Hanging Wet Bag

I finally  made a wet bag to use for "used" cloth diapers.  I have been 1/2 time cloth diapering for almost two years.  I have always used a plastic grocery sack and hung it in the closet.  It really works well, just not that pretty...

Today while watching the Cyclones beat KU I made one.  I followed this tutorial http://www.lemonsqueezyhome.com/2010/05/wetbag-tutorial.html, but modified the dimensions to be 17"x20". 

The zipper is a little wonky.  It works but not as pretty as I would want it if I gave it to a friend.  Much prettier than a Fareway sack hanging in the closet!

Mother's Day

I made this for my Mother, for Mother's Day.  I embroidered the kids hands on fabric.  The picture is not the greatest.  At the top of the hoop it says 2011.  It is meant to be homey, and hang on the wall in the hoop.

Easter outfits

I sewed during nap time for about a week.  Not bad for a beginning seamstress.  I took two trips to Joann's, and $22.00 (including Dallas $5 polo)  The girls dresses were made using this tutorial.  I found it easy to work with, I did have to make up Noelle's as the pattern did not size that small.  I had to make three bodices before one fit, and it was still a little wonky in the back.  But Noelle is not one size all over, she has a lot of chub in the trunk area!  Dallas bow tie was made using this tutorial.  It was very fast and easy.  I would do more in a heartbeat.  He  hated putting it on, but once on I think he simple forgot about it, as he wore it 12 + hours that day and didn't seem to mind.  His hat made using this tutorial.  I found the directions not to be as clear as I hoped, actually I wanted more pictures.  I am a visual learner, and love online tutorials for this reason, step by step pictures, thank you bloggers!  I did modify the hat to take some poof out of it, and to make it fit.  Original size it was too small, when I de-poofed it was really big.  I added some elastic, which helped the fit, and hopefully made it comfortable to wear. 
And the flower bow in Emily's hair, is based on some I have seen, I am sure there is a tute out there, but I didn't use one directly.  It is an assembly of 6 or so circles, the top four circles folded into quarters and placed on the other flat circles.  I sewed the whole thing together and then onto an aligator clip.

Heart Jean Patches

My little girl (and boy) put holes in all of their jeans at the wrong time of year!  There are no jeans in the stores right now, and Spring or Summer has yet to arrive, although the calendar says otherwise.  We have a no-holey jeans are worn out rule, so I needed to help the jeans so they would have something to wear!

The Domestic Goddess Apron - Amy Butler

I received this pattern Christmas 2009, along with some lovely Amy Butler fabric from the Midwest Modern line.  I love all Amy Butler fabric, if only it was a little cheaper. 

 It was a perfect gift, as I love to sew.  It is hard for me to get projects done that take longer than naptime.  Fast-forward two years, and I completed it.  This was my first sewn piece from a pattern using that thin tiny brown paper, and directions!  I am a visual learner, so the advent of bloggers putting patterns and pictures on their websites sure does help, and helps me build confidence.  This pattern was my first time tackling pleat.

I like it, I skipped the towel loop on the waistband, as I didn't see using that much.  I wish it was shorter, I must have misread the sizing on that part of the pattern!  Now I need to get cooking in the kitchen!

Clip and Bow holder

Another in house craft. Used scrap fabric and ribbon, and a glassless frame I bought last year at a garage sale for $0.25. Emily likes it and does use it. She can get the clips on and off. It is sturdier that I thought, as her little brother has a tendency to just rip them off instead of unclasping them. Now to just find a spot to hang it, as it is it floats around the room. I try to think of it as a very cheery piece of art.

I took the backboard out of the frame and covered it in fabric, using my hot glue gun. I then attached three pieces of ribbon, gluing the ribbon onto the back of the board only. Snap the board back into the frame and you are done!

Decorating the nursery

I whipped up this little flag bunting while my husband was on his latest trip. I don't know why I always end up crafting or painting a room while he is gone, I should sleep extra instead! The nursery was first decorated 5 years ago, I liked it then... I never got around to personalising it for either kid. I guess I found it was time. I was over the "little bear" decor. I love the cheeriness this adds to the room. I feel like this is a more updated "name on the wall" project than the wooden letters seen everywhere.

Scrap fabric and blanket binding made this project come together easily in one evening. The one issue I had was my poor, not sharp hand-me-down pinking shears.

How to hem jeans

I have used this tutorial twice now, and love the results. I think I like it so much because it keeps the original jean hem, which I feel keeps it feeling like 'cool jeans. It doesn't look like I have hemmed them. I do recommend lying them flat to dry or hanging them to keep the cuff turned inside, but this is not a problem for me since I normally do not dry my jeans in the dryer, I would rather dry them flat than iron.
Next time you see me take notice of my cuffs and see if you can tell that there hemmed!

making the duck

My daughter wanted to be a duck for Halloween. I have no idea why, but it stuck. I tried to convince her otherwise, as I didn't know how I was going to create a duck. Most of the duck patterns I saw were for infants, and seemed a little beyond my sewing prowless. Having a homemade costume is important to me, my mother always made my costumes growing up. I have fond memories of going to walmart or the big fabric store in the big city to look through the pattern books. I have never had a little plastic fabric from k-mart and hopefully I can always cater to my kiddo's in that way.

I took one of her shift style jean jumpers and used that as pattern for the main body of the duck. I made the neck and arm openings a little bigger as I didn't want to worry about putting in a zipper and to account for Halloween in Iowa (lots of layers under costumes). I add a little flutter sleeve to mimic a wing. I took a 20 in strip of fabric, gathered it into a ruffle and sewed it into the arm hole. To add more volume to the "wing look" I crafted little tutu's to the size of her upper arm. These were not attached to the dress, but more like bracelet's. I also took additional tulle, bunched it up, sewed a big puffy portion together and attached it to the back of the dress to act as the ducks tail. I added a little tulle flower I made to a clip for her hair. The legs needed to be orange. I used orange kool-aid (an all-natural dye+ much cheaper than RIT) to make a pair of old white tights orange. The last detail the hubby helped with. We took a sheet of crafting foam, he traced some duck feet onto the foam. I cut the feet out, punched a couple of holes into the feet and secured with elastic to cover up her shoes. It worked wonderfully. The bill of the duck was a 0.97$ foam visor from the craft store, unfortunally they did not have one in orange. I bought a red one and covered it in orange felt. I think the whole costume ran about $7.00.

Gift and more bandana love

I made this "hooter hider" or nursing cover for a friend. She saw mine, and I offered to make one for her as a gift. She picked the fabric and I love it. Brown is so in right now, and they are going to be surprised in the delivery room so it works well. Plus I think the cover up is for the mom, not the kid so do what you want! Since she paid for the fabric, I wanted to buy so it would truly be a gift, but she beat me to it, I decided to throw in three burp clothes. These have been over done in the craft world, but everyone needs them and it is super simple to sew an accent onto a cloth diaper.

And this skirt is due to the fact that I discovered Walmart has a bandanna section. They happen to be 89 cents less than the ones at JoAnns and they seem to be softer. This blue was just the right color. I used fabric I already had to trim. I love fabric, but I need to finish projects and use stuff I have on hand before purchasing more, although that didn't stop me from picking up another $1.00 bandanna....

A peek inside the dresser

I did this a while back, but thought it was share worthy. When my daughter moved into her room, I grabbed the furniture from craigslist. I painted it white added some fun pulls (more on that to come), and decided to line it. Since the dresser and vanity were used I wanted to line the drawers, I think it warranted something a little more substantial and fun than contact paper. Scented paper was a little spendy and not readily available in my town. I ended up using fabric.

This fabric was found in the sale section at JoAnn's I think it was $2/yd, I grabbed two yards for four drawers. This is also a cotton with a little stretch to it, but I don't think that is necessary.

I took a large piece of cardboard, placed the drawer on top of the cardboard and traced around the drawer. Use an exacto knife to cut out your cardboard, you can keep to the inside of the line traced as you want it to fit inside your drawer.

Cover the cardboard in glue (I used plain crafters glue, but I think this would be a great place to use spray glue). Place the cardboard on top of your fabric. Cut the fabric to size leaving enough to fold over the edges.

Fold over the edges, nothing fancy as you can see here. I was pretending I was upholstering a seat, so I would keep the top side nice looking.


Once your fabric is glued on, insert it into the drawer. It should fit snugly. Here is the top drawer with all of those lovely hair accessories!

sewing projects

I started with the bandana skirt, Vanessa does things I could only dream of, and I only have two kiddos hanging around my feet! While I was in the bandana mood I found this tutorial and had to try it out as well. I think these simple projects have really helped my self esteem in the sewing department. I love using online tutorials, it is like having a cookbook with pictures! I just might be getting enough confidence to break out some the the vintage toddler dress patterns I have inherited.

Red bandanna skirt, along with applique shirt (from last season 4th of July)

Hot Pink dress ready for summer

This shirt and skirt combo will be gifted this week. What three year old girl won't be thrilled with a Dora shirt and skirt.

For the shirt, I cut out Dora, Boots and the little star, and used fusible web to place them on the t-shirt. The skirt, is crafted using the same basic principles as the bandana skirt. I cut fabric the size of half a bandana and went from there. The only change I made was adding an accent piece of fabric at the waist as well as the hem.

Child's play Cape

I used the tutorial from puking pastilles for the cape. It is a two sided cape on one side I used the crown she created. My kiddo is not that into Superman or Batman yet, so I didn't really feel like using those emblems. We do watch some retro Sesame Street, and Super Grover came to mind. I used that idea and switched the G for her initials E. It was really simple!

Re-Invented jeans

My little one is in need of some summery clothes. I decided to see if I could a pair of her jeans that surely would not fit her by fall and make them into capris. I was inspired by this. at Poppies at Play.

I don't want to call this a tutorial, since I am sure it is not an original idea, but I will try to describe what I created in my own words!

Jeans, as you can see they are a little worn, so they are ready to be reworked.

I cut off the bottom three inches, I just guessed as my model was sleeping. I probably would have made them a little shorter if I would have measured.

Turn the jean inside out and turn up a hem, mine was 1/2". You can take the time to serge or zig-zag stitch the raw edge if you want too.

Iron the turned up edge.

Turn right side out and pin decorative trim in place. I chose this frilly eyelet. I used almost 3/4 yard for size 24 month jeans. I liked that this trim has a scallop edge as it will be a little forgiving if I don't sew it on straight. Sew trim on with a straight stitch!

Here they are on my super cute model.

Easter Outfit preview

A sneak preview of what I have been up too. This will be for the little guy to wear on Easter Sunday. I used the tutorial from this site. I used a onsie I had, and grabbed the fabric from an old shirt. The project has cost me zero dollars so far. I am planning on stitching around the tie, but want to pick up a contrasting thread.