My little Incredibles

Fun costumes to make! Even more fun to watch my boys play in them and believe they really are Super-Heros. Happy Halloween!

Birthday Shirt

A friend recently contacted me and asked if I could make a shirt for her daughter's birthday this week. She's turning 6 and asked her mom if she could get a new '6' shirt for her big day. The only direction I was given was that she would be pairing the top with a tutu skirt in either orange, dark pink, or light pink.
I was pretty pumped when I found some material I had on hand with ALL THREE COLORS! Perfect! She can wear it with whichever skirt her little heart desires. I think it turned out pretty cute, and my friend LOVED it, which was most important!

The '6' is appliqued to the shirt then top-stitched for durability. I added the cute little bows on the sleeves for a little pop. (I tied the bows and then stitched them on using the button stitch on my machine...they are on there nice and snug and are totally washable.)

Brynn's Party Dress

My friend's daughter, Little Miss Brynn, turned 3 this week! Always looking for an excuse to sew something fru-fru, I made her a little party dress for her big day...She loved it! I was afraid that the boa around the bottom would be a little over the top, but she thought it was great. She kept telling everyone at her party how pretty she looked and then she would twist side to side to make the dress swish and twist. So cute!The dress was just a simple 'tube' style dress that I shirred on the top. The straps were a mini tube of material with thin elastic pulled through. Because I couldn't think of another way to add it, I hand-stitched the boa around the bottom. Simple, and cute, just how I like it!

For some great tutorials/tips & tricks using elastic thread to do shirring, check out these links...
1 - Your Fabric Place
2 - Pattern Review dot com
3 - About dot com thread

fun with Harley Davidson

Okay, so these fabric prints are way outside the 'norm' of what I usually work with, but perfect for what I was trying to achieve.I never knew that Harley Davidson could be 'cute', but somehow I think I managed it. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that almost anything 'little' is cute. (okay, except for bugs..yuck! and a few other exceptions ;) This gift-set is for a family that goes to my church. They had a baby boy a few weeks ago. I betcha' can't guess what daddy drives...???Hopefully it'll be some fun and unique stuff that will make them smile, if nothing else!

FYI - If you get the bug to do a little Harley Davidson sewing for yourself, save yourself the headache of searching for non-existing HD fabric (I'm thinkin' it doesn't exist?) and drive yourself right over to your nearest Wally-World. I don't usually use sheets for sewing, but that was the best I could come up with and the most affordable. Add in a few coordinating prints, and you'll be good to go! - If you want to skip the sewing yourself all together, let me know, I've got some more material and would be happy to do a private listing at our etsy shop!

Recycled Shirt Hoodie

This is a milestone! I finally made something for my oldest son...and he loves it! I'm always making things for other people and to sell, but when Kyle asked me who this was for, he got so excited when I said HIM.

I used Lil Blue Boo's pattern and tutorial that you can get here.
It was actually really easy to make. I was able to get it cut out and sewn all in just one day. What's even better is that it is from old shirts that were in my thrift pile.
I guess it really is true that 'trash' can be made into 'treasure'! I can't wait to try variations on the pattern for other looks.

If you are a beginner sewer, this is totally a project for you. It was basic, the instructions and pictures are clear, and it is quick. All of which are a bonus!

Denim Bracelet Tutorial!

I am always so inspired by all the tutorials I see out in blogland. This tutorial is painfully simple, but something I came up with all on my own, (and I think it's pretty cute ;) so I thought I'd share!
So, It's kind of cute and cheezy and cool all at once! A fun little denim bracelet that can be worn with almost anything! The idea for the bracelet formulated after I had altered some denim pants into shorts. I had cut the seam off first and tossed it aside. Later I came back to it and thought...huh, that might make something kind of cute! So...on with the tutorial. (This is SUPER simple, and would be a fun project to do with your tweens or teens.)

Denim Bracelet Tutorial:

First you will need:
*an old pair of denim pants or shorts
*a good, sharp pair of scissors
*a button
*a ruler
*sewing machine

Step 1: Cut off a seam from your scrap denim. I like to turn the denim to the wrong side so that I can use the seam as my cutting guide. Cut just to the right of the folded/stitched seam.

Step 2: Determine how long you want your bracelet to be. I have found that most adult bracelets are somewhere between 7 to 8 inches long. I cut mine at 7.75" Cut seam to wrist size.
Step 3: Add a button hole to one edge of the cut piece. Make sure your button hole is large enough for your selected button.
Step 4: Add a button to the side of the denim that does not have the button hole.
Make your slit in the space you created your button hole, slip your button through the hole, and VOILA! You have yourself a cute, trendy little denim bracelet! Because of all the fun buttons available, and all the different widths of denim seams, the possibilities are endless! Here are just a few of the bracelets that I've made. I've already given a bunch of them away too. I wore mine one Sunday to church, and all the teenagers thought it was super cool, so I hooked them up!

I think the one frayed edge gives it that grunge charm that people pay so much for today. Kind of fun!

Sun Dress

As soon as I saw this pattern on the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog, I knew that I HAD to make one! At the time I was supper preggo, and had no intention of making one for myself, but I immediately thought it would be adorable as a little girl's sun dress.

Off to JoAnn's I went in search of some cute material. I totally think I hit the jackpot. This material struck me as so bright and summery.
I used my four year old son, Kyle, as my model, so the dress naturally was given to one of his best friends, Hannah. I love how it turned out. A dang cute dress for an absolutely adorable little girl!
(I made this back in May, but it's taken a while to get a picture of Hannah. I just couldn't post it without her cuteness!)

Freezer Paper Art!

I have totally fallen in love with freezer paper stenciling. It is so much fun. What ever you can dream up, you can make into a stencil. Below is one of my latest creations...The story: Colby was delivered by c-section. When the doctor delivered him I could hear the doctor and nurses (my husband and mom too for that matter!) saying "he's tiny, just a little peanut." After they confirmed to me that yes, he was small, but healthy and well, I'm pretty sure that I made a comment much the same as everyone else. Needless to say, the nick-name kind of stuck. I couldn't resist making this onesie.

This is another t-shirt that I made as a birthday gift for one of my son's bestest buddies, Carson. (Carson LOVES playing RockBand on the XBOX, the gift was a success!)

One more gift set!

Okay, so I don't want to overkill the gift set thing, but I just had to post one more! This one is actually for my little one as well (I'm having fun spoiling him already!) It's technically a gift for my husband, who is a huge Seattle Seahawks fan. I know that by making some 'manly' burp rags he won't mind carrying them around as much! The fun thing is that I didn't have to buy anything new to make any of it, it was all scraps and such that I had on hand. (I made my husband and son matching pajama pants for fun christmas gifts this year, the Seahawks material was all left-over scraps from making the pants.)
The one new thing I tried was the texture/taggie block. It was way easy and super fun to make. I definitely think I'll have to add these to my repitoire! They can be made up with scraps of material and whip up quickly. I foresee all baby gifts in the future that I give to include a taggie block! (Oh yea, I put a couple small jingle bells inside the batting too for a little fun extra noise.)

Tried Something New!

I am super excited to have found another fun creative outlet! I came across this article a week or two ago and decided I just HAD to give it a try. With one almost four year old boy, and another on the way I am always looking for crafty projects I can do for my boys. (I mean lets be honest here, it is SO much more fun to sew a ruffle dress than a pair of bermuda shorts!) This is something I can do for them that is way easy, and fun, yet I'm pretty sure they won't be embarrassed about in the future!

Here is my first go at Freezer Paper Stenciling...I'm definitely happy with how it turned out, and I know Kyle is going to LOVE it! I bought two other t-shirts to practice on too, I just haven't decided what to put on them.

If you are at all interested in how to do this, check out the article above. The process is painfully easy and FUN! I can't wait to make more.

Project complete!

I'll be honest, I'm pretty proud and excited about this little outfit!Not more than a year ago, I had pretty much sworn off sewing clothing. PERIOD. After a nightmare experience involving a little jacket shrug for a prom dress, I was DONE. Obviously my fears have worn off a bit, which I'm sure is due to the 'nesting instinct' I'm feeling (after all, the baby is on his way in less than two weeks!!) I decided to try to tackle a little outfit for the baby to be blessed in at church. I DID IT! HOORAY! It even turned out like I had envisioned. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will fit the baby okay. I sewed the XS size, but it still looks huge to me. We'll just have to wait and see. - Honestly, either way, sewing this outfit has renewed my confidence in myself...which is very valuable indeed.

Ribbon Skirt

I saw something like this around Christmas time, and I have been SO excited to have an excuse to try to make one myself. With one little boy and another one on the way, little girl skirts are something we just have no need for in our house :). Lucky for me one of Kyle's best friends is an adorable little girl who just turned 4 and is having a birthday party this Saturday! FINALLY a legitimate reason to try my hand at making a ribbon skirt. (We're coupling it with a cute fru-fru white shirt and white leggings, and some matching hair-bows that I am going to make.) I am super pleased with how it turned out. Not only does it make a plain denim skirt colorful and fun, but it adds a little length to it to make it just that much more modest. - Hopefully we can get Hannah to put on the outfit so that I can take a picture of it in action!

I didn't follow any set of directions to make the skirt, just kind of figured it out on my own. If you'd like to duplicate it and can't figure it out, leave me a comment and I can walk you through it. It'd call it a beginner/innermediate project. Not necessarily hard, just time consuming.