.  But it turned out great and I hope a lot of beginning sewers take the time to try it! 

Sparrow Clutch available soon!

Homemade Valentines!

I found a cute idea on SkiptomyLou.org for unique Valentine's for Elton and Huck's classes, but I didn't realize how difficult it would be to get a 2 year old to smile and hold his fist up forward for a photo :)  Anyway, they still turned out great!  Take the photo, add graphics (optional) and then print on card stock!  Cut out a small slit above and below the hand with an exacto knife, slide a sucker in the slits and put some tape on the back to hold it!  VOILA!  Hope everyone has a splendid Valentine's Day!