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.

gettin' crafty: matching game

while boy was taking a nap today i made him a little something to entertain... a really cute, non-destructible, take-along-anywhere, matching game (he can play memory with it when he's a little older)...

basic supplies:

wooden tiles
(i couldn't find any the size i wanted so i cut slats)
mod podge
paint and brush
craft paper
animal stickers- two of each animal
(you can use any stickers, clip art images, etc..)

to cut my slats i laid one over the other and traced a line to make squares...

then i snuck out to my honey's shop and used the big scary saw...

brought them in, cut craft paper to fit over one side, painted a layer of mod podge, laid paper over, smoothed down, and let dry...

painted sides and back of tiles. added cute animal stickers...

mod podge over animals, making sure to press out air bubbles as they dry...

it takes several coats of mod podge and while tiles were drying between coats i made a little pouch to hold our pieces...

what you need:

fabric scrap

(mine was about 18"x11")

scissors

sewing machine

cord

cut fabric in half and pin right sides together...

sew a straight stitch down each side with about an inch seam allowance. start seam about 1 1/2 inches down...

press seams down...

fold each seam allowance under and press... the top 1 1/2 inches should be open...

sew a straight stitch down each side of the folded over seam...

fold the top of the pouch over, pin well. each end of your fold will be open, creating a casing for your cord...

sew a straight stitch across the bottom of your fold...

sew a straight stitch across the bottom of the bag. i sewed a double seam for reinforcement...

turn the pouch right side out. use a safety pin to thread the cord through the casing at the top of the pouch...

cut your cording, leaving enough to tie off...

tie off the end and melt with a lighter to keep from unraveling... and done...

can't wait for boy to wake up and play...

i think this would be really cute with pictures of family members, pictures of boy's favorite things, toys, satch, horses, boots... the possiblities are endless...