A firefly geranium

A month or two ago I saw the most adorable border print fabric and I really wanted to make my niece a dress from it.  I used the Geranium dress pattern from Made by Rae.  It was pretty quick and easy to sew - I could probably get one done in an afternoon(although I didn't with this one).  The biggest challenge was maneuvering the little pieces in my sewing machine. 

The fabric is incredibly adorable!

I used a coordinating print (fireflies in jars) and this tutorial/pattern to make a matching pair of bloomers to go under the dress. I'm pretty sure they'll be way too big, but the dress will also probably be a bit big right now, too.  I made the smaller size of bloomers and the 12-18 month size dress.

I happen to have an embroidery machine, and a.week before I sewed the dress I happened to see a firefly embroidery pattern for free on Urban Threads, so it went into the lining as a secret surprise.
This outfit will be a first birthday gift for my niece.

Machine-embroidered cloth napkins

My mom moved to start graduate school and celebrated her birthday in August, and I had a super idea for a birthday/housewarming gift for her: cloth napkins!  I got the idea from napkins my sister-in-law made when she first got her embroidery machine.  The designs are from urbanthreads.com.  I used the fancy embroidery machine that Robert's grandma sent me last spring, and they turned out super well.  I bought off-white home-dec weight fabric, cut 19" squares, embroidered the designs (four of each design) in one corner of each square, and used this tutorial from Sew Bon to do a narrow mitered corner hem.  Of course I didn't start the project until a week or so before my mom's birthday and it took way longer than I thought it would, so I didn't get them finished and mailed until half way through September, but of course my mom loved them anyway!