Vintage Nightgowns

Baby, it's HOT outside! And since we're mega cheap-o...I mean, frugal...we refuse to turn on our AC for a little while longer. It's only MARCH for Pete's sake. Therefore, we are all rather warm at night. The fans are turning and trying to keep the room cool, but the little ones need some summer jammies.

You just gotta love the little man's bedhead:)

Enter: vintage pillowcases. Yum:) One found at a thrift store (the yellow flowers) and the other was actually MINE when I was just a little girl. It was always my favorite because it had ruffles. I distinctly remember asking my mom for those sheets every time my bed got changed. And as I got older and I wasn't supposed to think ruffles were cool anymore, I STILL asked for them and made up excuses like, "they're nice and cool so I don't get hot," or, "the other ones give me life-threatening rashes," because I have always loved ruffles. Always, always. Which is why I think that I should have another girl. Too much fun. But I digress.

Pillowcase jammies. Just lovely.

I used two different tutorials for inspiration.

First, this one. This night gown is ridiculously easy. Perfect for any beginner, that's for sure. In fact, you probably don't even need the tutorial. I switched up the back a little to be sure the sleeves won't be falling down. 

For the second I used this tutorial, sort of. Just looking at her sweet little nightgowns made my heart go pitter patter. I basically just looked at her pattern and took a dress out of Emmie's closet to trace a pattern and went for it. I made the flutter sleeves into actual cap sleeves. LOVE them.

"NOW can I jump, mama??"

Next on the list is something for little Kai....Anyone know of some fabulous summer jammies patterns for the little men in our lives??

Adding Length to a Skirt {tutorial}

So my girl has this skirt. A skirt that she has loved and loved, but alas, this sweet little girl just keeps getting bigger, but her love for that skirt has not diminished one bit. So, it needed to be bigger, and longer.

The skirt has an elastic waist, so my first step was to make a small opening in the elastic casing and remove the elastic. Then I placed the edge of the skirt along the edge of the new fabric to figure out how much of the new fabirc I would need. Keep in mind that the fabric that is adding the length will be sewn in about an inch below the top of the skirt, so be sure to account for that approximate inch at the top of your new fabric or it may turn out longer than intended.

My original skirt was sewn selvage to selvage, so that made it easy to figure out the width of the under-layer. I cut what I needed, sewed right sides together (selvage to selvage), hemmed the bottom and serged (but you could easily zig zag stitch it) the top.

Now, turn the original skirt inside out and place it in the underlayer, which is also inside out. Pin the serged edge of the underlayer to the bottom of the elastic casing of the original skirt.

Sew the two pieces together, being sure to leave a 1+" opening where you removed the elastic in the first step. Once you have it sewn, pin a safety pin to the end of your new elastic piece and guide it through the old casing. Sew the ends together and then sew the casing hole closed.

Flip right-side out and admire!

This is such a quick and easy transformation and super frugal, making clothes last a lot longer. Whose to say that next year we may be adding another layer, or perhaps a ruffle, to add some more length to this beloved skirt? And with the cold season upon us, be sure sure to check out my fleece-lined skirt tutorial. I think it would be fun to make the fleece a little longer than the cotton and have it peek out the bottom a bit and maybe trim it with some ricrac. hmmm...

Happy Sewing! And please let me know if anything leaves you confused!


Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

For the little chefs in my life

Well, once upon a time I found a great deal on a play kitchen at a garage sale. It had served us well, but was simply too small. All of the various cooking utensils, baking supplies, dishes and food were spilling out of every shelf and were always all over the floor. So, inspired by the oh-so-many kitchens I have seen online(like this, this and this), I decided to take on this next project with my mom, a wood-working extraordinaire.

I started out with two Ikea Rast bedside tables, which were given to us a few years back. These have a lip along the short sides. So, we turned one shelf upside down and used that lip as the legs of the kitchen. Then we cut off the actual legs of the shelves and the lip of the other shelf, placed the shelves on top of each and screwed them together. For the backsplash and the back of the side shelves we just cut a big piece of MDF in an "L", which became the backbone of the whole kitchen.

Decent storage is really what I was going for, and this kitchen has it! I love how much we can pack into those shelves. The last kitchen was just exploding with playthings, so I needed to be sure that I created something that could truly hold of those kitchen necessities.

 The faucet is an upside down wooden "J" from Hobby Lobby. The burners were simply hand-painted on. I intend to put on a handle for the faucet and two knobs for the burners. I would just rather find cheapo things at garage sales, rather than buy two knobs at 3 bucks a piece...we'll see...I'm likely to give in by the end...

 And a picture of beloved mountains for good measure...

Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Handmade Train Table

Now don't get me wrong, I did not MAKE the table, but I did paint it. I found this table for $10 at the thrift store and decided to make it into a train/activity table for little ones in my life. And let me tell you, it has been a HIT! I debated back and forth on whether or not I should add a rim to the edge of the table to keep things from falling off, so I let the kids play with it for awhile and realized that more often than not, they created track systems that hung over the sides a bit anyway, so I decided to leave it off.

My Method:: This table was originally a very scratched, shiny ugly brown color with a wobbly leg. I got it home and immediately tightened the leg. Then I covered the whole thing with a good coat of spray primer to accomplish two things: first, make it so the top coat of paint would easily stick and second, to fill in the many scratches. Then I spray painted the whole table white, except the top, which would be painted other colors, obviously. And then I took my supply of acrylic paints and had a ball! It was my daughter's idea to make the water sparkly, I just used some of her sparkly craft paint for that. After all was painted and dried I covered the whole top of the table with a nice coat of spray enamel to keep it protected from the inevitable active play it will receive in its lifetime:)

Also, I didn't want to over decorate the table (in paint) with things like trees and houses and such because I really wanted my children to use their imaginations and create those things on their own. I just wanted this to be an open-ended table, allowing them to use for whatever they fancy.

So, next time you get discouraged looking at the pricey train tables, consider picking up an inexpensive secondhand table and doing it yourself. The project, start to finish, only took me about 4 hours (including drying time). It was easily finished in two naptimes:) And only cost me $15, for the table and spray paints.  (the acrylics I had on hand...)

I hope you feel inspired for a little DIY!

Also, I went ahead and entered this into the Crafting with the Stars competition over at Sew Dang Cute. It sounds like a lot of fun, you should go check it out!










Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday:Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Upcyled Napkin Rings Tutorial

We needed napkin rings for all of those fun family napkins we made a month ago. I was trying to think of what to make them with when my genius husband said, rather nonchalantly, "we have all those shower curtain rings upstairs...". Genius! I tell you. And they are perfect! And the best part is, I always see shower curtain rings at the thrift store, so if you want to make your own then you can pick them up for cheap. They were super easy to do.

What you'll need:
shower curtain rings
ribbon (just assume you need lots, about a yard+ per ring)
glue gun

First, you open up the ring, insert the end of the ribbon and close the ring on the ribbon.

Start wrapping, overlapping each layer by about half until you make it back to the enclosure.

Once you get to the enclosure wrap the ribbon around it several time until it becomes the same thickness as the rest of the ring.

Now get your glue gun and glue the end of the ribbon down and cut off any excess.

There you go! Easy peasy. And now, every night after dinner we take a look at our napkin and if it could still get some use before it needs a good wash then we put it back in our own ring until our next meal. Enjoy!

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I'm such a wuss.

I have owned elastic thread for nearly two years now...and I have only just used it. Everyone said it was so easy. Just wind the bobbin, sew and iron. Voila! But I remained unsure and a little scared that I would totally mess it up. But finally yesterday, I decided to take it on. I have been wanting to make some simple pillowcase dresses for Goose for a long time now, so this was the perfect opportunity.

 This little dress was screaming at me to make a matching headband, so I did:) And goose loves it. Even better.

And can I just say, if you, by some strange chance, have not yet tried elastic thread, just do it. it really is so easy. Just keep in mind that this dress used one whole spool, so plan wisely.

Fun Family Napkins Tutorial

So in an effort to use a LOT less napkins, I thought that perhaps we could make them. I know, everybody is doing it, and I am only now catching on. However, I wanted these to be special. I don't always get to include the kids in my crafting projects, but this one was perfect.

Here's what you'll need:

fabric paint pens
an old white sheet
lots of fun coordinating trim
disappearing marker
sewing stuff:)

First, you need to decide what size you what your napkins to be. I believe the normal size is 16" x 16". I made mine 12" x 12". Once you decide what size you want, you then need to decide how many.

Okay. So here's my math for how much fabric I was going to cut out. I wanted 8 napkins that were 12 x 12. That meant I needed to cut 16 12" x 12"  squares. However, since I have little one to help me color, I wanted to keep it as one big piece, for easier coloring, so I cut a big piece of sheet approx. 24" x 96" If you have older children, I would suggest cutting all of the squares out, taping them to pieces of cardboard (so the paint doesn't bleed through on anything else) and let them paint away.

My husband even got home in time to get in on some of the coloring action.

Once everyone was done with their masterpieces I let the paint set for a day or two and then threw it in the washer to set the paint for good.

Then it is time to do some cutting (unless, of course, you chose to pre-cut the squares). Make yourself a cutting template the size of you desired napkin and start drawing your napkin squares and cut them out.

Once you have them all cut, pair them up they way you want them and get your trims all ready...it's time to put these babies together. Sew each pair right sides together with the trim on the inside. Leave a hole for flipping the fabric right side out. Clip the corners, turn the fabric and edgestitch all along the outside of the napkin, sewing the hole closed.

Nice work! You're done!

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