Crafty Tasks

I miss putting together the "Reading the Whole Internet Posts", but it is much easier using Pinterest. You can find me HERE. As I said previously, it's kinda nice because you can see a picture. If you'd like an invitation to join Pinterest, let me know.

To make a super long story short, Goose starts preschool tomorrow. We aren't doing the co-op again this year (oh, how I wish we were!), and I debated allllll over the place before deciding to enroll her in "real preschool" (as my 6YO niece once put it). Right now, my thinking is to have her get familiar with other kids, learn to "do school" and perhaps next year, we'll stay home. :) But we'll have to see, I guess...

So, one of the things she needs is a backpack. I didn't want to buy her a stinkin' princess backpack (though I know she'd love it) - I wanted to get crafty and keep my mind off the fact that I'm going to have to drop her off tomorrow. So, I made a rainbow backpack! It's one I thrifted, and I wasn't crazy about the primary colors, but it looked kinda rainbow-ish.

I made a scrappy rainbow and hand stitched it on the front. Didn't turn out quite like I thought, but I'm OK with it. I used embroidery floss and stitched Goose's name on the orange ribbon, then sewed it on. I used a piece of rainbow ribbon on the zipper pull.

I took the same rainbow ribbon and stitched it on the top and sides. It was kinda rough sewing around the zipper - and I accidentally stitched it down a few times. Oops. Nothing a seam ripper couldn't handle, though. I was out of rainbow ribbon by this time, so I used rainbow colored embroidery floss and braided it for zipper pulls.

And, of course, since every girl needs a new dress for preschool, I whipped a little something up there.

I used two women's thrifted tank tops. I took the teal one and smocked it with elastic thread - see MADE for some tips on sewing with that stuff, it went a little easier this time than it did last time.

Similar to the patriotic dresses I'd made, I cut the top off another tank top and sewed it to the bottom of the teal one. I then sewed some (also thrifted!) rick rack where the two joined, and made a flower using this method (though I stitched instead of hot glued) and added it to the waist. It's a bit more centered on the dress than I wanted it, but that's OK.

The straps were a bit interesting. I used a piece of the straps from the teal tank top to make loops on the back. Then I stitched the straps from the white top to the front of the blue top, ran them through the loops and brought them to the front. At this point, I tried it on Goose and measured where the straps needed to be and put a loop on the ends. (Are you loopy yet? I am...) The final step was to add some thrifted "ball" buttons - my mom tried to work me through leaving some space so the loops would fit better. Admittedly, the straps are a bit thick to hold well, but it works.

I've also been doing quite a bit of sewing for the craft consignment shop, though last month was the smallest month I've had since it started in May. I'm thinking that Christmas shopping is going to pick up a bit, so I'm not too worried. Plus it's more or less paying for my supplies, so that's about all I can ask!

It's a bit late, but I'm submitting over at Made By You Monday!