sewing

In honor of the last official holiday of summer, here’s a classic way to help your child get through the summer heat…a pillow case dress! This is a great project for thebeginning sewer and you can find the materials right in your linen closet! Antique cases with beautiful lacy trim or modern finds straight from Target work well for this project. Thanks to Jen Leheny for the simple tutorial, which can be found by clicking the photo to your left of the super cute dress!

From Tator Tots and Jello, here’s a compilation of 20 different, inspiring and beautiful headboards…some that can come together in just a weekend. I especially love this one from Design*Sponge. I am all about turquoise right now! I wonder if there is a tutorial on how to make that fabulous wreath above the bed? LOVE IT!

Nate’s first day of Pre-K was just wonderful, and he is no doubt enjoying the second day as we speak. I only teared up for about 5 seconds before we told him goodbye…I was talking so much that I didn’t have time to cry! We love his teacher Mrs. Brown, and we can’t wait to see what the year has in store for him. Here’s his picture from yesterday morning, all ready to go:

My sugar pie, all grown up.

And of course, I had a ball making his lunch….I’ll post it all on Monday for my Bento Monday series! He actually ate the majority of it, which was very surprising. I wasn’t sure he’d have enough time to eat/talk. He is my child, you know…we can talk all day long! But Ms. Ashley, the student intern from UALR who will be in his class this year, told me that he was asking for lunch at 10:00 yesterday, so he must have been hungry!

Last Friday I showed you guys the Zuckertute I made for his first day of school and gave you easy steps on how to make one. We let him open the Wednesday night, and let’s just say he loved it!

Happy, happy, happy!

When as old you are, look at cool you will not.

All the captain's spoils

Zuckertute head!

It was such fun! Keep a Zuckertute in mind for your child’s first day of school, or for any other very special occasion.

Now your marching orders for the weekend….something new to eat, and a craft for you and the kids.

Mmmmm...breakfast!

From one of my fave food blogs, Framed, here’s something new to add to your weekend breakfast repertoire….Bacon and Egg Muffins! Delish! Click on the photo for the yummy instructions.

Wearable artsy goodness

And from another fav, Filth Wizardry, here’s an artsy craft for the painter child in the family. She made this skirt from 2 flour sack dishtowels from the Dollar Tree, using Sharpie markers and watered down acrylic paint. For those of you who don’t have an immediate need for a skirt, sew 3 sides of the towels together, stuff and handstich the top closed to make a pillow! Click on the photo for the tutorial.

That’s it guys! I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

A tank top and  a rubber band. Really! ….love Meagen has the genius idea and photo tutorial…click on the photo to check it out!

I am really digging wreaths at the moment, and I always dig anything that Alisa Burke comes up with. She posted a tutorial for this leafy wreath that you could hang on your door any season, but you could make it specifically for spring with pastel colored leaves or fall with oranges, reds and browns.

She used a product called sticky back canvas from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line available at Michaels to create the leaves for the wreath. I’ve never used it before and it sounds awesome, but you could do the same with a heavier cotton fabric and craft paints.

If you like the leaf stamps Alisa used here, you can also purchase them from her Etsy store, very reasonably priced I might add!

I’m the kind of person that when I get my mind to something, I have to do it. Just slightly obsessive that way. I did a post a while back about transforming t-shirts, quite easily I might add, into shopping bags (Martha!)….last weekend I revisited the post , and my mind started whirling and clicking….can I do the same with a kid’s t-shirt? Why, yes you can, and once I get my mind to something…..

Aaron and his friends were outside playing darts that night, so as I had some me time I thought I’d move on my plan. I raided Nate’s closet for some shirts he’d grown out of. This is what I came up with:

The players: a 2 sizes too small pajama shirt, scissors and thread...not show: sewing machine and my imagination

Here’s the how-to…..SO EASY:

Lay flat and line up your seams...then cut off his arms!! Set aside for later.

Sew the bottom of the shirt closed. You can use pins to secure the opening, but I'm lazy like that and didn't.

I used a zig-zag stich for stability, since this is a little boy’s bag we are talking about. I’m not sure if that is the “correct” stich for a jersey, stretch pajama shirt, but it worked!

I even went back over the first row of stiches just to be sure it was good and sturdy.

Then I sewed the armholes shut, but....

I didn’t like how rounded the sides of the bag looked…when you flipped the bag right side out, in the middle of each side there was a bump from where the armpit seam curved out. So I grabbed a sharpie and freehanded some new seam lines and…

...it looked much more bag-like!

So that was it for the body of the bag…pretty simple, huh? You really can make this, cross my heart! On to the creating the handle for the bag.

I took both sleeves and trimmed off the part that connects to the arm hole.

Yes, I used pins to keep the sleeves together...it was around 11 pm at this point and mama was bleary-eyed.

Pin and sew the open ends of the sleeves together to create one long strip of sleeve, with the cuffs on either end.

Pin each cuff onto the top of the bag, below the neck line.

Using a zig-zag stitch, sew the cuff in place, going back and forth several times for stability.

Volia!

 The Hulk bag is complete!

Inside shot

I put a few of his colored pencils and a coloring book inside it and presented it to him the next morning.

Methinks he is happy

Checking out the inside

Yep, I think the boy is pleased

All in all, this took me about 1 1/2 hours, and if I’d had a better plan in the beginning it would have only taken me 30 minutes tops. I REALLY like the results, and I can see myself making several more of these for friend’s birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. As a matter of fact, I’ve ideas of different versions brewing in my head as I type…

Ah ha! Another super cute and NO SEW project! Thanks to Nikki at Salty Pinapple, you can create this super cute portable tic-tac-toe game for your kids or for a birthday present in no time flat. And you probably have all the supplies you need at home, right now, to make this.

So why are you still sitting there? GO CREATE!

Now, since we’ve moved I have not had an honest to goodness crafting station, so I’ve not been able to really make anything. It’s slowly starting to eat away at my sanity.

So when I spot a project like that that involves nothing more that a XL men’s shirt, scissors and opposable thumbs, I’m all over it. Thanks to Ali of Found in the “Ali”we can all re-purpose our husband’s tshirts this weekend into fashionable tops! Click on the photo for a tutorial. If only the shirts would make us look that svelte.

Photo from homemade by jill

For all the preggos with a sewing machine, a big tshirt and some elastic…this one’s for you! Check out this easy tutorial on homemade by jill on how to turn a too big tshirt into a maternity shirt. Even if you are not pregnant this would be a great gift for an expecting mama.

I am a scarf fiend. I wear one almost every day, usually the same one over and over. From what I understand, scarves are now a year round accessory. I want to introduce more into my life, but, as is the case with most mamas, I lack the funds to buy them and the time to make them. Enter the jersey scarf!

I’ve found several tutorials on the web for both no-sew and sewing required scarves. I believe anyone can make these….for some all you need is a t-shirt! Click on the photos for the tutorials.

No-sew circle scarf from My Waking Memories

Sewing required t-shirt scarf, sized for a child or adult, from Ruffles and Stuff (remember their petal backpack?)

Another sewing required ruffled scarf, but a little more fancy....from Hope Studios.

Just cut and wear! Jersey scarves from Little Birdie Secrets.

I would love to hear if you guys make any of these? Leave a comment and I’ll link to your sure-to-be gorgeous creation. Have fun!