Split-front Ruffle Dress

I am not a big fan of wearing ruffles, but my girls sure like them. I made this dress after seeing something similar in an advertisement. I couldn't find where it came from, so I made my own version.
The top part was a modification of the Junebug dress at Craftiness is not Optional. I had to enlarge the pattern first, because the free pattern is for a 2T size and my younger girl is bigger than that. I didn't do a separate flap in the front, but combined it on one side so there is only one off-set split with buttons. I also didn't bother putting elastic in the sleeves.



For the bottom I made 2 a-line skirts (a bit wider than the bodice circumference so it would gather a little). The bottom one in purple the top in the bodice fabric. The purple one is longer than the top one so it will show all the way around. I put rows of 3 inch ruffles down the front of the purple skirt. For the top skirt I split the front (to show off the ruffles) and made sure the split corresponded to the one in the bodice. It was pretty easy to wing it, so I didn't patterns for the bottom.
Sorry I didn't take pictures during the creation and do a real tutorial.

Airplane Party Printables

I like to make the printables for a party, but I know that not everyone else does. So, I'm giving you mine to use if you like. The above picture is what I made. I have taken out the 'airline' name to give you a blank picture to print. I used orange and blue colors because it's easy to find orange things this time of year and blue is a good complimentary color for it, but you can change the colors of any of the items to suit your needs.
Clicking on the photo will get you to the download, or CLICK HERE.

Update: A few people have asked about how to change the colors, so I made a list of tutorial links to help with that. 

Airplane Birthday Party for a 5 year old

My second child turned 5 last week. He loves airplanes (like his daddy, who is in the Air Force). So, we had an airplane themed party. I got lots of ideas around the internet, especially on Pinterest (love that site!). Here is what we did:
I decorated in blue and orange. There was a bunting made of paper airplanes (my hubby made them), balloon clouds, and a small backdrop of cloud fabric I had in my stash. I made signage for check-in, food court, restroom, and baggage claim. It was cute.

As the kids came, they colored some luggage tags (from Oriental Trading).

They played "find the planes in the clouds". We put some small toy planes in a box of packing peanuts and let the kids dig around for them. Then they played with the planes for a bit.


Put together and decorated some foam gliders (from Oriental Trading) and flew those for a bit. While they played I got things cleaned up for lunch, our in-flight meal.
In the lunch boxes was a sandwich (choice of turkey or ham), some orange slices and some chips. They also got some Sky Jello (recipe found here...except I used store bought Cool Whip instead of whipping my own cream). We had some little servings of Cheez-its, Goldfish crakcers, blue jelly beans, and blue chocolate covered pretzels. And there were water bottles with our little printed labels on them.

After lunch they played for a bit and then wanted cake and ice cream. I used a Wilton shaped pan for the airplane cake. I think it turned out pretty good (and tasty).After cake came presents and more playing. When it was time for the guests to go, we gave them a goody bag/box and a marshmallow propeller pop to go. The goody box had some aviator sunglasses, a paratrooper toy, bubbles, york peppermint pattie bites (blue and white), orange gummies, and a plane made of candy (found here). And they also got to take home their luggage tag and foam glider.

Everyone seemed to have lots of fun. Now on to the other 3 birthdays this fall (we have lots of fall birthdays in my family).