I CAN MAKE CLOTHES TOO MOMMY!!!

I think Estrella is very creative, I love how big her imagination is, she can invent the greatest adventures, the most marvelous fairy tales, the scariest mysteries, all in her room, with whatever she can find, she is somebody different all the time.

Today she was me. She decided that if I could create a pretty dress from one of her daddy's shirts, she could create a beautiful, red carpet gown from a pair of pants.

She didn't need to sew anything, she just used her best fashion sense, the best a 4 year old can have I guess!! and I was surprised with the outcome! This pants are part of a Dog Halloween custom. They are kind of big, and the fabric is very stretchy. So, she, being the skinny girls she is, slipped into one of the legs of the pants, put her arm through the other leg and THERE! she had made her own, nice gown.

She was really happy with it, she wore it all day, I told her she was ready to walk the red carpet now!!

Tell me about your kids creations lately. Thank you for reading!!

Andy's Sweater

It has been so long since I wrote something in my blog, I apologize! but I do have some exciting things to share with you in the following days.
Today I wanted to share with you this "sweater" (grrrrr!!) yeah, this sweater was a nightmare to knit, my worse nightmare, I have no desire to make another one, at least for a while. :)

 I have a wonderful, sometimes annoying brother in law, who thinks he is 16 but he is almost 30!! ha ha ha, I love him lots. He wanted me to make him a pink sweater, yes, you read that right, PINK!! for a guy?? well I guess, we are in the 2000's. Anyway, I found a pattern that I somehow followed, but the pattern did not include the hood, and he wanted a hood. He wanted the sweater to be big, cozy, soft, and pink!
It did not take me long to knit the body of the sweater but it was the first time for me to knit stripes, so I think I did it wrong because when I tried to sew the parts together I ended up with very chunky seams. I used chunky yarn, super chunky, and #15 needles, so I knew it was going to be chunky in the seams but not that much. So I undid the seams like probably 10 times. When I was finally satisfied with it I started the hood.

 I noticed in one of my sweatshirts that hood are really a big rectangle sewn together. So that's what I knit. I am very proud of the hood, in fact, it is the only part of the sweater that I love, and it has just the right amount of pink for my taste.



After I was done knitting the whole thing, he tried it on and it didn't fit!!!! :( I was so mad, sad, after months of fighting with this, I wasn't very fond of it.) So I left it on the side for the next two months until one day I thought, well, I am going to undo it and start over again. But I didn't. I just did a a row of crotchet to where the zipper goes, then I washed it with cold water and hung it up to dry. I forgot about it cause I put it in the basement, he he he. Anyway, by the time I remember I think it had grown like two sizes. chris tried it on and it fit perfectly!
The last thing was the zipper, my gosh, was that hard, it took me over a week, yeah, that's how hard this was for me.

My dear husband was my model. He actually really likes the sweater and he wants to keep it, he thinks it won't fit his brother, we will have to wait for him to come and try it on, cause this sweater, this sweater cost me more that I thought and somebody better wear it!!

Día de las Madres en Guatemala! & the story of why I like sewing.

Today is Mother's Day in Guatemala and I think all Central America. So I did call my mom early today and I am about to call my grandma as well. She will be 85 this year and still tends to her little farm in the mountains in El Salvador. She is an amazing woman, raised 11 kids and doesn't seem to get old, just wiser, I love her.

So, it is thanks to my mother that I like to sew.  Back when I was probably 2 or 3 or maybe earlier than that, my mom received her own sewing machine as a Mother's Day present from my dad. It was a Singer, manual, with a little yellow box that had yellow screw drivers, bobbins, oil, and I can't remember what else. My mom loved that machine so much, she kept it clean and shiny, it always looked new. She went to sewing school every afternoon, I remember that because I had to stay with my brothers and sometimes my older brother didn't want to watch us so he tied us to the post in the corridor.
My mom made so many dresses for me, she learned to make patterns in brown paper and I always had a new dress to wear. She will find this cute dresses on newspapers with instructions on how to make them and she will make them for me. I loved all of them and I do remember most of them, especially one that she made for me for church. It had a white blouse with ruffled red sleeves. The skirt was red and white checkers and had ruffles as well, I loved that dress. I was a little older when she made me that one.
When I was 14  she told me that I should go to sewing school with her. She registered in an embroidery class. I took sewing lessons for the next year. I made some nice outfits and my teacher was always so nice and patient with me. I made my mom a green dress, but the sleeves were to tight, I never like using patterns  which I think is a bad habit.
So that's how it began, I did not go back to sewing school because I wanted to do other things that teenagers like to do instead of being stuck one hour every night sewing things. That is why I never learned all the good stuff about sewing until now that I picked it up again. Although, I did make my best friend her dress for her sister's wedding and it was quite cute and it fit her perfectly, even though I did not use a pattern. I was always fixing and remodeling my outfits.

When I came to this country my sister in law let me use her sewing machine, which was a new thing for me because it was electric and portable, I was amazed by it, so I set myself into making all kinds of dresses. I made my graduation dress. It was white and the blouse was a little too small, I had to use a shawl because it showed too much!! I didn't use a pattern, I just cut it out using one of my other dresses and didn't measure quite right.

 I also made a red dress. I tried to use a pattern with this one but then I gave up and just made my own thing. I loved that dress. But after a while I thought it needed new life.

I turned it into a little dress for my daughter for her first birthday. Pretty cute don't you think? I did use a pattern for this one, but it came out too big. Still cute on her.

I remodeled a white dress that my sister in law had given me. It became the dress I used for my wedding at the LDS Temple, I only used it inside so I don't have any pictures with it on. That one dress made me hate sewing for a while!!! It was mighty hard. The fabric was just to fragile and nice, I was not used to sewing something so delicate.
After my first daughter's first birthday I didn't touch my sewing machine for about two years. Then I decided to make them some Easter dresses, but I didn't finish them, until  this year for  Easter, he he he! I love sewing, I am always looking into learning more.
My mom still sews and remodels her clothes, her last creation was some clothes she made for the girls' dolls out of socks!! they are not very fancy or even cute, but my girls love them! and I thought my mom was so clever.
So, thank you mamá for instilling in me the art of creating beautiful things with fabric and tread. It all started with a Singer Manual Sewing Machine!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

In Guatemala we celebrate Mother's Day on May 10th, so I still have two days to send a card to my mom, he he he!!! Happy Mother's Day to all women in the world, because of course every single woman we encounter have an influence on us and on our kids. I am grateful for all those great women who have been and continue to be great examples for me. I am grateful for my mother who, eventhough we differ in many things, loves me and will put her hands on fire for me.

Here are the three generations, daughter, mother and grandmother.

Here is my other mother, mama Millar, (my mother in law) I love her tons and tons and I am grateful for her and her wonderful influence, but especially because she considers me and treats me as one of her daughters. 

 Here is me with my princesitas, the firs one was about two years ago and the other one was two weeks ago. They are the light of my life and I am grateful to be a mother. This week I was feeling pretty bad about not working as a teacher anymore as I was sitting in a meeting at Estrella's future school. I thought, "man I miss being a teacher, I miss being important, now I am just a mother." I felt pretty down. But today I remember one time, a long time ago when I was still single and with not even prospects to get married, I was a successful teacher, had my own apartment, a nice brand new car, I was in a soccer team and had run lots of races, I was doing all the things I love. One day one of the other players in my soccer team, who was a mother of two little boys told me in a very sad way, "How much I admire you, you have everything, but me, I am just a mom." at the moment I just smile and said nothing but driving back home I thought, really? I am successful? I have everything? no, I should have told her: "No, you are not "just a mom", you are a creator, a nurse, a teacher, a scientist, an artist, a pillow, a dancer, a singer, an explorer, a pirate, a cook, a princess, and the most beautiful and important person for those two dirty face kids over there, you my friend, are Gods right hand in creation."
And that my friends is what you are, Thank you for being a wonderful influence on me. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
I

FLOWER SHOWER HEADBAND AND BARRETTES!

I love Spring!!! So many beautiful colors, the rain, the birds, the flowers, the pink, purple and white trees!! It is amazing!!! We took a bike ride to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with the girls and we were so amazed by the beauty all around us, especially the tulips, we love tulips, it is our favorite flower. 

In the spirit of Spring beautiful colors, I made this headband with five different flowers. Each flower has a snap and there are two snaps in the headband. So you can mix and match the flowers.

You can use two reds, or pink and green, brown and pink, brown and green, maybe red and brown?? I didn't try that combination. I could make the headband in a different color with different color of flowers.  I was thinking a black headband, imagine all the color combinations with black!!

I am also been working on barrettes for the girls, i don't even know how many times I have bought the cute barrettes from the store just to use them once or twice and loose them, yeah that's what my girls do I don't know why! so I bought the plain barrettes, a really good deal, and started making the flowers on them, which for once, the girls don't loose them, (don't ask me why!) and I can make all the colors I want to match their clothes!!! I love that.

So what you do is wrap the ribbon around the barrette from one end to the other and finish with the flower. The flower is just like making a bow for a present with a button sewn in the middle. Takes me about 30 minutes to do a set of two barrettes.

I am still working on making more colors, at least this is one barrette Isabella likes to keep on. Thank you for reading!

FLOWER SHOWER HEADBAND AND BARRETTES

I love Spring, the colors, the rain, the flowers! We took a bike ride to the

MY FIRST GUEST!!

I always admire people who can create things.  Especially those who, with little to no experience take the risk to create something that turns out into something beautiful.
I decided to feature today one of my friends from when I was young, he he he. She is still my friend and not very long ago she sent me a message with a couple of pictures of something that she had created, she said that I inspired her to get into crotchet, I think she has so much talent.
This headbands are crotchet. She did such a wonderful job for being her first time, don't you think?

This blue one is my favorite, it looks so, I don't know, elegant! I want to try to make it. You can find the pattern HERE

The slippers look so comfortable and she even used two different colors! I love it.

Now, this little quilt here was her very first one ever and I have no words to express how lovely this is, I think she did such a marvelous job, it doesn't look like it was made by  a beginner. Well done Rosi! I love it, I wish I could make quilts, maybe someday.

Anyway, like the movie n Ratatouille said at the end of the movie, "not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere." She is a great artist! Thank you for sharing your talents with me Rosi.
Thank you for reading!

Blessing Outfit

My brother and his wife just had the cutest baby boy ever. Little Luke's blessing was today and he looked so cute on his suit, with a little tie and a vest, he looked adorable. I was supposed to bring them a white outfit, but since I procrastinate all the time, I never made it to their house which is like 1 hour away from mine. Besides, white outfits for babies are ridiculously expensive!!
I had gone to the store to find one of those Christening white outfits,. They are cute cute! but as I was looking at one of them I started thinking, hmmm, this outfit is so easy to make, this one is not even well finished, the fabric is nice but the finished not much, plus, I can totally make one myself.
And that is just what I did, instead of paying $52.00 for one outfit, really, who pays that much for an outfit that the baby will use one time??? insane! maybe I am too cheap.
Anyway, I spent the next 20 minutes memorizing all the details in the outfit at the store. I bought some long sleeve onesies and  I went home and started making the outfit for little Luke. It took me 2 hours. I did not use fancy fabric. I used cotton. I did not measure, I know bad me!! but I did make a pattern of the little vest. which I will share later in a tutorial, since I think anybody should and could make one of this with a different color fabric.
The tie was as seen in  I am momma hear me roar, she has cute and easy to follow tutorials. The vest has a lining and I just attached it to the onesie by hand.
For the pants I drew a pattern from one of my daughters pants and cut it out. Then I realized that Made has a tutorial for easy pants with elastic only in the back. Oh well, I will have to look at it when I make another pair of those pants.

So here it is, my two hour blessing outfit. Hopefully my brother will share a picture of baby Luke on it. and then pass it down so I can use it if I ever decide to have another baby. :)