First, Elise loved her handmade holiday gifts. The Oliver + S Sunday Brunch jacket and skirt fit perfectly. I wish I could get myself in gear to finish to 2+2 skirt and blouse and the Playdate dress I have cut out already. The hope is to get them sewn before she outgrows the pattern, we’ll see. I did finally finish the Amy Butler Wide Leg Lounge pants I’ve had half done for months now. I used some New York Giants fabric because I love Eli and my husband is from Dallas and I like to annoy him by being a Giants fan. The last time I made these pants, I used an elastic waist instead and found myself taking 5 inches off the bottom. This time I followed the instructions and only needed about 5/8″ hem. Go figure. I love that there’s enough room in these pants for two of me. Best pajama pants ever!

I’ve been looking into getting more solid fabrics for my stash lately and although Kona cottons seem to be quite popular, I’m a fan of Moda Bella. I find Bella to be softer and there are enough colors that I don’t feel I’m lacking in selection even though there are about a billion Kona colors. I’ve also read from others online that people feel the quality of Kona has gone down recently. Hancocks-Paducah has the Moda Bella color charts and I must admit, it’s wonderful. I’ve already picked out several solids I need, colors I wouldn’t have otherwise chosen.

Finally, a new hobby…hand embroidery. What took me so long to jump on the Sublime Stitching bandwagon? It’s fast, it’s easy, and super cute. I think my house is going to be taken over by hand embroidered items in the near future. I used a butterfly pattern from Sublime Stitching as a practice, and used my current favorite color combination red and blue. This  only took about and hour and in the crafting world that’s pretty much instant gratification.