Crafty Day

First up. I have had these around for a long time. Like 3 years. I always meant to hang them up in the cute nursery, but it never happened. Well, Baby Girl likes to play with them sometimes and it drives me nuts. So, finally I decided to make it happen! I was feeling crafty (and she found them again), so I got the kids and knocked it out.

A glue gun and some ribbon is all it takes.

I ran out of ribbon, so the ladybugs are kinda short. Oh well.

All hung up. Looks just how I imagined. Yay!

Secondly, I decided to make cookies with the kids. I looked up egg-free cookie recipes and stumbled on this blog post about making cookies in a bag. Cool, we can do that. I put the ingredients in the bag, with some help of course, and let them squish away.

Looks like fun right? Yea, they lost interest pretty quick. It turned into a hand work out for me. So, I put it in a bowl to finish mixing and cooked them up. I let the kids taste the dough (it is egg-free so why not). Capri loved it. No surprise. Rome hated it! Actually spit it out. Funny kid, has some texture issues.

All cooked up.

Pretty tasty-tasty. I think Rome didn't like the gooey center of his cookie, so he crumbled it and ate only the outside. Fine with me, I can finish that for you buddy! The rest of the cookies were eaten by Mom and Dad anyway. Daddy loves chocolate chip cookies, and I just don't give my kids sweets that often. Especially when they don't finish their dinner, which is often.

And what is crafty day with out a little Batman action?

Next up is this shirt I got at the Dollar store. I know, great place to find cheap clothes. It is super big and I thought it would be great for my coming summer huge-ness.

First, I put some ruching elastic down the sides.

Then I gathered a section at the neckline and sewed it about 2 inches smaller. It was just a little too wide at the top.

Then, try it on. Looks okay now, but I bet by July it will be so comfy!

Last, this super cute looking maternity-already dress.

I have had this dress for a while. My sister actually got it for me when I was expecting baby #2. Yea, so, 2 1/2 years ago? I never wore it. It looks comfy and cute, but just doesn't have enough room for my chest, so it looks funny. I figured I have been doing this altering stuff, I could fix it no problem. Just put a black sash around the middle. I got out my seam ripper and before you know it, had a huge hole in the front of my dress. All ready to...do what? Just putting a sash isn't going to give me more room for my bust. It would just cause the same problem I had before. A huge seam across them middle of my (ever larger) bosom. I just can't handle that. It looks weird. Well, this one might take a bit longer than anticipated. I will have to think about it some more.

On the plus side, I got all of this stuff done while my kids were awake! And finished four projects in one day. Amazing!

Modify

I have been working on lots of projects lately. Quiet books (not finished), summer maternity shirts, maternity dresses, super capes to give away (not even started), finally hemming 3 or 4 pairs of pants. Yea, keeping busy. My current obsession is to alter clothes to fit my belly and be more modest.

First up, some t-shirt I found at Old Navy on clearance. I thought they would be perfect with some elastic on the side seam.

I measured one of my favorite Motherhood Maternity shirts and tried it out a couple of ways.

I think it turned out pretty good.

Except I wanted to put some ruching on the sleeves too, to make them shorter and cuter. That didn't work so well and isn't finished yet. I better hurry though, they might not fit soon. This belly just keeps growing on me.

Next up is this halter maxi dress I bought for $10. It is supposed to be a maternity dress, but it fit a little funny. I was going to just cut off the back twisty part that was too tight, but then I started thinking. It was way too long. So...

I started by cutting 12" off the bottom.

Then I cut one halter front off to switch it to the other side that I liked the pattern better. I unpicked the elastic out of the waist. Sewed on a back panel. Looked up how to make a sleeve pattern and cut out a mock up out of black fabric. Sewed, unpicked and modified the sleeve, sewed, unpicked, gathered, and re-sewed the sleeves back on. It didn't really have a sleeve opening, so it was a bit harder than I anticipated. It took a while, but I figured it out.

The last thing to do was to put in a modesty panel so I could wear it without a tank underneath.(oh, and sew the waist elastic back in) I first followed the shape of the front to make the panel, because one side is wider than the other. (because I flipped it over) However, it was too wide and I had to wear a tank underneath anyway. (I wore it for Easter) I fixed it later and it looks great!

Hubby says it isn't very flattering, but it is a maternity dress. They aren't really made to be flattering. It is however very comfortable and light enough to wear all summer. Yay!

Almost last project, this dress I got in Europe in high school.

Yes, its that old. I still love it though. I have had it on my project list for a while because the back slit is just a little too high now a days. So, I put in a little modesty kick panel.

I did this after the much harder Easter dress and thought, "Hey, I can put sleeves on this one no problem." Actually, I even used the sleeve mock ups that I cut out for that dress. Since they were regular sleeves and in the fabric that was the same black polyester stuff this dress is.

I think it turned out pretty good too. I hope it fits later when I can actually fit into it.

Now onto the last maternity shirt to be ruched and finish the sleeves on the almost finished ones. Almost done, right? Never...

Halloween 2010

Let me start with I LOVE Halloween. It helps that my husband likes it too. I like Christmas, but what other time can you dress up as whatever you want, have your friends over and eat lots of candy?? Yea, its pretty great. I also like matching costumes. 2008 we were cave men and baby boy was a dinosaur in blue jammies I sewed green spikes and claws onto. I might have to go dig out those pics, he was so cute! (and I hand sewed a lot)

Look at how little he was! He loved to chew on the soft "claws".

you can kind of see the spikes and tail I sewed on.

This year I settled on race cars. My little boy LOVES the movie Cars. He could watch it all day long and sometimes on car trips he does. So, I decided to make him a Lightning McQueen costume out of a cardboard box.

It turned out pretty sweet and He loved it. Still does. And so does baby sister.

Yes, I freehanded all of that, though I did have a lot of models to look at. Painting was a bit hard over the tape keeping it together. Maybe duct tape would have been better, but too late now. I even cut out wheels and screwed them on so they would turn. So cool! Until some little boy decided to rip them off. Arrgh! Don't you know how much time I put into that stinkin' cute costume?!? Okay, you're two, you don't. Also, I got some black and white fabric and sewed it down the arms of a red t-shirt so it looked like a racing outfit. Not an easy task. I ended up only sewing 2/3 of it on because my machine wouldn't reach any more and I did not want to hand sew it. I liked the effect anyway. (and you really can't tell)

Next was the trophy. I came up with this on my own. It looked really good in my head.

I bought a yellow t-shirt at the dollar store and cut it up to look like an upside down dress. I gathered both ends and then on one side I put in a pocket for some boning to keep it open. then I cut open some arm holes and sewed on the trophy "handles". I even put on some snaps to keep the top closed. It turned out okay. It should have been way bigger. Not my best work, but you get the idea.

And yes, there is me, looking badly. I was the "Trophy Wife" in a pink sweat suit, heels, huge fake ring and I used to have on a fluffy blond wig. Baby girl cried because she didn't recognize me, so its gone. I went with Hubby as "Ricky Bobby".

Yup, pinned on those pieces of paper myself. I like the "Wonder" symbol on the piece of bread. Clever, I know. I tried to get him to let me doctor up his overalls more, but He wasn't having it. Oh well. At least he went with the theme.
And to go with our Halloween feast, cake eyeballs. Yes, the idea came from Lacey last year. Hers were way more pretty. Ehh, I had two little kids at the time. I was lucky to get anything done. They tasted good anyway.

Random Projects

These are just little projects that I did as needed. These little shoes were so cute, but would never stay on. So, I fixed them. It took just a little time to measure and hand sew on a ribbon and velcro square to keep the pretty shoes on those pretty little feet. I don't remember how long she wore them, but it was worth it not to worry about where we lost one.

This was my next real project after I gave up on the Turkey placemats. I got a pattern and some fabric (50% off thanks to JoAnns going out of business in my city). It took me forever to get the snaps on the bottom to work and I though it looked so ugly. It was way to big for my little girl and I made it for a boy anyway. A year later I tried it on her and she was still too skinny and it looked like she was wearing a bag. So, I changed it into a dress. Just cut off those snaps I spent so much time on and hemmed it. Much better, and now it fits.

Now to find the picture of her in it...

Here it is. Isn't she cute?

Oldies

I thought I should first post what got me back into sewing and creating things. Back when I was a kid I used to sew things with my Grandma Thomas. Little projects, a vest, a dress, but she taught me how to read a pattern and sew it together. Fast forward 15 years and now I want to create things for my kids. More than just what I could buy in a store. Something just for them. Or really, just for me. Anyway, this is how it started again.

Rome's second Christmas we spent at home (as I was 8 months pregnant at the time). I really wanted a pretty skirt for our fake tree. I could not find anything that I liked, so I made one. It turned out exactly how I wanted and I love it! I hope in a couple more years my kids like it too.

Project number 2. I stole this glider from my Mom's house (before I knew she was getting me a brand new one for Christmas...oops) It had a huge hole in the front of the seat cushion. So, I bought some upholstery fabric and made a new cover for it. I left the old stuff underneath as the cushions were really old and dirty and I didn't want to remove them. The top pattern ended up upside down, but I think it still looks pretty good. It is a little scratchy, but much better than it used to be.

Project #3. I went OVERBOARD. Decided that I needed to make turkey placemats for Thanksgiving. Like for someday when we don't have a house to go to and have to make our own meal at home. (yea, that is going to be a while) I spent forever picking out the fabrics and worked on them every night for months(way past Thanksgiving). I got them all done except for the last step and then I hated how the instructions told me to do it. It looked terrible! So, I put it away for over a year. Finally I went back to them and just topstitched them together and they look perfect! All ready for Thanksgiving dinner. (at Grandma's house!)

A little jumper for my Brother's wedding. You can't tell, but it has pockets on the side and knots instead of buttons. Look how cute they are on my little boy!

A matching criss-cross dress for little sister.

A year later and it fits much better! You can almost see the bloomers poking out underneath. It is still so big I am sure she will wear it for years to come.

It Begins...

I decided I should have a blog to show off all of my crafty stuff. Crafting, sewing, cooking, silly me-ness. Now, I suppose, I could have done all of this on my other blog, but I think it is more my family and kids stuff. Not that I have been doing anything over there. I have been effectively ignoring it for quite a while. Anyway, I needed a new place to put all of my stuff together. So, here it is! Yaaaay! Now on to the fun stuff...