First day of school survival kit!

Monday is the big day around here.  Another school year will begin.  Yesterday, we were demon dialing the school because they printed the list to let us know what teacher our children will be assigned to. 

Tonight, we go for "Meet the teacher".

The other day, I found a cute idea at Some Days You Gotta Dance.  Paige works in a school and found an "emergency kit" on her desk while preparing for her school year.

I thought this was such a fabulous idea and decided to go for it!

Here is what I came up with!

I got the little basket in the clearance section at Wal Mart.  They came in a set of 3 for $1.50, red, white and blue!  I put in some snacks, a note pad, water, hand wash and wipes, lotion and Tylenol!  Hopefully, she won't need the Tylenol!

The bow on the outside, I made in school colors.  It is actually a belt!  I am planning to make some more, so I will post a tutorial for it!  Hopefully, tomorrow.

Wish us luck for tonight.  I am hoping there will be some friends in my sweet girl's class so that anxiety levels will be low for Monday!  I am sure the teacher will be great.  I've heard great things about all of the second grade teachers!

Gussy up that hat! (just in case ya missed it!)

Just in case you missed it...here is the tutorial from my guest post over at Scraps and Scribbles from

the other day!  There is a giveaway involved, so hop on over and check it out!

And if you haven't entered the giveaway here for the rag bracelet, what are you waiting for?

Lately, I have been working on sprucing up a plain cadet cap.  I've seen these hats everywhere with rhinestone designs on them, but thought they would be so cute with some flowers on them!

There are tutorials all over blogland for making all kinds of fabric flowers.  Here is one of my new favorites!

All you need is some fabric, a circle template (you can use a glass), needle and thread, a small piece of felt, and a button.

Start by making six circles and cutting them out.

Fold them in half once and then again.

Then take your needle and thread and run a long stitch across the raw edge.

Now pull it tight so that it gathers in the whole bottom of your petal!  Tie a knot in your thread and do the same for the next five circles.  I didn't even cut my thread in between petals.  That way they are all sewn together at the end.

This is what it will look like with all six petals done and sewn together.  Next glue your felt circle onto the back.

Find a cute button big enought to cover all of your raw edges and stitching and sew into place on the opposite side of your felt.

Next add a pin and/or hairclip to the back and you are done!  You could even sew this right onto a purse or hat if you didn't want it to be interchangeable.

Now go make some cute flowers! 

Birthday outfit

Summer is filled

with birthdays for my family.  June and July are pretty heavy.

My great niece Raegan just turned two and I made a little outfit to send her way last week.

I made the Modkidboutique Julia skirt and embellished a little tank.

The pattern has an option to make the skirt "less full".  I thought for this little peanut, I would try that.

If you have or sew for little girls, I highly recommend Modkidboutique's patterns.  They are so cute and very easy  to follow.  They even have patterns for matching doll clothes! 

I had considered putting two ruffles on the top, but decided to do something a little different and made a bow out of the second piece of fabric.  I then covered a button with fabric and finished it off!

I hope she likes it!

Happy Birthday Raegan!

Birthday Chair

Awhile back I came across a super cute birthday chair at SnowyBliss.  I thought it was the cutest thing

and vowed to make one for my kids.  So a couple of weeks ago, I went on the hunt for an old chair and a friend of mine came up large for me and got me one for FREE!

I recovered the seat, spray painted it and went to town with some rhinestones, ribbons and flowers for finials.

I know it looks a little over the top, but this is Texas and there are a lot of things around here that are over the top!

The birthday girl sure felt special sitting in it and it's ready to go into the attic until the next birthday.

I hope it will be a fun tradition for my girls to look forward to each year on their special day.

I am linked up for some more party time!

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Sweet little sundress

I have found a great blog that has some great tutorials.  I want to try just about all of them!  This little "one hour sundress" tutorial came from Christine at From An Igloo.  If you haven't visited her before, it is worth a trip!

On Sunday I decided to start with this little dress.  I had this piece of fabric with no intentions and sewed it right up!  I love how it turned out.  I would have loved it more if my little petunia could have modeled it, but she has been sick and has been sporting her p.j.'s!

I only made one change.  I made the top halter style because petunia was asleep and I couldn't measure the straps.  I also made another for my big girl, but shortened it to a shirt and left off the top ruffle.  She wore it 2 days in a row! 

Ruffly Apron

I have been wanting to make a ruffly apron for quite some time.  I don't have a pattern, so I just had to wrap my head around the whole idea and get started.  I decided to make one for my mother in law for Mother's day.  She loves to cook and is a great baker.  I ended up using my pattern for the Nie Nie skirt for my guide.

Here is the finished product!  I love how it turned out and she liked it too.  I coupled it with a great cookbook with all cupcakes in it from Martha Stewart.  I am a sucker for cupcakes!

(the Nie Nie skirts)

Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes.

Easter bunny cupcakes.

Cutie Pie!

I have been so busy lately, I haven't had time to post all of the cute things I've been whipping up!

I've gotten some new patterns and made a few things from patterns I've had for a while.

This is the Maddie Bee apron top from Brassy Apple.  It is adorable and has many variations.  I decided to do my first one pretty simply, but I did make it reversible.

I plan to make many more of these cute little tops.  The pattern is a great one, pretty easy and the instructions are great! 

This is a little dress I made for a friend's little girl.  I used two different patterns and mixed a top from one and skirt from the other.  They are the Claire and Gracie patterns from Portabellopixie

I love how it turned out!  She is going to look adorable in it!

Have a great day!

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A couple of "little" projects

I am recuperating from last week's fundraiser madness!  My house is in shambles, but I am such a junkie, that I have fabric and a pattern waiting for me on the table.  Shameless, I know.

I just thought I'd share a few of the projects I worked on last week.  I'll split it into a couple of posts!

So here is part one:

Meet Emma.  She is my daughter's American Girl.  She has was gracious enough to be my model!

This little sundress turned out so cute!  (in my humble opinion!)

I measured how long to make it and then measured the largest part of Emma for the width of the fabric and added 3 inches. 

Sew the fabric together to make a tube.

Hem the top and bottom.

Use elastic thread and shir about 6 rows at the top.

Cut 4 pieces of ribbon and sew in place for the straps.

Your "little" project is finished and your "little" model looks so cute!

This was the second dress I made for Emma.

This dress was made from scrap fabric.  I bought the ruffled trim since I ran out of scraps big enough and the skirt was waaaay to short.  I used some tissue and made a little pattern for the top by placing it on the doll and drawing where I wanted the dress to be.  I kind of wung it from there.  If anyone is interested in a tutorial, let me know, I will get one made up.

These two little dresses along with a small hairbow for each raised $30 for my daughter's school.  I thought they were cute and I am sure I will be making more.  Emma was sad to see them go.

 

Crew Cuts inspired tshirts!

Coming from a family of ten kids, my mom taught me well about being frugal.  When I was young, I never really knew any different.  I just thought it was all the norm.  Now as an adult, I am very frugal.  It's hard for me to spend a lot of money on just about anything...especially if I can make it myself!

Remember these?

I went back to Hobby Lobby and got more of that stretchy ruffled ribbon on a roll for $1.50 and dressed up some more tshirts.  I am bound and determined to make some cute things my older daughter will wear.  She's going into the jeans and tshirt phase and all of my cute handmade clothes I've made her are collecting dust in her closet!  GASP!

So here are a couple of tees that I came up with after scouring the Crew Cuts website for some ideas.

All you need is a tshirt, your sewing machine, and this "stretchy ruffled ribbon".

Pin the ribbon onto the tshirt and sew it down!

VOILA!

I'm linking up for these parties!  Go check them out!