Cora

I'm having some computer trouble this week, so posts will be few.

But I wanted to say that if you haven't read this, you should.

As the mother of four (relatively) healthy babies, I found Cora's story absolutely heartbreaking.

As a mother, the thought of what these parents went through literally takes my breath away.

And the fact that a simple test could have warned these parents of the dangers facing their innocent baby...mind boggling.

We have dealt with our share of health issues with our children. While stressful, and at times potentially life-threatening, we have managed to slip under the wire.
We still have four healthy children.

But so many people don't.

According to Cora's Mommy's site, http://www.corasstory.org/,Congenital Heart Disease (which took Cora's life) is the number one baby killer, according to the Children's Heart Foundation. An estimated 1 in 100 babies are born with CHD. CHD kills more children than all forms of childhood cancer combined
In support of CHD Awareness Week, I've added Cora's buttons to my blog.

Tres Apronos

I love cupcakes.
Making them, eating them, drawing them, looking at other people's drawings of them...and especially sewing with them! Well, sewing with fabric that has cupcakes on it I mean...

I have about three different cupcake fabrics in my stash right now, waiting for the right project. Today it was this one's turn:



So cute, huh? And it just wanted to be aprons for my girls and I.

WANTED to.


So I looked at some pics of cute retro aprons and then drew out some ideas. I had a yummy chocolate brown for accents, and lined the back with a nice medium weight muslin.
Each apron had:
1 body cut from cupcake fabric
1 body cut from muslin
2 waist ties in c/c fabric
2 waist ties in brown fabric
2 neck ties in c/c fabric
2 neck ties n brown fabric
1 pocket on the girls', 2 pockets on mine
brown ruffles


I cut initials out of the brown, attached them in the center of the pockets using adhesive interfacing, then did a zig-zag stitch around the edge in a contrasting pink:
Fun with initials!



The girls' had brown ruffles around the top and the pocket. Here's everything attached, ready to sew the muslin on the back:

I sewed all the way around the edge, right sides together, making sure to tuck all the straps and ruffles in, leaving a hole to flip it back out. Once flipped right side out, I pressed it and then top stitched with the pink around all the edges.
I left mine a little simpler, no ruffles but still a scalloped bottom.
Two of the finished aprons:

And when I was all done, I realized I had enough left to whip up a fourth little apron for Baby Bear!
I made a large rectangle by seaming two pieces together in the center. Then I cut a long brown piece for a waistband and ironed each long side in about 1/2", and then ironed the whole thing in half (kind of like a huge piece of bias tape). I used my gathering foot again to attach the cupcake fabric in roughly the center of the brown waistband:

Then folded over the brown to encase the raw seam and topstitched the whole thing end to end with pink thread. Hemmed the other three edges and added her intial, and it was ready to go!
It was put to immediate use!

The only problem is, when outside looks like this:

And you have shiny new aprons to wear:

You end up with lots of this:

Freezer Paper Shirt - 1, googiemomma - 0

I give up.
In the lesson on just how many "100" of something is, I hereby consider myself schooled. Learned. Beaten.
Oh, sure, I started out all "Oooh, this is gonna look soooo cute, I can totally do this!!!"

But let me say it again--

100 is ALOT OF STINKIN' FLOWERS!!!!

I started out well--here's the shirt with its first iron on stencil flowers:


And after thinning the fabric paint, and putting two coats on all these flowers--front and back and both sleeves--I was pretty excited. The thinned blue paint mixed with the pink of the shirt to create a lovely washed purple look. I was diggin' it.

Then, I counted. All my hard work had net me exactly 47 flowers, and two butterflies. Not EVEN halfway there.

That's about when I threw in the towel. And went all old school on that shirt.

And to be perfectly honest, I don't totally hate it.

(Please please oh please don't tell all the cool craft bloggers. Gosh, I'd be SOOO embarassed if they knew I used (gasp!) puffy fabric paint! Straight from the bottle! Egads! The horror!)

It gives it a sort of three-dimensional look that--I think--came out sort of cute.


(The blue was not quite dry in this pic, it got MUCH darker when it dried.)

Or at least thats what I'm telling myself.

Whatever! The important thing is, we've got 98 flowers, 2 butterflies, bunches of sparkles and glitter, and one very happy Kindergartener!

Its just a little tough to count your own shirt!

All in all, I definitely like the stenciled effect, and will absolutely be doing more of it. Just, maybe...something a little simpler next time!