Allie's Poodle Skirt

Several weeks ago I got a letter in the stack of papers Allie brings home from school.  It was letting us know they'd be celebrating the 50th day of school by wearing 50s styled clothing, having ice cream floats, doing a bubble gum blowing contest, and talking about the number 50!  Talk about a fun day!

I knew immediately Allie needed a poodle skirt.  At that point in the month I also hadn't decided on her Halloween costume, so I figured if I was going to put time and money into making a poodle skirt, she could wear it for Halloween too!

My aunt made me a poodle skirt when I was in junior high, and it was the best looking poodle skirt I'd ever seen.  I knew I wanted Allie's to look like mine, so I did my best to make that happen!

I found all my material at Hobby Lobby and spent just under $18.  I also made a crinoline skirt to put under the poodle skirt to keep it full looking.  I love how it turned out.  It's the perfect length, the poodle is just as adorable as the one my aunt put on mine, and I'm thrilled Krissy will get her turn to wear it in 2 years!

I splurged on the gold jacket... it's from Target.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

When Hayden lost his first tooth, I made him a tooth fairy pillow.  It was cute/plaid/boyish with a white felt tooth sewn on it.  Allie got her first loose tooth several days ago and I knew I needed to get started on a pillow for her.  I saw an idea on Pinterest where you ask your child to draw the tooth fairy.  The example I saw made a copy their daughters drawing and traced it on material.  I skipped that step and asked Allie to draw directly on some white fabric.

Next we picked out colors.  I asked what color she wanted everything: wings, dress, hair, skin, smile, wand, and she loved picking out the colors.  I got busy during nap time and brought the tooth fairy to life!  I also added the year.

Allies favorite color is orange so I made a small rectangle pillow and turned the tooth fairy into a pocket for the front of the pillow.

I thought we'd need the pillow tonight, but it looks like the tooth isn't quite ready to come out! And that's not a bad thing because I realized I didn't have any 1s!

Easter Sewing Projects

I decided this year that I wasn't going to be rushing around last minute making the girls Easter dresses!  And I'm proud to report they were done two weeks before Easter Sunday!

And I wished it would have been as simple as that, but nothing is that simple!  Let's start with the dress pattern I picked.  I'm constantly browsing sewing patterns and this pattern caught my eye.  I knew I wanted it to be the girls Easter dress.  And I thought it looked like one of the simpler patterns I had saved, so that was another reason I chose that particular pattern.  But there were several hiccups along the way...

After measuring the girls to the sizes listed on the pattern, I decided Krissy needed a 3 and Allie needed a 5.  I spent roughly 12-14 hours making the two dresses.  It's worth every minute of time for me to make them because I love sewing.  I know some of you can't imagine why in the world I wouldn't just go buy a dress, but I figured as long as they will wear clothes I make them, I'm going to make them clothes!

So let's talk about the pattern.... It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked.  That bodice caused me all kinds of headaches... For starters, the example dress in the pictures was white, so it was impossible to see if you were supposed to be sewing the right side or the wrong side.  And that bodice was made up of 12 pieces and I can't tell you how many times I sewed the wrong piece or sewed it backwards.  It was just all around frustrating.  I thought I was coming to the home stretch when the bodice was done and it was time to attach the skirt, but again I was so wrong.  I had to make two different slits in the skirt.  And they weren't easy slits.  I forget what they called them, plackets maybe, but I just think of them as Satan's slits.  I spent literally two hours trying to figure out how to make this slit!  So when the glorious hour came that both dresses were done, I was so so relieved.  That was until they tried them on and Allies didn't fit.  And it wasn't too big.  It was too small. Like her little behind was coming out of that supposed-to-be-knee-length skirt.  I wanted to cry.  Or burn both dresses.  But I sucked it up, bought more material, and the next day remade Allie a size 7 dress.  It took 6-7 hours, but when it was done, I was glad I remade it, and they were done before Easter!  I loved the material and I loved how they turned out.

The finished bodices waiting for the skirt.

Krissys dress!

And Allies 2nd dress!

All dressed for Easter service!  I also make their little necklaces.

And you'd think after the dress experience I had, I'd want to put the sewing machine away for awhile, but I found the cutest fabric bunny baskets on Pinterest.  The pattern was free!  I never find free patterns!  So I thought it was meant to be.  I was supposed to make four bunny baskets the few days left before Easter.  

The pattern seemed pretty straight forward and I got started.  After I cut the fabric, the next step was sewing on the bunny faces.  I don't hand sew much at all, but I wasn't intimidated and got right to work.  After I put the kids to bed on Thursday night, I spent 5 hours, yes 5 hours sewing on 8 eyes, 4 noses, and 4 mouths.  Apparently I am pretty slow.  I was watching tv too so I probably could have finished faster if I was only concentrating on sewing, but when 12:30am rolled around, I called it a night. 

My plan was that next day to put the baskets together and enjoy Easter weekend!  Can you already tell this isn't going to go as planned?!  So Friday I get up, I'm excited to get them done, and I go to step #2.  I realize the faces I sewed on were sewn in the wrong place, in the wrong direction.  There was no fixing it, there was no way to make it work, and all that work was a 100% total waste.  I again thought about burning what I had started, but Kevin encouraged me to work on what I could and he offered to go get me extra material I needed to redo the faces (he's a keeper!).  I took his advice and worked on the basket liners and ears, and after dinner recut the faces.  Again, when the kids went to bed, I sewed.  This time, the hand sewing took about 3 hours.  I finished one basket that evening to make sure there were no more surprises, and there weren't.  I spent about two more hours on Saturday finishing the baskets and was glad to get them done! 

You'd think after some crappy sewing mistakes I'd be burned out, but I'm really not.  I was so pleased with how both projects turned out that I think they really were worth all that trouble.  I actually have plans to sew two small things this weekend (a gift for a friend and a tooth fairy pillow for Allie).  Here's to hoping there are no mistakes to report with those projects! ;) 

Homemade Baby Gifts

My sister had a sprinkle this weekend.  I had planned on sewing a few things for little baby Fletcher to include in his gift.  I'm a big fan of homemade.  Don't get me wrong, I love store bought things too, but having a few items made just for you (or your baby) just makes ya feel special!  Am I the only one that fees that way? Moving on... The problem with that is, where do you stop?! There a bizillion darling ideas on Pinterest and I had the hardest time deciding what to make!

I made a small bunting for her oldest child when she was born and she said she'd love another one for her new baby boy.  After spending a crazy amount of time scrolling through Pinterest, here's what all I decided to make: name bunting, fabric alphabet (his nursery theme is books/letters), bandana bibs (why weren't these around a couple of years ago?!  They are seriously a-dor-able!), and my very very favorite .... booties!

I've fallen in love with making baby booties!  It's my new go-to baby gift (be warned if you have/are having a baby!) haha!

I was so pleased with how all the colors and designs came together!  Hope little Fletcher enjoys them too!

"Towels On The Floor" Solution!

When we first moved into our house (can't believe that was 6 years ago!) we gutted everything.  One thing to go was every fixture in the house.  In the bathroom, that meant towel racks and sinks and flooring.  Well, we never replaced the towel racks.  I had grown accustom to throwing the towels over the shower doors.  Here the problem.  My kids couldn't ever do that.  They'd try, sometimes, but most of the time towels littered the floor.

Last week after I had finished a sewing session, I laid in bed trying to think of a solution to our "towels on the floor" problem.  I decided the next day I'd go on a hunt for a towel rack.  But my mind kept processing that thought, and I didn't want to waste the money on a new rack if the kids wouldn't even use it!  So I was trying to come up with a fool proof way that was guaranteed to work.  And then it hit me.  Button holes.  Yes!  I'd sew button holes on my towels, and he kids would know how to exactly hang their towels.

I found a cute rack at TJ Maxx for $20.  It was a little more than I was wanting to spend but I had no luck at the first few stores I had tried before.  We finished our shopping at nap time and as soon as the kids laid down, I hung the rack.  Next I got out my sewing machine and started sewing red button holes (I wanted them to be easy to spot) on my white towels.  [I folded the towel in half lengthwise, determined the center, and let my machine sew the button hole. Easy peasy ]   

I showed the kids the new towel hanging system and they thought it was so cool.  I'm happy to report that in the last week, there's not been a towel left on the floor!  They've been so excited to hang them perfectly all by themselves and I've been so excited to have a towel-less bathroom floor!

Raggy Quilt

For Valentines Day, Kevin surprised me and told me he signed me up for a raggy quilt class at Let's Sew.  I've been saying for months I want to learn how to quilt, so it was a very thoughtful gift!  It's a newer fabric store on Morgan Avenue just down from Showplace East.  I'd absolutely recommend going in there if you are in need of a new and unique fabric! 

Ok, back to my class.  I was a little nervous to go because I am a totally self-taught sewer.  I was afraid my teacher would be throwing around sewing terms and I wouldn't know what they meant.  All those little fears were a total waste of my time.  I was the only person in the class, and my teacher was very helpful and laid back.  We did everything at my own pace and it was nice.  I'm hoping to take more classes there in the future. 

I had to cut out tons of 8x8 squares.  The colorful flannel was the front and the soft denim was the back.

I laid them out in the pattern I'd sew them.

After sewing them all together, I clipped my edges, which gave the quilt the raggy look :)

Make sure to check back later in the week!  I'm going to have my first guest post to my blog!  I'm hoping this guest will be interested in doing a monthly post... :)

Baby Garland/Bunting

Maybe everyone knows what a baby bunting is, but I hadn't heard the term "bunting" until this past week... so I like calling it baby garland :)

I had leftover material from my big brother/big sister shirt project.  I was wanting to make something for the baby with the left over material, but had a hard time coming up with ideas.  Then, one of my new favorite blogs, MADE, posted a tutorial on baby buntings.  The one she gave a tutorial on was a scalloped bunting, which I really like, but I've also seen several with the pennant shape, and decided I'd try that.  I found a great tutorial at Homemade & Happy and I used it as a guide to make a mini version. 

 

I traced and cut 3 layers of material at a time - it definitely is important to pin, and pin a lot!  I just drew and cut out my triangle pattern from the top of a Donut Bank box :)

I did as suggested, and sewed the pennants one after the other, with just a few stitches of thread between each.  Great idea if you don't want to waste a lot of thread!

My biggest mistake - I decided I wanted my point extra pointy, so I cut off lots of material.  I didn't realize that when I went to flip it, I would bust right through my material... so after cutting 60 little pennants like this, I definitely had some words for them.  Instead of getting mad (I was feeling pretty defeated), I just put the project down for the night and went to bed... I tossed and turned all night (mainly because I'm so pregnant) and wondered if I should just scrap the whole idea.

The next morning I decided to add another stitch or two to the pennants.  It took an extra 2 hours, but I'm glad I didn't give up!

The end result!

I'm looking forward to making a full sized fall bunting to hang across my mantle.

Things I learned or would change....
1.  Follow directions - even if you think you're smarter than the person that posted them, your short great ideas won't work and you'll end up doing more work....
2.  Cotton fabric worked best.  It's nice because it has a definite front and back.  The plaid material I used was more difficult to work with (no front/back, and easily frayed).
3.  Play around with spacing the pennants (or scallops).  I wish I could have done mine close together looking back at it now.  Maybe if I'm bored one day I'll take it apart and move them closer....
4.  A thinner bias tape would be cuter with mini pennants.  I'm sure it would be harder to work with, but it wouldn't swallow the pennants.
5.  Don't give up if you want to scrap the project!  When it's all done, even though there are things you'd change, it will still be adorable!

Now, the last thing I need to decide... do I want to put it on the baby's crib at the hospital, or use it to decorate my hospital room door.... decisions, decisions!

Big Bro/Sis Tshirts

When you have other children, it seems now days that it's a must to have "Big Bro" and "Big Sis" shirts.  My favorite are the cute craft ones on Etsy, but I didn't want to pay $20-$40 PER tshirt.  That just seemed ridiculous.  I decided I'd make some myself (and I also decided that because I hadn't seen any that matched at the local stores)

While my sister was home, we went to JoAnns and started looking for fabric.  After finding several cute choices, she suggested we pick out the tshirts before picking out material - definitely makes more sense, but I hadn't thought about that.  So we walked a few isles over and the only color options, in both of their sizes, were white and black.  We agreed the black would look better than the white, so we were on a hunt for material to match.  We found several cute options for Allie, but it was hard finding something boy-ish for Hayden.  Whit suggested looking for Hayden's first, which again made more sense (have I mentioned I'm glad she went with me?).  After deciding on Haydens, we quickly found cute coordinating material for Allies. 

I used a ruler, measuring cup, and button to make my letters. 

Letters ironed on.  Only about half of them stuck.

When I got home I drew some letters on paper, cut them out, prepped my material (with Wonder Under, which allows you to iron the fabric on to the tshirt... didn't have the best results with it, but I'm not giving up on it), traced and cut out the letters, ironed them on the shirts, then was ready to put a stitch in them.  I just assumed I could use my sewing machine, but after 3 attempts with different settings and stitches, I realized it wasn't going to work.  I felt defeated and went to bed for the night.

The next morning I had decided to hand sew each letter and my sis helped me (once again) figure out the perfect stitch.  Within a day I had finished the shirts, and the project cost about $15. 

Ta-da!  I'm happy with how they turned out.

Side note... we did this shopping/material picking out Thursday morning.  Hayden's big brother class was Thursday evening and that's when we learned the 3 colors babies can see at birth (black, red, white).  I was thrilled those just happen to be the colors we picked out for the shirts! 

Diaper Changing Pad Cover

One of my latest sewing projects was a new cover for the diaper changing pad in the nursery.  I love that minky dot material and knew I wanted to use that.  I waited until I got a 50% off coupon at JoAnns because it's $15 a yard!  I feel like I'm learning so much about sewing just by messing up.  I hate that I mess things up, but I guess it's the best way to learn!  This is the tutorial I used.

All you need is fabric, elastic, and thread (not pictured b/c it was already in my machine)

I had to add a hem to the whole changing pad.  Doesn't seem like a big deal, but this material was slippery and it was kind of tricky.  Not sure what I'd do without straight pins!

Added the elastic, which was more challenging than I thought it would be.  I'm still thinking I may rip it all out and try it again.  The first half wasn't stretched enough, but the other half looks like it's supposed to :)

Trying it out.... the pink will be gone in a few weeks and we'll replace it all with yellow and red or blue!

Jammy Pants

Both of my kids love sleeping in over sized t-shirts.  Allie won't use covers at night though, so I needed to get her some pajama pants.  I hated to spend $10+ a pair so I looked up some easy sewing patterns to make my own.  Last summer I bought a bag of scrap fabric from a yard sale.  I ended up making her two pairs - and again, I learned a lot!  My 2nd pair looked much better than my first pair.  Allie loves them and they are so so so cute on her!  I made both for less than $1!

I learned that the top needs to be completely square.  I rounded the waist band part and that was a no no.  It didn't sew very pretty.

Allie modeling pair #1.

I squared the top of this pair and they turned out much nicer!

Cute little jammy pants for a cute little girl!

Baby Gift

My niece was schedule to arrive today, but decided to make her big appearance yesterday!  I decided I wanted to make a gift for her, but since my sewing skills are still limited, I didn't want to take on a project too big - so I decided to make some burp cloths!

I picked a bright fun flannel and a green terry cloth.

I made a pattern and cut out three burp clothes to sew.

This seems to be popular shape!  I think they turned out cute!

Soft side for baby's face, green side to soak up spit up.

The owl's are the toppers from Eleanor's shower cupcakes - just recycled!

Another owl in pink.

I love and appreciate homemade gifts - don't you?!