Les Diablerets, Switzerland

Hello from Switzerland! I had a long, tiring but thankfully uneventful journey getting here and was able to sleep well last night, so I'm feeling well and adjusted. This place is utterly amazing and I feel like I need to pinch myself every time I go outside! It's hard for me to imagine that people live here and get to experience this beauty every day! Here are a few pictures I took today when the sun finally came out.








On Thursday we may take gondola trip up to the glacier, so I'll post more pictures then. And oh yeah, the work part is going well too ;)

Hope everyone at home is doing well!

My own Kid's Clothes Challenge

Last week was a busy week between my husband's birthday and getting ready for an upcoming overseas trip where I'll be leaving my babies for a whole week....so I didn't participate in the official Kid's Clothing Week Challenge. Instead, I set forth on my own challenge: to start using up my stash of clothing bought second hand to re-purpose.

Here's just a tiny bit of my stash.

And here's what I made:

I forgot to take a before picture of this next top, but imagine a giant, ugly tube top, turned into super cute little girl tank.

And, I am in love with Kai's shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. A fun shirt for a fun little boy.

I made a lot more clothing that I didn't get around to taking photos of, but I'm proud that I am actually making a dent in my stash, resisted the urge to go to the Salvation Army today on 1/2 price day, and my kids are looking cute and enjoying their new clothes!

Stefanie's Clutch

My coworker Stefanie mentioned the other day that she was having trouble finding a clutch to match her shoes and dress for her brother's wedding. I of course said "I'll make one for you!" It was a fun project to work on, took very little time, and she and I were both very happy with the results. Here's what I did.....

I used a free pattern on the Kwik Sew website, and this tutorial from noodlehead, which I had used before to make this clutch.

I cut out the pattern pieces as described, except for the front I cut a large rectangle about twice the width of the clutch front.



I did a gather along the top edge (2 parallel rows of stitching set at the longest stitch length), and ironed the gathers flat.



Then, I ironed the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric and cut around the edge to get make the gathered front of the clutch.



I finished it up following the instructions and then added a "glamour ring" to match her shoes.



I'm sure Stefanie will be VERY glamorous with this clutch.....and those shoes!

Magnetic Fridge Frame Tutorial

If the outside of your fridge looks anything like mine, it's covered in kid's artwork. I came up with this magnetic frame as a nice way to display some of those wonderful kid drawings while still having a nice looking fridge.

Here's what you'll need to make one of your own:

4 strips of fabric, 2 3" x 11", 2 3" x 8.5"
4 strips of featherweight fusible interfacing, 2 1" x 11", 2 1" x 8.5"
4 magnets


Cut your fabric pieces and fuse interfacing to the wrong side of fabric strips, about 1/4" from one raw edge. This keeps the interfacing out of the seam and keeps it from getting too bulky.




With wrong sides together fold fabric strips in half lengthwise. Sew along the raw edge with a 1/4" seam allowance creating a tube.




Turn tube right-side-out. My good friend Roselee at Jane of Alll Trades showed me a great trick for easy tube turning. Attach a safety pin to the end of a scrap of bias tape. Thread the tape through your tube and attach the pin to the side of tube without a seam. Pull the bias tape while helping the fabric through. When your tube is turned, remove the pin and do the next one!









When all your tubes are turned, press them flat. Now you are ready to assemble the frame.


Lay out your pieces in the shape of your frame. Now take one side and lay it on top of the side it will be attached to.
Then fold the side down the way it will be when finished. Finger press (or press with an iron). This is to mark where the seam should be to sew these pieces together.



Mark the seam with a marker and sew along this line.



Press seam open on the front and back.
Repeat with the rest of the sides.

Here it is with all sides sewn together. Now you can embellish as you see fit. I like to add a top-stitch around the outer edge to help it hold it's shape.

The last step is to flip the frame over and glue a magnet in each corner. I used my hot glue gun, but you could probably use any type of tacky glue.


Your frame is ready to display! Just add artwork and you're ready to go. You can make these in any size, but keep in mind, the outside dimensions for this one are 8.5" x 11". If you want to make a 4x6 for a photo, your pieces need to be 7" x 9" to have the inside dimensions work. I'm not good at explaining the math, but trust me, I learned by screwing it up the first time!

Zaaberry Baby Onesies

This weekend I got up the courage to take some of my baby outfits to a local maternal wellness center called Cradle. It's a really beautiful place that got it's start after my babies were born, so I wasn't able to enjoy their amazing services. But, if you live in W. Mass and are expecting, you should definitely check it out.

They had expressed interest in having some baby onesies in their shop, so I whipped these up today. These were really fun to make and I think came out super cute. Fingers crossed that they like them!

And, in case you were wondering, I ran out of snaps, so for now, they've got a pin holding the crotch closed. Gotta make a Joanns run tomorrow :)

Dana's Summer Scarf Tutorial

Here's a tutorial from another one of my favorite sewing blogs, Made. Dana has a great tutorial for summer scarf that is a simple addition to any outfit and also makes a great gift. I played around with different fabric and techniques and did 2 slight variations on her tutorial, mostly because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to turn and sew the sides of the scarf. For the first, I used a green light-weight cotton gauze and sewed a tube, turned it right side out, ironed the seam to the bottom center, and then shirred it up the middle. Very quick, no sides to hem. This only works on a very light fabric because the shirring won't gather up well on heavier fabrics.

For the second, and my favorite, I used a lightweight fuschia swiss dot and finished the edges with the picot edge stitch on my serger with contasting white thread. Then I shirred it up the middle and voila, another great summer scarf. Super easy and very cute. Thanks for the great tutorial!

Noodlehead's Gathered Clutch

My first blog post! I've been following some amazing blogs and finally decided to take the plunge and put my own out there. Don't know who'll tune in, but it's fun to share my adventures in sewing, crafting, and family.

Here's a fun and relatively easy project I found on a great blog, Noodlehead. I had a little trouble with the zipper end covers, but overall, it was very easy and I love the end result.

Check out a great version from my good friend Roselee over at Jane of all Trades.