Halloween Apron Tutorial-ish

It was brought to my attention that by the time I got the girl's costumes finished it would be too late to share the pattern because it would more than likely already be Halloween by then. Yes, I've been procrastinating making the costumes.

Please excuse the crummy photos but here is the general gist of the girls costumes. These are very versatile aprons I've designed based on one we found at a thrift store eons ago. I'm putting a very basic peasant shift under each which will later be used as jammies or decorated for regular wear dresses. The aprons are small enough to not take up much room after the holiday and the materials are inexpensive.

 I took each girls measurements and drew out the pattern. The front panel is cut 4 times (fold in half and cut on the fold for the chest piece). I added 1/4" seam allowance to each side of each measurement.

Sew together at the shoulders and iron open to creat a rectangle with a rectangle in the center with raw edges all round the outside. Pin right sides together and top stitch along the inner rectangle. Turn right side out and iron flat. Iron a 1/4" hem along the outer sides leaving the bodice bottom open.

The bottom apron is cut approx 5" wider than the top and I hand pleated it to make a "skirt" Sew the skirt right sides together to the back and front of the waist pieces on the bodice. The ties are 3" by 25" made into a double fold bias that was sewn on top of the seam of the top and skirt.

I used a scrap piece of white and navy blue bias tape (because that's what I had on hand) to creat the little crossed bodice on the front of Emmy's. She's Little Red Riding Hood. Her peasant underdress will be white and I will be making a red fleece hooded capelet for her.

Olivia is going to be Alice in Wonderland. I used very inexpensive white muslin for her apron. I sandwhiched some ruffled edging along the outer sides of the bodice. Her underdress will be light blue.

Cordelia is going as Dorothy from Oz. Her apron will be blue checked like Emmy's but without the front detail, she'll have a white underdress too. She's the only one that got anything additional in the form of red sparkly shoes. But again, she can reuse those after the festivities are over.

If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer, I know written directions can be a little vague but I just don't have the time to do a full blow tutorial right now! Hopefully you understand.

Frogger + Pacman + Japan + Toiletries = Awesome.

I stumbled upon this tutorial while searching for a link to send a friend. Instantly, I knew I had to make this bag. I'm going away for my birthday weekend next week and am lacking in the awesome toiletry bag department. Actually, I have no toiletry bag at all, so this was a welcomed project.

The whole thing whipped up in about an hour. Though your time might be significantly less if you're not pausing to wipe yogurt out of someone's hair, changing dirty diapers or chasing children around the house trying to retrieve forks, permanent markers and other random hazards. Even with those distractions, I still ended up with a rockin' bag.

The instructions are straight forward, lots of photos and free. What's not to love? I will say this is fairly small. If you carry a small department store's cosmetics counter with you, you'll need to make a larger bag. I'm not judging, just forewarning. Fortunately, for me, my toiletry needs are simple and sparse; shampoo, spare contacts, toothbrush and deodorant. Easy peasy. And, dare I say, Japaneesy.

I got this fabric as a freebie when I ordered my last shipment of Japanese Lego fabric. It's imported from Japan, is a medium weight cotton canvas and just about the coolest thing ever. How can you not be drawn to the Frogger-Pacman-esque theme? The myriad of dots, stripes, Japanese words I have no idea how to read, and zigzags call out to the primal Eighties era crafter in me. Until now, it had sit in my stash being neglected. I just couldn't figure out what to make with it.

The inside is lined with a scrap piece of orange dots. The zipper was actually an 18" I cut to size and the tabs on the sides are grosgrain ribbon because I didn't feel like making them. I already have plans on making another for sewing stuff.

I love this bag.

Wooden Hanging Organization Tags -Tutorial

I am desperately trying to organize my craft stuff. I have carved out a tiny seven by four foot space in the dining/living/entry room for which I have only crafty stuff. I also have a bunch of fabric stacked up in the only real downstairs closet. I'm working on thinning out my stash. Really, I am.

In the mean time I need a place to store all my goodies that doesn't really look like I'm storing craft stuff above the diningroom table. I found these great wicker baskets on clearance at Joann's today and decided these would be great. Trouble is, I can't see what's in them and labeling wicker doesn't really work. So, I searched through my supplies and came up with these: Hanging Wooden Labels.

Before

Materials -
yarn or ribbon
sharpie paint pen

round wooden discs

Tools-

a power drill with a 1/4-1/8" bit depending on your yarn thickness though you could just thread the yarn in  a needle and poke it through that way.

CAREFULLY- I cannot express how careful you need to be here- drill a hole through the disc near the top.

Write on it.

Thread the yarn through.

Tie it to the basket.

After!

This project is really inexpensive and if you have better penmanship than I do, you could make some really beautiful labels for your stuff. You could also use a wood burner to write it...which I would have done if I didn't just this second think of it.

These would be cute decorating drawers, gift baskets, book bags, lunch boxes, heck, all kinds of stuff that needs labeling.

Prefold cloth diaper to semi-fitted - Tutorial

We use prefold diapers and covers over at our house. I find that I like them a lot better than any other cloth diaper both for use and cost. I've mastered quite a few folding techniques and the covers do a good job keeping the cotton in, but with a boy, getting that just-right-fit is difficult.

Especially, if they're like Max and like to "help" you put the diaper on by taking it off or try and run away all together.

I've been working on this for a little bit, the nice thing is that it doesn't have to be perfect since no one will really see it and if they do, chances are they're poo-stained anyway. Who's going to look closely at sewing lines at that point?

Take your flat diaper, I use unbleached indian cotton, and lay it flat. Measure out approx 5" on one side and 3.5" on the other. The five inches will be the "back" and the 3.5 the "front" when you put the diaper on. Mark these places and draw a semi-circle connecting them like this:

Sew a tack stitch along the line you made. Cut off the semi-circles along the sitch line without cutting the stitches.

Cut off the stitching along one end and "open" the diaper so the outside is now inside ripping the inside seams apart. You might have to work the folds of the middle section a bit. Sew it all the way around the edges and then turn it back right side out.

You may have to sew down the side where the fold of the diaper meets. Sew a top stitch around the whole diaper and on the end you opened sew it closed with a tight zig zag.

Less leg bulk all the absorbtion!

Alphabet Scramble Game -Tutorial

This is a fun homeschool game that combines reading, spelling and writing. It helps exercise imaginative and problem solving skills and can be exciting and fun too! I call it Alphabet Scramble. It costs less than five bucks to make and can be used for multiple grade levels.

I bought these tiles from Michales. With a 40% off coupon they came out to be about $2.50 (reg. $3.99)  for the package of sixty tiles. If you have a scrabble game that you can recycle the cost will be much less.

Materials

One 8x12 piece of canvas
ribbon or braided string approx 12" or a lone shoestring
Fabric Marker or permanant marker
Alphabet tiles or recycled scrabble tiles

Using the canvas and ribbon make a drawstring bag. You can really make this any size as long as hands can get into it to pull out tiles. Mine has ties on only one side. I used a scrap piece of canvas to write the name of the game on it with the fabric markers and attached this to the front of the bag.

Fill it up with the tiles.

Set your kid to work.

You can change the rules of the game to suit the skill you want to improve. Alex took a handful of tiles and has to write five words at least four letters long. I had him write the set of letters he pulled out above each set of words he wrote. (Creation was the biggest one so far!)

For the littler girls, that are kindy/1st grade, I'll have them make three letter words. You could add a timer, set a certain number of tiles to pull out, play a game where two people go head to head, making words with the same letters and then compare after giving points for each word or number of letters used in each word. There are a lot of possibilities with the game.

I'd love to hear your own Alphabet Scramble game stories!

Reversable Scrap Party Bunting (or banner) - Tutorial

I made this in the course of about 45 minutes from start to finish, including feeding kids and taking photos for the tutorial. I love these banners. They're bright, colorful, easy to make which is why I have no idea why they are so expensive on Etsy. I *heart* supporting handmade. I do not heart overpricing.

The hard part with the buntings (which I had no idea that was what they were called. I thought they were "banners") comes when you have different gendered kids. Trying to find a happy gender neutral colored party pennant can drive you batty. So, I made a reversable one. One side is girly, the other, not. Which means this will have to be hung where only the side you want shown shows but that's okay. Once you make one, you'll see how easy making another is and your house will have streamers all over the place for every holiday, birthday, event and day of the week. If you can sew a relatively straight line and cut a mostly straight line, you can make a really nice bunting.

I grabbed my two gallon ziplock bag of scraps and made a triangle template. The larger the triangles the less you need for the same size space. Mine are 6.5"w x 8.75" tall which I estimated would give about a 6"x8" finished triangle.

Cut out equal number of triangles for each side of the bunting. You can make this as short or long as you like. I found that doing a number divisible by 2 worked well so I can hang it evenly. I was able to use all scraps save for three triangles.

Pin right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance along the two long sides of the triangle.

Clip off the tip of the triangle making sure you don't clip off the stitches.

Turn right side out and use a blunt tipped point to poke out the triangle tips. Iron flat. You can also sew again around the edges of the triangle if you want to really secure them together but I chose not to do this.

I used double fold quilt bias tape to string them together. I found it on clearance a while back. It's not a color I'd ever bind a quilt in I don't think. Clearance makes me buy stuff I don't really need but in this case it worked out.

Fold in the corners to form a triangle, then fold that into itself and pin in place.

Pin each triangle inside the fold of the bias tape and pin down.

Add the next triangle. I used my cutting mat as a guide and placed each about 2" apart. 

 

Sew it down the fold on the ends then straight across the bias tape with about a 1/4" seam allowance. Make sure you have those triangles pushed all the way against the fold in the tape so you don't miss any edges. Clip your stray threads and Wah-lah (I have no idea how to spell French) you're done!

Boy side

Girl side

It's machine washable and folds down small enough to store with ease. I'd love to see the buntings you make with my directions! Party on, crafty friends, party on.

How to make a recycled Garden Hod -tutorial

Okay, so I admit it right here and now that I am not a carpenter. I never said I was one. I have zero carpentry skills. I usually have the guys at Lowes cut my wood for me when I have a project. Sad, I know. But I have scrap wood and power tools that are MINE. Which means idle hands get to mess around and make kinda crappy looking wooden things. This makes me happy, I won't apologize.

I made a table out of mdf once. It rapidly fell over. I've gotten much better*. I promise.

Today, I took about twenty minutes and I made myself a garden hod. I saw one in the Lehman's catalog and it's very pretty. And too expensive for me when I harvest about 3.4621 ounces of stuff a day. I love Lehman's but there are a couple nice ones up on Etsy right now that I urge you to check out if you must buy one. Support Handmade!

There is one pretty tutorial on how to make these particularly useful garden baskets but it requires more skills than I have and I have to buy materials and/or make fancy wood cuts. If you want to make a pretty one, go ahead. Go, I'm not stopping you.

For those of you that stayed, we're making a hod with straight lines and spare parts that I really didn't even have to cut. I used my cordless circular saw a total of once. We're that kinda scrappy and simple over here.

First gather up all the scrap wood you have laying around and stick it in a relatively neat pile along with all the tools you need. I have a power drill, power circular saw, a power screw hole maker (I told you I'm not a carpenter), a recycled formula container of scews and not pictured, a ruler and a colored pencil stolen from Alex's homeschool desk.

Line up your wood to make sure they're all relatively the same length. Looks familiar, huh? These are all the scrap pieces from filling in the pallets for the deck. These will be the bottom and sides of the hod.

Cut one piece of wood into two equal pieces, like below. Here is where that one saw cut came in. I think it was about 8". These will be the ends of the hod.

Line up your first piece of wood along the bottom of one side on a short end of the end cap piece. Predrill a hole all the way through into the side board with the power screw hole maker thing.

Do this all the way around. Attaching first one side then marking with the ruler and pencil on the other to make sure the side spaces are mostly accurately spaced. The bottom spaces are going to be less wide than the sides but still wide enough that you can use the basket as a seive, to rinse off dirt and debris from your harvest.

Finish up the other side.

Then attach a handle to the top. I looked around for a fallen tree limb to make it even more recycled but all the wood around here is too rotten and I didn't like cutting off a new limb from a healthy tree. I left space on the sides to get in larger items and I still have to go over the edges to smooth them out so I don't hurt myself on it.

 Here is the finished Hod!

Here it is with the harvest from today!

Have fun harvesting!

*"much better" is a relative term meaning now I over do stuff so much that it will not ever fall apart. Though it might not be even, straight or plumb (I do know what that means.)

Easy add-on Pockets (or how to make a 5 year old deliriously happy)

You might remember this dress from our beach side photo shoot a few weeks ago.

It's a cute plain knit dress that cost under $10 new. I usually don't go for matchy stuff for the kids (since it's just about impossible to find five things in all their sizes that go together) but for the sake of nice pictures I do my best. My issue with matchy-matchy clothes is that it really boggs down the individual personalities of each kid and makes it a pain to get them dressed since 9 out of 10 someone's something that goes with it is lost/dirty/stained. (This is purely my opinion and yes, I do think matched outfits are cute).

So, Cordelia donned her plain yellow dress and I frowned. Uhmph, I thought, she needs more oopmh. So, we went down to the sewing area and picked out some fabric to make pockets. Every little kid needs pockets to hold their "stuff".

She chose mermaids with honey comb insides. I actually already had these cut for a quilt so it knocked time off preping the fabric.

Cut 4 squares 1/2' larger than the desired finished size. They can be all the same but Cordi wanted the honey combs too. I think it's cute.

Pin them right sides together and sew a 1/4" around THREE SIDES leaving a 1/4" space from the end of the unsewn end.

Snip off the edges and turn inside out, use a pencil to poke out the edges to make sharp corners.

It's nice to have a little help too.

We also embellished them a bit with some blue large ricrac to make it look like waves. Cordelia was really excited about this little addition. (sorry for the crummy lighting).

Fold in the tops using a ruler to make sure they come out the same size. Pin in place and sew across the open top (and across the ricrac of you add it).

Since we're dealing with a knit, we had to really make sure to pin these down well so the fabric didn't shift or pucker when we sewn the cotton pockets on.

Sew around three sides making sure to reinforce where the top of the pocket meets the dress. These will get a lot of wear and you want to make sure it doesn't rip.

What a difference some easy 15 minute pockets make! Cordelia -who liked the dress well enough to begin with - LOVES her "new" mermaid pocket dress. And no one else will have one like it.