My All American Girl

My first attempt at a "Twirl" Skirt:

I read lots of blogs listed here:

then created my skirt combining what I liked from each blog.

My measurements were:
Red fabric: 7 x 30
White fabric: 6 x 44
Blue fabric: 7 x 65

It turned out a little longer than I expected....but on the plus size she should be able to wear this next year, too!

Then of course we had to make a matching headband...then a matching bow.



My headband pattern from this blog (Kyla loves these! I love that they are reversible, so this one has red stars on one side, blue stars in the other):
http://foofanagle.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/best-band-ever/

And this was my first attempt at the flower bow from this blog:
http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2008/09/18/cool-sewing-tutorial-pinkys-flowers/

Kids "Drive-In" Movie Night

Invitations:
They didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped, but they worked and Kyla was super excited about them. I drove her around and let her deliver them to our friends...She wore a big smile the whole time and looked forward to our party all week!

Cars:


I painted their boxes and let them help me glue on wheels, headlights and a grill. I used a brad (and John drilled a hole through the paper plate steering wheel and box) to put the steering wheels on so that they would actually turn--my kids loved that part!
Others did some cute things with their cars...one used the flap of the box and cut out the center of it to create a windshield and another made license plates on the back with their names spelled out. They were super cute! It was fun to see different ideas on decorating the cars!

I used their pillows to make a cushioned seat and tossed in their blankets for movie time.

Complete with concessions:

I cut brown paper bags short to make little popcorn bags. Chose Capri Suns to cut down on spills and of course made it easy with prepackaged cookies. Originally I was going to do mini candy bars...but was not wanted to clean up chocolate since there were four 2 year olds. (I know how messy mine gets)

Baby Burp Clothes

These are supposed to be super absorbent since they are cloth diapers: how fitting for spit-up! I thought these would be a cute addition to the John Deere baby gifts I'm working on.

I found the idea here:http://anewchelseamorning.blogspot.com/2007/03/such-mystery-not.html
(Yes, I realize I need to serge the bottom still...some little helper messed with my tensions, so I will try to finish that part soon, but you get the idea.)

I like hers better. I made my fabric thinner to go with the prefolds...I thought they might fold up better, but hers are cuter with more fabric. I'm not sure which one will work better because the diaper itself would be more absorbent than the fabric, right? So do you want more cute fabric or more absorbency? I don't know.

Wouldn't it be nice...

to have all of these extra sewing feet....

http://creativesewingsolutions.com

I didn't know you could get all of these! Sew a button on, make fast ruffles...I had heard of a bias tape foot, but it is not featured on this site. Someday I would love to try these all out.

Dipes and Wipes Bags

This is my favorite gift to give to someone, I was so excited to find the pattern:
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/dipecase.html

I got 2 of these for the boys when Caden was born, they work great to keep the diapers and wipes together and for taking with us for diaper changes. They also work great when I drop Nathan off somewhere because that is usually all he needs from the diaper bag.

Binki Bag

I created a pattern for this using the Dipes and Wipes pattern and just sizing it way down. It is a pouch to hold the binki so that it stays clean. I think next time I will try to add a velcro handle to make it easy to fasten to the handle of the car seat, diaper bag strap, purse, etc.

Diaper Bag Tissue Holder

Found the pattern and directions here.


It's not my favorite, but I thought it might be fun for her diaper bag.

Baby Bib

I just traced the shape of a bib I had, cut one with John Deere fabric, one with greeen for the backing and cut one with batting for the center.

It turned out ok, but I think I like the towel bibs a lot better.