After School Project

H came home from school with a list of her school supplies last week and one of the items she needed was an art smock.  Okay, I have a million old soccer t-shirts she can have.  But, then I got all girly and started thinking she needed something that wouldn't mess up her hair and would be easy on and off.  I remembered that when I was a kid, I wore my Dad's button down shirt on backwards.  I liked this idea except for the fact I remember my sleeves being really baggy and getting into the paint.  I needed to just take a shirt in and cut the sleeves shorter.  This will take me ten minutes tops!  WRONG....

I wish I had step by step instructions but, it will be different for anyone who attempts this project.  All I did was cut the collar off the top using an old shirt of my daughters as an example.  Then, I cut the side seams all the way through the sleeves, leaving the shirt attached by the part that hangs over the shoulders.  Next, I turned the shirt inside out and used my daughter as a model.  I simply pinned the shirt together where it fit her best and sewed and cut new seams.  But, I did get a little fancy by adding ruffles to the sleeves and reinforcing the stitches with a decorative hem. 

As I stood back and admired her smock, I got to thinking it still needed something.  I also wanted the shirt to be fitted around the waist so I though adding ties to the sides of the shirt would be perfect.  But, then I got this idea to use a cute little apron pattern instead.  So, and hour and a half later, I had an art smock fit for a princess!  

Just a Month Late...

I'm still working on getting those 3 rooms put together But it's taking much longer than I had anticipated. I'm also stuck in a creative block which seems to happen on Tuesdays. Since all three rooms look like piles of half emptied boxes and I've only got enough frames to hang two pictures on the walls right now, I thought I'd go retro and introduce a few Valentine's crafts I did a while back.

1)Heart Pillow



I was thinking, after looking at this craft again, that it would be really cute to do for St Patrick's Day too; a clover would look adorable! I simply bought a bag of similar color button and sewed it on one half of a piece of fabric in the shape of a heart. A quick way of hand stitching the buttons on is by quadrupling up your thread so you don't have to secure the button so many times. Then I just sewed it into a pillow.

2) Owl Heart Pillow/ Tooth Pillow



I wanted to make the girls something special for Valentine's Day that had hearts on it and would last a long time. I'm not sure why, but it seems like owl show up around this holiday and they always have a heart shaped breast and I thought I'd just run with it. Next thing I know, I'm staring and my left over batting from the pillows I'd just made and a pile of felt and I just started cutting and sewing. Before long, in less than a nap time, I had made a cute little owl pillow toy. I made the little heart on their chests a pocket. I thought these would be adorable tooth pillows for the tooth fairy some day. So yay... two crafts in one!

Kids' Bathroom Part 2

I mentioned in the previous post that I bought some coordinating hand towels. Well, as I was hanging up the shower curtain I'd just made, I noticed that the bath towels I let the girls pick out 6 months ago actually matched perfectly. But it wasn't good enough. I had an idea how to make them BETTER! HA HA HA... I yanked the towels off the towel bars, began twisting that invisible mustache again and ran to get my scissors and sewing machine! This was gonna be good....
I started with a plain white towel and sewed ribbon I had bought onto the bottom hem.


I attached the wide ribbon first using a straight stitch.


Then I sewed on the rickrack with a straight stitch too.



I cut up the towel with the owls standing on end and I had 4 cute owls, two pinkish and two bluish.


Next, I pinned the owl in place, off center, and sewed it onto the towel using the longest stitch for a zig zag and the closest stitch setting.



This is how it looked when I was done:


Here are the towels I sewed with the hand towel I bought. I am very pleased with how all 4 towels came out looking!


Here's the best part:
4 bath towels = $12
hand towel = $1.20
ribbon= $4
TOTAL = $17.20
That's 4 beautiful towels for less than one at Pottery Barn Kids! God, I love making stuff!!!