Introducing… the angelica jumper & swing top!

Hello, angelica!

We are so excited to share our new girls sewing pattern with you!!! Meet angelica, a sweet and twirly jumper with neck ties and a big back bow.

View A is a jumper with a 6-gored skirt, complete with apron (a favorite with little girls, so we're told!) and a fun fabric flower corsage. This style is very boutique-y, but it sews up super fast! The elastic casing along the back of the bodice gives a neat fit.

And angelica view B is an uber-twirly 12-gored swing top that goes perfectly with leggings or tessa bloomers! (It's also a great companion to our next up and coming pattern… full reveal soon!)

This is one of our favorites! Eleanor gave the swing top two thumbs up.

Could she be any cuter?!

So here's the full scoop on angelica…

Sizes 2/3 – 14/16, all in one envelope and printed on sturdy paper right here in the USA.
Full-size pattern pieces and fully illustrated instructions.
Jumper (A) finishes a couple inches below the knee; swing top (B) finishes mid-thigh.
Back elastic casing.
Instructions for flower corsage included.
Available for pre-order now and shipping within the next two weeks!

We're really excited about this little jumper. It's so versatile! In the summertime it makes a great sundress, but layers nicely over a t-shirt or peasant top. And angelica is lots of fun to sew!

What do you think?!

xoxo

angelica jumper — Circa by Jennifer Paganelli

angelica swing top — Sweet Things by Lakehouse Dry Goods

For a sandwich fix…

We love a good sandwich. This one (we think) is probably the best. We've eaten it since we were little…and we still love it. Made by our Aunt Betts (well, technically, Mom's aunt and our great-aunt), we still affectionately call it "Aunt Betts Sandwich". So here you go!

Aunt Betts Deli Sandwich

-1 loaf French or Italian bread

-leafy lettuce

-shaved ham (we got about half a pound of all the meats and cheeses)

-shaved turkey

-shaved bologna

-thin swiss cheese

-colby cheese

-onion, tomato, green peppers, or whatever you fancy (confession. We don't always put all the healthy veggies on ours. We just used lettuce on this one)

-mayonnaise

-Italian dressing

-mustard (optional. We usually just use the mayo and Italian dressing)

Makes one stuffed sandwich!!

1. Slice open your bread (we only used half so we could save the rest for another day soon), and put mayo on both sides. Put on entire lettuce leaf so the ruffled side sticks out.

2. Layer on your meats and cheeses. Follow with your vegetables. Now put your "top" on, and go eat!!

Enjoy!!!

xx, Abi and Abiah

Full Week.

Whew! The last week has been so busy… the birthday bash, Mom's birthday, starting to prep for Quilt Market, and throwing ourselves into something brand new!! It's been fun, so no complaints. We especially couldn't complain when the brand-new-something required us to spend the day with best friends (!), a new friend, eat cupcakes, sample chocolate, and dash in and out of the rain. It was a fun, full 12-hour day.

Today feels like the first "break" day, but it won't last long. We have custom orders to sew, more Quilt Market related work, and it's almost time to start sewing for the booth. Oh, and the laundry is full too.

We're not sure we are ready for summer to be over. How 'bout you?

xoxo Achaia & Abi

A new Ironing Board cover {a tutorial}

We use our iron + ironing board a lot. We mean. A lot. So it's no wonder that after three + years we needed a new one! (We're too embarrassed to show you a picture of the old one. Really. You could hardly tell what it was made of!)

Mommy and Abi got together and in an afternoon whipped up this new ironing board cover. They took step by step pictures. Measurements will depend entirely on your own special ironing board. Ours is old and dips (just a little bit) in the middle, so we needed extra padding. We'll explain more below!

So — are you ready??!

Ironing Board cover {a tutorial}

1. Choose your fabrics! Fun! Since our ironing board sits by the one red wall in our studio, we wanted to have red in our cover to make our board pop. (Mommy's favorite color choice.)

2. Cut and arrange your patches. This can be one of the most enjoyable parts, so have fun mixing and matching your favorite pieces! You'll want it to be 6" to 8" bigger than your ironing board (so that you have several inches left-over on all sides of your board).

What you'll Need:

Putting it Together!

1. Layer sheet, batting, and patched top. Use large safety pins to pin it together.

2. Sew through all layers. We chose one of our favorite (and sturdy) stitches on Mommy's machine.

3. Lay your ironing board face down on top of your Insul-Fleece. Use a permanant marker to draw the shape of your board onto the fleece. (NOTE! if your board is not like ours (dipped), than you are more than welcome to skip the batting when your quilting your cover. Use the Insul-Fleece in place of the batting. We're also hoping that once we wear this cover out we can replace it and the insul-fleece will still be good).

4. Our Insul-Fleece was shorter than our board, so we pieced it.

(Continuing) 4. Pieced.

5. Cut out the board shape and lay the Insul-Fleece right on the board!

6. Lay your ironing board face down on top of your patched top and prepare to cut around the board shape. Be careful to leave several extra inches all the way around the board!!!! Do a finishing stitch (we did a zigzag stitch) around the edge of your cover after you've cut out the board shape.

7. Working from the top of your cover and at the middle back-end, fold back a little end of the raw end of the extra wide double fold bias tape. Sew on at 1/4".

(Showing) 7. See?

8. Finish sewing on the bias tape just like you started. Do not overlap the pieces, but only meet them up together.

9. Fold the bias tape completely over to the back. Stitch in place.

10. Use a large safety pin to run your 1/4" elastic through your "casing". We cut approximantly 122" of elastic because this was the measurement around the under side of our ironing board. We ended up cutting plenty of elastic off, but we want you to have plenty too. Put your smashingly adorable cover onto your board and pull and tug, working the gathers to fit around your board. After your elastic is just perfect, knot and knot your elastic ends. Cut off extra elastic. (And save the rest of another project!)

11. Grab your Scotch Gard and head outside! Follow the instructions on the bottle. (We gave ours plenty of spray-layers.)

(continued) 11. Cute dog not required. (But helpful.)

And your ironing board cover is finished!!!!!

Let us know what you think! And happy ironing.

xoxo Kristie & Abi (for all)

Happiest of Birthdays to our Mommy!

Happy Birthday to our wonderful, beautiful Mommy!

Trying to put into words exactly what our Mommy means to us is completely impossible. She's been with us through thick and thin, through good days and bad days, always with a listening ear, words of widsom, and sacrificial love.

When we think of some of our Mom's wonderful traits (which we've mentioned here, here, and here), of course the one that sticks out greatest is her love for Christ and genuine desire to serve Him. And, it's always in such a humble, gracious, trusting way. Mom's life hasn't been full of easy things, and yet she's never lost her joy or given up.

Mommy has always been someone we could tell everything to. Yet, she'd never let us get away with something that shouldn't be gotten away with. She's one of those amazing people that we aspire to be like.

One of the many things we love about Mommy is that she loves us just for who we each are. She has always encouraged our individuality. She wants each of us to be exactly how God created us. She knows our strengths and weaknesses like no one else. And she still loves us.

We LOVE you, Mommy, forever and ever!

Your girls~ xoxox Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

Buttoned Up.

We all love sewing (surprise), and sewing for little girls is extra fun! Thankfully, we're blessed to have some lovely little girls in our lives. They also happen to be cousins, and their mommies also like to dress them alike. So, we like to sew for them.

And, cooler weather is coming (saaaaddd), so the girls could use something a bit more fallish. Enter a long sleeve amelia dress + an ana claire jumper + Sweet Things fabric. We are always so impressed with Lakehouse's black prints… they are amazingly saturated, and wash & wear so well too.

And, don't forget happy buttons! We recently had the pleasure of learning about Fastenation Studio. Hannah's just as cute and sweet as her buttons. We sent her a swatch of the outfit fabrics, and Hannah custom made the buttons to match! Don't they look perfect?? All of Hannah's buttons are handmade with high quality polymer clay and double glazed. They are amazing.

Some of our favorite buttons in Hannah's shop are the bunnies, baseballs, red, white & blue, and sew swirly. The buttons came so quickly too!

Hannah also makes these darling hair bow clips! We just pinned them onto the front of the girls jumpers for now. We can't wait to see them in their little wispy hair!

Kristie (Mom) really gets the credit for making these darling jumpers. She loves to bless other people's lives, and sewing for little girls is her favorite thing to do. We think it must be the 20+ years experience. We can't wait to give the girls their outfits (hopefully this weekend)!

xox Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah