The Wolverine Costume

So, here is the Wolverine costume I mentioned before: the costume that is full of compromises.
Yanic wanted to be a real animal wolverine. After a lot of thinking and searching, I could not come up with anything that would make it work. Hardest part being the head. So, we sat together and came up with a Michigan Wolverine/Wolverine the animal/Wolverine the cartoon character costume.
And this is it:
Michigan Wolverine = Foam head and maze/blue accents
Wolverine the animal = fake fur jacket (what a mess to sew....!!!!)
Wolverine the cartoon = claws made from vinyl

The Butterfly and her Flower

Can't believe it's Halloween already.
The kids' costumes are home made again this year. Of course! ;-)
All are done. Even Yanic's. We compromised a bit on the look, but it's still what he wanted to be: a Wolverine. I have not taken pictures of him in his costume yet. So, you will have to wait for those until after Halloween.

But, here are the girls: They wanted to be a purple butterfly and a yellow-orange flower.

The butterfly wings are based on this tutorial. I had a hard time finding the foam that the pattern is calling for. In the end I used regular batting and inserted a wire coat hanger to stabilize the top of the wings a bit. It works.

The flower shirt is a Thrift Store find. So, are the pants. They were white and I hand dyed them. The flower skirt is made from felt with a white tutu underneath. The flower headband I have since downsized a bit. It was just too heavy and looked like a barrett.

Aside from the wings, the butterfly also has a headband with antennae. I used a cheepo plastic headband and wrapped it with brown pipecleaner. To finish off the look, she is wearing a brown shirt, striped tights and a purple tutu.

Now, let's hope it's not raining, snowing or storming tomorrow for Trick or Treating. Happy Halloween!

Merry Christmas and some last minute gift ideas

I am wishing everybody a very merry Christmas in peace and harmony!

Are you all done with your shopping and gift making? I just finished a couple of hours ago. So glad, I got it done.
And if you are still looking for a few small things, these are really quick:

First up these super cute miniature deers. Couldn't you just eat them up?! The free pattern can be found here. But, before you start, know that there is quite a bit of handstitching involved and everthing is really tiny to sew.

Then, this cool dude, for the 9-year-old, who acts like a mid-teen right now! (Uggh... ;-)). Over at Obsessively Stitching there are free tutorials for Angry Bird and his entire crew. Try them! It's fun and therapeutic ;-) I stuffed mine half and half with regular fiber fill and cherry pits. This makes it "easier" to toss him around.

And last, but not least: The girls at 4 are more and more asking me to "sew" their own things. First I thought about getting them each a toy sewing machine. However, then I saw all these bad reviews on every single one of them, that I decided against it and opted for stitching kits instead. I made cute bright colored drawstring bags with lots of different trims and Uroma's crochet flowers on front and filled them with stitching fabric, a hoop and lots of embroidery floss.

I think, sometime next week, I will have the girls draw their favorite princess, transfer them onto the fabric and have them outline them with running stitches. When done we can either hang them on the wall as art or use them to make a pillow or bag. I will let you know how it goes.

Until then, enjoy the Holidays!

Merry Christmas

From our house to Yours!

(Dresses: The All Season Jumper Dress)

Halloween Pictures

Just a quick post with a couple of pictures of the kids on Halloween. It turned out to be a rather cold evening and I was very happy, that the costumes I made for them were big enough to fit another layer underneath.

So, here is Indiana Jones. The costume turned out to be more work than what I was planning on. A dear friend of mine told me, that Indi Jones is “just a jacket and shoulder bag”. That’s right, but what to do when none of the metro area thrift stores have any right sized jackets or bags????

The answer, my friends, is PLEATHER: Pleather jacket and Pleather bag paired with a dollar store cowboy hat and whip. I think he looks great. I am not very proud of the jacket, but it was good enough to be a costume. I was, again, too cheap to by a pattern, so I just “cut”. The sleeves turned out too wide on top and I had to add this funny looking pleat. The bag, on the other hand, turned out nicely and held a lot of the extra candy.
Yanic decided, to not go with his friends, but take the girls for Trick or Treating. That was so nice of him. They all had a lot of fun. Only A (princess), got it mixed up a little. At first she kept saying: "Thank you! Trick or Treat". And K (witch) was running ahead of everybody so she could be first at each door.
Did I mention, that the the girls picked their costumes according to their personalities.... ;-)

Now, it's time to think about Christmas....

My Goodies

I warned you that the next post would be about the great things I got for my Birthday. Take a look! Awesome. Right?!

Tons of fabric from Westfalenstoffe and little odds and ends, perfect for embellishing. All this came from my dear family in Germany.

The fabrics are really high quality and ecologically produced. Two of them are called Doppeltes Lottchen (perfect for twins ;-)) and the other Sterntaler. So cute. I think I will look at these for quite a while before I have the guts to cut into them.

I also got an iPod from my Hubby (I know I am so far behind on technology, it's not even funny!) His intend was to give me some kind of entertainment during my long rides to and from work. So, for the past few weeks I have been listening to books on "tape". If you haven't yet, let me recommend the three Stieg Larsson books. They are awesome. You will not want to put them down.

Oh, and look at these cute hats and scarfs my Mom made for the girls:

See you back early next week with some Halloween pics. I am almost done with the boy's Indiana Jones costume. Just a whip-holder still has to be made.
Until then.

The Scary Pink Witch and Princess Ballerina

I must warn you! This post is most of all a pat on my back for:


1. Having Halloween costumes done 4 weeks ahead of time

2. Doing it all from scratch: sketching, pattern drafting, sewing. Everything, based on two Preschoolers’ vague descriptions.

And it wasn’t all that difficult. It just took a little bit of time, measuring and planning. Here are the two sketches I made.

I know, I am not very good at drawing, but you can kind of tell, what it’s supposed to be.

I used the same pattern for both the outfits; and just added some elastic to make the puffy sleeves and the fake sash to the Princess dress. Both dresses have a zipper in the back and the bodices are lined with jersey. Because, well, we can’t have any issues with itchy and scratchy outfits on Halloween...

The sash was not really planned, but at first Ms. A looked like a Matryoshka, so I had to “slim” her down a little. I am still thinking about gathering her purple over-skirt as in the original sketch. At least I will try, to see what it looks like. I am afraid the tulle will be too stiff for it to drape nicely. Both dresses are made from Crushed Panne. It’s super easy to sew and VERY forgiving. And added bonus: it’s soft and warm. After all, we are in the Midwest and we have seen snow on Halloween before…

I also really like Ms. K’s Witch Hat. We actually bought it last year after Halloween for 50 Cents! I just braided the fake hair, added tulle bows to the braids and a big one on top. Perfect!

The girls’ love their outfits. They wore them almost all day yesterday. I think with some festive fabric the pattern might even work great for Holiday Dresses. Now, I have to figure out how to make an Indiana Jones Costume for Yanic.

PS: The girls are still the same height. Ms. A’s heels in the picture are just an inch or so higher.

PPS: By the way, see the pretty pinks and turquoise to the left in the preview for my Etsy shop? I love how it all matches right now :-)
PPPS: Klick on the individual pictures for a better resolution. Blogger gave me a hard time uploading today, so I had to embed Flickr pics.

Happy Easter

I personally cannot wait for the long weekend to start: four days in a row that I do not have to deal with Corporate America. And we are expecting temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s. I cannot remember when it has ever been this warm on Easter. Typically, we are hunting easter eggs on snow dusted grass.

If you are still looking for some special Easter treats, try this:

Absolutely yummy and super easy to make. The lovely Nerida pointed me to the recipe: Chocolate, Chow Main noodles and Jelly beans; that's i!

And who can ever have enough of these.....?!:

Happy Easter everybody.

Random Update

Happy Thursday Everybody!

I really don't have anything great to present today. Just wanted to quickly show the Valentine's the children will give out at school tomorrow.

I found the idea for this on one of the blogs I frequently read. Unfortunately, right now, I cannot find it for the life of it. Sorry. Thank you Erika for the link.
Anyway, I asked the kids to make a funny face and hold one hand out like they are holding something. Took a picture, printed it on cardstock, cut it out, put slits above and below their fists and put a sucker through them. That's it.

And for the girls' Preschool Teacher I made this felt heart. The tutorial for this can be found at Sew Mama Sew.

And the following is the product of a VERY long and VERY boring conference call at work this morning: 50 some paper beads...

At least the girls will have something to make necklaces with tonight :-D

Snowflakes, Snowflakes

Just a quick reminder, if you haven't yet, don't forget to take a guess to participate in the giveaway right here. You still have until tomorrow.

So, now. Yesterday was the girls' school's Winter Program. And it was CUTE! Let me tell you. Their class had prepared four different songs and the kids were literally just screaming them out. Really, really cute. And it was double cute because all the kids in Anika and Kordula's class were wearing matching Snowflake costumes.

Those costumes, that I signed up to make and didn't get to start working on until last Friday. Remember?! Anyway, they came together much quicker than I thought. I drew up a simple A-line jumper pattern (one size fits all), cut it out from white felt, used freezer paper to stencil a glittery snowflake on the front and sewed shoulder and side seams together. Pretty easy.

From some of the left over felt I made little flower hairpins for all the girls in the class.

It was adorable: 17 little snowflakes singing their hearts out on stage.

So, this would be the spot I would add a picture of the entire class, if my husband ever learns how to take sharp, non-wonky, non-fuzzy and out of focus pictures. Maybe next year....

Merry Christmas

from our house to yours. ;-)

Just a few more hours and Santa will come to bring us presents. Of course, he will be so quick again down and up the gas fireplace chimney that nobody will even see him. Oh, that magic!
What about you?! Are you opening presents tonight or on Christmas Day?
Either way, enjoy.

Nikolaus Day and Pattern Testers wanted

UPDATE: I have received an overwhelming response regarding pattern testers. Thank you so much. I have selected three lovely Ladies, who will receive the patterns later tonight. Everbody else; I will keep your emails for possible future patterns. Thank you so much again.


So, yesterday was Nikolaus Day. For those of you who do not celebrate this day, here is a quick link.
In Germany, where I come from, it is custom for the children to shine their boots the night of December 5th and set them outside for St. Niklaus to come and fill them with candy and small presents. So, all three of our children did just that and this is what they were going to wake up to:

They loved every bit of it and breakfast for the girls was basically candy and gingerbread cookies.

Notice the dolls in the pics?

Meet the ELISE DOLL.

(The girls renamed theirs into "Hockeypuckus" and "Ketchup"....). The doll is about 18 inches tall and made from fabric and felt, with an embroidered face. I have drawn up a pattern and written instructions for it. I am thinking about making it available for sale in my Etsy shop. Before I do so, I am asking for a few pattern testers. So, if you are interested please send me a quick email to "beatrix dot sadek at yahoo dot com". I am looking for a pretty quick turn around time.
I know everybody is busy with Holiday preparations, but maybe you are still missing a gift for a little girl and would have time to make one of these before the end of the week?!
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Yeah !!!, it's SMS Giveaway Day !!!

How exciting! It's finally here! This year's SMS Giveaway Day.

I am so thrilled to participate this year. First I had all these great, awesome plans to handmake something for this giveaway, but then quickly and totally ran out of time. So, instead, I have decided to pick a set of fat quarters of one of my current favorite fabric lines. I hope you like...

But, first, here is a picture of the handmade gifts for the kids' teachers:

Handmade soaps (Yes, I made them myself! Super easy and fun.) and a lavender filled ornament.
If you are ever looking to purchase fresh dried lavender you HAVE to go with posi_trade on Ebay. They have the most reasonable prices I could find anywhere and their Grosso lavender smells just awesome. Right now I am storing it in my sewing room in a tightly closed ziplock bag. But still, the room smells like a lavender field.

Okay, back to the issue at hand.
Problem is, that these gifts are, let's be honest, geared towards female teachers. But, it just so happens, that there are also two male teachers: Yanic's Gym teacher and one of the Pre-school teachers at the girl's school. And, I have no idea of what to make for them!
This is were you come in. For your chance to win, please leave a comment and give me your ideas for a handmade gift suited for a male teacher.
Giveaway will be open until Sunday, December 6th (Nikolaus Day). And I think I will pick the comment with the best idea. If there are several comments that I really like I will draw a random number instead.

Oh, I guess, you would also like to know what you can win ;-)
Four fat quarters of Michelle Engel Bencsko's Shade Garden fabrics.

Good Luck!

Please Vote!

Please vote for us!

I have entered a picture of my girls into a Halloween picture contest over at Multiples and More! We have already made it into the second round of the Top40. Go take a look at all these cute twins, triplets and more in the Halloween outfits. And then, please cast a vote for #17... (he, he...). Or, of course any other picture that you think is the cutest.

Thanks for playing along.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

I always wanted to try to have my own fabric printed. But never really had any good design ideas or a clue on how to come up with a printable design. Then, just recently, I received these two amazing paintings from my late Grandfather.

He was pretty talented in my opinion. These pictures were made in the early 50's, when my Mom was little. Growing up they still hung in my Grandparents' house and my sisters and I used to love looking at them, copying them and just admiring them. When my Grandfather passed away a couple of months ago I asked my Grandma if I could have them. They are now hanging in Anika and Kordula's room.
And I also thought, these would be the perfect images for my first try at fabric. Initially, I was planning to scan them. But, I was afraid the paper would rip trying to take the pictures out of the frame. So, I took pictures of them with my camera. So, here they are; my first Spoonflower fabrics:

I like them, but I am not 100% happy with them. Some of it is my fault, some of it is not (I think):

First of all, it only took 9 days from placing my order at Spoonflower to receiving the package in the mail! Lightning quick. Great customer service.
Second, two of the prints turned out exactly the way they looked on my computer screen; colors, saturation and all. I am very satisfied with those. Unfortunately, the little hedgehog print did not. There is much more green in the fabric than I saw on my screen. Also, after seeing the fabric I felt that the size of the hedgehogs was actually a little to big. So, I already made them smaller for my next order. (Yes, I will order it again!)
But, the one thing that I really did not expect and that I am not happy with is the weight of the cotton fabric: it is really, really thin. I was expecting a bit better quality.

Well, I will be using these fabrics for some special Christmas gifts for my Sisters, Mom and Grandma. I am going to make quilted pillows for everybody: a piece of memory of my late Grandpa. Hope, they will like it.

This is my first Pillow-top-prototype (Sorry for the bad pic quality. It was dark and I only had my camera phone availablel). The only neutral color for sashing I had at home last night was white. But, I think I will try to find another color that coordinates better with the images' background color for the other pillows.

Also, if you like these prints you can order them directly through the Spoonflower website.

Lots of Patchy Scarfs

I am making progress on my Christmas Gifts List. I mean, I am no where close to being done, but it's nice to at least mark off a couple of things:

I started making a few patchy scarfs, for the shop, for the girls and some as gifts. The ones for the shop have nice cozy pockets:

Anika's and Kordula's are made from Michelle's Shade Garden fabric and have cute little owl appliques. I also added a loop for hanging them:

And here a couple of Christmas gifts with Valori Wells' Olive Rose Posies in two different shades:

I really like making these. They are relatively quick to sew up and I am in love with this super soft fabric I found at Joann. It's called "Soft & Fluffy" and comes in white, brown, fuchsia, light blue and black at our store. It's much, much softer than fleece or minky fabric. You should try it.
If you are planning on making these kind of scarfs yourself, I found that for the child sizes a finished width of 4.5" and length of about 56" is optimal. My adult sizes are 6.5" wide and 60" long (width of the backing fabric).

Happy Halloween

Awe....: Yodinker Bell

Let's go tinker...

What's next?