Big Tee Tiny Tee

One of my ongoing projects this summer is to try to keep up with my crazy little growing-like-a-weed Phoebe's wardrobe. 

I've been making her these incredibly quick and simple tops by using Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern (a must-have for making clothes for kids), and these retro vintage shirts that have been thrifted - or in the case of the Pippi shirt - was actually MINE in high school.  Eeeks!

I love sewing using up-cycled clothing because you get to finagle around your pattern pieces to take advantage of things like already sewn cuffs and hems.

With these shirts, I first disassembled the original shirt and cut off the neck ribbing to reattach at the end.  I positioned my pattern pieces to center the graphic on the front, and to keep the cuff ribbing on the sleeves so I wouldn't have to finish them later .  Then I just sewed it up according to Rae's pattern, and shortened and attached the neck ribbing.  The whole thing seriously took about 20 minutes.

And even though Phoebe has no idea who Pippi Longstocking is....

.....I think she embodies her character pretty darn well.

Doily lamp tutorial. Finally!

Well, it only took me three months, but I promised that I'd finally get around to showing you how I made the doily light for Penelope's nursery.  Unfortunately I can't take credit for this awesome idea - I saw this version on Pinterest awhile back - but here's my version it and some tips that I found useful....

So a mere week before Christmas, and only ten days before I went into labor, my husband came home to this going on in the middle of our kitchen.  Luckily, we've been together for about 11 years, so he's pretty used to my crazy projects taking over our house.

I used one of those giant punching bag balloons that I found at the dollar store since they are perfectly spherical vs the typical balloon shape.  Plus, they seem to be a little thicker than a normal balloon, and less likely to pop during the process.

The original poster used wallpaper glue, but I just went with what I had on hand which was regular old Elmer's school glue, that I watered down a bit.  I simply placed the doilies on the balloon and painted them with the glue until they were completely saturated.  The glue seemed to have just enough tack to hold them in place and I didn't have any problems with them falling off before they were dry.

I let this dry for about 24 hours and then went back and touched up some areas that didn't feel quite stiff enough (if your doilies seem too pliable, just increase your glue to water ratio).  Then I let this dry for another day.  Then it hung there for another couple of days just because.

Finally I popped the balloon (which was Phoebe's favorite part) and used this lighting kit from Ikea to hang it up.  I intentionally left an opening between a couple of the doilies so that I could fit the bulb and socket into the center without having to cut out a hole in the lamp.

And there you go!  It was incredibly simple, and it only cost me around $10.  Four for the lighting kit and I probably used about six doilies (thrifted at about $1 each) to cover the balloon. 

The light has held up beautifully.  It gets turned on every evening, and I haven't had any problems with it warping, or getting too hot, or anything.  And Penelope just loves looking at it and all of the beautiful shadows that it makes on the walls.

Next up - one for every room of the house!

Ruffled Waterfall Crib Skirt

I was planning on doing a tutorial on how to make this lovely crib skirt, but I ended up going into labor just after I started making it.  I wanted to be really sure it was true labor before I went to the hospital, so I kept working away on this project, pausing every 10 minutes, 7 minutes, 5 minutes to grab the table, white-knuckled and try not to scream my head off.  So sufficient to say, I did not take any pictures of the process.  But I'll try to walk you through the construction nonetheless.

So basically a crib skirt is made up of a deck and three panels (I didn't make one for the 4th side since it would be up against a wall and you wouldn't see it anyway).  The deck is just a measurement of the crib mattress size, which is a standard 28" x 52".  The side panels are the length of the side and then the measurement of where you want the skirt to hit the floor.

With this crib skirt, I left it hanging a good 6 inches or so off of the floor.  That way when the crib mattress is lowered when Penelope gets older, it will just brush the floor as opposed to puddling in a crinkled mess.

I ended up using exactly one yard of each fabric for the ruffles.  I cut the bottom two colors into 6 inch tall strips and the top color into 5 inch tall strips (this makes all of the ruffles appear the same size since there is about one inch of overlap on the bottom two ruffles). 

To get a full ruffle-y effect I cut my strips 2 1/2 times as long as each panel.  So for the short sides, my strips were 70" and the long front panel strips were 130".  Hem the two short ends and one of the long sides.  Then I simply ruffled the strips by sewing a long basting stitch along the unhemmed side and gathering the fabric until it was the length of the panel, pinned it down like crazy, and sewed it to the panel.

 

For the topmost strips, I sewed them to the panels - wrong sides facing - so that the raw edges would not be exposed, but for the middle and bottom strips, I simply laid them so they were laying right side up because the raw edges would be covered by the ruffle from above.  I didn't even bother to remove my gathering stitches since they won't be seen anyways.

Then I sewed the panels to the deck.

Ta-da!

Now since you've tackled the crib skirt, you can go on to make one of those fancy shower curtains from Anthropologie.  But probably not for awhile.  You'll be super sick of ruffling.

Martha Stewart craft paint review and project

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you're probably sick of hearing me talk about my love affair with Martha Stewart's new craft paint line.  And no, I am not being paid to go on and on about this stuff (I wish I was!).

First I was awestruck by the rainbow of amazing colors available in all sorts of finishes and their ability to paint on anything (wood, glass, plastic, fabric, metal, etc.), but what I really fell in love with was all of her specialty paints and finishes - specifically the magnetic and chalkboard paints.  I've seen these types of paint before at hardware stores, but only for upwards of $20 or so for a small container.  With my trusty Michael's coupons, I paid a grand total of $3.50 for the magnetic and $3.00 for the chalkboard paint.  And hey, slap a Martha Stewart logo on something and throw on some lovely packaging, and I'm pretty much sold before I even know what it is.  Sad, I know.

 

When we moved into our new house, we were lucky enough to have an updated kitchen with one of those fancy, stainless steel refrigerators.  Attractive - yes.  But I was bummed out about it's un-magnetic capabilities.  So I decided to transform this skinny 2 foot wide section of wall into a magnetic chalkboard  

I taped off a 14" x 56" rectangle and first painted it with 2 coats of the magnetic paint which used up the entire container - it is some really thick and gloopy paint - but of course myself and a couple of friends all squealed in delight when it actually held magnets :)  And then painted it with 2 coats of the chalkboard paint, which took about 1/2 of the bottle.

Then I put my husband to work framing it out with some simple trim that he picked up from the hardware store (I have a bit of a difficult time cutting miters the correct length).  

Next on the agenda?  To whip up some cute magnets to accessorize this baby!  I'm thinking some of these, some of these, and definitely some of these.

Have any of you tried out these paints yet?  I'd love to see some of your projects!

An easy toddler easter craft and really harsh lighting conditions

Do you read The Artful Parent?  This blog rocks my socks off.  She has the most fun and creative art projects for kids, and her youngest daughter is around the same age as Phoebe, so she shows a lot of great ways to get your toddler involved in the creative process.

This project was inspired by her Toddler Suncatchers.

Step 1 - Trace an Easter egg shape onto a piece of clear contact paper.  Peel off paper backing and tape to the window - sticky side facing you.

Step 2 - Have your toddler tear off small pieces of tissue paper and stick them to the contact paper.

Step 3 - Repeat step 2

Step 4 - Throw pieces of tissue paper in the air and dance around.  Wheeeeee!

Step 5 - Take a break and come back and finish the project tomorrow.  Make sure cat mentor Odin approves.

Step 6 - When your toddler proclaims "all done!" and has added the maximum amount of sticky fingerprints, place another piece of contact paper on top of the first so that the tissue paper is sandwiched in between. 

Step 7 - Cut out your Easter egg shape.

Step 8 - Walk around the house for the next ten minutes with your completed Easter egg in front of your face.

Step 9 - Now go outside!  It's too darn sunny to be hanging around in the house!

Tutorial: Fabric Covered Shelves

I've slowly but steadily been making some progress on my studio.  Up until recently, I've been scrounging around for my crafting supplies amongst 15 half-unpacked boxes sitting smack dab in the middle of the room.  It didn't really lend itself to a very efficient or organized creative process - both of which I lack in even the best of circumstances.

While I was hoping to thrift or purchase some sort of lovely storage system, our budget didn't have room for anything to my liking, so we ended up installing a super cheap track shelving system.  It definitely gets the job done, but isn't very pretty to look at - especially when all that we were using as the shelves themselves were 6 foot unfinished pine boards.

I decided to pretty them up with some vintage sheets this past weekend, and here's how I did it....

First I painted the boards with two coats of primer.  I'm not entirely sure if this is a necessary step, but some of the sheets were on the sheer side, so it keeps the knots and the wood grain from showing through.

Starting at one end, I coated a section of the board in spray adhesive and smoothed the sheet flat. 

I continued all the way down the board until the first side was covered.

Then I flipped it over and did the same thing to the other side.

I folded the ends up - gift wrap style - after giving it another good shot of spray adhesive.

Then I painted a good coat of Mod Podge all the way down the seam and on the folded over edges.

And voila!  It took about 15 minutes in the sunshine to dry, and I had them screwed into the shelving system in no time.  Overall this project took maybe an hour to complete and didn't even use up the entire can of adhesive.  

Even my husband was impressed at how smooth and clean they turned out.  And I thought for sure I was going to end up in a sticky mess of glue and frayed sheets. 

The only thing left to do is load it up with craft supplies and think about what else I'm going to cover in fabric!