Three Layer Chocolate Cake

For my mother's birthday, I baked her favorite chocolate cake. She tore the recipe out of a magazine many, many years ago and I just have a xerox of it, so I can't even say what magazine it was, but they called it "Hard-to-Resist Chocolate Supreme." She used to always make it for other people, so now it is nice to make it for her--second year in a row. Also, the frosting is especially delicious.

Glitter

Martha Stewart knows glitter. This year we made these stars out of mat board (from the December 2011 Martha Stewart Living). 

Pumpkin Place Cards

For Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house, I made pumpkin place cards based on this tutorial on Oh Happy Day.

Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress

I miraculously finished my Lonsdale Dress before the weather got cold, just barely in time for the wedding I was planning on wearing it to. As in, I hemmed it while wearing it on the car ride to the vineyard. (Here we are before getting in the car:)

This was definitely my most involved sewing project, mainly because I made two muslins, and lined it (and lining is not included in the pattern).

This is only the third thing I have made for myself, the first two being Built By Wendy Simplicity 3964 tops, with no alterations. I still love (and in many ways prefer) sewing for my kids, but it was nice to be doing this just for me.

Pomegranate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw a pomegranate at our local grocery store today, and I just couldn't escape trying Dana's double dark chocolate pomegranate cookies. Yum. Next time I might try all butter, but this time I followed her recipe. When I made bigger balls (heaping rounded tablespoon), they took 13 minutes to bake.

My Freshly Painted Desk

A long over due project that I finally got to this fall... painting my desk! This was my mom's desk, before it was my dad's desk, before it was my desk. My mom had painted it a cream color with "shabby chic" style green brush strokes over it as a graduate student. But the paint peeled off easily, was very old, and the desk was embarrassingly dirty, too. Maybe you can see all the finger prints on the drawers in the before pictures...

Princess Halloween Costume (Simplicity 2463)

Louisa picked her own pattern and her own fabric for her specially-requested princess costume.

Who can resist a pink and purple ombre organza with star sequins?!

I made view A of Simplicity 2463.

We got all the fabric from Jo-Ann, except the lining, which is a pink acetate from fabric.com that I had purchased for my Lonsdale dress lining, before I realized I wanted to stick with cotton. Acetate is kind of sickly smooth and slippery in its 100% synthetic-ness, but perfect for a princess costume.

The pattern was easy to follow. I'd say it ran a little big, even though I cut it according to her measurements. I made the size 3 and it will definitely still fit her next year.

I cut it a little longer than the 3 because she is tall (and her number-one request was that it go "all the way to my toes!") but it ended up being way too long even after I tacked up the hem and she was tripping on it some while we trick-or-treated.

My other change was to line the yoke (not just the bodice pieces) and skip the neck binding, as someone else had done on patternreview.com.

I think it would have looked nice with a contrast binding, however, because the pale pink disappeared a bit against her skin. But I am happy with it fully lined (I even under stitched the neck edge!) and I don't do a great job stitching in the ditch like the binding had called for.

I also left out the net ruffles. I had bought a bunch of purple netting and tulle, but it was a mess to work with, and since the skirt fabric was sheer, it wasn't going to look right. It's not as poofy as it could be, but she still loves it.

Some of these photos are from her Halloween Parade at school and some are from Halloween night. I hadn't finished sewing the jewels on the bodice for her preschool celebration.

I finished all the exposed seam with bias binding because acetate and organza just frays like crazy. Plus the binding looks nice around the sleeves since they are sheer. The skirt and skirt lining seams I did as french seams for the same reasons.

And just in case you were wondering, Leo was a doctor. His scrubs were a gift, and we had the requisite black clogs and fleece jacket already.

Halloween sure is a exhausting! Up late on a school night, candy for dinner, all her friends over here... phew! But the memories are fantastic.

Bucket Hat

This is the first time I've let Louisa pick her own fabric. Luckily her tastes aren't as expensive as mine (yet) and she chose this denim at Jo-Ann for her bucket hat from oliver + s's Little Things to Sew. (I own this adorable book but Liesl has made this particular pattern from it available as a PDF here.)

Yes, it has little silver butterflies on it reminiscent of puffy paint (in a good way?).

I added a neck strap that I had intended to cut and turn into ties, or to find a little draw-string-style end piece for.

Fact is, I never got that far because the hat doesn't quite fit right.

I made the biggest size (large, meant for 6 - 8 years ...she is 3) based on her head measurement and it is still snug (we are a big-headed breed). Also, I think the brim is a little too narrow. It doesn't quite keep enough sun off little noses.

I lined it with a scrap from an old Laura Ashley dress. The pattern makes the hat reversible, but I thought a strap would be more helpful.

This actually wasn't my first denim baby sun hat. Almost three years ago I made the hat seen on Leo below for Louisa from The Children's Year. My mother and sisters and I used to make projects from this book when I was a girl.

I made this one when I was still sewing on my grandmother's Singer Featherweight, and making the brim fit the hat was a challenge for me. My mom showed me how many pins you need to fit two circular pieces together. The hat doesn't stay on long without a chin strap, but I think it is adorable.

And proof that my babies have abnormally small heads... this hat seen above on a five month old Leo, is sized for a three year old.