once in a while i stumble upon a blog that makes my heart tremor and the hairs on my arms stand up...in a good way. i usually proceed to call out to the hubby "i found one!". it is honestly one of the sheer joys that i have with blogging. i get such a thrill out of finding someone who i just know in my gut is going to make a huge footprint in our blogging world. kelly from "sewing in no man's land" is just that lady. honestly.
kelly sent me a nice email a while ago so i checked out her blog and immediately emailed her begging to let me rant about her here. she so sweetly offered to do up a lovely tutorial for my post! how kind is that! when she asked me what to make i immediately asked for something to help me to cover my post baby belly - of course! she whipped up this stunner of a frock called "the sunshine, daisies, bottom mellow dress" for all of us girls (you can read more about it below).

this sewer, photographer, mother of 3 gorgeous littlies , and wife, currently living in east timor has cast me under her spell and get this....she has only been blogging since the start of july ....insert me falling on the floor in a puddle of envy!!! seriously. fabulous! i have been dying to share her with all of you for a few weeks now and i can't wait for you to see what goodies she has over in no man's land. what i adore most about kelly's blog is the story behind it. nope, it's not just another sewing/mommy blog. there's a twist and it's captivating, interesting and lots of fun! plus all her tutorials and patterns are free! so join in and get sewing!

wanna know more????? you know you wanna.......let's let kelly tell you in her own words or you can read about it here.

Dear friends,

“I like to begin our conversations as if we are the oldest and dearest friends.” That is how I honestly feel about my readers and the people behind the blogs I follow. That is how I feel about Shannon. I live a world away but I feel like I could drop her a line if something hilarious happened while I was crafting and she would totally love it. So, can we be friends?

My name is Kelly and I am the girly behind Sewing In No Mans Land. Before I show you the fun tutorial I have prepared let me tell you a bit about myself. I grew up in San Clemente, California and I am a beach bum to the core. I met my hubby in AP History in high school when my family moved to Utah and was immediately smitten. He was a senior though while I was only a junior and headed off to Brazil for two years while I graduated high school and had a blast attending BYU. He randomly stopped by my house a few months after he returned and that was it, I was a goner. After we were married he was activated with the National Guard to serve in operation Iraqi freedom. He was gone for 18 months. It was a hard time. It was at the beginning of this time that I took up sewing. My mother-in-law is the most amazing seamstress. This will tell you how good, when she was in the Miss Hawaii pageant her talent was sewing! She was endlessly patient with me and I became totally addicted. When my hubby returned we welcomed Sawyer into our lives, our first baby boy.

When he was 3 months we headed off to Law School at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. When Sawyer was 6 months I started feeling super sick and took a preggy test. Sure enough we were pregnant! We both laughed so hard that we were going to have cuties so close. When we found out it was another boy we were thrilled. Finn is a little over 15 months younger then Sawyer and they are BEST friends.

Our last year at law school we found out we were expecting again! People would literally stop me in the grocery store and say "oh sweat heart, trying for that girl?" It got me so irritated I started saying "Oh no! I do boys, I'm a BOYS mom". Then we found out we were having a girl and I just about died with excitement at the sewing prospects.

Shortly after Genevieve was born we moved to DC so Daddy could start his dream job with the US State Department. We had no idea which embassy we would be working at, when they told us it would be Dili, East Timor I said "where the where?" For the next two years we live here, in Timor Leste, a tiny country at the end of Indonesia right off the coast of Darwin, Australia. My hubby is helping run the Embassy and I am doing my photography as usual (oh I am a photographer by the by). Timor is an amazing place. Devastated by their long struggle for freedom, which only ended a short decade ago, most families live in crushing poverty.

When we moved here we were allotted a certain amount of baggage weight. I had to carefully decide which items would come and which would stay. All three of my sewing machines came. But, on the flip side, I could only fit 15 yards of fabric. I had no idea what would be available in Timor. Once I arrived and saw how positive, and happy the locals were even though they literally had nothing, I decided to drop my die hard consumerism and see just what I could make with those 15 yards. If I needed anything else I would try and support the local economy by purchasing it here. Once I run out of fabric I will have to make do with what I can find here. If I am sent fabric by family, friends, readers etc. it goes to making things for the orphanage in our neighborhood.

My motto now is minimal fabric maximum cuteness. I only started 3 weeks ago and have already become completely absorbed in the progress. Since I LOVE creating my own patterns I also make sure all the patterns for what I make are available for free to my readers. I created this blog so that I could feel connected to others who are creative even though I live in such an extremely remote part of the world. I feel so blessed to have already made some amazing friendships and I literally treasure every comment made on my posts. So please, come on over, watch the experiment and learn a little about a tiny struggling country a world away and who knows where we will be next! Now for the tutorial!

I wanted to share a brand new dress pattern I made. I have been battling the baby belly unsuccessfully since Evie was born so I wanted a dress that would hide it a little without looking like I was wearing a bag ha! The Sunshine, Daisies, Bottom Mellow Dress was born.

I am slightly obsessed with the color combination of yellow and grey but I think it would look great in any color! Keep in mind my model is a good four inches taller then us average ladies, ah to be tall.

Please check out the full tutorial at Sewing in No Mans Land. Print out the pattern, follow the simple instructions and make something fabulous for yourself!

Cheers!

Kelly

thanks so much kelly! i seriously have a girl crush on you. thanks for letting me email you gushing my heart out about your fabulousness and for you not thinking i am a crazy person..haha. i'm so glad we were "meant" and here's a big hello to your equally fab mom over in ireland - i'm coming to visit :)

am i the only one suffering with the baby belly blues or are you all on the hunt for clothes to make to hide the bulge too? c'mon now, share your secrets :P

*all images copyright sewing in no man's land