Tiger Tails and Pleating

Here are the pictures of the quilt.. finally.
check out my homemade binding... yay!

Here is a little bubble I made for Sadie this past week... just finished it tonight...

1. While it is possible to make your own bias tape the same way you make blanket binding.. it's MUCH easier to either follow the proper directions found anywhere on how to make it, or BUY it!! The arm holes in this bubble are made from the same flannel backed satin (see #2) as the pocket and the homemade snap tape (see #4)

2. Flannel backed satin is the coolest material in the world.. the slick feel and awesome look of satin with a great no slip flannel back that helps the sewing machine from ruining the satin while making it harded to cause pulls if you mess up and have to pull stitches (and I did enough of that on this outfit that I would know... )

3. Pleating your own ribbon or trim takes a lot of time.. but in the end as long as you have a hot iron and plenty of pins, completely doable and fulfilling to know that you didn't have to buy yet another trim...

4. Snap tape should be purchased... NEVER homemade. I don't believe that I will EVER try to make my own again (well maybe not never, but at least not for a good while until I let this experience get swept back into the far corners of "mistakes I've made" in my brain...)

5. I can't stitch a smooth round to save my life. I don't care how well I pin it, or how slowly I sew it (I even tried to sew it manually by turning the needle knob myself...) I just can't get a smooth round edge.

6. I enjoy using different trims and fabrics together. Although I'm not sure what material the main is (I'd guess some sort of polyblend...) I'm loving the feel of it with the flannel backed satin and the grosgrain ribbon is a great added texture as well.

7. Grosgrain ribbon is not the best material to use to make elastic casings out of... it doesn't gather all that well and it's pretty hard to push the safety pin through in order to gather the leg holes. Yet again, what I get for not buying bias tape.
That's ALOT of lessons in one week if I do say so myself.. now if I can only learn from them before attempting my next baby Sadie outfit..

Ok so I have to end with a couple of pictures of the kids... Gavin took swimmning lessons for the last two weeks.. here he is swimming all by himself on the last day. We are sooo proud of how much he learned in a small amount of time!!!

And just for kicks there are two of Sadie... she also decided she liked to swim.. on her back with half her cheek in the water, but she kept leaning back trying to get more of her face in the water..


in case you're wondering.. I left her bow in her head because I wanted to be sure years from now that I could tell my kids apart... she is looking soooo much like Gavin did at that age, plus I forgot her suit at home so she was swimming in an old onesie of Gavin's.

Here she is in her patriotic garb complete with ribbon rosette I made that morning to match.

Next I'm going to work on learning to machine quilt... I'm really loving quilting!! But I don't think I want to have to send off all my quilts to be long arm quilted... plus that's expensive! So I think my first couple will be machine quilted at home whether by just stitching in the ditches or outlining my sections... I'm not sure I'm ready for freeform quilting, but I will be playing with it for sure!!