old and new

Old: Arlo's Christmas Present
My first attempt at a Space boy. Since it was for my one year old son, I left off the belt and satin stitched the eyes. I also embroidered 3 matching "pillows" for him to play with. They are all backed with the same fabric as the body of space boy.

How does he like them?
ehh. He sleeps with the space boy but that's more my doing than his but he does like the little pillows. (This was the only picture without a blurry toddler hand.) They fit just right in his little hands and he doesn't get in trouble when he throws them. I'd love to find more things to make for him, there seem to be so few things for boys.

New: Maisy's dress

Okay, first off, please forgive this photo. It was late last night and there was no natural light to be had. Secondly, this dress looks much cuter in person! It's still kind of weird and a little night gown looking but oh, well...

The appliqued hearts turned out pretty well but I wish there were more hearts of different patterns. I had more pink material but only two were flannel. I liked the weight of the flannel hearts and I think that made it easier to sew them on. If I had it to do over again, I would have dyed the dress first and then added more hearts with different patterns in a more random way. At least I can cross this dress off my Project list, I kept feeling bad that I hadn't done anything with this dress for a really long time. So now it's done and there's a sense of accomplishment, even if it's not perfect.

That's one thing I have to give credit to this blogging community, before I would have gotten so discouraged that I hadn't gotten it "just right" the first time. I would have sworn off whatever I had attempted and given up for good. Now I look at everything as practice. Didn't turn out perfect? "Oh, well, pretty good for a first try. Next time will work out better." And I've been right. I've learned how to relax and give myself room. It's been really wonderful to finally just enjoy the process and not worry so much. So thank you Blog Ladies, thanks for inspiring me to create and to be proud of what I've accomplished. I'd forgotten how good that felt.

(okay, that got a little mushy. But I sure do mean it:)