Charlee's Tutus

So some of our very dear friends are getting ready to have their second baby and it’s a girl this time, right now they just have the cutest little boy ever.  But because this was a girl it meant that I got to make something uber cute and pink. So I went off to Target to get some little girly essentials like a pink kitty cat hooded towel and while I was there I found these super cute pink leggings with ruffles on the bottom.  Well I also decided that Charlee (that’s the baby’s name) needed a tutu, but knowing how much of a pain it can be to put multiple layers on a baby I decided to attach the tutus to the pants and my Mom came up with the bows on the butts.  I think they are too cute!

Resolutions of a Sort

Hello Everyone!  Hope you had a great and wonderful holiday season.  I know mine was super hectic, what with birthday parties and Christmas and then Steve got sick over New Year's, but we're all healthy and doing well now.  The end of the year always gets me thinking about new beginnings and trying to better myself.  This year, a week or so before my 28th birthday I had a break down of sorts.  If you know me in person you know that I've struggled with my weight for the majority of my life and have had some weird body dis-morphia in thinking that I'm way bigger than I am, which causes me to get depressed and eat more, making me bigger than I was.  Well on this particular occasion we were getting ready to go out and I put my jeans on and realized that I had not only worn through the inner thighs, but I had worn through the patches I had made on the inner thighs.  I then tried on my smaller (size 18) pair of jeans and there was no way that I was going to be able to wear them.  I broke down and cried about how I'd completely let myself go and then had to pull myself together to re-patch my (only pair of size 20) jeans.  It made me realize that I really needed to change something.  I thought about doing a full detox but then Steve brought to my attention that every time I try to do something super drastic I don't follow through.  So I thought about it for a couple weeks, meanwhile starting to think about the foods and the portion sizes that I was putting in my body.  I finally decided that I needed to start running again and tracking my calories.  So I found an app (MyFitnessPal) to track my calories, started drinking a gallon of water a day again and started on the Couch to 5k program, which was going great until I misplaced my headphones, but I'm rectifying that today.  I have been walking and doing calisthenics 3 times a week and since that day in December I'm now down a total of 17.2 lbs from my starting weight of 254.8.  My clothes are fitting better and best of all I feel amazing.  I've been eating mostly fresh foods, and cooking at home almost exclusively, though we did go out last weekend, but I managed to stay within my calorie range every day.  I haven't really missed anything as I've made the decision that if I'm going to use calories for it, it better be the best, ie instead of a bigger bowl of diet ice cream I'll have a small bowl of gelato.  I also made the decision that since I have so many clothes down to a size 10 that I'm taking the Seamless Pledge, and I am not going to buy any new clothes until I reach my goal weight of 150.  I'm super excited about this, I can thrift for stuff and I'm not including under garments or shoes in this, I can't make those (yet).  So I'm hoping you'll be hearing more from me this year as I shrink.

 

14/28 Halfway There!

This is my halfway post!  I am posting my 14th item which was actually finished about a month ago. Bad blogger no cookie! I know, so anyway, this is a full circle skirt that I made using the formula from Casey's Elegant Musings which ended up making the waist a little big so I took it in about 4 inches total.  The only thing about this skirt is that when I wear it to work it makes it difficult to walk down the stairs.  I love it though!  It's flannel and cozy and feels like wearing pjs to work, but much cuter.  I am in love with maxi skirts and I want to make a bunch more, I think they are a great alternative to pants for the California fall and winter.

Sorry for the crappy pic:

13/28

I'm getting close to the half way mark in items, I'm gonna have to pick it up if I want to finish in just over a month.  But here is lucky item 13!  I refashioned one of Steve's shirts that shrank vertically, but was still the same width, have you ever noticed this happening?  Anyway, I cut the sleeves out, cut a seam down each side, put 2 darts in the front, took the whole thing in, sewed it back together, put 2 pleats in each sleeve and shortened the top and now I love it!  It's perfect for bumming around town in, not a big baggy t, but still comfy and cute.  And you can't go wrong with a Dropkick Murphy's shirt!

7/28

So for my 7th item I made was the Sorbetto Tank from Colette Patterns, it's a free download, so I'd go get it if I were you, cuz it's an awesome pattern and I want to make like 500 more.  I also used the sleeve pattern drafted by The Sew Weekly. I made it out of some white swiss dot I had laying around the house and it's too cute for words.  I think the next time I make it I'll make the sleeves a little narrower and I'd like to try making a 3/4 sleeve version too.  Also, I'd like to try it without the pleat in the middle and with some embellishment on the pleat and maybe with pin-tucks instead of the pleat.  See what I mean about this pattern?

5/28

So I finished this one a while back and I love it, I've been wearing it a lot.  This is item 5 of my 28 and it's the Jamie Dress from Sis Boom, it's super comfy and looks great.  I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than the fact that I want to make more, I didn't make any adjustments to this pattern, it fit like a glove and that made me happy!  Without further ado, here's the pics:

First Post

Hi Everyone!  Hopefully some of you followed me over from my old blog (The Knittings of Bree).  This is my new start November 1, 2010!  I'm going to be participating in NaBlaPoMo to get me started!  For my first post I'd like to post my Husband and my Halloween Costumes from this year.  The picture isn't great, but we went as 70's swingers.  You can see the outfits that I made from vintage patterns I got from my Grandma.  What's not in this pic is our swings, we like to be a little punny.  Hope you enjoy, I know we did!