A gift and a project completed!

You know how sometimes, if you just wait long enough, things turn out? 

I have been wanting to get my oldest daughter a dresser for the past few months.  The small IKEA dresser that we painted for her a few years back is just way too small for her "big girl" things.  Or maybe she just has too many clothes. 

I had been searching some local buy-sell-trade groups on Facebook to see if anyone had anything reasonable for sale. Whenever I'd find something good, someone else had always gotten there first, and there was still the problem of moving a dresser, since we don't have a truck. I also thought of going back to IKEA, but the nearest one is 2 hours away, and I didn't feel like putting an entire dresser together.

So....I waited. And then our friends called. They were moving and had a wicker dresser and side table that they needed to give away. For free. And this week. My husband wanted to know if I wanted it and I couldn't help but get super excited.....YES!! 

I was actually going right by their house the next night, without the kids (I am on a board for our local science center and we had a meeting), so I decided to take all the seats out of the van, and pick it up after the meeting. 

So the next day, the babysitter called to cancel. There was no way I could pick up the furniture with the 3 kids in the van.....so I called our other sitter and she was free. Whew!  Then I couldn't get one of the seats out of the van (the second row seats in a Sienna are REALLY HEAVY btw--I had to have the babysitter help me lift it inside the house!). So I just prayed that the rest of the back of the van would be enough to haul this all home. Please let it be enough!  

And it was! I didn't snap a picture because it was late when I got home and I had to have my husband help me trudge everything inside the house, so that I could put all the seats back, install a car seat and throw a booster in there too. 

The furniture ended up staying inside our living room, until I finally had time to go to Home Depot and get some spray paint.  The dresser and night stand were in really good condition, just sort of yellow from age, so I picked up 2 cans of this Rustoleum White Semi-Gloss spray paint (and had to go back for one more later), and it worked so well and so fast, I was really surprised! 

Some before shots! 

It was nice to get something on my to-do list completed!

I realize that these are just the before pictures of the nightstand, I had to wait until this weekend to paint the dresser since it was kinda heavy and my husband and I could bring it outside together.  It's also sorta hard to spray paint when it's windy.  Just saying.

So right now I'm just waiting for the dresser to dry, then we can bring it in and bring it upstairs.  We'll probably just leave it in the living room until I get G's room finished.  There are boxes of our junk to take out and wallpaper that needs to be removed (so not looking forward to that!).

And while in Home Depot, I picked up some paint for our master bathroom, since it's a disgusting brown color and I just can't.stand.it.anymore! I figure I needed to do something for myself too. :)

Check out more of my home improvement ideas on my Pinterest board: DIY projects for the home! 

That's all for now~

~Patricia

Easy DIY Knee Patches

Hello all!

Today I am so excited to give you a brand new tutorial:

I don't know about your kids, but my daughter G loves to wear leggings. So much so, that she is constantly ripping holes in hers! That girl can play hard. I was searching around on Pinterest for ideas, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted...mostly because I couldn't think of exactly how to describe it. This is a problem I have quite often on Pinterest and it mostly leads me to finding a lot of other cool stuff that I wasn't really looking for.  It's kinda like shopping at Target, am I right?  You don't need anything, yet you end up getting a cart full of stuff! 

So, after figuring out the easiest way for me to patch up my daughter's leggings, I thought I would share it with you!  Here's what you'll need:

Items Needed:

Leggings with holes (or just leggings, if you want to jazz them up a bit)

knit fabric to cover the holes 

Sulky Totally Stable (Amazon link, or you can get at JoAnn's)

Iron

Sewing machine

Scissors

Coordinating Thread

Ready? Let's begin!

Let's start with the knit fabric you'll use to cover the holes.  I think it's important to use knit on knit leggings, as they both will allow stretch.  I tried to fix these pants before with a piece of felt, and it did not last one wear.  This particular fabric came from a pair of Wonder Woman PJs that my sister and brother-in-law got me for Christmas one year!  I cut the bottoms off the pants to make them into insta-shorts and used one of the legs to make an awesome grocery bag holder. (You can read about that here.)

If you don't have some cool printed fabric laying around (this is a great project for using up all those scraps!), you can use a cookie cutter or just freehand a cool shape on some knit fabric or an old t-shirt.

Next, you'll want to cut 2 pieces of your Sulky Totally Stable , making them a bit larger than your shape. BTW, this stuff is awesome for keeping your knits in place while sewing them and it's under $2, so it's worth it to pick some up. I've had mine for a long time, and use it mostly when doing monograms and applique. 

Using your iron, iron the first piece of Totally Stable over the hole, following the directions on the package.  Then place the fabric patch on top of the Totally Stable and place the other piece of Totally Stable on the very top and iron it down.  You'll be sandwiching the fabric patch between the two pieces of Totally Stable, and since they are ironed down, you don't have to worry about using any pins! 

I then took a pen and outlined where I wanted my sewing line to be. I basically traced over the black lines of the stars.  If your fabric patch doesn't have distinct lines like mine, you might consider tracing the fabric patch on the Totally Stable before you iron it down, and then match up the lines while ironing. 

Don't worry, the Totally Stable is tear-away, so when we're done sewing, we'll rip it off and it won't show!

Sew!  I sew with a vintage Singer Featherweight machine and it only has a straight stitch, so I went over the star twice to really secure it.  If you are sewing with a machine where the arm can come off, take it off and sew that way, because it's a bit of a pain to have to scrunch up your material the way I have to.  But it's worth it!

Don't forget to trim your threads from the front and back!

Now it's time to tear away the Totally Stable.  I tore the outside first, then gently pulled at the inside of the star to tear off the Totally Stable on the inside of the star.  I did not tear off the Totally Stable on the underside of the hole, since I thought a little extra something would help to prevent future holes.  You can also trim back the hole on the inside so it matches the shape of the fabric patch.

And then......

Here's a close-up! 

So there you have it!  Easy DIY knee patches for your leggings! Let me know if you have questions, or if you try this method and it works for you, please let me know!

Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest by clicking here! 

You can also follow my blog by signing up for updates and new posts by filling in your email on the right, or by adding me to your blogger dashboard. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Patricia

Ballet and a Easy Square Skirt Tutorial

First, a little throwback....#tbt:

This fall I wanted to find some sort of activity for the girls to be in. When G was 3, we put her in soccer, which really meant that she wore a soccer uniform while picking daisies in the soccer field. Well, probably not daisies, but whatever flower/weed that she could find out in the field. 

Oh, are we supposed to be playing?

Ok, so maybe she didn't pick daisies the whole time. 

Sometimes she'd just hang out with dad. He volunteered to be the assistant coach.
 

Needless to say, I haven't been much into organized anything since then. I wasn't sure if G liked playing or going to the games, and I wasn't sure I liked sitting outside in the heat watching her pick daisies. I mean, we could do that at home, right?  

So this fall I decided it was time to take the plunge and sign the girls up for ballet classes at the local studio.  Both G and M went to the same preschool (not at the same time), and each Friday the preschool has ballet class. (Their teacher is also a ballet teacher.) So they had some experience and seemed to like it, or at least liked wearing the outfits, which is step one, right?  They are also older, and I think some sort of organized something is important, so we'll give ballet a try. And it's indoors. Very important when it's 90 degrees out for most of the year.

We've been going for a few weeks now and so far, they like it! Truthfully, G hated it the first day, but I told her she couldn't quit until she had gone 3 times, and she's come around and likes it now.  My biggest challenge is actually C, who is devastated that she can't do ballet classes with her big sisters. We're talking won't leave the classroom door, crying and carrying on. The last two times I've finally been able to get her to sit in the playroom they provide for siblings and relax. Whew! Success!  I was worried for a little bit that I'd had to cancel lessons if I couldn't get C to calm down and play. 

G and M in the matching skirts I made them, getting ready for class.

I wanted to share with you how I made the knit twirly skirts, since they are so easy!  For a long time, I've been looking at this skirt on Pinterest and wanted to make it. 

It's a variation on a circle skirt, which is just a large circle of fabric with a hole cut inside and an elastic waistband sewn in.  The Square skirt is just a big square with a hole cut inside and an elastic waistband sewn in.  The original is a double layer skirt, but since I wanted to make one for all of the girls, I just did a single layer.

I placed a bowl (that was about 1.5 times the waist measurement in circumference) in the center of the fabric, and then measured out to mark the length. I made the skirts about 10-12" out.

Hole cut! 

I found this cool colored elastic at JoAnn's.
I made G's skirt with a purple band and M's with a pink band--easy way to tell them apart!

Once upon a time I thought about dyeing elastic and I even pinned this tutorial from dana-made-it.com.
Check it out if you're interested!

After sewing the elastic together, pinning it in and sewing it all together:
Finished! They loved how the skirts twirl!

Side note: since I used a fun knit print, I didn't have to hem anything (bonus!); I just gave the raw edges a little pull and then they start to roll, which makes them super cute too.

One of these days I'll get to my stash of knit t-shirts and make up some cute skirts, these are seriously so easy! Have fun and stay tuned for more tomorrow!

~Patricia

My Valentine's Day Easy Craft

So sometimes at night, when I'm pretending to watch tv with my husband, I'm actually searching Pinterest for fun crafts to do.  I have sooooo many that I want to do, but just never find the time.  I also have a bad habit of taking something and trying to recreate it, but somehow I never have the right materials, so it never looks quite right. And honestly, that's ok with me. 

One night I found this photo on Pinterest, which turned out to be just a photo. But after a little searching, I found who made it, and she's totally cute!

So I had to do my best to come up with something similar.....and here it is!

My Easy Valentine's Day Craft:

To make this I used an 11x14 canvas that I bought at Wal-mart (in a 2 pack, so watch out for my next creation! Ha!). I measured out one inch stripes with a ruler and painted them with a foam brush and black acrylic paint. 

I then used a black Sharpie to try and even out my wonky lines. :) 

I found some scraps of light pink felt and made a heart. I used 3 pieces of felt and sewed them all together. Then I found a big stash of buttons that was different shades of pink and hot glued them on, overlapping a bit so I could use them all up.  If I was going to do this again, I would have bought the same exact button and used those, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this project, so I just used what I had at home. After hot gluing the buttons on, I hot glued the whole piece onto the painted canvas.

Lining it up!

Then I used some pink puffy paint to write "family" on the bottom.  The original picture said "Me + You", which is cute too, but there are a few more people in our house besides "me and you" and I was feeling inclusive today. :)

So there you have it! A fun, easy Valentine's Day project! I ended up hanging it up in our living room right next to this photo hanging project that I did awhile back. It looks pretty cool! 

~Patricia

Don't forget to click the link and follow me on Pinterest!

I'm also on Twitter! Click here: Follow @tshirtsandtulle

Wool Dryer Balls: The Results!

Remember yesterday when I posted about my in-progress experiment? I was making wool dryer balls and here's the verdict.....
They definitely worked! You can still see see some of the yarn as I wove it around into a ball, and they will continue to felt even more as I use them. I am really happy with them!

Scroll down for a photo!

For the tutorial (so you can make your own) click here.

I promise you, it is super easy, and although it might take a few times in the wash to fully felt the dryer balls, it's totally worth it!  Just think of all the money you'll save! Wool dryer balls reduce drying time (saving on electricity) and eliminate your need for dryer sheets (no more harsh chemicals!).

Win-win!

Click on the fancy button to follow my blog! 

Don't forget to click the link and follow me on Pinterest!

I'm also on Twitter! Click here: Follow @tshirtsandtulle

Countdown to Christmas!

Christmas is coming,

 the goose is getting fat

Please to put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a haypenny will do

If you haven't got a haypenny, then God bless you!

Anyone else remember this song? I remember singing it in elementary school, for our school "winter" program. Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, not only for the music, but for the fun of giving (and sometimes getting too!) gifts. This year I wanted to make an Advent Calendar for my girls to help them count down the days. My oldest is also helping me make the "pockets," and she is loving it! 

I bought some glittery green felt, folded it in half
and cut out a Christmas tree.
It's about 35"wide by 60" tall.

We decorated "pockets" for the days out of felt and hot-glued them on. Halfway done!

Add a little treat or message inside the pocket!

I wish I could say that this amazing tree Advent Calendar was my idea, or that I even found it on Pinterest, but alas, it was from Pottery Barn. :)  For some reason, they started sending me their catalogs, and I'm hooked!! It apparently was a very popular item because I can't find it online anymore, so I'm glad I ripped it out of the catalog when I did.  Sorta how we used to get ideas for things before the internet, huh? 

It's still a work in progress, stay tuned for the finished tree, Happy Holidays!

Trofast Ikea Hack

Does anyone really have enough storage?

I always ask myself this when putting away the girls' clothes for the thousandth time.  Maybe they just have too many clothes (darn you, Target clearance!) or maybe I just don't have enough places to put everything, so it gets cluttered.  I decided that the next time I went to Ikea, I would get another Rast dresser and jazz it up to match the one that is already in the girls' room. Here's a photo, and even though I am really much better at sewing than painting, I just have to point out that the middle drawer was completed by my daughter, who was 4 at the time, lest you think that was my handiwork. 

What I made.

What I wanted to make.

Now imagine my sadness when I finally made it to Ikea (it's two hours away) and their Rast dressers were out of stock. Ack!  What am I going to do? Thankfully, thanks to Pinterest, I had seen several different ideas already on making a storage bench out of their Trofast line.  Here's the original link I liked, as well as this one and this one too. I'm pretty handy, but actually building something without directions is out of the question for me right now (I'm also having a baby in a few weeks!), so I decided to go with the Trofast bench in solid pine (it's pretty solid and somewhat heavy).  After assembly, I spray painted it white and then added in the buckets / tubs from Ikea.  

Here's a snapshot of how the completed bench turned out:

Looks pretty good!

Obviously, I was inspired by the links above and wanted to make a cushion for the the top.  It just so happened that a few weekends ago JoAnn's was having a sale on foam (60% off!, that's a deal in my book!).  So I dashed over and grabbed about a yard of some 2 in. foam.  I found this girly print in the clearance rack for $5/yard:

This awesome print was a steal at $5/yard!

I ended up doing my own pattern for the cushion cover, and made the cushion just a little bit smaller than the entire top of the bench. It fits really nicely, and I'm super happy with how it turned out. I sewed the whole thing on the sewing machine and even got the corners to look nice, now that's an accomplishment!  The total size of the cushion is 35.5 in by 15.5 in.  It's has an underside like a pillowcase, so I can remove it and wash it. The cushion only took me one day to finish, sewing a little bit here and there so my feet wouldn't swell up too much, and I love how easy Ikea's furniture is to put together. I used one can of primer + white gloss to cover the wood.  The girls love it as much as I do!  On to the next project...

More storage = one happy mama. 

Let's use up those broken crayons!

If you're even half as much addicted to Pinterest as I am, you've probably seen this activity before. Here's a link I used to start with: Here. I was curious to see if itactually worked. (Spoiler alert: It does!) Another friend wanted to do it, but didn't have the space in her home, so I got some more friends together, and we got to work! It was actually really easy, but I learned a few tips and tricks along the way.  Check out how cool these turned out below!

It took me two tries to get these beauties!

My daughter thought they needed a friend.

Basic Directions:
Start by gathering all your broken crayons or pick up some cheap wax crayons at the dollar store. It's very important that they are wax, because I tried to use some fancy art crayons that the kids had already broken and they didn't melt at all. Then I had to try and remove them from a hot muffin tin of melted wax. Not fun.Ouch.

We sprayed our muffin tins with the tiniest bit of non-stick cooking spray and then filled them up as much as we wanted with crayons of similar color in each muffin cup. Let your imagination go wild here, any color combo would probably work and would make for some fun crayons! You can also use any kind of muffin tin that you want, there are some cool-shaped ones that go on sale around the holidays, so be on the lookout for a good deal. I think these would make fun presents!

Pop the tin in the oven at 225 degrees and check them every few minutes.  We found that some of the colors seemed to sink to the bottom and a clear-ish wax was left on the very top.  I tried to remedy this on my second go-around by mixing each color with a toothpick before letting it cool.  When the crayons are all melted, you can let it cool on the counter and then put it in the freezer to cool completely. This will also make the crayons pop right out of the tin! I did break one crayon by just dumping the frozen ones out on the counter, so be aware of that.

And that's pretty much it! Enjoy!

A tip:
One of the websites talked about using tin foil to line the muffin cups, I definitely don't recommend this! Either go out and buy a cheapo one or pick one up at a thrift store. Lining the cups with tin foil just made them look yucky and crinkly (I like them better smooth) and some of the wax leaked anyways, so it was a lot of work for nothing. I ended up combining the crinkly crayons with some leftover crayons and making new ones that I like a lot better.

Taking all the tin foil off my crinkly crayons. 

I like the color, but that's about it. Messy!

Happy Crafting!

Aloha!

Our family was recently invited to a Luau, so of course I had to get crafty! Last year, we went and didn't wear anything Hawaiian (except the leis they provided), so I thought that this year I would make the girls some cute outfits out of some Hawaiian print material I found at Jo-Ann's.

I finished the bubble skirt for my 1.5 year old yesterday:

I was so happy with the results! I used this awesome tutorial as a guide, but I made-up my own measurements for the skirt, as well as fudged my way along to make a casing for the waistband.

Now I've been researching on Pinterest for a dress for my 5 year old, as she said that she wanted a dress and not a skirt. Stay tuned!!

Organizing!!

So lately I've been super busy trying to organize, well, pretty much everything! This has left little time for crafting, except for making a bunch of baby bibs for presents. When we moved into our house, there was this one room with two big closets, but just one shelf near the top. Thankfully, a friend was about to come over and install nice shelving for me, oh about a year ago!! And finally, I've been able to get all of my crafts organized into one closet (well, sorta) and the kids' toys in the other. I don't have a huge stockpile of crafts or fabrics, but just a lot of little pieces that get cluttered around if they don't have a home. I have been searching on Pinterest for some easy ways to organize, and finally settled on plastic totes. Genius time, right? :)

So here's a photo of part of it, and like I said, it's a work in progress!! I just wish I could have my own giant room devoted to all of the fun things I've collected, then I could finally use them all (and then just collect more!).