Castle

My four year old is very into princess' and castles.  She also loves arts and crafts, and frankly, I hardly ever do them with her.  I decided she would love to make her own castle.  I saved toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls for a long time, and when I had enough we made a castle.  I had not plan in mind, and was pretty skeptical when we started, but I am happy with how it turned out.

my four year old helped me tape all the rolls together with masking tape, in the shape we wanted.  I then used spray adhesive to cover the rolls with scrapbook paper (I originally planned to let my daughter paint it, but did not have the right kind of pain on hand, and really did not think it would turn out too cute).  The spray adhesive and paper worked great.  Then I used a bunch of scrap ribbons from other crafts, and I happened to have a random bag of jewels.  I plugged in the hot glue gun and we went to town.  I let my daughter choose where everything went, and I would put a dab of glue down and she would glue it on.  I also had some hot glue that is colored and glitter, so we decorated the cardboard with it.  We had a lot of fun, and we are pretty proud of how it turned out.

pillowcases

for Christmas I made each of my girls their own set of holiday pillowcases.  They have been so excited to use them.  I just googled the dimensions for a standard pillowcase.  Sorry I do not have a tutorial.  Thanks to the internet, I did not even have to plan ahead and pick out fabric thoughout the year, I just found every holiday online in November.

Vintage Nightgowns

surprise! I decided to blog about something.  I actually have done a lot of projects, but I have been too lazy to take any pictures or blog about it.

For Christmas I made my girls nightgowns out of vintage pillow cases.  I used this tutorial.  It was so easy, and my girls love them!  They wore them for 36 hours straight when they got them.  And they pick to wear them almost every night, even though they have many other PJ's.

I sewed a lace flower on one

and a lace bow on the other one

MIA

I know, I know, I have totally neglected the blog.  What can I say, summer is just way to much fun to sit inside and do projects.  I promise I have a lot of projects coming up, I am starting on my list of Christmas projects (I ordered the fabric today).  Until then, here is one thing I did over the summer.  The hubby and I got lucky enough to go to Germany (his work sent him, and I tagged along on frequent flier miles).  My in-laws generously insisted on watching my girls.  I missed them like crazy, but had the time of my life.  I made these for the girls before I left

I only had my cell phone on hand (my husband took the good camera to Germany with him, one week before I joined him).  I made a countdown for the girls, so they could know how long until I came home.  I just put two mamba's in everyday (two of the same color so they would not fight). We started when my husband left, so I got to see them do it for a week, before I left.  They really seemed to enjoy it.

I also left ten surprises for my girls, with my in-laws.  They got to open one each day, to know I was thinking of them.  I got them things like, press-on nails, re-usable chopsticks, earrings, chocolate straws, stickers, hair clips (things that would not break the bank, but that they would like).

My four year-old likes to sit at the table and color, do worksheets, practice writing, etc.  So I made her a book full of pages to work on at Grandma's

I have been teaching her piano lessons too, so I left some piano practice sheets, so she could retain the basics.

I sure missed my girls, but I know they were in good hands.  I was happy to see them again

featured

My first time being featured!  I am so excited, thanks Amanda!

a little bias

I saw this skirt over at no big dill, and I fell in love with it.  I had never tried sewing with bias strips (other than binding a quilt), so I was excited to give it a try.  My daughter needed a white dress for pre-school (she is going to be the white rabbit for their Alice in Wonderland play), so I just grabbed some muslin and went to town.  Since muslin is so affordable, I was not too worried about messing up (this dress probably cost me $3 to make). I made sure to pre-wash all my fabric, because I know muslin shrinks a lot. I simply traced the outline of another dress she had, adding half an inch for seam allowance. then I followed the same procedure on no big deal to cut and sew on the bias strips.

The  pictures are taken after I washed and ironed the dress, so you can see that there really is hardly any fraying when you cut on the bias.

I felt like it needed a little something extra, so I cut a bunch of cirlces out of satin and tulle and I singed the edges with a match.  Then I layered them with hot glue, and put a blob of hot glue in the middle.  I have a few bracelets that have broken, so I grabbed some of those pearls and stuck them in the blob of glue.  I just hot glued a few pins on back, so I can pin it on the dress anywhere I want, and take them off when I wash it. I really like how they turned out

I was not worried about the back having clean lines, I was going for a messy look with the dress.  I just wanted to make sure that all the ends were not all lined up.

we just got a new camera, and I have a lot to learn about it, so my pictures are lacking.  I figure if I wait until I learn how to take good pictures, this post might never go up, so it is what it is.  On the other hand,  I can't wait to learn more about our camera.

Easter Dresses

I decided to make my girls' Easter dresses this year.  I am glad I did, but I should not have procrastinated until the week before Easter, because I ended up doing it with a bad back, and sewing and bad backs are not friends.  I am happy with the results though
 

The one above is definitely my favorite, I am thrilled with how it turned out.  I used this tutorial to make it, changing a few things.  I added a lining, and I just traced the outline of one of her dresses to get a pattern (allowing for seam allowance).  I also added lace between the ruffles.

 

This is the best picture I could get of the second dress, She refused to stand up.  I used this tutorial for a guideline.  I was too lazy to do sleeves though.  I also lined this dress, and added a coordinating border to the bottom.  I was tired of sewing by this point and I cut corners, I am not as thrilled with the second dress as the first one, but I still like it

ruffle towels

I bought this shower curtain at Target almost a year ago.  I had tan towels, and they were starting to get mildewy, no matter how much vinegar and baking soda and hot water I washed them with.  Target sales some cute ruffle towels, but they are too expensive for me.  I headed to Ross and found these great plain white bath sheets (yes, they are bath sheet size, and they are quite thick too) for a mere $7 each.  So I bought 4 and a hand towel and a rag.  I spent the same money on all of it, as one set costs at target.  I decided to add my own ruffles, to match my shower curtain.  I forgot to take pictures (I forget to do that a lot), but it is easy to explain
you could use a sheet, or muslin.  I cut 2" strips, 2x as wide as my towels.  I used my rolled hem foot to finish the edges (the one on my new sewing machine works amazingly well, it was a piece of cake).  You could also use a serger for the edges, or hem them the old fashioned way (I am just too lazy for that).  I did about 6 strips of ruffles on each towel.  to ruffle the strips, I just set my tension to the highest and my stitch length to the longest (this never worked on my previous cheap machine, but it worked like a charm on these).  Then I just sewed them on, kind of close together, so when they get washed and crinkle up, there wont be too much space between ruffles.  

it took me about 2 hours to do one hand towel two rags, and two bath sheets (I still have two towels left to do).  It is the first time I have done an entire two hours of sewing without one single frustration.  I couldn't believe it, everything went as planned, no unpicking seams, or re-cutting fabric.  The machine hemmed perfectly, and ruffled perfectly.  That never happens.  When I add the ruffles to the other two, I am going to add hoods, for my two little girls.  I will do a tutorial on hooded towels then.

I love that they are white, because I just use bleach everytime I wash them and I know they wont get mildewy like the others.

knit toddler dress

I saw this  tutorial yesterday and I had to make one right away.  I could not get over how cute that dress is.  So, I started last night, and I finished during nap time today.  I made mine more of a jumper style, because I am too lazy to do Sleeve's.  I used left over knit from other daughter's room.  I got the knit at Hobby Lobby.  I only bought 1 yard and there was just enough left over from my daughter's room to make this dress.  I used an old t-shirt of mine for the pink jersey knit.  I am very happy with how it turned out (good thing no one can see the inside, it is sloppy).  It is the first dress I have made though, so I am pleased.

how to hem jeans

The first thing I did with my new machine is hem my jeans.  I have never done this before.  I have never needed to.  I like my jeans to have a 36" inseam, and frankly, can never find any long enough to wear, let alone, long enough to hem.  I actually know now that I can find dozens of options at The Buckle, if any of you long-leg people are still looking.  I found these BKE' s(at quite an affordable price I might add) and loved them.  They come as long as 37 1/2" in seam.  I was so excited to get a pair of jeans that I don't have to worry about shrinking in the dryer.  I took these babies home and washed them in really hot water and put them in a really hot dryer to shrink them before I hem them.  and I have been wearing them rolled up for a month, waiting for a new machine to hem them with.  I used this tutorial, it was a piece of cake (took about 15 minutes) and I love that I can put them in dryer and know they will come out long enough to wear again

I have been sewing all week, loving my new machine, more posts to come