Pillow Case Skirt

A couple years ago when Miss. S was still a toddler I bought a darling embroidered vintage pillow case to make a pillow case dress. Well here I am two years later and I hadn't done anything with my cute pillow case. Let alone make a dress out of it. So I decided to do something about it just now. She's a bit too big for the dress I was planning but not too big for a skirt. I'll tell you what. This is the easiest skirt anyone could ever make. All you have to do is put in the waist band. That's it. You can find this type of pillow case at any flea market or antique mall across the country for around $5. It took me maybe a half hour to measure S, cut and sew it up. Pretty simple. She's now napping otherwise I would have had her model it for me. I was just too excited to get it on here.                                                                                                        

P.S. Is anyone else having issues getting their photos in the right spot with the new blogger? I am frustrated with it!

Today I Took...

This long sleeve t-shirt and made it into a...

 Short sleeve T-Shirt

Using this tutorial.

Is it perfect? Heaven's no.

Do I care? Not a bit.

Will I do it again? You betcha.

This is perfect for those of us who live in San Antonio. Our winters are pretty short. So those long sleeves don't get that much wear before spring rolls around. This is a great way to stretch out their life a little bit. Especially since Miss. S grows like a weed. Who knows if they will fit her the next time winter rolls around. It's super easy and thrifty. That's always fun. 

P.S. I know these pictures are terrible. And I really should have ironed the shirt first. But I was in a hurry so this will have to do.

Simple Skirt Take Two

I'm calling this her "Polka Dot Party" skirt. I love it! I have decided that I might not ever purchase another shirt for her again. Why buy them when they are so easy to make? How easy? Easy enough that my 10 year old niece could make it. That's how easy. As you can see this time I went with the two-tiered simple skirt. It is just as easy as the single layer skirt. It didn't photograph very well but let me tell you it is pretty stinking cute. This is not the last you've seen of these skirts from me. I'm on a roll. And if you've been thinking about trying to make one these I say do it! You will love the end result.

If You Like It Then You Should've Put A Bird On It

I'd like to introduce you to the "Put A Bird On It" simple skirt. I decided I wasn't the only person in need of a new skirt. Miss. S definitely needed a new skirt (or two or three). When I saw this fabric on sale at Joann's I knew just what to do with it. I followed Dana's tutorial for a simple skirt. And that it was. Very simple. She timed herself making one and it only took her like 15 min. It took me about an hour. This marks several firsts for me. My first sewing project since the baby was born, my first skirt for S, and my first project (sewing or other) ever with a bird on it. It's kinda a right of passage among crafters right? The whole bird thing. Enough so that it inspired this super funny Portlandia video.
 
Makes me laugh every time. I got enough fabric to make 2 more skirts (different patterns of coarse). So I hope those will be done over the next couple days. It's hot out there! This girl needs more skirts!

                                          

Another Favorite Blanket

When you are expecting a baby the most abundant gift people give you are clothes. I think a close second is blankets. When we were expecting Miss. S we got blankets of every size, texture, color you name it we got it. However we found that we were using the same ones over and over again. I already did a post on our favorite receiving blankets. Now it's on to another one of our favorites.

My friend Krista gave us a small car seat/stroller sized blanket when we had Miss. S. It is darling. It has a soft minky on one side and a mix of florals and textures on the other. It quickly became one of our favorites. It was so useful too. Perfect for going places with us whether in the car seat or stroller. Not too big and bulky. It was easy to grab and go. So recreating this blanket was one of the first things on my list when we found out we were expecting. And how fun that I got to make it totally different for a boy!

Besides receiving blankets this is the first blanket I have ever made on my own. Without the help of my Mom, sisters or friends. I used the blanket made by Krista as a guide for this one. First of all when I got the fabric in the mail that I ordered I about died. It was even better than I had hoped. I used 9 9.5" squares. Two of them being the same minky I used for the back and one chenille for the middle. The rest I tried to mix and match different patterns. I loved the chevron stripes so much I had to use it twice. It turned out just perfect. I love it so much. It took me about 4 hours from start to finish to make. I think it would have gone faster except I had never worked with chenille before and it was a little tricky getting it to line up correctly. For my first time though it went pretty smoothly and the results were just what I wanted. I'm a little anxious to try out another one. It was really fun to do.

Garland... Not Just for Christmas Anymore

I feel like every holiday deserves some sort of Garland. I made this one last year for Valentine's Day, but seeing as though it was paper it didn't last. My sisters made similar garlands last year also, but out of felt. So really this idea came from them. However Valentine's Garlands are all over the internet. Just do an image search and you will find awesome inspiration. This is a great project to get your kids involved with. If your child is old enough to cut out simple shapes then enlist them to help cut out the hearts. Kids love crafts! For this one I used 4 sheets of felt (2 red & 2 white). I made a pattern for the big hearts first and cut out 9 of the red and 8 of the white. Then I just trimmed the pattern a little smaller for the small hearts and cut out 9 white and 8 red. Glue gunned the small red to the big white and the small white to the big red, then sewed them all in a row. I quickly learned that my hearts were too fat to do it end to end. So side by side it will have to be. It really doesn't matter. It looks cute either way, but if you want to do it end to end make the hearts a little longer rather than fatter. It really is very simple and takes no time at all.

A Bag Full of Vintage Goodies

A couple of Thanksgivings ago I was in Utah at my parents house with all of my sisters. My amazing Granny had passed away a couple of months before and we had the privilege to go through all her old sewing boxes. She was an incredible seamstress. There were boxes and boxes of fabric, ribbons, notions, anything you could imagine. Some of it was fabulous, some of it was straight out of the 80's (and not in a good way). It was fun. So the other day when I was going through my craft boxes I found my plastic baggie stuffed full of vintage rick rack, seam binding, bias tape, ribbon, appliques and much much more. How had

I not gotten crafty with this yet?!!!? I was especially drawn to the lace seam binding. Honestly it is way too pretty to be used on the inside of a garment. This stuff needs to be seen. So I started thinking of ways I could use it. I've been thinking a lot about Miss. S and her hair lately. So with the inspiration in my little plastic baggie and this tutorial I came up with these.

And can I say I'm in love with them. I plan on making several more over the next couple of days. You might even be able to win a few if you check back tomorrow. I've been itching to do a giveaway!

She makes me laugh. Sometimes her facial expressions are just so funny! Needless to say she loves her new bows!

My Favorite Receiving Blankets

When I had Miss. S my sister Jessy gave me three receiving blankets that we used all the time. They were really simple. One layer of flannel with the edges finished. The reason they were so great was they were huge, the flannel sticks well to itself so she couldn't wiggle out of it, and they were warm but not too warm. Living in San Antonio that was important. I knew when I got pregnant this time around that I wanted plenty of those same blankets. So when I was in Utah my Mom and I bought enough fabric for five. These blankets are so easy. A cut of a yard and quarter of fabric will make a square on most fabrics (most flannels I think are 45 inches wide. Please correct me if I'm wrong). So you buy 1 1/4 yards of fabric make sure it's a square and then finish off the edges. I did this by folding the edges over twice, ironing them, then sewing them in place. That's it! You have a receiving blanket. Pretty easy! When Miss. S got older and no longer used the blankets I made these jammies for her! So you can get multiple uses out of one piece of fabric.

This is the first thing we have for this little guy. We haven't purchased or made anything else for him. No cloths, no toys, not a thing. I only have 10 weeks left so I better get things going!

Rough Draft

These are the Valentine's I'm making this year. Hopefully they will come out a little more refined. This one was the test run. I feel like whenever I do some sort of craft I have to do a test run first. To see if what is in my head will actually translate. A lot of times it doesn't. This time I don't think they are as cute as I was hoping, but they are close enough. So I'm going ahead, and hopefully now that I have done it once they will just get cuter and cuter.

For some reason I've been having a lot of fun sewing paper lately. So when I saw this post over at MADE I knew I had to give it a try. Her Valentine's are so cute right? She is so creative & her blog is a constant source of inspiration. I'm going to have a lot of fun perfecting this one.

I Heart You

I've been seeing really cute Valentine's Garland around the blog universe lately. Then when my sister Aubrey made the most adorable felt heart garland it got me thinking I needed some garland of my own. However I didn't want to spend any money and I didn't have any cute colored felt on hand. I did have some gold paper heart doilies. So I got to work. I just fead it through my sewing machine and poof. Five minutes later. Gold heart garland. I used fourteen hearts end to end for the Fourteenth day of February. Sure the felt hearts are way cuter and far more durable, but for free it's not so bad. I'll make some felt hearts next year. Paper doilies always remind me of my Mom. She was really creative with me as a kid. She used to get packs of these in white and then put me to work coloring them. It would keep me busy for a good long time. I totally remember taking my time filling in all the little flowers and details on the white paper. Trying so hard not to slip onto what ever was underneath. It was a fun art project. One that I'm excited to do with Miss. S when she is a little older.

Fourth of July Dress!

This project made me want to gauge my eyes out. I had so much trouble with it. I didn't use a pattern but I did use this cute tutorial. That was my big problem. With a very wiggly 19 month old it's hard to make things without a pattern. She never stops moving. However it turned out pretty cute in the end. I know the more I make cloths for her the easier it will be. But next time I think I'll use a pattern.

The "Other" Project

So here is the other sewing project I made last weekend... finally.I used a vintage pillow case, sturdy striped ribbon, and this tutorial by Betz White. There are so many things I love about this apron. I think I'm going to make some more but tweak them a bit (Like rounding off the corners and using binding tape around the outside). But I love it because...

A) It's that whole upcycling thing again.
B) The pocket is super sturdy.
C) It took me 20 minutes to make. I know I know the tutorial said it's a 10 minute apron but I made a mistake in the beginning and had to rip out a seam. Opps! Next time I'm sure it will be 10.

You should all try this apron out. It is super easy! Even the first time sewer can do this one, and seriously I'm sure even the busiest person can spare 10-20 minutes.

Getting My Stitch On

I did a lot of sewing this weekend. When I say a lot I mean it! Miss. S has been needing some more jammies for a while now. I've been waiting for them to go on sale but this weekend I got tired of waiting. After some serious brainstorming I thought of making some pajama pants for her out of some of her old receiving blankets. Total cost for 3 pairs of pants was $6. I bought a pattern and elastic and that is it. Here are the old blankets that my sister Jessy made for me.And the new jammie pants after.I used Simplicity Pattern #2734 and it really was quite simple. I even have a lot of fabric left over for when she gets a little bigger. Here they are on a sleepy model.I loved that I could go through a closet and find something old and turn it into something new. It was so much fun.

Tomorrow I'll show the other sewing project I worked on!