Sewing lately

I have been sewing a lot lately.  Haven't kept very good records though.  

I made myself a bag from an Amy Butler pattern.  It is a perfect size for a weekend trip.  Every time I see it I want to go on a weekend getaway.  I used fabric from premier prints and lots of interfacing and pellon inside the bag.  It has a nice big zipper and it sturdy and just cool.

 My 17 year old needed a prom dress that covered her shoulders and didn't break the bank.  We tried some on at stores and got the style figured out and then made our own.  This combined 2 or 3 patterns and I think the put skirts (lining, fabric, overlay of chiffon) on probably 8 times.  She kept changing her mind.  Gathered, not gathered, pleats, no pleats, etc.  I learned a lot from making this dress.  She loved it in the end.

Horizontal Stripe Curtains, and a family room in progress

After being in our house for a year now with the family feeling like a blank canvas still... I finally got around to hanging curtains.  My budget for decorating is almost always zero, or near zero so I had to get creative.  I browsed on pinterest and different blogs looking for ideas and I kept coming back to the horizontal stripe curtains.  They are spendy to just buy them so I knew I would make them.  

My color scheme for my family room is basically this picture below:

Kind of by default really.  We had dark brown carpet, I had painted the walls the light blue/grey color because they were dirty/bright yellow when we moved in, we already had a reddish chair, and our couches are the darker tan color.  The entry wall hall is the green-ish color.  So I was glad I found the colors all put together in a scheme like this so I felt like I actually had a scheme going.  I chose the lighter tan and dark brown to make my curtains and I am planning on adding more red accents as time goes on.

The curtains finished:

 I made the blanket ladder you see leaning against that wall.  I want some pretty matching quilts to hang there someday.

I bought two flat bed sheets, twin sized from Wal-Mart for about $5 each.  I cut them each in half length wise, the cut them into 12 1/2" strips width wise.  I sewed four strips of brown to four strips of white, using the bottom edge of the sheet that is already "hemmed" as the bottom strip.  I found a "Family Dollar" store that was closing and found two matching curtains rods for $4.00 each (not the sturdiest feeling rods but they will do the trick) and I already had the clip on curtains rings!  I was left with almost enough of the sheets to make two more panels for the other window in the family room, but I will have to buy two more sheets to completely finish them.  So for about $3 a panel, and $4 a rod, I spent next to nothing on these curtains!

More plans:  copy the barn doors on hinges to cover the tv hole above our fireplace.

And... have my dad visit and build us bookshelves like these on the sides of our fire place.

Oh, and think of something to put over the couch.  And get another couch.  Those are my plans.

Super Hero Bedroom

So our new house needed some personalization and my little boys are only going to be little once.... so we decided on a super hero bedroom.  My husband says I'll just have to change it in a few years.  Maybe he is catching on to my scheme to decorate more!  I'd say I'm about 1/2 way done with this room and it's starting to look so cute!

The boys room is a big room, maybe 14 X 14 so there is a lot of room to play (and make messes).  I like having a big space so we opted to keep the bunk beds as bunk beds.  There is a little table and two chairs I got at a school surplus auction for $5.  Score.  We have one dresser that is ugly right now, maybe it'll get some paint too, and an equally ugly toy/book shelf hidden away by the closet.  There is one big wall that was calling for something special!  A mural!  Now I am not a painter AT ALL but I could put up painters tape and make a basic design. 

I used inspiration from pinterest and etsy.  Just type in city skyline or super hero room decal and you get some ideas of shapes to replicate.  I kinda made it my own.  Each of the spotlights have one of my sons initial in it like someone is calling for their super hero help!  

The bunk bed "bat cave" looks kinda sloppy so I'm thinking it could use some more velcro at the top.  I took tab top curtains that were left at our house when we moved in and added a "CTR" symbol.  It stands for "Choose the Right" in our church and I wanted to bring a bit of the real world into the super hero world.  I want my boys to choose the right and not worship people like batman and spiderman and superman.  They can also be "Choose the Right Men"!  Anyway, I wanted to use the tabs on the top and slip them around the top rail of the bunk bed like in this picture, but it was too wide and there was no way to make it work unless I took apart the entire curtain, or just made new ones.  So I just sewed some velcro onto a few of the tabs, and put the other side of the velcro on the bed itself with sticky back velcro.  The two panels also velcro together in the middle so super hero's can break out of their cave if they want.

Since we just moved I had a ton of boxes naturally so I saved one of the large wardrobe boxes and turned it into a telephone booth!  It is not as sturdy as I would like it to be, but it was free and easy and cute.  I cut some holes in it, added some letters cut out on my cricut, I spray painted it red, and went to town with some white duct tape.  I added some command sticky back hooks inside to hang up their super hero capes.  They love hiding in there and we also have home depot aprons, fireman hats, and star wars light sabors hidden in there.  It is a telephone booth for all heros and professions!  I found a cool picture of one here.  It is much more sturdy than the one I made and really tall too!

The valances are my favorite thing yet!  I had scrap fabric in these colors so that is why I chose these colors!  I wanted them to look sorta like capes.  I used templates found here.  My 3 year old son said they were AWESOME!  I found some inspiration from here that I love but did not want to take the time to make them look exactly like their picture.  I do like their's better though!

I have plans to make quilts for the beds with inspiration found here.  I want to make a few signs for the walls, add some shelves to store super hero action figures and home depot workshop creations, and all the other "stuff" little boys accumulate.  Maybe some bins for their toy shelves, and some cool pillows.  For now I'd say I'm 1/2 way done! 

Cute dresses

I have a friend who is a great crochet-er.  I have never learned so when she asked if we could put our talents together and make some cute dresses, I jumped on it!  She crocheted the tops and let me figure out the skirts.  So far we have four cute ones.

 They are all 6-12 months and would fit a variety of sizes actually.

I'm just trying to figure out how to close the top bodice.  Sew two ribbons on to tie?  Sew a button on to stick through the crocheted top?  What would look the best?  We're saving them for the craft fair after Thanksgiving, but also have them on the etsy shop to share with the world.

Disney prep sewing...

Our Disney trip is fast approaching (okay so there are still over 100 days to countdown) but I know it's going to fly.  So I got started on some projects I've been thinking about to make our trip easier.  I have read the "Unofficial Guide To Disneyland" and made lists, highlighted, made more lists.... of things we need to prepare for.  One of them is carrying our own water.  Sure we can buy water in the park (too expensive), or look for water fountains (too time consuming), so I wanted to bring our own water.  I have a husband who doesn't want to end up carrying the entire families water bottles or hauling a backpack full of water bottles, so I came up with individual water bottle carriers that even the littlest theme park go-ers can carry.

 I wanted a hands free way to carry them and I didn't want to fuss with getting them in and out of a bag or a stroller.  I bought everyone the same size water bottle that has a thick plastic straw coming out of the top (don't have to unscrew lids every time you want a drink), and measured around the bottle, made a bottom, cinched the top with elastic, made a strap (36" for little kids, 45" for middle kids, 52" for teenager kids), sewed it all together and we have handy water bottle carriers!  I think it'll work!

 I made the straps out of different fabric for everyone so they can distinguish which one is theirs easily.

We are driving on this trip and I wanted to not have 8 pillows cluttering up the already cluttered van.  So I decided to make everyone a neck pillow so they can still nap easily if needed.  I made the little boys slightly different sizes but the same fabric as their water bottle carriers.  The back of the neck pillows are minky fabric so they can use that side if they want a more cuddly feel.  I used this tutorial as a starting point but tweeked it a little for us.  I made the youngest one (age 2) a circumfrence of 10", the next child (age 6) circumference of 14", and all others 16". 

Check back again for more Disney projects to come!  I'm hoping to make 1. pillow bottom lap desks/magnetic boards
2.  Magnetic games
3. Car seat back organizers
4. Pin exchanging lanyards
5. Snack boxes

Recent projects

Blanket with minky back

A friend crochetted the top, I added skirt.

ANOTHER Wanna be a Cowboy puffy quilt.  Sadly the fabric has been discontinued so this will be the last one of these.

A patchwork minky back blanket.

My husband's favorite present EVER.  I hate spending money on fireworks so for his bday I just "let go" and gave him money to blow.

Another cute puffy quilt

The girl version of "Wanna be a Cowboy" fabric that is also discontinued.  Crib skirt, quilt, and sheet.

I love the color combination in this crib bumper, sheet and skirt.

A crib skirt and sheet

Crib skirt, minky sheet, and bumper

Having six kids home for the summer and a busy etsy shop made me put the etsy shop on vacation for awhile!  I've also been doing local sewing jobs and I'm just too busy.  I can't say no to projects my kids want to do too so we've been super busy and having a fun summer.

Disney preparation

We have been saving money and getting excited to take our six kids to Disneyland for several years now.  We thought it would be two years ago, but then we had another baby as a surprise instead!  So now our kids are 2, 5, 9, 12, 12, and 14 and we think it's a good time to take them!  We booked a condo several months ago and paid for it in full so we'd be committed.  Then my husband lost his job....but then he found a new one so the trip is still on!  Since it's summer I thought we'd make a countdown chart with fun things to do leading up to the big trip.  There are 187 days until we leave, so we cut it down a bit to 137 which we will start on July 16th (lots of math involved here).  Then I set my cricut machine to work (and my kids).  We cut out bunches of Mickey heads and saying from several characters along with "tickets" to Disneyland.  I will pick a few days and put activities on the back for fun during the summer and for preparation right before the trip.

 We numbered each Mickey head and double stick taped them on so we can pull them off easily.

 Here is the list of activities I've come up with so far.  Some of them are pretty specific to our needs and what I think will get us excited.  Several of them involve me being organized with supplies and then helping make the stuff.  Please give me more ideas!


- watch a Disney movie we haven't seen for a long time
- Look at maps of Disneyland
- make car games
- make Disney princess dresses for American Girl dolls
- make water bottle holders
- write a letter to Disney character (they send an autographed picture back)
- dance to Disney music
- play Disney DVD Bingo
- play Disney character memory game
- make Disney shirt to wear on first day of trip
- make Mickey Mouse pancakes 
- make Disney autograph books/journals
- play Disney trivia game
- use Mickey Mouse ice cubes trays to make a treat
- watch Disney vacation planning guide DVD


I also happen to be making an Alice in Wonderland skirt/apron/costume for a friend whose little girl is turning one and having a "ONEderland" birthday party.  I think they turned out cute!  I am also making 5 Women's costumes for Cinderella, Step mother, step sisters, and Fairy Godmother right now for a family who goes to DisneyWorld on Halloween each year.  I'll have to post pictures when I'm done with them.  Fun times!  Hopefully I won't get sick of Disney anytime soon!