Gingercake

A Love Affair: a Boy and his Dog

There is a love affair happening at our house.  The relationship between a boy and his dog is powerful and adorable.  Our puppy is now 7 months old and this is as close as Cal is getting to a brother...

That is a stalk from a brussel sprout plant from last year's garden they are playing with!  See all those soccer balls in the yard?  They even play soccer together.  These photos also show how lush spring is here and although the winter was long and awful, this spring is glorious!  Having a puppy at our house has been wonderful and terrible at the same time.  Here, on this blog of happy times, we only share the wonderful becuase that is how we want to remember things, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

KCW- Front Buttoned Smock

It's a sewing miracle that I participated in KCW!  I think KCW is a great idea and I love seeing all the clothes people make for their kids.  For some silly reason, I always have something else happening and I can't join in the fun.  But this year I am back...

I did another shirt from the Happy Homemade Sew Chic Kids book.  This one is called the Front-buttoned Smock.  Like the pull over parka, instructions are vague in the book, but the pattern pieces fit together beautifully and I love the finished shirt.

My middle daughter is really fun to sew for.  She loves everything and then she will always ham it up in our photo shoot.  

Actually sometimes it is hard to get her to just take regular shots so we often start taking about math class or how she did on the monkey bars during recess at school.  

Or, I have to make her sweep off the front walk!  She is a good sport though and always complies.  This is another reason that sewing for 8 year olds is awesome!  Did you read Monica's post today about a trying to get photos of her toddler?  So perfect!

I sewed this in size 8 (the largest size for this book).  I used a shirting fabric from the apparel section of Joann Fabrics.  It took a little less than a yard, which is always awesome although this fabric was 60'' wide.   When sewing for older kids, quilting cotton is just too bulky and stiff for their clothing and you really need to make the switch.  I can still get away with quilting weight for the baby though!

My buttons and placket are not perfect and I fretted a little about it.  But, in the end, I just finished the shirt even though it is flawed and it still looks great.  I love the sleeves and the pretty gathered neckline.  It is a little frilly but not too much- perfect for my easy going girl.  Thanks for getting me motivated KCW!

Flower Girls & Photos

Both of my sister in laws are doing photos every day over on Flickr.  Jenny has been doing photography for a long time and her captures are truly inspirational.  My younger sister in law Maureen is just starting out and she is showing lots of talent too!  She took the photo above and the one of Marion below.  These are both with my camera but my photos never turn out this good!

In other news, we are leaving for a family wedding in near San Francisco later today.  My stomach is in knots thinking about how I am going to deal with my very cute but extremely wiggly 9 month old on the plane for so long.  If you are flying to San Francisco from Pittsburgh today, I appologize in advance for the crying baby.  I am excited to see San Francisco though!  I have been working on the flower girl dresses...

The wedding is in a garden and the bride wanted to keep it natural.  She chose the orange linen and we worked on this style with some photos for inspiration.  I think they turned out really sweet and the girls feel so excited to be part of the wedding.

I made 8 of them and a matching bow tie and belt for Calvin since he is the ring bearer.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be~  especially with my new machine!  Wish me luck on that airplane!

Hello September!!

Boy oh Boy.  I can't remember the last time I went a whole month without blogging.  It's true that regular blogging brings on more blogging but now I feel like I have to make a huge long post to catch up.  But a small blog post is a start to get back in the groove so here we go!

We had a 2 week lake vacation which was wonderful.  I took lots of instagram pictures!  Here are a few...

It was so nice and relaxing.  A little colder than I would have liked but still a great time!  Hopefully more catching up later in the week!

Red Patchwork Bag Experiment

I made a cute new duffle bag for Anne out of my red scraps.  I have been interested in a camera experiment for awhile and I finally decided to try it out.  Here is the question: Can my iphone really take a photo of my sewn item that is as good as my DSLR camera?  I used the best light possible-on my front porch with indirect bright light.  I photographed on different days since the push for me to finally do this was that my battery died in my big camera.  SO... this is not really a perfect comparison but pretty good!

4S iphone version...

For both photos, I edited them in Photo Shop Elements.  I brightened the levels and shadows and did automatic sharpening.

Cannon Rebel DSLR with a 50mm lens...

Yes, the DSLR photo looks better but the iphone version is pretty good.  Good enough to get plenty of attention on facebook and instagram!  Here is the question- Do you need an expensive DSLR camera to successfully photograph your sewn creations?  What do you think?  I am thinking, for someone just beginning a handmade sewing business, you can get by with an iphone for awhile if you set up your photos with good lighting!

Insta who?

I finally figured out my instagram account! It is as fun as everyone says.  I admit that so far it is a lot of baby but I swear I will be sewing again soon!  Come and follow me at @gingercakesews.  

 

January Birthday Girl

Anne turned 7 last week.  I won't give my usual "time marches on" speech but I am feeling it.  She is a precious girl ~ happy and sweet and full of generosity.  She also has a new side to her that Travis and I are noticing.  Her big sister likes to be ready for the bus EARLY.  Like 20 minutes early.  This is not important to Anne and she is showing a strong aversion to being rushed.  She waits to put on her coat.  She lingers over hugs to the baby.  She slowly ties her shoes.  She wanders around looking for papers and books as the time gets closer.  This drives Elsie crazy and Anne knows it.  Anne has always just done whatever Elsie wants.  I try to smooth things over by reminding Elsie that there is plenty of time.  I don't enjoy seeing Elsie unhappy but I do like to seeing the middle child show her own determination (even though it is a little passive aggressive at this point).  A little backbone is always encouraged and this 7 year old has certainly got it!

We had a bowling party with the cousins.  So fun and easy!

Having an amazing photographer for a sister in law (and great friend) is such a blessing.  Thank you Jenny for taking these photos of the bowling experience and the birthday girl.  You captured it perfectly as usual.  Jenny is posting pictures on her blog daily right now and they are great inspiration.  Check it out for sure!

Happy Birthday my little sweet.

More About the Pom Pom Owl Purses

This weekend I am doing the Handmade Arcade again.  This will be my 4th time doing the show!  Before you think I am total nut doing a craft show only a few weeks after having a baby, I made all my stuff back in Septmeber and I am happily resisting the urge to sew a single other item before the show.  It feels so wierd to have a show in only 2 days and not doing any last minute stressy sewing.  When I say wierd, I mean it feels really great!

This time I made all my owl bags with pom poms for the show.  Remember this cute bag?  I worked out how to make it easier by tacking the pom poms on with steam a seam light.  This was great and made the process much faster.  You have to cut the steam a seam into sections to get around the curve.  Once the poms poms are attached, then you sew the 2 sides together and DO NOT trim your seams down.  The last time I trimmed my seams and ended up with several poms poms falling off and it's pretty tedious sewing those little suckers back on by hand.  

Also,  Vanessa let me preview her brilliant new photography ebook a couple of weeks ago.  I really recommend it to help you take photos of your sewn creations.  She talks quite a bit about staging and photo editing.  These tips are simple and useful!  To show some of the "behind the scenes" I took a picture of my staging to share with you...

I use the hooks for the towels in the bathroom.  The backdrop is the coat closet by my front door.  I open my front door to get better light (even though it was 27 degrees outside!).  This is my best location to get a wider shot of my creations even though the natural light is only mediocre. The first photo I lightened up in PSE and second I just did in my iphoto.  I had to really work on all those shadows!

Vanessa is giving away a copy of her ebook for sew mama sew giveaway day so head over to her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win!

 

 

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These Days...

The newborn baby days go by in a blur.  We sit on the couch together so much!  I am enjoying her so much.  My other 3 kids were born so close together it almost seems like I was a different person back then- dealing with a baby and 2 toddlers did not make for peaceful days on the couch.  Jenny took more beautiful pictures here.  This one is in the nursery with all my "stuff" around.

and guess what??  The newborn baby gowns fit beautifully.  That was a relief since I made like 6 of them!

In Progress and Taking Advice

 

This is going to be one awesome pattern if I ever get it done.  It has been over a year since I first made one of these.  I am wondering if it is too complicated but all the pictures are already taken and uploaded to my computer so I am going to move forward!  This afternoon begins the writing of the pattern.  A process that I love and hate at the same time since it is hard work but really satisfying to create a good pattern.

In other news, I participated in Jen's "try it" flickr group.  Cal was still in his PJs and the light was pretty meager but I figured I could just try since waiting for the sun to shine in January in Western PA could take weeks!  Also, I took Vanessa's advice and bought a fliter/ reflector that not only softens bright sunlight but also will reflect a little light to give a better affect.  The result was a great capture of my boy. 

He is "framed" by the table in the background and I used the reflector side to give extra light to his face.  I took about 50 pictures to try this out and this one was the first!  What have you been trying out lately? Jenny is going to do a series on this "try it" theme and I am looking forward to getting more tips!  Check out her flickr page to see how beautifully she photographs her children (and mine since they are her neices and nephew!)