Dora Jumper

When my sister was a toddler I made her a simple summer jumper, white with fruit on it.  I was so proud of that jumper, it was one of my first sewing projects.  My mom found some clearance corduroy Dora fabric and asked if I would make one for Sophie.  I thought I would be able to find such a simple pattern online for free, but no such luck.  I searched off and on for days and came up with nothing.

Ugh! I hate it when an internet search yields nothing, so frustrating.

So I had to resort to the next best thing, a store bought pattern.  I really try to stay away from them because they are harder for me to understand and I usually end up getting half way done with whatever it is and it sits in my sewing box for years on end before I give it up.

Here is the pattern my mom bought:

I had never used a New Look pattern.  I usually try to stick with Simplicity.  Not really sure why, but it's the patterns I first started using and I'm not one for change.

This pattern was super easy.  It had a total of 4 pattern pieces and took me less than an hour to finish once the fabric pieces were cut out.  That's my kind of sewing project.

 

 

It seems I can never get a picture of the clothes I make actually on the kids.  They don't understand or care why I want their picture and instead say thank you and run away.  I guess I should just be thankful they say thank you.

 

I love the colors of this fabric and my mom actually bought 2 yards so I have a whole other yard to play with and sew something else.  Maybe a winter skirt to wear with tights! 

 

 

 

2 Maxwell Shirts

I have had it in my mind to make Grant a 4th of July Maxwell shirt and one for our family reunion since I bought the pattern months ago.  Leave it to me to wait until the last week, and right after Relay for Life to get it started.  I will say it was so much easier making this the 2nd and 3rd time around.  That could be for a couple reasons...1 being I've made the shirt before so I'm more familiar with the pattern and instructions, or 2 because I actually cut the pattern pieces out the way they were supposed to be cut out, including the button plackard.  Button holes make me nervous, I think it's because I have to change out presser foots on my machine, make sure the buttons line up with the holes, and measure where to put them all.  Plus if you screw them up they are right there in front and everyone is bound to notice.

So what did I do about this fear of mine......I sewed both the shirts to the point of having no steps left other than button holes and buttons.  Which I guess is a good thing because I only had to switch the presser foot out once and I could run through and face my fear all at once instead of in 2 installments, 1 for each shirt.

 

 

I'm so excited they are done and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing my to-do list is shorter.
I'm super proud of them, especially the light blue one.  I've had a garbage bag full of some of my husbands old dress shirts, pants, polo shirts, etc, for over a year and have done very little with any of them.  Of course my plan from the day I had him clean out his closet was to make Grant some clothes from them.  It has taken me this long to make that happen.

Kind of sad when you think about it, but oh well.  I used 2 of his shirts to make the lighter blue one.  1 for the main body of the shirt and a small piece of another for the yolk on the back.  This was the first and only shirt of the 3 I've made that I didn't use the same coordinating fabric for the pocket flaps and the yolk.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of Grant actually wearing his 4th of July shirt but unfortunately it rained all day and we didn't make it outside or to the fireworks, so it didn't dawn on me to get the camera out.  I will say he looked pretty darn cute in it.

Wild Child Zoo Shirt and Water Bottle

I've been on the hunt for things to do with Grant this summer.  I desperately want to keep him busy and entertained, with the idea this will minimize the tantrums and fit throwings.

I know this is probably wishful thinking but a mama's gotta have hope.

We took him to the zoo last year for the first time and he loved it, we had a great time so I started looking into a membership.  Turns out they aren't too bad in price when you add in the parking fees and the fact that Grant is over the age of 2 which means we have to pay a whopping $10 admissions for him.

Which I personally think is a little crazy but whatever.

Naturally I figured if we would be going to the zoo Grant would need a zoo shirt (and since it's Kids Clothing Week I figured it's the perfect time to finish one).  I always go through the gift shops and see all these cute things I want to buy, you know as if Grant cares if he has a shirt that says zoo on it, but never want to pay the money for them.  Let's face it, most of the stuff they will never play with or only wear a short while.  And what kind of crafty Mama would I be if I didn't at least attempt to make him a shirt myself.

Since I have a new obsession with freezer paper stenciling I thought the zoo shirt was a great excuse to feed into that obsession.  I googled zoo animal silhouette and decided on a rhino.  Mainly because it seemed boyish, don't ask me why, it just did.

I printed the image in the size I wanted, traced it onto freezer paper, cut it out with an exacto knife, ironed and painted it onto the shirt.  Here was the end result:

 

I look at some blogs and they have the cutest pictures with their kids posing so nicely in the clothes they lovingly made.  It took me 10 minutes to get the picture you see above.  He kept turning to the side and turning his back to me.  Then wanted to look through all the pictures on my camera.

 

 

And it wouldn't be complete without throwing himself on the floor at least once, shouting "NO", when asked to show me his new shirt.

 

I thought "Wild Child" was the perfect  wording for the shirt.

 

 

I debated for awhile on whether or not to put the Columbus Zoo and the year on the back.  Why do I debate over such things?  In the end I decided if I were to buy one at the zoo gift shop it would have the year on it so mine should too.

 

No trip to the zoo would be complete without a water bottle.  Last year we had a regular old sippy cup but I have found I can actually get Grant to drink water if it's in a water bottle, he loves them.  I bought these at Hobby Lobby 40% off for $1.74. 

 

(please excuse the wrong turned picture, I can't for the life of me get it to upload in the right direction)

 

I used my Cricut and vinyl from Expressions Vinyl to decorate the outside with polka dots and their names.  I had to make one for my neice as well, since she will be with us on at least one trip to the zoo.

 

I'm in love with these bottles, they are too cute, and Grant carries his all over the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toddler Onesie Turned Dress

When I was testing my freezer paper stenciling skills for our Relay for Life tshirts, I didn't want to practice on a good shirt or use an intricate design.  Instead I took one of Grant's 24 month onsies (the size Miss Sophia is in now) and used the freezer paper to make a heart stencil.  This way if the stencil didn't work as easily as everyone said then I wouldn't have wasted a good shirt and if it did work the onesie could still be worn.

Once I painted the heart I thought it was just too plain to wear as is, and of course I like to try new things so I decided to make a dress out of it.  I have been wanting to turn a onesie into a dress for quite a while but like so many other things, it's taken me awhile to get around to it.

I used a freezer paper stencil to paint the heart.

 

Then decided how long I wanted the top part of the dress to be and cut the bottom off the onesie.

 

I searched through my fabric stash and found the only girly fabric I had enough of and cut a wide strip ( the length depends on how long you need the dress to be so there are no exact measurements), used a basting stitch on my machine to make the fabric ruffle.  Then put right sides together and stitched the onesie to the skirt.

 

Of course the purple pants are not part of the outfit but I had to get her in the dress and snap a picture before she got bored of me and ran off.  I still want to add a fabric flower to the top but either way I think it is too cute on her, and I'm so glad I got my butt in gear and made it.  Is there a better feeling for a crafter or sewer to see the excitement of someone who loves what you made them.  Sophie was running all over the living room twirling for everyone saying "too cute, too cute". 

 

 

 

 

Pillowcase Nightgown for Sophie

My Mom asked me last year if I would make my neice Sophie a nightgown since the ones in the store are about $10 (ridiculous) and we had no luck finding any at yard sales.  Of course I said "absolutely, a nightgown will be easy", we found some cute polka dot knit on clearence and I was set.

Fast forward 1 year and my Mom was still waiting on that nightgown.  I've come to realize it takes me forever and a day to start a project I've never made before, even when it's a seemingly easy one.  I had put off this nightgown and justified it stating I was super busy with other projects (so not a good excuse).

Then, lo and behold, I came across this post and was immediately inspired and couldn't wait to make little Sophie a nightgown. 

And FYI if you haven't checked out the rest of the iCandy Handmade blog you need to do that immediately.

Like right now, go ahead, I promise you will be browsing her archives and before you know it you will have lost 2 hours of your life and your crafting to-do list will have doubled in size.

Anyways...I didn't want to purchase the stretchy lace that the tutorial called for because I didn't want to wait for it to ship before I got started, so instead I bought some stretchy ribbon I've seen used alot for making baby headbands.

I also didn't have a pillowcase so instead I used the knit my Mom originally purchased for the nightgown and layed a pillowcase on top to cut the fabric the width I needed.  This just took a little extra time that wouldn't have been necessary if I had a pillowcase.

Here's how it turned out:

 

I so wanted a picture of her wearing the nightgown but she wasn't too into modeling and was tugging at the shoulders trying to undress herself so no such luck.  I'm so excited with how easy this was to make that I can't wait to make more.  My mom bought a package of 2 pillowcases for $1 at a store in town called Rose's.  They are nothing fancy but Sophie is makes anything look cute.

 

Kids Clothing Week is coming up,  If you haven't heard about it you should go to the website.  This will be my first year participating and I plan on making the other 2 nightgowns during that week, so I won't be tempted to procrastinate.

Puffy Vest

I saw this post on A Girl and A Glue Gun and Sugarbee a while ago and immediately went out and bought the flannel fabric I needed to make Grant his own puffy vest.  I thought after reading the tutorial how simple and quick the project would be so I could knock it out in a naptime.

Ask me why I ever think that will be the case, cuz it never is. 

Why don't I learn?

I proceeded to make my own pattern to use and cut both my lining fabric and outter fabric, then decided since I already read through the tutorial and knew (ok, thought I knew) exactly how to make this vest I didn't need to read the tutorial again.

This was mistake #1.

I stitched the lining and outter pieces together in the way I thought, ignoring the fact that they weren't matching up correctly, thinking the imperfections would work themselves out.

This was mistake #2.

I ended up getting most of it done (or rather thinking I had most of it done) to realize I had messed up the entire vest and there was no salvaging it unless I ripped out every seam I had previously stitched.  And seriously who wants to do that?  So, like so many other projects I screw up on the first attempt, it ended up getting thrown in a bag and procrastination set in on making another.  Every time I saw this bag an eye roll and a thought of, "I really need to make another one of those", would follow.

Finally I am here to say I have finished this project.  My words of advice.....
Read the tutorial.....And then read it again so you don't have to rip seams or procrastinate making another.

It really is a simple project.  I get easily distracted and lose focus cuz here is my background noise music:

Grant:  "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA"

(picture a 2 year old jumping up and down in front of you patting your knees, getting closer and closer to your face with every "Mama" he says)

 

Me: "what?"

 

Grant: "MAMA, MAMA......"

 

Me: "I said what?"

 

Grant: "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA......."

 

Me: "WHAT?"

 

Grant: sigh, eye roll, and he proceeds to turn around and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

 



I stuffed mine with Polyfil, made the faux pockets and collar.  You can tell my work is not perfect but I think it's really cute.  My only regret is the length.  The next one I make will be about 1 inch longer on the bottom.  Grant is growing so fast these days (what am I talking about the kid has grown like a weed since birth), so I know this one won't fit him very long.

 

 

I swear I don't take him in public dressed this way but he wanted the vest on and I had to take advantage of my fleeting moment to take a few pics.

 





He likes to turn to the side when he knows I'm about to take his picture, laughing the whole time.

 

I get alot of pictures that look like this one.

Or this.

 

After making this here is what I would and will do differntly the next time around, I will use quilt batting instead of stuffing (mainly because I'm lazy).  I think I over stuffed mine making it shrink a little in length.  I also won't bother using bias tape on the arms.  I used it on the one above but it looked a little strange to me.  It may not have been the tape, maybe it was my pattern but when I tucked the tape inside and stitched it down so you can't see it when Grant's wearing the vest, it seemed to fit him better and look better on him.

 I have this vest on my list for the fall to participate in the fall kids clothing week challenge at Elsie Marley.  I've been dying to participate for about a year but just havn't had the guts to attempt.

I've got my guts now.

PJ Set-A Christmas Gift

I made these pj's for my niece for Christmas, and I'm so glad they are finished.  I've had them sitting in my project box for a month or 2 waiting for elastic and  the legs to be hemmed.  Such simple tasks and yet it still took me that long to mark it off my to-do list. 

I used the same tutorial I always do, except now I've made them so many times I don't need a tutorial.  I'm so happy I stumbled across it a couple years ago.  I bought the white t-shirt at Joann's for $2.50 and appliqued her initial, simple yet cute.  I hope she likes them!

Mickey Birthday Shirt

The one picture I didn't get throughout the party was a good one of Grant's shirt.   My mom found this white shirt for $1 (SCORE!).  I printed Grant's name in Mickey font I downloaded from dafont.com, slipped it under the front of his shirt and traced the letters with a water soluble quilting pen.  Then I just embroidered the letters.

I didn't have any black fabric and rather than go buy some I decided to be really thrifty and use one of the old t-shirts we had in our give away pile.  I used the Mickey head image from my Cricut to make the head.  I backed it with heat and bond and stitched it with my sewing machine.  I printed the 2 in Mickey font then traced it with the water soluble pen and cut it out of red fabric I already had in my stash.  I backed it with heat and bond, ironed it on, and hand stitched it to the shirt.

 

I had intended for the shirt to be a lot more detailed and a lot  more colorful but time constraints (since I actually forgot about finishing the shirt until the day before the party) forced me to make it a little more simple.  However I'm really happy with the simplicity of it.  Grant kept trying to look at the back of his shirt to see Mickey while it was on him, too cute!

T-Shirt Scarf

I feel like I have been a little MIA around this little blog of mine but I actually have been crafting behind the scenes.  Unfortunately a couple of my crafty endevours (is that how you spell that? anyway, forgive me) have not turned out too well and I've had to start over or scrap it all together.  More than that, quite a few of my projects are still in progress.  And let me just throw out there that my son has a habit of getting up at 5 am, like getting up for the day at 5am.  You would assume that would mean he takes a longer nap, but no we are still lucky to get an hour out of him.  How is it possible for a 1 year old to get so little sleep compared to others his age.

Now that I've put all my excuses out there, on to the post. 

I've said before that I love repurposing.  For whatever reason it has become a little obsession of mine.  When I started making a t-shirt quilt out of mine and my husband's old shirts (one of those projects that are still in progress) I had a bunch of leftover shirt sleeves I didn't know what to do with.  A normal person would have just thrown them away but not me, I felt compelled to keep them and repurpose them into something.  I saw a post here about a t-shirt scarf and thought it was so cute and decided it would be the perfect project to use up my shirt sleeves by making one for my little man.

I used a small envelope as my template and cut out 2 rectangles per shirt sleeve (one for the front and one for the back).

Then I laid them out in the order I wanted, pinned each right sides together and started sewing.  I ended up with 2 long strips, a front and a back.

 

I pinned them right sides together and stitched all the way around making sure to leave an opening for turning.  Somehow or another 1 of my strips ended up longer than the other, like a full rectangle longer, and there were the exact same amount of rectangles on each strip.  I'm still scratching my head on that one, lucky for me when it comes to some projects I'm not a perfectionist.  Once you turn it right side out just stitch your opening closed and you're done.

 

 

Here it is finished, I really love how it turned out.  It's simple, boyish, and best of all it's repurposed!

 

 

Even my little man loves it.

 

 

Mens T-shirt into Boys PJ Shorts

I am a little obsessed, yes I said obsessed, with repurposing.  Especially when it comes to stuff for Grant.  Little ones are so expensive and they grow out of clothes so quickly (or maybe my child is the only one who went through a size a month for the first 6 months of his life) that I can't bring myself to constantly be buying new clothes for him.  I am an avid yard saler, mainly just for baby clothes, and try to buy the sizes he will need in between yard sale seasons (October-May). 

However when there are things I haven't come across yet and he still needs them I try to find a way to reuse and make them from items we already have.  The main items being pajamas and shorts.  I have a garbage bag full of my husband's old shirts and decided I could make some pajama shorts out of a few of those.  In case no one else has thought of his I decided to make a little tutorial.  Hopefully it will make sense, but it's super easy and you should be able to figure it out (if I can do it a monkey could do it).

First, find a pair of shorts that fit your little one now and fold them.

Lay your adult size t-shirt out making sure the seems are in the right place (on either side, sometimes with a worn out shirt they can be off a little) and the fabric is smooth.

(the t-shirt I used in the above picture did not have any seams on the sides.  In this case fold your shirt in half matching up the right and left sides of the shirt and smooth out your fabric).

Lay the pair of shorts you wan to use as a pattern with the straight side flush against the seam and the bottom of the shorts flush against the bottom seam of the shirt.  By using the bottom seam that's already finished you will save yourself time and energy by not having to hem the bottom of the shorts.

Cut around the shorts about a 1/2 inch from the shorts themselves.  When you get to the point and are cutting up toward the waist be sure to curve out with your cutting.  This is so you will have enough extra fabric for the waistband.

Take your 2 pieces and lay them flat with right sides together.  Pin the right and left sides from the waist (the top of your fabric) to the end of the curve.  You can see in the picture below the little pink dots are my pins.

After you pin the fabric together stitch along your line of pins with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Now bring your seems together still keeping right sides together.  These 2 seams will be your front and back center seams.  You can see in the picture below they are starting to look like actual shorts.  You will need to spread the 2 legs of the shorts apart and pin them each matching the front to the back.

Make one continuous seam starting at one end, sewing to the center seam, then sewing down the other leg.

Since I utilized the bottom hem of the t-shirt there's no need to hem the leg bottoms.  Now all that's left is the casing for the waist.  The size of the casing depends on how wide the elastic is.  I like to use 3/4inch for shorts so I make a casing of about 1 1/4inch to be on the safe side.  Thread your elastic through your casing, stitch closed the opening and you're done.

I ran out of elastic to finish the shorts from the shirt I've been photographing for the tutorial but the above shorts were made the same way.  This is a great way to use up your husbands old t-shirts.

Sophia's 1st Birthday Gift

My niece's birthday was Saturday and of course as usual I was up til midnight finishing her gifts.  I added matching diaper covers for each of her little dresses.

I ended up trying this on  Sophie before I wrapped it because I was really afraid it wouldn't fit.  I'm glad I did because it was too long for her to crawl in so I shortened it and added a diaper cover.

My intention was to cut out an "S" for Sophia and applique it to the pink shirt so it and the shorts would be "matchy matchy", needless to say at 12:15am I decided it wasn't worth it.  I made the shorts using this tutorial

My favorite is this reversable dress made using this pattern and tutorial.  The length of this dress actually made me think I may have made it too short but after trying it on her, it's perfect for her to crawl around in but definately too short not to have a matching diaper cover.  I used the diaper cover pattern here, however I didn't follow the tutorial I just started sewing and hoped for the best.  Following the tutorial would have made for a more finished diaper cover so I would suggest anyone else out there to give themselves enough time to follow the correct way of making one.

I have been wanting to make a tutu for a couple years and my mom and I decided Sophie's birthday could not be a proper celebration without a pink and green tutu.  There are a million tutorials out there and it was probably one of the easiest projects I've done in a long time. 

I'm so excited with how everything turned out and I hope I get to see her in all her cute outfits.

Girly Birthday

My neice's first birthday is this weekend and normally I give a homemade Bit of Whimsy doll but since I gave her one of those for Christmas and she really needs clothes for summer, I decided to make her a couple dresses, a skirt and a pair of shorts.

I made this reversable dress with a Cinderella Princess print on the opposit side.  I found the tutorial and pattern here.  It is super simple to make with only about 5 steps after cutting your fabric.  I did make a few changes, as usual.  The top of mine does not have button holes, the buttons are just sewn on.  I figured because it ties in the back this was one step I could easily skip (and therefore I wouldn't have to hunt down my button hole presser foot).

Here is the back.  My favorite part is that it's reversable so it's like a two for one deal.

The second dress I made was a pillowcase dress.  I'm not all too crazy about it so I'm waiting for Sophie to be at the house tonight to try it on and see if I get any crazier about it.  The ones I've seen online are so cute but I think mine looks a little plain.  I didn't use a pattern just measurements.

I'm anxious to try it on her and see how it looks.

The skirt I made I somehow measured incorrectly and instead of a 12-18mo skirt I ended up with more like a 6mo size.  Needless to say I had to do alot of seem ripping and am in the process of fixing it.  The shorts are finished but are currently MIA.  How does that even happen? My one guess is my little one Grant probably decided to play hide and seek with it.

It felt so good to start sewing again that I can't stop now.  Mother's Day is coming up and my mom has requested I make her a case for her new Kindle.  I'm so excited to go look for fabric, so stay tuned!