Sewing Mama RaeAnna: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween 2013

We had a successful day!!! Most of the area took today off from trick or treating due to weather conditions so we just had a party at our house with some close friends! We did go to our neighbors for some candy though! A lot of people will be out tomorrow trick or treating so I'm sure we will have knocks on our door!

I'm so happy to share some of the pictures I took today! I wanted to base our costumes off of books this year so Eva Mae is a rubber duck from Eric Carle's 10 Little Rubber Ducks!

Isn't she a cute rubber duck?!

I didn't make her costume because someone was selling this adorable set for $5! It even came with feet (but she wouldn't wear them!)

I had her wear the dress and leggings I made from the Riley Blake knit stripe and I think she looks like Big Bird!

I am so proud of Christian's costume! He is Corduroy the Bear!

I DID make everything for his costume and I will also post a tutorial and pattern for the hat! I did some changes and modifications from an old paper pattern to make the hood and I love how it turned out! The brown fabric is velvet and his pants are a light green corduroy! I think it turned out perfect!

My mother-in-law was AWESOME in helping me with food! We went on Pinterest and saw these adorable ideas!

Clementines with little celery stems to make pumpkins!

Take cheeze-wiz and make a cracker sandwich sticking pretzels in the middle and adding raisins for eyes! (Well, I guess they're technically insects since they're missing 2 legs!) ;-)

We had so much fun with our close friends and parents!

Next year I think we've decided that we'll do a Peter Pan theme! I think Christian will make a perfect Peter Pan and daddy even said he'll dress up as Captain Hook!!!

I hope you all had a fun day too!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Fall 2013 Photoshoot

I posted a couple weeks ago for the series Family Photos Stitched with Love and didn't have any recent fall pictures ready until today!

I am loving how our fall photosession turned out! We have now nicknamed our kids the tornado tots because they seriously can not stay still and having a photoshoot is not an easy task with a 4 year old boy and almost 2 year old girl!

I am so pleased at what Catilin was able to capture of our little family! We had a lot of fun on my friend's property and I'm so thankful for her permission to use her barn and yard for our pictures!

There weren't too many occasions where both Christian and Eva Mae were facing and looking at the camera at the same time so you kind of just "get what you get and don't fuss a bit" haha! I'm not sure what Christian is thinking in this shot but Eva Mae has a mouth full of granola bar (the alternative was screaming until we let her go swing!) Christian's applique is the Pumpkin Box from Itch2Stitch and Eva Mae's applique is the Scallop Pumpkin Patch from Planet Applique!

"See ma, that's all I really wanted to do!"

When did my little buddy grow up???? This cheesy face is something new! He looks so old!

I had so much fun making their outfits! The multi chevron was actually a gift from Kelle Boyd (Ann Kelle Fabrics) who used Christian on a photoshoot a couple weeks ago! I can't wait to blog about it when it's ready! I know the pictures will be stunning! Eva Mae's pants are the Cutie Pie Ruffle Pants from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop (affiliate link)

Thank you so much for checking out my pics! I can't wait to show you their Halloween costumes next week!!!

And thanks to FB friend Shawn who bought my bunting! I made it with burlap and matching tones to the kids outfits as a prop for our photoshoot! It turned out so cute and I hope Shawn is able to get some cute pics with them too!!! I love the extra pop of color! In fact, I just finished sewing 60 feet of bunting for our new preschool! You can't have a preschool without bunting and tissue puffs! Pictures coming soon! :)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Olivia Dress Pattern Tour

What do you do when it's raining and cloudy outside but you need to take pictures of an adorable dress? Go to storytime!!!!

We have a wonderful librarian that does storytime every day at our library with music, books, and an art project! Eva Mae is usually running all around the room but anytime a song comes up in the hour she is right there in front dancing to the tune! I love the picture above as she watches the librarian!

The dress was also a perfect fit for a library photoshoot!!! I love Jess' new pattern The Olivia and how classic and cute it looks - especially when paired with adorable fabric! I couldn't hoard this print any longer when I knew that I would participate in the pattern tour!

I tried to sit her down for some posed shots with the 3 books that are represented in the fabric by Michael Miller (Into the Forest) - Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Of course she would rather play with the magnetic blocks!!! (Which are also really cool - I think I know what to get for her birthday!)

This dress will be one of my go-to dresses for little girls! You can make it sleeveless, short sleeve or 3/4 length!. Make sure you also check out all the other tour participants to see some cool variations and tutorials!

If you love this pattern as much as I do make sure you check it out at Jess' Etsy shop,
read more at her pattern release post,
and you can click this link to see any posts related to the Olivia top and dress (even all the blog tour posts!)

OR........ you could win a copy!!! Jess has been so generous to offer one of my readers a free copy!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for allowing me to participate in your tour, Jess!!! And if any of you missed it, here's my post on one of Jess' other AWESOME patterns the Junebug!
I will notify the winner of the pattern on Friday! Good luck! :)

Friday, October 18, 2013

Chevron Pocket Pillow

View the Tutorial at Riley Blake Cutting Corners!!!
http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2013/10/04/chevron-pocket-pillow/

Monday, October 14, 2013

Family Photo Stitched With Love

I am so glad that the Shaffer Sisters came up with this great series!!! I LOVE making clothes for family photos and as much as I had hoped to have fall pictures for this blog post, our photographer can't see us until later in the month (but that's ok - we are still waiting on the vibrant fall colors in the trees!!!)

For this post I'll show you some of the outfits I made for our family photo shoot in June and a few from earlier in the year!

I made all the matching kid outfits for our visit with some of our Idaho family!!! This is Nick's brother and his family - we LOVE how close in age our kids are but we HATE living so far apart!!!

I wanted to do a theme so all the kids have appliqued shirts with a matching pair of seersucker bottoms! The bottoms I made for the girls are the Sweet and Simple Bloomers (free pattern!)

Fortunately Nick and I didn't have to buy anything to match our kiddos! I have had this pink linen shirt forever and Nick has had his blue linen shirt for about the same amount of time!

I love this silly shot!!!

The boys were so sweet on our photo shoot and you can see at the bottom where Christian's cast is peeking through. Poor buddy had to miss out on quite a bit this summer but I'm glad to know it all healed great and he was back to normal just a few weeks after getting it off!

For a look into some of the other matching outfits I've done for pictures, here's Easter 2013

(Blank Slate Prepster Pullover and One Girl Circus Goodship Dress)

Christmas 2012:

Thanksgiving 2012:

You can see I do go a little crazy on my embroidery machine! LOL! I figure they will only wear cute monogrammed and appliqued clothing for so long and then I'll be out of luck!

Thank you so much, Al, Jo, and Scary for a great series! I love seeing all the lovingly created items for each family!