Holiday 15 Ideas House

{This is not my house}

Well, the holiday season is already upon us. A couple of weeks ago I went to visit Bachman’s Holiday Ideas House. Welcome to a little photo tour of it! A warning in advance that this is a very photo heavy post.

If you are interested in 'visiting' some of the previous Ideas Houses, they are just a click away: Spring 15, Holiday 14, Fall 14, Spring 14, Holiday 13, Fall 13, Spring 13, Holiday 12, Fall 12, Spring 12, Holiday 11, Summer 11, Spring 11 (the most popular one), Holiday 10 (the second most popular one), Summer 10, and Spring 10. 

 

In the dining room, a toboggan on the buffet table.

 Wall decor with bed spring, birch branches, and ornaments.

 In the living room, vintage drawer unit repurposed as sofa table.

 Here is the Christmas tree in the living room.

 Vintage wood rolling rack repurposed for wall shelving unit.

 Red decorative boxes and ornaments create Christmas tree above mantel.

 In the kitchen, wall stencil, ornaments, and wall mount houses create decorative wall storage. Antique drawer repurposed for kitchen storage.

 Vintage metal rolling unit serves as kitchen island.

 In the lower bathroom, decorative sled repurposed as toilet paper holder.

 Here is the Christmas tree in the guest bedroom.

 I loved all of the use of birch trees used throughout the house, here in the upper bathroom in the window "faith, hope, love."

 Here is the Christmas tree in the office.

 Here is the Christmas tree in the den.

 And here is the 'Christmas tree' in the master bedroom.

 In the master bedroom, antique ballroom mirror to create headboard.

 Outside decorations.

What was your favorite part?

PS I hope you get a chance to visit this Holiday 2015 Ideas House (there are so many more ideas to see than are in these photos) it is open November 5 - December 13, 2015.

Spring 15 Ideas House

{This is not my house}  

Ah, spring is here, my favorite season and that means a trip to the Spring 15 Ideas House. Welcome to a little photo tour of it!

If you are interested in 'visiting' some of the previous Ideas Houses, they are just a click away: Holiday 14, Fall 14, Spring 14, Holiday 13, Fall 13, Spring 13, Holiday 12, Fall 12, Spring 12, Holiday 11, Summer 11, Spring 11, Holiday 10, Summer 10, and Spring 10.

 

In the dining room... a watercolor wonderland with this raspberry and green... layered art over decorative wall panel, moss balls set on top of candleholder.

 

 Pink and green napkins turned into a flower with twine wrap. I love the bird and nest salt and pepper shakers!

 In the living room... salvaged door as wall art.

 Fountain and lanterns in fireplace.

 Mantel wrapped in sheet moss.

 Terrarium stand turned into a bar.

 In the sun room...

 Salvaged watering bowl for pigs turned into a side table and filled with a decorative miniature garden.

 In the kitchen... decorative birdhouse table as kitchen island, living wall planter trays used for fresh herbs, salvaged wood and metal tacks as wall clock.

 Salvaged picket fence and metal buckets as decorative wall art and kitchen utensil storage.

 In the entry... hanging bar shelf turned into a mail organizer.

 In the lounge room... maps as wallpaper.

 In the yoga room... self-watering Living Wall as inspiration wall art.

 In the guest bedroom... decorative bicycle planter as wall art.

 Salvaged bike wheel turned message board with decorative clothespins garland and lace.

 Outdoors... rain boots spray painted and turned into vases.

What was your favorite part?

PS I hope you get a chance to visit this Spring 2015 Ideas House (there are so many more ideas to see than are in these photos) it is open for March 19 - April 19, 2015. And the Fall dates are September 10 - October 4 and Holiday dates are November 5 - December 13, 2015.

18" doll clothes tutorial round-up

Here is a quick round-up of my tutorials for 18" doll clothes. Enjoy!

1. 18" doll skirt (which is reversible)
2. Lazy Days Skirt (ribbon hemmed elastic waist skirt)
3. Newborn onesies to nightgowns and t-shirts
4. No-sew tutu
5. Petticoat
6. Chiffon bubble skirt
7. Lace and tulle skirt
8. Sequin skirt
9. Layered trim skirt
10. Doily circle skirt

Happy doll clothes sewing!

PS I forgot to add the No-sew dresses

Sailor Button Dress

I'm excited to be a part of the February Free for All that's being hosted by Ashley and Emily over at Frances Suzanne.  It's where you take a free pattern and flip it. How fun!

So today I'm talking all about my free pattern and tutorial called the Purple Rose Party Dress (and the various ways I've flipped it). It was something I dreamed up and put together almost three years ago already. It is a sleeveless drop waist dress with a circle skirt. The sash which is attached at the sides of the bodice ties in the front. Bias tape is used for the hem of the circle skirt as well as the trim on the two arm holes and neckline. It has a v-neck back with an invisible zipper and hook and eye closure. The pattern pieces are in size 4.

 Then I started playing around with the pattern and made the Striped Dress...

 ...and the Plaid Dress...

 ...and the Color Wheel Dress.

 I came across this image of a pink and gray sailor-like dress somewhere on the internet (if anyone knows where the source of this image came from, please let me know) and thought I could use the Purple Rose Party Dress pattern to make something very similar.

 And that is how this Sailor Button Dress came about. Only a couple of simple changes were needed. Instead of the circle skirt I did a rectangular gathered skirt. I took two rectangles of gray fabric that were 12 inches by 29.5 inches (and sewed them together on the sides with half inch seam allowances) and made teeny tiny pleats that I basted before attaching the skirt to the bodice. At the bottom of the skirt I folded over a half inch then again a half inch to create the hem. I bought some of this awesome shiny gold leather and cut three pieces that are approximately one inch by four inches and attached them to the front of the bodice with gold buttons. Voila! I'm really pleased with the result.

 Be sure to visit Frances Suzanne to see all of the other Free for All goodness happening the next couple of weeks.

Completed: CaliFayeCollection Gardenia Dress

 Raise your hand if you’ve already sewn an Elsa dress. Well, I can now raise my hand because I finally got around to creating one. After every sewing mother and grandmother in the online sewing community made one. And after everyone else bought all of the Elsa fabrics up at the fabric stores.

I used the CaliFayeCollection Gardenia Dress pattern, a dress pattern I discovered for the first time in STYLO 3.

Project details

Pattern: CaliFayeCollection Gardenia Dress

Size: 6

Modifications: added length, eliminated the pockets, I used an old blue hair elastic for the button loop

Fabrics: 

Front top/neckline/back/sleeves: white swiss dot

Front lower: blue non-stretch sequin fabric

Skirt: blue faux silk dupioni

Notions: white shank button with a snowflake on it, the last one leftover from the Nordic stripes flannel Christmas pajamas.

I later added a removable cape. It’s 3/4 yard of light sparkly fabric, three sides were hemmed, it's gathered at the top and sewn together with bias binding, with elastic loops at each end that attach to buttons on the shoulders. I got the idea here. An added bonus is that she is able to put the cape on and off all by herself, it's that easy.

 What better place to take photos of Elsa the snow queen than outside in the snow?? These photos were taken on one of Minnesota’s 10,000 frozen lakes.

So many Elsa dresses out there that offer inspiration, just in case you haven’t already made a girl’s dreams come true yet and are looking for ideas: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Now she wants an Anna dress. I think it’ll be the same pattern, but with ‘Anna colors’.