Saturday, June 28, 2008

Pssst....


Hi everyone! I just finished listing a TON of fabrics on my site - lots and lots of Joel Dewberry, some Midwest Modern by Amy Butler and a little more Lotus by AB as well. The Joel Dewberry is on sale for $7.15/yd! His fabrics are gorgeous - you won't be disappointed :) As always, shipping is free for orders over $50. Hope everyone's staying dry this soggy weekend! ~ Kris

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Hot off the presses!

It's here everyone! Meg's new adorable Apron Pattern: The Lola (and Lolita) Apron Patterns - check it out! There are patterns for adults *and* children!

CLICK HERE to receive 10% off your entire purchase (excluding shipping) until July 5th from my website (note: I am closed for custom/sewing orders until Thursday of this week, but can send out patterns/fabric). Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The winner is....

SewFlo! I hope you enjoy the goodies :) Thanks everyone for participating in the Emmeline Sew-Along!

If you'd like to add the new Skirt Sew-Along button to your blog,

drop me an email at kristen@monkeyfootdesigns.com. Blogger isn't letting me type in the code into the text of this msg.

Have a great weekend everyone! We're finally having Ben baptized, so we're having a fun, family-filled weekend :)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Introducing... Emmeline!

Such the procrastinator yet again, but Emmeline is finished and is DIVINE! Such a cute and fun pattern! I decided to set aside Friday night to complete most of it and the plan worked. Finished up the strap/binding on Sat. night and was able to sneak some pictures today in between rain-drops.

Here's one side....

And here's the other:


A closer look at the first side - I added a pocket to the front of this side, using some of the left-over binding and a scrap of the flowers.
The pattern was pretty easy to make - it has several skills that I think are great for beginner sewers to try their hand at (gathering, working with the bias, hand-sewing). The only changes that I made were to add the front pocket (I like to have my cell-phone near-by) and to add D-rings to the strap (I don't like having things tied around my neck). I'm not sure the D-rings are the best solution, but I like them overall... any other ideas?

Stop by the sew-along to see everyone's Emmeline's - there's so many cute ones! Don't forget that the skirt sew-along starts tomorrow! The prize will be one copy of the fabulous book - Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics. This one has been on my Amazon wish-list since it came out - looks great!

I hope everyone had a fun Father's Day!

Here's another iris pic for you, and a new one of my little spider friend.
He's starting to grow on me...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Some Iris Love

They don't bloom for very long, but they are glorious while they are here :)



Beauty and the Beast
(can you see the clear spider?)

Monday, June 09, 2008

Let's talk about skirts...


Why, prey tell?

They are the next project for our sew-along! Stacy and I are both in major need of some post-baby skirts (she *just* had Easton, and I was pregnant last summer... the summer before that had just had Sydney... you get the picture) and thought this was the perfect summer project for us all! It doesn't matter what pattern you use - I'm going to try Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirts (in the same fabric as the cover... so unoriginal, but I'm a sucker for the Seagreen Coriander).


Two other great patterns are the CUTE SKIRTS pattern and HIP SKIRTS pattern by Favorite Things. I made the following 2 skirts last year for friends and used the CUTE SKIRTS pattern for some basic pattern ideas and construction.



The Sew-Along will start on Monday, June 16th and run until July 31st (a good, solid 6 weeks!). Lots of time for pattern and fabric selection :)

Signing up for the sew-along is super easy! Sign into FLICKR and go to the GROUPS heading. Type in Monkey Foot Designs and Stacy Sews Sew-Along under the SEARCH button to the right (located under "Find a Group). When our group comes up, you'll see "JOIN?" a few times on the page - click on that and then follow the prompts to join. Once you have a picture to share, just add it to our group (see THIS LINK for instructions). Also, please feel free to post any questions to see if we or other group members can help. I found that this was really helpful with the Sophia Bag! We are up to 57 members and we hope to keep growing :)

Now, I didn't forget that Lisa tagged me what seems like forever ago... here's her rules: link back to the person who tagged you, post these rules on your blog, share five unimportant things about yourself and tag three people at the end of your entry. Here we go!

1) We do not have a microwave. We *had* one, but it died a couple of months ago. I thought about what we really use it for... heating up baby food and heating up coffee. Sure, the occasional left-over might get thrown in there, but not enough to make it count. I thought we'd try and make a go of it without it, and I really don't miss it! I let Ben's food defrost on the counter or in the fridge, and I'd so much rather have a fresh pot of coffee any day! The best part is having more room on the counter!

2) I make ~ 90% of my baby food (hence the need for thawing - I do the ice cube tray thing to get perfect portions). It's really not hard at all and is so much cheaper (except for pears and peaches - those are a wash). If you haven't tried to, but want to, here's a great link to start: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

3) When I was in 8th grade, I qualified to go to the National Cross Country Championships... they took the top 20 finishers and I was #20, but only because the girl in front of me tripped and sprained her ankle. I still feel awful about that.

4) I do a crazy-good impression of Roger Rabbit saying "PLEEEEEASE EDDIE!". My trick is my big lips. It's not pretty to watch, but it's good for a laugh!

5) I started sewing ~ 5 and a half years ago. Wanted to make some things for my wedding (gifts, etc.) to try and cut costs, and to put more of a personal touch to the whole affair. I never in a million years thought that I'd love it as much as I do! The sad thing is that I had the machine lying around for a few years (Mom bought it for me so I could do some hemming, etc.) before I ever even opened it. I seriously had to go to a one night class at the Boston's Adult School to learn how to thread it!

I'm going to tag Em, Dalia, and Bekah! Have fun & let me know when you post!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Fiddle-dee-dee

Ever have these yummy thingies?


Before we moved up here (NH), I hadn't had them either. They are Fiddleheads and they are deeeeelish! They are just found up around Maine/NH during early spring, so we grab them while they are here.

"A Fiddlehead is a fern so young and new that it hasn't yet "unfurled" and opened its leaves. The end is still curled in a tight spiral, ready to unroll as the sun warms it and it gathers strength and size. This spiral shape reminds many people of the end of a violin, hence the name "Fiddlehead."
"
We just sauteed them with some garlic and olive oil, but upon reading more about them tonight, I have since learned that you really need to boil them or else you might get exposed to some un-named food borne illness. It's been a few hours and we're still fine (phew!).

***UPDATE: Hubby ended up having some pretty bad GI issues later that night.... I only ate ~ 6 or so of them, but he had ~ 30... definitely boil them first! ***

Hope you're all enjoying some spring sun! We've got some nasty flies and mozzies here, but we're trying to get out when we can (windy days are fabulous!). We bought Sydney a bike the other day and she's slowly getting it - we'll keep trying!



**Quick reminder! The Emmeline Sew-Along entries need to be in by June 15th. I posted the prize tonight on the Flickr site - it's not too late to enter! **