Heaven Seems A Little Closer At The Beach

I almost published this post with out any words at all. I am not sure there are words in the English language that explains the feeling of peace I get when I sit on the sand and listen to the waves. 

When I was a kid I my parents took us to the beach for two weeks every year. I always had so much fun making sand castles, covering people in the sand, running in the waves, and swimming. I never quite understood my mom sitting in her lounge chair, under the beach umbrella, just sitting- not running about, not even really getting in the water. I thought she was kinda nuts. She always told me she just loved the sound of the water. Maybe it's part of my never ending journey to be more like my mother, but I think I now totally understand that peace she felt. That calm. That quiet. Well the quiet until one of the kids or my Dad complained about needing food, or having too much sand in their swim suit, or something.

For Cordelia's birthday we took her on her first trip to the Ocean. We visited and stayed with two of our good friends and the weekend was full of good food, ocean sand, zoo trips, and great laughs, It was the perfect trip, and I had been under soo much stress with school that it was amazing to have a break- and to have that break be soo much fun! 

This trip was a long time in the making. I probably can't count the number of times our friends have invited us to visit- or the number of times we have said "yeah that would be awesome, maybe this year". Additionally, when I was 9 months pregnant I was so tired and stressed and on my way to a check up I was almost kept driving- I was determined to take myself to the beach. I talked myself out of it and Brendon promised to take me that weekend... but then the Dr put me on bed rest. Four years later we finally made it. 

and it was sure worth the wait.

The Paneled Sun suit Pattern: Review

Hi guys! I know it's been a little quiet on the blog front but I sure have been busy sewing! I am thrilled to share some of that sewing with you today. 

I don't sew from patterns much, but when I saw that Call Ajaire was calling for testers for her new sunsuit pattern I jumped at the opportunity. I had seen a couple versions Ajaire had made on Instagram and they were just soo stinking cute! 

One of the best parts about this pattern is just how versatile it is. In one pattern you can make a sun suit, jumpsuit, short dress, maxi dress, pants, shorts, top, and a skirt. That is a ton of options, am I right!?! And- all of the instructions are super detailed and beautifully illustrated. 

The Paneled Sun Suit pattern was so fun to sew I ended up making three versions of it- starting with the jumpsuit view. I used a thicker gauze like fabric, so even though it's pants its comfortable to wear in the current hot weather (and it offers some protection from the rotten mosquitoes).  The pattern features elastic straps, waist and back making it easy to wear and will allow it to be worn for longer (because kids just grow soo fast)

 

In addition to the multiple styles you can make with this pattern it also has three different pocket options. You can choose no pocket, a plain pocket, or a self piped pocket. For the jumpsuit I went with a plain pocket and I think start to finish the whole thing took me a little over an hour to sew. 

The second version I made was the maxi dress version. I always worry about making things too short for Cordelia because she grows soo fast and so I accidentally made this dress a tad too long- but Cordelia loved that it was "super super long like a princess".

This dress was made from a thrifted vintage sheet with pink vintage rick rack trim at the neck and then blue floral cotton details. This time I tried out the self piped pockets and I love the detail! They were also much easier to sew then I had guessed they might be. 

I really dig the elastic straps in the Paneled Sun Suit- they seem to make it much more comfortable to wear and in the sun suit and jumpsuit versions it makes it super easy for Cordelia pull it on and off. 

I don't want to say this is the final one- because I am sure going to make more Paneled Sun Suits- but for the final view for this post I made the sun suit version. As you all know we run a little geeky in this house and as soon as I started thinking about sewing a shorts version I knew it had to look like Batman. 

I feel like we could all fight crime and save Gotham in this, right?

Cordelia was the happiest the day we took the Batman photos so I was able to get some good detail shots to show you all the neat bits of this pattern. 

I cannot tell you enough times just how much I love this pattern. It is available exclusively today till Sunday at Up Craft Club, and starting Monday you can purchase it HERE. Also you should totally check out all of the other awesome versions all the wonderful testers made by looking up the hashtag #paneledsunsuit  !