Mom is too cheap girls…

While school shopping this year I fell in love with a suspender shirt from forever21 that I thought would look adorable on my girls.

The problem for me with being crafty and falling in love with things I see online is that I’m too cheap to pay $40 with shipping for 3 t-shirts when I know I can make them for a fraction of that. My girls always groan when I mention I’ll make them instead. They know that their mom has every intention of making them but sometimes gets sidetracked and forgets to finish them. So with picture in hand and promises to have them finished for school we headed to the store and grabbed a few supplies. $10 and a week later, I have to procrastinate a little, we had three of these-

Mary isn’t pictured because she couldn’t find her red pants and told me “Mom, how can I go to school in my shirt without red pants huh!”. I don’t know how I managed to go 13 years without a single pair of red pants? Needless to say she went, with tears and khaki pants with a different shirt so no picture. Kind of a shame since hers came out the best. Oh well.

Here is how I made mine in case someone else wants to give them a whirl. I drew an outline of the suspenders on pieces of freezer paper with a fine tip sharpie, nothing pretty or exact because I loved the hand drawn look of the original. I cut them out with an exacto knife and ironed them on each shirt.

Next I painted on black fabric paint with a paint brush and let them dry for a few hours, then I peeled off the freezer paper and added a little gold fabric paint with my paintbrush to the rings and bottoms of the suspenders.

After that all I had to do was pin on some stretchy sequin trim from the ribbon section and sew it down and sew on black bows. So easy and probably my favorite school shirts this year. Definitely this crazy girls favorite.

Little old lady

I mentioned last time I blogged, which I don’t expect anyone to remember because I’m a big loser and haven’t blogged much this summer, that Mary was turning 8. She was baptized on her birthday and it was such a special day for her. Her birthday just happens to be during Cody’s family reunion so there were a lot of family members there that wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise which I am so thankful for. We have an awesome family!

I like the idea of my girls having 3 white dresses of their very own- first a blessing dress, next a baptism dress, and hopefully a wedding dress- so I make a new one for each girl. I was running majorly late so I didn’t get very good pictures, yet.

Mary chose a dress completely copied from Corner House. Her dress is absolutely gorgeous and I was excited to give it a try. I just saw her pictures and did my own thing based on those. I was majorly bummed that the main fabric I ordered and thought was matte raw silk was instead shiny and I had no time to figure something else out. I don’t like shiny satin at all and it was too slick to hold the sash up. The sash kept sliding up and shortening her torso so I felt it made her look plus sized when she is not, and when I tried to tack it down it looked pinched and weird.  As much as I wanted our dress to look like the inspiration it did on the hanger (sort of) but not at all to me when Mary wore it,  which is disappointing but it wasn’t my dress and Mary loved it so that’s all that matters. She said she felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast so my job was done!

 

For her cake she she was very specific. Drew me a diagram and labeled it specific. She asked for a blue cake with blue candles and “dolafins” jumping out of the water. Her cake picture looked so cute I should have let her decorate it! The control freak in me couldn’t handle all blue so I snuck some purple in there. Can I just shout out from my roof top how much I love Wilton and the big honking tips they make. I jumped on the rose cake bandwagon and can’t get off. Makes me feel all fancy and stuff.

See, I liked it so much that for Kennedy’s birthday 2 weeks later I used it again. It won’t be the last time.

 

Four out of six kids are in school all day and Kennedy, Jake, and I are getting quite a rhythm down. I’m busting out crafty things again and it feels great. Good things to come, which is really good since the show off in my has been underfed this summer :).

Have a great Wednesday!

Summer days

It’s been a few weeks and my blog has been really quiet. If the blog is quiet that means it’s not in real life! We’ve been enjoying as much summer as we can cram in. We met cousins we haven’t had the chance to meet yet, including the newest one Kyla.

The kids couldn’t get enough of her, and I wouldn’t be able to either if she would let me hold her. One day soon I’ll be able to bribe her and buy her love ;o).  Jake thought she needed to be held and squeezed as much as he could. He was a great car seat rocker as well. More like a carnival ride- we need to work on that. Kaci thought she was hilarious. Six year old potty humor…

While my sister was here she had the baby blessed in a gown my mom made for her. I made a pair of booties out of the scraps.

I realized how long it’s been since I’ve sewn a pair of booties, 2 years, and they weren’t for my baby. It shows in the fit. A bit wide and her toes are touching the very very end. I did get the straps perfectly though. I guess I remember my babies as having really wide, really flat small feet! 

We’ve also had several reunions this summer. For one last weekend the kids made a piñata. I made the shape and taped it together and they did all the decorating-

Well 5 started, three lasted 3 hours, and then there were 2. It took them 6 hours over 2 days to decorate and 10 minutes to break open. Next time I won’t use duct tape, even after 40 or so kids getting in 3 whacks each it took a few good cracks from the big kids and Cody to finally get some candy out!

And my favorite, but not funny at all (maybe a little) picture so far this summer. Ashlyn’s soccer game-

She doesn’t see much action in the games as a defender so when she finally got the ball all to herself I started snapping away. She totally plowed this poor boy over without even noticing and kept her eye on the ball the entire time. His face in in the grass, no hands to catch himself. She really wanted that ball! If you know her at all she’s the most timid and quiet girl so it totally cracked me up. As bad as it looks he just popped right back up and kept playing like nothing happened.

Tomorrow is Mary’s 8th birthday so I’ve been sewing like a mad woman trying to get her baptism dress done, a dolphin cake (???) and cupcakes done, and programs and such figured out. I should be able to go to bed at 4. In the morning!!!

Pictures of the finished projects to come next week. Have a fantastic weekend!

Couch Camouflage

There’s nothing better on warm summer days than a new dress, messy hair, and bare feet. Well maybe the root beer popsicle she ate afterward.

The dress is from my mom’s pattern stash that she let me borrow, New Look 6257. It’s actually an infant size dress pattern so I cut it out as a large, took the tiniest seem allowance I could, and lengthened the skirt about 4 inches and ended up with a size 4. I might have to dig up more baby patterns I’ve saved and never got around to sewing and see what I can come up with for the wee one who’s not so wee anymore. She’s going to be 4 next month!

Most of the time patterns frustrate the crud out of me so I don’t use them but this one went together really quickly and came out just as I was hoping it would. It looks exactly like I thought it would. I love it when that happens.

Earlier last month I inherited a new to me couch from my grandmother that I can’t wait to recover, when I learn how and find the right fabric anyway. In about 12 years it might actually get done. I’m not very good at the whole décor thing or getting motivated to do something about it. Not something that’s ever really been a favorite thing of mine. The fanciest I get is making new pillow covers every once in a while which I did a few weeks ago (for our other gray couch) to brighten up our living room. I was trying a tiny bit to care. I laughed when I saw this picture of Kennedy. The kids picked up the living room for me and threw all the pink pillows on the pink couch in Kennedy’s favorite spot. She’s camouflaged to my couch!

How’s that for décor? It moves and changes all the time ;). Have a great Monday!

Flocked

I’ve always loved chickens. I rescued one when I was 13, though now I’m pretty sure it didn’t need rescued and ended up chicken napped, and have raised them off and on since then.

It makes me feel like the little country girl I always wanted to be, living the farm life milking cows and stuff, but we always lived in town. Now I get to wake up to chickens clucking. I send the kids to gather eggs, 6-8 every day. I pawn off eggs to all our family members that visit.  The neighbors hate us since we still live in town and have 8 chickens in our backyard that like to hang out against the fence 5 or so feet from their bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning. Maybe I should send some eggs over but I’m kind of afraid they would end up on my house.

When I’m sewing in our dining room I can see them running after bugs through the window.  See Betty (or “Nugget” depending on which kid you ask), she likes the new dress set I just finished for Kennedy.

When I ran across this chicken fabric it had to come home with me. It was one of those sale things I grabbed because it was cute and had no idea what I was going to do with it.

I needed a plastic bag holder and thought it would be fun to add a little something. It hides in our laundry room but every time I see Mr. Rooster and his harem it makes me smile. Sometimes you just need a fun fabric that you wouldn’t really use for anything spectacular but it makes you happy. Next time I get out of the sticks and see a real fabric store I might have to buy more, he’s growing on me.

Have a great weekend!

Little old lady and her new dress

Ms. Ashy pants turned 10 ten days ago. That’s practically 12. Then 18. Then 26.  It seems like just last year I was telling Cody over breakfast that I thought the baby was coming that day and he assured me she wasn’t. I’m positive it was last summer that they announced over the golf course that Mr. Baxter needed to go home- his wife was having a baby.  He barely made it. Well maybe not barely since she came 3 hours later but I was right and she came. That’s what counts when I tell the story.

We celebrated and I allowed her to get older again. I need to stop doing that.

I’m in a dress making mood lately so I let her go first since she was the birthday girl. She picked a really easy style and we got it done last week. She’s not fond of frilly gathered numbers anymore. A part of me cried when she stopped liking tutus and pink wasn’t her favorite color anymore. Then I realized how fun it is to sew more grown up styles in bold prints. Thank goodness she still likes bold. Can’t cut me off cold turkey!

I guess that happens when you get so old. You start wanting more grown up things to wear.

It’s just a simple cut around dress with a cinched up waist but to her it was the dress that made her feel 10. I get it. I’ll gladly support her new wardrobe choices as long as I get to keep making them and she still wants to wear them.

Love that Ashy girl.

Crafty crafty.

A little happy something I’m bragging about today- last week I was lucky enough to be featured on The Craft Warehouse Design. Create. Inspire. blog!

I’m really embarrassed to admit that I didn’t realize The Craft Warehouse had a blog, considering I shop there all the time. They have some amazing stuff on there by some super creative people. They have sewing, paper, crafts, you name it they have a really cute idea for it on there.  I found another blog to stalk.  If you aren’t stalking them to you should go check it out. If you already know about them you can stop by and say hi and see my little face and know that this chick got pretty darn excited to be there.

If you're a pinterest-aholic (aren’t we all!) they are there as well.

Have a happy Monday! I am!

Pillowcase nightgown tutorial

They are so easy it’s embarrassing so I thought I would just write out what I did with some of my super fantastic hand drawn pictures instead of making you wait until I feel like making another pair, which might be until the weather gets a lot warmer.  A little lame but hey… here goes!

They are basically a modified pillowcase dress made out of knit. Easy peasy. The two I made were about a girls size 10 so my directions are based on that. Tweak away for bigger or smaller sizes. I made mine with my serger and my machine but I have made them with just my machine before. Use a ball point needle and you’ll be fine since they don’t need to stretch.
First I cut out 2 pieces of fabric for the back and front. I used the width of my fabric for the width and measured from the chest to the knee for the length.   So each of my pieces were about 55” wide x 30” tall. I know that’s a ton of fabric width wise but that’s what makes it look good, especially for knit. For adult sizes I would keep the width the same just adjust the length.
Grab one piece for your front and measure from the top down, on the fold, 1 1/2”. Cut from that mark up to the outside edge corner like so. You only need to do this to the front piece. The back should be straight across the top.
Now you mark the armscye by measuring about 2 1/2” from the outside edge toward the center and 5” down from the top. You want to round the bottom corner so it’s more of a “J” shape than a rectangle and cut through all thicknesses for the front and back piece.
*If you want to make ruffling easier you can sew gathered strips of 4” wide fabric to the bottom of the front and back pieces here and sew them together when you sew the sides up. That’s what I did but forgot and had to edit that in here.*
Now put the front piece on top of the back piece with right sides together and sew down the straight sides.
Fold the armscye edges under toward the inside 1/4” and then another 1/4” and sew along the outside edge.

Fold the top neck edges down 1/4” and then another 1” and sew close to the edge for the front and back. Don’t sew the sides of that seam shut, this is the casing for the tie.

For the neck tie cut a strip of fabric the width of your fabric (55”-60” long) by 4” wide. Fold in half right sides together and sew along the open edges rounding the corners as you go. Leave a space open in the middle for turning. Turn right side out and sew the opening shut.

For the ruffle cut strips of fabric 4” wide and sew them together right sides together. The amount of strips you need will depend on how gathered you want it and how big you are making your jammies.

Sew the ruffle on the bottom right sides together then topstitch to keep it laying nice and flat.  Thread the tie through the casing in the neck and tie in a big fat adorable bow.

I’ll try to answer questions in the comments for all to see. Hope your Monday just got a bit better!

The trifecta of sweetness

Making baby gifts has to be one of my most favorite things ever. If I can’t make them for myself that is. There’s just something so gratifying in being able to play with baby stuff even if you don’t have a reason to have it around yourself. It’s almost like getting ready for a new baby again without the sleepless nights and stretch marks. Win win!

Since I’m not making anything for me baby related anytime in the near future I’m so glad I have a brand new niece to play with. Jake just doesn’t look good in pink and he’s already 30 lbs so it wouldn’t cover him anyway, sigh.

Bubble gum pink swiss dot, floral flannel, and coral lace. I loved it so much I cut out two. There’s another baby girl I was going to give it to but I can’t let it go just yet. For now baby Kyla has one and since she lives too far away and I don’t get to snuggle her I get one to stare at until I’m ready to move on and gift it.

I’m getting itchy to sew more baby stuff so I hope I get some more nieces and nephews soon. Hurry up family!!!

Have a fantastic Tuesday!

The Outies

 

A fancy camera does not a photographer make. Photography takes knowledge, talent, and the patience of a saint. I’m fresh out of all of those.

This is the best I have of our Easter dressy shots. All my pictures were out takes. All I asked for was to look at the camera and smile. I wasn’t naïve enough to think I could control their body movements or hand positions. If they stand close enough together and no one is pulling hair or rolling on the ground writhing in picture pain I call it a win.  All I care about are the faces. Please. Pretty pretty please.

 

I begged. Sneezes don’t care. Jake and Jeremy don’t either. After 5 shots they expired and turned into pumpkins. And then there were 4-

I bribed them.

I threatened to sell them to the circus.

I told them I would set them free with one smile, just one teeny weeny little smile.

One of them, bet you can’t guess who, kept sneezing. At least I got three of them to kind of smile right.

And I was left with this when I begged/pleaded/threatened/bribed head spinning in circles to get just one last good one.

I was going to take individual pictures to show off the dresses I made (the first, second, and fourth dress, mom made the third) but I didn’t have it in me.

Next year.

Next year I’m not letting them have their Easter baskets until I get one good picture! Might be weeks until they get to eat their peeps ;o).

Hope your pictures turned out better than mine!