Today is my daughter's 5th birthday! Yay! To celebrate, we will be spending a fun-filled day at a local fair where there'll be lots of fun rides and animal friends to meet and pet. I'm not into birthday parties at all. I prefer to spend birthdays having quality family time. So since today is her birthday, I thought I'd share a project that is special to me. I created a photo album for my daughter that includes her actual baby clothes and pictures of her wearing those clothes! I wanted to created something special using her baby clothes, and I've seen lots of quilts made from baby clothes, but I'm not a quilter. And at the time I had only been sewing for a year, so making a quilt seemed intimidating, so I came up with this idea instead.

To create this massive cloth photo album, I used felt, yarn, photos of my daughter, vinyl, and some of my daughter's old baby clothes. I selected a few of her outfits and cut them up to fit onto a sheet of felt.  I sewed them onto the felt and used the left over fabric from the cut up clothes to make backgrounds for the photo pages.  The photo album features pictures of my daughter wearing the clothes that were cut up for this photo book. Now on to the pictures!

So... In less than a week, my daughter will turn five. I cannot believe that my baby is growing up on me! I mean, she'll go off to kindergarten next month! Whaaaat?!?! Anyhoo... So as a countdown to my daughter's birthday, I will share posts featuring items I've sewn for her over the years all month long. And today, I have ANOTHER pinafore dress. I promise this is the last one...

So the third pinafore I made for my daughter was an upcycle/refashion project.  My mother's neighbor gave me a few clothing items for my daughter, but they were size 4T.  She was just a baby, so it would be a long time before she could wear the dresses.  So once I figured out how to operate my sewing machine without sewing my fingers together, I decided to make these two dresses into something new.  This was my 1st refashion/upcycle project.  And I tried to make matching bloomers using the left over fabric from the two dresses, but I was having technical difficulties with my sewing machine, so I couldn't figure out why the thread kept bunching up under the fabric and why the machine kept eating the denim.  Anyhoo, I gave up on the bloomers and bought a cute pair of white shorts and a pair of hot pink shorts and decided the my daughter would wear the pinafore with shorts underneath. Again, I used the pinafore sewing pattern from Smashed Peas and Carrots.

In just 8 days, my daughter (my oldest kiddo) will turn five. I cannot believe it! The years are flying by so fast. And next month, she will go off to kindergarten. So as a countdown to my daughter's birthday, I will share posts featuring items I've sewn for her over the years all month long. Today, I'm sharing another reversible pinafore dress and matching diaper cover I made for her when she wasjust a baby. I found the pattern and tutorial for the pinafore dress at Smashed Peas and Carrots. For the diaper covers, I used a pattern available at Made.  The tutorial features great pictures that make it really easy for you to understand exactly what you're supposed to be doing.  This tutorial is great for beginners.

At the end of this month, my daughter (my oldest kiddo) will turn five. I cannot believe it! The years are flying by so fast. And next month, she will go off to kindergarten. So as a countdown to my daughter's birthday, I will share posts featuring items I've sewn for her over the years all month long. Today, I'm sharing a reversible pinafore dress and matching diaper covers I made for her when she was a baby.

I cannot believe that in ten days, my daughter will celebrate her 5th birthday! The years are flying by so fast. And next month, she will start kindergarten. So as a countdown to my daughter's birthday, I will share posts featuring items I've sewn for her over the years all month long. Today I'm sharing The Daddy Did My Hair Dress.

Have you ever seen something so stinkin' cute that it made you crack up laughing in the middle of a store?  Well, when I saw a onesie that read, "daddy did my hair,"  I was really tickled. I imagined my husband trying to do our daughter's hair... That would be interesting. Anyhoo, I bought the "daddy did my hair" onesie and two colorful bandanas. The onesie was size 18 months.

At the end of this month, my oldest child, my daughter will turn five. These years have flown by so fast. And next month, she will start kindergarten. I am still mentally preparing myself for that... So as a countdown to my daughter's birthday, I will share posts featuring items I've sewn for her over the years all month long. Today, I'm sharing a diaper cover I made for her to go with a pretty dress I bought her.

Bloomers...  I enjoy referring to my diaper covers as bloomers. Why?  Because bloomers is a funny sounding, old-fashioned word!  Anyway, my daughter and I ventured off to a Ross store in Jacksonville where I found an adorable pink, blue, and green dress. She had worn it a couple times when I realized that she needed a matching diaper cover.  She'd lift the dress up or crawl around, and I'd see her ugly diaper.  Ugh!  So, I searched through her old clothes and found a couple green onesies, a couple pink onesies, and a blue tunic with white flowers.  Although the onesies were way too small for her (size newborn & 3 months), the blue tunic was her size, but there was a bad stain on it, and the matching pants were really faded, so it was sacrificed for the sake of the bloomers. So here are some pics from my pink, green, and blue bloomers sewing adventure:

I've been refashioning the clothes that I just can't seem to let go, even though I haven't worn them in years... many years. Although I've made numerous trips to Goodwill and donated many large bags full of clothes, I still have so many clothes lingering around. Several years ago, I bought a black, purple, gray, and teal dress from Wet Seal. Wet Seal was one of my favorite stores when I was in my late teens and early 20s.  I think I may have worn the dress a few times with leggings, but eventually a whole developed near the collar. Thus, it became a house dress.  Since I still loved the fabric, I decided to refashion it into something for my daughter.  And what a process that was! Here are some pictures from my sewing adventure:

In 15 days, my daughter will turn 5! Where does the time go? So as a countdown to her birthday, all month long I'm sharing posts featuring clothes I've sewn for her over the years. So today I'm sharing a refashioned wrap dress I made for her when she was about two years old.

I have been known to be a bit of a shopaholic. Forever 21 used to be one of my favorite stores. When I like something, I REALLY like it.  So I often buy clothes that are the same, but in different colors.  A few years ago, I purchased two similar dresses in blue/gold and lilac/green.  I still really like the blue and gold dress, but I grew to really dislike the lilac and green dress.  I still liked the fabric, but the dress itself was stretched out at the top and I found it hard to accessorize. With the blue and gold dress, I'd wear a blue cropped short sleeved cardigan, blue sandals, gold leaf earrings, and a gold leaf necklace.  I'm also a clothes hoarder, so even after many Good Will donations, I still had some clothes that I just couldn't let go of, especially now that I sew.  So I decided to take the lilac and green dress, and turn it into a dress for my daughter.

To create this dress, I used the Snap Wrap Dress pattern & tutorial.  I followed the tutorial, but instead of using just one piece of fabric for the skirt portion of the dress, I used four patriotic fabrics to create a patchwork look. Then I made the sash to hold it all together!