Project Finally Finished!

A little background: I started a t-shirt quilt about 5 years ago.  I wanted to preserve some of our college and Europe shirts before they were stained, holey, and too gross to use.  With the help of my grandma, I pieced the blocks together and began the binding.  I remember going to her house in Cheyenne, armed with my quilt top, needles, and Lillian.  We made a good start to the process...but I never finished it. 



Life happened.  I was busy with school, Lucas came along, and the quilt was never a priority. 

IT IS FINALLY DONE!!!

Another One Finished...

I started with a thrifted pillowcase...




And ended with a skirt for Lillian.

This is not an original idea; I found several tutorials online like here .

I've also seen tutorials for pillowcase dresses but haven't seen one that I think will look right on a big 6 year old- adorable on younger girls but I fear my Lillian is growing up!

Freshly Picked

Just Add Glitter

Wardrobe Refashion

Here is a project I worked on today:

I started with an Old Navy knit shirt, sz large. I had it in the donate pile and dug it out for this project. I measured Lillian and cut the sides to take it in to fit her.



I used cookie cutters to cut out flower and butterfly shapes in a fun fabric.

The finished product: a little wide in the shoulder but has that 80's casual look to it.

Inspiration

I've cleaned out the Favorites tab on my computer and added some of the sites I regularly visit to my sidebar under My Favorite Sites and Inspiration. For my crafty/sewing readers, you might find something interesting for your next project. My list of "projects" has morphed into something huge! I have so many ideas swimming in my head...

Any new projects in your life?

Just Braggin'

I am so proud of this shirt! I made this for Lucas from a men's XL t-shirt and pieces of ribbing from another shirt, both bought at a thrift store for .50 each. It is completely upcycled from previously worn fabric and I have no more than $1 in the whole shirt! I used the tutorial from MADE to create my own pattern from a shirt Lucas currently wears and then cut out the pieces and stitched it up!

While the tutorial says 90 minutes, it took me closer to 3 hrs since I had to cut the pattern first. And, of course, it didn't happen all in one night. I am addicted to these now! I'm ready to start my next one but have to round up some more knit fabric to work with.

Look What I Made!

I'm finally starting my list of summer projects. This skirt was so easy to do and could have been finished in less than 2 hours, start to finish, if I didn't have people asking for a drink and a snack every 30 minutes. I found the idea HERE.

Grace Violet is quickly becoming my go-to spot for easy, crafty sewing ideas. I really need to find some ideas for boys. If any of you know of some great sites, let me know.

Look What I Made!

I found the inspiration here.

Grace Violet has given me other ideas that I am trying out this week. The spring weather has made me motivated and inspired! I will show you my creations as they are finished. Some have to remain secret because I intend to give some as gifts.

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Seriously, this dress was easy, peasy! I bought smocked fabric at Hobby Lobby (hurry, it sells out fast), then chose a coordinating fabric to lengthen the dress to fit my young colt, and finally attached straps. This has so many options! I could have made it strapless but, hey, she's only 5. It could be a tunic with leggings underneath. I have a tiny bit left over to made a matching dress for one of her dolls.

Look What I Made!

After seeing a friend's idea at church (thanks, Amber!), I decided to make something like it for Lillian. We started with a colorful paper folder. Then, I chose several sheets of felt in various colors.

I glued a black background to both sides using good ol' Elmer's. Next time, I think I'll use hot glue and I'll tell you why in a minute.



The last and best step was to design/create/cut out whatever Lillian wanted to "stick" to her felt background. If you've never played with felt, it is a wonderful thing that sticks to itself. I used no pattern (isn't it obvious!) and Lillian decorated the face. We cut clothes and decorated with sequins or made designs to glue to the front of shirts. I will use hot glue next time because Elmer's doesn't hold felt to felt very well.

We took our finished product to church last Sunday for a quiet time activity. I ended up doing a sun, clouds, grass, and flowers as an alternative to the doll and clothes. I store all the pieces in a Zip-loc bag inside the folder and it's ready to go!

I envisioned this turning out way cooler than it did, but Lillian helped with most of it and that made the project very fun no matter how it actually turned out!

Holiday Crafts

*This is posting while we are snow skiing in Red River, NM. A post on that will follow next week.*

Lillian spent a lot of time before Christmas coloring and crafting. She is extremely creative and is constantly coming up with an idea or project she wants to do. There are many things happening in this picture so I'll explain everything.

1. The people circled in the background: She wanted to create a duplicate of herself and Lucas so she could play paper dolls. I helped with tracing and cutting. She chose the clothes colors.

2. The coloring: Lillian dug through a box of cards and found an Easter card from grandparents and decided to color the characters.

3. The snowman at the bottom of the picture: This was her idea to use to decorate the house once the Christmas stuff is put away. She used glitter and crayons to embellish. I had forgotten how messy glitter can be!

By the way, this is how our dining room table looks ALL THE TIME! We simply push everything over to eat then it goes right back to art central.

Fall Crafts and Other Fall Break Happenings

Carving a pumpkin takes precision and skill, something I obviously lack. The mutilated Jack-O-Lantern proves it! We started with a well shaped pumpkin with just the right leaning to display a "face." I drew a face with a Sharpie to define my carving pattern. It took several minutes to get the top off. Lillian kept reassuring me it took her teacher a long time, too.

They finally start to remove the gunk from the middle. Lucas would rather kiss the pumpkin.
I was told she should pose for the picture first before getting her hands dirty because that's what her teacher said.
Lucas plays with the top, smearing it all over his clothes while chomping on a stray piece of cat food.

Switch from cat food to pumpkin- both equally delicious!
Resort to a big spoon when hands get too slimy... because that's what the teacher did. Seriously, enough with the hero worship of the teacher. (Just kidding- I wish some of my students would hero worship me. Maybe they would turn in an assignment on time so I'm not grading late work over Fall Break)

The finished product. Disgusting, isn't it? We added eyelashes to try to hide the mutilated eyes.

Lillian and I did this while Lucas napped this morning. Note the OSU and LY initials.The other shapes are ghosts, pumpkins, and a witch's pot.

Painting pumpkins

Finger Paint

It has already been a busy morning! While cleaning out my extensive pile of recipes to try, I found one for homemade finger paint. I tried it this morning and Lillian helped by adding the food color. It was so easy! I think this would be great to make to use for Bible class, a kid's party, or anywhere you need a large amount of paint for cheap.

Here is the recipe: Stir 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup cornstarch together; add 2 cups of cold water, and heat over medium heat until the mixture is thick (the mixture will further thicken as it cools).

Divide into 4 or more containers, and add food coloring as desired. (I used small ziplock containers)