For my next tutorial, I will actually be showcasing another bloggers tutorial. Dana from ‘Made’ is the genius behind this shirt dress tutorial, and I knew I had to share this once I saw it on her blog and then tried it out for myself.

(one of Dana’s super cute shirt dresses.)

Dana’s tutorial explains how she made a dress for her little girl from a men’s dress shirt and she also shows a drawing of the pattern she used, but she also advocates using an existing pattern you have already to fit your child if that works better for you. With my two little girls having two very different dress sizes, I decided to look for a pattern to make dress shirts for my girls instead of trying to make my own pattern with a lot of trial and error. Emphasis on the error.

On another blog that I also love to read, ‘The Handmade Dress’, the author, Samantha, has a pattern, the ‘Miss Madeline‘ dress, that she wrote herself. I knew this would be perfect to use to make the shirt dress. The best part is that she emails the pattern directly to you for downloading, within only a few hours time, right to your inbox. Love it! Also, I loved the apron option, and the raised empire waist in this pattern, preferring it over Dana’s original idea of having it at the actual waist. But it’s all a matter of preference.

So I bought the pattern, read it over, and promptly sewed two dresses in only a few hours time, having them both ready for my girls to wear to a family dinner the next day for Mother’s Day.

I love fast and easy patterns that give beautiful results, and this one is no exception. Seriously, I am in love, love, love with this pattern. It was well written, easy to understand, and even easier to execute. I truly can’t say enough about this fantastic pattern. And the best part is how much my girls love the end results too.

a close up of Haven’s dress

a close up of Gracen’s

I am eager to use this cute pattern to make more dresses with fabric by the yard in addition to more shirt dresses, I just love it!

Just a note: When I made the dresses, I found that sewing the button placket down on each side before I did any cutting out was easier. And the ‘Miss Madeline’ dress pattern ends up being about mid calf length, but I shortened Gracen’s shirt dress to just below her knees as I just felt that the men’s shirt gave the dress more of a casual feel. And since a men’s dress shirt is only just so long, I used the shirt’s existing hem for Haven’s dress and it came out to knee length. So be aware that the larger dress sizes will need a men’s dress shirt that is a fairly large size and a long length, but the smaller dress sizes will give you a bit more leeway as to the dress shirt size you can use. Both dress shirts I bought were the largest I could find at the thrift store, but there are still varying lengths and such with every brand of shirt. Please feel free to ask me any questions, I am happy to help in any way I can. Also, the author of the shirt dress tutorial Dana @ ‘Made’ has lots of information on her blog, as does Samantha, the creator of the ‘Miss Madeline’ dress pattern and author of the blog ‘The Handmade Dress’.

I have also made a pair of baby-pris/long shorts for my little guy from the sleeves of one of the extra large dress shirts, and they turned out great. He wears a size 2T-3T in pants, so it will depend on the sleeve size of your shirt as to whether or not you can do this. I liked that I was able to leave a bit of the button detail from the lower part of the sleeve near what then became the hem of the shorts.

Here I used the front and back of a smaller sized mens dress shirt that had a fun striped print which I thought would make cute baby-pris/long shorts for Finn. I’m adding some brown pockets for fun, and as you can see I’m still in the middle of sewing them.

Now for the giveaway….I was so happy with my end results with the girls dresses, and had such an easy time using the dress pattern, that I wanted very much to share it. So here is the fun part…

I will be giving (2) two randomly selected readers (1) one ‘Miss Madeline’ dress pattern each in the size of your choice (either Little Girls sizes 6 mos.-4 years  ‘or’  Big Girls sizes 5 - 10).

All you need to do is leave me a comment on this post before midnight (pacific time) on Sunday May 31st and have an email address that I can send the dress pattern to. So this little giveaway is open to everyone, including international readers as well. Good luck!

(And just so you know, the author of “The Handmade Dress”, Samantha, has no idea who I am, other than as a customer, albeit a very happy customer, but I have no other affiliations or ties to her patterns or to her blog (other than as a reader). I just want to share the dress pattern love, so here we go.)

I busted out our ice cream maker a few weeks ago, what with the weather getting hotter, and summer on the way. You would think with so may of us we would need a really big ice cream maker, but that’s not the case. Mine is just 2 quarts, and it’s the perfect size for us.

It makes enough dessert for all of us, plus some left over. The bonus of a smaller model is that it takes less time to freeze your ice cream, and you don’t go through a ton of ice and salt each time. Oh how I love, love, love the taste of homemade ice cream. It’s such a treat.

This was our batch of strawberry frozen yogurt. It was dee-lish and done and ready to eat in mere minutes

Here is the recipe I used:

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

 4 cups plain yogurt (low fat or fat free)

 1 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, thawed

 1 cup whipping cream ‘or’ evaporated skim milk

 3/4 cup sugar

  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions.

This recipe makes 2 quarts of yogurt mixture, and when frozen it will expand in size, so if your ice cream maker has a 2 quart size canister, then only pour half of the mixture in at a time as it will expand as your ice cream maker freezes the mixture. But if your canister is bigger than 2 quarts, you can freeze the entire batch at once with no worries. Also, if you would like to lower the fat content a little, you can substitute evaporated skim milk for the whipping cream, just know that it may change the texture of the final product a bit, but less fat and calories are always worth it in the end in my opinion.

…reading a lot. I love books.

…planning two more get-togethers at my house. Odds are you’re invited.

…dorkier with every day that passes. Oh wait, I meant I’m amazing! Yeah, um amazing, that’s right.

…remembering summer is hot (duh). Need more dinners without using the oven. Ideas welcome.

…missing my sister Holly. Hey Hermana.

…enjoying any time spent at my sewing machine. Not nearly enough. It will do for now.

…loving our fire pit.

…hating the mosquitoes.

…sickened to find out “Life” has been canceled. Lame.

…making a lot of meals overloaded with veggies. I can’t get enough veggies.

…sure summer will be lots of fun.

 …in denial that we’re more than half way through the month of May.

…laughing at the dumbest stuff.

This is one of my absolute favorite salads, it’s so tasty and crunchy. Funny enough, I hate ramen in any other form except this one salad. Weird. I can;t remember if I posted this recipe before or not, but my Granny wants to try this out, so if I post it here she can pull it up right away instead of having to hunt all over my blog.

Cabbage Crunch Salad

 scant 1/4 cup vinegar

scant 1/4 cup sugar

1-2 TBSP. olive oil

2 pkgs. oriental flavor ramen

3 TBSP. butter or margarine

3/4 cup sliced almonds (more or less)

1 (14 oz.) bag shredded cabbage and carrot coleslaw mix

   Mix together the vinegar, sugar and olive oil. Set aside. In a skillet, melt the butter over ‘medium-low’ heat. Meanwhile, remove the uncooked ramen noodles from their packages, set the seasoning packets aside and break the uncooked ramen into small bite sized pieces. Add the broken ramen noodles to the melted butter in the skillet and the almonds. Cook over ‘medium-low’ heat, stirring until the noodles and almonds are evenly coated in butter, but make sure not to let it scorch. Sprinkle the two seasoning packets from the ramen over top of the noodles and almonds in the skillet, and stir to mix, making sure to coat them evenly, and all is heated through and the almonds are lightly toasted. Be careful not to let it burn. Remove from heat. Place the entire bag of coleslaw mix into a large bowl. Pour the noodle and almond mixture on top of the coleslaw, and toss to mix. Pour the vinegar dressing over top of the coleslaw mixture and toss again to evenly coat. Chill until ready to serve.

Funny enough, it was the title of the book, ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ that first caught my attention.

Second to catch my eye were the authors names ‘Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’.

The creepy picture on the front of the book was the third and last thing I noticed.

How did I miss that first? Now it’s all I can look at. Weird.

Regardless, now I really, really want to read this book.

For better, for worse. Really. Badly.

One of my favorite sewing blogs that I habitually haunt is ‘Made’ (by Dana).

And what do you know, she has another brilliant idea. I fell instantly in mad love. Seriously.

I love, love, love how they look. And the endless possibilities of fabrics and colors you could use too.

Oh cute quilted notecards, won’t you be mine, forever and ever?

Seriously, what a great idea! So check it out, and while you’re there, make sure and take a gander at the numerous other cool things she has made on her blog. One of them is the driving force behind my next tutorial…

I made (yeah, I know) yet another skirt, this time with a pair of faded black jeans I found at my local thrift store for $5 (thank you D.I.). I stitched up the front the same as before,

but for the back, this time I folded the sides under a little more on each side to get a bigger space to fit the panel.

For comparison, here is a pic of the back of my second skirt. Notice the panel is a smaller triangle.

On this skirt the space is longer from top to bottom, and looks more like the panel in front does. I wanted the back and front areas, where the panel fits, to look more alike on this next skirt, so I made those few small changes, and I like the result.

(a lighter shot so you can see the back a little better, and where the small changes are to the back seam and such.)

I’m thinking of trying a more deconstructed, frayed look next time?

My sister-in-law Kathie was kind enough to send me pictures of the three skirts she made for her daughter from the skirt tutorial I posted. I just love what she did.

They all turned out so cute!

 Don’t you just love the ruffle detail and the embroidery from the bottom hem of the pants that she worked in to the skirts front and back panel.

Thank you so much Kathie for sharing these pics of your cute creations. The only problem is that it makes me want to go out and find some cute embellished jeans/pants for my girls so I can make them into cute embellished skirts too! Thank heavens for the D.I.

*And speaking of tutorials, look for a new one coming soon…with a little giveaway.*

Finley was pretty sick Sunday, but has been quickly on the mend.

This morning, I discovered he is feeling much, much better.

Those are my sugar bins.

Alas, the cinnamon sugar is the  empty one…

Ah yes, the truly cute face of naughty.

How am I supposed to be mad at this face?

Pork and Pepper Tortillas

1 (2 1/2 - 3lb.) pork roast

1 cup boiling water

2 tsp. beef bouillon granules

1 pkg. Fajita ‘or’ Taco seasoning mix

1 garlic clove, minced

1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies

2 medium onions, sliced

1 each, sliced, green pepper, sweet red and yellow pepper

1 TBSP. butter or margarine

12 (8-inch) flour tortillas, warmed

toppings: shredded cheese, lettuce, black olives, salsa, sour cream

Place roast in a 5 QT. slow cooker. Combine water, bouillon, fajita seasoning packet, garlic, and green chilies; pour over roast. Top the roast with the sliced onions, cover and cook on ‘HIGH’ for 1 hour. Reduce heat to ’LOW’ and cook for 7-8 hours. Remove meat and shred with two forks. Return to crock pot and heat through. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, and saute the peppers until tender. To serve, using a slotted spoon, place meat down the center of a warmed tortilla, top with the peppers, and any other desired toppings, then fold and enjoy! This are fairly juicy so they can be messy, but it’s well worth it! This makes a lot, so you can easily freeze any leftovers for another dinner another day.

   We all loved this, but please note, this is not a spicy hot dish, if you want heat, you will have to add it yourself. I especially loved the sweet peppers, they were so tasty, I may even add one or two more the next time I make this. I made ours with fajita mix, and served them on the tortillas with the meat, peppers, a touch of sour cream and a sprinkle of shredded cheese, yum! Also, if you don’t like Pork, a Beef Roast could easily be substituted. And no, I didn’t take the picture. Obviously. I google pictures for my recipes when I am short on time. Or lazy. Or both.