12 weeks

I'm sorry for the very long absence. I have been not feeling well due to a little baby who is now the size of a plum. Each of my pregnancies have been harder than the last & this one definitely takes the cake. For the last few months I have constantly felt like I just got off a twisty, turn you upside down ride at an amusement park. You know the kind that are usually called something like "the hammer" that after going on once you vow to never go on again. With my daughter I felt like that, but it would come & go so it was more doable. I've also had the weirdest food aversions. You know most of the things I should be eating & drinking like meat, dairy & water. Food I couldn't stand before (like nachos from taco bell) are suddenly very appealing. One good thing though is soda tastes bitter so I have been soda free for a while now : ) But despite all the misery we are so very happy to have one last baby!!! And for the last week I have been feeling a bit better. In fact for 2 or 3 hours in the morning I feel great! I have had three ultrasounds so far & it has been so comforting to see our baby with a good strong heart beat, the cutest little hands & feet & profile, and wiggling around like crazy. I am so grateful!!! Anyway the cropped cardigan I'm wearing I made & it was the easiest thing! I took a shirt in my closet that I've only worn a couple of times because it just seems to say "mom" when I wear it. My husband thinks it's funny when I say that, he says "but you are a mom!" Which I am & proud of it, but I like to be myself too & try to look nice. I cut off the bottom right below where the tie is. I've done this shortcut before and after I wash it there will probably be a few loose threads that I can just pull off. Next I cut up the tiny part in between the two ties to make it a cardigan. I was going to fold this part under and sew it down but that seemed kind of bulky so I just painted the raw edge with clear fingernail polish (fraycheck would work too). Easy right! To dress it up I cut off a strip from the scrap piece and made a bow. Then I hand stitched it onto the cardigan. I also have enough left to make my daughter a little skirt. Hopefully I can post more as I start to feel better : ) Linking to these parties. Be sure to check them out!

Tee Tuesday - Dress with Ruffled Underskirt

Sorry this is a day late, Memorial day threw me off a day. This dress was actually made from some a knit fabric remnant I picked up at Joann's. You could easily make it out of a t-shirt though. The skirt was made from scraps from two t-shirts that I had already used for another refashion. For the dress I folded my fabric in half on a diagonal so that the stripes were slanted. Then I folded in half again so that I would be cutting out the front & back pieces at the same time. I used one of my daughters sleeveless dresses as a pattern, making the bottom of the dress flare out slightly. Then I took off one of the pieces and with the other piece still folded in half I cut a v-neck at the top. At the bottom, starting from a few inches in, I cut a curved v that ended a couple of inches below where my daughters waist is. The skirt pieces I cut so that the bottom of the skirt would have the existing hem from the t-shirt and the waist would end up being about 1 1/2" bigger than my daughter's waist. I also made sure the skirt would end up about 1/2" longer than the dress. One of the shirts had a hoodie so I measured out about 1 1/2" longer than my daughter waist from where one side of the tie on the hoodie came out. I cut very carefully so that I didn't cut the string inside. Then I cut that part off of the hoodie as the waistband for my daughter's skirt. I cut a new hole for the other end of the string & pulled it through. Next I sewed the two ends of the new waistband together so the two strings came out about 1/2" apart. I hope that makes sense because I forgot to take pictures. I sewed the sides of the skirt (I ended up having the skirt flare out only slightly). Then I sewed the waistband down on the top & bottom edge carefully so I didn't sew the string down at all. After that I sewed three ruffles on the side of the skirt where the string ties were, leaving the other side plain. As you can see this dress is reversible. You can have the v-neck in the front or the back. With the skirt I just make sure the side with the ruffles is on the same side as the v-neck so they will peep out. The reason I didn't put ruffles on the other side of the skirt is because I didn't want it to look bunchy under the dress. I can't decide which way I like it better. What do you think? Be sure to check out these linky parties I'm linking to! & this one too!

Tee Tuesday - Ruffle Pants

These pants were made from one of my long sleeve tees. The sleeve becomes the leg so you need a shirt with sleeves as long as a pair of your girl's pants or you could make shorts or pedal pushers. I used a pair of knit pants of my daughters as a pattern and cut the top line about an inch and a half higher so I could fold over for an elastic waistband. I later realized that the turtle neck was the perfect size for her waist & ended up using that as a waistband (without elastic). After I cut out the pant pieces I cut up the shirt into about 2 1/2 inch wide curved strips. I did curved strips so they would naturally fall in a ruffle. Then I started sewing the ruffles on the legs starting from the bottom. I would do three or four rows on one leg then do three or four on the next leg making sure they were somewhat even with the other leg. When I was done sewing around the leg I would trim off the excess fabric on the strip & then about every three rows I would use the shorter scraps and just over lap them. Also when sewing down the rows every so often I would add a little pleat to give some extra ruffling. I stopped when I was about 1/2 inch from the crotch. Then I sewed the crotch part together (the reason I hadn't done this earlier was so it would be easier sewing the ruffles on the legs). I added a couple rows of ruffles around the front & bum part of the pants. On the top row when I got to the back side I added little pleats less than 1/2 inch part to make the bum extra ruffly. Next I took the waistband piece I cut from the turtle neck and pinned it on with the top of the pants tucked in between (I had to stretch the waistband piece a little to do this which is how it should be so the pants will stay up). Then I sewed it down about 1/4 " from the raw edge (you could tuck under the raw edge if you want, but I like raw edges : ). If you cut the pants to have an elastic waistband you would fold the top down enough to fit your elastic & sew 1/4" in from the raw edge & leave an opening to feed the elastic through. My daughter loves these pants (all see every wants to wear is knit & she hates to wear jeans) and wears them all the time. I think I'll have to make some more, definitely some shorter lengths for summer. That is if warm weather every decides to come our way! Spring is almost over & we really haven't even had it yet since it was snowing last week, raining this week and we only seem to get one nice day every so often to tease us. I miss you sun! Oh & when I was done sewing these pants I noticed this (see pic below) in our backyard. I guess my boys were pretending to go camping (I'm just SO grateful they didn't try to light their campfire! I'll be linking to some of these linky parties & here & here.

Felt Crowns

Here are some crowns I made a couple of weeks ago out of felt. They were fun & pretty easy to make. For the back I used I used stretchy lace on one & on the other I cut into an old baby headband of my daughters that she never wore. She loves wearing hers & pretending she's a princess. In fact while wearing her "princess" crown she'll start wrestling with her brothers & do other unladylike activities. I like to call her Mary Mary quite contrary, because you never know what to expect from her. She'll go from singing sweetly to screaming for no apparent reason or from playing with dolls to digging in the garden with her brothers (we recently found one of her little Blythe dolls buried in the garden as you can see in the picture). Anyway tomorrow I'll post a tutorial for the ruffle pants you can see in this picture. Linking to these parties & this one & this one

Easter Dress

Well I'm finally posting my daughter's Easter dress. She loves pink, she gets mad when we tell her that she has blue eyes, she insists that they are pink. I was more into purple & yellow when I was little so it's a little weird for me. So I caved & made her a pink dress. I bought 3/4 yard each of two shades of pink & used almost all of it. I did an a-line sleeveless dress in the lighter pink & cut out tons of circles for the front. Here is a picture of what I cut out for the body of the dress. Then I sewed & serged the sides. Next I hemmed the neckline, sleeves & bottom of the dress. For the circle I cut a bunch of 3" circles, then 2 3/4" circles & 2 1/2" circles. I layered them large to smallest. Then I pinched the circles & sewed it down in the center. I kept doing this about 1/2" apart until the circle "flowers" went just over the shoulder. I wanted the back to be flatter so that she could wear a cardigan if it was cold. So I layered two bias cut strips one about 1" wide and one 3/4" wide. Then I sewed the strips down with pleats along the back neckline. I didn't get a picture of the back but next time she wears it I'll add a couple pictures to this post. After I tried it on I realized it was a little too full so I sewed in elastic in the back to gather it, but it would have also been cute to have her wear a pettiskirt underneath. It was also a little sheer so I made a simple slip out of one of my white t-shirts (she loves to wear knit so I figured she'd be more comfortable with a knit slip). The hat is from Claire's I just changed out the ribbon & flower. I also made myself a skirt & cardigan, but didn't get any pictures so I'll post that later this week. I am also working on some ideas for Mother's Day & teacher appreciation week so look for those this week too. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We are getting this guy a smaller cast tomorrow! : ) Linking to these fabulous sites.

Borax Crystal Easter Eggs

Sorry for the lack of posts. Between spring cleaning, a long spring break, and a kid who broke his arm I've had no time to sew. But I did make some Easter clothing I'll share on Monday. Have you seen these eggs on Martha Stewart? As soon as I saw these I knew I had to do make them with my kids. They love to make crystals. The directions call for alum and the only alum I could find locally was $4 for a little container making the cost $8/ each egg. So I followed the directions & used Borax (you find Borax in the laundry aisle & it is very cheap). All you need are eggs, easter egg die, cups (I bought the easter egg dye that came with cups), borax & white school glue. In Martha's directions you are supposed to allow the eggs to dry overnight before putting them in the crystal solution, we only waited 10 minutes. You're also supposed to let the solution cool for 30 minutes before putting the eggs in & we didn't wait at all (the kids were too excited). They still turned out great & my kids LOVE their crystal eggs! Borax crystals aren't quite as cool as alum ones but they still looked good & the kids had a blast making them. Linking here & here