Some Vday, quilt, journal and misc

Quickie pair of Vday yoga pants from our favorite Kwik Sew pattern.  I went with a ruffled leg theme after getting distracted tracing and cutting one leg off at capri length!  Heh.  So I hacked them both up more and we now have yoga pants a la Matilda Jane.  Quite cute!  This fabric isn't the best choice for yoga bottoms...they don't have as much recovery and therefore get a little bagged out by the end of the day.  But we like them for around the house and for Valentine's Day.  :)  Plus, they brought back memories of when I first started sewing knits...she had a pair, same style with a white waistband that I sewed when she was 4.  Her dolly got a pair too.  I'm pretty good with that lately!

 


The cute tag:


Her doll also got a new hat, scarf and pair of socks from an old pair of knee highs that became ankle socks as the years passed for E.  Saw the tutorial on Pinterest- quite cute!  We tried tights out of another pair, but I biffed that by not accounting for the lack of stretch in a sock vs. the doll nylon-tights.  Next time!  :)


My favorite sewing site  was having their annual doll quilt swap, and while I was too nervous to sign up this round, it did inspire me to give it a go on my own.  J and E also cut out their squares the same night, but have yet to sew them up.  A few of these fabrics date back to late middle school or early high school when my mom was on her quilting kick.  I remember picking out a handful of fat quarters at a cute quilt shop.  The black paisley backing and the brown swirly squares on the front are from that trip.  :)  I also tried free-motion quilting!  Harder than it looks and I've got lots to learn.  I love the stippled quilt look though- definitely want to try more of that sometime.



The binding isn't too shabby if I do say so myself!


I finally remembered to take a few pics of my journal I made this last summer.  It's a smaller size as that's the size leather I had hanging around.  Quite proud of it!  Someday I'd like to learn leather tooling and/or painting.  The pages are hand-torn which didn't take as long as I'd thought it would.  The closure is leather and a little button I had hanging around in my stash.  There's a little bookmark of a few beads and a cross- next time I'd make it a wee bit longer so it wouldn't shut in the book, but would hang right below it when closed.  It's lined with felt.





Other odds and ends this past week?  Yogurt making again...this time I overcooked the batch by not turning the crock pot off when it was time to let it cool.  I just shut the thermometer beeper off and set the time for the cool-down period and walked away.  Oops!  So this batch was quite runny.  Made great yogurt-fruit pops though!


And lastly- this was E's Vday gift from us this year.  We don't usually do large gifts, but we'd gotten this off Zulily about a month ago and couldn't wait until her bday.  It's to replace 3 dress-up dresses we had to finally retire.  She loved it!  She enjoyed swooshing around, dancing with her Daddy:
 

The next day, she spent most of our school-day in it.  Here she is curled up in the chair reading:


I'll have to post our cards and my gift to J later, I forgot to take pics of those before uploading this week!

Odette

E chose to be Odette from Swan Lake this year. She chose the Barbie version...we had checked out a beautifully illustrated ballet book from the library which had another version- a close 2nd (and the one I was rooting for!). Link to a pic from the movie.

In typical 'Sarah' fashion I did not start this involved costume until a couple days before. I got the base done that night and did the rest the day of (with a lot of help from Aunt Cassie!). I had just finished the swap that Fri/Sat. before and had whipped up my sister Lyzzy's belated bday present early on in the week so I had good excuses :) Cassie made the crown too(with J's help)- good thing she had office Halloween or I would have been sunk :D Nana and Papa came over that evening too- it was a good night (E's first Halloween treating out on the town...we usually have a community room party that is poorly attended and just go around the building but this year we decided to forego the party).

I used the Jalie leotard pattern as the base and went to it from there...netting and tulle under the lining and overskirt/etc. Heat sealed organza, dyed feathers, etc. If anyone has q's on anything you can comment or email...I'm bad about comments sometimes though-not seeing them for a month! :) Sad, I know.

Lots of pics! I didn't bother editing- sorry for blurs/red eye/etc!
Pumpkin carving and pics:



Mine:

J's:


Halloween night:


J and I find this pic humorous...some sort of ninja pose :)

At her favorite librarian's house:

Was a perfect night for treating! Spooky moon pic:

Pics of the finished costume (I sewed the rest of the armbands and painted the bodice ribbons yesterday...this will be a well loved dress up costume for quite a while!):





I had her crown upside down...heh. E noticed later, Cassie noticed right away this evening :D

Poorly captured action photos...

Her bird/swan moves:


And her 'Ivan'...fun boy ballet jumps:


Quite pleased with ourselves over here- although I am glad it's over and I can breathe!