I'm Back!

So after Sister's party in March, my blogging stopped. My hubby and I decided to sell our home in California and move to Arizona. It has been a crazy and hectic few months, but we are settled and are in love with our new home and our new town! Once things settled down, I whipped out my sewing machine and settled in to do some serious sewing. Are you ready?!?!

Winter Wear Designs EBTKS Henley and FMA

Earlier this year, I agreed to participate in a Winter Wear Designs blog tour. And then life happened. Our family was hit with a horrible flu bug, then we decided to move to a new state so we had a house to fix up and sell, a new job to find, and a house to buy. During this crazy time, my machines and fabric were packed up and only recently did life slow down enough to get them back out.....and boy did I miss my sewing space! 

So, without further delay, here is my Winter Wear Designs Post! For the tour, I chose the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Henley and the Beep Beep FMA (Free Motion Applique) patterns.

Sewing for my little guy just seems to be a little extra tricky, cute girl patterns are everywhere, but boy patterns are just harder to find. When Winter Wear Designs released the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Henley (EBTKS), I was so excited! A shirt pattern perfect for my little guy with fun accent ideas! For Brother, I made one using the following: the slim option, long sleeve, and a functional V Henley. 

The pattern has clear written directions and color picture directions of the steps. Due to all of the different options, there is an index with the options and page numbers which helps eliminate extra scrolling. 

This pattern is so fun to plan and sew up! The only difficulty I had was with making the functional V Henley was that the woven fabric didn't have much stretch and I wasn't all that careful cutting the opening out of the main front (completely my fault!). But it was easily fixed with some hand stitching after the first wash. And a mental note to cute carefully so the pieces match up. 

For a little extra fun, I decided to try my hand at FMA. When I bought my new machine last year,  I also bought a free motion foot for my machine. This is only my second time using the foot, but boy did I have fun! My stitching is a little wonky, but it turned out cute and by the end my stitches were getting more under control.

The Beep Beep FMA Pattern was a perfect introduction to free motion applique. The steps are very clear and the color photographs illustrating the steps helped so much! I can't wait to make more designs!

Here are a few more action shots from our hike:

We went on vacation here once, on the drive home said, "wouldn't
it be fun to live here?" and hubby and I figured, why not?!?!
Hence the spontaneous move.

My little guy may be 3, but he is totally
my snuggle buddy!

His "binoculars" are always out
(and apparently always breaking).

A few months ago I made an EBTKS Henley for a friend's daughter. On this one, I did the faux v henley, 3/4 sleeves and sleeve tabs. Didn't it turn out sweet?