Not-so-simple Simplicity Christening gown

On Monday, Kate and I decided we should attempt to make our own christening gown for her newborn, Isaac. We had searched a bunch of thrift stores and consignment shops with no luck, and most of the gowns were ridiculously frilly (not to mention overpriced).

Neither of us has ever made a christening gown, but we figured it couldn't be too complicated, right? Kate found a Simplicity pattern and we used the sleeveless "slip" part of the pattern to make a simple gown.

I was NOT a fan of the instructions in the pattern. Lots of ambiguity and confusion. I ended up doing my own thing about halfway because there was so much cursing about the directions.

We did find some cute lace and other trim in my ribbon stash so I hand-stitched those on as an accent. Overall, it came out pretty decent. If I had to do this again, I'd use a simpler cotton fabric for the gown though...the stuff we used was stretchy and somewhat annoying.

And here's baby Isaac, tired from all the crafting...

aww...

New Felt Cuff Bracelets and Hobo Craft Fair Recap

I was playing around with my felt the other day and came up with this new blue/cream/peach color combination--I love how it looks on the felt cuff bracelets!

These would look awesome with jeans, or as the "something blue" in a bridal ensemble. I made the one on the blue ribbon with a long ribbon so that it could also be worn as a headband. I love the way they look together as a set.

  

In other news, the hobo craft fair on Sunday was not too hobo-y...until it started raining at 2pm. The rain wasn't going anywhere, so I packed up shortly after that. The morning was pretty good though--good temperature, nice people, decent traffic.

Some of my new crafty items out on display.

Lots of pins and barrettes!

People seemed to really like the MOO business cards I had available--they're really pretty and a great way to show lots of your different projects. Plus, they're inexpensive and super easy to make. I think I have only one left--time for another order!

Getting ready for craft fair--and spring flower cuffs!

Reminder--tomorrow is the Riverdale Park Arts Festival! Please stop by and see me if you're in the area...it's from 11am to 6pm. I make no guarantees as to the hobo-ness this year though :)

I'm currently packing up for the fair and just finished a new batch of my flower felt cuffs for spring!

Happy spring everyone!

In progress: new flower cuffs for spring

After making the felt leaf cuff bracelets, I decided I wanted to do more of them, but with a springlike theme.  Here are a few of my felt flower cuffs in progress...

I probably will have to get some more ribbon (as if I didn't have 1000 spools already) because the kinds I currently have didn't really suit the cuffs. I do have some yellow grosgrain ribbon with daisies that I'm going to use for the one on the right.

If these come out cute, I want to do some purple and pink ones next!

Still sick...

But I'm being productive! Last night I was up super-late working on (finally!) finishing the edges of the ribbon placemats and table runners I started several months ago. Once I got a technique down, I was able to breeze through and finish 4 placemats and 2 big table runners.

After much inner debate (and some earlier failed experimentation with stitching the edges), I decided to go with Stitch Witchery fusible web hem tape. It's not perfect, but it gives the stitch-free look I wanted and is not difficult to use.

It's kind of dark in here this afternoon (snow is coming!!!) so my pics are not great but here's a preview of what I finished so far.

I like the way the green placemat and the blue table runners came out best. I definitely prefer the edges with the thin ribbon, which means I usually have to cut the fusible web in half to fit underneath.

On some of the corners I used Liquid Stitch (a clear adhesive for fabrics) as well to give it some extra hold. The corners were not easy! I even thought about doing a mitered corner but that was too complicated.

More to come tomorrow...with better pics, of course. :)