little clips

I have fallen in love with felt.  (And forest animals.)  So I attached them to clips so I can look at them in Ella's hair all day!   

new towels

I needed a break from Halloween costumes, so I made some new towels instead!

It was about time - except for Christmas, we've been using the same towels we received for our wedding!  I was a little hesitant of the colors at first, but wanted something fall-ish.  The actual towels are from Ikea. 

And don't you love these flowers?? 

Jenni, my good friend and college roommate, sent them to me!  They are from Paper Source, so of course made from paper.  It took a little while, folding and gluing everything, but thankfully they cut it all out for you.  They are adding some much needed color to our very blank bedroom!   

owl

Ella the owl!

Made from t-shirt scraps.  There will be a hat later.  Right now I'm just happy she was excited to wear it!  It looks a little shabby, but owls are shabby aren't they?

inspiration

Some things I've been looking at... 

Clockwise from left to bottom:  Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn Kids, Boden - Women and Mini Boden.  

I love getting holiday catalogues in the mail!  Crate and Barrel is my favorite for modern holiday decorations - especially Christmas ornaments.  Check out these pillows too...they would be great in all sorts of colors!   

 

Crate & Barrel

I don't even know where to start with Pottery Barn.  Halloween costumes, trick-or-treat bags, Thanksgiving decorations....can I have make them all? 

PBKids

And have you seen or heard of Boden?  I LOVE their clothes!   A little out of my price range, but maybe someday...  I find myself referencing the children's catalogue when I make clothes for my kids.

Boden

 

But there is only so much time and money.



toddler and baby pants

Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with refashioning?  Yes, I think I have, but I'm admitting it again.  I can't stop!  Even at 2am when I can't think straight....  This is what I did last night.  I started with a men's XL turtleneck..

and used the sleeves for some skinny baby boy pants. I made little knee patches, the waistband and ankle cuffs out of brown ribbing.  The waistband and knee patches were a pain!  Look at all those pins, the waistband looked even worse! 

But it eventually worked out and here they are this morning!

I had the body and neck of the shirt leftover so I also made some yoga pants for Ella.  I used a pair of her leggings to trace a pattern, making them wider in the leg.  Instead of adding elastic, I took the neck of the turtleneck and sewed it to the top of the pants(any knit would do for the waistband).  These were incredibly easy!  For the next pair, I'm going to try making them a little more fitted at the thigh with more of a flared leg.

And maybe a tutorial sometime? 

 

 Ella now gets up from her naps and asks "What'd you make me Mama?"

little quilts

 A while ago I pieced a little baby doll quilt for Ella out of the leftover fabric I had from her baby quilt.  And over the weekend I finally got around to quilting it!  My Mom had some free time and helped me use her long arm machine.  If you don't know what a long arm machine is...it's huge!  Really!  It takes up the length of the loft in my parents house and allows my Mom to quilt anything.  I can't remember the brand, but it's a big time one - does everything except computerized quilting.  My Mom is amazing with it and I am s l o w l y learning. 

So all I did on the little quilt were straight lines, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

sorry for dark pictures, it was kind of late!


I wasn't concerned about having perfectly straight lines, I like the wonky look.  But when I was finished my entire quilt was wonky!  I wish I had a picture of it - I had to really stretch it back to a square.  (We think this happened because I always started left and quilted to the right.)  But Ella didn't care! 

And neither does Dora!

I also have this little quilt I finished this weekend that I had planned on bringing to the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild swap.  But instead of quilting it at my Mom's, I'm spending my evening with Brent!

Saturday Finds

Visited Goodwill and the Loveland Vintage and Thrift this morning!

The kitchen was $6!!!!  I think I'll clean it up, maybe paint it and keep it as a Christmas present!  The jug was $20...might have over paid since it has a few dents...but I like it and was afraid it would be gone another day.  I also got a little pile of clothes for refashioning/halloween costumes, but they are already in the washing machine!

ruffle shirt tutorial (well...kind of)

As my family and some friends know, I'm kind of a Gap-aholic.  It's getting better since I've found I can make similar things, especially for my kids, but that doesn't stop me from checking their website to see what's new.  I kept coming back to this shirt wondering if I could copy it.  I found a black shirt from Old Navy for $2.50 and gave it a shot.  So here is a sort of tutorial.  (It's not a full blown tutorial because I didn't take enough pictures!)

Since the shirt already fit me, I didn't have extra fabric to work with so I used the scraps of a jersey fitted sheet.  (I promise it is a new sheet - never slept on!  My Mom used it to cover some couch cushions and had leftovers)

But you could use anything knit - cut up another old shirt, or if you have to take in the sides of the shirt, use the scraps.  Just make sure you use a rotary cutter.  It gives a much cleaner line than scissors.  (Also, use a stretch needle on your machine!)  

I cut two 3" by 30" strips.  Gathered them on my machine, using the longest stitch length and pinned it to the neck of my shirt. 

To get the ruffle to go down the middle of the shirt, I pinned the right ruffle down first, then flipped the left one over so that the gathered edges were on top of each other.  (Sorry there are no pictures of this part!  My kids were waking up and I had to hurry!)  When everything was pinned, I changed the stitch length back to normal and sewed around the neckline first, then down the middle.  To make the left ruffle lay flat, I flipped it back over and topstitched it down.  And here it is!

I'll have to get a picture of me wearing it, the ruffle looks a little funny laying down.  But I think it will look cute under sweaters.  And I'll take $2.50 over $30! 

a pink shirt

For most of the kids shirts I've made, I've used the 90 Minute Shirt tutorial.  It's just so easy, and the envelope opening makes it easy to get over big toddler heads!  But I want to start showing more before pictures, and the patterns I use, in case someone else wants to try too!  So this week I started with an old pink shirt...

When I first started making these shirts I also used the pattern making tutorial from Made.  I took apart a long sleeved onesie, and traced it with a seam allowance on some big coloring paper.  (Since I wanted to make both 2T/3T and 18 month sizes I needed two different patterns.  So I used other shirts we had to adjust the sizes.)  Here are my front and sleeve pattern pieces for Ella, compared to a shirt I got from Target.  

   

I'm not going to give step by step pictures of how I sew the shirt, because you can find it here and she does a great job and explaining it!  But eventually I ended up with this!  I love making shirts this way because you don't have to hem them - just use the existing hem, which I even did for the sleeves on this one.

Brice's are a little easier to fit for some reason.  I've had to adjust Ella's pattern a few times, and I'm still not getting it completely correct.  Can you see how it bunches up under her arms?  That's what I need to fix.  I'm still learning. 

skinny baby pants

What do you do when the baby is starting to pull up on furniture, but keeps getting his feet stuck in his pants?  Make skinny pants of course!

They are my new favorite!  I saw a similar pair at Gap and thought I'd try making some.  I used an old polo shirt, and added the ribbed cuffs from the waistband of an old hoodie.  

I think they look a little punk-rockish with the tiny houndstooth print.  

This outfit was made with my new needle.  I got a little heads up from my Mom last weekend when I showed her this shirt.

See the ugly little holes the thread was making in the fabric?  Turns out I needed a special needle for sewing knits.  Duh!  What would I do without my Mom? 

And just for fun... a little doll stroller refashion for Ella.   

dress refashion

Am I going a little crazy refashioning?  (Today I happened across the "50% off the clearance stuff" sale at Old Navy and was WAY to excited!)   I might be...but it is so satisfying to find a new purpose for clothes I no longer like, or clothes that only cost $2!  So here's another one I've completed.  This is an old bathing suit cover up from Target.

I took off the gathered, bottom part and added elastic to make it a skirt for Ella.

I think I'll save the top half and make it a summer dress for Ella next year. 

Also...is this cute?  I can't decide, but it is a way to use up the t-shirt scraps I have after finishing a t-shirt quilt.  They might be fun in different sports team colors....