Happy Birthday Seanna!

warning: the following post is long with lots of text and mushy feelings.
If you are not into these things please scroll down to the pictures and look at the sewing goodness. This month was my sister Seanna's birthday. She's in her lower twenties and taking the world by storm. We are only three years apart, which meant that growing up I bossed her around, tortured her, and spent lots of my childhood playing with her. She was the one that I concocted adventures with.

When I had horrible night terrors she was the one who I climbed in bed with (yes I know I'm older she should have been climbing in with me).
No matter how late at night or how tired she was she never once complained.
I'd whisper "Seanna tell me a story, so I don't think about the dream" and she would half asleep come up with some bizarre story to distract me.
It always worked and I'd fall back to sleep.
As we got older it was often me doing her make up, or her stealing my clothes, I would go to her when I needed to vent, and she'd come to me to
brainstorm idea's for her art.

She's got to be one of the most talented and artistic people I know. Whether it's sewing clothes for a doll, creating bead sculptures of fairies and dragons, or drawing and painting fantastic pieces of fantasy art; she just excels. Even now she and I are always talking about ideas for creative projects, helping explore ideas and possibilities on each others creative processes.

I've always believed that soul is thicker then blood. Many times people are born to families that are not nearly as loving or supportive as people we meet along the way who are like family to your soul. Often we adopt those people into our family.
I'm very blessed to have a sister who is not only a blood sister but also a soul sister. How greatly blessed I feel to have been able to grow up beside her.
Happy Birthday Seanna, I hope you find all the most wonderful things in life,
and hope you never stop creating the fantastic things you do!

For her birthday I really wanted to go all out and do something special for her.
It took me approximately two and half weeks to make everything here. The most difficult was the bag.

I started out with making her some comfy pajama pants. I found this fun teal Tye Dye material in flannel and felt it was just perfect. (all shades of teal are her favorite but especially dark tones)

The flannel is soft and warm with out being too bulky like fleece. They are loose enough to lounge in but have a drawstring so they don't fall off her butt. Also after making a pair for my husband last month he suggested that the only things he would have added to his besides a drawstring (i was too lazy to add one to his) was some pockets. He said they are nice for when he needs to run some errands and needs a place to put his keys or wallet.

So pajama pants version 2.0 have two feminine style pockets in the front. She really loved the look of them.

This is her checking out her new digs. "wow, awesome dude" (yep we are orginally california girls so everything is sprinkled with the word dude or awesome)

Here is a nice view of the cute little pockets. When I make my next Men's style I'm going to do larger pockets with a closure since they have bigger wallets and don't carry purses.
She's carries a purse so these stylin ones are more for knic-nacks and treats.

Pajama pants are rather easy so I decided I needed something a little more swanky in there for her too. Something she could wear out on a date, or to church. Also long sleeved since winters here are pretty cold and snowy.
I present bell sleeved romantic shirt in her Fav color again Dark Teal.
This material took me a long time to find but has the perfect shade of teal. Her being an artist the shade does make a difference. It has elegant scroll designs and a cool gradient between the teal and the dark blue. That way its not too teal.

My biggest fear was that it wouldn't fit right. I had measured her before hand but couldn't have her trying it on before the big reveal since that would ruin the whole surprise.
Luckily the measurements were accurate and it fit perfectly.
The pattern was a gift from my Step mom McCalls pattern M5050. This one was the size small.
The pattern was easy to follow and had great instructions.

Then I made a matching handbag to go with the shirt. It is lined with a black satiny lining material. There are three pockets around the exterior of the bag and the main pouch is closed and carried by a cute drawstring. This was cut out from Simplicity pattern 5320 D. Ditty bag.
The original patterns are really for a patchwork style quilted bags. I loved the shape of the bags but don't care for the patchwork quilt look.
(it screams old lady bag to me)

So I used the basic pattern but took off the top row of the external pocket that is patchwork, and used the same material for all the external parts. I think this made it look more modern and hip.

I also used a medium to heavy interface material to help the bag be sturdy. The pattern calls for fleece, but I just used the firm kind I had on hand which I liked better. I used it on the bottom and the external pocket but not on the main body of the bag.

It goes nicely with the shirt, but she can also use it with other outfits, Its small and easy to carry but still has plenty of room on the inside for her wallet and makeup etc.. The outside pocket is perfect for her cell phone and lip gloss.
(If anyone is interested in these hand bags, or the shirt handbag set let me know and I'll make more for my etsy shop.)

Here is a closeup of the detail on the sleeve. Its a really pretty bell shaped sleeve. I love this shape of sleeve it for some reason makes me think of Romeo and Juliet. It was the one thing she'd requested if I'd ever make her a shirt was to have the bell shape sleeves.

If that wasn't enough I decided she must have home made cake.
So I made from scratch a vanilla yellow cake with a white cream pudding filling.
It's decorated with cream cheese frosting which was very tasty!

Now this is my first time really trying to decorate a birthday cake and in my opinion it looked like a train wreck. The layers weren't the most even and of course my tips weren't liking the cream cheese frosting for the piping.
Fortunately even though I wanted to cry and call it my ugly duckling Seanna loved it and thought it looked great. (maybe just sparing my feelings)
I even tried to hand mix the food coloring so she could have teal frosting haha. It turned out a little more blue green then teal though.

The face she's making here is due to mom saying that there are so many candles we might end up with wax on the cake. Apparently candle wax doesn't sound tasty *rolls eyes*

The birthday girl made a wish and blew them out. We feasted on Asian themed dinner with home made egg rolls and then spent the evening rocking out on rock band for the Wii!