Little Things to Sew - Doll Dress

The suggested 'little thing' to make for the sew-along for January was the bear carrier, but since I'd already made that last May (take a look at it on this post), I decided to make this little doll dress. It was a quick sew (which I needed, since I didn't even cut it out until last Thursday!), and very easy. 

One of the things I really liked about the pattern is that it had a shaped hem facing piece, which meant I didn't have to try to sew a regular hem at that curved bottom edge of the skirt. That made it very easy to hem with no easing needed. It also makes for a cute peek if you happen to see under the bottom edge of the dress:

The dress fits an 18" doll, which I don't happen to have. I don't know if it'll fit any of Courtney's dolls, either. (Maybe Annika, Mommy? She could bring her tomorrow to see!) If not, maybe it'll have to just get put away until Courtney gets handed down one of her cousins' dolls. ;) On the other hand, maybe I should just send the dress to the cousins? (Or quick make another one so there are no fights over who gets it? ;) ) Whaddya think?

Linking up to amylouwho's Sew & Tell:

A tooth with teeth

Here's what I made for Courtney for her birthday... a tooth fairy pillow! I found the tutorial on the blog of the awesome Larissa Holland, mmmcrafts, a couple of years ago and couldn't wait till Courtney was old enough so I could make one for her. She hasn't lost any teeth yet, and probably won't for a while, but now she's prepared for whenever she does. :)

I love this little fairy! The closer I got to being done and seeing what she looked like, the more she made me giggle. The mouth is a pocket where the child puts the tooth, then it can be hung on a doorknob or some convenient place so the "fairy" doesn't have to risk waking the child searching under her pillow for that tooth... brilliant! The $ is then left in the pocket after the tooth is removed.

Do take note that the tooth has a gold crown.... heehee.

Incidentally, the ribbon was designed by Jess. The back side of it is the matching design in blue.

Here's a quick (because there were many more gifts to open!) pic I snapped of Courtney right after she opened it. Her eyes don't have their usual sparkle because she had a cold. Bummer to not feel up to par at your own party. But she had fun, anyway.

More birthday party pics later...........

Going fast!

Let's see...46° Monday and Tuesday... and 50° yesterday! Can this really be only the first part of February?! The few inches of snow we got last week is melting very fast. Most of the ground is bare again. However, Courtney and I found a big enough batch of snow left to make a quick snowman on Tuesday. Since it was getting kinda late by the time we got outside and got the cats fed, it was starting to get dark by the time we got done. But even though my camera told me it was too dark for photo-taking, it did a pretty decent job, anyway. Here's our little snowman:

Pretty fancy, huh? ;) Courtney put the finishing touches on him... the branches for arms and a butt crack that she insisted on adding!

With our 50° yesterday, however, our snowman lost a lot of weight... as well as his facial features and his buttons. And the predicted 46° today will do considerable damage, too. Oh, well.... it was fun while it lasted!

Courtney is FIVE!!!

Courtney was pretty excited yesterday, knowing she only had one day left until she turned FIVE YEARS OLD!! She was pretty squirrelly all day. But for a while, she even got out some of the old toys... maybe reminiscing about her days as a "baby"?

Here she was having fun stacking the blocks like she used to do back when she was "a little girl".

For some reason, they seemed to stack a lot more easily than they used to, not to mention in the correct order. ;)  And look how tall she is! The stack only comes up to her chin now!

Yep, she used to be about as tall as she is next to the stack below!

Proof.... an actual photo from June 3, 2008:

For some fun in action, see the video on this post!

How have those FIVE years gone by so fast?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COURTNEY!!!

We love you!!!!!

See you at your party on Saturday!!

A TINY bag

Yep, I'm still a bag lady! But oh, what a tiny bag!

See how little it is!  It only measures about 4.25" across!

It's a case for a tiny MP3 player (which measures only 1.4"x2.2" itself!). It's a gift, so I don't have the player here to demonstrate... but look how monstrous my iPad charger cord looks next to it!

I wanted to make something that had pockets to keep the charger and earbud cords from tangling together. This fit the bill just right. You can sorta make out the inside pockets in the photo above. There's even a pocket on the outside in the back (see below). I guess it'd be handy for a tissue or something. :)

I found the tutorial for this here. It's actually called a Mini Wallet. It was pretty easy to make, but required some very careful sewing. I used an actual buttonhole instead of a snap, because I thought that would have a little more 'give' if the case got stuffed full. I hope it works as I intend it to... if not, I'll make something else! :)

I also made another little earbud pouch.

I thought a certain little girl might like one for her upcoming birthday. With a surprise inside, of course! Shhh... don't let her see it, Mommy!

Wow, they're almost the same size!

Linking up to amylouwho's Sew & Tell: