We love Textures!

I've bought Textures clothing for Jo before, so I was delighted when they sent me a box of samples. It was really a treasure chest: skirts, dresses, pants, tops, and more. There was enough in there to give a few items to my niece as well. What a nice surprise!

One of the things I really like about the clothes is that they are perfect for play. Then you just throw them in the washer and dryer.

The sizing ran a little small...at least on my super tall 4 year old. The 4T clothing was too small for her, but she fit right into a 6.

My niece loved this skirt. She saw it even before I pulled it out of the box and said it was her favorite. 

Jo liked to show me the deer on her shirt. 

Don't mind the fading temporary tattoo on her leg. 

This kid! I think she and Jo look like sisters. Cousins!

I thought of Grace when I saw this tunic, and it turned out to be one of her faves as well. 

Thanks, Textures, for the clothes and the fun! 

Jo likes to cook.

I'll be honest, I don't like cooking and I don't spend much time in the kitchen. Nick, on the other hand, loves to cook. Plus he's good at it, which is nice for me. It's true that Jo often refers to our kitchen as "Papa's kitchen." Yep.

Last year we asked my sister's father-in-law to build us a custom play kitchen for Jo. We wanted one that was great quality and we wanted to support Bob's Workshop as a small business. And we couldn't be happier with what we got. Take a look.

I love the attention to detail. The stove top dials actually spin. You can't see it in the pictures, but the oven rack also rolls out.

And the faucet turns as well.

I'm thinking at some point I'll add some shelves to this side for a little extra kitchen storage. We were also thinking we could paint it to match Jo's play space...that hasn't happened yet.

Jo loves this kitchen! And yes, she's wearing a skeleton shirt that happens to be a pajama top and a summer sunbonnet.

Cook cook cook.

Stir stir stir.

The sink is perfect for little hands.

And for giving little animals a bath.

All clean!

Thanks, Bob! We love this kitchen!

Another way to use up scraps -- The reusable face round

One of the things I make and sell in our Etsy shop is nursing pads. Some call them breast pads. Sometimes people think they are coasters (which they totally could be). Jo likes to throw them around like frisbies. They look like this:

Last week I was visiting my good friend, Megan, in Michigan, and she had what looked like reusable face rounds. I asked her about them, and they were, in fact, reusable face rounds that she had purchased on Etsy. 

Now I use disposable cotton face rounds every day for removing make-up, applying toner, taking off nail polish...you get the point. It's kind of expensive to keep buying them only to throw them away. So I whipped up some reusable rounds for myself!

You could probably do it too! All you need is cotton flannel. Some people on Etsy use different materials like terry cloth or organic cottons, but I had regular cotton flannel lying around so I just used that.

Cut out circles in the size that you want. I made two sizes. The smaller ones are about the same size as the disposable rounds I used to buy (about 2" in diameter). This size is great for taking off eye makeup. The larger ones are closer to 4" in diameter (about the size of the nursing pads I make). I like to use this size for removing facial cleansers like Cetaphil.

Take two layers of the fabric and stitch them together. I serged mine together so the ends wouldn't fray. If you don't have a serger, you could also zig zag around the edge. That does the same thing.

Voila! Ta-da! Hooray!

You can wash these as many times as you want. Just put them in a little laundry bag before you throw them in the washer. It helps them last longer.

News! News! News!

This spring (if you can call it that) has been busy. Maybe since we've been hibernating due to the cold cold weather.

The big news is that Lilla Barn Clothing now has a website! Don't worry, we still have our Etsy shop, but the inventory will change slightly.

Our Etsy shop will continue to have the same great items for babies, toddlers, and more but will focus on one-of-a-kind items as well as limited run items (when I have a small amount of fabric)...like these pants.

Lillabarn.com will be featuring our new seasonal lines as well as a few premium items...like this new skirt.

Yay!

Ugly Fabric

I accidentally bought this really ugly fabric a while ago. It was an online purchase and it didn't look like this on my computer screen. Gross. What to do? What to do?

Jo wasn't a fan either.

It just so happened that I was experimenting with patterns and didn't have any tracing paper. Sooooo, I used my new ugly fabric to piece together a pattern. Another plus, the ugly fabric pattern doesn't shift around like a paper pattern does when I was cutting out my actual fabric. I consider that a win!

Using up scrap fabric

I'm big into using up fabric scraps lately. And I wanted to make a present for Jo for Christmas. So how about a memory game?

The game was pretty easy to put together. Just a little time consuming with all the cutting. And I lined each square with interfacing, flipped them right-side-out, and then top-stitched.

Then I stitched up a little bag to hold all the squares and voila!

She's still a little young for the game, but is having fun figuring it out.

It's a new year!

Happy 2014, everyone! It's a brand new year and it's going to be awesome!

I've been doing a lot of fun sewing lately including most of the Christmas presents I gave to friends and family. Here are a few of the things that I made for my mama (whose pot holders are holy and falling apart).

For my pot holders I started with this tutorial from My Girl Thursday. I actually used Insul-Bright for my batting, but I also bought some plain cotton batting that I'd like to play around with as well.

If you've got fabric scraps and just can't bear to throw them away (like me), this is a great project. Plus it's super fun to put different print combinations together. Mix and match! Go a little crazy!

Add these little pot holders to the new pots and pans we gave my mama and she's ready to cook!