[everywhere]

I haven't been around for awhile (not even lurking ) but I wanted to share my latest project.
My cousin is having her first baby in June and I made this baby bag for her and dad.  The baby shower is this weekend and I am so proud of myself for being done ahead of schedule.
I used simplicity pattern 2924 (a good number of pockets without being HUGE) and some Alexander Henry Fabric.  The fabric isn't exactly babyish, but it is my cousin and her man-ish, and since they are the ones carrying it around, why not? Right?
So, here we go.
Here it is hanging from my new (and therefore clean for all you germphobes out there) longboard.

The back, so happy the pocket almost lined up

The inside

And with the customized changing pad


I will say that the changing pad may have been the hardest part out of everything.  Not only did the clear vinyl that covers the top slide everywhere but the terry cloth was shedding everywhere and I used flannel bias tape for the edges which only made it worse.  In the end everything held together and I like the way it turned out, but not without a few swear words muttered under my breath.
TADA!

I think this is in the right place.

Backstory:
So, ever since I was a little girl, my mother has had two Christmas trees.  On top of each tree was a tree angel.  One of those tree angels is one my mother has had FOREVER and one is one that my grandmother gave me when I was a little girl. Well, last year my mother felt that my brother and I were finally adult enough to have the massive amounts of christmas decor that she had collected for both of us since we were children to keep at our respective homes.  However, this left my mom one tree angel short, and since this is the frist Christmas for her that both my brother and I are out of the house, I thought I would buy her a new tree angel.  Well, all of the angels I found were... hideous.  I don't do fiber-optic tree angels, sorry. So then I was going to make her one... but I think I would still be working on it if that had happened.  So I did the next best thing.  I found one with pretty wings and a pretty face and remade her dress and other decor. 
On to the pictures!!
This is pre-makeover angel:

Notice the nice wings, peaceful face, but unfortunate dress, and what exactly is she holding???
In progress angel:

Plastic bags and a business card to protect her wings

Letting the hemdown and changing the underskirt.  I also changed her collar, and waist line to be less "gold"
Finished Angel:

With banner that reads "God Bless This Family" and *removeable* holly crown (I wasn't sure if i liked it, so I let my mom decide).  There are also some lacey flowers sewn to the underskirt and a holly garland running through her hands behind the banner.

All in all, it was success.  She cried and smiled and then cried some more.  It's going to be one of those Christmases 

I made this for my best friends first child (my god daughter) a WHILE ago.  It was a pain the butt because it included a bunch of things I had never done before, however, now my friend has her first family 'heirloom' and both her daughters have since been baptized in it. 
AND, just to toot my own horn for a second, I won "Best in Show" at the county fair for this gown (which means I won a big ribbon and a gift card to Safeway,  )
To the pictures!!!

This is Cecilia (daughter number two) in the gown.  It doesn't show the detail very well, but it does give an idea of the length.  The gown is an under'skirt' and over dress.  (Both are actually dresses)

Here she is modeling it.  Relishing the attention and posing nicely.  The collar looks a little weird here, but I assure you, it is not, because I took it apart and re-sewed it about half a dozen times.  This shows the texture of the fabric nicely and the lace around the sleeves, collar and bodice (ooooo, flowers)

I (my mother actually, I am no good at free hand embroidery) had the girls names embroidered on the underskirt, and there is plenty of room for future siblings.

Final action shot!  You can almost see here that the bottom has four tiers of different lace on it (Two on the dress, two on the underskirt).  I also washed the fabric a few times before sewing it to make sure it was extra soft for sensitive baby skin.  The back has a button closure to allow room for bigger babies.
Whew!  Thats it. Comments welcome

I painted this using a matte and a high gloss finish in the same color.  It has a tree on the left in the foreground and a cityscape off in the distance.  (Please disregard the beer bottle in the corner, it's not open, I like the label!!)  Sorry for the poor image quality, it's kind of difficult to take a picture of this kind of painting sometimes.

Click to make it bigger!

I made this jacket a while ago from a tapestry remnant I bought at JoAnne's.  It's a really nice, heavy, brown and maroon verigated(sp?) fabric.
It's a little mushed from being in the squishes of my closet for a few months.  I used a Vogue pattern that was absolutely awful, but I worked it out.  My machine fought me all the way, too.  It's not used to that heavy a material!!  I'm really happy about how it turned out though.

So this is my before monstrosity.  How dry.


And here is the after.  My thought was that it was kind of like looking at a house from the outside while a party was happening.  It made the house more alive, and that is what I was going for.  I used crystals as the stars and on some of the larger music notes.  I tried to use the original scape of the picture so that it stayed 'reconstructed' rather than completely new.

You can click on the images to make them larger.