For Father’s Day I made him a black bicycle hat. I have a few childhood memories seeing my dad wear hats like that, so I thought he might like one. It was a complete shot in the dark.

You’ve got to understand that my dad is impossible to buy/make gifts for. He only ever says he wants happy children. Of course he means it, but we’re a pretty happy bunch so it doesn’t seem like we’re giving him much of anything. Personally, I think he doesn’t believe we’d ever pool our money/assets together to buy him what he really wants: a 40 acre ranch in Kolob canyon. He’s right. We’d never do that.

As luck would have it, my dad was very excited to receive the black hat for Father’s day & it fit him perfectly. He asked me if I could a decal on there. Of course! With my Silhouette, I’m unstoppable! He gave the hat back & requested that I put a decal of a cyclist & “Ride like the wind, Tonto!” wrapping around the side.

It’s taken me nearly 2 1/2 months to get around to doing it! The cyclist took some effort & patience to apply, but the quote was impossible. Maybe I should’ve taken apart the hat to apply the decal. Round shapes are not fun to iron. Admittedly, I was more than bummed to see that it wasn’t going to work out. Blerg. On the positive side, the hat looks pretty rad with just the biker on it.

Hope my dad likes it!

This one was a tad tricky because I made super long stuffed arms on this creature. Pinning took a good 20 minutes. Overall this thing was about 40 minutes in the making. I love the fabric on this little guy. Part of it’s solid, part of it’s striped. I wish I had more than a couple of scrap pieces of this fabric. I’d love to make Penelope some overalls out of this stuff.

Penelope is starting to catch on to the word “present”. I got a package in the mail yesterday (Miracle Jeans = awesome) & Penelope got so excited to see what it was, she was jumping up & down yelling, “Ped’nt! Ped’nt!” It’s cute how she mispronounces the word. When I told her I had a present for her this morning, she was very excited. Unfortunately, her excitement for the new toy wore off around picture 4. She did pick it up a couple of times after that, but I’m not so sure she’s all too thrilled about her new ugly doll. Only time will tell.

After I made my pregnant apron I had to make a matching apron for Penelope for a few reasons:

• she’s a messy girl & needs something to protect her cute clothes – I’m also getting tired of doing so much laundry
• she’s getting interested in helping me around the kitchen, better make her job as sous-chef official with a matching apron
• I have something like 8 yards of that awesome striped fabric left after completing my apron
• It’s been a while since I’ve made something matchy-matchy for her

I didn’t make pleats for her apron or really do anything special at all. It’s just a rectangle with the top two corners corners cut off. I did get slightly tricky (or lazy –however you want to look at it) and used elastic for the neck piece. I couldn’t find any velcro or buttons I liked in my stash of notions, so elastic seemed like the best option. It’s great because I don’t have to worry about tying anything; I just effortlessly slip the apron over her gigantic head.

I’ve wanted to share this news with the whole world for some time, but I didn’t feel like it was official until I heard the heart beat. Penelope & I listened to the heartbeat at the doc’s office on Tuesday, and all is going well! We are just thrilled. The crazy part is that I’m nearly 14 weeks along! I didn’t think I was that far along at all. Surprise!!

My belly is starting to grow now & I feel like I need to make the necessary arrangements for my upcoming giant belly. I’ve needed a full-sized apron for ages, but now that I’ll have a huge belly just asking for stains & spills; I finally made one.

I made sure my apron was high-waisted & pleated to add room for my growing body. We’ll see how well it fits when I’m 9 months & bursting at the seams. It didn’t take me much time at all to make it, so I made a matching apron for Penelope, too. I’ll post pics of her soon.

Here’s the breakdown of my pregnancy so far:

• Morning sickness isn’t nearly as bad this time around as it was with Penelope.
• I’m craving spaghetti, top ramen, pizza & a special brand of English muffins.
• I’ve gained about 10 lbs so far.
• I swear I’m having a boy, and we will be finding out in about 4-5 weeks.
• I’m totally exhausted all the time.
• I can’t eat sweets; the smell of marshmallows & Nutella makes me want to vomit.
• Everything smells like mildew.
• I’m due sometime in February, no exact due date yet.

So there you have it, the cat’s out of the bag!! Hope you have a good weekend! My weekend plans include taking a million naps & desperately try to catch up on all the sleep I lost in New York.

I’m a huge fan of this print. I’ve been seeing all sorts of bold florals around this season and I fell in love with the shape of the skirt. The skirt has pleats & pockets in the front & buttons going all the way down the back (so Victoria Beckham, but with buttons). I wasn’t a fan of the bulky sleeves & loose top, but that’s never stopped me from buying anything.

As soon as I got home, I snapped the ugliest before photo ever & started fixing up the dress. Here’s what I did:

• I took in the sides from the waist up by about 1-2 inches on each side
• I took in the sleeves by about 2 inches on each side
• I shortened the sleeves & added a cuff
• I removed the breast pocket (it was making me feel all sorts of lop-sided)

Ah. So much better! The shortened sleeves make the dress feel 20 lbs lighter. I’m a big fan of it now. All I need to do now is find some hot gladiator heels and I’ll be rocking and rolling in NYC at the SocialLuxe party next week!

Last week I received some awesome ruffled fabric from one of my sponsors: RuffledFabric.com. She sent me two yards, a petite sherbet ruffle and a more womanly brown ruffle. There’s something about the color of the petite ruffle that drew me in, it was probably the orange dreamsicle I ate that had something to do with it. Last night  I made Penelope a little ruffled skirt & matching ruffled bloomers in about an hour.

I was so excited about finishing my little skirt/bloomer combo I nearly woke Penelope to see if she’d be willing to try it on. Thankfully I had good self-control. That little girl needs her sleep! This morning when I had her try it on it was a little on the long side, so I just trimmed a little off the bottom. No big deal. There’s no need to finish your hems! Hallelujah!

I thought the whole ensemble turned out pretty darling. Can’t wait to make a mama version of this skirt!

Ruffled Fabric did not pay for this post, but were generous to supply me with some rad fabric. I’m just writing about it because it’s cool & I enjoyed working with it. That’s all.

Cut the collar off: only cut a little around the back & cut more around the front to make a deeper neckline. Don’t go too deep because the elastic thread will pull it lower. Toss excess collar aside.

Find the center of the front collar. Measure down 6-10 inches (depending on bust size), marking a line with your magic pen.

HAND wind your bobbin with elastic thread. Thread your machine with matching thread on top. Sew along your line. Don’t backstitch.

Turn your tee inside out and pull on the elastic thread until your shirt is as rouched as you’d like. Using a seam ripper, pull the front thread through to the back & tie a square knot with the two threads.

Trim loose ends after securing the thread in place with a square knot.

Dab the front of your shirt with water and a Q-tip to erase the magic marker line.

FINI! Click the button below to download the printer-friendly PDF version.

This tutorial is free for personal use and should not be distributed without my consent. If you would like to use this tutorial commercially, please email me. Thanks!

I have yet to wear the suit out of the house as you can tell from my pasty white skin, but I love it.

Just a couple of days ago I got a hair-brained idea as I was waking up (isn’t that when all the crazy ideas come?) to make a short romper cover-up for my new suit. There was no way I was going to let the idea escape me so I did it right then.

After more than 7 hours of drafting, sewing, unpicking and sewing; I finished it. It’s kinda time consuming to sew something with out any pattern or dress form to work on, but I made do. I made it out of the raddest vintage stripe jersey knit material, which coincidentally matches my suit perfectly. NOW, I’m ready for summer. Are you?

P.S I love my new gladiator sandals! Thanks, Madeline, for pointing me in the right direction for these babies!