During dinner Julia whispered in my ear, "I want you to make me a dolly tonight." Nuff said. A shortage of muslin in my new sewing case meant I needed to head to the fabric shop anyway, and I told her she could pick out a fat-quarter for the dolly clothes. Much to my surprise she chose a stark white fabric with stark white stripes. I wondered for a minute about what that says about her psychological development, but really I mostly just thought about making another doll.
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She stood beside me for most of the process, and insisted that the doll's eyes be red. We compromised on closed eyes with red lashes, decreasing the creepy factor and increasing my suspicions that she's always going to be 'edgy' and I love that about her.
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The dolly turned out pretty cute though her head was a bit lopsided. J named her Shelly.
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PS - The GIVEAWAY ends tomorrow night at midnight, or whenever I go to bed, I'm sure it will be midnight somewhere.

Remember that annoying thing I do where I keep mentioning that I should learn how to sew but never do? Welp my friends. I learnt me some sewing this weekend! No more lamenting the lack of lessons, they have arrived.
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My (patient and awesome) mother-in-law spent Saturday morning teaching me to thread the machine, run the pedal thingy-ma-bobber and other necessary skills I would be needing in my doll and snack sack making endeavors.

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[It should be noted that this was only possible because my likewise awesome parents took the girls for a Friday night/Saturday day o' fun with the girls. Which left me with a solid night's sleep and a morning of nothing to do except learn a new skill - and it was glorious.]

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As evidenced above, I took full advantage of my new-found pass-time...making four dolls, eleven snack sacks (which are crazy easy to make and SO fun, too... won't they be adorable in the girls lunch bags!?!), and I made the Pussy Willow Branches too for kicks (also EASY and also cute, even B thought they were "pretty cool looking").

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Brandon pointed out to me that no family needs eleven reusable snack sacks. Probably true.
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So - to celebrate my sewing abilities - I am doing a GIVEAWAY
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Just leave a comment below, and you could be randomly selected for the three snack sacks above. Blue fabric with colorful fruit, brown polka dots, and green floral patterns. Super cute, I think your snacks will agree.
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Hope you win!
[Be sure you leave an email, so I can reach you if you win!]
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I'll announce the winner Friday morning, so be sure to enter by Thursday night.

I knew as soon as I showed my mother-in-law the Long Thread's Little House Pouch tutorial she'd be game to make one (or two).

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We used all scrap fabric, and let Carolyn pick out her colors (if you can't tell). The shimmery teal door was her favorite, but I have to say J's more realistic and less-flashy pouch is my favorite.

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Then I asked Brandon to photograph them so I could share and he and Carolyn got a creative with the photo shoot - she had to find a sun prop and a tree to go along with the Polly's who will now live in these pouches as they travel to-and-fro.

B's grandma loved to paint, I suppose before there was blogging and email and Oprah, and twitter that is what mothers did as the afternoon wore on and their hands were looking for something to do (besides the obvious, housework). This weekend my mother-in-law brought out these eggs her mother had painted, aren't they pretty? There's something about their dainty detail and the fact that the hands of a loved-one created them.

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So my mother-in-law (a.k.a. sewing instructor) and I embarked on our own little egg project. Our media of choice being fabric, "thirties fabric" to be exact, leftover from J's baby bedding. They went together quickly and turned out very sweet.

From this pattern Retro Mama designed, too fun, super easy, very cute.

The sewing lessons are paying off. My hands {helped} to make this. Honestly I spent quite a bit of time with a baby on my hip just observing. But I'm pretty certain if the baby wasn't around, and if my instructor {read: mother-in-law} was right there the entire time...I might be able to do this again all by myself...or at least 80% of it.