Festive, Easy, Fourth of July Skirts

Tonight I finished 3 skirts in 3 hours! (Less if you count that break for checking Facebook). I used an awesome tutorial for a simple skirt from Dana Made It, and it couldn't have been easier! I'll walk you through some basic steps, but head over to her site for the low-down on how to make an easy skirt in less than an hour!

My girls and I switched up our playroom yesterday, and moved my sewing stuff into the room, and moved about half of their toys out (and into a friend's garage sale---yes!). Since 4th of July is next week, I thought it would be the perfect time to try out my new space and finally put this fabric to use (it's probably from last year, not gonna lie). 

So festive! 

I'm pretty sure I bought this as a remnant, and I had just enough for 2 skirts for the big girls!

And (so proud of myself for this), I actually ironed and
added little touches like the top-stitching on the top of the elastic casing.

Double stitching on the hem (you can see where I started using up a bobbin of white thread here!).

After I finished those 2 skirts, I found this starry fabric quarter and decided to make a little skirt for my little daughter. She's 2 and I cut the fabric quarter the long way, so that I'd have a little extra length for her. 

After cutting 2 equal pieces with a pinking shears, sew together to form a large tube and press out your seams. (and I used my iron this time around too!)

I then ironed the bottom hem up a little bit.

I then used some leftover bias tape for the bottom hem.

To make the upper casing for the elastic, I first ironed down the top a small amount (like I did with the bottom already), then ironed down enough to cover my elastic. I ironed down about an inch because I used 3/4" non-roll elastic for this project. For the 2 skirts up top, I used 1" elastic.  Don't forget to leave a space in your casing so that you can pull the elastic through! 

Sewing the bottom of the casing.

 

Sewing the top of the casing.

Finally, I used a safety pin to pull the elastic through the casing.  I left it open for now, since I will measure the skirts on my daughters tomorrow, and then finish the skirts by sewing the elastic together and sewing the casings shut. Easy, peasy! 

And, it always helps to have a hot mug of tea to keep you company on late nights!  This is my new favorite mug, that I found while cleaning my house. It was a gift from a good friend, and the verse always reminds me of her! 

One of these days I'll have to do a post about my latest (and I think last) organizational method, the Konmari Method. I have gotten rid of so much junk that was just cluttering up my house; it's been amazing! 

Thanks for reading! Follow along to see the big reveal tomorrow and for other fun crafts and ideas! You can enter your email (look in the right sidebar on desktop) or "like" me (and a few posts) on Facebook! 

~Patricia

100th Day of School Ideas!

If you're like me, you realized at 8pm last night (during a Super Bowl party) that your 2nd grader has a "100th Day of School" project due. Tomorrow.

My daughter had told me when she brought home the assignment that she wanted to do a gumball machine and when she asked last night if she could have a gumball from her friend's machine.....everything clicked!  It was a late night / early morning, but she (we) got it done!

Whew!  Project completed!

I got the gumball machine from a free printable from PlumAdorable.com.  Here's the link: click here!  I loved the simplicity of it, but it was originally supposed to be printed as a 12 x 8 photo at a place like Costco. Ain't nobody got time for that at 8pm the night before!  I ended up printing it as a Google Drive document at 75% magnification, cutting it out and then gluing it to black construction paper and then to a flat canvas that I had lying around. G did a great job putting the stickers on and adding the title and drawing some money in the slot. The stickers are the kind you'd use in a garage sale to tag items. I think I got them at Target awhile back.

If you find you're in a jam (like I was), I found a bunch of awesome resources for 100th Day of School project in my search yesterday (apparently this is a big thing in schools), and I've put them here for you to look at and find the one that's best for you. I'm pinning my own post for next year! 

This list of 50 ideas from likemomandapplepie.blogspot.com

This list of the 25 best ideas from classymommy.com

These hat and t-shirt ideas from kindercraze.com

And this blog post from a teacher with fruit loop necklace ideas and classroom ideas! From kinder-pond.blogspot.com

Happy 100th Day of School!

Little sister had to do her own project too! 

~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

Watermelon

Awhile ago I came across this video which explains how to easily cut watermelon. It's pretty genius, and if you haven't watched it, you should!  It's pretty awesome.  Now, I always think that perhaps the people who make these videos are like, professional chefs or something, and there's no way I could ever do the same thing and make it look quite as nice and easy.  

So I tried it, and I failed. I think if I would have had or been able to use a more flexible knife to cut around the inside of the watermelon, it would have worked. Is that a thing, a flexible knife?  BUT, then I just cut the watermelon into fourths (instead of halves) and it worked really well! 

The watermelon cut into fourths, then sliced all around, as in the video.

Chunks came out!

There was just a little bit left inside, not bad!

C and M liked helping (sorry for the blurry photo, they were too busy eating to stand still)! 

Well, mostly they were eating the watermelon, but that's helpful, since my husband doesn't like watermelon. Someone's got to eat it! :)

I love reading about all sorts of life hacks, and this is one that I will definitely continue trying to perfect. 

And if anyone knows of a flexible knife I should try, let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Patricia

An Easy Way to Hull Strawberries!

Tired of cutting the tops off of your strawberries? Feeling like you're wasting a bunch of the strawberry that way? Time to try something new! 

Hull your strawberries with a straw! 

Crazy, right?! Actually, it works really well, and I feel like it wastes less strawberry too.  Check out the photos!  I also love that the kids can help with this and I don't have to worry about them getting cut with a sharp knife. 

So easy! 

The kids can help too! 

Give it a try and let me know how it worked for you!

More wool dryer balls!

Because you can never have too many dryer balls! (a friend of mine uses 8 at a time!)

I think they are just so cool, and the kids like to play with them too. :)

In case you missed how to make them, click here! 

DIY Christmas tree onesie

So I took a little break from blogging for the month of December, but that didn't mean that I stopped sewing or creating. Nope, not at all!  Rather, I was just too busy doing all the other stuff that a family has to do in December, besides taking some time to slow down and celebrate the real meaning of the season.

And so, my next few posts are going to be about Christmas.  Maybe you can get a head start on your presents for next year (!) or maybe these will just inspire you to modify and make something even cooler for Valentine's Day. Because there is always another holiday right around the corner! 

The Christmas Onesie:

If you're not following me on Pinterest yet, you really should (let me know, and I'll follow you back!)  I found this idea on there, but of course when I tried to go back and find it again, I couldn't!  I just had to go off of my memory and just make it up as I went along. For your benefit, here's a brief synopsis of how to make a ribbon Christmas Tree onesie. 

Cute, huh?

First you'll want to do a test-run by cutting your ribbon to the right lengths and setting everything out.  As you can see, my original idea involved a lot more buttons than the final product. I also was going to use a shiny green ribbon, but then decided against it. I also heat-sealed all of the ribbon edges to prevent fraying.  But, the material of that particular green ribbon wouldn't heat-seal (it kept lighting on fire actually), so I skipped it. 

And here's how NOT to make it. When starting this project I forgot one very crucial step. Which will happen when you are going off of a picture in your memory and not directions. Crucial-step-do-not-forget-or-your-project-will-be-a-mess:  Stabilizer. Yep. Just a simple iron-on stabilizer makes a world of difference when you're sewing on a knit onesie.  Obviously, I had to rip out the first four rows and start completely over after using my trusty iron-on stabilizer. I use the tear-away kind, and it's kinda fun to rip it all off when you're done sewing. 

I think if I were to make it again, I'd think ahead and buy a cooler button for the top and bottom.  Maybe a square-shaped button for the bottom and a cool yellow star for the top.  I could always change it out, but that means I'd have to remember them next time I go to Joann's, and I can barely remember my name when I go there, I get so overwhelmed from all the crafts I could make-colors, fabrics, paper,yarn!!!! I will just keep it as is for now (hey, Christmas is past anyways), and improve upon it for next year. 

~Patricia

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Easy American Girl Doll Cape

For Christmas, I decided I wanted to make a few things for my daughter's American Girl Doll. (You can see all of the ideas I've pinned on my AG doll idea board on Pinterest here). 

But probably the best tutorial I found was for a cute, easy cape from Strictly Homemade here. I made this in less than an hour, and it's so soft and cozy, I'd probably make a full-size one for my daughter, except there is probably only 3 days out of the whole year she could wear it where we live. :)

Here's the dolly looking pretty cozy!

I modified the pattern she gave a little bit, since I had already bought soft and cuddly fabric, not fleece (which would have been a genius idea, had I found the pattern before I bought the material). Originally I had thought I would just make a pattern on my own, then I searched Pinterest, because someone out there probably thought to make a cape for their AG doll before, right?  It probably took me 2 minutes to find this tutorial. Fleece is nice because it doesn't fray, so you don't need to spend time hemming.  I used soft and cuddly on one side and red felt on the other, so technically mine is reversible. I bought a cute 1" fur trim and hand-stitched it and the ribbon ties on. 

Here are some action photos!

After cutting out the pieces, I made sure to pin, pin, pin and then trim the circles to make them even! 

Pinning again!

I sewed everything but the interior circle, then I turned it right-side out....

...then hand-stitched the fur trim and ribbon ties. 

Ta-da!!! Super cute and ready to party!

Like I said, super easy and cute, right? My daughter was so excited Christmas morning! I also made some awesome reversible skirts for her doll too.  I'll share the details on those later this week, stay tuned!

~Patricia

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