Yes. Yes I do. I judge books by the cover. Literally. When I was invited to review PRETTY BIRDS and join the blog tour, I clicked the link to see the book. Look at it! via yougogirl.typepad.com LOOKY! This is so cute. Why didn't I think to make wire feet? Well Done, You Go Girl Continue reading

HI friends. Gingercake blog moved over to wordpress. Here is the new link http://gingercake.org/gingercake/ I have a couple new blog posts over there to share with you! Continue reading

Last month my oldest turned 10. TEN! Hard to believe ten years have passed since she was a little tiny sweet baby. She is a great girl and into style and trends and all things bright and beautiful (like most 10 year olds!). I made this Half Square Triangle quilt for her gift and it is a big hit. It is similar to this picnic blanket I made last year. I used this technique to cut my HSTs and I used bella solds from Bloomerie fabrics. The fabric was wonderful and the colors were so bright and bold. It was... Continue reading

There is a love affair happening at our house. The relationship between a boy and his dog is powerful and adorable. Our puppy is now 7 months old and this is as close as Cal is getting to a brother... That is a stalk from a brussel sprout plant from last year's garden they are playing with! See all those soccer balls in the yard? They even play soccer together. These photos also show how lush spring is here and although the winter was long and awful, this spring is glorious! Having a puppy at our house has been wonderful... Continue reading

Today is the last day of the Sew Fab Sale! Yes, your last chance to get this fantastic bundle of patterns for only $29.95. That means only about $1.50 per pattern! For today, I made the Big Tote Bag Pattern by Autumn Street Patterns. This is going to be so useful! I love it already. It's no surprise that with 4 kids in age from 10 down to 18 months, I have to carry around a bunch of stuff. Espeically on weekends when I have to haul them all around to sports, piano, gymnastics, etc. This bag can hold a... Continue reading

I sewed up the Norah Dress by Welcome to the Mouse House for Miss Marion and she looks so so sweet! This pattern is another great one in the Sew Fab Bundle. I loved how easily it came together and how nice it looks on my girl. Since the Norah Dress is a simple A line, the assembly was very straight forward. The collar and sleeves came together beautifully! I was pretty relieved not to have to do any skirt gathering! The dress is lined only on the top which was really nice for the finish but kept it from... Continue reading

More sew fab bundle sewing over here! This one is actually for my mom for mother's day so I made it last week to get it in the mail in time. I think it will be a really useful gift for her. Have you checked out all the patterns in the sew fab bundle? It really is a great collection at an amazing value. This pattern is the Leather Accent Fold Over Pouch by Vanessa of LBG studio. It's a great staple to have in your collection since it is both sylish and super simple. Love that! The pattern is... Continue reading

Another adorable pattern that is part of the Sew Fab Bundle is this Doll, Carrier & Blankie from Patchwork Posse. This pattern called out to me and said "Gingercake must sew this!" and I loved it. I used some Get Together fabric by David Walker for the baby body and AnnKelle fabrics for the handles, blanket and carrier. It was really easy to add the pom poms and I think it made a really cute addition! Little Miss Marion loves it too. She immediately picked up the baby and said "nigh nigh baby" and cuddled it to her shoulder. She... Continue reading

This simple and sweet pattern is part of the Sew fab pattern bundle that I am promoting this week. Read all about the bundle details here. I really loved making this fun (I learned some new tricks too!) and easy pattern. I made it during a naptime with extra time to spare... TooSweets did a great job designing this pattern. It is simple and straightforward and I love Miss Marion's new top! This is just one of the several things I sewed from the bundle that I will be sharing this week! I used Leah Duncan's Tule line from Art... Continue reading

This post contains affiliate links. When you purchase the Sew Fab Bundle through those links I earn a percentage of the sale. Thank you so much for supporting the Sew Fab Sale! We all appreciate your business! It's the Spring 2014 Sew Fab Pattern Sale! It's that time of year again… time for the original pattern bundle sale, The Sew Fab Pattern Sale! I'm so excited to announce this season's pattern bundle to you today. The excitement has been building over the last few weeks, and today it's finally available. Nineteen incredibly talented pattern designers, some who are very well... Continue reading

Coming soon, for one week only, nineteen pattern designers will be joining together to combine their best PDF sewing patterns and selling them to you for the incredible price of $29.95! That’s over 80% off of the combined retail value! The Sew Fab Pattern Sale is the original pattern bundle sale! Grab the bundle when it goes on sale next week and you’ll be all set for the spring and summer seasons! You have to wait until next week to see which patterns are included in this spring’s bundle, but take a look below to see which designers you'll find!... Continue reading

I was honored to test one of Vanessa's pattern contirbutions to the new Willow & Co. pattern collection to be released next week. This is the Aster Cardigan and it is adorable! I was asked to do the Size 10 for my big girl. She will be 10 next month! It is really cute and stylish... These were taken before school yesterday. It was dark and rainy outside so we took our photos in my new basement studio! I can't wait to finally have it organized enough to share some good photos. Vanessa writes a beautiful and organzied pattern. The... Continue reading

It's a sewing miracle that I participated in KCW! I think KCW is a great idea and I love seeing all the clothes people make for their kids. For some silly reason, I always have something else happening and I can't join in the fun. But this year I am back... I did another shirt from the Happy Homemade Sew Chic Kids book. This one is called the Front-buttoned Smock. Like the pull over parka, instructions are vague in the book, but the pattern pieces fit together beautifully and I love the finished shirt. My middle daughter is really fun... Continue reading

Do you remember when I announced that a few of my patterns were being published by Simplicity? Well, that is really happening this spring! I'm not sure when the books are available in the stores, but my pattern bundles will be included in the Summer catalog (that is released in the spring!). Here is the cover photo... I am going to head over to my local Joann's to see if I can find it. I can't wait to see it in person! In other news, I am having my annual spring $5 bunny sale! I have been having fun promoting... Continue reading

It has been a long time since I actually sewed something to sell in my GingercakeSews shop! But I am back on it and couldn't resist making bunnies from this super sweet vintage sheet fabric. I had a great time sewing these up last week and remembered how fun it is to sew for your etsy shop. I couldn't descide which color bow/ ears to make, so I chose to make yellow, orange AND pink. My little miss likes their pom pom tails in particular... Head over to the Gingercakesews shop if you are interested in getting one OR head... Continue reading

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit my good friend Amy of Mindfully Made Studios. She is a person who works hard on focus and keeping her priorities clear while still trying to nurture her creativity. A visit with Amy always helps me to focus too, and after a long hard winter like we have had here, I am ready for some spring clean up in my cluttered creative mind and business. The questions I ask myself are "why am I doing this business?" and "what do I hope to accomplish?" Gingercake is a business. And, it helps... Continue reading

A few months ago I purchase Happy Homemade Sew Chic Kids by Ruriko Yamada since I heard that it had been released in English. I love the simple style and classic look of the kids clothes in this book. Bonus- the sizing is 2 through 8 which covers most of my children. I first made a pair of flared shorts in flannel for my 9 year old (the sizes are not hard to adjust) and they are nice but not really worth sharing on the blog since they are plain and already in the laundry bin. But, over the weekend... Continue reading

Hooray! The newest Foxy member of the Gingercake PDF Pattern Collection is finally ready! The circular shape of Max the Owl is perfect to moonlight as a Fox and what can be better than getting 2 patterns in one package? A Fox and Owl Team! They are both good hunters, right? They both live in the woods, right? They both will love super cute on your bed or sofa, right?! Max was my first pattern created over 5 years ago. I will admit that his popularity has waned over the last few years. Poor Max! He told me he wasn't... Continue reading

Everytime I go in for a class party, I am so grateful and amazed at the job that elementary school teachers accomplish everyday. When you do the craft at these parties, you wonder how these women and men get anything done! The kids are fun and awesome but the range in their ability to listen and understand is pretty broad- even on a super simple craft like the one I am about to share with you. Teachers, I salute you yet again! I like this because you can share it with kids who are a little older ( 7 &... Continue reading

For my Handmade Arcade back in December, I made these fun Hello Hoops. I have been buying hoops from the thrift store for years. They are irresistable, no? I am on a thrift store diet currently, but I still have my stock pile of hoops just waiting for something cute. I printed out "hello" in a nice font (i think it was little days) and then taped it to the window and put my fabric on top of it to trace it. For some reason I always just thought of embroidery on white fabric so I liked the freedom on... Continue reading

Everyone spends the month of January organizing in hopes that this will finally be the year that we spend our time sewing and not searching for supplies and pattern pieces, right? I am just like everyone else! I am in the process of finishing up my sewing room. What was once a dark and dingy unfinished basement is now shaping up to be a really great room. Here is a little something I did to organize my most used patterns~ This is simply a curtain rod and curtain rings with clips. I labeled my patterns and inserted them into gallon... Continue reading

I have a big cruch on those old vintage valentines that show up on Pinterest this time of year. I wish I had a bundle of those pretties to send out to all my family and friends! When I saw this one, it reminded me of a gingercake pattern. That cute penguin looks a lot like our very own Annie's Penguin! I decided that I had to make a Gingercake penguin to match... It turned out so cute! I love his scarf and hat so much. And then the heart (made from using the cut out belly!) really makes him... Continue reading

In the past few years, my friends start asking me about the cookie party in Septmeber. "You are going to have the cookie party, right???" I will admit that it is pretty fun and pretty wonderful to have a plate full of gorgeous cookies when you head home after. If you are interested, here is some info about cookie parties of the past~ Cookie Party 2010- in this post, I talk about the invitations and the rules which you are free to "borrow" and in this post, you can see actual photos of the party for that year. Cookie Party... Continue reading

Novemeber was a fantastic month for Gingercake (aka moi). I can't tell you how much I loved seeing all the beautiful things my sewing friends made with Gingercake patterns. It was wonderful. I realized that here on the blog I never shared our last (but certainly not least!) Gift series sewer. Jessica from A Little Gray made an On the Go Organizer! Her fabric combinations are the coolest, huh? Thank you so much to all the sewers in the holiday gift series! I did sew all the month of November for my show I do here in Pittsburgh called the... Continue reading