Tablecloth No-Fly-Zone

Did you know I post over at Curbly every week?  I do.  Their website has great DIY ideas for the modern home, as well as lots of other fun and useful stuff.  This week I posted an easy remedy for those fly-away tablecloths on windy picnic days. 

And on another note, are you as annoyed at Blogger these days as I am?  I've had to download another web browser just to leave comments on blogs, but that browser won't recognize my flash player so some pages won't load.  It has killed my blogging mojo!  My crafting hasn't been affected though :)

Another annoyance: I ordered a quilt template thingy 12 days ago and just got an e-mail that they shipped it.  12 days!!!  In the meantime, I ordered a dress from an online shop (got it, mailed it back to exchange it, and it is shipping back already), ordered fun zippers and received them from another company... I just couldn't believe it.  I even checked after the first week to make sure they weren't in Canada :)  Anyway, I don't think I'll order from there again!

Ok.  Enough ranting.  Have a good Wednesday :)

Lace T-Shirt Refashion

This one was from a few weeks ago, but by the number of times I’ve worn, washed, and worn this shirt I really have to share it again.  I think it is a new favorite!

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I have to say, I totally love what I’m sharing today.

If you looked through my closet, it wouldn’t be that hard to realize I am a simple person when it comes to clothes.  I’m slowly working my way up to wearing “pretty” things, and I’ve been drawn to the lace-topped tees lately, and have wanted to duplicate the look for my own wardrobe.

(all of these lace-infused tops were found at ModCloth, my go-to-source for good knock-off ideas)

I like to keep my shoulders and such covered, so that pretty much rules me out of the lace goodness without the undershirt beneath breaking up the loveliness.  The goal was to achieve the lace sectioned bodice while keeping everything fully lined.  And it was so easy to do!

All you need to get the look is some stretch lace and a t-shirt (plus, you know, sewing stuff.).  I got my shirt at Target for $2 clearance this past winter, and it has been sitting in my closet, with tags, since then!  I am using a lace shawl I found at Goodwill, but stretchy lace can be found in the bridal fabrics at Jo-Anns.

 

1. Cut off those sleeves!  Keep them nice and in tact, since we will put them back on in the end.

2. Mark a line where you want your lace bodice part to end.  I decided on a smaller bodice but hey, the entire front in lace would look cool too!  My front and back were two different lengths so I just marked one layer.

3.  Cut along your markings (my top layer), and then mark the back.

4.  See how my back is higher?  I thought I’d be clever.  It didn’t make much difference in the end :)

5.  Put the shirt part aside, and cut the bodice at the shoulders so you have two separate pieces.  I cut the neckline off here too because I didn’t want a really high lace crew neck… ya know?

6.  Use those bodice pieces as your pattern for your lace.  Pin, and cut away!

7.  Pin the lace to the wrong side of the bodice pieces and pin just at the necklines.

8.  Sew the necklines at about 1/4” seam allowance.  When it is turned inside out, it will look like this:

9.  Pin the Front and Back shoulders together, matching up the lace layers and the knit layers.  Use the same 1/4” seam allowance.

10.  Turn everything inside out and love your new lace bodice section!  And on we go.

11.  Pin the bodice Right Sides Together with the shirt (don’t mix up your fronts and backs!), and sew with 1/4” seam allowance, yet again.

12.  Pretty, huh?  I just have the front done in this pic, I was too excited to wait.

13.  Find those sleeves and sew them back in!  The way I do it is I turn my shirt inside out and stick the sleeve right side in.  I start by pinning at the armpit seams and then pin outwards from there until everything is pinned and stretched evenly.  Sew together!

14.  Flip everything right side out!

15. Find the only flowering bush in your desert-landscaped neighborhood and take pictures!

 
The great thing about a spruced-up tee is that it is suddenly OK for date night!  I’d throw on a cardi or cute jacked over this.  If it wasn’t in triple digits here in Arizona.  ;)

And I already have the fixin’s for a few more of these shirts… I’m itching for a full-fronted lace shirt now!

So, do you want to try it? It’s totally awesome, I’ll just say that.  The end.

A Rapunzel Dress-Up Day

My girls love Rapunzel.  They have watched Tangled so many times, even the baby quotes it.  And they must have wanted the DVD with them all the time, because it is missing from its case and now I can’t find it.  BUT- we thought we’d act out the movie ourselves in new Rapunzel dresses!

It is no secret that I face a hair-doing battle every morning with them, and more often than not, I just choose to not bother with the battle.  It makes for messy hair most days, but a pretty dress makes them feel plenty fancy.

I used a dress pattern, but altered it… a bunch.  I didn’t use a full enough skirt since I figured the pink insert would make it more full, but I ended up gathering it so much at the pink area it lost the rest of its fullness.  The girls actually play more in their less-full dress-up dresses, but it still could use a bit more gathering.

I love the sleeves, though.  I actually like it better without the lace, but the munchkin insisted on the lace.  So, she got lace :)

They have been wearing these since yesterday, which would explain the chocolate marks, soup spills, milk splotches, and wrinkles.  But we’re a real household here, so let’s just expect it!

Honestly, this has been on my to-do list for EVER (since seeing this one) so, I’m glad it is done! :)  So are the girls!

Patriotic Table Runner

I made this with leftover fabric from last year’s patriotic pennant project.  I just cut 5 1/2” squares from whatever I had left and randomly sewed them together.  I even had some white stars left over, so I first sewed them to some blue fabric and made sure they ended up in the middle row.  There is an extra space in the middle of the runner for a centerpiece, like my cute Pyrex bowl.

This was a very quick project; I even machine-stitched the binding down to make it even faster.  The most fun thing about doing this project, though, was quilting it!  I did a stipple with the occasional star.  There are a few stars per square, actually…

I just quilted around the big white stars, since they were already stitched down. 

This table runner is going to my husband’s grandmother, an immigrant from Austria.  She had a very, very horrific time in Austria under the German occupation as a teenager those many years ago, and came out on top with her head held high and with an unshakable faith.  She worked very hard to get a work visa to Canada, where she lived for a while until she could get a visa to the United States, where the first thing she did after making her way here was to get a giant hamburger- the American staple.  She says receiving her citizenship to the U.S. was one of the greatest moments of her life, and struggled a long time with having an accent and having her children’s friends make fun of her for it.

She still has a German accent, still loves her homeland of Austria, but she really, really loves the good ‘ol U.S. of A.  She lives right by the Snake River in Idaho, where they have the most spectacular fireworks display on the 4th of July.  She’ll go down two days prior and set up camp and have all her grandkids take shifts in protecting their spot so they can have a great view.  She sends us letters on a regular basis telling us to be proud of who we are and the country we live in, and reminds us whenever voting time comes around. She is an awesome example of Patriotism.  So, that is why she gets this table runner.  Who wants to bet she’ll have it up year-round?

Wooden Peeps

I picked up two packs of wooden people on clearance last week at Hobby Lobby for $2-something each.  Sometimes I need a break from fabric, you know.  I picked up the everyday heroes, (above)…

and the imagination gang.  No, they weren’t actually labeled that, but my kids like to pretend they are every single one of these little guys so it seemed fitting.

This is a perfect find if you had little boys around- in the set of 12, there are only 4 girls.  And, they are mostly used for stacking into a tower and then being knocked down.  Boys like that too.

Can you guess which one my girls fight over, though?  I wish the teacher didn’t look so homely.  I don’t know any homely teachers (unless you count some college professors…). 

Anyway, the paint jobs are less than perfect, but I had a really great time painting all of them.  They are so cute!  I was thinking these would be fun to take to church, but we are always sitting on the back, on the uncushioned chairs in the uncarpeted part of the building, so I reconsidered the whole church-toy thing.

And then I bought fabric over the weekend, so thus ended my sewing break. :)

Chain Reaction Quilt

Here’s a recent finish:  The Chain Reaction quilt by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew.  I used scraps from my stash, Kona Ash as the background and Kona Snow for the “chaining.”

The back is just a print from Hobby Lobby.  Nothing exciting.  I had a stripe on hand too for the binding.

This quilt is already traveling across the country to its new owners.  I’m glad I got some pictures of it though; this is the best stippling job I’ve done yet. 

This quilt gave me a few challenges at first, which I later realized weren’t problems at all.  For some lovely reason, my seam allowances weren’t right so my squares ended up non-squares.  When I tried to make them so, it was pretty much not working and I eventually just tossed them in my WIP bin to come back for later.  When I read the pattern instructions again, it said that once finished adding the white around the squares, to cut off excess around each one to make the correct finished size.  Thank you, Allison, for including excess in your cut sizes for dorks like me.  Since the colored blocks had so many sizing differences, not all the white borders are created equal :)  Since then I have received a 1/4” foot though, so issues have been greatly reduced!

Also, in that interim of not working on it, I cut into my Ash for something else.  Turns out I needed those inches for sashing and I had to go hunting for more, which took three stores and then it wasn’t even the same dye lot.  Live and learn.

The only thing that I was stumped about in the pattern was the cuts; I had cut off all my selvedges before starting, and suddenly couldn’t get the correct cuts out of my fabric.  I’m not sure what I should have done differently, since I only cut to where the holes are in the selvedge.  I had to make some fabric changes because of that.  It was strange.

Anyway, this imperfectly pieced but wonderfully quilted (for me) number is going to family members.  Since I like it so much, I ought to keep it in the family, right? :)

And, thanks to Mike who took a few minutes of his lunch hour to snap a few photos with me.  Now you know why my photos are never beautifully staged!!

**Go check out all the new, fun stuff at Nixo Handmade! ***

Another Lovey Skirt

My past two days were full of unexpected adventure, including rescuing a stranded husband after his car broke down in the middle of nowhere.  Fun, huh?  I meant to share this earlier with you because of Skirt Week going on at Crafterhours, but today will have to do.  It is still just as fun today as it was two days ago :)

I love this skirt.  Not only is it adorable, but it is adorable.  ;)  I just used my own Lovey-Dove Skirt tutorial (looked it up and referred to it often, yessiree) and it was a smash hit.  With me at least.  Even if I did use the fullness for a 4T skirt so it is a little poofy on the bum… it only makes it more endearing, right?

someone was whining and begging to go inside after being out for half a minute. It wasn’t even hot yet!  Anyway, the fabric is Riley Blake something-or-the-other that I got from an online shop that was closing, so it was waaaaaaay cheap.  I love way cheap.  As soon as I saw it I knew it was destined to be this skirt, especially since I had some hot pink tulle lying around.

If you aren’t convinced of someone’s unhappiness, here is further proof.  And probably just to spite me, seconds after we went back inside she decided to wet herself.  someone had removed their pull-up without my knowledge.

The skirt is in the wash.

Guest Posting Today

You’ll find me over at Craftaholics Anonymous today…

With a fun t-shirt refashion.

See you there?  K.

Sickies and Stress Relievers

My baby is sick today, and was suuuuuper cranky yesterday (which, now I know why yesterday was so difficult), so I’ve been carting her all over our condo all morning.  At one point I found her down to her pull-ups, asleep on her bedroom floor.  I had left her for maybe 10 minutes.  Poor gal.

I’ve been busy with kiddos, plus spending nearly every day with my brother who returned home from his two year LDS mission last week.  Yesterday we went swimming (we meaning everyone but me, I hate swimming), and it was funny to watch him circle the pool several times before taking the plunge.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with mission rules, missionaries aren’t allowed to swim on while they are serving. 

At the end of my busy days, sometimes the most stress-relieving thing to do is to work on my scrap blocks.  I’m actually done with them, but have so many scraps left I keep making more.  They take a while to make and require little brain power since I’m just grabbing, sewing, and trimming, so it is what I like to do while the events of the day are on my mind.  This is going to be a mondo-huge quilt when I’m done.  They are 7 1/2”, and I’m planning on sashing them.

Are you all ready for Father’s Day?  I haven’t done a thing to prepare.  Mike isn’t really a gift-giver, especially for these small holidays, and I’m starting to pick up his habit.  Any easy ideas you are working on that you’d like to share?  I’m open.

Have a fun weekend!

Mini Projects

I get a lot of gratification out of projects that are finished in a snap.  For instance, this one just required taking some circular placemats I found at Walmart ($.97!) and using some double-stick adhesive squares to stick them on the girls’ bathroom wall.  Their shower curtain has polka dots in pinks and greens, but I really like blue so that one came too.

Then yesterday I took a trip to Target to get a tablecloth and walked past this clearance skirt ($3.50) in the big girl section.  My munchkin actually fell to the ground she was so excited about it.  She’s such a drama queen.  So we took it home…

I took in the elastic a few inches,

And she had a new skirt.  The fabric is really soft and silky, so she loves it. I made it about a size bigger for her, since she is growing so fast.  She can wear this one for a while, especially since the length is really for a 10-12 size.

I love a quick project!  I am working on some more involved ones at the moment, so it was nice to take a break and get these done.  It is like instant gratification.

P.S. Does your craft/sewing room floor look like mine?  I’m almost afraid to vacuum it for fear all the threads will eat my motor.  Not to mention all the pins I pick up when I vacuum under my sewing table. Yikes.

My Playdate Dress

Well, I guess it isn’t necessarily mine, but it is the one I made.  On Thursday two weeks ago, I saw the tutorial for the Playdate Dress at Craftiness is Not Optional, and 30 minutes later, I was taking these pictures.  Quickies, since I was up to my ears in a lengthy to-do list (we left that afternoon.  I totally leave things to the last minute!).  Fortunately, getting clothes for the baby was on the to-do list!

She’s been crazy over dresses and skirts lately, which means my cutie-patootie clearance shorts I got her at Target a few weeks ago still have the tags on them… but I had to get her stuff to wear at Grandma’s.  Jess totally pulled through for me with the perfect tutorial at the perfect time, since it was really easy to do (her printable pattern is 2T, which is the baby’s size.  Does it get any easier than that?).

Grandma got some great photos of her wearing this while eating strawberries from the garden.  Everything is more exciting at Grandma’s, right?  I know.  But anyway, I don’t have those pictures yet.  Because this dress is knit, she really loves wearing it and it is easy to whip up.  I left off the pocket because of time restraints, but I’m sure some of those strawberries would have found there way into one :)

If you want some dress tutorials, Jess really has anything and everything on her site.  She even sells commercial resale licenses for her patterns if you want to sell her cute stuff.  Or, just go and see how cute her girls are.  Be prepared for chipmunk cheek central!

If you want to know, the knit in this dress was from Hobby Lobby (though the neckline was from a t-shirt).  PREWASH your Hob Lob knits… they shrink like ca-razy.  I had washed and dried this one a long time ago, thank goodness, so it was all ready to go!