Happy Baby Girl Onesie

I embellished this pink onesie for Rosie's dance teacher Kyla who is having a baby in a few weeks. Rosie had specific ideas about what to make. Kyla is fabulous: full of energy, always smiling, and a very talented dancer. She always wears a smiley t-shirt for the recital and stands in the wings to remind the girls to have fun and smile. Rosie thought her new baby needed a special shirt to attend the recital in June.
I have to admit that I always feel flattered when my kids ask me to make something for them. This project went very quickly. I used yellow poly/cotton broadcloth for the applique and a layer of interfacing behind it for stability. I embroidered on water soluble stabilizer, which is fine because the applique fabric won't stretch. The design is from Embroidery Designs.com.

We got some little matching pants and I put the smiley up high so that the pants wouldn't cover it.
Rosie's teacher loved it! It will be fun to see the baby in it at the recital.

I'm linking to Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways.

American Girl Smocked Dress

Hello Friends! Today I am sharing a smocked bishop dress that I made for my daughter's American Girl doll Nellie. I remember smocking this dress in the waiting room at the hospital. My Hubby had to have surgery for kidney stones and I knew I'd be a wreck, so I pleated 2 doll bishops to work on while waiting. Luckily, Hubby was fine and I ended up finishing both dresses. The fabric is a blue floral cotton trimmed with Swiss embroidery. I just zigzagged the trim over the gathered fabric without cutting away behind it on the sleeves. It still looks good, but it's sturdier than the traditional method. The dress opens all the way down the back and closes with soft velcro, for ease in doll dressing. We like to set up displays with our AG dolls. I think this dress will be nice for a Spring display, despite the snow that fell here yesterday!

Cupcakes...made by Rosie

Rosie celebrated her 11th birthday with a rock climbing/ swimming party. She found this cute idea in a cookbook and thought it would be perfect to go with her theme. She made these on her own; I was at a quilt guild potluck, so she had the run of the kitchen. The cupcake above is the Rosie figure, but she made one for each kid at the party.

 Don't you love the candy bikinis? How about the tasty "donette" swim tubes?

Here's a picture of everyone. She spent about 5 hours making these, but it only took about 5 minutes to eat them! Training for future Thanksgiving dinners, perhaps?
After the party, 4 of my 5 kids (everyone except the baby) got strep throat. It has been quite a week! I'm trying to photograph some of my American Girl sewing to share with you. See you soon in Bloggerville.