Cinderelly, Cinderelly....

We have a little friend turning 3 today who adores Cinderella.  After seeing these Princess aprons on Pinterest, I couldn't resist trying my hand at them for her!  (By the way, the blogger who originally made them has them for sale. I'm sure her's are much better quality than mine!)

No idea why this picture is so blurry!  And the apron is already in our little friend's possession.

 

Here's the back.  I tried to make it, if not reversible, at least as nice looking on the inside as the out!

Camping in style...

Last Friday, Curly Boy loaded up his camping vest (a gift from Grandma and Granddad) in preparation for camping with Granddad over our vacation.
Of course, because we were so excited about it, Curly Boy 2 decided he also needed a camping vest.

While I didn't have the budget for an official, I have made vests before.  I also had some D-hooks, a pair of khakis, a measuring tape and imagination!

After about 2 hours of work, this is the final result (and yes, I took this picture before I got all the loose thread pulled off the front, sorry!)

:
It's a more basic vest than Curly Boy's, but I think the elasti-loops to hold cars was a nice touch.  Makes it more personal to Curly Boy 2, who, of course, didn't want to wear it right away.  But I think he'll come around.

If Ariel had play clothes....

Curly Girl's friend had a birthday party Tuesday night.  We get together regularly with this family and one other for play date, and I've mentioned before the commiseration of SO MANY TOYS.

There are lots of fun little things to buy little girls - my little ponies that come with dvds, lalaloopsy dolls (which was the party theme), Barbie accessories, playhouse things.... These are all great gifts.  This little friend would've loved any single one of them.

But I wanted to be a bit more creative, so Curly Girl and I had a conversation about what her friend would like.  Curly Girl thought either slippers, or a princess dress.  The slippers would've probably been ok, but they are crochet, and this little friend is slightly picky about textures, so we moved on to the princess dress.

I'm a decent seamstress, but when it came to Curly Girl's Princess Ariel dress, I made my mom make it.

See - Puffy Sleeves

After convincing Curly Girl I couldn't replicate her princess dress, I used this idea I found on Pinterest of creating Princess-inspired play clothes.  (Seriously, go check out her super cute Cinderella and Snow White play clothes).
Knowing that this friend LOVED Ariel and the color pink (after we confirmed it with her mom), we created this outfit:

Pink shorts that I added ruffle to.
A pink tank top with silver dots that I put ruffled sleeves on.

Curly Girl will tell you it is ridiculous because the sleeves don't puff.  And I feel bad about that - but puffy sleeves are something I REALLY have to concentrate on, and after putting the sleeve on wrong the first time, and picking out a million tiny stitches, I went with a regular sleeve.
We threw in a tiara and a dollar store pink pearl necklace for good measure. 

I think it was a hit.  After opening all her presents at the party, the little friend had to go to the bathroom and change into her new outfit.  I'll call it good.

Snuggle

I just could not bear to part with my children's baby blankets.  My momma's heart just cried at the fact that they were all in boxes in the attic.  My "you have to stop hoarding now!" side was bucking to get rid of those boxes.

The two sides ended up, after a long debate, at a rather lovely compromise.  The baby blankets are out of the attic, hacked to pieces, and yet, still wonderfully usable.

This is a vintage propeller quilt design.  Here it is lying on our full size bed.  It still needs backing and binding, and I want to hand quilt it, but I'm SO in love with it already.

At one point I mentioned to Mr. Curly that it was going to be a "sick blanket," meaning, it would only get used when you were sick.  Because, really, what is more comforting than a baby blanket?  Why a homemade quilt made entirely out of baby blankets of course!

But now that it is done, I just don't know.  It might end up on my bed for awhile.

I told you sew!

When Evie opened her own sewing kit Christmas morning, she told it was boring and the worst Christmas gift ever.

I couldn't really blame her.  She didn't ask for it, and so far that Christmas morning she hadn't opened a Purple Pony or a Rapunzel doll (her two big wish items).  AND, when I was six and my dad made me a bookshelf for my birthday, I told him it was the worst gift to give a little girl.  I think I thought it was going to be a kitchen that I had asked for.  It was BIG after all.
I got over that - I LOVE that bookshelf, and now my children use it for all their books.

Still, it rather hurt my feelings, her honesty did.

But about 2 weeks later, she spent 3 hours one day doing things like this:

She then learned how to pull all the stitches out and start over with new yarn and multiple buttons.  It warms my crafty little heart.

I'm nothing if consistent.

Yes, yes I know the phrase is generally "I'm nothing, if NOT _____ (fill in the blank)."  But that isn't true with me.

If I do something consistently, I must be doing it wrong. 

Take, for intanst, the dragon tails I created for the Zoo trip we took for Curly Boy's and Baby's birthdays.  I got the idea here (Running with Scissors).  I made 4, they were awesome.  But not one turned out like the one before it!
Same with the dragon wings I found here (Dabbled).

I never make a recipe the same way twice.  Tuesday night I made shepherd's pie.  Last time it had beef, peas, brown gravy and mashed potatoes. Tuesday it had beef, which cooked in beef consomme, then drained, added peas and corn and used the remaining consomme to mash the potatoes.  I even topped it with cheese.  After all, wouldn't Mr. Curly get bored if I made everything the same way?


It really has become a running joke in the house about my inconsistency.  I'm so glad Mr. Curly has grace to not complain when his "favorite" meal is never the same.... or when I stomp my feet at the sewing machine because some stitch just won't work.

Da Bears

Curly Boy was insistent that he have a Chicago Bears shirt for Easter.  Mr. Curly just happened to have a Bears blue polo that he was no longer wearing (it had a previous church's logo on it), so it was recycled into a new little Easter polo.  Curly Baby also has a new Easter polo, this one made from an old green polo of Mr. Curly's.

I cut the shirt pieces from the bottom of the shirts, so I didn't have to do any hemming.  I also re-used the collars and sleeves.  I won't point out the mistakes I made.

I then took an old pair of dress pants that Mr. Curly no longer wears and created two little pairs of pants using a pattern I found at Dana-Made-It.  Curly Boy's have a smaller waist, but longer legs than Curly Baby's. 

And yes, in the first picture, the pants on the left do seem to have legs of two different lengths.  And they are - just not as much as the picture makes it look like.  Honestly, once they're on, you can't even tell.

One day you're in, the next day you're out.....

I've mentioned in passing before that Mr. Curly feels like I give myself Project Runway challenges way too often.

And sometimes, yeah, I stress out instead of just spending the money on a pattern, or the new shirt, or whatever.
But sometimes, sometimes that challenge comes from my four year old Curly Girl who desperately wants a fuzzy soft pink tutu for her Easter dress and we can't find a good pattern anywhere.

Armed with 1/2 yard of hot pink knit, 1/2 yard of pale pink tulle, hot pink thread, some elastic and the instructions "soft pink tuttu easter dress", I created this:

I used one of Curly Girl's t-shirts as a pattern for the top and merely cut out two t-shirt shaped (sleeves and everything) pieces of knit, then sewed them together!  The underskirt is three tiers of knit, as 1/2 a yard wasn't actually enough to create a full dress (surprise surprise).

The tulle overskirt is actually a separate piece.  I sewed a strip of knit over the top of the tulle to create a casing for the elastic. For the first time ever, it gathered perfectly!  It also has a light pink thread going through it about half way down to gather it in - otherwise the fullness of the tulle looked really odd with the underskirt.

Using the "Instant Gratification Top" from Sewinginnomansland.com I created a flowered-y type neckline.  And then used her pattern for a retro-turban to create a matching headband out of some knit scraps.

It's a little funky, but I'm completely in love with knit.  I didn't have to do one single hem!  And Curly Girl loves it and can't wait for Easter morning.  So..... the winner of the competition - Curly-T!

Flowers popping, bunnies hopping....

Easter must be coming!

We have a tree in our yard that buds year round.  It blooms in spring, is gorgeous all summer, and then in the fall and winter, if it stays above 32 for more than 2 days, it starts to bud out.  Evie calls these buds "bunny ears" - this picture here shows why.  It's budding again!

And Tuesday night there were TWO bunnies in our yard when we got home! (And two stray cats under our old parklane, but that isn't so exciting)

AND in the crafty-closet there are old dress clothes being picked and apart and re-purposed.  Easter must be coming!
Curly Girl has requested a soft, fuzzy pink tutu for Easter.  Remember the year when all the celebs were wearing floor length silk skirts with sweaters to their awards ceremonies?  Well, that was the year I wore a floor length pink silk skirt with a soft pink sweater to my senior winter semi-formal.  The sweater is long gone, but I've held onto the skirt.  This year the skirt is going to become a soft pink tutu for Curly Girl, and possibly an infinity dress for me. 

Curly Boy has requested a Chicago Bears shirt for Easter.  Since Mr. Curly has an old Chicago Bears blue polo he's not wearing anymore (it has a past church logo on it), I am cutting that down to fit Curly Boy.  I'll probably add some orange trim, or maybe use orange thread to make it "Bears" enough for him.

Curly Baby.... I'm not sure yet what I'm doing for him.  I really want him to match Curly Boy, but I'm not sure the polo has enough material for that.  I do have a green polo of Mr. Curly's I could cut down, or I could make a vest/pants combo out of an old pair of Mr. Curly's dress slacks.
I do know that both boys will have matching pants as I've been saving these gray slacks of Mr. Curly's specifically for Easter season!

Mr. Curly has yet to trust me to make him anything, but maybe I could manage a tie....  A grown up tie?  Me oh my - easter must be coming!

Finished the pinterest project

I've wanted to make a closet into a mini-room since Mr. Curly and I got married (probably before then, but that was long enough ago, and I started a new life that day, so I don't really remember).

Anyway, in our second house, I wanted our coat closet to be a piano room (notice I say WANTED, Mr. Curly nixed the idea).  In our 3rd house (an apartment we rented for barely 9 months), my coat closet WAS our laundry room.  In our 4th house, the coat closet was also a pantry.

But now, now I, me, myself, got to choose what to do with our coat closet.

Our living room has this strange little growth off the front of it, that usually looks like this (this picture was taken AFTER I started cleaning out the closet, so it is a little messier than usual).  If you can tell, there is a mini-table covered in stuff on the right, and a sewing table covered in stuff behind the piano.


This dresser held all my crafting supplies and was piled up to the coat-bar in the closet before I cleaned it off to move it.

And this is usually what my sewing machine table looked like.  Because really, it was in a corner and doesn't get much use.

But then Mr. Curly moved my dresser and built me some shelves.

Which I promptly filled up with all my stuff.  The good news is - this has completely opened my eyes to how much stuff I really have.  So our easter outfits are going to be completely out of repurposed clothes (of which I have 2 tubs, one you can see here), and I have a better idea of what material I do have for the random projects that suddenly come to mind. 

This picture was taken yesterday, 2 weeks after completing the transformation, so of course, it is messy again.  Mr. Curly likes this, because there isn't sewing stuff all over the place, the kids like it because they can easily find all their games (under the table) along with their art and school supplies.
I do need something for trash though, because the plastic bag on the hanger just isn't going to work.

Yes, it definitely needs more work.  Part of that will be as I start to use all the supplies I didn't realize I had.  Part of that will be as I continue to get tired of seeing piles everywhere and keep throwing things away.

But for now, I finally have my dream of a mini-room, AND I checked off an idea I found on pinterest.  Yay me!



Who? Who?

My niece loves owls, so for Christmas (which we celebrated at Thanksgiving with my side of the family), I made her this owl pillow. I found the tutorial here.

How the Grinch Made Shirts.....

You remember the scene from How the Grinch Stole Christmas when he made his Santa Claus suit?

Do you remember being a little kid and thinking "Wow, is that all you do?  Just cut out a shirt shape and sew it together?"

And then of course, some of you grew up and  tried to sew shirts and realized there is a lot more to it than that.
I never grew up.

See this?

This is a fleece shirt made for Curly Baby in true Grinch style.  I outlined an existing shirt, added a few inches all the way around, and sewed it up.  Straight up from the wrist to the neckline, and curved from the wrist down to the bottom.  No sleeves, no neck (its kind of a boat neck style shirt), no hemming (its fleece, it doesn't need hemming).

Now, here's my disclaimer: This is not for outdoor wear.  Since Curly Baby has started in on the wool covers, he's been wearing wool pants to bed, and he really needed a pj shirt to go with it.  This is my first shot at that.  Mr. Curly donated a fleece vest to the goodwill pile and I saved it for sewing projects.  I also have two heavy weight, but faded (and with a small hole in one) black tshirts to make night shirts for the littlest Curly as well.  I'm not sure if they'll be Grinchy style, but I do know I'll make them as easily as possible!

Trick Or Treat!

I realized last night my kids had nothing to put their trick-or-treat candy into!  Considering how cute their costumes are, walmart bags were just not going to cut it.  And I definitely wasn't going to go buy happy meals for the McDonalds buckets (though they are super cute).

So, after digging through my fabric supply and consulting with the kids, I made these:

Curly Girl wanted a face more like what she draws, or as Mr. Curly called it "Rather clowny."  Curly Boy went more for the goofy monster look.

Either way - about 45 minutes of hand-stitching the faces on and 10 minutes of sewing, and we have trick or treat bags, for this year at least.  Next year I'm thinking draw-string pumpkins....

Wooly Bully... Wooly Bully....

My sister-in-law thinks I'm a little silly, but I've finally found a cloth diaper cover I love - WOOLIES!! I bought one sweater just to test this out and I'm in love. I also found a GREAT Christmas sweater at Goodwill I want to turn into a pair of Christmas diaper covers for the boys.

Here's what I'm doing for Curly Baby now:

I used the tutorials found here and here, but of course, had to change things to make it work for my sewing skill. 

I started with this 100% Shetland Wool sweater bought at Goodwill for $3.75.

I cut out my triangle, and cut off the ends of the sleeves to finish off the leg openings.

Here is the completed woolie next to the sweater it was cut from. 

And here is Curly Baby modeling it.  2 notes - 1) Mr. Curly laughed, saying "Where's the belly button?"  when he saw the triangle.  2) The holes are from me ripping stitches to fix the leg openings.  They have already been sewed up, and I believe I'm going to use contrasting thread next time I make these to ensure I can see what I'm ripping out if need be.

Under the onesie. (Aren't those chubby legs the cutest?!)

Under the pants.

I made one more woolie and a pair of "longies" (wool pants that can be used as a cover/pants combo).  So for $3.75, I have 3 diaper covers.... and enough sweater to make more, if I'm willing to patch pieces together (which I totally am, but I have other things to do too.)

We've successfully gone 2 days in cloth without a rash reappearing, though we did do disposables at night.  It seems if we alternate the wool cover with a PUL cover lined with polyester, we do ok.  My hope, though, is to just have one type of cover to go over his prefolds and make it easier on us all.

If you could see me now....

I failed 8th grade home ec. Did you know that? I mean, technically I think I came out with a B, maybe an A, but in every sense of the word, I failed.

I ruined not only biscuits, but also rice krispie treats. RICE KRISPIE TREATS!! How do you ruin those? No idea, but I did it.

Of our sewing projects, the only compliment I got was "nice corners" on my patchwork pillow. You know, the corners the teacher helped me do.

But our first project was a laundry bag. And remembering absolutely nothing of how that project worked I made these out of the Curly Kids's scrap fabric pile:



They make laundry day a little cuter. And definitely help with the amount of clothes my kids throw around their rooms!

You've got personality....

When I fabric shop with the Curly Kids, they always think they should get to choose fabric too. Sometimes I break down and buy them what they choose, and then make stuff.
Like this:

Vinyl isn't really all that great....

Now I'm not dissing the vinyl record loving community out there with that title. No, I'm taking on a whole different art: sewing.

Based on this tutorial, and reading several blogs that say you can make your own wet/dry dirty diaper bag, I decided to attempt it.

I bought 1/2 yard of blue material to match the boys's curtains and crib canopy and 1/2 yard of cover-your-tablecloth-or-couch vinyl.


The tutorial was great. The one problem is I kind of skipped the part where it says you have to leave a hole in order to turn your bag right-side out. So, after some seam ripping, we got the bag together.

The vinyl STINKS. Actually STICKS is a better description. It sticks to itself so bad it makes every turn annoying. And you have to use the paper backing in order to sew it, or else it sticks to your sewing machine.

However, it only took me about 30 minutes. It isn't pretty, the ribbon isn't attached like it should be, but it will hold about 2-3 days of dirty diapers, and that is what I needed.

Never mind about sending any clothes....

Wednesday I made myself the first pair of cut-off shorts I think I've had since high school. And I made them out of maternity jeans.

Yes, yes I did. Because they fit well, even if they are maternity jeans, because they don't have the belly panel (which I despise), because they are just for around the house anyway, and because I won't be having any more babies, I turned my last pair of maternity jeans into shorts.

The Curly Kids had fun for awhile with the cut-off legs....

And then I made a pair of shorts for Curly Boy.

I also have planned a skirt or two for Curly Girl out of maternity shirts and a skirt for myself from an old maternity dress.

Hopefully I can be creative enough this summer with old clothes that we can stretch the clothing budget!

Post title from My Fair Lady

Sharing every little thing....

First a big THANK YOU to my sis-in-law, Mrs. B. She has given me the courage, and all the knowledge, to try cloth diapers with Curly Baby!


Now, her way is the more (new*) traditional way of cloth diapering, and I will say, much MUCH easier than what I'm attempting. But she also plans on using her cloth diapers for many more kids. I'm going more artsy-fartsy (read: Cheapo) and making my cloth diapers out of old towels and t-shirts. When you have a huge box of defunct organization t-shirts, you gotta do something, right?


Anyway, if it weren't for her, we would be spending a TON of money a week to diaper both our boys!
Pictures of my cloth diapers coming soon!


Second - a huge THANK YOU to my sis-in-law on Mr. Curly's side for all she does for my Curly kids. She arranged their first Easter egg hunt, she restored a Barbie jeep to be useful for all three kids, and every time she is around she takes the kids off my hands!!

Plus, I'm pretty sure she somehow passed on her artistic genes and for that I am very very grateful!

So, yeah, I have stinkin' awesome sisters, and they deserve some praise!

*My mom calls it new, because you can buy all in one's, or cloth and covers, or flats and pre-folds and covers..... All SHE ever had was flats or prefolds and plastic pants! It's really quite fun to talk to her about.

Post Title from the White Christmas soundtrack, "Sisters."

That's Impossible!

Everyone knows babies grow a lot their first year. And most kids keep on growing pretty fast through their second. But I never really thought about it until I made Easter vests for the boys.

Curly Boy's vest is a 2T, slightly cut down to fit a bit better. He's kind of between 18 month and 24 month clothes. And if you don't have kids, 24 months, while technically the same length of time as 2T (two year toddler size), they are slightly smaller.

Curly Baby's vest was the 2T pattern (very badly) cut down to a newborn size.



Crazy, isn't it?

I found the pattern free at Burda Style here.

The green (it is a sage green, my lighting isn't so hot) is from an old shirt of Mr. Curly's and the silk backing is from a pair of curtains that were left in our SD house.

These vests actually have velcro closures, because I can do a million perfect button holes in practice and then they go all wonky on the actual clothes. So the buttons (bought to make something fun for Curly Boy that never materialized) are just for looks. While they aren't what you expect on an Easter outfit, I really love the fun look they give the vests.

I need to start on Curly Girl's dress. If I can get it done in time (plus the pink flowers she is requesting as waist decorations and headbands), I will make the boys bow ties to match. The rest of the outfit will be store bought button ups and black pants.