Three Things To Do With A Glue Gun When You Should Be Cleaning

Yes.

I’m going to come clean with you (pun not intended completely deliberate)… today, my living room looks like this:

But don’t you ever have days where you look at the mess in your house and just want to say, “Screw you, Mess! I didn’t invite you here! Like a mature adult, I’m just going to ignore you until you go away!”

Inevitably, of course, you discover that Mess has way more staying power than you have patience and thus Mess wins (or loses?) when you get out the broom and dusting supplies.

For now, however, Mess can just hang out and be annoying, because I’ve developed a sure-fire way, using a glue gun, to do three other things other than tending to Mess. Here we go.

#1 Go All taxidermy On Its A$$

I’ve been pinning all these fun crafts to do with chopped off animal  heads (weird) and with Mess as my motivator, I finally got around to doing a cool craft on my own. Total cost? $1.20 for the piece of wood.

This will go in the girls’ room once they wake up. I love it. I think it’s super cute and fun. And fear not, no real animals were hurt in the producing of this picture. The glue gun was used to attach the severed heads onto the wood board. The wood and animals I painted using standard crafting paint, and the plastic animals we’ve had lying around for a long time. We’ve still got about a gazillion more so the girls won’t miss them.

#2 Fix Something

My mom has these really cute wood figurines in her bedroom, and the other day, Sophie was napping over at Nana’s and instead of sleeping, she broke one of the wooden figurines. Nothing a little hot glue couldn’t take care of though.

Observe how the whole feeling of the figurine has changed. In the first picture, the little girl is all, “Nooooooo!” But in the second picture, they’re all “I love you.” I fixed it. Something productive done while I could have been doing something else productive. But Mess didn’t deserve the attention this mother and daughter duo deserved. Priorities.

#3 Revamp a Mason Jar

Today is the day for transformation. But not for Mess. Today I revamped one of the many lidless mason jars we have lying around (where have all the lids gone?) into a pretty stellar vase/random objects holder. Observe:

Look at how lovely it looks sitting next to the clearance Target lampshade I’m contemplating keeping/returning. I love the texture the jar has. It’s so cute with the $2.00 daffodils I bought at Trader Joe’s today. So I guess the total cost of this project was two buckaroos. All I did to change the jar was make a ring under the lip of the jar with the hot glue, then slowly encircled the jar with twine while adding more glue to the jar so the twine stuck. It took me about five minutes (and a few burnt fingers) and I had a new decor item. Love it.

In conclusion… if Mess is staring you in the face with a cocktail in his right hand and bunny slippers on his feet, looking like he’s going to be around for a while, just go grab your glue gun and do something else. He’ll still be there to chat later (unfortunately).

Cheers!

Psst- If you haven’t already done so, make sure you enter to win the awesome bibs from Peaches and Bean Boutique! Happy Wednesday!

Mommy’s Little Girl: Shirt Refashion Part II

Anybody else have a really muggy forecast ahead this weekend? We do, and it kind of makes me want to cry since we have yet to install our window air conditioning unit. But fear not, because this sudden heat wave has inspired me to make some easy-breezy clothes for our little ones, which means a new post!

I’ve had this shirt for a long time. It didn’t fit me when I bought, it doesn’t fit me now. Not sure why I waisted my money on it. It’s too wide and too short, all of which are big no-no’s for me. It doesn’t even work with the too wide/too short fashion that’s happening now. It’s just awkward. But I really love the color!

It’s reading kind of weird on my computer but it’s a really bold purple stripe with soft white and pink stripes between. Maybe that’s why I bought it? Maybe I thought the color would make up for the poor cut? Who knows…

Anyways, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use its wonderful color and airy fabric to make a dress for Sophie. So I chopped the bottom off under the armpits. Cut strips from the arms removed the pocket (and I didn’t sew it back on! Le sigh. Sometimes pockets just aren’t necessary) and added a few extra buttons, some elastic and voila! I had a completely new dress!

 Sophie is all into speaking in third person right now, I quote ” Ooo, the Sophie like.” What a goofball.

I had a stash of buttons that I used for the front two, and then to close the back completely, I cut one of those extra buttons on the bottom of the shirt. So really, this was a free dress. Win!

I criss crossed the back so that the straps didn’t fall off her shoulders, and all the bottons from the front are now in the back. I took me about an hour to sew this because again, all the seams were already sewn for me. Refashioning is probably some of the easiest sewing you can do.

Happy Friday everyone! Cheers!

The Crayon Folio Tutorial

We’re gearing up for Easter her at the Bean Casa! I’m so excited! Between Christmas and Easter… I’m not sure I can tell you which one I like better. Seriously.

One of the traditions here is the annual Easter Egg hunt, which involves first hunting down your Easter basket (which always contains wonderful surprises) and then searching high and low for all of the Easter Eggs that have been hidden. You can read about last year’s right here. It was a blast watching Sophie “hunt” for eggs. This year I’m sure she’ll be just giddy with Easter excitement! Charlotte… well I’m sure Charlotte will sleep through most of it, but that’s ok. We’ll get plenty of cute photos of Sophie searching, and Charlotte sleeping.

This year, for one of Sophie’s surprises in her basket, I wanted to give her an art folio. Similar to this one, but I knew that if I told Husband dearest that I wanted to spend $8 on just the pdf pattern, that doesn’t even include all the money spent on the supplies, his skin was going to turn green and there would be a lot of “discussion” about why we should save that $8 and spend it on something else. Knowing that I didn’t want to have that painful enlightening discussion, I decided I would test out my sewing skills and simply make my own:

Yep. That’s how I roll over here at my house. I make things. It looks awesome, works like a charm, and I can’t wait to give it to Sophie in her Easter basket… er… give it to the Easter bunny who will then place it in the Easter basket he provides… things just got weird… anyways.

Don’t the crayons just look so snug and happy? I thought about using an elastic and button closure instead of velcro, but the velcro does a great job of catching any possible run-away crayons when this gets inevitably tipped upside down. So I stuck with velcro. Yup, I sew and make jokes! Husband is so proud.

So… do you want to make one for your little one? If you do, read on!

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Supplies needed:

Fabric – I used scraps that I just had lying around. You’re going to need an outside/straps fabric, an inside main, and then an A, B, and C for the pockets (My A and B matched but yours don’t have to. You could have them all the same, or all different, go crazy! It’s your creation!)

Interfacing – Not necessary but I used it (fusible fleece) to give my Folio a little more structure

Matching Thread

Ruler or Measuring Tape

Scissors

Sewing Machine

** I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance unless I say otherwise**

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So.

Your interfacing, outside and inside main are all going to be the same size. You’re going to want a 9 3/4″ wide by 14″ tall rectangle for all three. Once you’ve cut out the interfacing and inside main fabric, go ahead and fuse your interfacing to the wrong side of the inner main per the instructions on the package. Then it’s done and you don’t have to worry about it later. You’ll also need two 3″ by 10″ rectangles out of the outside fabric (these are for the straps). This is what you’ll end up with (interfacing is fused to the other side of my inner main).

Then, using fabrics A (crayon pocket), B (misc./stickers pocket) and C (paper pocket) you’ll need to cut fabric 6″, 8″ and 11″ long (respectively) and 9 3/4″ wide. Fold B and C in half, with the right side, or patterned side, facing out, so that you have two pieces that are 4″ x 9 3/4″, and 5 1/2″ x 9 3/4″. Then iron them so that the folded side is a nice crisp fold.

 Then, take your A piece, and fold it in half with the right sides together, width wise. Pin up the loose ends on the opposite side of the fold and sew it up using a straight seam and 1/2″ seam allowance, making sure to go forward and backward at the beginning and end.

Turn A right-side-out and press it flat. Do the same thing for the two straps. Fold them in half, length wise, with the right side facing in. Pin up the long unfinished side.

 Then sew it up on the pinned side. Turn both straps right-side-out and press. You are welcome to then topstitch the straps on all long ends, but I didn’t. Then topstitch one long side of A, and the folded ends of B and C. (You can pin it first if you would like to make sure the fabric doesn’t move, but if you’ve pressed it well enough, it should just lay flat for you so you can topstitch without using pins).

Now, at this point, here’s what you should do (and what I didn’t do but this would have made my job a WHOLE lot easier). On piece B, pin all the sides down together so the fabric doesn’t do any goofy wiggling while you’re attaching the velcro. Cut your velcro into a 5 1/2″ strip. Then pin one side of the velcro, laying it width wise, to one end of your inner main (on the fabric side, not the interfacing side) about 1 1/2″ from inches from the edge. Take the other piece of your velcro and pin it 1 1/2″ inches from the rough edge of your B pocket. Using a zig zag stitch, attach both pieces of velcro by starting at one corner of the velcro, and stitching around the entire piece. I used a long, close together stitch. Note: Do not pin the velcro near the folded edge of B you’ve just topstitched. Make sure you attach it near to the unfinished edge.

Sorry I don’t have a better picture. I didn’t realize until almost the very end that I hadn’t attached the velcro and so I wasn’t able to get a good shot of me doing it. Plus white inner main fabric + white velcro + white thread = not a good shot of how to sew on the velcro. I know that there are also stick-on types of velcro, but having never used it before, I’m not sure if it has any staying power or not. Have any of you ever used it? Let me know!

Anyways, once you’re done sewing on your velcro, it’s time to put your whole thing together. First, you’re going to need to find the center of your inner main. You can do this by simply folding it in half and marking the spot with pins or a sewing marker.

 Now, take your inner main and arrange it so the side with the velcro is facing away from you (fabric side up, interfacing side down) and the non-velcroed side is facing towards you. Lay pocket A on this side, about 3/4″ about the center line with the topstitched edge facing the velcro and the other edge facing down towards the center. Pin pocket A to the inner main and then attach it by sewing along the long edge facing the center, making sure to stay close to the edge of pocket A.

 Let’s make the crayon compartments! Mark one half inch from both sides on pocket A. I find it easier if I mark both the top and the bottom. Then find the center between these two points and mark it. You’ll need three compartments between the center and each 1/2 inch mark, so measure that out and mark it. From there simply sew along your marks starting at the top, and sewing to the bottom of pocket A so that you have six neat little compartments going across.

Now, on the bottom half of the inner main lay the C pocket down so the topstitched edge is facing the center and the unfinished edges are all lined up on the bottom. Do this with pocket B next so that the topstitched edge is facing the towards the center and the unfinished edge pieces are lined up with the bottom of the inner main and the unfinished edge of C. Like so:

Note: Your B pocket will have velcro sewn onto it near the bottom. Again, mine doesn’t because I’m a moron. Don’t panic.

You’ll also want to lay the one of your straps, with the two unfinished edges lining up with the other unfinished edges on the bottom and the curve of the strap facing in towards the middle. My two ends of the strap were placed 5″ apart so that it ended up being the same width as the velcro. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of this. But here’s a ridiculous …erm… really precise illustration of what I’m talking about:

Pin all the unfinished edges so it’s secure and then baste the bottom edge. Next, grab your outer piece of fabric and lay it on top of your inner main creation so that the patterned side is facing down towards your inner. Now that your right sides are together pin around the whole thing. You’re going to down one long end, across the short end that has your straps attached and up the other side.

Trim the edges so you’ve got 1/4″ seam allowance around all three sides. Also, clip the corners (without clipping the seam, so that it lays flatter when you turn it). Once you’ve done this turn the whole thing inside out. Now this is the point in which I slapped my forehead with my hand and said, “Dang it! I forgot the velcro!”. It ended up working out in the end, but it was kind a lot of unnecessary maneuvering in order to get the velcro attached at this stage. So heed my advice, do it earlier.

You’re almost done! It’s the home-stretch now!

Take the open edge and fold your outer fabric and inner main in on each other and pin. Then take your second strap and pin it so the unfinished edges are between your out and your inner fabric and the curve of the strap is facing out.

Finally, topstitch around the entire Folio. Hint: If you get to the corners, and have a hard time beginning the next row because it’s too thick, stick a piece of cardboard or something underneath the back part of your sewing foot so that the foot lays even. This should help your machine begin the next row through the thick corners.

And voila! You’re done! The only thing left to do is stock-pile it with crayons, paper and stickers!

 Not bad! I’m really excited for Sophie to start using it. It’s going to be great for places like church, or car rides when we need to occupy her with quite things. I hope you enjoyed the Crayon Folio Tutorial! As this is my first tutorial, let me know what parts are confusing, or don’t make sense and I’ll try to explain myself a little better. Happy sewing!

Cheers!

Jen

Fashion with Baby-tude

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Ours was very busy, a little stressful, a lot wonderful and filled with cookies, family and twinkle lights. We even took a little impromptu trip to  Chi-town for four days. Lets just say that after carting two babies around Chicago four days, right after what was one of the most stressful Christmases in Olson family history, it feels good to be home! We had a wonderful time though, so I’m really glad we took some time, just the four of us. More on that trip later.

On the agenda today (first post of 2012… boom!) is making baby leg warmers! These have been one of my favorite baby accessories. They’re perfect for the winter season we are fast approaching (though don’t seem to quite be able to reach it…) and are just too cute for words. I found them super handing with Sophie last Christmas, and didn’t want to fork over the kind of money they charge for baby leg warmers in the store (seriously, a baby’s leg is less than a foot long, why would I want to pay over five bucks for minuscule piece of knit tubing?) and so… I just made my own.

They’re really easy to  make, and you can do them either by hand or with a machine. I used my machine of course, but it would be just as easy too do it by hand, it would just take a little longer. Although sit down with an episode or two of 24 and you could crank those leg warmers out like a pro… just saying.

The first thing you’re going to need is supplies. You’ll need some regular tube socks. I bought mine at Tar-jay because they normally have a buy 2 for $5 deal.

Then you’ll need a scissors that will cut fabric, needle and thread or a sewing machine. That’s it. Of course the ones I picked are shamelessly pink and girly, but they have all kinds of different patterns, and colors of tube socks. I even saw a really cute grey and blue pair, perfect for the self-confident baby boy! Do baby boys wear leg warmers?

To start with cut the foot off the sock so you have the leg of the tube sock separated at from the sock, right above the heel. Then, on the foot, cut the toe off and the heel off, so all your left with is the middle piece between the toe and the heel, like so:

At this point you can scrap the toe and the heel, you won’t be using it. Tip: Try to cut as close to the toe and heel as you can so that your middle piece is nice and big. It’s harder to work with when you only have a little fabric to use.

Once you’ve remove the heel and the toe, take the small piece that is left over and fold it in half so the right side (side you’re going to want everyone to see) is facing out.

If you’re using a sewing machine, don’t worry about finishing the edges or anything. You can if you want but the knit won’t fray or anything so it’s kind of an unnecessary step. Anyway, once you’ve folded it in half, pull it over the end of your tube sock and pin it to the cut edge of your tube so that all unfinished edges are touching and the folded edge is facing up towards the finished edge of the tube sock. I didn’t take a picture of this so I apologize for the confusion. Hopefully the next picture will help explain it a little bit.

Once it’s all pinned, you can either do a simple running stitch with your needle and thread (make sure you don’t get impatient, you’re going to want to make small stitches) or use your sewing machine to stitch it all together.

Okay so maybe this picture doesn’t help at all, but you can kind of see how the large tube is inside of the small one. If you’re still confused… I’m fired.

Once it’s all attached… you’re done. Seriously. Just pull the folded end of the small tube over the sewn part of the sock a voila… you have a baby leg warmer.

Make sure to trim any long threads from where you did your sewing but it’s really that quick and easy. One thing that I’ve learned from having two children, fast projects are golden. I think it took me a grand total of 30 minutes to turn all four sets of tube socks into leg warmers. That’s what we call a big win.

Yep, there they are… with the sun blazing on them like it’s a dramatic end to a really long movie. But really, we just sewing some leg warmers. No big.

The best part is that these are just perfect for the impending winter that’s coming (should have already been here, but Mother Nature missed the memo). They can be worn with just a long sleeved onesie while playing inside, or layered over leggings to create that oh-so-popular layered look that seems to be everywhere. Gotta love a fashion forward baby! They’re also surprisingly tight enough that Charlotte is able to wear them and they stay on. Granted, she’s not doing a lot of moving around just yet, but it’s nice to know that they’re able to fit smaller babies as well as older ones.

So there you have, some nice baby leg warmers to kick off the 2012 Bean House season. Cheers!

Pretty as a Picture

As anybody with children knows, taking care of kids is messy, messy business. Literally. I feel like I live in a constant state of disorder, dirty clothes and amazingly beautiful chaos. My apartment is never completely clean, and when I finally get it to a state of all-most guest worthy cleanliness… my oldest daughter wakes up from her nap hell-bent on making sure it falls back into a state of grime and baby toys within half an hour.

Welcome to my life.

One way I have improved bringing order to chaos is wrangling in all of the girly hair accessories that we have strewn about. Sophie’s new favorite game is playing “hair” where she puts all the little clips and bows we own in mommy’s hair and taking them out again and then repeating the whole process over and over again. But now we have such an easy way of putting them all away in an orderly fashion that her second favorite game is now “clean up”, the sequel to “hair”.

To accomplish this, all I used was a stapler, a small canvas (purchased from Michaels ages ago) and ribbon from my scrap bin. This means that anyone could do this project without spending more than 10 beans. Here’s out it worked out:

I simply took my canvas and laid out a bunch ribbons over the top of it to figure out how I wanted to everything placed. Then I simply stapled the ends of the ribbon to the back of the canvas.

The wood on the canvas is so flimsy that I was able to use just your regular run-of-the-mill stapler and it worked just fine. Though the back looked pretty hideous, the front ended up looking nice and neat and put together.

Eventually I want to hang this canvas up on a photo wall in the girls’ room. So I chose soft teals, and yellows so that it would compliment the colors already in the room. Obviously you can pick whatever colors you wish, and if you’re planning on just using this to store the hair bows/clips and hiding it away in a drawer when it’s not being used then you could even use less showy materials like twine, rubber bands or yarn. Whatever you have lying around. I chose to make it look a little prettier so it would become a piece of artwork all on its own.

Here it is all stapled down. The thin outer string is great for small little clips, whereas the thick inner ribbon is better for hair bows, and large flower clips. Doesn’t look too shabby for a project that really cost me nothing out-of-pocket considering I already had all the materials for it on hand.

Here it is with a very small collection of hair clips. At this point it has over a dozen different hair accessories and sits on the dresser in the girls’ room. Once I finally put up all of the girls’ artwork then this will hang on the wall alongside everything else. I’ll be sure to post a picture once that happens! Until then, it’s just work overtime carrying all the lovely things that adorn my girls’ head. Did you know that someone asked me the other day how old my “son” was? Literally, pointed right at Sophie and asked how old “he” was. Seriously? Never leaving the house without a bow in her hair again.

What small projects have you all been working on? Any awesome ideas on how to wrangle up all kinds of baby clutter? Do tell! I’m always up for some new ideas to try!

Flowers and Pig-Tails

As many of you know, my obsession with Pinterest goes beyond a casual infatuation. I love love L.O.V.E. it. Where else can I find such an amazing assortment of inspiration with so little effort? In fact, that is where I got the idea to make Sophie and her little sister (incoming September 29-ish) matching dresses. It all stemmed from this little beauty from one of my fave websites:

What’s amazing about the Ric Rac Dress is Miss Jessica from Craftiness Is Not Optional made the entire pattern free-hand. Sigh. If only I had such amazing sewing talent. Kind of makes me feel like the water boy at a football game… anyway, Miss Jess made the Ric Rac Dress for her oldest daughter, and then a similar one (using a different template but the same fabric/ric rac accents) for her youngest. This got me to thinking, why shouldn’t I do that? However, knowing that my skill at sewing is minimal in comparison, I decided to follow her awesome tutorial for the Ric Rac Dress by using some old fabric I had lying around from a rejected month-to-month photo of Sophia:

I figured this could be my test run. I liked the fabric a lot, just not how it photographed for this project. It was a little bit too subdued. So, I grabbed this yard of fabric and decided it would be the perfect guinea pig fabric for my just-going-to-test-to-see-if-I-can-actually-pull-this-off Ric Rac Dress.

My conclusion? I’m really glad I did a test run before I used the actual fabric I bought for the project. It didn’t turn out awful… but definitely was a learning experience. Here’s my little goober face showing off her mommy’s sort-of skills.

And can we just talk about how pig-tails on little girls make everything about a billion times cuter? We bought some little clips since Sophie’s hair is getting long-ish but not long enough yet to actually hold in a binder when it’s dry. The result? Super cuteness that makes me so happy. And so sad at the same time when she yanks them out… ah the life of a “homemaker”.

Now that I’ve done my test run, hopefully I’ll have some cute matching dresses to show you all made from the real fabric I bought for this project! Stay tuned!

Wet Bag Accomplished

Go figure… I’ve been sewing again.

Ever since we decided to transition to cloth diapers  we’ve needed a place to stick all the dirty diapers while the awaited being washed, other than in a paper bag on the door-handle of the laundry room door or sitting on top of the washed. Both scenarios kind of grossed me out. Neither felt very sanitary, and neither helped keep the space looking tidy, it always just ended up looking messy.

I thought about getting a bin or some type of trash can to keep them all in and then just empty it into the washer when it came time to clean the dirty diapers. However, after some consideration I decided I still didn’t like the idea of them just sitting out in an open bin. Then somebody told me about Planet Wise Wet Bags. They were perfect. Super cute, and earth friendly to boot. The only problem? The price. Us cheap-os over here at Casa Olson weren’t sure we wanted to spend that kind of cash on a diaper bag. At about $23 online and $34 at retail stores (for the large one), it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Enter my friend Callie’s blog. In a moment of pure motivation, she made a wet bag to keep all her cloth diapers in. She said that it was actually a pretty easy thing to make… so I decided to try it. After reading through the awesome tutorial:

I headed over to Joann’s for my supplies and because it was Memorial Day weekend, I got some great deals.

Supplies:

1 yard 100% Cotton Woven Print: $4.00 (after 40% off coupon)

1 yard PUL: $7.00 (after $1.00 discount)

20″ Zipper: $2 (after 10% off coupon)

Everything else I needed I already owned. So I spent a grand total of $13 for my wet bag, which is awesome considering it’s about 28″ by 19″. That’s a big wet bag. I chose a really simple, beautiful fabric for the wet bag. Since I didn’t know where we would be hanging it in our next place, I picked something neutral and not overtly kid-ish. I almost went with the adorable apple and pear patterned fabric in the tutorial, but changed my mind last-minute to something toned down about 10 notches. Story of my life, one day maybe I’ll put on my big girl pants and take a risk. But that day was not this day.

Isn’t it pretty? I made sure to send the fabric through the washer and dryer before beginning my project because I knew that 100% cotton fabric was going to do some major shrinkage I would rather it shrink before I spent all the time and effort into making the bag.

So equipped with my energy drink of choice (an amazing Frappe from Mapp’s at the Midtown Global Market) and some Pandora tune-age, I began.

There’s something amazing about those big straws. I don’t know why, I just love them. Anyway, the tutorial itself was amazing except for one thing… the zipper. Although I believe it can probably be done successfully the way she does it (obviously since that’s how she explains it) but if I ever make another one of these I’m sewing the zipper on first thing. My zipper attempts this round were so disastrous that I had to call my mom over to help me, who basically said start over. Lame.

Of course, I did not start over. I channeled my inner Tim Gunn and “made it work”. It ended up turning out pretty nicely, but next time zipper definitely goes on first. Dilley Dally definitely is a much more talented sewer than I am, 100 pin pricks later, the bag is complete but not nearly as beautiful as the ones she makes. *Sigh*

But I do like how it turned out, and thus far it’s been an amazing way to keep all our dirty cloth diapers corralled into one place while they awaiting cleansing.

And, by the way, we finally ordered the last six of our diapers (for the price of five!) and are really happy with our grand total of 15 diapers. Plus, the best part, my monster diaper bag can hold all of them! I just empty the bag into the wash, turn the bag inside out and throw it right in the washer with the diapers so it stays nice and clean too. It’s working out well so far. I’ll keep you posted! Cheers!

Update: I did get asked by a friend to make one of these for her, so perhaps once I’ve made that one I’ll let you guys know exactly how I tackled the zipper problem.

Floral Arrangement

So with my now expert understanding of sewing machines (kidding!) I finally plucked up the courage to go out on a limb and be dangerous… make something without a pattern… just an idea. Bam! Risky right? For those of you wondering what else I do with my time other than contemplate sewing projects I will give you this answer. Lots, but none as much fun.

So, what did I make? A headband! Yes I did. And here to model that lovely headband is Sophie! Because let’s be honest, it’s for me but all you folks like seeing Sophie in the morning. So here she is now, reluctant to wear because she’s entered into her hates-anything-on-her-head phase and thus after about twenty camera shots, I finally was able to snap a picture with it on… though it’s not a very good shot. Enjoy none-the-less (and pardon her scandalous nakedness… she likes being in the buff… )

 

I like it a lot actually. All I did was sew a piece of black elastic together (to go with my dark hair), cut some petal shapes from felt and then attach a small button in the middle once the petal pieces had been attached. Here’s some more views:

So there you have it. My dangerous, daring adventure with the sewing machine. I feel like I should name my machine. Is that normal? Are sewing machine’s kind of like cars, where you always have to name your car? Well, I’ll probably name mine anyway just for fun. Something good like… Karl. Cheers!

Two New Friends

This weekend I did something a little crazy. I went back to my favorite fabric store, Treadle Yards, and bought some more fabric. Yes, I know, shocking right? But it’s true, I was itching for yet another project, and I found one! I found one several in this awesome book:

Lotta Jansdotters’ (anyone else think the author’s name could stand for something?) Simple Sewing for Baby. First off, it’s a fabulous book with some great, practical ideas for projects for the youngest member of the family. Secondly it comes with all the patterns/stencils you need so when you purchase it it’s just one flat cost for a bound book of awesomeness. Love it.

Anyway, so as I found myself perusing the beautiful selection of textiles and my favorite (and very dangerous) fabric store I found a couple patterns that I thought were really lovely for Sophia’s room. Unfortunately As fate would have it, we’re moving out of our apartment (surprise!) in about a month and so to start any really big projects for the nursery is kind of ridiculous, since we are not yet sure what Sophia’s room in the new place is going to look like (more on that later). So instead of tackling a monster project, I decided to tackle a little one with the beautiful fabric, bookends.

Yep, bookends. They have examples of these super cute fabric bookends in Simple Sewing and I really wanted to take a crack at it. So I pulled out the pattern that was provided and traced it using tracing paper. I did this so that I would ruin the actual pattern (I’ve found that even under the best circumstances, many a pattern has been wrecked after even one use). So here’s the original:

And here’s my traced “after” version:

And even though when cutting the fabric out, I sliced one of the side pencil marks off the bottom piece, no harm was done to the actual original! Next time I’ll just take an extra five minutes to retrace the bottom pattern. Easy peasy.

Once I had cut the traced pattern out, I laid it on the fabric and used my fabric shears to cut two separate bookends out. Each bookend had a body piece (cut 2), ears (cut 4), and the base (cut 1). It took all of about two minutes to cut each bookend out and when I was done I had some lovely pieces to put together. Check it out:

You’ll notice that these two do not necessarily match. Which is true, but the colors contained in each are exactly the same which means they coordinate really well. Plus, I think that they playfully complement one another without getting so matchy-matchy. In a kids room, I always like to go for playful, and not static.

Sewing them together was really easy actually. The ears went first, then they got pinned to the body fabric and the were sewn in as you attach the body (leaving a little space on one side to stuff it later. Then the base was sewed on. Then I stuffed the top of it with some regular batting and filled the bottom two inches (using a funnel) with rocks to give it some nice weight. And since I know you like a good before and after, here’s the before:

And here’s the ready-to-go after:

In retrospect, this next step should have been inserted between cutting the fabric out, and sewing it together… it would have made my life a whole lot easier… but that’s not what I did. Next I took one of the stencils out and, using fabric paint and a sponge, sponged on a happy little face.

 Isn’t he sweet? Perhaps a little on the creepy side, but I like him. I feel like do-it-yourself craft pojects always end up looking a little weird when it’s your first go… which this one was for me. The other one pushed the bounds a little bit though. The second bookend’s face really turned into something creepy. So creepy in fact that we will not be displaying it, on this blog or in Sophia’s bed room. We’re going to pretend that he never had a face. Although if your curiosity is getting the better of you, I invite you to dinner and I can flip it around for you. I call it Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. But no matter, here’s the two of them side-by-side. Aren’t they fun?

I like them! And they look great sitting on Sophie’s dresser keeping her fav books company. And though they don’t really match the rest of her room (being green) they’re a start to a transition we’re working on from baby nursery to “big girl” room… which won’t happen for a while.

So there you have it! My latest sewing project completed. How about you? Done any fun sewing lately? Eventually I’ll probably do a little no-sew project for those who don’t have a sewing machine so stay tuned for that party!

Phillipe

Pronounced “Phil-eep-ae”.

Remember way back when, I talked about the amazing No Coast Craft-O-Rama that I went to? Remember how I talked about this awesome alligator pattern that I bought? Well, I finished it! That’s right, I’m not a bona fide “crafter”. Or do you have to make your own patterns to actually become a “crafter”? Who knows. I’m at least close to being a “crafter”. Anyway, just as a refresher. Here’s the beauty that inspired it all:

And now ladies and gentlemen (drum roll please) I give you…. PHILLIPE!

Ain’t he gorgeous? I’ve officially dubbed him Sophia’s favorite toy, and it’s actually true. She loves eating his long tail. And though he is perhaps not the most masculine of alligators, around here is pretty much the cream of the crop. We’re happy to add him to our little family. And for those who are curious, it was a really easy toy to make. I spent all of $5 on the fabric (granted some was scrap from Sophia’s month-to-month photos) and the pattern itself was about $12. So really, we got a really fun, customizable toy for $17. And now that we’ve used the pattern once, it’ll only cost another five beans every time we want to make another one. Pretty awesome don’t you think? Here’s another view!

How about you guys? Done anything super “crafty” lately? Knitted a scarf? Built a headboard? Do tell!

Psst - Feel free to ooh and aah over the pictures I took with my brand spanken new camera!!!