hotel room crafting: part 1

spring is in full gear around my house... not the weather but spring cleaning, painting, and wardrobe creating...

so while in little rock i made this shirt for boy using MADE's 90 minute shirt tutorial...

started by making my pattern, also using MADE's pattern tutorial... and a magazine from the conference because i forgot paper...


i used this thrifted (woman's, shhh...don't tell) shirt... i really liked the colors

one thing i would say is the tutorial suggested serging the edges of your binding pieces or leaving them raw... i don't have a serger and i wanted it more finished than just raw edges so i put my own spin on it.

after cutting strips of ribbed knit long enough to go around the neckline, i pinned the edge to the neckline...

sewed around with a straight stitch and pressed the seam up...

(pressing on both the front and back will help it lay)

then i pinned the binding over to the width i wanted... you can see i had plenty of extra width once i pinned it over.

topstitch the binding an eighth of an inch from the seam...

i sewed a second topstitch an eighth of an inch up from the first one to give it a more finished look...

trip the back side of the neckline and repeat for the other side of the shirt...

then continue following the 90 minute shirt tutorial... i didn't think it turned out too bad for a sleep deprived, hotel room, all-nighter craft fest, with no cutting mat and rotary cutter, no measuring tape, and no boy to check size with. i might tweak the neckline/shoulders a little next time. they were a little wide.

oh... you can follow the same steps to add cuffs to your sleeves if you want. i just used the finished the hem from the original shirt...

more hotel room crafting to come... and more spring wardrobe creating/thrifting/refashioning...

gettin' crafty in a hotel room

my conference dismissed at 4:00pm today and that left several hours of alone time to think about my boys being at home without me... hence the sewing machine coming with me... between it and the dreaded treadmill in the club house i have been busy.

we have very limited fabric shopping options at home so i headed off to find the jo-ann's here in little rock... and ribbed knit was on sale... and cute snugly flannel was on sale... and well it just sorta followed me right out of the store...


there will be some cute stuff coming out of this here hotel room!

happy day of love

boy is a little heart breaker... and needed a valentine's shirt to show it. when thinking about what i wanted to do for his shirt (because i have this thing about making him shirts for special occasions...it's kinda like you get to make a costume and what's better than that?) i wasn't sure what i wanted to do. then i found this pattern from little blue boo, then i saw this: Little Blue Boo/Dharma Trading Design Challenge

i decided that boy's valentine's shirt couldn't just be another long sleeved tee, it needed to be a cute hoodie with a little bit of rocker baby edge... an old black tee and some black and white striped jersey from the local thrift store... i used scrap jersey for the heart and banner applique and hand painted heart breaker. i think it gives a little more of a prison tat look...lol. cost 15 cents and one hour...
(not counting the pattern cost $9 which has provided several shirts already and goes up to size 7 so i can use it f-o-r-e-v-e-r...so it doesn't count.)

this was the first little blue boo pattern i have used. it was very easy to read, had great step by step pictures, and tips for sewing jersey... i was really impressed. ashley has so many super cute patterns for little girls and i love that they all reuse old t-shirts.

gettin' crafty and stuff

i was going through pictures looking at all the pictures for posts that never made it up, mostly because i seem to either have time to craft or blog, not both... and partly because i am NOT a model and my pictures are scary... ha, ha... no, i'm not joking...

so today i'll throw caution to the wind and work on some posts of what i've been up to... you've been warned.
here is a long "maxi" style dress that came in handy during pregnancy... in the spirit of wardrobe refashioning it is now a short bubble skirted dress... would i actually wear it out in public like this? no. i would have a shirt under it and quite possibly legging, or even jeans... so since i wouldn't be seen like this in public, let me post it online for the world to see... :o)

it was a very easy refashion. i just turned the dress inside out, sewed around the hem of the skirt with a long straight stitch, pulled the thread to gather the hem to the size of the waist, folded it up and pinned the hem of the skirt to the seam of the waist, and sewed the hem to the waist seam with a zig-zag stitch... ta-da!

gettin' crafty: wicking ear warmer

cold weather and running don't go hand in hand in my book, but it's a combination i'm going to have to embrace... like in the morning when i go out for my long run and it's 35 degrees instead of the 65 degree high today.

this means the cold weather running gear is back out, which includes the ear warmers. problem? itchy, sweaty, poly blend, knitted, nasty, ear warmer...

so i pulled out an old pair of shorts that are supposed to be made out of a wicking cotton blend. with a snip, snip, here and a stitch, stitch, there i made wicking ear warmers. here's how:

old shorts...

being silly trying shorts on my head to make sure they would fit...

(that would be the leg hole around my head)
cut the leg off...

put it back on your head, pull it pretty snug until your fingers are about three inches apart at the back of your head (does that make any sense at all?)
cut a 3" piece of elastic and pin it to the leg (turned inside out) at the points that you pulled your material around your head.

sew each end of the elastic to secure it to the material.

fold the top of the loop down over the elastic and pin. make sure you pull the fabric taunt when pinning...

continue your way around, adjusting the amount of fabric you pin over so that the loop is wider around the front and thinner at the back where the elastic is...

zig-zag stitch around the loop and you are done... one free wicking ear warmer, cause have you priced them in a store? those people are smoken' crack...

we'll see how well it works in the morning...

(i know, i know, these pics are great)

gettin' crafty: sweater refashion

i bought this sweater off a clearance rack for $3.

it was way too big, but i really liked the green and the hood.

i put it on and used safety pins to fit it on the sides and

shoulders. (if you turn the sweater inside out first you don't

have to move the pins to the other side before you sew.

of course i didn't think about that before i started...)

i did a straight stitch then followed it up with a zigzag stitch

to help keep it from raveling. trimmed the seams and done.

this will be swell over summer tops.
a great way to extend the wardrobe for next to nothin'!

don't sew with pins in your mouth!

i grew up watching my momma sew...

she always had a mouth full of straight pins

and i have followed in her foot steps.

this probably isn't the smartest thing to do,

but it's habit and nothing bad has happened to

me yet... until today.

i was working on a sweater refashion (more on that later).

see my pretty green sweater that is way too big?

i used safety pins to fit it then started to sew,

taking the safety pins out as i went...

not taking time to close them...

and putting them, you guessed it,

in my mouth.

i did not feel anything amiss until i went to pull

the safety pins out of my mouth and one would not come.

somehow i managed to pinch a tiny piece of my tongue

between the coils of the safety pin and it was good and stuck!


just wanted to share
1. because i would hate anyone to suffer a
sewing injury that could have been prevented
by sharing my own stupidity
and 2. because that's a pretty cool picture!

gettin' crafty: well sister is

sister made my niece this super-cute tuxedo shirt.

i want one... the shirt... a little girl to put it in...

luckily i get to do the girl thing with sister's little ones.

anyway, if you have a cute little girl and

want to make her a cute little tuxedo shirt,

visit sister's blog to find out how.

gettin' crafty: men's t-shirt refashion

browsing through the local helping hands i found an old, very worn, large men's t-shirt and i LOVED the front of it. it would be perfect for my little farm boy. so i bought it for next to nothing, took it home, cut it to pieces, and put it all back together again.i zig-zag stitched with a mustard yellow thread across the shoulders, around the top of the sleeve (where i attached them, leaving the unfinished edge showing) and around the hem, using a variety of stitch lengths to give it some character. i used the original hem of the sleeves so they didn't have to be restitched.

it came out SO CUTE. i'm in love... ahhh... a sweet, one of a kind shirt for boy for about a buck and thirty minutes of cutting and sewing!

gettin' crafty: super easy onesie refashion

i am personally opposed to onesies for little ones over a year. once they can walk i don't want additional snaps and such to deal with... especially when working on pottying like a big boy.

however, boy had some onesies in his current size that had been given to us. i didn't want them to go to waist... especially since we are participating in the 2 month wardrobe refashion and can't buy new clothes. so here is what i did.

cut the bottom of the onesie off. didn't hem or anything... the jersey fabric won't fray. easy peasy done!

check out boy in his use to be a onesie thermal.

gettin' crafty: a little mod podge is an amazing thing

mod podge is a pretty amazing thing.

it dries quick...

it is easy to paint with...

it is water soluble...

this makes mod podge the perfect choice

for making your own screen prints.

what you need:

a shirt to make wonderful

a bit of creative inspiration

an embroidery hoop

sheer fabric (a sheer curtain works really well)

a pencil

a decent paint brush

screen printing ink (i got mine at hobby lobby)

mod podge, of course

a cheap, stiff paint brush

draw out your design

put fabric in the hoop

trace design on fabric

*you might check to see how big

it will be on your shirt first

flip the hoop over
THIS IS IMPORTANT
if you don't your hoop with glue down to your work surface

mod podge the parts you don't

want the ink to go through,
let dry

when the design is completely dry flip it over and position it on your shirt
hold it down and apply screen printing ink liberally with a stiff brush

*it's a good idea to put something between the layers of your shirt

you are working to push the ink through the screen

you can get a more "worn" effect by

working the ink into the screen less

pull up the screen and check out your results

when shirt is completely dry,

heat set with an iron according to ink directions

you can wash out and reuse the screen.

i've made up to 25 shirts with the same screen,

just wash it off every few shirts.

here's my "new" screen printed shirt for boy...

i'd love to see yours...

here are a few more of the many i've made...

i love this project!

for boy's first rockin' pirate birthday party...

race for the cure team shirts, including one for boy...
they have a little 80's punk vibe, very fun to make.

told you mod podge was pretty amazing.

gettin' crafty: big boy pac-pac tutorial

as the start of school was approaching i was ready to toss the much used diaper bag to send boy off to the sitters everyday. so i decided it was time for a "back-to-school-big-boy-pac-pac", but i couldn't find a cute one big enough to pack everything it seems we need to pack every day... i found a good plain back pack, removed the label, got some inspiration from the new lunch kit (that is way cool, enviro-friendly, and will hold breakfast and lunch for a wee one!) and decided to get crafty! here is how...i started with a name. you can use a cool font

(i like to use http://www.dafont.com/)

good fonts for appliques are simple and made up of thick lines.

Print out name as a "mirror image".
Make sure it's the right size for the bag and you check the "mirror image"
setting on your printer preferences.

(if you don't have a printer like me, or can't figure out how to print a "mirror image" you can write it out in sharpie, put it backwards against a window, then trace it again)


iron on "Wonder Under" fusible web (found at any fabric store – in a package or also by the yard) to wrong side of chosen applique fabric.



i drew out my rocket design (not worrying about it being backwards or not)

cut out all the pieces after tracing them onto the wonder under.

be sure to leave an edge around your design.

iron each piece onto the fabric for that part of the design...

cut out each part of the design and name that you just

ironed onto Wonder Under...

then remove the paper backing ONLY ON THE PIECES THAT WILL BE LAYERED OVER THE BACK PIECE OF YOUR APPLIQUE!

layer them up and iron them on following Wonder Under instructions. (sorry i forgot to take a picture of this step!)

remove paper from the rest of the appliques.

Place appliques on bag and seal with a hot iron.

*make sure for a project like this (using heavy fabric) that you use heavy duty Wonder Under or sew around appliques.


here is boy's finished pac-pac



and here is boy ready to go... he doesn't seem to mind that its 8 o'clock at night.