Doll Sewing

I think I just about have my toddler put to sleep here. But, I am just going to hold her for awhile to make sure. It sure is hard to get her to take regular naps with all of her sisters home for the summer.  Eventually she just crashes. About 5 second before I started typing I felt her head go limp against my arm. She is pretty snuggly right now. :)

Anyway, when I was on a blogging break, I did a lot of doll sewing. The girls had so many projects waiting for me to do and as soon as I closed the shop I was expected to jump on it!

This outfit was a prototype for THIS dress and the leggings were made from a thrifted T shirt. (Hannah had a pair of leggings made with the rest of the shirt and these were the scraps.)

This dress was made from two different shirts using the Salina Dress pattern and I even attempted a flat felled seam in the front. I was pretty proud of how crisp that turned out! I also changed it to a slight high-low hem to use the original shirt.

My 9yo, Isabelle, finally got her new apron- I will have to show you that sometime- and I made a matching apron for her doll!

My niece got an apron and oven mitts for her doll, too. I used THIS pattern.

Isabelle made herself a nightgown last year with this flannel she chose. The doll dress was half finished on my sewing table for a long time and I just gave up and finished it for her. Procrastination might be an inherited trait. ;) It is just a peasant dress with a ruffle on the bottom.

She really does like to help me sew. She helped quite a bit with this assortment of doll clothes for charity. The Oliver & S Popover dress was an easy one! I extend the top up an inch or so and just use bias tape instead of adding a yoke. I like to sew in a bit of lace in the front. Isabelle likes to sew the side seams.

I also made some Twirly Lace dresses. That really is an easy pattern!

My 2yo niece got a doll diaper bag set for her birthday. The wipes are just squares of flannel in a tissue cozy. Isabelle sewed that, too.

Now, the big project I am working on right now- well, one of them- is bedding for my 7yo's doll bunk bed. It was her Christmas gift, and part of that included choosing the fabric for the bedding. Worst fabric shopping trip ever. Honestly, that is saying a lot with my girls' track record lately. I made the sheets and pillowcases, but now I am working on quilts. I couldn't just go with simple. It will take awhile.

Well, noisy sisters ended that nap! Ugh. I was done with the post, so at least it was good timing.

I think that catches us up on the doll sewing things around here. I love seeing what other people make, so I hope this may be inspiring to others. Maybe it will give you some ideas for sewing with kids. Even noisy big sisters.

Doll Diapers and Dresses

Today I have a very special guest post. This summer the girls and I have been doing a lot of craft projects. I am trying to keep them busy so that they don't find their own ways to entertain themselves. As I mentioned before, one of my tactics for making my daughters dread Joann's Fabric Store less is to allow them to choose a fat quarter when they are on sale. My daughter, Halley, and I used some of them to make doll diapers and dresses. I let her use my camera to photograph them and now she is going to tell you a little more about them while I bake cupcakes with her sister and make lunch...

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Hi, I'm Halley! My mom and I made dresses and diapers for my Baby Alive doll, Mandy Grace. The outside of the diapers are made out of fat quarters from Joann's Fabric Store. The inside is made of flannel scraps.We used velcro to attach the flaps to the front of the diaper, and a little strip of elastic in the back so they don't fall off of the doll. 

Here are all of the diapers we made.

Here is the  reversible dress, along with the matching diaper we made out the leftover fabric. We used a tiny bit of other fabric to cut out a little heart and sew on. We also used a little bias tape leftover from my Sunrise Dress.

Here  is the other side of the reversible dress  made out of the same fabric as the heart on the other side of this dress.

We also made a Reversible criss-cross dress that matches two of the diapers we made. The pattern was no longer available. They did have picture of the pattern, though! Unfortunately it was taken at a weird angle. So my mom drew a picture of the pattern. It worked, but unfortunately it was a little too big for Mandy.

Here is the other side. We didn't use velcro, instead we used snaps. Let's just say my mom isn't too experienced with snaps. She had to rip them out a couple of times.

Well, that about sums it up.Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first ever post!

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Thank you, Halley! Yes, she is brutally honest. ;) I did make some adjustments to my pattern and I have it all worked out now, so I will probably make more of the criss-cross dresses. 

Baked Zucchini Gratin

I can't believe I haven't shared one of my FAVORITE zucchini recipes on the blog before! Baked zucchini gratin is one of the first zucchini dishes I ever tried. Yum...

 

Slice zucchini about 1/4" thick or less and layer in a baking pan. You can also throw some sliced onion in there, but I usually don't cause some people (i.e. myself) are picky. This time I was using yellow zucchini (peeled- see last sentence) and I sliced it with my food processor.

Melt a half stick of butter and drizzle that goodness all over the zucchini.

Spread shredded mozzarella over the zucchini.

Melt the other half stick of butter and stir in bread crumbs and grated Parmesan.

Sprinkle it on top of the zucchini and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until you can stab the zucchini with a fork and it is tender.

This stuff is so good!

 

Baked Zucchini Gratin

 

4 c. sliced zucchini

1 medium onion, sliced thin (optional)

1 stick butter, divided

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1/2 cups plain, dry bread crumbs

1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese

 

In a 9 x 13 baking pan, layer onion and zucchini slices. Melt 1/2 stick of butter and drizzle over zucchini. Top with mozzarella. Melt remaining butter and mix in bread crumbs and Parmesan. Sprinkle evenly over the top of mozzarella layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Our zucchini plants are going crazy, so I am always trying new zucchini recipes. Here are some other ones I have posted in the past:

Zucchini Alfredo	Zucchini Crab Cakes	Zucchini Pie
Zucchini Bread	Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Pinterest Recipes ~ Tested and Approved

I LOVE PINTEREST!

When I am menu planning, I like to look for new recipes on Pinterest. I never know if they are going to be good or not, so I like to hear from other people that they have tried it and liked it. So, I thought I would share some of the recent recipes I have tried and liked!

Last night I made grilled honey mustard chicken (I didn't have dijon and had to use regular mustard) and it was great! (Well, to be honest, the grill ran out of gas and it took a lot longer to make than it should have, but that was not the fault of the recipe. #keepingitreal)

I also made creamy potatoes and peas. We have a few peas in our garden so I thought this would be a nice recipe to try. I added bacon as one commenter suggested, but you couldn't really taste it, so I felt like it was wasted bacon.

Other things I have tried and loved...

Pioneer Woman's Cheesy Cauliflower Soup. This was awesome! I usually make soup on Thursday nights during the fall and winter. I think this is a nice, lighter alternative to potato soup.

Skinny Turkey and Wild Rice Soup. We raised our own turkeys last year- one of them was 30 pounds! The others were 17-27 pounds and I had to get creative with the leftovers. This soup was the ticket! I have even frozen it- we ate some yesterday for lunch. I don't usually add the half-and-half. Sometimes I add a little milk, but it doesn't need it because it is already creamy and delicious!

Monte Cristo Sandwiches. If we have ham lunchmeat, this is one of my go-to-last-minute suppers. I had never even heard of these sandwiches before, but we love them!

Taste of Home's 40-minute Hamburger Buns. I made these a few weeks ago when we wanted burgers but didn't have buns. I usually do pretzel buns, but I was in the mood to try something new. I did let mine rise a little longer- maybe a half hour or so. They turned out great! Not too dense, which I was worried about with less rising time.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? I would love to hear about it! I can also add you to my Pinterest Check-Offs board if you send me your e-mail address. :)

Unicorn Doll Quilt

Well, I kinda' had a quilt finish this year.

You see, I will let my girls pick out fat quarters at Joann's when they are on sale. Let me remind everyone that fabric shopping with 5 girls in tow is NOT fun- for me, them, and the store employees. Recently, Grace picked out this one with unicorns and hearts in pink and purple. I mean, what is not to love for a (then) 3yo girl? She soon insisted that her pink cheetah (which had been confiscated) was cold and needed a quilt. Well, I was in the mood to play along and sew something quick and easy.

I had some quilt blocks, border fabric, and binding left over from quilt I made between 2006-2011. (You might be able to spot some of them on my quilt page HERE.) So, I give myself bonus points for using up old scraps. :)

I just pieced the simple 4-patch blocks together, added a border, quilted diagonals, and bound it.

Grace didn't like the quilting on it because it was visible on the unicorn side. Too bad.

Then, my 7yo took some pictures for me after the leopard and cheetah were reunited with their new quilt. 

Happy kids + Very old scraps used up = Success.