Gone to long

Wow I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted on here.  My only excuse is my life has been busy.  I have been busy sewing and here is one of the things I have been working on.

Reusable Swim Diapers
These are so wonderful.  In Arizona we swim all the time and Disposable Swim Diapers can be expensive. 
Years ago I used the disposable swim diapers.  I later started purchasing reusable swim diapers through a magazine.  I have reused those diapers for years and they are still doing great.  One reason I switched was the cost and the other is that disposable diapers don't hold pee in.  Their main purpose is to keep poop out of the pool.  I discovered this while in line at the post office and my daughter was dressed for swim class and peed all over the floor.  When I asked her swim teacher about it she confirmed that disposable swim diapers don't hold pee in. 
With that said these swim diapers will do the same thing a disposable diaper does and that is keep poop out of the pool.  But these are machine washable and can be used over and over again.  I am using a pre-shrunk cotton fabric on the outside and a vinyl/plastic material on the inside.  This is great for easy clean up if you do have an accident at the pool.  This is my first year making them for myself and I wanted to share it with everyone else so they can save money.
I am currently selling them locally and should have them up on my esty shop soon.

Foot Pillow

Growing up my mom made us these great foot pillows with our names on them.  My kids were invited to a friends birthday party and I like to make the gifts.  So the kids and I decided that their friend Ava would like a foot pillow.  I think it turned out so super cute.  I love the name on the toes. 

I have added a foot pillow like this one on my etsy account if anyone is interested.

Found it at last!

Every time I go to the fabric store I see the magazines for quilting and a few for sewing but nothing that really spoke to me.  Well last week I went and there it was a magazine that was speaking to me saying, "Take me home."  The magazine is "Sew It All".  I love this magazine and thought I should spread the word.  It has some really great projects in it.  I have already marked like 10 that I want to make.  This is only the second volume so I hope that they keep making them.  Here are a few of the items I plan on making:

Busy Sewing

Wow, I just don't seem to make it on this blog lately. I really have good intentions and lots of things I want to write about. My life has been busy! Along with everyone else. I work 2 jobs plus being a mom and all my sewing projects. Lately I have been sewing reversible capes and selling them to friends and others on etsy for Christmas gifts. As of today I have sold 8 plus made 3 as gifts for birthday party's.

Along with capes I have also been making super hero shirts that match. I have an order in for 12 of these. 6 Batman shirts and 6 Superman shirts. If that's not enough I am also making cute crayon bags and offering them to friends and others on etsy.

So I have been busy sewing. I also still have pajama's to make for the kids for Christmas and skirts for Christmas also. Here is the thing. I love to sew. For me it is an almost therapeutic way to make myself sit down and relax. Sounds crazy huh! Well it is true. If only I could find more time or time with less interruptions. Oh well I will continue sewing, working, and being a mom all at the same time because I love it all! So I hope to be able to get on a post more often but I am making no promises at this busy time. Thanks for stopping in. Hope you are having a great Holiday Season!

Ironing Board Cover

I hate my ironing board cover.  It is always falling off because it ties at the end.  Well my son I decided to decided to pull on one of the strings until the other string was lost somewhere in the middle.  So I broke down and sewed a new cover.  I found a great little tutorial here.  And this is how it turned out in the end. 

Even my husband was happy about this.  He has been cussing the old cover for sometime.  What I love best about this is that it only took my 30 minutes from start to finish.

Batman to the Rescue

My little boy turned four recently and all he has talked about for the past year was having a batman birthday party.  So we did it and I wanted to just share with all of you a few things I did for it.  I was on a major budget for this party and I think I was able to really keep the costs low.
First off I made each of the kids Batman shirts.  I love the dollar Store because they had these shirts.  And then I just added the batman symbol.  I used a template for it from here.

Isn’t he cute.  My daughter made me do pink shirts for her and her girl cousin. 
I also wanted to make masks so I made my own template and then just cut them out of black construction paper.  I then hot glued so thin elastic to them.

I had originally planned on making capes for the kids but that was not in my budget so instead I used black garbage bags that I also got from the dollar store.  The kids loved it and most of them wore them the whole time.

On to the bat cave.  My son really wanted a bat cave.  I was originally going to use a canopy like you use when camping and then put tarps on the sides and have things hanging down.  Then this morning as I was looking at how long that would take I opted for an easier route.  I used our pop-up sun canopy and just added streamers and bats hanging down it was a big hit and super easy.

For the cake I just did a chocolate cake with yellow frosting.  I then cut out a bat in wax paper.  I used this wax paper cut out as a guide in.  Filling it in with chocolate sprinkles.  I think it turned out cute and it was simple and easy.

For the goody bags I made super hero coloring books.  You can find the instructions here.  I didn’t have book binding tape so I used black masking tape.  I think they turned out really great.


We had a really great time and I think all of the kids will remember how much fun they had.  What I liked most is that I tried to keep in somewhat Simple and Cheap Cost effective :)

Searching

Maybe you remember the skirt I made for my daughter to wear on the first day of school.  I love this skirt and I want to make some more.  However, I can't find any more Chenille fabric like I used on the bottom.  I have search the Internet and search at least 5 different fabric stores.  All with no luck.  So if anyone out there has seen this and knows where I can get some please let me know.

Fabric, Fabric, Fabric

I am amazed at how fast my fabric addiction took hold!  So as promised in my earlier post here is my new fabric organizer thanks to Ikea.  I still have fabric out in my garage that my mom gave me when she was cleaning out and organizing her sewing room.  I love that I have so many options at my fingertips.  Plus it is on wheels so I can even take it into the kitchen to sew if I need to :)

I hope you like how my clothes are being shoved over more and more to make room for sewing.  Maybe some day I will have more room and can really have fun sewing !!!!

Back to School Skirt

My Oldest daughter started kindergarten last week.  I have been wanting to make her some skirts for school.  I love the Oliver + S lazy days skirt pattern.  I make them all the time.  I also found a great pattern in the book Making Children's Clothes: 25 Stylish Step-by-step Sewing Projects for 0-5 Years.  So for this project I kind of combined the two.  In the book the skirt was made of corduroy and a matching material.  So I did corduroy and this fun material my mom gave me when she was cleaning out her sewing room. 

Don't the apples just scream fall and back to school.  I love it and I got it at Joann's.  The pattern in the book has a really cute pocket which I just had to add to this skirt.

Because my bottom material has the fuzzes on it I did the ribbon hem like the Oliver + S Pattern.  I also did my waist from that pattern I found the waist in the book to be more steps and I am all about easy!

She looked so great on her first day!

Pajama Pants

I love making my kids pajama pants.  They are so easy and in the winter I can do a heavier material or cotton for the summer.  My little guy had me buy this fun construction material and I made him pajama pants.  I use this easy Simplicity pattern.  Here is the thing though, I don't make shirts.  I get plain cotton t-shirts and sew on something that matches the pattern.  In the past I just cut something off the leftover scraps.  You can heat-n-bond it on and then zig-zag stitch around it.  Turns out cute every time.  For this shirt I used a dump truck scrap that was left over from his baby quilt.  Plus I was able to get the t-shirt at the dollar store! Isn't he handsome!!!!

Organizing my sewing area

Okay I have a confession I really have not got much sewing done this summer.  I had big plans and bought great material.  The next thing I know my summer break is almost over and my sewing area is totally out of control.  Last year I moved my sewing machine into a little sewing area in my closet.  With my husbands crazy work schedule I began sewing at the kitchen table.  So I was a mess in two rooms.  I made a trip to Ikea this week and bought a rolling cart with baskets to organize all my material.  I will have to post pictures soon.  Here is a picture of my sewing area from last year when it was new and clean.  Then just imagine piles of stuff everywhere.  I was going to take a picture but I am without a camera and on the hunt for a new one. 

New Sewing Books

I was at Hobby Lobby today and saw two sewing books that I just couldn't resist.
This Children's Clothes book has so many cute skirts, shirts, PJ's, and pants.  I love that it had a few boy items too.  Not just girls! 

Look at the bag on the cover of the handmade bag book.  I was drawn to this book and bag.  I can't wait to get started.  Once this week is over I will be organizing all the sewing projects I want to get done.

Caroline Dress

I found this pattern on last week at Frog Legs and Ponytails.  As soon as I saw it I new that I wanted to make it for both of my daughter.  I loved that the pattern would work for both of them.

So I went right to work.  I loved that this pattern was easy to read and easy to do.  If I didn’t have so many distractions I could have finished it much faster.  I think it turned out so great on my little one. 

I just had to make her a flower to match her dress.  A tutorial will be coming shortly for that.  Isn’t she a doll.  Now to work on one for my old daughter.

Out of Control

Okay I think that I might be out of control.  I just went to fabricworm and was looking at some really great fabric and I ordered some.  Yikes my husband may have a heart attack.  So here is what I bought.

I think that this alphabet panel is so adorable.  I think that I will cut the letters out and make a fun book or something.  Plenty of time to plan and look around while I wait by the mail.

With these I am thinking little skirts and dresses.  Oh so cute and I can't wait to hold them in my hands and feel them.

I would go sit by the mail and wait but I do have kids to take care of and it wont be here for a few days!

Fabric Hoarding

I have been building up some of my fabric selection lately.  Basically I am hoarding fabric for the summer.  I teach Preschool from my home during the school year and take the summers off.  Subconsciously I know that things can be tight in the summer time with out my extra income so I have been buying fabric for all my summer sewing projects (Whatever they might be :) 

I bought these on sale at Joann’s and I think they will be cute skirts and Capri pants.

My mom brought this fabric back to me from her quilt retreat with all her friends.  My camera doesn’t do this green fabric justice.  It is beautiful!  Not sure what I am going to be doing with it yet.  Any ideas?????? I only have one yard.  It would be nice to make something for my two girls out of it.

Batman to the Rescue

My son loves batman! This might actually be an understatement. So I made him a cape using the tutorial from pukingpastilles. This was a really easy sewing project. What I love is that it is reversible, I did batman on one side and superman on the other. Needless to say Batman gets more action than superman. I did make my cape longer than she did hers. My little man is really tall.

The only thing that I had trouble with was the appliqué. I think my heat n bond was to thick. My needle kept getting sticky and the thread was breaking. A friend told me that there is a special heat n bond that is for sewing. I will look for this next time. I was just using what I already had.

From Shirt to Skirt

My oldest Daughter has always been really hard on her clothes. Even as a baby her clothes would get stained. While going through her old baby clothes for our new little on I found this cute shirt.

I loved the pattern and the little pleats in the front. However, the top of the shirt is very stained. I had the thought that this could make a really cute skirt for my little one. So here is what I did. I love reusing things and making them into something new!

I cut the skirt right above the pleats. I then cut a piece of brown cotton fabric. I cut this 22 inches wide and 4 inches long.

I then sewed this into a tube with a 1/4 inch seam.

I then pinned the brown fabric to my skirt fabric. Pin with right sides together. Make sure to align the seams. Sew together using a 1/4 inch seam. I then sewed over that with a zig zag stitch.

Now it is time to sew a a casing for the elastic. I used 1/2 inch Elastic. Using your iron press down the brown fabric 5/8” and then fold over and iron again.

Once you have that done. Edge stitch around the bottom of your fold. Remember to leave an opening to feed your elastic through.

Trim your elastic and the edge stitch were you left it open. Turn inside out and you have a cute skirt.

You could also make some cute little bloomers from Here or just use some you have from another little skirt. I know I have several skirts with Dark blue bloomers that would work.

Owls

I love all the owls that have been popping up on blogs everywhere. I have some owl ideas flying through my head. I am working on getting them out of there and into something concrete and tangible. Here are a few owls that I have seen around enjoy. Click on the pictures to visit the blogs and websites they came from.