I can’t stop making skirts. I made this one a little shorter than the last.  I started sewing late and ended up with the kids asleep in their sleeping bags, not far from the machine.  I am a little bit in love with this mod, floral fabric from JoAnn’s.

I have finally taken enough sewing classes that I am feeling more confident with my sewing machine.  I love this simple pattern from Oliver + S.  The pattern, Lazy Days Skirt, is a freebie from their blog. I am going to make a bunch of these for the girls for summer and school in the fall, when it will still be so hot here. There is an awesome flickr group of pictures of pieces people have made with Oliver + S patterns.  The group is great to look through for inspiration.

Here it is!  I made this yesterday in my sewing class.  Melissa Morgan taught this class at the Stitch Lab.  The class format if very relaxed and easy.  Because there are only a few people in each class, every skill level can work at their own pace.  I really enjoyed having Melissa as a teacher.  She is also teaching some other great classes including, baby overalls, ring slings, pocket slings, and some great sewing classes for kids. Check out the schedule here.

(E’s awesome matching sandals are from Target.  She calls them her “rainbow sandals.”)

Tomorrow, I go to the Girl’s Pillowcase Style Dress class at the Stitch Lab.  I would love to be able make dresses for C & E.  While I know they will probably protest dress wearing, sometimes I am able to coax them into one for special occasions.  I am hoping this cute apple and pear fabric from JoAnn’s will be appealing enough to entice them into putting them on.  I also want to make one for my cousin’s daughter D, who is seven months old.   When I saw this red, nursery rhyme toile, I thought of her.  I am sure that the sweet folks at Stitch Lab will be able to remind me how to use my sewing machine, because it has been a long time!

My best friend, Haiku Mama, got me this super cute apron for my birthday yesterday. I am going to use it to hold my crafting and sewing tools. It is from Liz Lamoreux’s Etsy Shop.

Stuck at home. Everyone is sick. What to do? Emit a cloud of noxious fumes from some craft beads, of course!
A recent trek to the IKEA, brought us some great finds to bring home. We only go to IKEA once or twice a year, so we make the best of it when we go.

Who could resist this giant jar of craft beads? The kids have been playing with them, as well as using them for crafts. The beads are good for measuring, pouring, scooping, counting, stringing, and gluing. They are also small enough that if the odd bead gets popped into the mouth of a passing toddler, mamalibrarian might just turn her head the other way and pretend she didn’t see anything. Mostly because any more calls to the Poison Control are no doubt going to warrant some kind of uniformed personnel showing up at the door.

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Anyway, we embarked on the bead melting project one afternoon, when I was trying to keep everyone calm. It took a long time and a lot of dexterity to get the beads placed on the melting peg boards. (also from IKEA) The only instructions showed a woman with an iron and a piece of wax paper, so I had to wing it. I just set the iron to low and placed the wax paper on top of the beaded board. It took at least 2 or 3 minutes of the iron resting on top of the wax paper and beads to get them to fuse together. Then we let them cool, pulled off the wax paper, and removed them from boards.



I also picked up this cute hippo? fabric. With IKEA, you just never can quite tell what the animal is exactly. Flodhäst is what we are calling it. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet. It is a little stiff feeling for clothes, but a little A-line jumper experiment would be awfully cute. In case you are in need of a chart with the translation of hippopotamus in many different languages, here is a link.



And for my friends Average Jane Crafter and Haiku Mama, I grabbed these market totes. I am anxious to see what kind of crafty gear Average Jane Crafter puts in hers.