Casserole Carrier

I made these casserole carriers for family members at christmas 

time. I made three, that was all I had time to make. If you look closely

 the bottom two were made with a double sided quilted fabric. I DON'T 

recommend using this type of fabric for this project as it made it harder 

to sew. At $20./yd just think of all the cute fabrics I 

COULD HAVE bought. 

However, if you are a more experienced sewer or have worked with this 

type of fabric before you might know a few little tricks to make it a more 

pleasant sewing experience.

I bought this apple fabric awhile back thinking I might make the girls a 

skirt or maybe aprons for their play kitchen, but when I went to make these 

gifts I remembered their moms kitchen was done in a apple theme and 

thought "how perfect!"

This is the tricky fabric I was telling you about...

...I bought it because I was looking for something a little less bright 

with pretty colors. The fabric had the quilting already in it, so it 

might save some time right?  NO, it actually created other problems. 

Not to mention, I had to get creative making sure I had enough fabric to 

finish the project. Since, I was getting frustrated I went ahead to make an

 oven mitt, not a good idea if you are not sure you have enough fabric 

to make your original project. In the end I was pretty happy with how 

they turned out and REALLY proud I hung in there to finish and send 

them off. I was happy to know hear they were well received...

...WHEW lesson learned...keep it simple!

Another variation of the one above with a oven mitt included.

I etched the last name of the receiver on the side of the dish but forgot

 to take a picture of it...sorry, but if you go here and here you can get the idea 

and a tutorial of how I made these.

ENJOY!

Ruffle Toddler Shorts

I decided to use the same idea and tutorial from my Simple Toddler Shorts

to make these Ruffle Toddler Shorts. I used up cycled fabric from 

a pair of cargo pants and scrap fabric used for the ruffles, some buy Muslim

I use up cycled fabric to make a practice pair or to get my sewing skills where 

I think they should be before giving a project as a gift. 

It works great and 

heck I bet if you look around your house too you will find lots of things to up cycle. 

Up cycling not only works with fabric, there are lots of things in your house

with a little creativity that can be up-cycled into something beautiful or fun. Give it a try

you not only re purpose something you are not using anymore but you are recycling 

as well. 

Now I just hope they fit! (8

ENJOY!

A-Line Upcycle

My first dress pattern...

...I bought my first pattern, it's a book called "Absolute A-Line" it's one pattern and 

supposedly you can make 26 different dresses, if you add a ruffle here, a button there, a tie here, or an applique there I guess you could probably make more than 26 different 

dresses depending on how creative you are. I just wanted a basic A-Line 

dress pattern that had both Kinzy and Katelynn's sizes that had a few different 

suggestions for decorating it. I guess you could say I got what I wanted,

but I am sure there are better books out there so look around before

running out and buying this one. 

  The pattern and instructions were easy to use but it didn't seem $20. worth to me, I opened the book and thought every dress in there was ugly except for maybe two. Anyways, like I said the pattern was easy to use and it came with multiple sizes which is what I wanted, so overall I am pretty happy with it.

 This dress I decided to do two projects in one. I made a Up cycled dress from a man's shirt and a practice basic A-Line dress to see how well my skills are. I don't think it turned out that bad, I would probably fiddle with the inside bottom of the arm holes to keep them put better, but otherwise I am ready to buy my cute fabric and make another one.

This is a light fabric and doesn't hold it's shape very well so next time I will try a little heavier fabric, but I think it will make good summer dress for playing in.

ENJOY!

Simple Toddler Shorts

How to make simple toddler shorts...

...I found a great tutorial on How To Sew Shorts over at ikatbag.

This is a really simple and quick project in which I used knit fabric from an old

 tshirt I had laying around in my upcycle bin.

In the tutorial you will find a free pattern for a 3 year old, this is exactly what 

I needed for Kinzy, but I figure it should be fairly easy to enlarge the pattern for 

 Katlynn, her big sister. Over at ikatbag, she also shows you how to make skorts

along with all of her really cute skirt tutorials. I would like to eventually 

try making some of these skorts and dresses for Katelynn

 for school next year and maybe even 

 make myself a skirt sometime. Just because these are for toddlers 

doesn't mean you can't use the same ideas for adult skirts...right? Just think

outside the box a bit.

These would be really cute in a cotton fabric with a little ruffle 

on the bottom too.

ENJOY!

Pillow Case Dress

This is another pillow case dress I made for Kinzy's birthday.

My husband bought me a sewing machine several years ago that just sat in it's box till last year. This was one of the first fabrics I bought on sale along with a pink version of it. Last year when I decided to teach myself to sew, pattern free, I had no idea of how much fabric I would need. I bought a 1/2 yard of each fabric thinking it was a good place to start making two matching dresses for the girls. But soon I found that wasn't possible and I didn't have the knowledge I have now in making a few adjustments here and there to make the most of my fabric. 

So, Kinzy has a pink dress now with matching blue ribbon ties on each shoulder, 

(sorry I forgot to take a picture of it last year when I made it), and this blue one with the fabric tie off to one side.

I like the tie on this one better, I also added 

 pink Ric Rac to the bottom for something different.

Super easy dress to try if your just learning to sew like me

and lots of different variations you can do with it 

if you get a little creative. Best of all you don't need a pattern 

for this dress just a couple of measurements. 

ENJOY!

up cycled adult skirt to a toddler skirt

This is a little jean skirt I made Kinzy for her birthday. I used some fabric from a long jean 

skirt I had wore only a few times that hung in my closet forever. I used the measurement

of her waist then decided how long I wanted the length.

Just add some elastic and a hem and you have a cute toddler skirt.

Toss in a couple cute tops to go with the skirt and you have a gift under an hour and 

under $10. bucks.

 ENJOY!

A Minnie Mouse party dress

The Party Girl Dress

Kinzy's 2nd birthday is just around the corner and 

the birthday girl needed a new dress for the occasion. I had both of these fabrics and ribbon on hand, I seen something similar awhile back, and wanted to sew up something quick and easy since I am still a beginner.  I have made this pillow case style dress once before and I knew it sews up rather quickly.

Katie, her big sister, loves Minnie Mouse too. I wanted to make her an outfit to wear to her little sisters birthday party...but what to make...a matching dress? ...a matching skirt? ...a matching tunic? I know a matching tshirt...yeah! I even had the tshirt on hand and have been wanting to try some appliques so this was perfect.

This little knit skirt I have been wanting to try making for awhile now, the idea came from over at Lil Blue Boo Recycled T-Shirt Ruffle Skirt/Skort ePattern ...it is an up cycle from a tshirt I never wore and has been sitting in my drawer forever, it's nothing more than a yoga style waist band and strips of fabric I cut out, I just left the bottom of the shirt, I liked the white peeking out under at the bottom of the skirt. The picture is kinda hard to see but it's a ruffle layer top stitched with a raw edge. Take a look at the link for a better picture.

                                                                            ENJOY!

Camera Strap slip cover with a pocket

I whipped up these cute camera strap slip covers the other day. I thought I would send one each to my mom and dad. This one I made for my dad it reminded me of a man's hawaiian shirt.

This one I made awhile back, it was before I came across the idea of a lens pocket, so no pocket on this one....I guess I will just have to make me another one! :)

Here is another patchwork version, this one I made the pocket padded  as well as the strap. I just added a little piece of velcro to the inside of the pocket for the closure. I like the idea of a slipcover strap so that I can change it out when I get tired of it.

Here's another shot of the the first strap. These are so easy to make it took me a little over an hour to make two straps. I came across the pocket idea on Etsy, but her's turned much cuter from what I remember...I guess I will just work with it a little more and see what I come up with.

ENJOY! 

girls skirt

This cute little girls skirt tutorial I found At Second Street: Valentines Attire. I had some left over fabric from another project that I hadn't finished yet, (I came across a bump, couldn't figure out how to fix it, and lost interest in the project...don't you just hate when that happens?), so I decided to try making the girls matching skirts. This was my first attempt in making a skirt, not bad eh? Each skirt only took a couple hours and Katie's was probably a little trickier because I had to adjust it to about a size 7/8. My nieces don't live near by, so I work strictly off of measurements I take when I do see them, it makes it a little tricky, but hey I'm up for the challenge. I'm sure it would be much easier to use a pattern but they kinda intimidate me, and from what I have read there are sizing issues a lot of the time, besides there is something appealing to me about creating from ground zero. A few things I would probably do a little different next time, (see I'm already learning) ; 1. Use matching thread if you are going to take the time to make something, it will look so much better. 2. correct me if I am wrong, but use a zig zag stitch when sewing in my elastic so there is a better stretch to it. 3. make sure you use the ruffle method for the gathers...I forgot to do this with Katie's skirt and couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble sewing until I was already finished. There really is a reason to follow each step, it's to make your sewing more enjoyable LOL! Oh well, sew and learn, right?

Hair Curlers

so after scouring the internet and discovering all of the wonderful sewing blogs out there in blog world; I found tutorials, projects and all sorts of inspiration to  me to finally pull that brand new sewing machine out  it's box.  I knew instantly I wanted to make these curlers the minute I saw  them, they so reminded me as I was a little girl sitting in front of the TV in my nightgown while my older sister put pink curlers in my hair before bed.  I made a few sets as gifts, so cute, and everyone loved them.  I first found them on wonderwomancreations.blogspot.com she  has a great tutorial on How to Wrap Your Hair in Curlers
the tutorial on how to make these cute curlers are here: http://lifewithmonkey.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/hair-curler-sewing-tutorial/

Girls Dress

When I found this tutorial Authentic Toddler Wear at Moda's Bake shop I was like WOW I want to sew with THAT fabric! I never knew they made such beautiful fabrics, (since I've discovered Amy Butler and OMGosh I want to buy it all!), since I had no sewing experience and no imagination yet on what it could look like with other fabrics LOL I bought the same fabric as the tutorial but made a few tweeks here and there like making it for a 1st grader instead of a toddler and putting her initial on it, which she thought was so cool. I love the finished dress and Katelynn does too, and when she wears it, people always asks her about it, she says, "my aunt made it for me" :), now that's worth sewing!