Lettie Bee

Cubes of Citrus

2012-01-31T17:07:00.005-07:00

I LOVE Mountain Dew (well, diet Dew). In the past year I drank way more than one should, so I cut myself off a couple of weeks ago. I have been drinking more water (yea me!) and I thought I'd like it more if sometimes I had some variety to it. I saw a friend pin this idea and I figured out how to solve my boring water problem on a smaller scale.

I don't know about you, but I don't usually buy lemons and limes and keep them stocked just for water. So, when I had some the other day that never quite made it into the recipe I had planned, I tried out my idea. I cut an orange, lime, and lemon up into chunks and filled some ice cube trays with the pieces.

I added some water and put the trays in the freezer until they were solid. All my cubes went into a plastic bag.

Now I can have just a touch of citrus in my water whenever my little heart desires (or my stock runs out). And don't mind the floaties - it's just pulp!

Saw it/Did it: Hair

2012-01-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, I have a lot of love/hate feeling towards Pinterest. That is a whole post of its own that I certainly will get to some day. I thought it would be fun to post things I did that were something I saw on Pinterest. I will always link you to the original website (because I figure that is what you should do, since Pinterest didn't come up with the idea). So, The "Saw it/Did it posts will be things I found on Pinterest. Maybe it'll get me doing more and looking less.

Last night a friend had pinned a "no curl" tutorial. I have used some in the past and thought I'd give this one a go. It was from The Paper Mama. Basically all that is required is a headband. I tried it last night and here's how it turned out.

The pictures is a dumb self portrait, but it shows the hair well enough. The is not how it first looked, but instead after a walk to and from my son's school. I didn't remember to put gel in my hair (I don't own any and forgot to use mousse or something else). My band was thinner than hers. The mark on my forehead didn't go away for like 2 hours. Also, I have short hair, so I had to go back and curl all the ends under. I will still consider it a success and good for a day I want some texture. My hair is baby fine and straight as can be, so it is fun to have a little volume now and then, even if it does look a little like my perms in the 80s. Next time I will try a softer, fatter headband.

Update on the Wreath

2012-01-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

I know you guys are just dying to know what I ended up doing with the wreath. (I know you aren't, but I still wanted to share.)

If my husband said it was too plain, than that certainly meant that it was. So, I added the rest of the tulle on, inspired by this wreath that my sister had pinned on Pinterest. I ended up just folding the tulle like fans and pinning it in.

So, here's the final product! I still don't love it, but I like it much better!

Apple Quesadillas

2012-01-20T19:49:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I discovered Pacific Rose Apples at the grocery store. I tried them and loved them...and then it seems my grocery store stopped carrying them. This is the time of year to find them and since my grocery store still doesn't have them, I asked around about them. A friend led me to a different store and lucky me gets my fancy apples again. Now, these are not priced like a Granny Smith or Red Delicious, but to me they are worth it.

Anyway, the first time I bought them, the produce lady suggested that I add them to a quesadilla. So I tried out her suggestion.

Ingredients:

Flour Tortillas (I prefer the kind that are not cooked when you buy them.)
Jalapeno Jelly
Pepper Jack Cheese
Pacific Rose Apple (may work nicely with other types too)

Preheat skillet at medium to medium high. Grate the cheese and thinly slice the apple.

Spread a thin layer of the jelly, then add the apples (maybe a little cheese between the apples and jelly, if you want). Top with the cheese and fold in half. (If using uncooked tortillas, cook just one side of tortilla before adding toppings)

Cook in a skillet until tortilla is browned and cheese is melted.
Now eat it and like it!

Another Not Project Post

2012-01-12T23:33:00.003-07:00

I used to love doing laundry when I was younger. I loved the sorting, the separating the "hang up to dry" vs dry in the dyer clothes. I was actually pretty good at folding stuff up right as it came out of the dryer. And most of the time those nicely folded clothes got put away within the same 24 hours. Things are not quite like that now. Not at all. I have never been good at taking care of my clothes after I wear them. I remember being in elementary school and having a pile reach as right as my desk of clothes that had been worn, but were still clean enough to wear again.

Multiply that bad trait, plus that I do laundry for 5 people now, and you can imagine my laundry/clothes pile woes. (My other blog where my sisters and I write about kid projects is aptly named "Heaps of Laundry," though no one should be tricked that it is all or even mostly due to all the awesome stuff I do with my kids as super mom.)

Where am I going with this? Well, I dazzled myself today by putting away all the clothes that have been piling up next to my bed waiting to be put away. (Okay, there are a few things like socks that are still sitting there waiting to find their mates.) As I was putting them away and finding my closet space fill up, I decided I wanted to blog about a few clothes things. Maybe this is totally not interesting, but it will get it out of my brain and make space for other stuff. Or who knows, maybe you are just like me and you will find it riveting (you won't).

I'm hoping that the 10 of you will join me in a discussion of sorts about how you build your wardrobe, what guides those choices, where you shop, fashion sense in general, fashion likes/dislikes, etc. I think it will be fun. So, I guess I will see you soonish.

Wreath=Done

2012-01-07T22:01:00.001-07:00

I got the wreath done and on the door.

I don't love it. It seems to plain, but I really have no idea what I am doing. Suggestions?

Not So Wintry...Yet

2012-01-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

So, here I am again, this time to report on how I am doing with some goals so far this year. (Two posts here so far, that is a good start!)

Re:Finishing stuff. I bought some snowflake ornaments, a styrafoam wreath thing and some tulle last month so I could make a winter wreath. I have only made one other wreath in my life and it is far from amazing (though I bought my first glue gun because of it and was a little weirded out that I was doing something so crafty.)

As I wrapped tulle around my foam ring thing, I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I arranged the snowflakes a few times and it just looked bad, so I quit. This is my normal pattern. I get frustrated and just stop. However, this time I am going to finish it anyway.

I looked around on the internet and found a few wreaths people made with supplies similar to mine. So, I pinned them on my Pinterest account and hope to get it done and on the door by the end of the week.

In addition to that, I have a baby gift to make by next Monday and hopefully I will decided which other things on my list to tackle next.

Hello

2012-01-01T13:22:00.001-07:00

Hello, nearly forgotten about blog. I remember that you are here and I keep meaning to utilize you for more things. I have a folder full of project I did months and months ago (some even a year ago!) that I haven't put up. In part it is because I am doing other things (aka lazy) and also because somethings I fell like I need all these photos instead of just a final project, which is usually all that gets photographed. I hope to visit you more often this year, blog.

I have a few other hopes for the year too. I haven't made resolutions in eons, but for some reason this year I feel like I really am wanting to turn over a new leaf. Could it be that 35 is looming ahead just a few month away? Maybe subconsciously. Is it because I feel suffocated in my house with all these unfinished projects, do-tos not done and just too much stuff? For sure.

One of my biggest goals for 2012 is to be better at managing my time, to be organized at least enough that I don't feel so scatterbrained.
I want to finish a slew of projects or just toss them out.
I want to live my life in a more focused way. (If you have not read Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider, you should now. It's about living a better life, not just cleaning stuff.)

There are other ideas I am toying with putting on my "official" list, but I don't feel like I need/want to share them here. So, let me just end my post with something I made so that I feel like I am getting the blog back on track...

I made some freezer stencil shirts at the end of the summer. I don't make them often enough and they are incredibly easy. (Well, I still don't love the xacto knife work and long for the simplicity of a Silhouette machine, but alas...)

Bike for the hubby who loves to mountain bike (a little too high on the shirt, but now I know for next time).

For the son that prefers a scooter over his bike, a scooter. A revers of dad's bike for the son who loves to ride is bike too.

So, I hope to be back again soon. :)

To Match Striped Pants part 2: The Sock Monkey

2011-09-25T12:34:00.000-06:00

Remember like a hundred years ago when I posted striped pants part 1? Well, here's the other gift set I made to match the second pair of pants. This was for one of my favorite friends who had a baby girl (who is now like 5 months old or something - see how awesome I am at keeping this blog updated?!) I actually really like what I did here and I think that is okay to say sometimes. :) A couple of years ago when I bought the monkey fabric below my big plan was to make all these blankets to sell on etsy. I thought I'd make them into sets with mini sock monkeys and they would be a giant hit. I ordered a dozen mini sock monkey kits online and guess what - I didn't make any of them. I started, but they just weren't working, so the kits were in my "to get rid of" pile, until this idea came along!

Totally perfect for making a sock monkey applique. I intentionally went for a sort of rough/frayed look and I loved how it turned out.

Because I like this friend so much I didn't stop at cute monkey kimono. Nope, she got more!

The red fabric on the monkey blanket is super soft. The burp cloth is pretty standard. I always pre-wash my stuff before I give it to people (because you can't return a home made gift, now can you?) but it always makes the diaper of the burp clothes look a little used. Anyone know how to help that?

The whole gift kit set. An actual sock monkey really would have fit in perfectly.

Millions of Peaches

2011-09-19T13:12:00.006-06:00

Right now is a great time to load up on peaches. And they are usually less money if you can get an entire box. Worried that they will go bad? Fear not.

Take out as many as you can eat. Store them out on a counter stem down. I used to let them all hang out in a bowl together, but I noticed the skin would get all wrinkly. Now I just leave them out by the bowl and don't seem to have that problem. Cut up the rest and remove the skins. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and then and lay the peach slices flat in a single layer.

Toss in the freezer and let them freeze.

Then pop them in a trusty freezer bag and suck out all the excess air (a straw is handy here). Pre-label the bad while it is flat. Now you will have fantastic peaches for pies and smoothies for months.

Camera Strap

2011-09-18T21:26:00.000-06:00

Just catching up on some old projects. I made this camera strap for my sister's birthday (um, over a year ago...) I need to make me one. I can't remember which tutorial I used, but there are SO many out there. One thing to note though is that the more professional level of cameras have a longer strap - at least my sister's Canon did.

Matchy-Matchy

2011-07-11T12:12:00.002-06:00

When my older sister was a little girl my mom used to make them matching outfits. I've always thought they looked cute when I looked through the pictures of them. When I decided that I was going to make a dress for my brother-in-law's wedding, I knew I had to make my baby girl something to match.

Wanting both outfits to be simple, I decided to make a skirt for her using one she already had as a guide. Lucky for me I found a cute and a little bit fancy brown onesie at Carter's on clearance.

The brown in the skirt fabric and onesie didn't go perfectly together, but the layer of cream helped make that less noticeable. That, and it also made out matching not stand out as much. There is a waistband out of the flowered fabric, but it turned out a little more narrow than I wished.

As for my dress, my simple solution was to make a "seams" dress. I wanted a new dress in a hurry years ago and saw that my mom had a "1 hour" pattern. It was McCall's 7725. It was meant for knit, but we ignored that and made it out of some kind of Rayon or something (sorry, I'm not super great at knowing all my fibers). That is the above dress. We nicknamed that style a "seams" dress because you could see the black thread along the sides of the original version, like the tension wasn't tight enough on the serger and the threads were a little too loose. Since we made this dress I ignore the "knit only" rule on some patterns. However, that doesn't work for all body types.

I was skinnier back then and the pattern I had cut was too small, so lucky for my I found a bigger size on ebay! I whipped the dress up super quick and added a sash around the waist. I'm excited to have the pattern again because it is so easy to make!

Stars and Stripes

2011-06-28T10:21:00.000-06:00

Um, hi. I have gone missing again. At least I have been working on projects while ignoring you. :) I've never been great at having cutesy things on my door, but I like the look of a nice wreath, etc. It seems like I get more and more happy for the 4th of July every year and I've finally done something to show my feelings...

It's simplistic, but does the trick. And It was easy and cheap! I just bought a 4 pack of flags at Wal-Mart for $1 (or where ever you like, but some have less in the pack for the same cost), removed the "pole" and glued the flags on a ribbon. The fabric star in the middle I plan to replace with something a little studier, or maybe fabric again but double-sided to make it stronger and less likely to curl on the edges.

The little banner on the door was definitely a great addition to the two measly flags hanging out by the steps. Someday I'd love to have a bigger house and decorate it all nice and have the fun patriotic swag banners outside from Flag Day to Independence day. But for now, I am happy with how I have set up our doorstep.

To Match the Striped Pants part 1: Bubble Gum Machine

2011-05-31T22:21:00.001-06:00

While Old Navy was having one of their sales where the clearance is marked down an additional 40% off, I went to go pick up some clothes for my kids. I found these adorable striped pants. The only size that had was 0-3 months. I was so bummed because my daughter had already outgrown that size. I bought both pairs anyway, knowing I would need baby gifts down the road, plus I loved them too much to NOT buy them.

When I decided they needed a cute onesies to go with them, I immediately thought of a gumball machine. I used the same fabric I did for the car seat cover and canopy blanket, thinking that the circles sort of looked like gumballs. The shirt didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned and I couldn't settle on which color of thread to use for the outside of the globe part of the gumball machine, hence the double layer.

But in the end, I liked how it turned out overall and combined with the pants I thought it was a cute gift.

Stay tuned to find out what I paired with the other pants...

Gifts for Eva

2011-05-07T09:19:00.002-06:00

Shortly after I got married, my sister-in-law gave birth to her first baby, a little girl. I was invited to the shower and like a naive new member of the family with no kids, I gave her a big box of wipes. While that is an awesome (aka practical) gift for a second or third time mom, looking back I have often thought it wasn't very well thought out. I wished that I had given her something better and more fun. Well, fast forward about seven and half years and I got to redeem myself!

Despite the fact that baby #2 was also a girl and my sister-in-law might find wipes more useful this time than more clothes and blankets, I wanted to give her something I felt proud of. I got a few things from the store, including that onesie at the top that matched one I got for my own daughter.

Then, since I have a stash of blanket supplies I put together a blanket for her. It was my first time making a self binding blanket. Why haven't I done this sooner?! When I read about how to make one (which is actually pretty intuitive) on Tuesdays with Molly I bookmarked it right away to come back to in the future.

The green and pink were nice, but a little too plain for me, so I decided to add a little something that would tie into the outfits I had purchased (kinda nerdy, I know). I busted out some cookie cutters to make a perfectly fitting heart. I used scraps from another blanket that I made and let's not forget the cat that matched it.

Once that was done I still didn't feel like the gift was complete. So, why not make an appliqued onesie?

And while I'm at it, a matching skirt would be cute with it.

There, a little outfit set that also coordinates in color with the other gifts. Job complete. Redeemed myself from the box of wipes.

(And for the record, my sister-in-law is so sweet that she didn't feel like I had ripped her off with the wipes. That was just me.)

Lace Headbands

2011-05-04T23:34:00.002-06:00

My daughter has started protesting against wearing headbands. I put them on and she pulls them right off. This little charade reminded me that I never posted the headbands I have made. I'm using the term loosely, as really it is just a piece of elastic lace glued together.

I'm not into big bows and flowers and prefer something much smaller (even that black bow is big to me) ot nothing at all. My sister has 3 daughters and gave me a simple white lace headband when my baby was born. On it was a small loop of ribbon so that, if desired, a bow could be attached and I could mix and match. I have only made one set of bow clips (the brown above). I have supplies for more but...you know how I work. ;)

If you are wondering at all, the place I bought the elastic lace is called Lace Heaven. I know some people don't like the lace look, so there is always the option of buying soft fold-over colored elastic (which I would love to try!). I learned about it on one of my favorite sewing blogs, Make it & Love it.

Luggage Pals

2011-04-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

My sister-in-law had been wanting these luggage handles. I was going to buy them for her and then I paused and thought, as a lot of people who sew do, I can make that! So, I did. This was the closest fabric I could find to match. I just used the dimensions from the site as my pattern.

I had fabric left over so I made her a couple of luggage tags too. I used the same baseball card holders that I use for my mini picture holders, which she told me later didn't work so well and cracked. So, now I know something more bendy like vinyl is probably a better choice.

Crinkle/Tags

2011-04-12T18:46:00.000-06:00

I have made a few crinkle toys for the babies of friends or relatives, but never for my own kiddos. So, a couple months ago I made a crinkle toy with tags. (I had also never made any tagged toys for my babies.)

My little girl loved the sound of the wipes container, so instead of cereal bags like I used on the others, I cut the square out of the empty wipes wrapper.

I added 12 ribbon/ric-rac pieces along the edges and sandwiched them all together. Then I sewed along the egdes, leaving a small opening to turn it right-side out.

photo from pjtool.com

People have a lot of methods they use turn things right side out. My trusty tool was given to me by my mom. With hemostats (mine look like those in the picture above) you can actually grab the fabric and pull it through the opening. And then as a bonus, you can close them up and poke them in each corner or the fabric to make sure you get the corners as square as can be.

The top was my favorite silky black with white polka dots.

The backside was some super soft white minky that I had left over from the nursing cover I made.

She has liked it well enough, but I probably should have made it earlier in her life.

Some Rambling, Perhaps

2011-04-08T13:16:00.001-06:00

picture from hermanmiller.com

I have this problem that maybe you can relate to. One of my very favorite posts I ever read was at Small Notebook. Go read it. Basically it's about not doing anything because you make a tiny task into a huge job. That is me. I laughed as I read the article because I have put off finishing the last touches on a project because I get distracted by some other project I have supplies for and want to start or because I find yet another new fun idea somewhere in one of the many blogs I read.

I collect ideas. Ideas for kid activities (which I blog about with my sister Rachel and my Friend Nicole over at Heaps of Laundry), recipes, sewing projects, craft ideas, and even exercise workouts. You know, the kind in magazines where they promise a better butt in 30 days?

And then I get distracted. I don't try the new activities with my kids, we eat the same things over and over, my mending pile has things in it that have been there for a year, my sewing "to do" list doesn't seem to have an end, I have unused craft supplies using up valuable space, and I certainly do not have a better butt!

So what to do? Keep sitting here looking for new ideas while ignoring the ones I have tucked away in a file? Wait until I have a hard deadline to complete a project? Nah. I don't like those options.

What about working on my projects because I truly enjoy the process and the outcome? (Ok, I really did NOT like trying to correct the tension on my machine for about 30 minutes so that I could repair 2 small holes in my husband's pants last week, but you get the idea.)

What about sewing all those blankets I bought fabric for and get my etsy shop up and running again?

What about planning ahead each week what new activites to do with my kiddos?

I'm actually pretty good with making new recipes, I just need to stop collecting so many more, so I'll just keep up with that one.

And the better butt? Well, I don't know about that, but I did commit to a Red Rocks Relay team, so I'm going to have to bust out my running shoes again.

Those sound like good ideas to me.

I know there are only like 20 people who read this blog and I'm cool with that because I didn't start it for an audience. However, I want to do better here for me and for you. I'm trying to formulate what my objective is now versus when I began. I can't post every day. I know that. But, at least once a week would be nice - get a little consistency going.

And I might go beyond projects. I think of things I want to share and would normally put on my family blog, but I really don't think my dad and father-in-law (even my husband for that matter!) want to read about clothing choices, accessories that I don't understand or whatever I might randomly be thinking about that day. I want to be a little more human here too, which is scary for me. I have been known sometimes as a girl who has a bit of a wall built around her.

Wow, this has gone on longer than I meant, but I just needed to get it out there.So, to totally steal from Nike, now all I need to to is "Just Do It." And like she mentioned in the Small Notebook article, "Today I'm going to keep my work simple."

Can I really do this? I hope so. :)

Eastery Window

2011-04-07T11:11:00.000-06:00

I was recently visiting a blog I had never been to called Be Different Act Normal. Among many cute ideas they had posted was this one of an Easter egg garland they found on Family Chic. I thought it was such a fun and easy idea. And who doesn't have too many plastic eggs sitting around from years past? So, I took this idea and made it work for me.

Last Saturday it was in the 70s here and truly spring had arrived. There were blossoms on the neighbor's tree and some of my daffodils were in bloom, so I thought it was a good time to get decorated for Easter. I did no decorating last year, so I figured I had to this year. (Plus, my kids are ultra excited about it thanks to a fun Easter egg hunt we do at my parents' house every year.)

So. if you clicked on either of the links above you'd see that the garland was made with yarn snapped between the eggs. Very simple. I didn't have any pastel yarn and didn't want to go out and buy any, so I changed the idea. I have a lot of ribbon you'd use for wrapping gifts in colors that I never use. I knew it wouldn't curve all nice like yarn can, so I made mine as strips.

Just lay the ribbon across the open egg and snap shut.

Then you will probably have to bend the ribbon a bit if you use wide stuff like I did. This probably won't be a problem for thinner ribbon and probably not for fabric ribbon or yarn either.

Then add another in the same fashion at whatever distance you like and keep adding until it is as long as you want it to be.

And ta-da, easy Easter decorating!

And still pretty (maybe even more so) when it snows the next day!

I know spring is wild, but a 40+ temperature drop resulting in snow in 12 hours? Wow! It's gone now, in case you were wondering...

Pepitas!

2011-04-01T14:44:00.000-06:00

I love Real Simple magazine and their recipes rarely disappoint. I have been introduced to food I may not have eaten, or in some cases never even heard of before. And, when food looks pretty on paper like is almost always does in their magazine, you just have to believe it will be good in real life, right?

(photo from realsimple.com)

One of the many recipes I tried out from the magazine (or even more accessible website) was for Skirt Steak with Pepita Sauce & Warm Tortillas . We used flank steak instead, which is fairly comparable. We pretty much only buy uncooked tortillas now which was a nice side. The sauce was unique and yummy. However, my favorite part was the pepitas.

(photo from edibleportland.com)

What is a pepita you say? It's just a fancy name for a toasted pumpkin seed. Unlike when you roast seeds at Halloween time, these you just pop in the oven dry and just sort of wait until they puff up. I bought a bunch or raw seeds in the bulk aisle at the grocery store. They look like the photo above.

The pre-packaged kind like this are NOT what you are looking for. Dump your seeds onto a baking sheet (dry is ok or you can spray them with cooking spray or use a little oil if you want) and put into a an oven pre-heated to 350 for about 15 minutes. You'll want to stir them around now and then as you are waiting.

When they have puffed up a bit (you may even hear some "pop") and they are nice and crunchy, pull them out and salt them. They are quite tasty with the above recipe, but alone too, so make extras!

(Hopefully you'll try these and they will be good. These pictures (the first and last ones anyway) have been sitting in my Lettie Bee "to blog" folder for far too long. I didn't think to take pictures of the process, but you are smart, you can get it without photos. Plus, you can always ask me if you have any questions!)

Shirt to Pants

2011-03-17T12:47:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite thrift stores nearby is organized, well-stocked, has colored tags that are 50% off each day, has amazing sales, and sends coupons in the mail. So, not only can I get some nice used stuff for a low price, sometimes I can get discounts too! Every time I find stuff at thrift store I get so annoyed at myself for when I shop at regular stores.

Anyway, this what I came home with recently. Everything was for me except the shirt. I bought it with my baby girl and St. Patrick's Day in mind. (I have already been complimented on the shoes, am working on that spot on the shorts that I didn't notice in real life, and feel the need to go drink some (diet) Mt. Dew right now.)

I just traced around a pair of bootleg pants from Target that she has, cut and sewed them and a short time later, she had new pants (with plenty of fabric left on the shirt for other potential projects.)

So, now she gets to be festive this holiday and is safe from green-less induced pinches.

And even if her brothers don't want her to play with them, at least she can be happy in her green like they are.

(If you feel like making some festive "clover' treats today as seen above, head on over to Heaps of Laundry)

Dress-up Case

2011-02-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

When I saw this idea on A Girl and a Glue Gun last spring I decided I must make one. I thought it was such a clever idea and created a way to put a cap on the number of dress-up items to have. (Well, ours might not all quite fit in it!)

I found an old suitcase at the thrift store. It was in pretty decent shape as far as the exterior and the latches were concerned. Plus, it was only $3 or something like that.

The inside was falling apart, but that didn't matter since it would be torn out anyway.

I covered up the shiny parts of the suitcase with tape and then went to town with some red spray paint.

As you can see it didn't cover perfectly even, but I like it. (Maybe I needed more coats or else I am just not a good spray painter). And you can see in the picture below that the handle is black. I just used a permanent marker for that.

I didn't photograph the process of adding new lining, but the original tutorial does a great job. My glue gun broke in the middle of the process, so mine is have hot glue and half some kind of tacky fabric glue. It wasn't hard to do though.

I love having this as a place for my boys to put their play clothes. There are a few Halloween costumes in there that are WAY too small for them, but they still try to wear them and play with them.

And if you are looking for something more ambitious and really cute that also displays the dress-ups, you have to see this storage set up.

Yikes, Stripes!

2011-02-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

So, the Steelers lost. Admittedly pretty much only my husband was disappointed and maybe my older son a bit who asked me, "Mom who is the best team?" and didn't like it when I told him it was the Packers. The dress fit my baby girl perfectly. I put some little striped pants on her with it. The pants, if you would believe it, are something I made her for Halloween. They were a little big then, but she is also just a tiny human. I should clarify with tiny and amazing too. (She climbed up some of the stairs at my parents' house during the game!)
Anyway, back to the pants. I bought some shirts on clearance last fall. I forgot to take a before picture, but one shirt was a striped Henley, either XL or XXL. I bought it to revamp for me and realized I could make my baby pants too. I just cut off the bottom portion of the sleeves, sewed them together, added an elastic waistband and, viola! Baby pants. (I used a pair of her pants as a slight guide.)

And out of that $3 shirt also came a shirt for me. I had been wanting to make a some sort of ruffle shirt for awhile. This is pretty minimal, but I like it.

I added the ruffle, tapered in the sides, and since I was pregnant at the time, I proudly brought my work to hang in my closet since there was no way it would fit. My clothes are arranged by color, with black and white being right next to each other. Anything with both, like this shirt, gets sandwiched in between. Somehow in my haste to get a good deal on this shirt, I forgot that this was already part of my wardrobe.

It's obviously without the ruffle, but it is short and skinnier too, so I guess I don't have an exact duplicate, but still...

Steelers Girl

2011-02-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Can you guess who we are rooting for on Sunday?

Ever since I have known my husband he has been an avid Steelers fan. Our boys were small enough to fit into this cute Steelers outfit given to us by their uncle. Their little sister was a summer baby, so I needed to find something for her to wear to support them in the Super Bowl tomorrow.

Enter the "meant to freezer paper stencil something cute on this for my son" 3T shirt that he is too big for now (with pocket already picked off).

I lined it upwith a dress that it a little too big for her to get a basic dress shape (and really, with an a-line I could have just eye-balled it).

I cut the sides and then cut the sleeve narrower too.

Like so.

Then I gathered some some basic supplies (I had no yellow fabric paint, so I improvised and the used dryer sheet will be explained in a bit).

I slipped my printed out logo under an old white t-shirt and traced it with a washable fabric pen. This is something you could use a freezer paper stencil for, but I felt okay with the idea of semi-free-handing it.

I filled in my logo with paint and waited for it to dry. Once it was I ironed some light heat and bond on the back and cut out my circle.

I ironed it on the front of the shirt. Then centered the used dryer sheet under it on the inside or the shirt and pinned it in place. You could use pellon (or nothing really), but it is a nice stabilizer and it is a nice easy way to recycle. I got the idea from V & Co., but they used it for the front part of an applique.

Zig-zag stitch on the front and then turn over and you can trim your stabilizer.

Once that was done I just sewed up the sides on my dress. I thought it turned out nice but needed just one more thing.

Cute. I've yet to try it on her, so hopefully it fits and she won't be the only non-fan in the house.
Have fun tomorrow watching the game or more importantly, eating snacks and watching the commercials.
Go Steelers!

Chalkboard

2011-01-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

Last year I saw this hammered looking chalkboard at the thrift store. I knew my kids wanted one, but I passed. A week later it was still there and I decided it was meant to be so I got it. It was super cheap and needed some serious clean-up.

Because I had some supplies on hand, this really was an inexpensive project. My mom had a big container of chalkboard paint and she let me have some. I washed off the junk that was on there and then painted a few coats of paint on it. Once that was dry I used a little wood glue to stabilize the corners of the frame where the two sides came together. Then I covered up the new blackboard and brought it outside to spray-paint the trim. (Sorry that there are no pictures of these processes, but really, you can easily imagine it.)

Once I finally got some chalk, the boys were so excited to be able to sit down and scribble all over. Originally I was going to staple or glue some ribbon on the back and hang it at the foot of their bunk bed. Eventually I figured that was a bad idea. So, finally, I found a way to put it up in the kitchen without making any permanent damage to the doors in there.

I attached it to the door with these adhesive strips. They are amazing, easy to put on, and so strong. (We've got some of the same brand of hooks to hold the boys coats on in their room. Our house has very tine closets and certainly no coat closet!)

Now the boys have a little spot in the kitchen to go draw and I have a little more color in there. (Plus I get to look at cute drawings like this one of "dad" by my son when my husband was out of town.)

Un-Abandon

2011-01-27T10:04:00.001-07:00

My poor little abandoned blog. I actually have projects I haven't posted, but admittedly haven't been working on much lately. Last night I wrote up an entire post and with one accidental keystroke and Blogger's mostly nice auto-save feature (which was not so nice in this case) it was deleted. Awesome. You may feel like you've seen the next 2 items. The first one you sort of have. A friend of mine was helping with a gift shop for the Festival of Trees in December and the proceeds went to a local children's hospital. She asked if I could make a few things. I whipped these two up with stuff I already had on hand and wish I was less lame and had made a few more.

I love these. I still had rick-rack left over from the other shirt I made. The striped fabric was originally used for a pair of PJ capris for me (that of course have not been blogged about) and also used for the turtle on the other shirt. (Again the idea was from Homemade by Jill, although she fancies it up one step further with added buttons. I might need to try that next time.)

I liked my little caterpillar and am getting better with all those stitches around such a small area.

I love argyle. If you look in my sock drawer you will see that it is true. When Dana from Made posted this a couple of years ago I figured I could use the idea for my own boys (It's true, look at the comments). I haven't yet (and it also put an idea in my head for a really cute idea for a skirt for me that I will make someday too).

The pink fabric was left over from some receiving blankets and burp cloths that I made this summer. I don't think I would have normally chosen this color combo, but I wanted it to stand out from all the other presumably similar looking items in the gift shop. In the end I liked it a lot.

The ruffle bum. I love the ruffle bum. This time I used jersey fabric from an old t-shirt (that was also used to help make a sweet earth costume that I will get around to posting too, though maybe at this point I need to wait until early October!).

I think the jersey will look better after washing than the plain cotton has. I used the pink thread to match the front fabric for a nice added touch.

Hopefully both my items sold and that some happy girl & boy are wearing these right now. I am glad I could contribute just a little bit to such a good cause. I know many people whose families have been blessed by the services of those at Primary's, including my own. It is nice to have a hospital dedicated to helping kids so close to my home.

Nursing Cover

2010-11-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

I had seen nursing covers at enough baby showers, blogs and sometimes even in use that I decided it might be practical for me to make one for myself.

I read through a few tutorials online but mainly used the one from Diary of a Quilter. The main change I made was making it a little bigger like another blog suggested.

I also added both soft "wipe the mouth" fabric in the corners and pockets.

I will confess this - I have used it only one time to nurse. I'm just not coordinated enough. (That and not a fan for me personally to nurse in public.) If you can relate, know that it still can been useful. (Think long car rides when bottles need to be made - if you know what I mean...)

Cover & Blanket for Car Seat

2010-11-10T12:07:00.003-07:00

I have so many projects I am behind on writing about, including some I made before my baby (who is now 4 months old) was born.

One thing I wanted done before she arrived was a new car seat cover.

I traced around the old one to make the pattern.

I had planned on redoing the canopy too, but I was running out of time and having a little bit of difficulty tracing it. Plus, our canopy was sort of broken in a way that it was more in the way then useful, so we just took it off.

But that's ok because the next project has been a pretty good double for it.

I loved the idea I had seen on all kinds of blogs and people using in stores, etc. of having a blanket that attaches to the car seat.

I used the measurements and tutorial from Make It Do. Because I have the Z shaped handle, I emailed Calli to get some assistance on how to change the pattern for me. She emailed me back right away with a great suggestion and it worked.

Since I started using it there are a few changes I want to make and was waiting to post until I do those, but then I might never get this up. Basically, I don't like that I can't hold the actual handle then the blanket is folded up. And I don't like that her toys can't dangle down because the blanket blocks them (whereas a traditional blanket tossed over all the top still allows for that. I am planning on just making a few small slits in the blanket to allow for this. If/when I get to it, I will make sure to post.

Magazine Sort

2010-10-06T11:05:00.000-06:00

Ever get behind on reading your magazine subscriptions?

Or maybe you didn't pass up enough good deals on them? That's me.

And even though I have been going through the magazines to get them gone, I'm still an idea collector, a ripper and saver. And then I staple, sort and file, and sadly never usually use the ideas or look at them again. Well, except recipes.

One thing that has helped me reduce the piles of madness - a notebook. Instead of saving entire pages just for a website or interesting looking book title, I jot them all down in the same notebook. That way I feel like the idea is saved, but unlike the entire magazine or my file folders, it takes up just a tiny line on a piece of paper. And as I look at the links, try the ideas, or check the books out from the library, I can cross them off my list.

As for the rest of the magazine? A great way to keep the kiddos occupied while I sew.

Ladybugs

2010-09-13T23:04:00.001-06:00

When I saw this tutorial for a onesie dress from Running with Scissors (through Blue Cricket Design), I thought it was such a clever idea. I wanted to may a few for my baby girl and ran out and bought some fabric. I had a few questions on how to make it smaller than the tutorial, and so I emailed Jessica. She was super helpful and nice and her instructions were perfect.

I really liked how it turned out (but just couldn't get a good shot with my little wiggler). I just used fabric paint for the ladybug on the shirt part, using the bugs on the skirt as my inspiration. I still have two onesies and fabric to go with them that are just sitting around waiting to be worked on. But even if I don't get them down, this dress was worn at least once a week for the first few weeks of my daughter's life. Most of her other clothes were still just way too big.

Ruffle Bum for My Baby

2010-09-13T13:59:00.001-06:00

My first attempt at the "ruffle bum" seen on Crap I've Made turned out well, but it also turns out it wasn't actually my first time making a ruffly bum on a onesie. I'd just forgotten about the other, inspired by Dana. I love how they look, so I made some for my own daughter.

I bought two cute striped onesies in different sizes and found fabric that matched both from the remnant bin.

The ruffles seemed so big on such a tiny body! They were a little crooked, but I did improve on the last ones by putting them closer together.

For the front I added a little ruffle by the collar, created in the same style as the bum ruffles.

This is what it looked like after being washed. I should have tacked down the front because I don't think you should have to iron baby clothes.

Ruffles on the bigger, different colored onesie.

For the front of this one I just applicable one of the flower patterns from the same fabric.

Ruffles washed and then ironed.

Despite my dislike for having to iron baby clothes, it looks better than the alternative...

[Project from the Past]: Little Girl Outfits

2010-08-21T22:33:00.002-06:00

I was just sorting through some pictures and came across these two. they are gifts I made for a baby shower. Since the point of this blog is mainly for me to keep track of my projects, I thought I'd post it. There will likely be more posts like this in the future as I find other old projects to post about. I really loved how these turned out. Whether they got much wear from the recipients' little girls, who knows.

The black was maybe a questionable choice for a baby, I'm not sure. I thought the lavender ribbon softened up a bit though. The pants were like little capris.

I really thought this one turned out extra cute. I tried making a regular diaper cover for this set, but got frustrated by all the elastic I had to thread. In fact I still have the bottoms I originally started making with my sewing stuff. Maybe I can give them another go for my our daughter.

Sewn from a pattern: Butterick 3846

Other People's Babies

2010-07-01T18:58:00.001-06:00

I have had so many friends and neighbors having babies in the past couple months that I literally have had a hard time keeping up. I know I keep posting baby gifts, but hey, if that's what I'm sewing, that's what you get! Some people were having their first baby (or babies!) and others were on their second or third. I loved making stuff for all of them, and try as I might, I couldn't just given them something direct from the store. So, what have I been working on?

For the Twins in Texas:

My long time friend Jamie and his wife were expecting their first two kids in May. A boy and a girl! I made a little set of gifts for each baby and added a little photo holder to go along with it (they will just have to share!)

I sewed each baby a little carry along blanket, matching onesie and burp cloth. My favorite item in the boy set was the whale shirt.

And for the little girl my favorite item it one that I made along time ago to sell - the super soft and furry blanket.

Lily in Maryland

When I was in 5th grade I developed a friendship with a newer girl named Sara and we became inseparable best friends. Her dad was in the Navy (or Army?) and they moved a lot. She spent a few years in good old Iowa before moving on again. Despite her living in Maryland and me now in Utah, we have maintained contact all this time, which I love. In honor of our Midwest times together, I made her some burp cloths (actually enough for her and like 6 other baby gift sets!) from some cute farm fabric that I fell in love with a year or so ago. (It is always so nice to go to the stash instead of the store!)

I used a pattern from Homemade by Jill and copied her edging technique. I ran these through the washer just a few times, but know they will soften up on the edges more as they get used and washed.

And since Sara was having a little girl, I decided it was time to try out another sweet idea I'd seen, but first, simple appliques on the front to match the burp cloths

And then flip over for fun - the ruffle bum onesie! (from Crap I've Made, found through U-Create) ! I loved making these. I used the pinking shear technique. (I think next time I will line the ruffle rows a little closer together.)

I added in one of my favorite baby books (that just so happens to color coordinate too!) and shipped it off in the mail just in time for baby Lily to arrive.

The Neighbor Babies

These two gifts were fairly similar and inspired by this awesome birthday party favor. My original idea was to make a Lowly to go with each of the Richard Scarry books, but decided that was an undertaking I'd save as something to keep for my own kids. So, instead I made shirts that matched the cars in the book. (And tossed in more photo holders.)

Obviously Lowly in the apple car was a must.

And who can resist a pig in a pickle car? (The pictures in the smaller book are a little different. The ones I chose for the background came from the must have "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go," if for nothing else than to find goldbug on every page.)

The next gift was for a third child who already had a big brother and sister. My guess is clothes were probably well covered already, so I just "made" a simple ric-rac kimono as seen here also from Homemade by Jill. I thought it needed a touch more so I added a turtle and sewed up a soft turtle with a few bells in it. (This was one of many project put together while I suffered through insomnia!)

A family who was adding child #2 to the family and the first boy got a gift set similar to what the Texas Twins got. I BOUGHT part of it at the store! I was so shocked at myself. Well, obviously the onesies from the other gifts come from the store and so does fabric, but these were items I hardly touched, but couldn't resist adding just a little to them.

I had bought this flannel previously and thought it was perfect boy fabric. So, I backed it with some dark green (which actually matches the small darker parts on the blanket very well) and should have stitched it with orange for fun, but I couldn't find my orange thread until I was all done.

As for the slightly jazzed up store bought part, I found this little set that matched the colors in the fabric and I thought it would be fun to add a little bit on the blanket fabric on the shirt and shorts.

So, I think I am all caught up on other people's babies, which is a good thing - my baby will be here around Monday sometime and I have a few more projects for me to finish up first. We'll see when I can get them posted. And then maybe we'll move on to something non baby related (I did make PJ bottoms for me!)

Light Summer Meal - Rainbow Wraps

2010-06-26T10:21:00.000-06:00

This is a nice (very colorful) change of pace from a normal sandwich and great for picnics!

Use the following ingredients in whatever quantities you prefer.

Veggie cream cheese
Spinach flavored wraps (or tortillas)
Red cabbage - thinly sliced or shredded
Carrots - shredded or bag cut in matchsticks
Red Onion - thinly sliced
Avocado - sliced
Turkey sandwich meat (or other sandwich meat)
Romaine lettuce

Just spread the wrap (or tortilla) with cream cheese, slab on the meat, then add the other toppings. Roll it all up and eat!
This recipe was adapted from the recipe Crunchy Rainbow Wraps in Aviva Goldfarb's book "The Six O'Clock Scramble" (a very excellent cookbook, by the way!)

Maternity Jeans from Regular Jeans

2010-06-22T16:54:00.000-06:00

I had never thought about altering regular pants into maternity until I saw the movie "Juno," in which Juno's mom alters her jeans to fit her daughter's ever growing belly. Taking a bit from each of them, I referred to instructions and tutorials from Grosgrain, Paisley Princess, and Megan Nielsen. I have just over 2 weeks until my due date and figure I should probably post this now.

Before (and I should have made sure they were a little bit roomy in the butt/hips area since I do get bigger there too - maybe you don't and then just get whatever fits pre-big belly.)

Round one I chose a fabric that was similar to the blue in the denim. It was an old shirt cut up. I didn't make it tall enough in front and probably should have pulled a bit tighter. From the best I could tell, all Kathleen on Grograin did was use fabric.

It didn't work for me. Could have been my doing it wrong or my body type, etc. Who knows. My pants didn't seem to stay up and the back side had too much room between my body and the fabric (you can't see that very well in this picture).

I liked how Anna from Paisley Princess used a contrasting fabric, so I tried again. So, I got a stretchier tank top at the thrift store that had a shelf bra in it which gave it more elasticity (something I thought would help). I decided to make it a little taller in front since the blue version just settled too low for my comfort. It still was too loose and I decided that I had to use elastic. All my store bough ones had it, so, I unpicked again.

The only tutorial I found that also used elastic (which I will ALWAYS do again!) was Megan Nielsen's. Round three was the most successful by far. I should have started this way.

I was able to just add extra fabric to the back of my round 2 version and sew the elastic in there.

The addition of the elastic gave the right amount of support and made the pants fit so much better. Very comfy and way less than normal store bought ones (especially if you buy the jeans at a thrift store. Why get them new if you're just going to hack into them?)

Ruffle Shirt - First Attempt

2010-06-11T14:30:00.001-06:00

So, it's been awhile since I made this and will definitely be awhile until I can wear it. I have been loving all the t-shirt remakes I have seen online over the last few months. All kinds of ruffles and stuff added to regular t-shirts to make them pretty instead of plain. I bought several shirts on clearance to make some myself, but have only gotten to one.

I started with a plain black men's t-shirt that had come in a 4-pack along with the shirt I used for this skirt. For the ruffles I used an old favorite shirt that just was too short to wear anymore. (Same one I used for the guitar shirt.)

I cut off the collar to make a less "crew neck" neckline. Plus, that's what it seems most people have suggested on the sites I bookmarked.

I also shortened the sleeves to match some on a maternity shirt that I have and love.

I cut the other shirt horizontally into lots of strips.

Then I played around with where I wanted them to end up. This part was fun. (It reminded me a little bit of this sweet toy I had as a kid. It had this plate with a lady on it and you lifted the lid and draped different fabric over her body to make outfits. It was awesome - too bad I can't remember what it was called or have a picture. And as a side not to my side not. My sister - or maybe they were mine? - had Fashion Plates that were also very cool to play with.)

I decided on which ruffle layout I wanted and sewed it all together. And then I tried on the shirt. I thought because it was a man's shirt I could get by with a smaller size. Uh, I was wrong. This went right to the "after the baby is born" pile of clothes.

See? A little too snug with that big belly - even after I added side slits. And I think I should have put the ruffles on the sleeves after all...

EDIT - I found out what the toy is - "Flip and Fold Fashions!" Did any of you have this? It was so awesome!

(photos from here)

New Stuff

2010-06-09T16:21:00.001-06:00

A week or so ago I tried out the new pretzel M&M's. While nothing can beat the peanut ones, these were still really tasty and probably my second favorites now.

And I discovered another new thing today. Keebler has long since had a semi-replacement for Thin Mints with their Grasshopper cookies, but now you can have the taste of Samoas year round too!

They were pretty good, though not quite as delicious as the original. The cookies were a little smaller and they seemed to have less of a crunch. This might be because we always eat ours frozen though and I tried these in the store parking lot. Anyway, if you love Samoas, you might want to try them out, unless you can wait until next spring for the original that is...

Rock!

2010-06-08T12:56:00.001-06:00

My son is wearing this shirt right now and it reminded me that I hadn't posted about it yet. His older bro has two guitar shirts that I love. I wanted to get him one and instead just ended up buying a plain shirt to make into one. And of course that shirt went into the "to do" pile and didn't come out for a long time.

So, one morning I pulled it out and thought - ok, let's do this now. I stitched and painted it, hopped in the shower and he had a new very awesome shirt to wear.

Taking pictures of it to share was not an easy process. He was very upset about having to just sit still and let me get one good shot of the shirt. I wasn't even trying to pose him to make him look cool or something. (He's still cool with no pose though, mind you. However, it did make me a teeny bit jealous of the seemingly easily posed and cooperative I see on many other sites.)

Elephant trunk and tusks included, here's the final thing. It might need strings, but opted to leave them off as to not muck the shirt up.

Oh, look, that's almost a smile and a better shot of the shirt. The gray part of the guitar is a shirt that I used to love to wear. I used some of it on my ruffle t attempt, which I will try to remember to post soon.

Necklace Projects

2010-05-21T14:18:00.000-06:00

Remember when I said I was going to make these necklaces? Well, I did awhile back and I just haven't posted yet. I found the pearl ribbon necklace here.I pretty much just did a practice run with the necklace to prep for teaching the girls, but I haven't tried to perfect it.

Here are the basic supplies needed. You could use any kind of bead and there are lots of styles of ribbon to choose from. I imagine there are a lot of methods to actually stringing the beads. I just tried out different distances between beads to get different effects.

I actually don't know that this is something that I will really wear much, but it was fun to trey something new. More importantly, the girls I was helping make them seemed to like it, despite the challenge it was for them.

The other necklace project was the stamped washer necklace. I have not made these with the girls, and so far my first attempt was my best. I used this tutorial.

I liked that I had colored Sharpies and so there were more options to choose from to fill the letters in. Also, if you notice, the first "e" is a little shallow. You can go back and res-tamp it to get it deeper, just make sure you line it up all nice and tight.

And I'd recommend doing your stamping on concrete so it is extra solid, just make sure to put something behind the washer so it doesn't get all scratchy on the back.

String it up, add a clasp (on in my case two knots so it can slide to different lengths) and you are good to go.

Duck Towel

2010-05-16T21:06:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite baby gifts was a duck towel made by my aunt. Like my mom, my aunt has the gift of being a fantastic seamstress. The version she made for me is particularly great for babies and toddlers. It' s a corner hooded towel which I think is easier to wrap up little ones and keep them warm than some of the other towels I have.My kids have just barely outgrown it.

When a friend of mine got pregnant with her 3rd baby and decided not to find out the gender, I wasn't sure what kind of gift to give her that would be gender neutral. She already had a boy and a girl, so she didn't really need anything, but I wanted to make her something. The perfect gift?

Something that is a need too - baby wash, diapers and a super cute towel to dry off with and a fun "washcloth" to go with it.

I used a basic pattern from Martha Stewart for the washcloth. I had stitched the eyes on out of felt and machine stitched the beak from cotton fabric on.

Both the washcloth and the hooded towel were all made from the same towel. I used a regular size towel and followed the basic pattern on the one my aunt gave me.I loved how it turned out. It made me want to buy some more towels and made some for my own boys - although for 3 years old and bigger I think a bath sheet would work better (or the whole half a hand towel attached to a regular towel method).

Robo-Boogie

2010-05-11T10:18:00.001-06:00

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(photo from here)

We love Flight of the Conchords around here. LOVE. Even though the show is over and done with, the music still remains. It was about a year ago that we saw them in concert and it was spectacular. Along with this love comes a lot of listening to their music around the house. My kids have also become fans, even at such young ages and the Robot song has been among their favorites (the hit of the day changes all the time). I wanted to make them robot t-shirts and had a design all penciled out. My plan was freezer paper stenciling, but to get all the colors I wanted it just seemed too complicated. Then a friend posted a cute she had appliqued with an owl on her blog (I'd link you but it is a private blog). Then a light bulb went off and a couple months later...

A ROBOT shirt! And as tempted as I was to just buy some of the cute printed ones I saw in the store, I was determined to just make mine. I am glad.

I showed the boys my stash of scraps and they picked out their head, arms, and legs colors.

I had this perfect silvery fabric for the bodies from long ago when I was going to make a star themed bedroom set. Add it all to a white t-shirt, stitch a little and paint a little...

I seriously love them. (And the boys wearing them.)

Blogs I Like and My To-Do List

2010-05-07T14:02:00.004-06:00

I mentioned the other day that I found too many more blogs to look at and get ideas from. I cleaned out a few old ones that don't really apply to my life and added a few new ones to my Google Reader.

Some "new to me" blogs that are just full of fun great projects:

I am Momma, Hear Me Roar!

There are a LOT of projects on this site that I could post, mostly involving revamping t-shirts into something less plain. The main idea I am excited about amazingly is something I read in Family Fun magazine a while back and did not file into my brain. As I was telling my sister that she would love to make these bleach pen shirts she reminded me that it had been in the magazine too. I love the combos she does of bleach pen, fabric paint and on this one even washers! So, I have a shirt or two purchased just for this on my to-do list.

Every Crafty Endeavor

From this site I have already shown an idea I liked using washers for necklaces (and have made, but not posted still!) In addition to that, I like this jazzed up version and would like to make one.

Crap I've Made

If the title of the blog alone isn't enough to like it, then the ideas within certainly are. I was lead here via UCreate (which I had also never visited before) for a tutorial for butt ruffles on onesies. Although I have made a couple (to be posted later), they are still on my to-do list for my own unborn baby girl.

A Girl and a Glue Gun

This project is on my to-do list. In fact, I actually bought a suitcase this week for $3 and plan to just use fabric I already have.A suitcase for dress-ups. If you click on the link you'll see how fun the outside is, and she made a girl version too. And there are lots of other great ideas on this site as well.

Welcome to the Good Life

This girl is so cute (and tiny!) and does the most amazing refashioning. I have seen this project show up on several blogs, but I just needed to add it to mine because I think it is so cute. Inspired by this dress she transforms, on my to-do list is doing a little reworking on a red gingham maternity shirt that I have. So, look for that in the future, but don't hold your breath!

Adventures in Dressmaking

I liked the idea of "dressmaking" alone as I first saw this blog. I have had love/hate relationships with dresses throughout my life and have been leaning towards love the last few years, but have had that horrid mom tummy that doesn't go away for some of us so I haven't been comfortable wearing dresses (yeah, I eat super healthy and exercise all the time, so it's not because of that...or something). Anyway, there are also lots of ideas on ruffling up t-shirts. There are tons of ideas out there and I love to look at all of them. I just made my first one the other day (again, a post waiting to happen) and it was fun. Here's one of many she has on her site.

Sutton Grace

I don't remember how I got there, but it was a link showing the puzzle bags below. It's a fun way to store them. I have read about the space reducing ways of taking games (and in this case puzzles) out of their boxes, but I just can't. Kind of like how I like having CD liner notes instead of just the music. There's nothing specific on the site that I want to make yet, but I liked the blog enough to add it to my Reader for now.

Those are just the new blogs I like. There are loads of old ones. I think my all time favorite is:

Make it and Love it

She comes up with such fun and amazing ideas all the time. Some recent favorites are the interchangeable flip-flops, booties for baby boys, simple headbands (which someday when I chop my hair I will love to wear again. Headbands look weird with my super duper long hair.). There is so much more - and not just sewing but decorating ideas, yummy looking recipes, etc. Totally love this blog. Like I said, it's my favorite. On my to-do list are these simple stuffed animals. I intended on making them to sell as part of our fundraiser for the Great Strides walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but I am not going to get them done in time. Bummer.

And my all time favorite, the felt Mr. Potato Head. Apparently Hasbro didn't like her idea and asked her to remove the tutorial and pictures, but to those of us who subscribed to the blog via Reader, the old post is still around! Yippee! This means I can still make it at some point.

Another super duper favorite is:

Homemade by Jill

On my to-do list from her blog are a lot of things: a car play mat, a quiet book (something that has been on my list long before I found her site - in fact that is how I found her site, by searching for quiet book ideas - another great one here), and a cover for my Kitchenaid Mixer. My mom made us an awesome playhouse to go over a card table and I was excited when I saw Jill's version. It re-made me want to make one.a to go over a card table.

Nanny Goat

Now that I have a nice camera (that I really don't know how to use and have sat down to figure it out yet), making a camera strap is a practical idea. There are a lot of tutorials out there, but I had this one saved for when I get around to it.

There are a ton of other blogs I read regularly (and I will update my list on the sidebar some day), but don't really have specific in ideas to make from them. There are also a few other blogs I don't read regularly, but have found some items to make that I bookmarked for later.

This necklace featured on Samster Mommy. Not sure what color I'd do, but I like the idea.

Here were just some general ideas/color combos on shirts that I wanted to use for reference from Lex at My Momma Made it. I like the stripes.

Not a craft per say, but still a project. I saw this "chore chart" on Make It Sparkly (via Every Crafty Endeavor) and thought it was a great idea. I have my own variation in my head, it just needs to go from my to-do list to my done list (and maybe my kids will be better helpers?!)

This sweet portable soft "high chair" from This Mama Makes Stuff is such a great idea. Our booster seat/high chair is pretty portable on its own, but I still think this idea is good enough that I want to make one. There is also a version on Homemade by Jill)

There are other things that I have wanted to make for a long time but haven't yet. I have supplies for crayon rolls, felt boards (which I have sort of made some already), picture collages (I still have my own artwork from when I was a kid), a cute way to keep-without-keeping old childhood clothes (or your baby's clothes), and Scrabble tile pendants.

How about you? Is your "to-do list" just as long? What kind of projects do you like best? We'll see how many of these I can tackle and how many I avoid! If nothing else, I hope you find something that inspires you. There are SO MANY talented people out there!

Apple Crisp

2010-05-03T09:52:00.001-06:00

The picture may not be very pretty, but the food is good. I wish I could give you the original source for this recipe. My guess is Fitness magazine because it is a healthier version of a fruit crisp. I cut it out sometime in high school or shortly after, so it has been part of my recipe collection for a long time! I usually just use Granny Smith apples in it, but have also tried peaches with raspberries and that was good too. Any fruit/fruit mix could work.

Ingredients
-6 Granny Smith or Jonathan apples, sliced into eighths
-1 T lemon juice
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- 3/4 C. brown sugar

- 3/4 C. rolled oats
- 3/4 C. flour
- 2 T. cold chopped butter
- 2 T. apple juice

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place cut apples in 2 quart baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice and cinnamon.
In a bowl mix the sugar, oats, flour, and butter with a wooden spoon until it looks like large bread crumbs. Top the apples with mix and bake or around 30 minutes.
Is super good with vanilla ice cream!
(pre-ice cream it serves 8 and has 225 calories per serving.)

A few additional notes - I forgot the flour when I made it last night and it was still good just like that. If you don't have apple juice on hand, you can just use 2 T of water. I have used a mix of 1 T applesauce/1 T water before too. To get better coverage of topping on the apples and not be so filled to the brim, a 9x13 baking dish is also a good option.

Rabbit for Reese

2010-04-25T23:04:00.000-06:00

More baby gifts? Sorry, it's just what I've been working on and they have a tighter deadline, not only to be finished, but to be photographed. So, you've seen some of these ideas on the site before...

An appliqued onesie.

A picture holder on a set of links...

A cute little tag with the baby's name on one side and their sweet face on the other...

But here's my newest creation. It's a baby rattle! I just drew out a rabbit shape, sewed it up with a few bells and stuffing inside and then hand stitched the outside. I really liked making it and have some ideas for future rattles. (The rest of the gift was these store bought shorts, and a burp cloth/bib set that had a rabbit stitched on it.)

"New" Maternity Skirt

2010-04-20T21:27:00.000-06:00

I mentioned back on this post that I was wanting to try and change some regular clothes into maternity ones. On that post I listed some ideas I wanted to try. In this instance I didn't end up using either tutorial for my skirt. I bought this cute skirt from a thrift store.

I zipped it up as far as it could comfortably go and cut the rest of the top off. (Note to you and self - do your best to try the items on in the store, even if you have 2 antsy kids with you. I didn't try this on and it ended up being ok, but the pants didn't work out so well, but that will be a separate post because I don't have pictures.)

I cut up the blue shirt from a different thrift store run and created a tube out of it. Then I just sewed it to the top of the skirt. You should really make sure that the shirt is stretching the right way (around your belly vs vertical stretch) and make it be snug. I should have made mine tighter, but with this skirt it still stays up ok. More likely than not it will be smaller around than the top of the shirt (or pants if that is what you are working on).

What I love about the skirt is that I have maternity shirts in almost every color on the skirt. That way I can pretend I have really different outfits on, even if I am wearing the same skirt over and over - as it happens with pregnancy.

Ready, Set, Jet

2010-04-13T14:44:00.001-06:00

My friends named their new baby boy Jet. It is the perfect name for him, I think. Not that I have met him yet, but just knowing their family I know it is perfect. I wanted to make something for him and I couldn't help but use his name as my jumping off point.

A simple appliqued shirt.

A crinkle toy to match.

A freezer stencil painted shirt. Originally meant to be just his name, I accidentally got green on the shirt lower down. So, I busted out a potato, cut a little plane into it and stamped away.

I added another traveling photo album on links.

Tied it up with metal tag (name on one side, picture of him on the other) and sent it all off!

A Whole Lotta Blogs

2010-04-13T00:38:00.001-06:00

I just recently became in charge of planning activities twice a month for the 8-12 year old girls at church. While searching for project ideas, I discovered a whole bunch more blogs that I just had to add to my Google Reader (besides literally reading some from start to finish). No wonder I'm not getting anything done! I'm just reading about it. Actually, I have 2 projects (baby stuff again) to post, plus some attempts at making regular clothes fit my maternity body, and I think I'll write up a post with all the blogs I am loving (new and old) and maybe pick a favorite idea or project in them in case you haven't stumbled across them yourself.

Oh, and here are the projects I'm going to attempt with the girls this week. More info later on how it goes.

(from Random Thoughts of a Super Mom - though I have seen it other places too)

(from Every Crafty Endeavor)

The Last Piece - Finally!

2010-04-01T11:51:00.002-06:00

My niece was born almost 18 months ago. I got her bumpers and crib skirt done before she was born. It took me another year to finish her stuffed cat. Six months later, her blanket that I started before she was born(!) is done, I just need to deliver it. Can I just say finishing projects is such a great feeling?!

When I was deciding what to make for her, she said she wanted to keep with the circle theme that was in the room. I showed her some pictures of some blankets that Dana made. She liked that idea.

I added a few different details.

Circles just stitched,

satin binding,

and a furry backside (which I think is the best part!).

(FYI - The niece I made all of these things for was born with CF. Along with my family, I will be participating in the Great Strides Fundraiser walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you are interested in donating, just click on the button above (or on the site) Anything you can contribute would help. There is more information on the site.)

The Not Christmas - Christmas PJs

2010-03-15T15:47:00.001-06:00

I intended on making both boys a pair of PJs for Christmas, but it just didn't happen. (I was too busy staying up on Christmas eve finishing these.) That's ok, About a month later I finished one set. The second set has yet to be cut out.

I patterned the pants after these sweats that I love, but had gotten too short. Besides not paying attention to which way the fleece stretched before I cut them out, they are money.

And the shirt was patterned after this shirt. I love this sleeve cut on boys - well, generally, but especially boys. It has a name doesn't it?

And the finished product? I liked it. I am annoyed that I didn't pay attention to the stretch on the pants and the shirt. And the neckline on the shirt...

Well, I need to work a bit on my copying patterns skills. I sitll like it though and even though I wanted to correct the neck, I have been given the "no" by the one who wears it. At least I have another pair to make to fix my errors. Also, I have a lot of fabric left over. Originally I had bought a pattern, but when I opened it up I about died laughing when I saw how huge a 4T size was. Too bad the ladies sizes make us say - really, I have to go up THAT many sizes for it to fit me?
(Also I promise the only clothes I sew really aren't just PJs and skirts. They are just the easiest!)

Zebras

2010-03-10T09:46:00.001-07:00

My cousin and his wife are having their first baby. I couldn't make it to her shower, but I did send this little set her way.

The blanket is actually one I had started for someone who used to live down the street from me. I waited until the last minute to sew it for her shower. When I went to the fabric store I fell in love with this fabric and should really have bought more. I decided because I was short on time I'd just buy the binding instead of make it. I messed up on it as I was making it and got so frustrated that I just skipped it all.

I decided to get it back out and fix it, over a year later. My original idea, and the one I stuck with but maybe shouldn't have, was to have the stitching sort or match the stripes of the zebra. Does it look like a mess? I'm not sure, but it will just have to do.

I also added a little fabric on come cloth diapers for burp cloths. I forgot to use Wonder Under on the zebra applique, so hopefully it will still stay ok. I liked the added binding on the bottom of that one too.

And to complete it all, I tossed in another one of my Martha inspired mini picture albums. I hope she liked it. That's the worst part about sending a gift instead of actually being there. You never get to see the receiver's reaction.

Mmmm, Salad

2010-03-05T14:07:00.002-07:00

This is something I posted on my family blog a few years ago, but thought I would share here. It is a homemade version of my two favorite thing to order at McDonald's. Here is a copy of that post (and just to note - the salad is back at McD's, thank goodness!):

I do not love salad. In fact, I hated making it as a kid. I have been starting to like it more as I have strayed from the general (boring) lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. Last year I tried out the premium salads at McDonald's. They were so yummy. Months ago I decided to recreate the Asian one at home and it turned out fantastic! Last night I made the Southwest one (which last time I tried to order it, the McDonald's I went to didn't have it). The Asian one was easy because you could buy the dressing and the chicken marinade. The Southwest salad required some internet research. I found a version and modified it. So, here it is...

Marinade Ingredients:
1 T. honey
1 T. lime juice
1 T. mustard
1/2 - 1 t. chopped cilantro
Salad Ingredients:
1 bag chopped romaine lettuce
1 (8 oz) chicken breast (boneless skinless)
1 roma tomato (chopped)
1/2 green pepper (chopped)
1/4 c. frozen corn (I actually eyeballed this, so 1/4 c. is a guess - same with the beans)
1/2 c. canned black beans (rinsed)
1/4 c. shredded cheese (eyeballed also)
Handful of cilantro
Lime flavored tortilla chips (Tostitio's)
Dressing Ingredients:
1/2 c. (9 T.) ranch dressing
3/4 t. apple cider vinegar
3/4 t. lime juice
3/4 t. chili powder
1/4 t. miced onions
dash of garlic powder
dash of cumin

Chicken: Mix marinade ingredients together in a plastic bag. Add chicken breast, and refrigerate at least one hour (or up to 24 hours) to marinate. Grill on Medium heat 10 minutes each side. Sllice or chop into cubes before serving.
Salad: Dump bag of lettuce in a bowl. Add green peppers, cilantro leaves, and beans. Set aside. Add a little oil to a fry pan and cook the tomatoes and corn over high to medium high heat until slightly charred. Remove from heat and cool a little. Add to salad. Add cheese. Add cooked chicken. Sprinkle on crushed chips. Top with dressing.
Dressing: Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Now EAT, EAT, EAT!

This was enough for Nate & I with a little extra. I should have made more dressing & maybe more chicken. Next time I am going to try the method the original suggested for the dressing - fat free ranch and sour cream.

A Slight Re-vamp

2010-03-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

I went to the thrift store the other day to get some clothes to rework into things that will work in my maternity wardrobe. This is my stash.

The only thing I have re-vamped wasn't actually just for maternity purposes, but is for now. I bought 2 tank tops in a much too big size for like $1.50 each or something at Old Navy. I needed to be able to cover them up, so I specifically looked for shirts and sweaters that I could make into short-sleeved versions of themselves.

The only complete one just involved a little unstitching of the center seam. Easy! A few of the items I will just leave as is, but expect to see the denim skirt with a maternity waistband, same with the light blue pants (which will become capris for when I am boiling hot in the summer). I found a few tutorials on how to convert regular clothes into maternity.

Regular skirt to Maternity from a patch work world. I am not a fan of fuller panels, so we'll see if I use this one or not.
Similar tutorial, but this time for pants. And if I was as skinny as Kathleen from Grosgrain - pregnant or not!
Another pants one, but this one from Paisley Princess suggests to use a fun contrasting fabric for the band.
One more, this time Megan Nielsen shares her method.
Cute skirt turned maternity skirt by pink picket fence. I always think if it is cute and almost fits - shouldn't I just save it until I am skinnier again? I guess why not be cute and pregnant, right?
One of my favorite sewing bloggers that is about as pregnant as me, Homemade by Jill just posted how to turn a big t-shirt into a cute maternity shirt. Such a great idea! I'm excited to see what else she comes up with.)

(I have some other links that are maternity from scratch that I will post later.)

Why I Started a Sewing/Project Blog: A Remider to Myself

2010-03-01T18:38:00.004-07:00

My mom often says to me that she wished she had taken pictures of all the many, many things she has sewn over the years and kept a scrap piece of the fabric for a quilt or something like that. In my lifetime I am certain I will never make as much as she did before I was even born. However, because I haven't sewn that much, I have been able to take pictures of most of my projects. Originally I had just a photo album on photobucket as a place for me to keep track. Then a friend of mine started a sewing blog and I thought - what a great idea. Then I can write notes to myself, keep track of which pattern I used, etc. I didn't read sewing or craft blogs at the time. In fact, although I love to sew, it has always been in spurts. And since my mom was and is such an excellent seamstress, I often just asked her to "help me" sew things. This turned into her sewing and I basically just ironed.
I have gotten better over time and have become more confident in my abilities. I have found that as I have been blogging though something has changed. I am pretty sure part of it has to do with all the sewing/craft blogs I read now. And my friend who I got the idea from to start a sewing blog is now all over the place. (She really is amazing.) I have like 6 people beside me who read this and instead of being me and just posting when I made something, I started to feel this pressure to perform so that I would become something. I sometimes think I have to take the pictures in a perfect manner in order for them to be worthy to post. Then, one day I ran across an article on Simple Mom or Small Notebook (I can't remember which!) that basically reminded me be who you are. Your blog is not someone else's blog. Do it for you, be you. So, that being said, I think I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders with feeling like I have to impress the 6 of you. I'm not trying to be a hit in the blog world, I just want to keep track of my stuff and share ideas.
Since I hate posting without pictures, I will leave you with this and come full circle. Here are just a few things my mom has made over the years.

1 - My wedding dress!, 2 - nightgowns and caps for my sister and me, 3 - Pants and a tie for her first born's first born, 4 - my sister's dress she wore for her high school baccalaureate and my dress (which I "helped" with. It was a quick sew that turned into a pattern we LOVED over the years, affectionately called the "seams" dress because it was serged together and at some point you could see the black side seam thread showing), 5 - shorts for my brother, sister and me, 6 - my chiffon dress for my first Harry Connick, Jr. concert, 7 - all the bridesmaid "dresses" for my wedding, 8 - this beautiful Chinese dress that I loved (my sister is wearing it here), 9 - Halloween costumes for many, many years (and don't forget her cute shirt when I was in-utero)
If there was ever a person who should have a craft blog, it should be my mom - she sews, makes jewelry, crochets, does card-making, has done woodwork in the past, general crafts and always has the greatest ideas. But alas, I can't get her to start one!

T-Shirts Into Skirt

2010-02-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Another catch-up posting. This was a project I did last summer.

It started as one half of this (the other half is waiting for it's revamping still).

I had seen several skirts similar to this in the store and tutorials online. I decided it would be a nice addition to my summer wardrobe. I didn't follow one particular blog's idea, but meshed a few together. After cutting my strips for each tier of the skirt. I basted the bottom of each and then pulled one of the strings to sort of tighten it all up.

Sadly on the botom layer I tightened it a bit too much losing the tier's a-line look and crating more of a balloon. Easily fixable, but I was pretty far into the project when I noticed, so I just deal with it. (This is the only picture I have of me wearing it and would have put it on for a new picture, but I think I'm a little pregnant for that now.)

I used elastic thread to make tighten the waist. It sits perfectly comfortable just above my hips (and using the bottom on the original t-shirt saved me an extra step).

I wanted it to be sort of rough around the edges. I love how the layers looked with the raw edge showing. It was a much trickier task for me than just a normal seam would be.

The hem is also still rough and I like how it curls up a bit along the edge.

It is so comfy that I might try another that will fit my preggo body better. I think I will skip the rough seams to save myself some time. I would also definitely make sure I get the a-line, not the semi-tulip thing going on.

Strong Hands?

2010-02-16T21:56:00.002-07:00

My husband was out of town for over a week for a trade show recently. Even though I like to be independent I certainly missed him while he was gone, and the small things that he can do easier than me - like get things down from the top shelf without a ladder. And even though this trick works just as good as man hands, I still like to ask him to open jars for me. The trick?

Rubber dish-washing gloves. Lid is stuck.

Twist and viola! Open!

It really is amazing the difference that extra grip makes.

Swords and Capes

2010-02-08T11:02:00.005-07:00

Another old project, but not as old as a few I still haven't posted. This was a gift I made for the boys for Christmas.

I was hoping to post it sooner, but to get them to hold still long enough for pictures has proved rather difficult. But in light of two of my favorite sewing sites Made by Rae (you might remember I participated in her Spring Top week last year) and Made's "Celebrate the Boy month, I thought I'd post them.

(Also, without some mending I wouldn't be able to later - you'll see at the end of the post.)

After making the pirate set for Henry, I wanted to make my boys a variation of it. They've been begging for swords so I thought I would make each of them one.

I liked that with these swords they could hit each other like crazy (and like I figured they would) and not really get hurt since there is just stuffing inside.

Unlike the shorter pirate knife, I made these more like a traditional sword - long and straight.

They are made with felt and on the handles I added each boy's initial.

In addition I made each of them capes. My older boy also got Zelda hat. He was super into Zelda after watching my husband play, plus his first initial is Z, so I borrowed the Zelda logo for the cape.

My younger son is the one I made the pirate set for, but he refuses to wear the hat and barely would wear the cape for these pictures. The red stripes match the inside of his pirate hat. (For the capes I used the basic idea found on another site, slightly altered. When I can remember where I will post the link!)

They have LOVED the swords.

And they held up really well...until we had some friends over this week.

I guess I made them tough enough for my guys, but not all boys play the same, so it looks like I need to revamp and reinforce my stitching!

Spicy!

2010-02-05T11:13:00.001-07:00

I used to have 2 pretty big full spice racks, but still way to many herbs and spice to fit in them. A few years ago I got rid of them and opted to just buy empty jars to fill. I have become pretty good at identifying what I am looking for without even reading the label anymore (I always double check though, I'm not THAT good!)

Spices can be expensive (maybe not these, but some are really expensive!), so I thought I'd pass along something I have liked doing. It might not be an option for you depending on where you shop, or maybe you already do it.

At one store I don't normally shop at, but make a special trip JUST to refill my bottles, there is a wall like this right behind the pre-packaged herbs and spices.

Usually they have everything I need. I just have my list ready with the approximate amount I need. Each of my bottles hold about 2.75 oz. Once they get to about 2/3 to 3/4 empty I like to refill them so I don't run out. So, with my list handy, I just stop here for a bit and fill up bags.

And when it comes time to pay I am super happy to see that I'm hardly paying anything for my spices. None of these amounts totally filled the bottles at home, but even if I had it would be at least 50% less than to buy it pre-packaged.

It's kind of fun to open the grocery bag and have so many strong (good) scents come out. (Looks a bit like a drug dealer, doesn't it?)

A simple pour with or without a funnel into the jar and all done.
I also like to get some other dry goods in this fashion. My mom gave me a recipe that I love for some super fiber-filled muffins and I like to pick up all the various nuts and seeds that go in it from the bulk section.

Babs Gets Casual & Then Fancy

2010-01-21T14:00:00.001-07:00

To add to the collection of clothes we started last year, I made a few more outfits for my niece's birthday this year.

I patterned some of the outfits after the clothes I played with as a kid. Some turned out great and a few failed. I didn't finish one because I kept getting frustrated about this:

What does this represent? Notice the empty needle. Dozens and dozens of times I didn't leave a long enough tail on my top thread and it would pull out of the needle. I'd have to thread and re-thread and well, really, other than unpicking, that is my least favorite part about sewing. On to the clothes...

This was supposed to be a cute t-shirt to go with the skirt below. I failed on that, but managed to make a cute casual skirt instead. The fabric comes from the sleeve of an old t-shirt (part of a skirt project for me I've yet to post). I decided it needed a little more flair, so I added the design with some black fabric paint.

My absolute favorite cargo pants bit the dust. Well, truthfully I got too fat for them. I had them for a decade and not caring whether they were in style or not I hung on to them hoping I'd fit in them once more. Nope. I decided to make my son some pants out of them, but made a huge cutting error and left that an impossibility. So, why not Barbie clothes? I think of this as a sort of rugged kind of hippie type of skirt. Something that should be work in a field of flowers or something. I liked the rough edge, but wanted to make it look at little cuter, so I added the zig zag stitching in a contrasting thread color. And the pocket is useless because it is glued on, but still cute.

Here's where the doll can get fancy. This fabric was just from my scraps stash. I once again made a cutting error (just eyeballing is not always a good idea), and that is where the red piece came in. I think it was a good mistake to make.

And in case she gets cold, Barbie can throw this red shawl on that brings out the red, but keeps the polka dots along the trim. The unfinished outfit also will go well with the shawl when it gets done...someday when I can keep the thread in the stinkin' machine!

My Sewing Space

2010-01-20T10:22:00.001-07:00

I always like looking at pictures online of where people accomplish their sewing or other similar projects. I wouldn't call my work area a craft or sewing room. It's more of, well, a sewing space and not a pretty one.

It is in our unfinished basement. The "walls" are made of book shelves and the "door" is a piece of Masonite to keep our cats out. The concrete walls are an ugly green that the former owner painted (the ironing board cover matching is purely incidental). In fact, they painted ALL of the concrete walls in the basement green. I'd paint over them to make them look nicer, but we actually need to find a way to get the paint OFF the walls entirely so we can seal them and get working on finishing the basement. But that is another subject entirely.
I have pretty much all the supplies and lighting I need. A sturdier table would be awesome, as the bounciness of the card table can get annoying. If I have a big project I will move upstairs to the kitchen table. Plus, then I can work during the day when the kids are awake.

I am certainly not lacking in my fabric stash. Sadly, it's more of an unfinished project stash. I bought all of this with the intention of making a bunch of blankets to sell and have stashed away for baby gifts. I have dozens of excuses or not working on them - I don't like sharing my sewing space with the place I have to do my work from home job at, it's too cold, my ruler for cutting binding is lost (true story until yesterday), don't have times, etc. The truth is that I just get so excited about the idea of a project that the actual working on it is a bit of a disappointment. But I am pleased about 95% of the time when I am all done and wonder why I don't sew more.
So, I've got some goals and am currently working on a time sensitive project. I have a few things I made for the kids for Christmas, that if I could get them to pose in I could get a post written up. And there are a few other projects I haven't posted either that I am hoping to get to relatively soon.

Baby Gifts

2010-01-07T18:20:00.001-07:00

My cousin's girlfriend had a baby girl and I wanted to get them a gift. I was in another one of those "I need to make it not buy it" moods, so I tried out some projects I'd seen online.

First up was a picture holder. I got this from an episode of Martha Stewart and had a several already made and ready as gifts (minus pictures).

You hang the photo cards on a shower ring and then add a few plastic links so it can be attached to a car seat or stroller for baby to look at and not lose. I added patterned paper to the backs as something else to look at (black and white is supposed to be stimulating to a baby's eyes), plus I didn't have anymore pictures to put in.

Next up (and super easy to make!) was a crinkly soft toy. I saw this idea on Chasing Cheerios last fall and saved it to do later. I skipped the ribbon tags though.

The last gift was an I-spy bag. I have seen these all over and wanted to make one and like this idea from Make it and Love It where they are in fun shapes.

I sewed on a little ring so the plastic rings could hook on and be used for the stroller or carseat as well. I need to get a coupld of these made for my boys. I have lots of supplies to make more, so if you want one, I know a girl who knows how to make them.

Spider & Bug

2010-01-04T13:02:00.001-07:00

I was shopping at a thrift store one day, mainly looking for little knick-knacks to use to fill some I-spy bags. While in the game section I scored some new or barely used games (with all the pieces) for $1 each. I snagged this puzzle so I could use the pieces for my I-spy bags (not remembering that puzzles in small boxes often have HUGE, not tiny pices). In the book section I found a Miss Spider book that I thought my kids would like. When I got home I realized that A - the puzzle pieces were way too big for my project, B- that all the pieces were there and C - it matched the book I bought. We draw names for a cousin exchange for Christmas, so in addition to a new game, I decided to give these to my niece with some bonus handmade felt finger puppets.

I was hoping to make more, but they were trickier to make than I expected with all those legs. I wanted them small enough to fit on a child's finger and that limited me a little. My Miss Spider needed bigger eyes and I like her a lot less than the other bug that is a main character in the story. Despite the project being far from perfection, I think she liked it and it made me want to make/give more book/puppet combo gifts. I've seen some other great puppets others have made online to accompany a story. (Where the Wild Things Are (my favorite children's book) - super cute! And a more basic, but still fun Grover to go with "The Monster at the End of This Book," incidentally another of my childhood favorites)

Felt Breakfast & Pizza

2009-12-04T11:19:00.001-07:00

My niece turned 4 last month and after talking to my sister about some things she might like, I settled on making some more felt food.

I have previously made an egg and bacon set, but I added pancakes with butter and syrup this time. I stuffed the pancakes, which I later decided was a bad choice. I think an extra piece of felt inside would have been enough to fatten it up a bit.

I also made a make your own slice of pizza. The toppings are only one layer thick, which I debated about but in the end decided would lay flatter on the final pizza than double sided pieces.

Here it is assembled.

I already have a pizza slice started for my boys for christmas and hope to get a few more food items done, but we'll see...

A Summer Skirt

2009-11-30T13:40:00.001-07:00

There is snow on the ground and I'm writing about summer? I'm still just working on catching up on some old projects. I loved this fabric because it was so bright and matched several shirts in my closet.

This one actually started a couple of years ago. It was all cut out and nearly ready to go. The main thing holding me back was a drawstring to go through the rivets on the front.

I just couldn't make one small enough, so I changed the front a little. I had to cut out the rivets which left a big hole. I just covered it with a little square of fabric and laced my drawstring through (probably could have made a longer drawstring).

I really like how it turned out. The only problem is how the waistband lays on my waist in the back. I think I may do a combo of elastic and drawstring next time and see if that helps.

I used this pattern, Simplicity 7229.

Several years ago I also made these capris that I love from that pattern too. (And a pair of camouflage shorts that ended up being too big.)

Wedding Card

2009-11-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

I draw. No doodle is probably a better way to describe it. In my high school advanced art classes my teacher knew I enjoyed drawing, but I just really wasn't as good as everyone else, so she gave me less assignments. I wasn't meant to draw portraits, but I think I still have a knack for something else. Since my high school days I have been drawing things similar to this. I hope to post more of them as time goes on.

My husband's cousin is getting married on Friday and I wanted to make sure I didn't attach a plain card like I so often do with the gift. This is what I came up with. I like it. If I use this again, I think the bride and groom need to be a little smaller. I didn't feel like I had enough space to write the note.
I often forget how much I like to make there sorts of drawings. Simple, sort of childlike and cute. (But they aren't' for everyone, for sure. My husband said it was corny or something along those lines.)
What do you think?

Pirate for Henry

2009-11-17T23:24:00.001-07:00

A few months ago my sone was invited to a breakfast brithday party (which I thought was such a fun idea). The boy's mom thought that they could get away with one more year of not having a big party for him, but to their surprise they didn't! The day before his birthday he told his mom how excited he was to have his birthday the next day and have all of his friends over. So, his mom quickly got on the phone and invited us to the impromptu birthday party she was now having for him.

For some reason I decided instead of going to the store and buying a gift I HAD to make it. And I didn't really have time for this, but like the idea of a challenge. So, I busted out some fabric from Marie's stash, sorted out some felt scraps and came up with this dress-up in a bag idea.

I guess he really liked it and I am certain that it looks cuter on him! (My child sized models were sleeping at this point...) I actually loved it too and have plans to make more, with a slightly different pattern.

Pajamas Again

2009-11-14T15:08:00.001-07:00

There are two items of clothing I am good at sewing - PJs and basic skirts. This means you will see lots of posts on these. The most recent pair of PJs was for my younger son.

I did the application on the shirt a long time ago and just barely finished up the pants recently. Homestly, all I had left was to double check and make sure the waistband wasn't too big. This is the same pattern I used for both of these pairs of pajamas. Sadly I have one more set that is 80% complete just sitting in the "to do" pile. the pants came from my mom's fabric stash and now as I look at it, I think I could have made legitimate pants out of them...

More Costume Pieces

2009-11-11T15:10:00.002-07:00

I forgot to mention a few other Halloween pieces that I made!

Here is the whole family at a Halloween party. Each of us has a little something homemade on.

You've already seen the boys' skeleton costumes, but I failed to write about their masks.

I used an old mask I had as a kid for the general idea. I held a piece of paper up to my son's head to get the spots for the eyes and nose right.

I backed the mask in black felt for two reasons, One, for thickness, and two, because I wanted to make the nose part black to look more realistic. Unlike the original that was a separate piece, I kept this all together.

I cut a slit in the back to make sure it could poke out so the kids could still breathe through their noses and it would lay better on their faces. I just sewed some black elastic between the layers and stitched the two pieces together all around the edge (except the teeth that were not backed) and around the eyes.

As for my Hamburglar costume, three parts were homemade.

The hat is one I made several years ago for my Puss-in-Boots costume (which apparently I never posted). I thought about remaking it to make it more sturdy and to stick out flatter on the bottom (more like how the Hamburglar's is), but decided to skip it. It would be fine. I just added a removable ring of yellow fleece around it instead.

The tie was not perfectly constructed. I sort of copied the shape of one of my husband's ties in a long piece.

Then I sewed it to a ring to go around the neck and made a fake knot in it. The elastic was so that I could pull it over my head.

Each of the hamburgers were just pieces of fleece that I sewed a small brown piece of felt on. I used some wonder under to attached them all to the tie.

For the mask I copied the basic shape of a sleeping mask (courtesy of JetBlue from a recent flight). I tweaked in a little to make it look right and the sewed the elastic in between the two layers.

Definitely not saving the best for last, the chicken in Harland Sander's bucket. In order to make my husband's costume seem complete, we decided a bucket from KFC was needed. One we had it we decided it needed more. So, I last minute sewed together some chicken pieces. They are not too pretty, but they did the job well.

Dried Grapes

2009-11-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what made me want to make my own raisins other than just having a lot of (free) grapes and a food dryer.

Wash, pull from stems and fill dehydrator.

And two days later, our own "homemade" golden raisins. Now I can add them to some curry I made up and froze half of.

No joke about the time it took- I think our food drier must not be that amazing or something. It is something we inherited from my husband's grandma. And it wasn't truly 2 days. I did turn it off now and then when someone was here or I was going to bed. I doubt I will make them again, but it was kind of fun - at least the idea of it.

Skeletons

2009-11-06T14:19:00.001-07:00

I have several other things to post, but just haven't made the time. I figured I had better get my kids' Halloween costumes up before it was so far beyond the holiday.

When I asked my kiddos what they wanted to be they both said a skeleton. I tried to get them to give me different answers and still no. Well, that would make this Halloween easy - no costume to sew! I knew that Babies R Us sold cute sweatsuit ones like the ones above for cheap. Too bad they don't make them big enough for my boys! The store bought alternatives I saw were creepy, cheaply made ugly skeletons not really age appropriate for my little ones.

Somewhat disappointed and excited at the same time of having to do it myself, I went out and bought plain black shirts and sweats. I used one of my son's shirts as a model for ribcage.

The rest I drew from pictures I found online. The trickiest part by far was cutting the "stencils" out of the freezer paper without making any mistakes.

It took three coats of paint to get it super white on the black fabric.

I was very pleased with how they turned out. The gloves could have been a little nicer, but that was all painted on freehand the day of Halloween so their hands wouldn't get cold.

And now they can use them as PJs all winter!

Whyner

2009-10-18T11:30:00.002-06:00

I've been waiting to post this because it was made as a gift - and way before schedule!

I had a stuffed cat growing up (and I'm not talking little kid, but older kid) that my mom found at a garage sale or somehow we acquired used. It was a very ugly cat with a long, long tail. That tail was involved in many jokes, made mostly by my brother.

The cat has now become something that my oldest sleeps with every night. I decided the tradtion needed to spread to my brother's family as well, so for his daughter's first birthday I made this ugly thing:

The fabric is from left over pieces of her baby blanket ~~that I made~~. Oops! I mean have had all of it made for at least NINE months except the binding. The buttons are some old ones that my mom had in her massive button collection.

Just to make sure my brother knew that the cat came with a name, I made the removable collar and name tag (also fabric leftovers from the blanket).

Before I sent my new creation away, I made sure that the cat cousins got some time playing together. They took turns on the slide...

climbed trees (in a slightly different manner than a live cat)...

and laid on their backs watching the clouds, trying not to think about their upcoming separation.

I thought making the cat would be much trickier than it was and I had a lot of fun making it. If I did it again I think I'd try to make the ears a little straighter so it wasn't so ugly. And I might try to find an easier way to attach the head and legs to the main part of the body.

And the gift was well received by both my niece and my brother.

More Pajamas

2009-08-14T09:49:00.002-06:00

When Bug was just a tiny guy I cut out several pairs of pajama bottoms for him. I made these cute PJs and then ignored the project for awhile. For a long while!

Thankfully he is a skinny kid and I just had to cut the length on these and they worked great as summer pajamas.

The fabric is kind of girly, but 1 - it was free from my mom's stash, 2 - I intended it to be used on a boy under 2, not 3.5, 3 - really, they are just pajamas so it just doesn't matter. I have a couple of other pairs that will be finished and his little bro can use them.

Ribbon Belt

2009-07-29T10:29:00.001-06:00

I have not touched my sewing machine and barely even looked at in months! And this was a no-sew project, so the machine is still gathering dust, despite my dozen and dozens of ideas and unfinished projects! I bought some shorts the other day that came with a belt that, although cute, doesn't really match anything I have. So, I decided to make a very simple (and more decorative than useful) one.
I went to the fabric store and picked up some D rings and a wide ribbon. Since I am super cheap, I wanted the belt to be removable from the rings, so I avoided my machine. There are a few ways to do this project. You can use velcro or snaps.
I thought the snap would hold up better and I already had the snaps and snap gun. To seal the end you can burn it or use glue. I know there are some fancier no-ravel type products, but I think glue will work just fine for this. I guess we will see. Because of the design on the ribbon I couldn't melt the end because it was just burning the paint.
I think it turned out cute, but I forgot that with D-rings that the end needs to be reversible. Thankfully there are 2 ways to loop them and I could hide the tail behind. Also, the ribbon was just too thin. Using a different fastener instead of the D-rings would have probably worked beter with the ribbon.

Spring Top Entry

2009-05-01T21:30:00.002-06:00

Like I mentioned over a month ago, I wanted to submit a shirt to Made by Rae's Spring Top week. It was nice having a deadline, even though I procrastinated finishing the project until there were just a few hours left! Shame on me. The pattern I decided to use was one of my Mom's old ones from before I was born.

I was lucky enough to find a picture of her in her version. Incidentally, she is just a little pregnant with me here!

Here is how mine turned out (complete with my first son sort of in the picture too).

He was also kind enough to snap these shots of me in the shirt.

I made some alterations from the original pattern. the first was the puffiness of the sleeves. I made them less puffy than was called for.

They are still a little puffy for my liking and I don't love how they lay. I think I might just need to press them a little more. The pattern creates a sort of tent like body to the shirt.

I felt I needed a belt or something. Partially to add some color, but also to tame the tent.

I tried sewing one on and that was a disaster that ended in a LOT of unpicking. I decided a completely removable one was best.

Another addition to the pattern was just a simple trim on the hem of the shirt.

I also used purple on the cuff.

I had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out how to make a casing AND add trim. I ended up just sewing the trim on first and then sewing the elastic in. I don't love this.

The pattern wasn't super difficult (except when I try to alter things!) I probably won't make i again though. I think another style might work better for me, but I will like wearing this one just knowing that my mom made one similar.

Green fabric is Patty Reed Designs, purchased at JoAnn's.

Marie's Material

2009-04-02T13:13:00.001-06:00

My neighbor across the street is a very sweet 91 year old lady whom I just don't visit often enough. Marie crochets and tried to teach me. I failed. My fingers just don't work like that. (I also failed around age 10 when my mom tried to teach me.) She has made pretty things for my boys and even crocheted us all matching hats! She knows that I sew, and since she no longer can see well, she offered me her fabric. I only took about half of the stash she got out for me, and apparently there is more.
She mostly quilted and I don't. However, I still thought that I could find something to make out of this fabric - whether for me or to sell. If you have any ideas (not that you can actually see the fabric that well), pass them along. I am thinking maybe table runners out of the Christmas stuff. Marie requested that I show her something I used the fabric for and I don't want to disappoint her!

Spring Shirts

2009-03-27T08:53:00.001-06:00

I recently found a sewing blog that I think I am going to really like. It's called Made by Rae and she has recently posted a spring shirt challenge. I have a few patterns that have been gathering dust while they still remain uncut. this is the perfect opportunity to sew myself a shirt or two - and with a deadline, which is always helpful for me!
So, make sure to come back and see what I have made. If I manage to make more than one, maybe you could also help me to decide which to submit to her blog.

Baby Jane's Tux

2009-03-23T23:10:00.001-06:00

One of my many cousins just recently had her first baby. Most of the recent new babies I have sewn for have been boys, so I was excited to make something more girly. I opted for a feminine tux-like outfit.
For the top I used a basic onesie and added a lacy bib and bow tie.
For the bib I just sort of drew on paper what I thought would look proportionally good. I used this as a pattern and cut it out from left over fabric from another project. I then sewed the main bib piece on and then lace attached the lace to both the bib and onesie at the same time. Round 1 was actually very crooked. (Who knew that knit would be so wiggly? I guess that is what you should use heat-n-bond stuff!) Round 2 - the final attempt - turned out fine.
The riffles on the backside were inspired by an idea I saw on Dana's MADE site.
At first I just had the two rows of red ribbon, but once the bib was done I thought I'd add the lace back here to tie it in to the front better.
As for the skirt, I started out with just a plain black a-line skirt. I didn't use a pattern but guessed on the dimensions using some measurements I found online. Unfortunately, I didn't make the waist big enough and once I cut off enough to be back to the point where it was wide enough, it was way too short - and I didn't have anymore of that black fabric.
Thankfully I still had the black scraps from that same previous project. I made a little band, added a ruffle and waistband and it turned out quite satisfactorily. Now, I just hope the measurements on that website were right because it wouldn't be as cute if Jane didn't get to wear them together. What I do know though, is that it is too small for my 3 year old son!
Ready for presentation. I attached a black and white card and shipped it off in the mail.

A Room for Jadaci

2009-03-23T22:44:00.001-06:00

My sister-in-law Julie has an amazing eye for decorating. The rooms in her house seriously look like the came straight from a magazine. Take this, for instance.
I haven't seen it yet, but my sister Natalie took some pictures of the "finished project" for me.
Julie and my brother had their first baby last fall. She asked if I could help make a few nursery items using her vision of colors and style. First finished was the crib skirt (McCall's pattern 4855).
I didn't get a good shot of it on its own, but you get the basic idea here.
The other item was a bumper. I made it reversible so she can have alternating colors or just the print, depending on her mood.
The inside was just a basic bumper from IKEA. I had to cut the length a little. No pattern needed, jest the measurement of the IKEA bumper. I really liked how it turned out.
I liked making something where I didn't have to choose the colors or style. I'm not so great at that. Now I just need to finish the blanket and surprise gift I have for them.

Deja Vu

2009-03-05T22:57:00.001-07:00

You probably think you just saw this post, but I promise it is different. Slightly. I made another mini and micro blanket combo for my friend Jenny who is due in a few weeks.
The only difference between this and the last one is not just the dot colors. It's the first proper usage of my side tags.
Before this I had just cut them in half and used them in the Barbie clothes. I just folded and rolled and tied with a ribbon when I was all done.

Shirt to Pjs (part 1)

2009-03-03T21:30:00.003-07:00

In an effort to save money (but not time) I decided instead of buying my son pajamas that I would make them. I had read in several places about making a long sleeve shirt into pants. That is what I did. You will likely see this first picture again when I get the tan pair done.
That ladies shirt became these stripey pajamas. Bug calls them his zebra legs. The shirt is a hand-me-down plain Hanes type t-shirt.
I added the boat to the front to have it tie in with the pants and become a set. Very rough sewing, but I have other similar shirts I have done like this and they look better over time. (I think the boat needs a little red circular window on it or something.)
The sleeves were an after thought. I had lots of fabric left over so I used another set of pjs to approximate length and width. Then I sewed them along the armhole seam that was already there.

although slightly feminine seeming for some reason, I love seeing Bug's long skinny legs in his new pajamas.

Katie's Zeke

2009-03-03T15:23:00.001-07:00

This will be the first of of several baby shower gift posts. I'm on a bit of a roll with sewing right now and happen to have several showers to make gifts for. This one is for my cousin Katie's baby Zeke. I made her (well him, I guess, since the gift is something he will use) 2 little blankets. Pretty much they are meant to be security blankets. The bigger of the two to use around the house, the smaller to take when out and about.
I bought this polka dot fabric last spring or summer intending to make these in blankets with binding to sell on my etsy site. I decided they looked fine without biding and the time and effort to sew the binding was better spent on bigger blankets.
Next up I finally did some freezer paper stenciling which I first read about on Dana's amazing sewing blog MADE. She wrote up some detailed instructions here. I just drew freehand on the paper for both the picture and the words. I added some navy blue stitching to make the set look a little more matchy. My original plan was to repeat the outline of the boy, but it just didn't look right. The pants and onesie were store bought.

I folded up it all up and wrapped it in a bow.

Recycled Barbie Clothes

2009-01-29T15:09:00.002-07:00

As to not leave my other 5 year old niece out, my sister and I had a "sewing date" with her for her birthday. My sister is done having kids and was getting rid of bags and bags of clothes. Having seen my mom make baby doll clothes out of recycled clothes, I suggest my sister save some for our Barbie clothes project. I think everyone involved was pleased with the results.
What started as this...
Ended as this...
The old outfits and new outfits together.
My sister made these.
And I made these.
These clothes were much easier to sew than the ones I did from scratch. Already having finished edges and coordinating trims made the project go quite fast. It was fun to be able to make my neice doll clothes out of something that she once wore.

More Felt Food

2009-01-06T13:30:00.002-07:00

The felt sandwiches I made for my mom were well received. I really liked them too and good thing I had an excuse to make more! I made this set of food for my little boy's birthday. I added in some bacon, an egg, and a cookie. I changed my stitching on a few items too.
The cookie has chips on boths sides and a little stuffing in the middle. The lettuce, bread and lunch meat are all made with different fabrics on each side. The bread had the rouch stuff on one side and plain felt on the other. The lettuce is now dark green and light green. The lunch meat is the rough pink weird "felt" on one side and normal pink felt on the other. Once again all are hand stitched because I am too lazy to rethread the machine so many times and fill bobbins, but also because I really like how the handstiched looks.
I have a few more ideas for food that I want to make, thanks to all the great ideas on etsy and man sewing blogs.

Felt Sandwiches

2008-12-23T15:04:00.003-07:00

I have been seeing felt food on sewing blog after sewing blog. I knew I had to make some and now I have! My mom is getting some toy dishes from me for Christmas and I wanted to add a little more to the gift. Felt food seemed like the perfect match.
I had ordered a pack of assorted felt online from JoAnn Fabrics. When it arrived I was a bit disappointed because about half of it was weird carpet-like "felt." However, I realized it would make great bread.
I based the size of my pieces on her dishes, so all of it is smaller than the real food version. I hand-stitched each piece. It would have been faster with a machine, but I liked the old fashioned feel of pulling the needle and thread myself. I plan on making some more sandwiches and some other foods for my boys.

Barbie Clothes

2008-12-18T17:10:00.001-07:00

My husband's family trades names for Christmas. We each get a limited budget. Too limited I think, but it has caused me (or inspired me, anyway) to bust out my sewing machine (and maybe finish some projects. I got the cheapest Barbie I could and decided to make clothes for her. I thought it would be fun and easy, but still slightly challenging because New Barbie is not shaped like Old Barbie - and I wasn't going to detach my niece's gift from the box backing to size her.
The first thing I did was gather up my old Barbie clothes, my scrap fabric, and an old Barbie so I could sort of try the clothes on something.

I traced the old items (and used part of a pattern I found online for one of the dress tops).
Here are the old school pieces of clothing with their new counter part. Incidentally, most of the old clothes here were made by my mom.
I was excited to put my little labels inside each item.
So, here they are... I really liked the polka-dot skirt. I need to make a top to match it still. This was the first thing I sewed.Next up are the rest. On the top row are all the uses for the black dress. Barbie can go to a Halloween party as a wizard/witch or have a night on the town with her boa around her shoulders (which also can be worn as sleeves).
On the bottom we have a party girl or something outfit. The sluttier the Barbie outfit, the easier to make! Actually, the pants were easy too, but my fabric chose was not easy to sew. The next one is for night time Barbie - some PJs. and lastly, a nice dress. The top of this is not perfect, but I am hoping it will look a little better on the new shaped Barbie.

Things to change for my next batch of clothes - have the actual doll that will be wearing the clothes easily accessible, pick my fabric more carefully so that it is easy to sew, and use mini snaps not velcro.

Curtains

2008-11-02T14:18:00.001-07:00

These were part of my baby room set. The pattern is McCall's #4855.

Flannel & Fleece

2008-11-02T14:08:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the baby blankets I have made. These particular ones are made from flannel & fleece.
The ones with binding are my favorites.
I cut the satin and make the binding myself. It is time consuming, but I have more options on what the color/print can be compared to just the pre-packaged variety.

Mooooo-Cow

2008-11-02T00:54:00.001-06:00

My son is obsessed with cows, so I thought a cow costume would be perfect for him for Halloween. I just modified Simplicity pattern #5316. I should have made the top a little longer, but I still think it looked cute. The horns were made with felt and the material was a costume print.

Spooky Spoons

2008-10-20T22:21:00.001-06:00

This is about as traditional craft as I will go. I thought this was a cute idea and thinking I would let my kids use them as puppets made the project a go.
This monster was completely my creation - no copying another idea. I think he complimented the spooky guys well and added some more color...

Block Lamp

2008-09-28T21:00:00.001-06:00

Before my first son was born, I decided I wanted to make his decor instead of by it. We picked blocks as a sort of theme. I looked up lamp making online and created this with some help. The lamp elements (cord, switch, etc) came from an old lamp (you can also buy new sets at places like Home Depot). The blocks were from the dollar store or something similar and the shade was from Michael's. The base was some pre-cut piece of wood my dad had lying around in his shop. My husband drilled holes in most of the blocks for me to make the stem of the lamp. I used wood glue to glue them together and glued the extra stacked block in front. I was going to fancy up the shade a bit, but never got around to it and sort of like the simplicity of it as it.

My First Quilt

2008-09-16T11:08:00.001-06:00

While we were dating, my husband needed a quilt/comforter for his bed. I wanted to make one anyway, so I made him one using scraps from old pants I'd cut off and scraps of fabric from other sewing projects. The filling was an old blanket and the back side a flat sheet. It was my first quilt (and only) I had to draw out my layout a few times to get it just right and sewing the squares took longer than I expected, but I liked how it turned out.

Marble Picture Magnets

2008-09-16T11:01:00.001-06:00

This picture is not the greatest. I made a set of these magnets for my mom and my mother-in-law for Mother's day a few years ago. I got my instructions from Not Martha. I though it would be fun for the moms to have magnets that were pictures of all their kids/spouses and grandkids. They were really fun to make. If I was the kind of person who had magnets on their fridge I would make more for me.
To make them I measured the diameter of the marble and then used Photoshop to size down all of my photo. I put them all on one document and had them printed at Costco. The rest was about the same as Not Martha did.

Flowers

2008-09-07T20:45:00.002-06:00

I made two like this, but the other had reversed colors. After learning from my Sea themed cover, I reverted back to felt and hand stitching with embroidery floss on the flowers. (Made from pattern - Butterick 4416)

Sea

2008-09-07T20:42:00.002-06:00

This is another car seat cover. The sea themed animals on it were made out of fleece instead of felt. I sewed them on with the machine instead of by hand like the others. I think I prefer the final outcome the other way. (Made from pattern - Butterick 4416)

Blocks

2008-09-07T20:33:00.002-06:00

I made this for my first baby to keep him warm in the winter. I know they make ones you can buy now and eve ones that come with the car seat, but I like to sew and this is much more personal. It matches the whole baby thing I have in my kids' room. It is warm non-pilling fleece. The blocks are felt and were hand stitched on. This was my second car seat cover. (Made from pattern - Butterick 4416)

Animals

2008-09-07T20:29:00.002-06:00

My sister's first baby was due 2 months before my first. I wanted to make her something. I was making myself one of these covers, so I decided to make her one too. The animals were copied from the animals on her bedding set. I scanned in her bedding, enlarged the animals, and then printed the patterns of them out. Next I found felt that matched pretty close to the original colors and then cut each piece, hand stitching it on with embroidery floss. The dots on the turtle and giraffe's backs were embroidered, as well as the stripes on the zebra. Same with the elephant, giraffe, and zebra's tails and giraffe's hair. VERY time consuming, but I loved it when I was done (and so did she!) and I was very proud of myself. This is from a pattern - Butterick 4416.

White Skirt

2008-09-07T20:26:00.001-06:00

This was another simple skirt. I used an idea similar to the Easy Skirt, but the width of it allowed me to make an a-line skirt.

Gray Skirt

2008-09-07T14:27:00.001-06:00

This is one of the few things I have made without a pattern. I got the rough shape from another skirt. The first time around it was too small, so I added side panels with slits. So, on each side there was a double slit. I liked the end product a lot.

Easy Skirt

2008-09-07T14:15:00.001-06:00

This skirt was one my mom taught me how to make that i think you could do with your eyes closed. You just measure your widest part (likely your hips) and add an inch or two. If that number is less than 45 than you just have to decide how long you want your skirt. Add another couple inches and then that's what you have them cut from the bolt. So, if you are in the store and see fabric you love, you can just hold it up to you and know right there how much you need. Sew the sides together (I often make side slits in mine), hem the top with room for a drawstring (or elastic) and hem the bottom. Super easy and fast! This fabric was some that my mom had lying around. It may have been my grandma or great grandma's.

About Me

2001-01-01T13:33:00.006-07:00

i wanted to have a place to keep track of my projects and ideas. i had always considered crafting nerdy, until i realized it isn't. it can be, but it doesn't have to be. my mom is the crafting sewing queen and i have learned so much from her over the years. i have an etsy shop that rarely has anything to sell, but if there is anything you want me to make for you, just send me request.
a little bit more about me:

i enjoy music - my top four are madonna, harry connick, jr., rufus wainwright and 311. i "play" the piano and love to go to concerts (which is a rare event these days). i like to read and am part of a neighborhood book club.

i also enjoy using the computer (maybe too much!) to write up and read blogs, make videos, edit photos, etc. i like hiking and camping and the outdoors generally. i also like running and sometimes run in races.

sewing and scrapbooking are some of my other hobbies, as well as taking pictures. i enjoy organizing and hate cleaning. i love to try out recipes and generally like to cook.

i was born and raised in iowa, moving to utah about 13 years ago. i am the 3rd of 4 kids - a brother and 2 sisters. i work full time with many jobs under the all inclusive title of "mom," which is a stressful job! i have two little boys and one little girl.

i love being a wife and mom. i also love pizza and mountain dew (diet these days).

i also love the feeling of having made something with my own hands. please feel free to comment, critique, suggest, etc. i love the community of crafters that the internet has created.