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 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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Look what I got!!

I am super excited about one of my birthday gifts.  My sister and her family gave me a gift card to Amazon for my birthday.  At first I thought about ordering some shoes or a purse or something, but then I remembered there were a couple of books I was pining for.

Photos from Amazon.com

So I can't wait to get into these books and start sewing!  The book for kids should be interesting.  The patterns are European and don't have seam allowances.  You have to add them.  Hopefully, I am good enough to make that work.

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.

 

All spiffy for Spring!

I have been so excited for Spring this year.  I am not exactly sure why, but I am a little giddy about it!

I have been working on lots of new things to put into my etsy shop and today I will be listing a couple of new dresses.  My little one loves dresses and she is a great little model!

This little dress is made from a Modkidboutique pattern.  It was so fun to make!  I like how it turned out and my "model" loved the pocket in the front!

This cute little sundress can be worn in cooler weather with a tshirt under it!  It's made from 4 different fabrics and from a Portabellopixie pattern.  I love how the straps are held in place by a knot!  So cute and it does twirl!!

I am planning to do more of both dresses in some different fabrics.  I've also been sewing up some dresses for American girl dolls, so I will post some pictures soon!

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!



 

My first quilt!

It's finished!

I made this quilt for a fundraiser at my daughter's preschool.  The last two years my mom has made lovely quilts to donate.  I helped out a little last year, but this year I wanted to try and do it on my own!  I found this great tutorial for how to make a quilt in 6 weeks at a blog called I Have to Say...

It took me less than two, but I needed to get it done so it could be on display!

The instructions are great.  So if you think you've been wanting to try a quilt...GO FOR IT!

Here is my finished product!

I made those two little angels in the back too!  :)

   
  

I am obsessed with these flowers!

I learned how to make these little flowers from a tutorial from Sandi Henderson.  I have put

them on a headband and loved how they turned out.

For Christmas this past year, I got a tshirt as a gift from JCrew.  Well, it was from my sister in law, but she got it at JCrew.  ha ha.

As soon as I opened it I was in love and knew I had to try and make some more!!  I am on the verge of ending up with a closet full of these tshirts.

So here is JCrew's version.

Here is my version!

This is actually for my big girl to wear on Easter.  I found this little burnout tee at Old Navy.  I think it was on sale for around $7.  I bought a yard on chiffon at Hobby Lobby for about $3 and I had the tulle and button on hand already.   I am sure I did this for less than JCrew! 

I took a look at how mine was made.  The flowers are all handsewn to a piece of tulle and then the tulle is sewn to the shirt.  I went ahead and did it this way.  I made two, one for each of my girls and I took a tip I found in between.  I found a post on Tatertots and Jello, where Jen made throw pillows with yoyo's on them.  She gave a tip that you should attatch the yoyo's to one another before sewing them to the pillow.  I took this advice with the flowers and tried it on the second shirt.  I worked out much better! 

So now, I have all of these little lovely flowers that will soon be attatched to headbands for Sunday.

I did one with just the chiffon, one with tulle twisted in with it and one with a sparkly brad in the center.  One thing I've done that has made the flower making easier, is tying the fabric in a knot at the end and using that as your center starting point.

I will wait until Easter to show you the whole ensemble!  I'm excited how the outfits turned out. 

Have a Happy Easter!

I am linking up to

It's a Hodgepodge Friday

Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party

Kojo Designs


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