Animal Headbands

Dorothy loves to accessorize, so for her birthday, we are giving her a dress-up box with lots of fun accessories.  In addition to sunglasses, bracelets, and necklaces, I made her a set of headbands so that she can be some of her favorite critters.

Once I figured out the templates, these were surprisingly easy to make.  I drew out the shape that I wanted, then added a half-inch rectangle to the bottom.  I placed the rectangle on the fold of the felt and cut out my shapes.  The ears wrap around the headband.  I stitched along the headband first, then around the outside of the ears and I hot glued the center part of the ears.

Since her birthday isn't for about two weeks, I enlisted Mr. Bear to model the ears.

Meow.

The rabbit ears have a pipe cleaners in them to help them stand up.

I wish I had put the mouse ears a little farther apart, but they are still cute.

The lion one cracks me up.  Roar!  It's going to be so cute on her.

I had one headband left in my pack and some fake flowers left over from another project, so I broke out the hot glue gun.  Not my best work, but something frilly will be fun too.

View from the top.

Apple Sauce

Someone asked for my apple sauce recipe and I figured here was as good a place as any to share it.  Ruthie, I hope your mom doesn't mind, since it's her recipe.

The recipe I use is from a former neighbor's mother. She (the mom) has an apple tree and she makes this as a way to use up the million apples that they have. She made some once when she was next door visiting and brought us a bowl. I don't like apple sauce, but even I like this and the kids can't get enough. It tastes like pie filling, but there is no sugar; just apples and spices.

All amounts are approximate.

1 gallon apples - peeled and cut in chunks
2 tsp cinnamon
1 "finger joint" fresh ginger - peeled and chopped fine (more if you like)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of cloves (we like cloves, so I do a few dashes)
1/3 cup water

Cut over low heat until sauced.


What I do is cover the pot and let it sit until the apples are soft (I stir it a couple of times too). Once they are soft, I mash it up with the potato masher. It is not thin like store bought apple sauce, but there aren't any really huge chunks (usually). I then put it into hot jars and can it, but it cooks down enough that it could be refrigerated and eaten before it went bad. My kids like it straight, cold or warm, and Dorothy likes it mixed in her plain oatmeal. I have also used it when making waffles and it is really yummy.

Little Girl Dresses

I've been busy finishing off some half-done projects, but hadn't wanted to post them since they were to be gifts.  Now that they are in the mail, I'll share.


First, I finally finished a criss-cross pinafore for a friend who adopted an adorable baby girl a few months ago. I am hoping that this will still fit next summer. I made it around a 12 month size, but I tried it on Dorothy and it fit her too (she wears an 18 month size). Luckily, this style is pretty forgiving with the sizing.

Front view.

Back view.  I just love the eyelet all along the back and on the butt.  It is even; the straps are just laying funny.

I had been wanting to make this Go-To Dress for a while. My first attempt was a disaster from end to end. The knit fabric I had was so thin, that my machine just ate it instead of stitching it. The appliqued apple was just horrendous too. I have never seen an applique pull the fabric around like it did on this one. I went back to the fabric store to find a knit fabric that was a little heavier weight and found this gorgeous plum stretch corduroy. I didn't even know that made stretch corduroy, but it is so soft and cozy. It looks a little shiny in the photo, but it isn't that way in real life. It sewed beautifully and made a very sweet dress for Dorothy.

I am going to make two small changes the next time I make one. First, I will make the elastic at the waist a bit tighter. It looks good in the front here, but the back is hardly gathered at all. Once this comes trough the wash, I'll tighten this one up. I will also stretch the neckband a little more when sewing it on. The neck hole is a little big, but not terrible. Stretching the neckband should take care of that.

It is a little hard to get a photo of her because she is constantly on the go.  Please ignore the cat, necklace, and magformers.  I accidentally left the sleeves rolled up after lunch, but it does have long sleeves.

Non-Obnoxious Alphabet Magnets

I was inspired by this blog post to make some non-obnoxious alphabet magnets. So simple! So cute! So, why hadn't I thought of this yet?

I drug the kids out to the craft store with me and purchased my supplies. I even found the perfect color of yellow spray paint, on clearance for $2. Excited to get started, I sprayed one side of the disks as soon as the kids went down for a nap.



I used a black metallic spray paint that we already had, leftover from another project I hope to someday finish and then blog about. Then I flipped them over and sprayed the other side yellow.





Once they were dry, I pulled out my rub on letters and got to work. I had never used rub on transfers before and was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to work with. I've been dreaming up all sorts of projects where I can use rub on transfers. The next night, I glued magnets to the back of the disks, and they are done! I used a stronger magnet than the tutorial called for. I'm tired of our fridge magnets sliding down and I am going to replace them all with these nice strong ones. How do I feel about our new alphabet magnets? I...



I'm going to give these to one or both of the kids for Christmas. I haven't decided who gets what yet. They might each get a set in their stockings. I did both upper and lower case and made a few extras of the letters in their names. My transfers came with lots of E's but not many O's. I bought an extra sheet so they can both spell their full names at the same time.

I did not distress mine like in the tutorial, but they still have a rustic charm about them.  I didn't spray a protective coating on like I thought about, so I expect that they will become distressed with use soon enough.  I didn't do anything special to the edges.  They are a bit uneven from whatever spray paint happened to reach them, but I liked how they looked, so I left them alone.

Car Shirts, Take 2

I wasn't happy with how the car shirts I made for a friend turned out.  I got the pattern from a different site than I typically use, and it stitched out very differently.  When it tacks down the applique pieces, this pattern uses a very narrow, very tight zig-zag stitch and it pretty much just pulled the threads from the edge of the woven fabric I used.  This time, I used fabric that won't unravel and used a more substantial stabilizer on the applique pieces and on the back of the shirt.  It seemed to help and this time, they stitched out much better.  I normally would not have chosen the bright orange and lime green to go with the brick red shirts, but they really turned out cute.  I hope her boys like their new and improved shirts.

Sorry about the lighting glare.  The colors show better in the close-ups.

Lime green car.

Orange car.

How I am Turning My Son Into a Nerd

Those who know my husband and me know that the chance of our children becoming nerds is astronomically high.  I recently made two new shirts for Malcolm that simply hurl him into nerd-dom.  They both break my personal "no characters" rule, but I suppose when they are ones that mom and dad like a lot, then we can just ignore that rule.

I am a terrible mother because I wouldn't let him watch TV until I took a picture of the shirt.

Close up of Kermit.  Gonzo is actually Malcolm's favorite Muppet, but I made this to match a sweatshirt I bought last year.

Here is the sweatshirt I was trying to match (he's wearing the shirt underneath).  The back of the sweatshirt has The Muppet Show logo.

He has watched a few episodes of The Muppet Show and likes it OK, but it isn't one of his favorites.  I fully admit to this being mostly just for my husband and myself.  When he wore it to school, the teachers were excited about it, and who wouldn't be?  Kermit is awesome.

Malcolm has no idea who Dr. Who is, but when I found the pattern for the TARDIS, I had to have it and put it on something. Luckily, Malcolm had a sweatshirt and pair of pants that needed a matching shirt, and the TARDIS fit the bill perfectly. 

He's going to be the coolest kid in preschool. 

This stitched out fine, but trimming the extra threads on the lettering was a real pain.  They were so tiny and because some were going the same direction as the black thread underneath, it was hard to trim only the white thread. 

Pumpkin Shirt

I found an adorable pair of orange velour pants with polka-dot cuffs on clearance for a couple of dollars last fall and of course, I couldn't find a shirt to match, so I made one.  I opted for a plain pumpkin design so that it could be worn in October and November.  She has a wintery sweater dress that needs a shirt underneath and this shirt will be perfect for that too.  The pumpkins won't show, but the sleeves are the right color.  Yay for getting to wear a seasonal shirt all winter.

Cute, simple pumpkin design that was a freebie. 

Here you can see the pants a little bit.  It is really cute, but more "Fall" than "Halloween."

I have never used worse thread than with this project. It should have been very straight forward and quick to stitch out, but the thread kept breaking and twisting and doing all sorts of other crazy things that would make the machine stop. It easily took twice as long as it should have and I was so frustrated when it was done that I threw away the thread when I was done. I had just opened it, but could not face the thought of doing another project with such a faulty product.

I have other thread from the same manufacturer, and while they all have some issues, this one was just crazy. I will never buy cheap thread again. When I first got my machine, I bought a large lot of thread, but I should have sprung for the better quality. Lesson learned. I have had good luck with Sulky and Medeira brands.

Car Shirts

A friend asked if I could make her twin boys shirts with cars on them with the cars being different colors. I didn't have any car patterns, but I found a cute woody applique that we both liked. The shirts turned out really cute, but the woven fabric I used for the cars is not holding like I would like it to. I have never had that problem before and feel badly that, while very cute, they aren't quite working out like we had hoped. I found two brick red shirts in her boys size at Target last night and I'm going to experiment with an idea and see if I can get it to work better.

Green car.

Close up view.  The "wood" part is tan corduroy.

Light blue car.  Yes, I took the photo before washing off my marking lines.  If I wait, it doesn't happen.

Close up of the light blue.  Sorry it is hard to see the color well, but it looks nice.

Birthday Gifts

I have not blogged in well over a month, but I promise that I have been very busy.  I'm a bit behind on showing my new projects, but I have also been doing a lot of mending which isn't very exciting and I don't take photos of the mended stuff.  I'll try to do a post a day (I hope) until I catch up.

Word of warning, if you might be inviting one of my kids to a birthday party this year and you want to be surprised by the gift, quit reading now. If you don't care, read on.





My son started preschool last year and the number of birthday parties we went to exploded. What I learned last year is that I am terrible at selecting a birthday gift for 4-6 year olds that I don't know very well and my son is no help at all. We enjoyed having a party with his school friends for his birthday, but were a bit overwhelmed at the volume of toys that resulted. So, I got to thinking, and while it may not be the most exciting gift a young child has ever opened, I decided to make personalized gifts this year. So that I won't get confused, I decided that everyone would be getting the same thing and this year it will be a beach towel with their name on it. I know I have done towels in the past, but I had only done them for family or friends where I thought it might be something they would like. I have no idea how these will go over, but I know that lots of the kids in his school do swimming lessons and I always loved stuff with my name on it when I was a kid.

We have already had two parties and here are the towels.

I love the color combo of the royal blue towel with the lime green turtles and orange letters for the name.  It's so bright and cheery.

My spacing could have been better, but it is a little hard to hoop it three times and get the spacing right each time.  I should have planned to have the turtles about an inch or so farther out.

I'm not as crazy about the turquoise color towel, but since I'm doing these out of season, I have to use what I have or can find.  I'm happier with my spacing on this one though.

I probably won't do turtles on all of the towels I make this year, but these little guys are quick to sew and were ready to go from the last time I did them.  I had planned on some cute little clown fish, but was running short on time and they take forever to stitch out.

I hope the kids (or at least the parents) liked them.

Toy Storage

I wasn't sure if this was more kid stuff or craft stuff, but since it involved me being at least a little creative, I put it here.  The kids' toy area has been bugging me for a long time.  I didn't have enough boxes and we had too many toys.  I pulled out lots of things that they never play with and made a list of all the things that still needed boxes.  I hit The Container Store and bought 6 more small boxes, one medium shoe box, 4 hooks, and a plate rack.  Here is the finished product:

Yike! We have a lot of stuff. Believe it or not, there is still room for at least 3 more small boxes and one shoe box is empty.

A slightly better look at more of the play area.

Where I used the hooks.  I'm thinking about adding one more between the hat and the dustpan.

For the labels, I found some stock images, sized them, then added the words.  I printed them on regular paper and attached them to the boxes by putting packing tape over the top of them.

Here are the puppets on their wood plate stand.  The stand is nearly impossible to see, but it keeps the puppets together and from spilling all over the place.

My other cleaver storage solution: the puzzles are in stacked paper trays.  It makes them much easier to get to and most of the puzzles fit well.  Some of the baby puzzles are too chunky, so they sit on top.

We'll see how long this stays nice and organized, but for now (just a few hours in) the kids are doing a great job of putting things back.  Part of the reorganization included moving some things that they were tired of up high and bringing some new things down low where they can reach them.

Aprons

Last Spring, Malcolm had been asking that I go to school with him so that he could show me some of his favorite things to do.  I put it off until nearly the end of the year so that grandma and grandpa could watch Dorothy at home rather than bring her to school.  The school doesn't mind if I bring her, but she wants to get into everything and the kindergarten girls all want to play mommy to her.  At best, taking her is a distraction and a nuisance.  Anyway, while I was at school with Malcolm, he wanted to paint and the apron they had for the kids to use was "well loved" at best and he couldn't work it by himself. I sent an email to the head teacher in his class and offered to make some new aprons for the kids to use the next year and she enthusiastically took me up on the offer.

These would probably not have been my first choice of fabric if I had gone to the store to buy fabric to make aprons for a preschool and kindergarten class, but my goal was to use up some of my stash and not spend any money. I made three aprons, spent zero money, and they turned out really cute. When I gave them to his teacher today, I thought she was going to cry she was so happy.

Here is the pattern I used. It is the same one I blogged about back in March. These were very quick to put together once I found the fabric I was going to use. I didn't have quite enough of a couple of pieces I pulled out of my stash and I had to dig a little to find enough. I made one tiny change to the pattern and made the aprons a little bit longer than in the original. The first time I made one, I thought it looked a little short on my four year old who is average height. Also, instead of having a velcro closure on all three, I did one velcro, one button, and one snap. I asked the teacher which she would prefer and she liked the idea of one of each so the kids could practice their snapping and buttoning.

I appologize for the photos.  I would have preferred to take them outside in better lighting, but it is raining here, and I wanted to get them to the teacher when I picked up Malcolm from camp.  I finished the last one this morning while Dorothy played.  I don't let her in my sewing room because there are too many dangerous things for her to get into (pins, scissors, hot irons, etc.), but I got out our box of musical instruments and she happily banged away for a long time.  I chose the music box so I could keep an ear on what she was doing and could investigate when it got quiet.

All three hanging and ready to go.  I love the elastic neckbands; such a good idea.

I tried to get Dorothy to model one for me, but she was mad at me and wouldn't face me because she liked the kitty apron better than the one I put on her.

Plaid apron.  I cheated a little bit on this one to make my goal of not spending any money.  I used a brown thread that was close, but not quite the rust orange color of the fabric.  I also pieced together two pieces of elastic to get the length I needed.  You can't see it very well, but there is a snap closure on the left, just below the curve.

Kitty apron.  This was Dorothy's favorite, and I think maybe the teacher's favorite too.  I used the biggest button I had (on the left) to make it easy on the little fingers.

The colors look a little washed out in this photo, but it is bright and vibrant in real life.  It has a velcro closure.  I wasn't sure I would like this one, and I think it ended up being my favorite.

Shirred Romper

I never did get around to making the shirred romper with long pants that I had planned, so I made it as a shorts/bubble style.  I used this tutorial, but made a few changes.  I didn't want straps that had to button, and could picture in my head some elastic straps with a little flutter sleeve.  I tried it, and they turned out awful, so I switched to just some plain cased elastic straps and they were much better.  I had read through the tutorial a few times, but I had not realized that the crotch was designed to meet face to face instead of overlapping, and I didn't care for that, but I had already cut the fabric before I noticed.

I thought I had measured carefully, but it ended up just a little short and she was showing much more chest than I like.






Since it was too short for her to wear again (after squeezing her into it once), I had to come up with a solution. I didn't have enough fabric to cut off the bottom and turn it into a top and bloomers, so I added a small panel to the crotch that is sort of hour glass shaped. I cut out two pieces and sewed them together, flipped them right side out, then top stitched them, and sewed one end to the inside back of the romper. The panel is about 3 inches, so added about 1.5 inches to the length and it now fits so much better.  With the addition of the panel, I was able to change the snaps to overlap, and I like it much better.

I didn't get a great picture of the crotch, but you can see the better fit.





I really love this color on her. I chose the fabric based on some colored snaps I already had and wanted to use up.

Criss-Cross Pinafore

About a year ago, I saw some beautiful fabric in the remnants bin at the fabric store.  It was just shy of a yard marked down quite a bit from the original price.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to make with it, but I was pretty sure that Dorothy needed a dress of some type from it.  In the pile of clothes that my mom had saved from when I was a baby was a criss-cross pinafore, made from some truly hideous fabric.  I loved the style of it though and tried it on Dorothy last year.  The cut was a little funny, so I used the ugly fabric one as a pattern, then made some changes to make it fit better. 

I love how this turned out! I might regret dressing her in all white, but it is just so sweet and summer-y on her. I'm getting better at some basic sewing techniques and things are starting to look a little less like I made them. I had two big compliments on this piece today. First, someone commented on how cute her outfit was within 15 minutes of me putting it on her. Second, my husband said that he hadn't realized that I had made it until he was putting the bloomers back on her after a diaper change and noticed there was no tag. Yay!

I had a hard time getting photos of the pinafore, but I bribed Dorothy with a little Pirate Booty snack and she held still for a bit.


The fabric is white with white embroidered and crochet flowers on it. It is pretty thin, so I lined it with a solid white, and trimmed it with white eyelet. The eyelet is a slightly different shade of white and I wish it was closer in color, but I'm not sure I could have found anything better.



I saved so much time using the eyelet instead of making my own ruffles and it sewed on beautifully. I might plan my next project around whatever fancy trim I can find. Not gathering ribbon or fabric was wonderful.



Ruffle butt.



It has been blistering hot here and the lightweight fabric, open back, and light color are helping keep her nice and cool.



The arm holes are a little big, but I don't think there is much I can do about that with this style. They are just extra ventilation and this outfit will be perfect when we head down to Florida in August.