Valentine's outfit

About a month ago, I bought some heart-themed Hello Kitty fabric with the idea of making E a special Valentine's outfit.  I had originally planned on a pillowcase dress or the like, but when I saw my friend, Chrystyna of Kenzie Kouture, making these adorable embroidered heart shirts for Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist ordering one for E.  Instead of a dress, I made a tiered ruffle skirt to match.  I absolutely love how this turned out!

This was also a great opportunity to use my new serger! I know, you're thinking "wait a second, didn't you already have a serger?"  Well, long story short, I sold the old serger because I never used it (and it sort of scared the crap out of me).  Then I realized I desperately needed one for the Great Ruffle Project, so I ended up getting a new one.  Thanks to some hand-holding by now I'm totally over my serger fear and LOVING it!

I was especially excited to try out a rolled hem with wooly nylon, although I had a bit of trouble with it and the bottom tier ended up being a bit shorter than I intended, especially on one side.  Oops.  I had originally intended to use the serger to gather the tiers too, but it didn't quite work out the way I wanted, so I ended up using the ruffler foot on my regular sewing machine instead.  I have to say, I absolutely love that thing!  It made sewing this skirt so quick & easy, and I ended up with pretty much perfect gathers for each tier.  I'm definitely going to make more of these in the future.

Here's a shot of just the skirt.

I usually put some kind of ribbon tag in the waistband to distinguish the front from the back. I couldn't resist using some Hello Kitty ribbon that my cousin gave me.

My love for HK has definitely rubbed off on my daughter.  E was very excited to wear this outfit to her school Valentine party today!  She also wore Hello Kitty socks and rain boots - she's very into matching too, haha!

I ended up whipping up another skirt or one of E's little friends too.  I'm thinking that with spring around the corner, snow notwithstanding, I may start selling these!

Bento madness

Or maybe this should be called Hello Kitty madness. I have to confess, I'm a bit of a hypocrite. I am normally against buying my kid "character" toys and other items (in particular, Disney princess stuff), but when it comes to Hello Kitty, all that goes out the window.

E starts preschool in a few weeks (she'll be going one day a week), and I may have gone a little bit overboard buying bento stuff for her lunch. To be fair though, the big pink box at bottom was given to me by my friend, Shannon. And the top three items (lunch bag, box, and ice pack) are all from Target's Dollar Spot.

So the overboard part really only applies to the red box and the extra silverware set (which is actually for everyday) I bought at the Asian grocery store yesterday. I really had to restrain myself there, and in fact, bought an extra HK box with the excuse that another friend might need it, which she did. I should have taken a picture yesterday, before I gave some duplicates of the Target stuff and the extra box to her. And maybe thrown in all the bento-making supplies that I've acquired over the last couple months. Then you'd really see the madness. Can you tell that I can't wait to start making cute lunches for E?

Hello New Hobby!

I went to a Mom's Night In tonight where I learned how to do appliqués! It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, but then, I picked something pretty simple, and I also did a tote bag instead of a t-shirt, so I got to skip a few steps. I did a Hello Kitty face on a black tote bag. It turned out pretty darn cute! I can't wait to make more stuff. I see lots of HK in my future. In fact, I may have to make a shirt for myself!

I'm definitely making another run to the fabric store tomorrow for supplies - only my 3rd trip this week. Hee!

Here's a closeup.