Chickadee Manor

A small sewing project

I am currently working on a new dress for Abby's American Girl doll.  Abby chose both the pattern and the fabric. :)  It is all cut out now and ready to sew!  Hopefully this evening we will have a finished dress for Marie-Grace.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

 

See more everyday contentment at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

 

{pretty}

I officially started the process of making 1780s dressed for Riley, Abby, and Emma.  Riley will have the navy/cream fabric, Abby the red/cream, and Emma the blue/red.  Hopefully I'll have them done long before Easter!  (Even though they aren't meant to be Easter dresses, it does help to have goals!  Ha!)

 

Riley's

 

Abby's

 

Emma's

 

{happy}

Happy that this guy loves reading so much!  He will read until 10:30p.m. every night if you let him.  Usually he's good about putting the book away and turning out the light before he drofts off, but last night's book must have been especially good as he fell asleep with the light on and book in hand.

 Tall Finny makes Hendrik happy.  I don't remember where this little orca came from but he is the centre of a lot of play in our household.  There is always something under construction for use by Tall Finny - boats, cars, airplanes, elaborate houses, etc., and the girls are keen to build for him as well.  Hendrik took this photo of Tall Finny this afternoon.

 

 

{funny}

 Contortionist training or pattern tracing?  The lesser known side of sewing projects.  In this photo I am madly tracing three dress sizes onto brown paper so I can begin sewing dresses for the girls.  (Tracing them onto brown paper leaves the original pattern intact and allows for sewing multiple sizes off one of one pattern.  Very helpful if you happen to lose a piece or one gets spilled on, etc.)  I literally finished tracing in the last 5 minutes of light before suppertime.  I was using the window as a light table but the light disappears so quickly at this time of year and it wasn't a sunny day to begin with.  Just under the wire!  Whew!   

 

{real}  

Today has been real for the dog in ways he likely has not appreciated much.  First off, he didn't get fed his breakfast this morning - on purpose.  At 1p.m. he went to the vet and had some of his man parts removed.  After that, he was placed in the animal shelter pens while he waited for us to pick him up.  Poor thing probably thought we returning him to the shelter.  He was VERY happy to see us when came to collect him.  Now he is sporting the oh-so-fashionable cone to prevent him from licking his stitches.  We are getting many pitiful looks and he is still a bit off balance from the anesthetic.  He also has to skip supper.  Not a good day for Hobbes!  Tomorrow will be much better with all meals included and a few special treats as well.  9 more days with the dreaded cone though!

An Amy Butler portfolio for the " I love Paris! " swap

Here is a project that I completed for an "I love Paris!" swap that I am participating in over at Swap-Bot. I have had this fabric printed with a map of Paris in my stash for a few years now but hadn't figured out a use for it yet. This fit the bill. I think I will make one for myself now too! :) I hope my swap partner will like it.

Handmade Holidays

Sew Mama Sew! has a month of tutorials for November called "Handmade Holidays". There are some really great projects and most of them are quite simple to make (yay!). Have a browse around for ideas or tackle one yourself. :) There are new projects daily.