I had so much fun with making the kids Valentine's outfits, I decided holiday/seasonal themed clothing would become a staple in our blog.

"What's that?" I told him it was a rock.

Then he turned to Boston and said, "Bubba, look a rock."

What was that mom... you want me to look and smile at the camera? Just way too hard.

Wonder who's in charge?

What have I learned about these photoshoots? Well that Ty will smile and look at the camera and Ryder will look confused and point out every rock, car and truck.

"Truck Mommy."

What is nearly as difficult as catching a Leprechaun? Trying to get a picture of a little boy in his Leprechaun outfit while he is playing at the park.

They were happy to be playing at the park, they didn't even realize they were the brightest thing out there.

We told them if they smiled they would get candy.

Price Tag of this Month's Sewing Adventure: $14 (this is for 3 complete outfits!)
$7 -  (6) 1/4 yrd of fabric (all the colors in the rainbow besides green)
$4 - 1 yard of Green remnant fabric
$1 - Tee Shirt
$2 - Bias Tape to finish the Dress
Want to know how we did it? Well here are some instructions, sorry there are no pictures but I don't have the time (reason why I have been up since 4:45 doing this post) to do picture tutorials but I tried to be as descriptive as possible in my instructions.
The Little Leprechaun Outfit
I used a pair of Ryder's sweatpants as a pattern. I folded them in half traced them and then added 5/8" to the sides for seam allowance. And then 1 1/4" inches to the top. To finish the top I folded the fabric over 1/4" and then another 1/2" and then ran my elastic through.
To make the rolled look on the shorts I made a very wide hem (something probably like 6-8 inches?), then I rolled the pant up to show part of the hem. Until the bottom of the shorts were just above the knee. Then I matched up my seams on the fold of the shorts with the seam on the upper part of the short and sewed on the seam ditch (this was done to keep the fold in place)
I used some heat bond to assist me in applique the bow tie on a white shirt. After I got it where I wanted it I just did a small zig zag stitch round and around, until I was satisfied with the results.
(I haven't written a tutorial for this technique because I am not really sure that I am doing this right and there are ton of great applique tutorials out there.)
Rainbow Dresses

Ty loves Boston so much good thing, there will be a baby coming to her house shortly. So that she has another baby to give attention to.

One day when I was sick with a cold, I decided to veg out on Nancy Zieman (aka Sewing with Nancy) sewing videos. One really caught my attention it was her pillow case dress made out of yardage.

After talking it through with Al, we decided this would make the perfect rainbow dress for Saint Patrick's day.

For the Dress for Ty (1 1/2yrs), we used (7) 5" strips of fabric and pieced them together with a 5/8" seam allowance. Using Nancy's Notions Pattern instructions we made a size 3 dress. The only adjustment to the her pattern I made was to only trim off 1/4" on the bottom with the serger and then did 1/2" hem. I serged all seams and each strip was top stitched at the top of the fabric strip. Our dress ended up a little longer than what was stated in the pattern but that is the way Al wanted it. Al has such a hard time finding dresses that are long enough so a long rainbow dress will be able to work for a couple of years.

I love those sweet little cheeks.

For the Dress for Boston (2 months), we used (7) 3" strips cut to a width of 30" and then pieced them together with a 5/8" seam allowance, with all edges finished with serger. I used the same 1/2" hem on her dress.
I loved Nancy's sewing trick to use bais tape and stitch in the ditch to create the ties on the dress (I think I am going to be using that trick from now on out).

I love Ryder's mischievous grin in this picture. That is totally my little man.

apparently we have had a serious lack of #2 pictures up lately, so here yah go. He really lives and loves at our house too. These are all from Jan or Feb.

When we were kids my mom always made Valentine's Day special for us. I remember one year one of my siblings (think it was Jo) got socks that had peppers and said "Hot Stuff". When I got in college then I was excited for the approach of Valentine's day because usually it meant some awesome addition to my closet.
I have tried to continue the tradition of making Valentine's day special for my kiddos, last year I blew up around 35 balloons and put them in Ryders room (which is 8' by 10') so that when he woke up from his nap he would be surrounded by balloons. I think we will be doing something similar to this again this year.
I wanted to be able to do something special for Boston but with her only being a month old besides the cuddling, changing diapers and feeding her there isn't a lot special I can do, so I decided to make it special for her I would whip up a dress for her perfect for the holiday of love. That project then turned into 3 projects. With the left over material from Boston's dress I made a three tiered skirt for her cousin and appliqued a faux tie onto a tee shirt for her brother. Here is the result:
Guess what? The Valentine's Dress-up clothes only cost......drum roll.......
$5 dollars. $3 dollars for the shirt that the applique was applied to and $2 dollars for the satin used for the dress and skirt. The Bright pink ribbon used on top of the skirt and used on the tie was material I just had on hand. And the cream on the skirt is scraps from Boston's blessing dress. The Tulle on Boston's dress was some that I had on hand from making her crib skirt.

This little girl loves her baby girl cousin.

What's harder than getting a picture of one kid in their outfit? Answer: Trying to get a picture of 3.

I decided to do a little photo shoot with the toddlers so that we could send some personalized Valentines to the Grandparents some personalized Valentines. I guess we could call these pictures "Valentine's Day Date"

What to do if you have a handsome Valentine's Day Date?

Go for a walk with him.

Give him your best smile.

If that doesn't work give him a goofy grin.

Now in a last ditch effort to save your date, just try to grab his hand.

After that if he runs away don't be afraid to chase him.

After all this work I am ready to go to bed. But I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day.

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