Blonde Ambition

So I have totally lagged on my blogging but life has been hectic with the holidays and moving. Here are the gifts I made for Christmas:

A quilt for my sister:A purse for hubby's cousin:

We are slowly putting the house together and I will be posting some pictures soon. When we moved out of our old house we got rid of almost everything so we have had to buy a lot of the essentials again. Last night we bought a new refrigerator so only a few more days of living off of take out!

Posted by Laura at 1:51 PM 2 comments

Labels: Sewing

I guess we are in a new stage of life because now instead of attending a wedding every other weekend, it's a baby shower. We attended a couples baby shower for some friends this past Sunday. Thankfully, this was a very mellow, non-lame couples shower.

Since they do not know what they are having, I made this unisex quilt. I decided to skip the typical yellow and green. The damask fabric makes it a little girly and the geometric fabric is a little more masculine.

Posted by Laura at 10:06 AM 0 comments

Labels: Sewing

I did it!! With moments to spare, I managed to finish my Halloween costume.

Posted by Laura at 2:51 PM 5 comments

Labels: Sewing

Being the chubby girl, Halloween costume shopping was a huge drag. I haven't even bothered with one for the last 5 years. Deep down I've always wanted to wear one of those fun sexy aka slutty costumes. Nothing super hoochie but just something with a short skirt and maybe a little cleavage. After losing weight, I decided this year would be the year. I began looking at costumes online back in August to get an idea of what was out there.

With all of the craziness that hubby's job situation has caused, Halloween has been the last thing on my mind lately. So on Tuesday, hubby suggested we go to the costume store. Biggest let down, ever. Everything was either extremely trashy looking or super expensive. Regardless of the fact that we are on a tight budget, I refuse to pay $75 for a handkerchief sized piece of fabric with some tulle underneath. So at that point I wanted to just spend my Halloween at home but we had already made plans. So at that point I just needed some sort of a costume. I didn't care for any of the regular costumes so I decided to be creative and figure out what I could come up with on my own. Some of my ideas were:

• Emo kid-I found these instructions online. Last week I bought some skinny jeans at Forever 21 so I knew I could wear those. But after reading item 3 "Wear skin tight clothes, regardless of how fat you are" I reminded myself that this is something I could have worn any year.



• Gossip Girl characters-I also found instructions on how to dress like Serena or Blair. My first choice would have been Blair. I love her headbands but as a blond, I don't think I could have pulled it off without a lot of people asking, "What are you?" As for being Serena, I am lacking the waifish figure and so I fear I might just look like I'm trying to dress "boho chic."

So this morning, frustrated and ready to just buy some animal ears to wear with my usual clothes, the thought occurred to me that I could sew a costume. I realize I only have one day but what's one all nighter in order to have a cute costume? I went to Walmart and found this pattern and decided on Little Red Riding Hood. I got all of the fabric, the zipper and the pattern for $33. The pattern looks similar enough to the dress I made this summer and my mom explained a few ways I can cut corners. So although it's completely crazy to take this on one night before Halloween, I'm excited! I figure blogging about it will be good motivation because I don't want the embarrassment of saying I gave up. Wish me luck!

Posted by Laura at 1:58 PM 3 comments

Labels: Sewing

I made this quilt for a friend's baby shower. She is a fellow dog lover so this was so much fun to make.

Posted by Laura at 1:36 PM 1 comments

Labels: Sewing

One of my favorite little kiddos (definitely my favorite little girl!) celebrate her sixth birthday today. Gosh it seems like yesterday she was a little baby...

Now, in the blink of an eye, she has become a full blown kid with a whole list of extracurricular activities. She is enrolled in two dance classes and when I was discussing her birthday gift with her fabulous mom, Mrs.D, she mentioned that she needed some sort of bag for her dance gear. She is a girl after my own heart and loves all things pink. Here is her new bag. It's a bit big for her now but is a good size for her gear and mom can tote it around. She'll grow into it :)

Posted by Laura at 10:05 PM 2 comments

Labels: Sewing

Here is one of the first pieces of clothing I've sewn. I made it to wear to our friends' 1 year old son's birthday party. The theme as you can tell was western. All I was missing was a pair of boots!



(My boobies are not that small, just suffocating. That is the joy of using a pattern. It's really just a guess as to what size you are.)

Posted by Laura at 4:09 PM 4 comments

Labels: Sewing

I made this quilt for our good friends who just had a beautiful baby boy. It was a lot of fun to make since I found such great fabrics to represent their style and I tried a new quilt style.

Posted by Laura at 9:34 AM 4 comments

Labels: Sewing

Even though I am pretty sure my mom doesn't even know what a blog is, I didn't want to post this until I had given it to her. We didn't get to celebrate Mother's day with my mom until this past weekend so I had some extra time to get her a gift. I sent her pictures of the dogs' overnight bag and she asked me if I would make her one some time. It was perfect timing since I only had half of her gift. This conversation took place on Wednesday so I knew I had time. My mom is like me and loves all things pink, plus her dog is a girl so I knew it had to be pink and girly. I went to Joann's and was really discouraged since all of the dog stuff was boyish and all of the girly fabric had cats on them. I finally found a fabric that would do but I wasn't super happy about it. It was cute but not as girly as I had hope. The next day, I went back hoping to find a good ribbon or something to make it cuter. I always browse through the sale fabric and lucky for me, I found the same fabric that I had used but pink and black. Even better, it was on sale for $3 a yard. I had only started cutting the other fabric so I hadn't put too much time into it. I figure use it to make her a quilt or something for her birthday.

Posted by Laura at 10:03 AM 2 comments

Labels: Sewing

This weekend I was in a sewing mood and during my last trip to Joann's I had picked out some fabric to make the doggies an overnight bag. I thought, they shouldn't have to settle for using whatever I can find (which was usually a cloth grocery bag), they deserve their own bag. I found this great tutorial online that was pretty easy to follow. The only thing was it says you need 1 yard of each fabric which is about 36x45 inches but for the straps you need to cut a strip that's 50 inches long. Not sure how you're expected to do that so my straps are much shorter than theirs. Even then, the inner side of my straps have a seam in the middle because I cut my straps last and had to make due with the remnants.
I also worked on my Valentine's day quilt and it's almost done. I know what you are thinking, I'm either 4 months late or 8 months early. Well both are true. After working hard on a quilt at Christmas time that wasn't done until around mid-January and seeing the fabric I paid a pretty penny for going for 70% off, I decided I'll make holiday quilts after the holiday so I can take my time and get the fabric at a bargain price. You don't even have to rush to the fabric store the day after the holiday, it usually stays for awhile. In fact, I didn't have fabric for the backing of the quilt and I figured I would just get some red gingham or something but last night while cruising the clearance rack at Joann's I found a Valentine's print for $2 a yard. I'm hoping it will be finished in the next few days. I'm sure you are all waiting anxiously (right?right?) so I'll post pictures as soon as I'm done.

Posted by Laura at 4:43 PM 4 comments

Labels: Sewing