april crazy-ness brings may weddings

april was spent in the chaos of preparing for two weddings in may.

my honey's baby brother was marrying his sweet sarah. sarah had a lot of family coming in from west texas so we were going to have house guests we had never met which is always interesting to prepare for.

then sister and her honey were getting married the following weekend. both weddings were being planned long distance which meant we were taking care of a lot of the preparations.

sewing was left to the last minute... shocking! but boy and sister's little lady looked awful cute in their custom made attire! (and of course little lady will not stand so you can't really see her frock)

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...

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.

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: sticker book

boy is getting to the age that he needs something to keep him entertained when we are out and about. the grocery store cart and high chair at restraunts are not places he particulary enjoys sitting for long. something about thinking he needs down to explore...

i'm always looking for things that will keep him happy sitting without buying a new toy or cookies...
so when i saw this tutorial from samster mommy for a sticker book i thought i'd give it a try. after all, boy likes to take the stickers off the produce while we are shopping...

he was pretty impressed. and if you get tired of sticking the stickers on the book then taking them off to stick on again you can always stick them to your foot...