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!