Christmas T-Shirt

I saw this basic idea a couple times while surfing around cyberspace, and made one for my little boy.

Sorry this picture is blurry, it is the only one I have of him in it!

He isn't one for standing still much.

Here is a link to the only tutorial I actually saved. That is SO unlike me. :)

I used:

Ribbon

(I got the whole 6 pack of 18" lengths from the Target 1$ section!)

A toddler t-shirt

(I bought it at Target and then used my seam ripper to take off the pocket.)

liquid stitch

(you could sew them on for added durability.)

Fray Check

Scissors

Seam ripper

(to remove the pocket)

My Target purchases.

To make the tree, I just cut the first ribbon color to about one inch and slanted the cut. I fray check-ed the edges of the ribbon and then used liquid stitch to glue the ribbon to the shirt. I could have sewn them on, but I figured the shirt would only be worn once anyway.

After that first cut, I cut each ribbon one at a time slightly bigger.

Not exactly a science.

I took this picture with my supplies after I had gotten started.

I continued cutting each of the six ribbons in the same way.

Then, when I got to the bottom, I used some brown ribbon I already had to make a trunk.

After all the ribbon was secured, I knew I needed a tree topper.

I thought about this gem, but thought better of it since I have a little boy and the gem was looking a little too girly.

I opted for the understated button.

It turned out so fun, and it didn't take me long at all! Maybe 15-20 minutes.

Quiet Book

For my niece's second birthday, I made this quiet book. I used this tutorial by Homemade by Jill as a reference. I love her! I hope to add more pages, but for now, this is what I have.

The Front

- A pocket for quick stuffing of random pieces as need be. -

An Apple Tree with velcro apples.

see?

Button flowers and snap fish

Color matching gum balls and hair for braiding and such.

Dress up doll

see?

Fabric Barn

Today while waiting to the glass man to come by and replace my windshield, I made this little barn. I found the instructions on UK Lass in US via UCreate. The tutorial is Here. I had a little trouble (Me and the seam ripper were best friends!), but for my first attempt, I am pretty happy. Now, I just need to decide if I am crazy enough to make cloth animals, or if I should just head over to Walmart for some Chinese imports. :)

Here's the outside, front.

The back, showing mostly my "silos".

The back, showing my tree and tree swing.

And, the inside. All I have is a path, pond and stack of hay. (yes, that is supposed to be hay.)

I ran out of ideas and my fingertips were done being burned. :)

Maybe next I will attempt a doll house!

Sedona Photo Meet Up

I spent Saturday up in Sedona, with a meetup.com group that my friend, Tiffany, found. I had never heard of meetup.com, but I enjoyed the day. Tiffany took 591 photos! I only took 174. You can visit my Picasa Album to see more photos from the day. I have not edited any of them, they are straight out of my camera.

Ribbon Belts

I made these two belts out of 1.5 inch ribbon and (2) 1 inch D-rings. I was inspired by this tutorial at Make It and Love It, but I didn't really follow it! I bought the ribbon without reading her measurements first and didn't have enough to double the thickness. Oh well! They are cute. Now, I just have to put them on my baby boy and see if they fit. :)

Baby Toys

I got a sewing bug last night... and made these! Fun little toys! I just used fabric I had around the house, and it was really fun. You should do it too!

I have been reading a lot of Make it and Love it. I love her! She makes the cutest stuff, and it is pretty simple to do as well.

I used this tutorial to make this block.

I am waiting on some more fabric, and then I plan to make more colors.

I added a little ribbon tag because my baby loves tags and I saw it somewhere else.

And then I used this tutorial to make these letter bean bags.

I used felt. Don't enlarge and look at my poor sewing. :) I had a little trouble, but by the end I was doing a lot better.

And, lastly, I used this tutorial to make this giraffe. The front is flannel and the back is corduroy. The flannel frayed a bit while I was hand stitching and was a pain, but I love this fabric! I think it works well for a giraffe. What do you think?

Strange Box Project

When I first got the home project bug, I bought this box for 10$. That's a lot more than I would normally pay, but since I did. I better make it look good. :)

I am thinking shoe storage for right inside the garage door where our shoes always collect.

I want to paint it, but I haven't decided what color yet. Any thoughts?

Wrong Color!? No Problem.

Today I have a quick change for you. A while ago, I posted a picture of this wall art arrangement on my personal blog. I loved how everything looked on this red wall, but it just wasn't working for the layout of my house.

The red wall is a definite focal point from many angles, but the corner where this arrangement got stuffed was not. And, since I wanted this arrangement to be a major focal point. I moved it. Err... I asked the hubs to move it for me! :) But, I could of done it if I wanted to...

Problem!?

It is all blah. And Bland.

I mulled over this problem for a while. Even before the actual move.

A painted box? Horizontal Stripes? Hmm..

I ultimately decided that the easiest solutions was to paint the words.

So I did.

I used the leftover house paint from the red wall.

It took some patience with the small curves and angle of the words, but eventually, I got it.

I didn't prime them, but I should have. I think that was my biggest mistake. I put a lot of coats on these puppies because of it!

Spray painting would have been another good option. However, I already had this paint thus equalling a cheaper option. I like cheap!

I called Ace Hardware though to see what the cost is for them to make my house paint into a spray. Did you know they did that? I just saw it advertised in their store! Really exciting. Anyway, it is 10$. Not a bad idea for any future projects that I am willing to spend the money!

So, if you feel like you have a piece of, well, almost anything and you want to use it but the color is wrong. Paint, paint, paint!

Cheap. I mean, Cheap Ottoman

Found this at a garage sale. 2$

Needs some love...

Asked the hubby to tighten the legs.

And colored in the blemishes with Sharpie.

Kinda tacky. I'll admit. But, it is so cute and useful and, and, and CHEAP, you can hardly tell.

The flash in this picture make it look really noticeable. It isn't!

Old Park Bench

Old bench. My parent's neighbor gave it to them when he moved.

The hubs and I also got 2 more for ourselves, but we haven't done anything with them yet!

Depending on how bad off your bench is, this can be an easy or hard fix.

First, take the bench apart remembering to label the wood pieces.

If your bench is well rusted - try using WD40 and a wire brush to clean up the hardware.

This bench was easy to get apart. Our other two? Not so much.

Since this bench wasn't in too bad of shape, we just took the metal pieces outside and cleaned them with WD40. WD40 works great on cleaning rust!

After they were clean, we gave each piece two coats of clear spray lacquer.

Our other benches will need a coat of spray paint. I am thinking of going with the rust prevention kind.

Then we sanded. A LOT.

(Remember your labels! We had them in pencil, so we were constantly re-writing them.)

And, to our amazement, the gray wood was still okay underneath.

If yours isn't, you have two options. Paint, or replace the wood.

Painting is the cheapest, but replacing the wood may be necessary if your wood is too rotten.

This being the case, this project may not even be economical depending on your attachment to your particular bench! It just depends.

We chose to stain this bench.

The dry wood sucked up the stain...

So, after several coats we lacquered the heck out of these too!

Here it is all done! This is at my parent's house a few weeks later.

It had gotten a bit dirty in its time outside.

I am thinking of taking over a can of lacquer this weekend and re-lacquering it for extra durability.

Plus, this was one of my first projects this summer and I am much better with a spray-paint can now!

Some Girly Burpies

After my burpie post, I made these girly burpies. Had to share!

Taco Shells

Here is a quick food tutorial. I am not known for my cooking, but I tried making my own taco shells the other night and they were so GOOD! Yummy. I had to share. Maybe you already know how to do this, but I didn't. Thank you to my friend Cami for teaching me!

Heat up some oil in a pan.

I used a small pan (less oil) and about 1 inch of oil.

This works best when your oil is really hot. Patience.

(And please don't flick water into it... you WILL splatter yourself or your gas stove and create a small grease fire. I know. Trust me...)

Take some small corn tortillas. White or yellow.

We had white, so I used those.

With tongs, hold half of the tortilla in the oil.

When that half is done, flip the tortilla over and work on the other side.

You can kind of create how big of fold in the shell as you want by how you hold it.

Experiment and let me know how it goes!

Better yet, invite me over to try one! hehe!

Baby Tag Toy

I made one of these toys for my baby before he was born. I don't remember where I got the original idea, but he loves his. He chews on the ribbon tags all the time. I take it in the grocery store where it is a toy and an emergency burp cloth if needed.

Here is a pink one I made.

I don't have a finished picture of the red one I am going to show you in the step by step directions and I don't have pictures of this pink one being made.

Use your imaginations!

Cut the shape you want (A square, circle, whatever) out of two pieces of fabric.

I like to use a plain cotton and something soft. The pink one has minky, this red one has fleece.

Truth be told, I have never bought anything to make these before. I just use what I have.

Cut some cute coordinating lengths of ribbon at about 4 inches.

I have three of each kind of ribbon cut here, but I didn't use them all.

Fold the ribbon lengths in half and pin them in between the two pieces of fabric.

Make sure to put them with the folded end facing in.

You can adjust the length of them in your end product now by allowing more of the un-folded ends to be sticking out at this point.

It is up to you!

After you have all sides situated with ribbon, sew around the fabric shape.

Be sure to leave a small section open!!! Just stop about 2 inches before you get back to where you started.

It is also a good idea to sew around twice. I don't always do this, but it is a good idea for extra durability.

Next, trim off the corners of your square at a diagonal. If you did a circle, clip in from the edge of the fabric to the seem (avoiding clipping it!!!) about ever inch all the way around.

These steps help the finished product turn correctly. After trimming, turn the whole project right side out! I like to stick a pen or my scissors in to poke out the corners.

When the whole thing is turned out correctly, hand stitch that little 2 inch section you used to turn your toy closed.

Baby Burpies

I started making these when I was pregnant with my son.

I am now making them all the time for baby gifts.

They are really cute, inexpensive to make, and very useful!

I buy the Gerber cloth diapers. The pre-fold 3-ply.

(I have a pack of 12. It cost about $10.00)

Always wash them before you start sewing.

They shrink A LOT in the first wash.

I fold the diapers in thirds. (This is a new step for me. In the past I just put a strip of flannel or ribbon on these open. I am liking these folded ones better these days, though.)

Then, I cut a piece of flannel about 4-5 inches wide and about 2 inches longer than the diaper.

I fold over the two long edges and iron flat. Ironing makes the sewing much easier!

After ironing the edges, I place the flannel centered onto the diaper on the side with the folds.

I fold down the top (short) end and sew around the big flannel rectangle. I follow a pre-determined line. Sometimes there is a stitch line showing from the diaper. If not, I can pin the flannel onto the diaper straight and centered and trust my pins.

Also, when I sew the burpies, I like to use a coordinating colored fabrics and thread.

I make my burpies in a set of three. Usually, a solid, a print and a stripe.

This set has a navy blue solid in it, so I used a lime green thread for contrast.

Sometimes I use a straight stitch, but I really like the way the zigzag looks!

This set of burpies was my first with an applique.

I cut a square out of double sided fusible interfacing. Following the instructions, I heat set the interfacing to the back of my striped fabric.

Then, I drew a simple car shape. (You can do this!!! I am not an artist at all!)

I cut out the shape, removed the paper backing and then heat pressed the car to the solid colored burpie. I then sewed around the car to secure it.

**The best way to do an applique would be to put it onto the flannel panel you wish for it to be on before sewing that panel to the diaper. With this set, I didn't do that! The applique was an afterthought. So, I had the shape of the car stitched all the way through the flannel AND the diaper. Had I sewn on the applique before putting the flannel onto the diaper, you wouldn't have seen my stitches on the diaper at all.**

Here are my three finished burpies!

I rolled them up and tied them together with ribbon for a finishing touch.