Cucumbers.

I thought you might like to see what happens when I leave the hubby in charge of getting a snack for the kids. 

Cucumbers anyone?

I have nothing against the kids eating cucumbers. I'm not a fan of them, but everyone else in the family loves them. I just think it might be better to have them at least sitting at the table...

And this is not the first time that I've discovered Hero on the floor eating a cucumber.Check this out from 2 years ago.

ahhh. he didn't even have all his teeth!

(Sorry for the lack of crafty inspiration. I'm working on a few things, one I'm hoping to have ready soon for you!) 

KCWC: Day five/six

Time Spent: um... honestly, only 15 minutes or so...

I ended up frustrated because I read the instructions wrong and caught some of the top into the stitches and had to rip it out.... So instead of sewing I cleaned what I have been ignoring during this sewing week. 

Picture if you will, vacuuming while holding a baby and the 3-year-old holding the handle because he wants to help. It took twice as long to vacuum, but Hero loved it and the house got cleaned... I consider it a successful day.

Project Sewn: top/dress for Pretty (from Amy Butler's Little Stitches book). . . still.

Status: done! (this morning)

I think I did well during the first few days of this challenge, but I put too much pressure on myself to finish something new each day. So with that in mind, I still plan to make a few shirts for Hero, but I'm not planning on doing that today. Perhaps tomorrow. Today, instead, I am going to spend some time with my hubby and go to dinner and women's conference tonight.

KCWC: Day four

Time Spent: 12pm - 1:30pm and 3pm-4pm and 4:45 - 5:30.

The kids were being exceptionally good yesterday and letting me sew. So I definitely made up for the day before. 

But I have to clarify. When I put these times, it's what I consider time spent, but I don't get to sew solid through that time. I stop to help Hero with going to the bathroom or a toy repair; listen to him tell a story; pick up Pretty; feed her a snack; and all the other things that are continuous in a mother's day.

Project sewn: top/dress for Pretty

Status: almost done.

I got so much done. I ran into some confusion about the instructions and had to spend some time undoing. Plus, I think I switched the width and length for the bottom part. I'm at that point in this project where I wish it was done, and it's not, so I'm burning out on it. It doesn't help that I'm not sure I like the way the fabrics combined... opinions?

I plan to get this done today, then work on something for Hero. Bloomers to match this will just have to wait.

KCWC: Day three

Time Spent: 3pm - 3:30pm and 10pm - 10:15pm

Pretty kept waking up just when I was getting into my groove. Both times. And after she woke up at 10:15 with teething pain, and spent an hour up, I was done. (And then, to add to my fun, she woke up again at 2am and stayed up until 4... teething is crappy).

Project Sewn: top/dress for Pretty

Status: cut out, marks transferred, and that it. fail...

There's just not much to show today. Here's how I left my ironing board/project table last night... Hopefully I'll do better today. 

(do you like the fabric? very fall, eh?)

KCWC: Day two

Time Spent: 10:45am - 11:15am  and  3:15pm - 4pm

In the morning, Hero is at preschool so I thought I would get the full hour in then (and some), but Pretty decided to stay up until there wasn't quite the full amount of time, so I took time later when Pretty was napping again, and Hero was playing toys and watching a movie.

Project(s) Sewn:  finished skirt for Pretty, belt for Hero, warhol dress for Pretty. . . in that order.


Status: all completed!!


This skirt turned out just as cute as I hoped.

I used Dana's (from Made) formula she wrote for resizing her market skirt to determine the width of each layer, but the length and added ruffles where my idea. I think it turned out a bit to full and plan to try again.

The next attempt will be a bit skinnier, and use different fabrics for the tiny ruffles.

After I finished it yesterday, I put in on her for size and the little princess ended up pooping on it before I got around to taking pictures. So it had to be washed. But I'm glad it worked out that way because it gave the little ruffles time to fray in the wash.

I've been meaning to make Hero a belt for a long time. He outgrew the little ones, but the nice bigger ones are still too big. Enter the madra toddler belt. 

Last, I up-cycled one of my old band t-shirts. This is from The Ataris concert I went to when I was 18 with some friends. I loved this shirt, but after 2 kids, I just don't fit into it anymore. Shocking, I know. But I just couldn't part with it. Now I'm glad I didn't! It makes a cute dress.

There are designs on front and back that I made sure to center. 

It looks cute layered, too.

I think Hero might be shorted this week. I need to find more projects to make for him. Maybe a 90 minute shirt is in order? (Can you tell I'm a fan of Made?)

KCWC: Day one

Time spent: 11:15pm - 1am

I had hoped to sew in the afternoon, but the kids would not cooperate and nap at the same time (and in Hero's case, at all). Then I was going to sew right after they went to bed around 9pm, but the Husband wanted to watch a movie with me... so I ended up sewing late into the night.

Project sewn: skirt for Pretty of my own design.

Status: SO CLOSE!!!

It got most the way around the hem and then I ran out of bobbin thread. Noticing that it was so late, I decided to call it quits and finish the project today. Pictures on the model to come!

Pin Cushions!

Today starts the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge. Meet my sewing area where I will be spending at least 1 hour per day making kid's clothes this entire week.

I like how I have it set up so everything is handy. It might seem confining, but it works well and I'm just happy to have it set up all the time and not in the way of anything. I love how it's next to the computer so when I am following a tutorial, what I need is right there.

Here is a quirk of mine. When I  use a new spool of thread, the label on the top ends up peeling up. So I take it off and stick it to the side of my machine. I think I must have cleaned it off at one point, because there are not a lot there.

You should recognize the background here that is my ironing board.  It's where I take a lot of pictures! And this is my vintage pin cushion given to me, with the old pins included, by my mom. I usually pin while standing by the board, so my pin cushion ends up spending a lot of time here.

After I pin, I turn to sew and forget to bring the pin cushion with me. It may be close, but when I am in a sewing groove, I just stick the pins into the pad under the machine. Sometimes, I repeat this process so much that I end up with the majority of my pins here instead of in the cushion where they belong.

My solution: two new pin cushions!

I found the little metal cups at the thrift store for 25 cents a piece. There were 8 of them and now I wish I had bought more than these 2. I could have made more for gifts. They were easy to put together. Just cut 6" diameter circles, run a gather stitch around the edge, gather, stuff and close the opening. Last step is to glue it into the cup with hot glue. Easy-peasy.

But with 2 adorable pin cushions, I can keep one on the ironing board,

and one by the machine,

and just switch them when the machine one gets full. Bring on the sewing challenge! I think I'm ready!

KCWC: signing up with elsie marley

I've had this button on my side bar for about a week now, I don't know how  many of you noticed it:

Click on over to check out the official-ness of it all, but basically, by signing up, you are committing yourself to sew for 1 hour each day working on clothes for the kiddos! At the time of writing this post there were already 335 people signed up! 

I have a few projects in mind, and I'm going fabric shopping tonight to pick up some things for it. I'm excited! I will be sharing my progress through out the week, even if it's minimal. (You may end up staring at pictures of me cutting out patterns. . . I hope that's ok!)

But before that all starts, I have a project I'm going to work on tonight that will help with this upcoming frenzied week of sewing. I'll get it posted as soon as it's done!

Flower Clips

A woman at my church saw the flower I had made on Pretty's headband on Sunday and asked if I would make some for her to give as part of a baby shower gift. She definitely wanted one just like the pink one she saw, but also wanted a second different one. I made 3 for her to choose from.

The pretty pink one is made with 3 circles cut from a brocade fabric I bought at Joann's with the middle layer flipped to show the pink wrong side.

My personal favorite is the black satin/white lace. If she picks that, I'll have to make another for Pretty (and possibly one for me!)

inspired by craftaholics anonymous.

Don't Forget!

Today is the last day 

to enter to win 

the set of bugs over at 

Made by Heidi!

No Sew ABC Fabric Art

A few months ago, my sister-in-law had a baby boy. I wanted to make her some nursery art and this is what I came up with. 

They were pretty simple to put together. The hardest was coming up with the design. And I kick myself for not keeping it. So, I'm very sorry that to recreate this, you will need to draft your own, but please feel free to try to copy mine as best you can!

What you need:

• 3 - 8 x8 box canvases
• 1/2 yard of background fabric
• fat quarters or scraps for other fabric colors
• Heat N Bond
• iron / ironing board
• glue gun

To start, I drew out my designs and made sure they would fit right by laying them down on the canvas.

Next, I traced the pieces in groups of what color they needed to be on the Heat N Bond. Make sure to trace it backward and to iron it onto the wrong side of the fabric. I cut out pieces as I needed them, that way I didn't lose the tiny buggers.

I cut the background fabric 10 x 10 to ensure  enough overlap.

Next, I cut out and laid the pieces on the background fabric with the canvas behind to make sure I was inside the edges.

When I was happy with the arrangement, I slid the canvas out and ironed on the pieces in layers. Iron on the bottom most pieces first.

Then add the detail pieces on top.

I used hot glue to secure the design to the back of the canvas. Make sure the design is centered. Glue one side, then pull the fabric tight and glue the opposite side.

To glue the top and bottom, I folded it like I would a present, gluing in layers.

My last step was to trim all the fabric inside the wood frame.

"A is for Airplane"

"B is for Boat"

"C is for Car"

I was trying to give the illusion that the airplane and boat where moving.

Disclaimer:
I made these before I was fully aware the amount of detailed pictures a tutorial required, so feel free to ask any questions you have.

A Bigger Hat

It may seem a little early in the season to be making a winter hat, but we went camping over the holiday weekend and I realized that the only hat Pretty had was the one they sent us home from the hospital with.So I decided to make this adorable hat from the Stitch N *itch Crochet: Happy Hooker book. I've made this hat for all of my nieces  before (2 of them... man, we need more girls) and love it every time.

Sadly, the first go 'round, following the pattern exactly, resulted in this too small hat:

It wasn't until I was done that I looked again at the size that says for 6 mo. and realized if it's like normal sizing that's 3-6 mo... So now I need to add the braids and give it away to someone.

So I added a row at the top where I continued to increase the circumference, too. So now it's a touch too big, but it will fit her all winter as she grows. I love the braids and the colors make me think of a watermelon.

I've already promised to make all 4 of my sister's kids new hats this year, and Hero would probably like one too.