A Victorian Valentine's

This weeks theme for the Project Run & Play's Sew Along Challenge is a Valentine's outfit. And when I thought about what my outfit would be, I kept drifting towards the Victorian era...fancy dresses, lots of lace, fur coats, cupids on doily hearts.

When I spotted a roll of light pink stretch lace in the remnant bin at Joann, it was a done deal. So I made a modern and more playful take on a Victorian inspired outfit....

First let's talk about the dress! I sewed up a City Dress, using a pattern by Too Sweets Etsy shop. This is one of my absolute favorite dresses. The drop waist is just darling on little girls with a too cute belly like my little girl's. It's a cute and comfy dress made with stretchy knit, so it has a t shirt feel, but with much more style and cuteness factor. I highly recommend you pop over to Too Sweets and snag a pattern up for yourself!

To get the lace overlay look, I cut out 2 of each pattern piece, one with the lace, one with the plain pink knit. And then I just sewed the dress as though the two pieces were really one piece. It took a little bit of extra time to ensure that all the pieces lined up, but overall it was fairly simple.

The collar and sleeves are finished with knit bias and I used a zig-zag stitch around them both to add a little detail. {I learned this tip from another blogger I found through PR&P, but now can't find my link to them. :( Let me know if it's you!}

And to ensure the dress kept a youthful feel, I added this handmade polka dot fabric bow to the drop waistline. It may be my favorite part!

Or maybe my favorite part is the faux fur capelette? 

I mean really, who doesn't love a ridiculously cute but ridiculously impractical piece of children's clothing? I actually had this "faux fur" fabric in my sewing room from who knows what project. But there it was so I couldn't resist. 

I drew up the pattern myself using the dress as a guide for the neckline and length. I lined it with the pink polka dot, and added pink bias tape ties to the top.

And last but not least, I made some lace trimmed leggings to complete the outfit.

I just made white knit leggings and added a band of the stretchy lace to the bottom. And you can see that I tried to complete the outfit with a pair of sparkly mary janes. Because clearly nothing says Victorian more than glitter.

Apparently Gracie disagreed, because she wouldn't keep the shoes on.

But I think the rest of the outfit was a win...

Because a cute AND comfy fancy Valentine's dress? That's right up this busy little girls alley!

Now if you'll excuse her, she's going to go figure out what's inside that box...

Don't forget to check out this weeks link party!

200 Likes "Share the Love" Giveaway!

I am so thrilled to have so many new friends over at my facebook page, LittlePinkPeony, and to say my big THANKS! I decided to do a GIVEAWAY! Because who doesn't love a giveaway?

Want to enter? It's pretty simple! "Like" the Little Pink Peony facebook page to earn one entry. {If you already like the page, that still counts! :)} Share the Little Pink Peony facebook page on your own facebook wall to earn you two entries!

Enter through Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner will win one "rose garden" Valentine's dress in the size of their choice! {3 months thru 5T}.

This giveaway will run now through Sunday, January 27th at 11:59 pm. Good luck!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

May you give & receive as much love today as the other 364 days of the year...

I'll be covering my little Valentine with lots of extra hugs & kisses today!

Hope everyone has a lovely day! :)

And they wonder where I get it from...

Packages on your door step are one of life's great little pleasures.

Especially when they are wrapped in pretty red paper and tied with a sparkly bow.

And you get to tear open the paper..

But the best part about pretty red packages arriving on your door step is when it is made by your Grammie!

The next best part is probably the crinkly tissue paper inside.

mmmmm...YUM.

But back to those new Valentine's outfits that Grammie made...

Can it get any cuter than a hot pink leopard & zebra dress? Maybe if you add a matching bib!

Or if you put that hot pink outfit on this little girl. She sure ups the cuteness factor! (But I'm a little biased...)

She also got a heart long sleeved tee.

Comfy & cozy. Perfect for playing with our newfound love...toes!

We sure did  love our pretty red Valentine's package! But come on, hot pink, zebra, leopard, hearts...what's not to love?!

 Kind of makes a girl want to shout out loud. "Thanks, Grammie!"

(Mama sure loved it too. Thanks Mom!)

Gracie's Valentine's Outfit

I have always loved Valentines Day! In our house it's just a fun loving day and so I wanted to make Gracie girl a fun & playful outfit that was all about love too!

I love dressing Grace in soft stretchy clothes. She's such a squirmy little thing these days, I want her to be comfortable! So I made a knit top & matching leggings. I hit a few snags along the way, so read on to see my quick fixes. :)

I made the top a tunic length...not quite a dress, but longer than a shirt. This is really the perfect length for babies her age, I think. Shirts ride up, and dresses get caught when she's trying to crawl around. Tunic it is! 

 I used an old gray t-shirt of mine that was too short, and some pink knit that I had leftover from another project way long ago. The t-shirt was so super soft, so it was perfect.

I used my LBB sienna dress pattern, and just shortened it a bit. Added little gray cuffs, because I think it's way easier (and cuter) than hemming the sleeve bottoms! 

I love my LBB patterns, but for some reason, the neck got all hockey on this when I finished. See? It was big enough for my head to fit through! 

So instead of scraping the project, or worse...taking the neck off and redoing it, I folded the neck down and made a casing for elastic. It cinched it in while still allowing lots of stretch to get her wiggly head through. 

 I was originally inspired by the ruffled heart on this project from make it and love it. So cute right? But since I was racing the naptime clock, I decided to go the easier route and just make a simple ruffled heart.

I used my LBB lil leggings pattern and made some leggings to match. I didn't quite have enough fabric to make them long enough for my long legged baby, so I cheated a little. Can you guess what I did?

I used a "crocheted" headband as trim on the bottom!

I just cut the headband in half, and had two pieces that were the perfect length to add to the bottom of her leggings. I just sewed it on before I sewed up the leg seams. And this way you don't have to hem the bottom of the leggings. Not bad for a 67cent headband from Hobby Lobby! (You can also buy this type of stretchy trim at Hobby Lobby...but I'm not sure the price.)

I think she likes her new Valentine's Day outfit! And Mama likes that it was basically FREE!

Happy {Belated} Valentine's!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's yesterday! I had intentions of posting this post last night, but we ended up having a computer free night...which was lovely!

Valentine's at our house was simple but filled with love! {And smoke!}

My hubby greeted me at the door with these...

Instead of eating out, I cooked dinner...baked scallops & shrimp, gnocchi, & stuffed mushrooms. Yummm.

I thought I'd take a picture to show you how pretty our meal turned out to be, but the best laid plans....

As I was taking the seafood out of the oven, my hand slipped and I dumped half of it onto the oven floor. Should have taken a picture of that! We ate it anyway. And it was quite yummy. But not picture worthy.

source

For dessert I made molten chocolate lava cakes. Yummmmm again. 

These are sneaky little treats, that make your husband think you are a gourmet chef, but really, anyone can make them. I am NOT a baker, and these were a cinch for even me. I promise! Try them yourself! 

I used this recipe and served with sugared fresh raspberries and ice cream.

But I would recommend 

NOT spilling half of your dinner on the bottom of the oven 

before baking these, because we had a house full of smoke as I watched anxiously while the cakes were baking, hoping nothing erupted in flames! {It didn't. Phew.}

It certainly was a memorable night!

Not as smooth and romantic as I had envisioned, but it was still perfectly us! 

Hope your night was too!

Now I'm off to clean my oven. :)

Valentine's Worthy Breakfast: Crepes

Last night my sweet husband offered to cook dinner. Which in our house always means one of two things...frozen pizza or breakfast for dinner. Luckily last night, breakfast won!

He whipped up a batch of crepes & I just had to share them because these were oh-so-yummy. The recipe is super simple & easy.

Throw all the ingredients into the Kitchenaid & mix away...

Pour onto a hot griddle & let hubby work his magic.

Greg likes his smothered with a whole lotta' this....

I like mine covered in a whole lotta' these...

 Add a dollop of whipped cream or Cool Whip and you'll swear you were eating dessert!

These would make a delicious Valentine's Day breakfast (or dinner!) Hint, hint hubby...