Dear Daddy; A Letter

You've got mail!

This summer, in preparation for kindergarten (which starts in exactly 2 week, I realize while holding back tears), Grace has been practicing letter recognition and penmanship by writing letters.

Grace decides who she wants to write to and what she wants to say, while I dictate the spelling.

In this case, she decided she wanted to write to Riley. 

We don't discriminate when it comes to letter writing.  Even if, when we delivered the letter to Riley, she looked at us as if to ask, 'who me?'.

It's been interesting to see how her penmanship has evolved throughout the summer and how her personality comes across in what she wants to say and how she signs her name. 

Some days we struggle with who we should write to but when something like this arrives in the mail...

Grace has no doubts who she'll write to and what she needs to say.

 Seriously, how could he resist?

Watercolor Embroidered Mason Jars

With mason jar crafts and creations all the rage, I how have finally succumb to the craze...in my own way, through embroidery.

These watercolor embroidered mason jars were inspired by Cresendoh, you can see the full tutorial at their site.

I took their tutorial and made a few minor changes.  Where they stamped a mason jar onto fabric to act as a pattern, I hand drew my mason jar.

Into an embroidery hoop, I layered the following:  my hand drawn mason jar fabric followed by a layer of batting and finally another layer of white fabric.

*Using a stem stitch, I embroidered the mason jar.  I used dark brown embroidery thread for the jar, gray for the lid, red for the lab and dark brown for the word on the label. {These steps were not included in the tutorial by Cresendoh.}

When my embroidery was complete, I applied blue watercolor, using the technique described by Cresendoh.

After a few trials and errors, I decided to leave my mason jar untrimmed until I applied the watercolor and it fully dried.  I feel like it left the edge of the mason jar and batting beneath cleaner.

 

When completely dry, I cut my mason jar out, cutting around the embroidered stem stitch I made outlining the mason jar.

I applied no fray to the edge of the 'grace' jar.  No fray was not applied to the 'hope' jar and you can see, over time, some fraying did result.

Attach some floral wire to the top of the mason jar. 

And hang.

And, I am absolutely in love with the results. 

I hope you'll decide to make some of your own.

If you liked this tutorial, make sure to check out my 'Make a Wish' embroidery pattern and tutorial.

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I made a coat

After a year of procrastinating, I made Grace a coat.  

For a year, I've had a Heidi and Finn pattern for a swing coat that came with the following disclaimer:  all my patterns are great for those just starting to sew and all you need is a sewing machine - no fancy tools needed!

After a year of being intimidated, despite the disclaimer, I printed out the pattern.

Then, after month of looking at this printed pattern, taunting me, I finally bought some herringbone fabric I liked and I cut out the pattern pieces.

 

 

I let Grace pick out the lining for the inside of her coat, pink, of course.  She used the excess to decorate herself and the dog.  

I obviously overestimated how much lining I needed.

 

Things were going surprisingly well, until it came time to top stitch.

This is where my amateur sewing knowledge becomes really obvious.  I wanted the top of the coat to have black thread and the inside of the coat to have pink thread.

In a panic, I sent Jill from Sew a Fine Seam an email, explaining my problem.  She wrote back minutes later, hopefully not laughing too hard, telling me it was as easy as having the thread in my bobbin pink and the thread on the top of the machine black. 

Thank goodness for wonderful bloggers like Jill because I was able to finish my coat without throwing my sewing machine out the window :)

Believe it or not, despite having made a few pillows and on a fluke a fitted domed circus tent topper, this was my first experience making clothes. 

Are there flaws...yes.

But I don't think Grace noticed or cared.

As I proudly finished my coat, I pinned the following quote:

Don't be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try.

I am so glad I finally decided to try.