DIY Water Table and Mudpie Kitchen

Hello, friends! I'm super excited to share with you a project that I started last summer, and finally finished - Goose and I are both loving her new mudpie kitchen complete with a water table!  When I saw this Mud Pie Kitchen on Frugal Family Fun Blog (now Inner Child Fun), I knew it would be an awesome addition to our yard.

 I would guess that most of you are not lucky enough to have relatives who toss their junk out in the trees behind the farmstead, so if you hear of someone remodeling their kitchen and replacing their sink, jump on it! I tried calling plumbers to get old drains and didn't get much luck, but by keeping my eyes open, I was able to find sink drains for about $7.50 each (thank you Ace Hardware!)

Our sink came from hubs's grandma's, and she had it full of dirt for flowers.  Goose and I gave it a good scrubbing to get off all the dirt and gunk that we could.





Here it is, all clean and shiny!  Well, all clean, anyway...  A true DIY-er might have done something about the rust spots in the bottom; I just used Rustoleum and didn't worry about it.

(Note: it seems that particular brand of spray paint has problems with the nozzle - of the two colors I bought, one didn't have a nozzle and the other one didn't work.  I wrote the company and complained, and they sent me a package with about fifty nozzles. I think they were being kind of sarcastic about it, but I was able to use my spray paint so I didn't care!)

As an aside, I'm sure I used some awesome spray paint tips from Like Merchant Ships, but I can't find the post now...





Two coats of sunny yellow later, I was pleased with the results.

I called my sweet, now-retired dad with the measurements of the sink and he built a neat little drop-in stand for the sink.

Unfortunately, at this point, it sat sad and lonely in the garage for another year while I looked for cheap drains... but I found them and while my dad was here this spring, he installed them for me.  Turns out one of them leaks a little bit, but no matter.







Here it is in action! I have been collecting various items and kitchen things for a couple of years.  Every time I found something that was cheap and looked like it would be fun, I picked it up.

Muffin tins, sillicone muffin cups, spoons, bowls, old egg beaters, small saucepans, strainers, old spice containers (love the vintage metal!), whisks, all sorts of things!









Last weekend was the city-wide garage sale, and I picked up this set of shelves for $5.  I also got the big teal basket and the light teal tub (bottom left) for 50 cents each, the other baskets I had picked up for our camper but ended up not needing.

There is a water faucet about six feet in the grass from where her mudpie kitchen is, and this summer Goose has figured out how to turn it on and off, so she is set!

One thing I really like is how this area stays in the shade for most of the day.  Also, there is a window right above her shelves, so I can peek out at her and check on what she's doing.  This morning, we made a batch of flubber as suggested by Money Saving Mom and Goose had a great time out there.

See what everybody else is making at Skip to My Lou's Made by You Monday!

Can't-Get-It-Out-Of-My-Head Project

Do you ever see something, and then you can't get the idea out of your head until you make it? That happened to me when I saw this Rainbow Poncho Cape on Etsy.



This is what I ended up with:

(apologies for the lousy cell phone pics - I didn't get any with my camera)

I could NOT stop thinking about how cute it was, or whipping out my phone and showing it to other people... finally I decided I had to make one. I even made some sketches of different ways to style the poncho, since I don't love the classic poncho look. I wish I had my sketches to show you (not 'cause they're awesome - they're kind of sad, really - but because I was going to town with ideas!)

I had the basic poncho. One with slits for your hands to come out. Pocket on the front, pocket on the inside, pockets in both places. (I totally wanted to make it reversible, but knew Goose would probably always want it rainbow side out, so why bother?) I had it in my mind to make it more fitted than the big circle, maybe even using two tiers and having her arms come out between the tiers. I have a big problem with getting ideas in my mind to actually work in the physical realm, so I decided to keep it simple.

Clicking around yielded many, many poncho tutorials. Then I realized that I didn't have a big enough piece of pink fleece (yup, it was requested to be pink) in my stash to make a huge circle (I wanted it to be pretty long on Goose, both for warmth and room to grow!) So I rounded the corners and cut a neck hole - which ended up being too big, oops. The length turned out pretty well, though - it hits Goose around the knee and the width is just right as it's a bit past her wrists, so her hands can come out the sides.

Initially, I started to trim the shoulder part in to make it more fitted but realized that was a lousy idea, so I stitched back in the part I cut out, which is why it has "sleeve" seams. I wish they weren't there, but I don't notice them as much as I did at first.

Next, I cut the rainbow and stitched it on, and it's actually bigger than it looks because every color except red extends a couple of inches under the cloud. I didn't realize how big it was until I had to put the pocket so far down towards the bottom! (we'll get to the pocket in a minute...) After I had the rainbow on, I made a cloud pattern with paper to check the size, then cut it out but didn't stitch it on.

For the pocket, I used one of Goose's sweatshirts and traced the pocket, then noticed the fleece was folded and doubled over at the openings so I added that to the pattern then a seam allowance. After cutting it out, I folded and stitched the doubled part at the side openings.

This is where it seems to get complicated... since the cloud was going to overlap the pocket, I laid both out on the poncho and pinned the cloud to the pocket where it needed to go, and stitched it on where it overlapped the pocket. I then folded the cloud down toward the bottom of the poncho, pinned the pocket on and sewed the top of the pocket to the poncho. I unfolded the cloud and finished stitching it down (there is a bit of an opening where the cloud isn't stitched down since it is wider than the pocket), then I stitched the bottom of the pocket.


(she's watching TV, by the way - not feeling like posing for photos!)

Using the same sweatshirt, I made a pattern for the hood, though in hindsight I realzied that the bottom of the hood (around the neck area) needed to come in farther - the opening is too wide. (especially since I cut the head hole too big. I tried to go back and take it in, but it just didn't look right.) I cut the outer hood from the same pink fleece and the inner hood from some pink polka dotted fleece and stitched them right sides together, leaving the whole bottom open. I turned it right side out and top stitched, and I also stitched down the center seam to help it hold together better.

Instead of making it reversible, I decided to just line it so that it would be warmer. The only color of which I had a large enough piece was white, and as it turns out, I really like how it looks. I laid the white out right side down, and laid the poncho on top, right side up (wrong sides facing). I pinned the heck out of it, and cut the white around, leaving somewhat of an allowance. I then unpinned and put the right sides together, then I *really* pinned. I was thankful for the allowance because it isn't perfectly symmetrical (shocker, I know...) and I trimmed the extra white.

I sewed all the way around, leaving most of the back open for turning. It's been my experience that you can pretty much always tell where it was left open to turn, so making it teeny tiny doesn't really change that it stands out. Leaving the turning hole super big makes it far less frustrating, and actually I think it blends in a little better! Again, I top stitched around the edge so the white and pink would hold together, and carefully pinned and sewed my turning hole shut at the same time.

To attach the hood, I cut basically a slit in the white, since I knew I'd cut the pink too big. (side note, I do most of my sewing when Goose is in quiet time after lunch or in bed at night, so she isn't around all the time for me to try it on her.) I think I folded the white under when I stitched the hood in, but I can't quite tell. :>) I also think I did it in two steps - first I sewed the hood to the outer pink part (centering the hood seam with the center of the poncho and using lots of pins - do you see a pattern here? USE LOTS OF PINS!) then I folded, pinned, and sewed the white lining. I made a loop out of bias tape and added that to hang it up, by the way.

After the hood was on, I folded the white down over the pink in the front and stitched it. If the neck hole wasn't so darn big, I think that would about be my favorite part, it looks really nice! I thought about adding some trim around the bottom edge, but 1) it would take a TON and 2) I really like how it looks as-is, and 3) let's not kid ourselves, I'd never be able to decide what trim to use anyway.

The only thing I think I might add is something to fix the too-large neck hole. (Which, actually, if Goose is wearing her stocking hat already, it gives us plenty of room to get the poncho on still. So not all bad.) I'm thinking of making a "scarf" perhaps three or four inches wide (I'll have to measure Goose to be sure) and basically cutting it in half and attaching it on either side of the hood. I can cross it under her chin and tuck in the tails... Or I could make a whole scarf, attach it at the back and bring it around and tuck it in. Any thoughts, anybody?

This project took me six days from start to finish, though I worked on it a couple hours per day maximum. It works great in the car, since Goose is still in a five-point harness (want to see why? read this.) I flip the back up over the back of her seat and buckle the buckles under the front, then tuck the front in like a blanket. I'm probably a little bit too proud of it, but it sure is cute. :>)

I'll be linking to Skip To My Lou's Made By You Mondays in the morning.

Handmade Christmas 2011

What with everything else that was going on, I was quite late with planning out and getting started on Christmas gifts.

Let's start with little people, shall we?

For my nephews, ages 2 and 8 months, I appliqued matching shirts for them (and neglected to take a picture, so perhaps their mama will help me out.) It was pretty standard - iron Wonder Under on the back of fabric, cut out the design, peel the paper and iron onto the shirt, embroider around to help it stay on. In the interest of full disclosure, I tried machine stitching it on like I usually do but kept getting huge snarls with my thread and I punted!

For my older nephew, I made a train/road/farm play mat. I used various ideas including this farm play mat from The Crafty Cupboard, and this DIY Car Mat Backpack from I Can Teach My Child (though I didn't go with a backpack).
















Though I used a large piece of tan felt (from a bolt) for the main backing, the rest of the mat is made from fleece, bias tape, and thread. I find fleece to be more washable than felt, and I am not a fan of the felt squares that are so readily available as they seem to pill and fall apart rather quickly. Anyway, I drew out a basic sketch of what I wanted. Right now, O is a huge fan of trains, but I suspect at some point he may branch out into cars and tractors, too. The first thing I put down was the train tracks, which are made of bias tape stitched down. Next, I cut pieces of felt for the road. I made it (and the tracks) rather wide to accommodate big-ish trains and cars for now, and possibly matchbox cars and the like in the future. I sewed down the middle of the road with black thread to help it stay in place better, then went back and made the center lines by zig-zagging with bright yellow thread.

The farm was super fun to put together, if I do say so myself. The yellowish patch is a field. I took strips of felt and sewed them down the middle, then snipped down the long sides. Yup, I should have taken a closer picture so it makes sense, but I used the haystack in the above farm play mat as inspiration so check that out. The barn is red fleece with white bias tape stitched on for doors, and the fenced pen area is just zig-zagged white thread. The house, tree, and dog house are all fleece. I didn't have a good shade of blue fleece for the pond, so I used a thrifted sweatshirt and hacked a piece out of the arm. All fleece shapes were sewn around the edge with more or less coordinating thread.

I then took a piece of Thomas fabric (much beloved by O - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he just used that side to drive his trains on for a while) and added a pocket for trains and cars and whatnot and a fleece O. By the way, it matched the green on the fabric much better before I cut it out and attached it... All along, I intended to add handles so it would fold up and carry a bit easier, so I made sure everything lined up properly. I totally winged the pocket - it's a rectangle of Thomas fabric with elastic at the top and a button and loop closure.

To attach it to the mat, I pinned the handles in place, stitched it to the felt then pinked off the extra Thomas fabric. I ended up getting a serger from hubs (squeeee!) for Christmas and I'd have used that to finish the edges (I think - I haven't learned enough about it yet) if I'd have had it. Except I don't know how that would have worked with the handles...

I went a bit more low key this year for my nieces. The oldest (12) got a case for her phone, of which I didn't take a picture, sigh. There are a bunch of patterns for cell phone cases at Tipnut, though I don't think I really used any of them; more just basic phone dimensions and winging it. (do you see a pattern here for my crafting?) I made a bag of appropriate size with a lining, and put some ribbon at the top. I attached a elastic pony tail holder on one end and a button on the case so it can go on her bag, backpack, or purse strap. I cut her initial out of fleece and stitched it on, then embroidered a peace symbol on the other side. Thankfully hubs pointed out that I forgot to finish it and it was just the Mercedes Benz symbol. (sigh)

The other three (8,7, and 4) got girly spa bags similar to those at Come Together Kids.

I purchased a set of canvas bags and used the above-mentioned Wonder Under method to put their names on, though this time I was able to machine stitch. Note to self, though - it would have worked MUCH better to have stitched the names to a piece of fabric and THEN stitched the fabric to the bag. I did finally figure out that I needed to pin the bottom strap out of the way and pay attention to where the top strap was... I only had to take stitches out once because of that!

I then used fabric in a favorite color (pink is shown - there was another pink and a blue as well) to make smaller bags. As I was making them, I thought how nice it would be to line them with flannel, so I did. And they are nice! One was filled with body stuff like lotion, body wash, lip balm, bath fizzies, a pouf, and an eye pillow. For the eye pillow, I just made a little rectangular bag and filled it with rice then sprayed it with some lavender spray that my sister in law bought me last year.

The nail bags were a trip to put together. I started by making the mat, though I did it a bit differently than the other site. I didn't have any oilcloth (at least I think that's what she described) but I *did* have clear vinyl. I didn't want to be looking at the wrong side of the fabric, nor did I have enough fabric to have two pieces that size.

Enter the thrifted fabric - again. I had several panels that may have been intended for quilting or embroidery or... something, so I used those. I put the fabric wrong sides together and the vinyl on top, and pinned it all together. I then trimmed everything so it was the same size and ran bias tape around the edges and pinned the heck out of that. I stitched the bias tape down then flipped it over and stitched again to make sure that I didn't have any loose edges. It was a pretty long process, but I was pleased with how they turned out. Because of the size of the panels, my mats turned out to be about 19x23".

Also in the bag, I included two or three bottles of nail polish , a bottle of nail polish remover, and a package of cotton rounds. Oh, I guess I didn't mention - the little bags were drawstring, and I didn't want the ribbon to get pulled through so I either stitched buttons on the end or put beads on the ends and tied knots to keep them from sliding off. (Yep, the whole entire process really was that much work.)

Ooh, I almost forgot, I made a hair stuff bag for each girl. I bought some pretty clips and pony tail holders, I made some more tulle pom pom pony tail holders, and I also made some headbands.

Come to find out, my nieces have pretty much collectively chopped their hair off and pony tail holders are on their way out. Oops. So I was glad to have the headbands. I bought a three pack of wide black headbands - one I left plain and hot glued some pretty beads on it. Another I covered with white ribbon (which was a process, whew) and then I strung some flower beads together and glued them on the white. I covered the final headband with blue ribbon, glued a flower on it, and glued a gem in the middle. I've seen them on a head several times already, so I'm overall pretty pleased.

I also freezer paper stenciled some shirts for Goose and her papa. I am quite enamored with this technique because it's pretty easy - and it'll be even easier now that I have a Silhouette craft cutting machine! (another squeee!! Christmas present! It wasn't looking like Hubs was going to come up with a gift for me, so I ordered myself one on ebay using some paypal money I had built up.)

It's a bit hard to see the detail on Goosie's shirt - it's a girly font plus I stitched a little pink bow on the C and used a button as a dot on the i. Papa indulged me by wearing his shirt and matching Goosie at our family dinner on Christmas Day.

My one last homemade gift was a button bracelet for one of my sisters-in-law. I got the idea from this button bracelet, but instead of attaching so many buttons to a chain bracelet, I used jump rings to attach buttons to each other. I put a jump ring through each hole and then attached those rings to each other with another ring. (Not nearly as complicated as it sounds, but no picture, sorry.)

And that pretty well sums it up for this year. Did you make anything fun? I'm thinking I'll link up to Skip To My Lou tomorrow, since it's been a while.

Family Memories Board Game

I mentioned waaaay back in December that I made a Family Memories game for Hubs' cousins Christmas gift swap. I got the idea from here, and THEY got the idea from Family Fun, who provided a convenient cheat sheet PDF here. Admittedly, assembling this took a fair amount of time, and I put myself in a pinch by not really starting it until a week before Christmas or so. (oops.)

If you want to do this for Christmas, I'd suggest getting started now - compiling family trivia for questions and looking for the parts. Since I'm a tightwad, nearly EVERY piece was thrifted, purchased on clearance, or pulled from my random stash. Let me show you what mine looked like:

First, instead of calling the game "Memory Lane", I went with [our last name]~ville. It's kind of a joke, because our extended family has lived more or less in the same area for a hundred plus years, and it's referred to as a "suburb" of our very small town. And it's called just that - [our last name]ville.

I didn't have a whole lot in the way of old pictures scanned, but thankfully I was able to get my hands on enough to cover the box. I used a few duplicates under the name area, where it didn't really matter.

For the game board, I used some of Family Fun's suggestions, and just did what worked for me otherwise. I used some pretty blue paper that I had several sheets of on hand, and if I remember correctly, I think I used mod podge to stick it down. I also measured my board and calculated how big the each space should be so they fit well, and the corners are bigger than the rest.

I really liked the "pick a card" since it meant asking family trivia questions, so I put on five of those. As an afterthought, the Start space seemed a little lonely, so I made that "pick a card" too. I wasn't crazy about the "swipe" spot, where you steal a treasure from an opponent, but I put three of them on there anyway. "Score" spots were just picking a treasure. (See treasures below, by the way.)

If a player lands on a picture space, they are to share a memory of that. There is one space for each of the four brothers and one sister (and their spouses) in my father-in-law's family, and one space for Hubs's grandparents. Other spaces include the school in our small town where all of hubs' uncles and aunt and Hubs and most of his cousins attended plus a space for the school in the nearby town where they graduated; livestock (a cow and a pig), the city name signs from the two nearby big towns, a space for dogs, cats, & chickens; a space for the nearby town where they all went to high school; a space for farming & harvest; a space for holidays; and a space for the church where most of the family was baptized and attended. (I know it's a lotta spaces. whew.)

I provided a notebook and pen to jot down any stories or details that came about as a result of playing the game. For the trivia cards, I used business cards (I think?) and printed them out, including several blank cards to fill out as new stories came to light.

Trivia questions included tidbits such as:

Who was born in a sod house?

How did Great-Grandpa lose his leg?

How many times was the {small town} Bank robbed?

In what year were (each aunt & uncle and grandma & grandpa) married?

What is the age gap between (oldest grandchild) and (youngest grandchild)?

Name at least four of Grandpa's horses.

Who was the first (last name) to graduate from (small town) high school? (a trick question - no one with our last name actually graduated from the school. Either they didn't graduate, graduated before they married into the family, or graduated from another school.)

Aaand finally, the treasurers. I chose an ear of corn (prosperity), a cross (faith), an apple (health), a bell (security), a heart (love & family), and a dove (hope). These items and their meanings were partially chosen based on the items I had on hand. :>) I happened to have some tins to hold the items, so I put labels on them. I let Goose paint the treasures for me, by the way.

I kind of tried uploading the directions to a Google doc, but then figured since they were rather short, it was just as easy to paste them in here. Just know that they were prettied up for the actual game!
------------------------------------------------
{NAME}~VILLE … a walk down Memory Lane

Object of the game: To be the first player to collect all six treasures and make it Home.

Setup: Each player chooses a game piece, and places it at Start. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on the board. Set the treasures off to the side. The oldest player goes first and play proceeds clockwise around the board.

How to play: Each player rolls the die on his or her turn and moves around the board. When you land on a space, follow the instructions.
Picture spaces – share a memory or fact about the people, location, etc. involved. For example, if you land on Grandma and Grandpa, you can either share a memory about one or both of them (it doesn’t even have to involve you), or a memory involving their house or yard.
Pick a card – take the top card from the pile and have another player read the question aloud. If you answer the question correctly, you may pick a treasure.
Score! – pick a treasure.
Swipe! – take a treasure from an opponent.
Start – if you land on Start during the game, pick a card. If you answer the question correctly, you may pick a treasure.

Once you have collected all six treasures, you can make your way towards turning up the path to Home. If someone swipes one of your treasures before you make it Home, you must go back down and continue around the board until your collection is again complete.

The first player to roll the exact number to land on Home wins the game. (Doesn’t everybody win with sharing all the memories, though?)

Blank cards are provided to add more trivia questions, and a notebook is also provided to record random details and memories. Players may also make notes directly on the trivia cards… especially if the answer is incorrect!

Game assembled by Lenetta [name] for the cousin gift swap, Christmas 2010. Treasures were painted by Goose, age 3. Many thanks to Grandma [name], [and other names], and others for helping compile trivia questions.
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Let me know if you have any questions in making your own! I'll be linking up at Skip to My Lou and Life as Mom.

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!

Um ... Hi!

Remember me? :>) So many links to post, so much to talk about. But all I'll do for today is share some cute dresses I stitched together for Goose. I made one for Memorial day, and of course she wouldn't get near it for the ceremony we attended. She has reconsidered, however, and worn it several times since. (and yes, there haven't been that many days since...)

Up first, the one I made first - a blue tank top with white stars turned into this:
It was my first run at elastic thread, and I'm not 100% happy with the results but it's cute enough and Goose loves it. I wound it on my bobbin by hand, then sewed four lines across the front and probably ten on the back, then sprayed with water and ironed to get it to shrink up. I can't manually adjust my bobbin tension, and it's too tight. I tried re-winding the bobbin and making it looser, and it was too loose. So I'll have to do some playing around. Oh, I used red thread on top for a fun contrast. I love it.

I cut the straps in the back and stitched them back together to shorten, though I left the long pieces on instead of trimming them off; and I stitched them down so they wouldn't flop and tickle. With as much time as I spent on this darn thing, I'd like Goose to be able to wear it next year!

To finish the dress, I sewed big red buttons on the straps (non-functional) and then I stitched some super-wide red rick-rack around the bottom. I think it's my favorite part! The first time I sewed it on, I tried really stretching the dress and it ended up too stretched - it didn't hold shape. So I took it off and gave it another try, and it's perfect. Actually the stretch in the dress from the first time gave it a nice shape the second time around. Who'd have thunk it?

Cost for this dress: $1.35 for the tank top (women's size) at Goodwill, probably 25 cents for the two buttons out of a package of several at Walmart, quarter for the rick-rack of which I used about 1/12th (remember that score? I still have the canvas and haven't figured out what to make with it yet) and probably another 50 cents for the elastic thread. That's a little over $2, plus some time, but it was totally worth it.

This dress was a bit easier since I started with one of Goose's old tank tops. It's actually a size 2T, but it still fits fine, just too short. The skirt was also formerly a woman's tank top. I cut the top off and pinned it on, stretching the shirt to match.

Actually, the pinning took waaaay longer than anything else! I'd pin and turn everything right side out to check, and one piece or the other would be inside out. So I'd re-do it, and the same thing would happen except both pieces would be flipped, so the other one was now inside out. Frustrating, but amusing!

To pin, I started by lining up the side seams, I then found the centers of both the skirt and top and lined them up, and stretched and pinned from there. I then sewed my widest, longest zig-zag stitch to give it as much stretch as I could. We're pretty pleased with the results.

Cost for this dress was $2 for the top from a consignment sale, and $1.35 for the one that became the skirt.

I hope everybody is having a good summer! I'll try to get back into some semblance of regular posting again soon.

See what everybody else is making at Skip to My Lou:

St. Paddy's Shirts

My Goose is going to turn four on St. Patrick's Day. (Where *does* time go??) When she was a teeny tiny baby goose, I saw a onesie at Old Navy that said "Little O'Cutie" and I REALLY wanted one, but we really didn't need it. I regretted that decision for a long time! This year, I realized there was no need to pine over it any longer - I can make the darn shirt. And I was inspired to make one for me, too. :>)




Goose's says "Little O'Cutie" and the dot over the i is a four leaf clover like mine, you just can't see it on the green. Mine, of course, says "Mama O'Cutie" and I'm still giggling over that. My sister-in-law snapped this pic for us yesterday, and since then I wonder-under-ed on a few shamrocks and outlined Goose's i dot shamrock with a sharpie. Except I should have followed what the shape should have been, not what it was. Oops.

Both shirts were thrifted, and I used Dana at MADE's freezer paper stencil tutorial. It was a bit tedious cutting the stencil out, but after seeing the results, it was TOTALLY worth it! Not counting the dry-time wait (I did two coats of paint), this project probably only took a couple of hours.

I gotta say, we WILL be wearing these often than just March 17! I can't close this post without sharing my favorite joke this time of year:

What's Irish and sits outside?







Give up? Paddy O'Furniture! (get it? patio furniture? hee hee!)

I'm linking up at Made By You Monday.

No Sew Lace Rosary Roses

I'm sure there are plenty of ideas for this sort of thing around the 'net, so what's one more? This idea was inspired by this post by Kimberlee at Pondered in My Heart. I am not too in practice with my crochet hook these days, so I decided to do a no-sew version with lace, flannel, and hot glue.






I made up a leaf pattern and traced it onto flannel, then cut them out. I made 13, ten for Hail Marys, one for Our Father, one for Glory Be, and one for the Fatima prayer.








Using scraps of mostly thrifted lace, I just cut them to similar sizes and then rolled them up starting at one end.








With the hopes that the flower would not be pulled loose, I used quite a bit of hot glue and pushed the bottom of the lace rose in it. I then went back and put a dab of hot glue on to hold the edge of the lace on the outside.







Goose and I gave it a trial run this morning, and I was pleased with the outcome. It is my hope that we can incorporate some prayer together during Lent, and perhaps it will be a habit to continue on afterwards.




See lots more ideas for Lent for little people at Catholic Icing and see what everybody else is making here:

Handmade Christmas 2010

Remember, just like last year, if you are one of my sisters-in-law, don't read any farther!

OK, for the rest of you, I'll share what I'm planning to make for Christmas presents. If you're doing handmade this year, I'd love to see what you're working on in the comments!

Last year, I picked up a bunch of Christmas fabric and ribbon on clearance in anticipation of making fabric bags to use for wrapping this year. I made several bags then realized how tedious it is and ended up wrapping most of the gifts in a piece of fabric not really unlike how I wrap with paper. The exception is that I didn't use tape, I just used ribbon and a bow (or bows...) to hold things together. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, and surprised that I have quite a bit of fabric left over! I also would like to mention that I made tags from last year's Christmas cards. I cut out any pretty picture and even some of the wording, punched a hole in them, and added a reinforcement sticker just in case I want to use them next year, too.

Let's start with my nieces. The oldest is 11, and she isn't getting much in the way of handmade. Right now, she's into all things peace sign and her favorite color is green. I found some big signs at Hobby Lobby, one that says Peace and one that is a peace sign, that were in every color *except* green. So I bought a can of spray paint and painted them! She is also getting an electronic Phase 10 game that I picked up for a few bucks on an Amazon.com sale last year.

Next niece is 7. She'll be getting a Husker sweatshirt (thrifted, 'cause I'm like that and her mom is OK with it), a Geoboard (No Time For Flash Cards), and a tiny fairy doll, including the "fairy catcher necklace" as seen here (both Treasures for Tots).




Niece #3 is 6. She'll also get a geoboard, tiny fairy doll (maybe something like the fairy house that is linked from the doll post above), and velcro catch ball. (Craftzine)



My fourth niece is 3. She'll be getting some lacing beads, a preschool sewing kit (The Adventures of Bear) or like this one at Frugal Family Fun Blog, and a toss & catch toy. (Chasing Cheerios). Her birthday just passed, and one of her gifts for that was a beauty shop in a box (see mine at that link). (Chasing Cheerios - see the one that inspired me at this link.)

We usually give my brother and sister-in-law meat from our cattle. My brother will also be getting some lego cards (Filth Wizardry) which will be used by my nieces with his enormous set of legos that still reside at our parents' house. I also made him some poppers out of a pool noodle (clearanced!). We had something similar when we were kids, and I got a kick out of making them. I also made a simple drawstring bag to store them in. There are 88 poppers, which means each of my nieces will have to pick up 22 after the mayhem is over...

All mothers and sisters-in-law will be getting homemade vanilla (Heavenly Homemakers), though I am making mine a bit differently. I read in the comments that bourbon makes a better vanilla than vodka, so I bought that instead. It is more expensive, and I haven't ran the numbers yet but I think it's still cheaper than buying vanilla at the store. I got a late start on the vanilla, but I think things are going to work out fine - I ended up with more beans than I needed, plus the bottle I am using doesn't hold quite a gallon. I'm hoping that by using extra beans and less booze, it'll be extra strong and will cancel out the shortened brew time. Plus, since it won't be "steeping" for as long, I plan to add more bourbon and let it keep on keeping on.

We got family pictures taken as Hubs's parents' gift.

Hubs' two sisters will get vanilla, of course. One is getting an initial kind of like this one from Flamingo Toes for one of them, perhaps stealing an idea from the fabric wrapped initial at goody-goody. Luckily, said sister-in-law painted her room based on something I made her and I have leftover supplies from it, so that helps! I found most of the letters of the other SIL's last name in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. I'll paint them and fashion the missing letter similarly enough to pass muster. (Update, I broke my craft knife blade, but I turned a g into an s!)

I attempted to recreate something like this necklace from Catherines. As usual, my theory is great but my process is not so much. My flowers are not looking like flowers... Instead, I'm looking at something like this fabric bead necklace from froo*gal.

It floors me that my nephew is a year and a half old. Where does time go?? He will be getting a couple of toys that I got during a huge Amazon sale, a button snake (Counting Coconuts) and a tie rattlesnake (Skip to My Lou).


Last but not least, Goose is actually getting more store-bought presents than homemade ones. I found some Lincoln Logs (well, Frontier Logs, but same thing) on clearance, a pair of kitty slippers from Target's dollar aisle, a thrifted Snow White dress up dress, a thrifted book about kitties (it's in brand new condition, though), and a toss & catch toy like her cousin above. Though I have ideas to make her a fabric "book" of sorts with different scenes for her Care Bears, along with some elastic loops to store said Care Bears. We'll see how that turns out.

I don't have much for Hubs yet, though we have discussed pooling our resources and getting an elliptical as our gift to each other. Thanks to hubs's genius, we'll be getting some college hockey tickets for our brother-in-law, and he's getting a set of poppers as seen above as well. Men are much more difficult to stitch for! (My parents get meat from our cattle, too, by the way.) As I said above, I'd love to know what you're doing if you're making Christmas presents - let me know in the comments. You can see what I made for Christmas last year at this post.

For tons of frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom, where Jessica is also talking about gifts!