A Frock By Friday

If you want a great picture tutorial for the Coffee Date Dress, check out this website! Personally, I NEED pictures when I sew. Enjoy!


A Frock By Friday

Coffee Date Dress

I made a new dress! Seriously, I have an addiction. I really love sewing right now and I really love clothes SO...the more dresses the merrier!

I found this FREE pattern online! Yes, FREE! You can't beat that! It is called the Coffee Date Dress. I printed off the pattern, taped all the pieces together and then cut out the pattern.

I actually revamped a botched twofer dress that was just NOT coming together. I made the top out of a men's button down short sleeve shirt. Then I altered the skirt pattern to work with the one I had already made. The whole dress came together really quickly. I made it over 2 days and wore it to church on Sunday.

The hardest part was installing the invisible zipper. GAH! I kept messing up. It really wasn't THAT hard to instal if I hadn't have sewn it in backwards, then once with the dress twisted (don't ask me how I accomplished THAT one), sewn over the zipper teeth, and who knows what else. I spent a lot of "quality" time with my ripper and reminding myself that I don't use foul language--and that this WAS the first zipper I installed. I'm sure the next one will take 15 minutes--instead of 2.5 hours.

If you want the pattern, click here Just scroll down a bit. This pattern is courtesy of The Selfish Seamstress.

If you want a good tutorial on how to install an invisible zipper, click here

Enjoy the pics!!!

90 Minute Shirt

A week or so ago, I made this little shirt for the boys. I found this awesome tutorial for the "90 minute shirt" here (BTW, I currently love the "MADE" blog. I stalk it daily. :)

Anyways, here are some pics of how the shirt turned out. I love it and it really was easy (after a bit of trail and error and some quality time with my stitch picker). The shirt is special too because I made it out of one of Poppie's old shirts.

Enjoy! And make your own 90 minute shirts! I plan on doing some more soon. Aaron willingly donated some of his old t-shirts for the project.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here is a super yummy (personally tweaked!) recipe that I have been making quite a bit lately. They are a great way to use up brown bananas.

The boys love them and so do I (even though I am usually not a big fan of banana bread)! The boys call these muffins "mups!" So cute! Enjoy! Let me know if you like them!

INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt OR flavored yogurt OR sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (1-2)
1/2-2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (if you make mini muffins, mini chocolate chips work wonderfully!)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.

In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt, milk and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or 12 min for mini muffins until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. ENJOY your MUPS!

Poppie

My grandfather, Charles Kenneth Arpke, passed away on Tuesday May 18th. He was the ripe old age of 88 and had been fading for a while but his passing still hurt quite a bit. Aaron and I packed up the boys, picked up my sister Kalina, her son Hunter, and my brother Kellan (who happened to be in Norfolk VA for an ROTC event), rented a huge SUV and drove down to FL. It was an adventure! The kids did really well (mostly) and the adults didn't kill them or each other. It was really nice to see my siblings but a sad circumstance to bring us together.

We got to Florida on Friday and saw my parents, uncles and grandmother, Nonnie. Nonnie and I just sat on the couch together and snuggled. She seemed alright but I know that having her family there was helping to ease (mask?) the pain of losing her husband of 60 years. She nursed him at home until the end.

I really missed Poppie when we got to the house. He would always say, "Hey Brit!" or "Hi there sweetie!" and give me a big hug and kiss. His memorial service was on Saturday at 1pm. It was nice service although we had to sit in the "cry room" at the back to the sanctuary with the boys because they were WILD! They were pretty good for most of the trip but they didn't get a nap at their normal time (most of the time not at all!) the whole time we were gone so my family didn't really see their best side but everyone understood.

In the past 4 years that Aaron and I have been married (4 years TODAY, actually) we have lost 4 grandparents between the two of us. Wow. I guess we are at that age where we are both creating life and saying goodbye to those we love too. I am so glad that because Aaron is from FL, I was able to spend a lot of time with my grandparents in the last 7 years. I know I appreciate my relationships with them so much more than I did when I was a kid. Poppie was a wonderful man and I miss him dearly.

Tiss and Snugs?

I wrote earlier this year about the cute way the boys say certain words, especially "kiss" (tiss!) and "snuggle/hug" (snugs!)

The other night the boys were NOT wanting to go to sleep. The kept crying and crying in their room. After numerous trips in there to talk to them and snuggle with them, we finally decided to get them up again. It was about 9pm and Aaron and I were watching Two and a Half Men on TV. The show is pretty funny but a bit off color in parts (probably why it is so funny!) and definitely not a kids show.

One of the characters was getting, shall we say, amorous with a lady friend in bed. Usually the boys are oblivious to non-kid shows on TV but lately, we have noticed how much they are noticing. Well, Micah, apparently was very in tune to the TV that night. He watched the couple on TV and said, "Tiss? Tiss? Tiss?" (There were lots of kisses on TV) Then he turned around and kissed me.

(I was thinking, "Our kids should probably not be watching this.")

Then, as the couple got more "friendly" (it was nothing super inappropriate, it was NBC, not MTV) Micah said, "Tiss! AND SNUGS?" Aaron and I just about died laughing, me with a red face and pricked conscience. Sweet little Micah just saw the couple being loving with lots of "tiss-es" and "snugs." This incident just showed us how much the boys are picking up these days. Parenting is a hilarious and humbling job!

Chew! Chew!

Like most 2 year olds learning to talk, the boys are repeating everything we say, especially common phrases like "be careful!" "What do you say?" and "Are you ok?"

We say this last phrase quite a bit, especially after the boys cough. The tend to cough quite a bit at dinner where there is a great temptation to stuff all of one's food in one's mouth at once. Of course, the result is coughing. After the familiar, "Are you ok?" the next command given is "Chew your food!" or simply "Chew! Chew!"

The other night Aaron was laying with Micah before he went to sleep. Aaron got a tickle in this throat and started coughing. Usually Micah, our sweet sensitive son, will ask, "Are you ok?" But this time he told Daddy, "Chew! Chew!!"

How to sew a Twofer dress- Take 2

I made another twofer dress! I made this one a little differently and it turned out so cute! I attempted to take some pictures showing "how" I made it. Enjoy! I am loving my new outfit!

First, I cut a "pattern" out of wrapping paper. I cut pockets for this dress! The long side of the pattern is placed on the fold. Cut two, but cut the back piece about 6-8 inches wider than the front.

After sewing the side with the pocket.

The pocket opening, right side out

I sewed pleats on the front of the skirt so that it fit the front of my waist and the pockets sat on my hips

Imagine this picture horizontally. I shirred the back of the skirt so that it fit snuggly but I could still get into the dress. This actually was some trial and error. I actually had to rip out the seam from the waist to top of the pocket so I could sew about 8 rows of shirring. Then I resewed the seam from the pocket to the waist.

Next, sew the shirt to the skirt. I tried it on before I did this and marked where I wanted the skirt to sit with tailors chalk. Then I safety pinned the two pieces together and sewed. Be sure to stretch the shirred part of the skirt to fit the shirt so that it is nice and stretchy and easy to get on and off.

I sewed a sash and then hand sewed it to the dress. This took a little while but it was worth it. I ended the hand sewing where the shirring started.

Here is how the sash looks in the back. I just untie it in order to get into/ out of the dress.

The finished product!

I paired it with my boots the first time I wore it and I got a lot of compliments. I love these dresses. I have plans to make a few more for the summer.

How to make a Twofer dress

Ug! I felt like I was drowning in grading and emailing students this week. So, that said, I either wanted to do one of two things: shop for new clothes, or sew something cute. Since money is a bit on the tight side, and I was feeling extra creative, I decided on the later. Enter the "twofer" dress!

What is a "twofer" dress, you ask? Well, it is dress that looks like a skirt and blouse combo. I am a daily (and I mean daily) stalker of modcloth and I drool over their dresses. I find the twofer dresses especially cute, but since I don't have $50+ bucks to shell out over every dress I crave, I decided to try and sew my own.

I made a quick trip to Joann's yesterday afternoon before class an picked out some fabrics that coordinated with a knit shirt from my closet. And JOY! Joann's was having a sale! I got my fabric (1.5 yard for the skirt and 1/2 yard for the belt) for only a little over $7! Add a few spools of thread (also on sale!) and some tailors chalk, my grand total for this project was $10.02!!! WOOT!

So, here is what I did. I first measured my waist and then the distance from my natural waist (where I wanted the skirt to sit) to my knee.

Then I made a really long belt (basically a long tube that I sewed, turned, and sewed the ends in a diagonal)

I then cut two rectangles of fabric for the skirt: width = 2 inches shorter than the circumference of my waist (26") and then the length = the distance from my waist to my knee (25" but I ended up shortening this a lot when I hemmed)

I hemmed the top of each skirt piece and then did eight rows of shirring (see last summer's blog on making an Easy Summer Dress) on each piece. I then sewed each the skirt pieces together (right sides together).

I then sewed the skirt to the shirt. This took a bit of creativity and help from my BFF Candace. She stretched the skirt for me while I safety pinned the shirt to the skirt. After sewing the shirt to the skirt, we hemmed the dress to right at the top of my knee (I just machine sewed the hem).

I tried on the dress and tied the belt in a big, sassy bow! The whole project took me about 3.5 hours and VOILA! Twofer dress! I love it!

A close of up the yummy fabrics! I love this color combo!

This dress is so comfortable! The shirring keeps it close to the body but it is easy to get on and off because of the stretch. I wore my dress today and got a lot of compliments. I have a brown shirt that is the same style as the tourquoise one and I think I am going to make another dress sometime soon!

Sex ed?

Tonight I was talking to the boys and having them repeat all of my siblings names. They were having a lot of fun saying "Chelsea!" "Amberley!" "Kalina!" "Baby Hunter!"

My sister Chelsea is pregnant so I decided to tell the boys. Here is Benji's response:

Me: Benji, there is a baby in Chelsea's tummy!

Benji: Ewwww! Yucky!

LOL. And so it begins....