hotel room crafting: hooded towels

hooded towels, cause boy is too big for his baby towels and thinks he needs to be completely wrapped up after a bath...
large bath towel, hand towel (both on clearance) cute flannel fabric (half off)...

cut the hand towel in half, cut a section of flannel about 1/2 inch bigger than hand towel...

fold fabric in half...

sew a seam across one short end...

sew a seam down the cut end of the hand towel...

turn the hand towel right side out (the sewn seam inside) put the fabric inside the hand towel hood...

turn up the fabric and pin all the way around (except the bottom!)...

sew a top stitch 1/8th of an inch from edge of fabric... make sure you don't sew the last 1/2 inch or so of both edges... or if you do like i did rip your stitches out! (see below for picture)

see, this is the part you shouldn't sew... instead fold over and under to "mieder" the corner... did i just make that up?

fold raw edge of fabric under edge of towel and pin... make sure to pin to center of bath towel, too!

once pinned sew a straight stitch across hand towel...

next cut two sections of fabric about two inches longer than the edges of the bath towel, and as wide as you would like... the strips for this towel were about 3 inches wide... for the second towel i made they were about 5 inches...

iron over the edge...

pin ironed over edge to edge of towel, you should have about 1 inch hang over on each end...

sew with a straight stitch...

turn towel over, iron down other side of fabric...

fold fabric over edge of towel and pin... when you get to the end fold excess fabric over...

then fold fabric over to "mieder" the corner...

sew a straight stitch all the way around the edge of the fabric...

and there you have it...

for the second towel i gave the hood a rounded edge instead of a point... after cutting the hand towel in half and cutting the fabric, i folded the hand towel in half and marked it with a rounded edge on the fold...

then cut it and the fabric (also folded in half)...

these are pretty big towels and the hood is good size, so boy shouldn't outgrow them any time soon...

stretching the wardrobe budget

have i been crafting much? no, not lately. oh, because i've been catching up on laundry? no. laundry caught up! it NEVER happens. the minute that last load is folded and put away someone changes clothes... (the main reason i have tried to convince my family we all need to be nudists...lol)

what i have been doing is getting ready for two semi-annual children's consignment sales that we have in our area; just between friends and rhea lana.

this is how i obtain the vast majority of boy's wardrobe.

this is my second time to actually consign clothing. i am hoping to bring in enough income to take care of all boy's and my spring/summer wardrobe needs... and maybe even my honey!

it took three evenings to go through stored clothes, press and hang, enter and attach tags. it really isn't too bad. organization is the key and both sales' websites give great tips for this...

i managed to get it all done while packing, organizing things for my boys, and getting things taken care of at school in order to go to AGATE (arkansas's annual gifted education conference). four hours from home, leaving my boys at home to take care of themselves for an extended time (for the first time).

don't worry, i only cried twice before i got out of town... (roughly ten miles)... but i packed my sewing machine and some half finished projects to keep me busy at night. i'm going to start a new club. something like hotel room crafters of america...

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.

valentine's gifts for boy

i got boy some color wonder markers and paper for valentine's day, because he thinks markers are way cooler than crayons...then i saw this really cute idea for a homemade fishing game here. paw-paw wants boy to fish so bad he can hardly stand it. he tried all summer (even though boy had just turned one) to get him to fish... well paw-paw, this one's for you... maybe it will help boy get the concept.

i made my fish by cutting out fishy shapes from fun foam. i used a low temp glue gun to attach googly eyes.

the mouth is a paper clip... a dop of glue was placed at the end of the paper clips to help them survive boy.

it's a whole school of googly-eyed fishies...

took a short dowel rod, painted it orange, attached a string... tied a nut to the end of the string and glued a strong little round magnet to the nut... used liquid fuse.

and now boy will be all set to fish...

i just need to find a little metal bucket at the dollar tree for boy to carry his fish in...

*ATTENTION: this little fishie game has little parts, so make sure your little one is well supervised, especially if he likes to put little things where they don't belong... i went to school with a boy who got a magnet stuck in his ear. they had to take him to the hospital to have it removed. the next week he got a dry bean stuck up his nose...

gettin' crafty: new "old" mirror

working on adding color to the house... slowly...
what did i do with this dirty old mirror and two bed rails i picked up at a flea market? oh, and some spray paint, can't forget the spray paint...i made this mirror to hang over the mantle... ohhh... i like that! i have seen similar mirrors for $500 to $1500 dollars... just as roughly done as mine...crazy!

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!

low tech runner

i am currently using a pretty low tech method of tracking my distance and pace when running. i use my cell phone clock and my car's odometer. i look at how far i ran, how long it took, crack the numbers and know about what i averaged in minutes per mile.

i would like to have a slightly more accurate means of determining distance and pace, especially because i don't like to run the same route over and over, but it has to be:

1. simple (runner's watches intimidate me)
2. as cheap as possible (all my current method cost is pocket change for gas)

does anyone have any suggestions?

oh... the ear warmers worked really well...

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'!

chefin' it: homemade apple sauce for baby boy

made homemade applesauce for boy last night.

it is really easy, really yummy, and all natural.

what you need:

*fuji apples

(i used 8 large apples and made about 3 cups)

a food processor

and well that's about it

peel, core, and cut

(i'm not fancy enough for a corer or peeler, so a good old knife was used)

i sliced my apples into eighths.

baked for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

stirred once to keep the apples on top from drying out.

(put a baking sheet under them just in case they bubble over)

dumped into the food processor, juice and all,

and ran until the apples were a good smooth consistency.

i poured the apple sauce into ice trays and froze.
then just pop them out, put in freezer bags and i have
fresh apple sauce in perfect boy portions any time.

*fuji apples are very sweet and crisp. they bake well, not turning mushy.
no need to add sugar to the sauce.

i have even used them in apple pies,
cut the sugar from the recipe,
and it's still sweet and delicious!

gettin' crafty: vinyl guttering book shelves

it finally stopped raining long enough to get my craft on and that blank wall in boy's room is gettin' filled!

i have seen these book shelves made out of vinyl guttering all over the web. they are really cute and a great way to display books for little ones to see and reach.

what you need:

vinyl guttering

the brackets to hang the guttering

and two end caps per piece

(be careful, they come in lefts and rights)

spray paint, the kind for plastic

(if your crazy like me *see below)

wood screws

drill

level

stud finder (you know, for the walls?)

the guttering comes in 10 foot sections. i sweet talked the guy at lowe's into cutting mine into three even pieces. he used a hack saw and it was pretty quick and easy.

i had only seen the shelves made in white and that seems to be the standard color the guttering is sold in, but i didn't let that stop me. boy's needed to be red!

*a word about spray painting:

the plastic spraypaint (*i used krylon) was tomato red not the barn red i wanted.

vinyl guttering is very static-y so it's hard to keep clean while painting.

i ended up using regular spray paint for a third and fourth coat instead of the plastic stuff and that greatly improved the color.

while hanging the shelves i found that the color scrapes off pretty easily so all that hard work will probably be regretted later...

once all the pieces were dry, i marked where i wanted them on the wall, checking that they were level and spaced far enough apart for the bigger books. marked where the studs were and adjusted the mounting brackets to make sure they were spaced to hit said studs. used my honey's electric drill to attach and walla...

i only used two of the shelves because the third would have been too high for boy to reach... maybe i'll hang it when he is older?

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!