Happy Birthday to my little girl, actually the first of my 3 girls.  Theresa turned 6 yesterday.  Though the weather was yucky wet, we made the most of it with all kinds of stuff to celebrate her birthday.

Her first request was for a Sponge Bob cake.  I made her brother a cake for his birthday, and she told me then she wanted Sponge Bob for hers.

I drew it looking at a picture from the balloon we got her.

Since we weren't planning on a big birthday party we decided to bring in snacks at school to celebrate.  Theresa also asked me to make for each of her classmates a crayon roll.  I made one for my son the other day out of extra fabric from another project and she wanted one too.  So I did, 29 of them, as that's how many are in her class.

Here's a sample of one:
And all rolled up:

Stay tuned, I'll be putting up a tutorial this weekend to celebrate Easter.

Happy Birthday Theresa!Pin It

I'm not Irish, just married into it.  But the week of St. Patrick's Day I won 2 online giveaways - Wow!  Not just one but 2 all in the same week.  So I blame it on Irish luck!

The first was Where Women Create's Fabulous Friday Giveaway featuring Bari J's new fabric line and patterns.  I was just eyeing her patterns and fabric recently.  So I entered the giveaway, and I get an email to contact them - I won!!  Here's what I got:

All 4 of her new patterns, 2 pieces of her fabric, and a personal Congratulatory note - Love it!  I love the handwritten note - it's like a fabricaholic getting an autograph from a celebrity.  No I'm not going to be a stalker, but I do follow her on Twitter!  So now I have to finish the girls' Easter dresses and a couple of custom orders and I can get started with trying out her patterns!

And that same week, The Fat Quarter Shop, another of my favorite places to shop - check out their clubs - had a giveaway for Joel Dewberry's newest line - Modern Meadow.  I saw a preview a while back and loved the Cool Stream colorway.  So when this contest came about all I had to do was comment on my favorite colorway, easy enough, and I was entered.  Well, I saw the followup blog and my name was next to the Cool Stream, another Wow!  I won a fat quarter of each fabric in the Cool Stream colorway.
There's so much in there I don't know where to start!  I can make a couple of purses, maybe a cute strip skirt, maybe a quilt, haven't decided yet.  But it's mine, all mine!

So I have to thank my husband for the Irish luck.  I did play the lottery hoping for third time's the charm sort of thing but didn't win.  Oh well, these 2 wins were like winning the lottery for me.Pin It

OK Patty, nothing weird here but I'm so smitten by your fabrics and patterns I had to say it.  Looking forward to your twitter response, LOL!!

This weekend I finally got enough nerve to cut into Patty Young's Flora & Fauna fabric.  I hate cutting into fabric I love but this time I needed to do it.  I wanted to make Theresa a dress.  She's my oldest daughter and I'm at the point where I don't have tons of clothes in her size stashed away.  Plus, I plan on making her and her sister's Easter dresses so I needed to practice.

So I decided on Patty Young's Frida dress pattern.  Why?  Well, one of my favorite online shops, Above All Fabric sells the patterns and fabrics as a kit.  And I bought a bunch so I could try it out.  I also thought the Frida style would be cute as an Easter dress using the eyelet fabric I've been holding onto for this project.

So this past weekend I started it and in less than 24 hours I had a gorgeous dress that I, my husband and Theresa especially loved!

It was so easy, very well written and the fabric choices from Above All Fabric was perfect.  And I have to say, that kit was overly generous.  I ordered a size 6 but I got more fabric than I needed (as Melanie told me, it's to make sure there's enough if I wanted to make the style that calls for the most fabric and use it also for the lining) that I could probably use the rest for another size 2/3 dress (my 2 year old would love that!) or make a matching American Doll outfit - hehe, yes I have that pattern too.

Here's Theresa with the dress, did I mention before that she doesn't like having her picture taken?
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It's been quite a week since I last posted - crazy rainy weather, lots of custom label orders - some new, some repeat customers, YAY!, and a custom messenger bag order.

Wow, what a bag that was!  I won a bid on etsy for a Custom Laptop Bag.  It's a birthday gift from a husband to his wife (SWEET!) but the kicker was it had to incorporate somehow their 2 year old's artwork on the bag.  I bid on it as I was just about to make Amy Butler's Messenger Bag and thought this would be perfect for it.  I also mentioned I make my own fabric labels so I can easily print out the artwork on fabric and sew it onto the bag.  I think that was what got the bid.

So we discussed fabric options, chose a combo from my stash, got the artwork, printed it out and I made the bag.  That bag pattern is insane, definitely not for a beginner!!  But the instructions are extremely concise.  And it uses home deco weight fabric and uses at least a yard and a half each for the exterior and interior, plus canvas interfacing, so it's extremely thick and scary at points trying to sew through all the layers.  Lots of pockets!  After sewing it all up the bag is heavy - almost 2.5 lbs, where a regular tote bag I sew weighs less than a pound.

The result:

Beautiful isn't it?  What a bag!!Pin It

So most people don't know I make labels - custom fabric labels you can sew into or iron onto products like clothing, accessories, toys, etc.

They can be personal

or they can be for businesses.

Why don't they know?  Because I don't have it listed as an item for sale in my etsy shop.  Instead, I bid on requests through their "alchemy"/custom/request section.  It's where I've gotten most of my business.  And lately I've gotten repeat business, which is wonderful!

All the labels are directly printed on cotton fabric.  They all start out white and I can print pretty much all kinds of colors.  This one was particularly colorful:
They're also colorfast, washable and fray-resistant (meaning someone could probably still make them fray if that was their goal to do so).

Take a look at my sample pics on my facebook fanpage and if you're interested in having one made for yourself or your business, contact me.Pin It

Today, it's working on a button...  a blog button for others to add to their blogs and be able to link to mine easily...

I think I figured it out finally, so check out the sidebar and my new button!

Why did I do one?  Well, I'll be starting giveaways real soon - keep an eye out!

And I joined TopMommyBlogs where you can vote on my blog.
topmommyblogsPin It

I'm so excited, I finished my girls' St. Patrick Day outfits, 2 weeks ahead.  Well, most of it is done.  I have to still make them their shamrock hair clips.  But their outfits are done!!

You see, I'm filipino, but my husband's side of the family is very Irish.  His parents are from there and are still citizens there even though they've lived in the US for all my husband's life and then some.  My mother-in-law is famous for her "Mrs. Doubtfire" accent.  So St. Patrick's Day is a big day for us.  And last year I decided to make my kids cute one-of-a-kind outfits.  The girls had appliqued shamrocks on short-sleeve white shirts with twirly skirts using the fabric I used for the appliques.  They also had headbands made from the same fabric.  My son was spared from matching entirely with the girls but I appliqued the same style shamrock, to a smaller scale size on a white polo for him.  So this year I was expected to have another outfit.  And I did it!

I appliqued Irish dancer images onto long sleeved shirts (it's been colder this year!)
Clare chose the forward facing design while Theresa and Kathleen wanted the side kicking one.

I made a matching belt and added ruffles to their pants to match with the applique

The result
This is Clare, who unlike Theresa, loves to have her picture taken!  I do need to make those hairclips though - her hair is everywhere!Pin It