Crafty Cousins

Things That Make My Life Easier

2012-03-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

Before I get into this post, I’ve got a question. Would any of you be interested in participating in a Linky Party? I’ve been thinking of having you all link up to What I Wore Sunday where you could show us anything you’ve refashioned or sewn yourself. You don’t even have to wear it on a Sunday. We’d love to see what you’ve been refashioning and sewing. What do you think? Let’s try it out on Saturday, mkay?!

Okay. Being the mama of five boys and wife of one BIG boy, life sometimes gets a little chaotic. Sometimes a lot. There are some things I have discovered that really make my life a bit easier. Here are a few of those ideas:

Homemade foaming hand soap. Super cheap and super easy to make. Buy a foaming hand soap pump and when it’s ready to refill, fill it about an inch with regular hand soap refill.

Fill it up the rest of the way with water. Gently swoosh it around to mix it up. Don’t shake it. You don’t want it to get too sudsy.

I almost died when I realized how much I was paying for WATER!!!

Best remedy for diaper rash:

Bag Balm and Baby Powder. Smear a thick layer of Bag Balm over your babe’s bottom, sprinkle with Baby Powder, fasten the diaper, and let it work it’s magic. Love.This.Stuff.

Lansinoh is awesome for nursing mamas, but FABULOUS for diaper rash, and eczema. I use this on my kids’ eczema all the time.

Best Household Cleaner:

Water, distilled white vinegar, dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide. I haven’t bought 409 in quite a while. This stuff is awesome on grout.

Vinegar and water is the best window cleaner ever.

I just mentioned that we have sensitive skin issues in our family. I haven’t used fabric softener in years, and I’ve really missed it. My friend gave me a recipe for homemade fabric softener. I wasn’t sure it would work with our skin issues, but it does. Now our clothes are soft and delicious smelling! It’s so easy to make.

Mix 6 cups of hot water, 2 cups of distilled white vinegar, and one 16 oz. bottle of conditioner-it doesn’t matter which scent you use. Stir with a whisk until it is well mixed. Use 1/3 cup in your fabric softener dispenser. Cheap conditioner is perfect for this. I was able to fill three of those bottles, and I spent $1.00 on all that fabric softener. Love!

Sensitive skin issues? We have ONE brand of laundry detergent we can all use. Just one. It’s expensive, too. My same friend gave me her recipe for homemade laundry detergent. It is fabulous for sensitive skin, and cheap, too!

Mix 1 4 lb. Box of Borax, 1 4 lb. box of WASHING SODA (not baking soda), 1 3 lb. box of Oxi-Clean and grate 1 bar of Fels-Naptha in a big bucket. Mix it all up, and you’re done! You’re supposed to use one tablespoon per load, but I use two. My boys get really dirty! :) She spent a whopping $20.00 on the detergent supplies and it lasted her NINE MONTHS!! Not a bad deal!

Speaking of laundry, another friend of mine shared these next two tips with me. Like me, she has a big family and does LOADS of laundry! :) He he he…I am so punny!

Some of her kids are older, and she has them help out. I’m not quite there, but my boys can definitely help sort and put their clothes away. That isn’t slave labor. That’s teaching them “life skills!” :) Anyway, she shared this sorting tip with me, and I love her for it.

Pretend I have a beautiful laundry room. With a chandelier in it. Anyway, I have separate baskets to make it easier for my kids to sort their own clothes. I labeled them darks, colors, whites, towels, and sheets. It has been life changing. A few of my boys have even changed in the laundry room to avoid sorting it later.

Here’s her next tip--rather than folding and sorting everyone’s clothes, have them do it. Put their clothes into their separate baskets as you’re pulling them out of the dryer, Have them fold, sort, hang up and put their own clothes away.

I labeled my dudes’ baskets with their names in vinyl. Don’t worry…I used their real names. I also don’t expect Monkey to put his own clothes away! Anyway, this tip has been life changing. It has cut my laundry time in half.

I have a love/hate relationship with this next tip.

Homemade dishwasher detergent. All it is is equal parts Borax and Baking soda. I use vinegar as a rinse aid, and I will NEVER buy Jet-Dry again. I love this detergent’s cheapness, but I don’t always love how it works. When I have a super dirty load of dishes, I pit 1/2 teaspoon of dish detergent into the dishwasher for an extra boost. This detergent is cheap, and awesome…when I do the dishes.

Sometimes my kids do the dishes. Sometimes we have “quality control” issues with rinsing the dishes before they’re loaded. If this is you, this detergent is NOT for you…unless you like running your dishwasher three times.

So, I’ve got some Finish tabs on hand for when the dudes do the dishes! :) That’s still saving money!

Pre-cooked ground beef makes dinner time SO MUCH EASIER!! I like to buy 5 lbs. at a time, brown it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I divide it into 1 lb. sections and freeze it. I thaw it when I need it, and we can have tacos or spaghetti in less than 10 minutes.

But really…who wants to stand and brown 5 pounds of ground beef for 45 minutes? Not me! Introducing:

The Crock Pot. I {heart} her. You can brown your meat in the Crock Pot! It’s true! Just stop and stir it every once in a while.

See?! Perfect!

Also?! Snacking on frozen chocolate chips makes my life easier! ;)

So do little boy snuggles, big boy snuggles, and baby kisses! :)

Now that I’ve shared all of these tips, please don’t think my life is perfect. It is far from perfect. I five busy little boys, and these things just make life easier for me. I’ve learned that life is what it is. MY attitude determines whether or not I have a bad day. My kids want to be with me. This isn’t always convenient, but when I include them in what I’m doing, we usually have a good time.

Sometimes I have “help” with my laundry:

Don’t turn me in. He went in after a stray sock.

“Help” with my make up:

Don’t tell their daddy they play with make-up. Firecracker likes eyeliner facial hair.

“Help” with the cooking:

It’s a far from perfect life, but it’s perfect for me! :)

I hope these little tips and tricks can help you too!

P.S. If you can’t find any of these items in the store, check them out here:

Dry Erase Quiet Books

2012-03-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, it’s me again! (I hope you’re feeling better, Ash!)

Do you ever need an activity to keep your kids, quietly, happily, entertained? Maybe during Church? In the waiting room at the doctor’s office? Long car rides? When your baby finally falls asleep for a nap and you’re desperate for a him to stay asleep so you need a quiet activity for the other kids? No? That’s just me?! Today we’re going to make dry erase quiet books; the perfect book for hours of nice, quiet fun!

I’m not taking credit for this. We were visiting Hubby’s parents one day, and The Queen (my MIL) had this BRILLIANT idea…

For this project, you’ll need:

a 3 ring binder
dry erase markers and an eraser
plastic page protectors
activity sheets and stories from old magazines, coloring books, activity books, or online
cardstock
a 3 ring zippered pouch to hold the markers

For these dry erase books, we raided the Queen’s stash of The Friend magazine. We found lots of fun activities and stories.

Print off or tear out all the pages you want for the books. Include a few sheets of blank cardstock for your kids to doodle on.

Slide the activity pages, stories, and cardstock into the page protectors. Make sure these are the smooth plastic page protectors; not the bumpy ones.

Put the pages into the binders.

*Note-- the Legos on the table aren’t part of the books.* Just thought I’d clear that up. ;)

Put your markers and eraser into the pouch. Put the pouch into front of the binder.

These binders had the clear plastic pocket on the front, so I slid some cardstock into the pocket for doodling.

See how easy? Your dry erase books are finished!

I love the variety in the books. We have coloring pages, crossword puzzles, word searches, stories, poems, and more in these books. Lots of fun. I made four of these books for my boys. We can rotate the books so they don’t get bored.

You could also do these with name tracing sheets, alphabet pages, shapes, numbers and colors, to help your preschooler get ready for Kindergarten.

Now you and your kids can enjoy hours of quiet activities! {whispering} Have fun! :)

Polo to Cardi Refashion

2012-03-06T06:59:00.001-07:00

Remember last week I mentioned that one of our awesome readers emailed us a bunch of pictures of cardigans and vests she had seen at a department store? She didn’t love the prices and asked if we could help her out. I’ve got another department store knock-off for you.

Here is a picture of one of the cardigans she emailed us:

Sorry it’s so small. It’s basically a 1/2 sleeved cardigan with a braided trim around the neck and down the front. Super cute. I didn’t have a shirt with that sleeve length, so I just used one I had. It as actually a polo shirt.

Start off by cutting straight up the shirt, and cut off the collar.

Serge or zig-zag around the raw edges you just cut.

Cut several long one inch strips from a tee shirt, knit fabric, or use a roll of knit ribbing. That’s what I did. I sure hope The Queen (my MIL) didn’t want this roll of ribbing back. I have used tons of it, and I’ve still got more ideas for it. Can you believe it?! I took her son AND her roll of ribbing. Tsk, tsk.

I cut three strips that were about 6 1/2 feet long.

If you use strips from tee shirts or knit fabric, sew them together so they’re about 6 1/2 feet long each. It depends on what size your shirt is. It always a good idea to cut/sew everything longer than you think you’ll need. It is a lot easier to trim something than to miraculously make it longer.

I sewed the top of my three strips together. I left my strips under the presser foot of my sewing machine (with the needle down) to hold it into place. Then I braided. And braided. And braided. I ended up with one l-o-n-g braid.

Disregard the toys on the floor and the cartoons on the TV. I live in a real world, with real boys, real toys, and very real messes. I sure love it! Good times.

Sew the end of your braid closed.

Pin the braid to the cardigan up the front, around the neck, and down the other side. Tuck the braid ends under the hem of the cardigan.

Sew the braid into place 1/8 of an inch from the inside of the braid, then 1/8 of an inch from the outside of the braid so that you have two seams near the outside edges of the braid.

Here’s a close-up of the stitching:

…and there’s my take on the cardigan. I love how it turned out.

I’ve got one more that I’m working on:

…and I’ll get the tutorial up for that next week.

Now for a bit of randomness. I got new glasses. Monkey broke my frames, and I loved them. They were my fave. I couldn’t find any that were similar, so I chose these.

Are they okay? I don’t know how I feel about them yet. I mostly wear my contacts, but I usually only make it until about 8:00 p.m. before my eyes are begging for mercy. You know how it is.

So do they work for me, or not?! I can’t decide.

I’ll see you again tomorrow. Ash isn’t feeling well. No fun. Get feeling better, Ash!

The Ruffle Shuffle!!!

2012-03-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing with our Sewing 101 series, this is a more complex, not exactly beginner level tutorial. But, I’m doing it now, because, well, I’m doing these as I get ideas of the best way to show the concepts. Cool? By the way, email or comment with specific things you want to learn, mkay? So here’s our guinea pig today. Meet the Ruffler foot.

Kind of intimidating, eh? A far-cry from this nice, safe, plain presser foot, right?

Yeah, I was plenty intimidated when I took it out of the box. And the only thing that came with it was this piece of vague paper…

Not super helpful. I did use a tutorial on Craftaholics Anonymous, and that helped me figure out how to put it on the machine, but I wanted more information, so here’s my tutorial.
First off, let’s look at this bad boy up close and personal…

The very top has an adjusting lever, which lets you choose whether you’ll do pleats, gathers, or a straight line.

The * is straight line, 12 & 6 are pleats, and 1 is gathers. The adjusting lever is connected to the fork arm, which goes on the needle clamp.

Basically, if you choose 12, your machine will sew 12 stitches, and then make a pleat. Mkay? Now, the orange knob on the side adjusts the depth of those pleats.

It tells your foot how much fabric to push back to make the pleat/gather.

See the ruffling blade? It’s black, and it pushes the fabric underneath the needle. The very bottom of the foot has the separator blade, so you can sew your ruffle right onto your fabric. Pretty amazing! So, to put on the foot, you have to take off your other foot (and realize mine is a Bernina, so your presser foot may go on and off in a completely different way!), and then angle it like so to go on the shank and the fork arm goes around the needle clamp. Whew. If you’re not sure about parts of your machine, go here to see what all that meant!

Awkward hand shot…

Okay, now it should be good to go. But how do you get the fabric in? First, let me share a tip that will help you not curse the stupid foot and blade and such.

See the metal part sticking out? You want that in, and sort of lined up with the bottom blade. Like so.

This will help you get the fabric in and adjusted where you want it to be under your needle. Trust me, I’ve done it with it out, and it catches on the fabric and can put holes, and it’s just not pretty.
So here’s a picture with the fabric in the machine. One thing. My little manual that came with it said to put it in so that medal phalange is on top.

Don’t do that. It makes it so much easier to just slide it under the black blade thing. Then, you can sew at different parts of the fabric, instead of the very edge. You’ll see in the next pictures the ones that are done on the edge and the ones that are more in the middle… I used a stack of scrap fabric, all cut to the same size, to show you the different settings…

So, now the settings…What do the different numbers mean? If you choose 1 on the top, it means it will do a gather every stitch.

If you do a 1 with an 8 on the knob, you’ll get deep gathers/pleats. The one on the left is at a 1-8, and all are sewn at a stitch length of 3 (yeah your stitch length changes things too. So from left to right, the settings are 1-8, 1-4, 1-3, 1-2, and 1-1. I didn’t bother with 0, because it does just the tiniest gather and looks almost flat. Wanna see the difference with stitch length?

The one of the right is 1-8, stitch length 1 1/2, and the other is stitch length 3, also 1-8. Crazy, huh? Okay, onto 6.

Again, left to right, 6-8. 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, and 6-1. You can see that 6-1 hardly has any gathering to it. I did all this with a stitch length 3 as well.

On setting 12, I did a stitch length of 1 1/2, because it didn’t seem to do be doing much on 3. So left to right on this picture is 12-8, 12-4, 12-3, 12-2, and 12-1, which is hardly gathered.

Here’s a close-up of 12-8 to see the depth of the pleats.

And a close-up of 12-2 and 12-1 to show the miniscule pleats.

And just to compare, the one of the left is a 12-8, with a stitch length of 3, the right is stitch length of 1 1/2.
You’ll remember that there is a star on the top too? That is for sewing a straight line. Like so.

Now, if you were wanting to sew the ruffle to the fabric as you were going along, all you have to do is put the fabric you’re sewing to beneath the ruffler foot, with everything line up how you want. It’s a little tricky to keep things straight if you do, put a little practice helps. It took me most of this bedspread to get used to doing it as I was sewing down! Anyway, hopefully that’s a helpful overview, so email or comment if you have any questions, or something isn’t clear! Thanks for reading!
By the way, to get one of these, I mentioned you need to know high or low shank for your machine. I called a fabric store in town and they had 1 foot in stock for $40. I called joanns, and they didn't have anything. I called a local Bernina store and they were charging $114!!! I looked on eBay and found mine for $26 with free shipping. Amazon had some for around $20, but it didn't say my sewing machine model number in its compatible list. So eBay won!!

No Sew Vest From a Tee Shirt

2012-03-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

Hi again! I know I’ve already posted today, but I made this before lunch today. It was so fast and easy, I had to share it! If you still want to check out my What I Wore Sunday post, it’s just right under this one.

Remember this vest I made?

Well, this morning while I was making pancakes, I thought, “Duh! I could have done that with an oversized tee shirt, too!”

While I was out shopping, I picked up a shirt off the clearance rack, brought it home and went to work. I even timed myself on this project.

Make sure your shirt is a few sizes too big. I normally wear a medium, so I bought an extra large. You want your vest to be loose and …flow-ey? Is that even a word? Spell check says no. I say whatevs. Moving right along.

Cut right up the center of the shirt.

Cut the ribbing off the neck, and cut down the neckline a tad.

Round off the pointed edges of the neckline, or leave it if you like it that way.

Cut off the sleeves, but make the arm holes bigger.

Like this:

Turn the vest around cut the back of the arm holes in closer to the center. Like this:

It should look like this in the back:

Cut a rectangle of fabric from the sleeves.

Tie it around the piece of fabric between the armholes in the back of the vest with the knot facing inside.

Here’s what the back will look like on the outside:

BOOM! You’re done! And it only took 7 minutes and 35 seconds! Here’s the proof:

That’s 7 1/2 minutes INCLUDING the time I spent taking pictures for the tutorial. You could easily do this in five. Sweet!

Cute, too, right? I had Crocky (my nine year old-that’s his nickname) take these pictures. I tried to do it with the self timer and got this:

That’s my ceiling. The camera shot the picture as it was falling off the couch. Nice, eh?! I actually like Crocky’s photography skills.

We had fun. Oh, back to the vest…

Front view…

…and back view.

This is why you want to use a tee shirt that is too big for you. It’s a fun, fast, and easy way to change up the wardrobe!

What I Wore Sunday: Week 6

2012-03-03T07:13:00.001-07:00

But before I get to that; I did something foolish. Or stupid. Or both.

Remember how my birthday was last Friday? Well the Parental Units and the In-Laws gave me money. I hurried and spent it before I had time to second guess myself. This is what I bought:

Yes, I bought a flute. Crazy, I know.

I played the flute all throughout middle school, junior high, and high school. I loved it. And I was really good at it.

Isn’t she lovely?!

I even played it a bit in college and since I got hitched.

The last time I played my flute was at Hubby’s uncle’s funeral. 9 years ago.

Why in the world would I take such a long break from something I love?

Because Hubby dropped my flute in the street when he was loading it into the moving truck. That was the end of my flute; may she rest in--pieces! Don’t worry, Love. You’re still forgiven! :)

I have really missed it all these years so I decided to buy a new one.

It came on Wednesday, and I was super excited to play it.

Guess what?! I’m still good! A tad rusty, but still good.

The first song I played on my new flute was the theme song from Star Wars.

Yes, I am a geek, but my dudes loved it.

It may have been stupid and foolish to buy it, but I’m glad I did. :)

Anywho, onto What I Wore Sunday…

Click the link for the rules and past weeks.

Here’s what I wore Sunday:

You guys are so lucky! You get a real picture of me this time; not a mirror-self-portrait! Hubby’s calling leaves me flying solo on Sundays, and my kids don’t take very good pictures. Hence the self-portraits. But, Hubby was home with a sick baby for the first half of Church last Sunday and was able to snap this picture. Thanks, Lovey!

I refashioned a tee shirt from the dollar clearance rack into a skirt with a yoga style waistband. Super comfy. I featured some of these pics in the maternity jeans tutorial. The tutorial for the skirt will come later.

I also refashioned the grey tank I’m wearing. I also bought that off the clearance rack. Shocker. It was my size, but it was too baby-dollish. It fight just right when I was 7 months pregnant and it isn’t even a maternity shirt. So, since I loved the shirt and hated the way it fit, I took it in. Much better!

What did you wear Sunday?

Fabulous Friday!

2012-03-02T09:09:00.001-07:00

So, what are your thoughts? Do you like this column, if you will? 5 things we’ve pinned & heart on Pinterest? Let us know.
Here’s 5 for this week:

Mandi at Vintage Revivals said her daughters aren’t so much into kitchen, but love dress up, so she made a dress-up station. Well, my girls do both, so I guess I need a few old entertainment centers to make them one of each!

Is anyone really surprised that it’s Martha who came up with these Easter egg geodes? How fun would this be?

Okay, my princess dancing daughter would love these homemade tap shoes from Real Simple!

This fun St. Patrick’s printable is from Craftaholic’s Anonymous. Paint chip art with fun names!

This garlic parmesan popcorn from Our Best Bites. Yum, want to make it now!
So there’s the fun things from this week. What did you see? As always, you can follow us on Pinterest, or tell us where you are so we can come follow you!

Sew Your Own Maternity Jeans

2012-03-01T07:09:00.001-07:00

First off, I loved your post yesterday, Ash! Way to keep it real! I think your necklace was lovely! :)

Ack! Oh no! I’ve lost ALL of my pictures for this tutorial! I do have some pictures of the finished product, but since I have no need for maternity jeans in my life and have no need to make another pair, bear with me while I explain what I did.

I have a super adorable friend, Alison, who is having another baby for me to love and snuggle on whenever I want! :)

Isn’t she cute! :) How about those jeans she’s wearing? Wanna learn how to make those? It’s so easy! The tutorial on the shirt will come later. Don’t panic!

In all my years of having babies, my favorite and most comfortable jeans were the Secret Fit Belly jeans from Motherhood Maternity.

They are so easy to re-create. Remember how I got a ton of tee shirts off the clearance rack at Wal-Mart for a buck? This tutorial will include another one of those marvelous shirts! :)

Start with a pair if stretchyish non-maternity jeans and a tee shirt.

Cut the bottom half of the tee shirt just under the armpits off like so:

Remember how I lost my pictures? Well, here’s a diagram of what I did next.

Take in the side seams, and serge the raw edges. Or not. It’s knit so it won’t fray.

Now take your jeans and cut off the waistband and the button. Leave the bottom parts of the belt loops and don’t mess with the pockets.

Now cut out your zipper.

Sew the fly shut with a thread that blends in with the jeans. Pin your pockets down and straight stitch around what used to be the waistband. Sew down the top halves of the chopped off belt loops, too.

Take your tee shirt and your jeans and pin the raw edges together, but be sure that the right sides of both the shirt and the jeans are facing up.

See the top part with the pins? That’s what you’ve got to do.

Set up your zig-zag stitch. You want this maternity waistband to be able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Zig-zag around the top of your raw edges. Again, pretend this is on a pair of jeans!

Serge or zig-zag around these edges. The denim will fray. Now your pants are finished!

{Pretend you see a picture of the finished jeans without Alison in them here!}

Look how comfy! See the bottom of the belt loops? That’s what I was trying to explain above.

These jeans can either be worn with the belly pulled all the way up as shown above, or it can be folded down.

This is why we sewed the shirt to the jeans with the right side facing up.

Cute, comfy and cheap! You can’t go wrong with that, can ya? The good thing about using a pair of your own non-maternity jeans is that you’ll have an excuse to buy new jeans once the baby gets here! Genius!

Let’s take a moment and admire that cute belly and cute baby girl:

Awww! I can’t wait to meet her!

Happy sewing!

Inspiration gone wrong…

2012-02-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

What happens when you get inspired by this:

(source)

This:

(source)
and these:

(source)
And you add that to not having quite the right supplies you need….
You get a craft mess-up. Not quite a fail, cuz I think it will work, but this one….not so much. Please don’t laugh!

I’ll be back with something better…Have a good day!

No Sew Knit Vest

2012-02-28T07:16:00.001-07:00

…or you can choose a different option with very little sewing. I’m talking three straight lines that are only about two inches each. Super easy!

First off, I really need to apologize for the quality of these pictures. Firecracker (my four year old) was playing with my camera and messed with the settings. Pooey. That, and I did this tutorial after all the kidlets went to bed, so I didn’t have any natural light to work with. Bear with me, and if you have any questions, please email me. 2craftycousins(at)gmail(dot)com.

A few weeks ago, one of our awesome readers emailed us a bunch of pictures of cardigans and vests she had seen at a department store. She didn’t love the prices and asked if we could help her out.

Here are some pictures of the vests she emailed us:

Sorry, They’re kinda blurry. I couldn’t see the back of the vests, but the front was similar to this vest I wore here.

So, I used this vest as a pattern.

To start off, you’ll need 1 1/2 yards of knit fabric. If you use another fabric, you’ll have to serge and hem your raw edges, and this project isn’t “no-sew” anymore. But, it will still be super easy.

When this is all laid out, you’ll see that it is just a half circle with arm holes with a scrunched piece of fabric in the middle. I hope you like my terminology! :) This vest also has side seams. You can cut three separate pieces for the vest, or just one, like I did.

All of the edges on this vest are raw. It is knit, so it won’t fray. I laid down my knit fabric with my vest spread over the top.

I used some fabric chalk and traced the pattern onto my fabric.

That’s really hard to see. I’ll draw it out for you in Paint.

(Just pretend that’s a perfect half circle!) Here are the measurements:

Now cut it out.

Cut a small rectangle to sew around the strip of fabric between your arm holes.

Ugh. I am so sorry about the pictures. If you want to do this vest COMPLETELY no-sew, cut a longer rectangle and just tie it between your arm holes. Like I did here. Then you’re done. I did the scrunchy-thingy.

Take your rectangle and fold it in half width-wise. Sew the ends down.

It doesn’t matter if they’re even or if the seams are pretty. You’re going to be cutting that part off anyway. With the raw center seam facing out, wrap the rectangle around the strip of fabric between the arm holes, and sew it closed.

Trim off the excess fabric, or serge the raw edges.

Turn that little tube right-side out, and you’re done! :)

Isn’t that an easy way to make a department store knock off vest?

…and here’s the back…

Check out another version here.

There you go, Taslima! I’m working on the refashion for this one

when Monkey takes his nap today, so check back next week for this tutorial.

I hope this vest tutorial helps, and we’d LOVE to see pictures if any of you try it out!

Thanks for stopping by, and see ya later! :)

Sewing Machine 101

2012-02-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Getting to know you…Getting to know all about you!
So I decided to start at the beginning (a very good place to start) and do a weekly 101 post to help anyone who wants to learn to sew! First off, obviously is having a sewing machine to learn on. Now, this isn’t even my machine. Mine is very similar, but this is my mom’s. So, I’ll show you all the parts to every machine, and some features that are specific to mine (or mom’s), and if you have any questions about your specific machine, let me know, and I’ll do my best to help! I’ve been sewing on a Bernina for my whole life. I started with my grandma’s that was old, and in surprisingly good condition. In high school, I learned more in depth on the Berninas in class, and I fell in love with activa series, so I insisted that’s what I needed. My hubby got a $900+ road bike for our first Christmas together, and I got a barely used $500 sewing machine off eBay. Best investment ever! So, if you have no machine, read reviews, go try some out at fabric stores, ask friends what they have, and figure out your dream machine. Okay, now to show you the parts of these bad boys. If you’re a very experienced seamstress, please share any of your knowledge with the rest of us too! I’m just going off my own meager knowledge!

WARNING: LOTS of pictures! You can look through this, and then if you ever have a question, refer back to it. It’ll be under the Sewing 101 tab!
I’ll start showing you all the main parts (yours may have more or less, but your manual will be your best friend to get to know it. I still refer to mine all the time after 5 years together…)Okay, here goes.

Don’t be scared. We’ll go through everything! Starting at the right…
Handwheel – This is how you move the needle without the foot petal. Sometimes you only need a stitch or 2 and don’t want to risk using the petal. Voila! My high school teacher threatened me to only ever turn it forward, so I’ve always tried to keep that in mind. It has something to do with screwing things up if you go backwards, and there is a reverse button to go back a stitch or 2.
Stitch Selection Buttons – Your machine will most likely not have these, but mine has buttons to choose between things like zig zag, straight, buttonholes, etc. More to come…
# Button – again, most likely not on yours, but my mom’s has around 60 different stitches you can choose from, so you use the # button to put in the number of the stitch you want to do. Pretty fancy, and honestly, we both only use about 5 of the 60 stitches. Just depends on your sewing level and what you’re making.
1/2 Speed Button – I had actually forgotten my machine had this feature until I looked in my manual to make sure I got the technical terms right. But, if you’re sewing something and want to go slower, and not trust your foot pedal to push it slower, you can use this button. Fancy pants…
Screen – my fancy machine has a computer screen to give you some info on what your stitching. More on that…
Needle Stop Position – If you’re a big time quilter, this might be a nice feature. You can choose to have the needle stop in the down position, (like in the fabric), or up position when you release the pedal. This helps if you’re turning the corner a lot and want to keep your needle in the same position when you lift your presser foot…but, I haven’t used this feature at all, so don’t be intimidated.
Reverse Button – Whenever you’re sewing something that will stay (basically every stitch but a basting stitch), you always backstitch at the beginning a few stitches to make a sort of knot. That’s what this button does. It looks kind of like a U on my machine. Yours may be different. I use this all the time so I like how convenient it is as a button. On my MIL, it’s an older machine, so you flip a switch on the stitch length. Just depends…
Presser foot – Okay, there are TONS of presser feet out there, some are specific to specific brands of machines. All machines will come with a basic presser foot, which has an area for the needle to go through, and helps to keep the fabric down while you sew it. Here’s a closer view of mine from the internet.

I use that all the time, but the other 2 I use a lot are the zipper foot, which has skinnier edges on both sides to make it easier to sew right along the zipper, and then a buttonhole foot, and mine is fairly fancy cuz it has a built-in ruler type thing.

You can see they all have a hole in the top for the shank of your machine to go in, so that’s why presser feet don’t use with every single machine. There’s high and low shanks machines.
Okay, next is…
Stitch Plate – this is the metal part that your bobbin thread comes up, and has stitch lines. It depends on your machine, but most will mark 1/2” or 5/8” since they are the most common ones. They also have holes for your feed dogs.
Bobbin Cover – self explanatory in the name, but this opens up to show your bobbin. Every machine is different, and some have drop in bobbins, and some are in different locations, but I think every machine has a bobbin cover & bobbin.
Feeling overwhelmed yet? Next picture!

My machine has 2 thread holders on top. One is the collapsible vertical one, that folds down for storage, and the horizontal one that needs the disk to hold the spool on so it doesn’t spin off. Mine also has a carrying handle so it’s easier to move around (or haul from the closet to the kitchen table for projects….) Each machine also has a bobbin winder and switch (oh man, how embarrassing, I just realized switch is spelled wrong, but I’m going to leave it.
Thread Tension Adjustment – I haven’t ever messed with this, because tension somewhat scares me. I know the red line is supposed to line up with the dot, so I leave it alone. Anyone who plays with their tension settings out there?
Feed Dogs – These things move with the needle to push your fabric through…More on them in a minute.

These are the main buttons I worry about when I’m sewing.
Stitch Width – whenever you’re sewing a zig zag, you can choose how wide or narrow your zags (?) are…This is where my button is
Needle Position – Sometimes, like when you’re putting in a zipper, you need to move the needle away from the center, and this is how you do that. Mine has about 7 positions, I think….
Stitch Length – With this, you can go from almost 0 (like a buttonhole), to a 5, which is the basting length. I typically sew between 2.5 and 3.5

Quick note: On this sewing machine, you can see the sewing length is the lever in the center right, and you twist the green knob to change the length up or down. The needle position is changed by turning the knob on the top (it’s currently set at 2.5), and the width is changed by sliding the thing on that knob, and you can see that is pointed at 0 right now. To do a back stitch on this machine, you’d slide the stitch length lever up and stitch a few stitches, then release it back to your regular length…

These are some of my fancier stitch options, but I only marked the ones that I’ve actually used, so the straight stitch is my most important one. Zig zag is a close second. The Overlock (kind of like a serged edge, more just to finish edges), the blind stitch (which takes some set up, but is pretty cool to make a hem where you can’t really see the stitches) and the Double overlock (just a fancier overlock stitch) I haven’t used very much, but they are nice features. The buttonhole is a definite must for me. I refuse to figure out a manual buttonhole, since this makes it so easy. Especially with mine, where if I sew one, it remembers the size and does all the rest the same.

This is my computer screen when it’s on. Yours may not have this feature, but I’m just showing you how to read mine. Starting at the top:
Stitch Width – mine is at 0, so I’m doing a straight stitch, no zigging.
Needle Position – set in the center.
Selected Stitch – I’m using #1, which is a straight stitch on my machine
Needle Stop Position – When I stop using my foot pedal, my needle will automatically stop up, out of my fabric
Presser Foot Used – Some of the stitches, like the buttonhole, need a specific foot, so if I push that button, it will tell me what presser foot I should be using. Since it’s just a straight foot, it’s just the basic presser foot.
Stitch Length – This is set at the standard 2. It goes all the way up to 5, as you can see.
Whew, okay we’re almost through my machine!

This is where my needle is on my machine, and you can see the black thing on the side is the screw I use to tighten or loosen the needle, when I’m changing it. There’s different kinds of needles you can use for different types of fabrics. I usually have a universal, or standard, needle in, but there are specific ones for lightweight and sheer fabrics, heavy/upholstery fabrics, denim, leathers, etc. There’s also double needles that come in different widths too.

On the side of my machine, there is the place where my foot pedal plugs in, and the drop feed dog button. Sometimes when you’re sewing, you don’t want your fabric getting pushed through the machine by feed dogs, so you can use this to drop them. Like so:

They are down…And,

They are up. The only time I can think of off the top of my head that I drop my feed dogs is when I’m darning something…Which isn’t often, but I do sometimes mend holes in jeans with that feature. Maybe I’ll do a tutorial on that method in the future…
Okay, now that you know the basic parts, I’ll show you how to thread a bobbin. Again, yours may be different, but this is how I’ve done it on all the Berninas I’ve ever used (about 4-5 different versions).
You take the thread from the spool, wrap it around the threading post (mine has directional arrows as you can see), and then wrap it around the bobbin, following the arrows.

Then, you push the switch towards the bobbin to lock it into place, and get it to start spinning. My college teacher told us that we needed to take our time threading our bobbins. It’s not a race, and it will help your tension be more even. You can see on my switch that I actually have a thread cutter there. That’s kind of a nice feature On some machines, when you push the switch over to the bobbin, it makes it so your needle won’t move while you push the foot pedal (a funny trick to play on people in class, they won’t figure out immediately why they’re machine isn’t sewing ) If it doesn’t, you may need to disengage your needle by turning your handwheel.

Mine is one piece, but some aren’t.

This machine is very similar to my mother in laws. You can see the handwheel has 2 parts of the wheel. To disengage the needle, you hold the outside wheel still, and then you twist the inside wheel until it stops. Then push the foot pedal, and your needle shouldn’t move, but your bobbin will thread up. Also on this machine, you can see it has a sort of lid on top, and that’s where the bobbin threading things are. You’d just need to flip the lid to wind your bobbin, like this one.

Okay, after your bobbin is threaded, you need to put it in the machine, right? Go down to your bobbin cover (or if you have a drop in, I’ve never sewn with those, sorry!)

You can see that mine tells me the direction to put the thread in my bobbin case.

Bobbin, bobbin case, bobbin case, bobbin. Thread the bobbin in how your manual tells you (i.e. clockwise or counterclockwise, looking like a 6 or 9…) Then pop it into your case

Mine puts in the machine by putting that sort of tail up, so it’s like a number 6. Check your machine. While we’re down here, let’s learn a few more things about your bobbin area. When you pull your bobbin out, you can see some fuzzies get in there while sewing fabrics, and some threads. You’ll want to clean that out periodically. I always keep a pair of tweezers by the machine for this. (it can help thread your needle too)

I don’t use my fingers because I may push something back farther, and maybe get my skin oils on some part that I wouldn’t want to… Now on mine, I know it well enough that there are a few other areas I check to clean out myself. (I still get mine tuned up periodically to keep it working good. Ask around your area for someone who does that. They can also show you tips on your specific machine)

Mine has a sort of latch right where my thumb is, that when you push it…

The bobbin case pops down and I can clean that off too. But wait, that’s not all!

The part that the bobbin case goes on also comes out and can be checked to make sure no stray threads and fuzzies are gumming up the works! I was also told by teachers and my sewing machine tuner guy to oil periodically here

My machine came with a special oil, so I’ll oil there every 6 months to a year, depending how much sewing I’m doing. After oiling, make sure to sew a few seams on scrap fabric so you don’t get any gunk on your projects!

Look at all the gunk I got out of my machine! I clean mine fairly frequently, (like after every big project, or at least every other), and that’s still how much I got!
Okay, finally, let’s learn how to thread the machine to sew from the top!

Mine starts at the thread spool (I like the vertical, but you can use horizontal, personal preference), go over to the little loop in the back…

Go towards the front along the top, (following my arrows), down to the loop at the bottom by the reverse stitch button

Around that metal pokey-out thing (yes, that’s the technical term!)

Up to the top, and around the part that moves up and down while sewing (sorry, I wish I knew that technical term!)

and then back down to thread the needle, behind the hook there.

Bring your thread down to the hook by the needle, and then thread the needle. Hold the top thread while moving the handwheel to make the needle go down and bring up your bobbin thread.
A few more tips:
This is the side view of the presser foot

To change the presser foot, you lift the little lever behind the foot like so, and your foot will come off the shank

To lift the presser foot up and down while sewing, use the lever in the back.

Presser foot down

Presser foot up
Mine has a nice feature because it’s got a thread cutter on the side of the needle so I can always cut my thread, even if I don’t have scissors.

Few other things:
Where to turn it on and off and plug in the power…Important to know, eh?

I keep mine plugged into a serge protector just in case.

And how to make the machine go, the foot pedal!
Whew! That was a huge post! The rest will be shorter, I promise, but hopefully this helps give a basic rundown of machine parts, and how to thread your machine and bobbin! Plus a little maintenance tips and such. Did you learn anything? Do you have any tips for me? Will this be a helpful series for you? Do you have any specific questions about your machine? Thanks for reading!

What I Wore Sunday: Week 5

2012-02-25T09:47:00.001-07:00

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

Wear a different outfit every Sunday.
Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.
Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.
Think outside the box and be creative

Actually, I think I’ll call this one “What I Would Have Worn Sunday If I Wasn’t Home With Sick Kids.” Sound good? This is an outfit I wore to a Church meeting during the week.

I’m wearing the ruffle shirt that I refashioned here.

I bought the skirt off of the clearance rack at JC Penney for about $4.00. It was a size 14. I am not a size 14. I am a size 8, so I took it in and refashioned the waistband . I’d say the skirt counts for What I Wore Sunday, too! ;)

What did you wear Sunday?

Fabulous Friday

2012-02-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Psst…It’s Nat’s birthday! Leave her some birthday love!
Sorry, last post was humdrum, I had a case of the mean reds. If you know what I mean (which movie) leave me a comment. We’ll be BFF for life! But, I took my girls to the DI that day, and while I didn’t get any huge inspiration, I did snap out of it, mostly! So, I’m working on several projects and posts, so yeah! But, onto the fun-ness that is Pinterest. Seriously, who could be uninspired from all the ideas? I think it’s probably just harder to come up with something original…Anyway, without further adieu…

This is actually in Etsy. But, man, that’s cute! Gives me some ideas! Plus, those cardis are cute too!

Um, I saw this on someone else’s board and kind of fell in love. I LOVE the colors. Shh, don’t tell the hubsters, I doubt he’d go for it. But, a girl can dream, right? From Better Homes & Gardens

Brought by the creative-ness of Kara Paslay, this pegboard is pretty funky. But I think it’s got some cool potential for a kid’s room or something. Pretty fun, eh?

I thought this was a cute, spring-y take on St. Patrick’s Day, from A Little Tipsy, via Tip Junkie. By the way, I’ve started a St. Patty’s board if you want to see other ideas! Like this shamrock stamp

Genius and why didn’t I think of that all in one! From Lestout
I had another one, but it’s not pulling up, so you’ll just have to wait until I recreate it, since it’s an inspiration idea! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAT!!!

Ruffle Refashion

2012-02-23T07:10:00.001-07:00

Remember the ruffely shirt I wore here?

I promised you the tutorial, and here it is! I actually got this idea from Ashlee. She made her awesome pirate shirt that got the wheels in my head turning. At our Grandpa’s funeral, one of her little ladies was wearing a shirt with a cute applique on it. Ashlee said she put the applique on the shirt to cover a stain. Hmmm…

I have a white ruffle shirt with a pizza stain on it. Hmmm…

“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“Uh, I think so, Brain, but me and Pippi Longstocking--I mean, what would our children look like?!”

Exactly what I was thinking! That, and I could add more ruffles to my shirt to cover my stain. See? Ashlee does it to cover her kids’ stains. I do it to cover my own. White shirts and I don’t get along. If you ever see me eyeballing a white shirt at the store, please stop me. Just say, “Natalie, it isn’t worth it. Put the shirt down and choose something that is more stain concealing…” Mkay?! Thanks!

So, on to the ruffle shirt--

You can do this refashion with any shirt, it doesn’t have to be one that already had ruffles on it. Here’s my shirt. I won’t point out the stain, but trust me, it’s there.

My MIL, whom we lovingly refer to as “The Queen,” gave me this roll of knit ribbing a while ago. I have found so many fun things to do with this bad boy! :)

I cut a few strips of the ribbing to the size I wanted them. If you don’t have the ribbing, you could do this with 1” strips of knit fabric. You could even chop up an old tee shirt and do the same thing. It doesn’t matter; as long as it is knit.

Sew a basting stitch down each strip. (A basting stitch is a straight stitch with a longer stitch length.)

Pull on one of the threads to gather the fabric.

Pin the ruffles onto the shirt where you want them and sew them into place with a straight stitch. Once the ruffles are on, remove your basting threads.

I think it’s easier to pull out the basting stitch when you use a different color of thread. You can’t really tell from the picture, but these threads are light blue. They were super easy to find against the white fabric of the tee shirt.

Here they are all sewn on. Can’t see that stain now, can ya?!

…and this is what it looked like after I washed it. I was worried about the spacing between the ruffles, but once I saw how it washed up, I wasn’t. I love how it turned out.

It’s just so feminine and fun. I’ll definitely do this to a shirt again. It’s a great way to change things up.

Inspiration

2012-02-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

That’s what I’m searching for. Sorry, this isn’t going to be an awesome project post. I’m in the middle of several projects, but I’ve lost the gusto to finish them. My dad has been in town this past week, so it’s been nice to hang out with him (he’s been working in another state for 6 months, so we don’t get to see him too often…he’s almost done though!). My oldest is on a rampage, and I’ve lost my patience several times…Oops. I’m trying hard, promise. My baby is sad, and has eczema really bad right now, so I’m trying to figure out if I should take her to a pediatrician or a dermatologist…We had to go up to our business we own this past weekend and check on things, so it was nice to see some friends up there (I brought down some of my craft supplies from the storage unit, happy day!). Oh, here’s a tip. You know chalkboard paint it so fun, right? In our business, I painted a long wall with chalkboard paint, but it kept getting smeared when people would walk by and rub their hands on it, and wasn’t worth the upkeep. Wanna know a cool product? It works on textured chalkboard walls too great.

Bistro Chalk Markers. They come in lots of colors, and I just got mine at a craft store (they’re also on Amazon, I heart them). They are liquid, erase with a wet rag, and work really well! So if you have something chalkboard in your house that you want to have last for awhile, go get a couple of these! If you want it to be more chalk-like, and a little more nice than kid’s chalk, use pastels. They come in lots of colors and look really nice on chalkboards. We use them on the high menu chalkboards at our business.
Anyway, sorry, it’s just been one of those weeks. Hopefully I’ll be back next time with something fun/awesome/whatever. In the meantime, let me ask you…What are you crafting/DIY/sewing questions? What would you most like to learn? leave some comments, and I can do some projects to answer those questions. I’m glad Nat did the hemming post yesterday, because I’ve been thinking of doing a whole sewing 101 series, but I want to know what you don’t know or want to learn (even if it's questions like what's a presser foot, or how do you sew a straight line)! Let me know, and help me get out of my funk!

Sewing 101: Basic Hem

2012-02-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

Last week, I bought this outfit off the dollar rack at Wal-Mart.

I loved the price, not the outfit. Seriously. Who wants to wrestle a 19 month old to snap all those snaps?! Not me! Still, I saw the potential in it and bought it.

Wanna see what my tutorial pictures really look like before I edit them?

This is my #3, Deege. (pronounced Dee-j…and that’s just his nickname.) Isn’t he a cutie? :)

Oh yeah. Onto the tutorial…

This is a tutorial on a basic hem that can be used on a shirt, skirt, dress, shorts, pants, pillowcase, or whatever else you have that needs hemming. Ready? Ok.

I started off by taking a shirt that already fit Monkey and measured it to the romper. I cut it about an inch longer so that I had enough fabric for the hem.

Then I serged around the bottom of the shirt. I threw the legs of the romper away. You could save them for another project if you wanted to.

See that lovely serged edge? I heart my serger! I didn’t have to do this since the shirt is knit. It wouldn’t have frayed, but why miss an opportunity to spend time with Juki?! If you don’t have a serger and the fabric is something that will fray, zig-zag around the raw edge.

Once your raw edge is taken care of, measure and pin the hem into place. You could also measure and hem again (with the raw edge sewed completely under) just to be sure you don’t have any fraying.

Use a straight stitch and a matching thread to sew your hem into place. I could have stopped here, but the shirt sleeve hems were double stitched, so I went around another time, just so everything would match.

If you’re sewing with knit, it will stretch a bit. I rest a warm iron over my seams to shrink it back into place. Don’t use a back and forth ironing motion, that won’t help the stretching.

Look at that lovely serged edge! So pretty…sigh…

…and the shirt is done! It’s about a million times cuter, now, too!

My oldest (Jingus…another nickname) looked at the shirt and said, “Wow, Mom! You can’t even tell that that shirt used to be ugly!” Best.Compliment.Ever!!

See how cute? Oh goodness. Isn’t he yummy?! I think so, too! :)

Not bad for a buck, right?!

Everyday I’m Ruff-le-in’

2012-02-20T09:45:00.001-07:00

First, I have to share this video. It just makes me so happy! I love Newsies It just goes to show that some people have too much time on their hands, but that makes the rest of us happy!

Newsies!

By the way, I’m so excited, my red dress from last week won on The CSI Project! Woohoo! I updated a picture on it too if you wanna go see!
Okay, now moving on, I’ve finally finished my project that I’m going to enter into the Sew-vivor contest

You may remember a few weeks ago when I said I was starting a project and this was your clue…

That was this twin duvet cover

That I bought at Target…Let’s just see that price tag

$7.48 on clearance. Gotta love that! I had this idea of using a twin sheet set, but I couldn’t find any that were white, cotton, and under $10. That was my budget. So I went with this Target duvet that was a cotton/poly blend, and made it work. First, I spent a bit of time unpicking the sides, while watching movies/TV in the evenings. Then, I cut one side to be the bottom of my bedspread (this is a crib/toddler size bed, that’s why I used a twin. If I were doing bigger, I’d do the next size up like a full for a twin), pressed the sides in 1/2”, and finished around the edges with a zigzag stitch.

and cut the other side into strips (mine were 7 1/2” wide so the finished strip would be around 6 1/2”) I pressed in the sides, top and bottom of all the strips 1/2”

I sewed the short sides and one long end of the strips with a regular stitch (so one long side isn’t finished). Now, I knew I’d be dyeing, so I only sewed 2 with white thread, and the rest were either pink or brown. I also made all the pillow cases I wanted so I could dye them at the same time. I don’t really have pictures of them, except the one I didn’t dye. I used the pillow sham

that came with the duvet cover and turned it into a ruffle/pleated pillow. I cut it into pieces like so

and used the idea of this pin (source unknown, I guess it’s a private blog?)

which kind of worked, but didn’t…so I did a more pleated look, like so.

The stitches in the middle are just a basting stitch because the pleats didn’t want to stay, so I basted over them, I may take them out, or I may leave them…Who knows?! Anyway, for my other pillows, I did one out of the fabric pocket thing the duvet came from (why not, it’s already a pillow shape!) and just added Velcro to help it stay closed. After it was dyed, I added big ric rac to make it fun

The other 2 pillows were just squares I made, and I used the buttons/button holes at the bottom of the duvet to be the closure behind the pillows.

Now, you wanna know my uber cheap (but a little more time consuming) trick to cheap pillows? Wal-Mart (or Target). I went and bought the standard pillow, and it’s $2.50.

I cut it in half

and sewed one end close, and that was the stuffing for my white pleated pillow. I made forms the size I wanted out of the duvet cover (which if you just wanted to stuff your pillows and not ever worry about changing them, you can do that too) and sewed the pillow forms, and my pillow cases.
Okay, now I got to the fun part…Dyeing! Go here for some of my past tips…Anyway, Rit has this great resource on their website to help you figure out the color you want. It’s their color dyeing chart. I used these 2 colors to make my pink colors.

Fuchsia and Rose Pink. The brown was a bit more tricky. I bought some dark brown dye, and dyed all my brown things, but it came out as this weird brownish-lavender-gray color. Not what I wanted. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture, but it was bad. So I gathered my dyes

and between their color chart and my mad-scientist skills, I got a much better brown! I was shooting for dark/milk chocolate, and I think I got it. Next, I ordered my ruffle foot off eBay, and accidently sent it to an address we haven’t been at for 2 years. So I had to wait even longer for it to forward. *sigh* I finally got it, and on Saturday, I got rufflin! I used Craftaholic’s Anonymous tutorial here on using a ruffler foot, and it helped a lot! It was a bit of trial and error, but it was fun, and once I got the hang of it, I had ruffles coming out my butt! Okay, not really, that’d be weird, but look at the crazy-ness!

Sorry, getting ahead of myself. I drew the lines of where the ruffles should go on my base piece,

and then did my best to keep a straight line while using the new crazy foot!

Isn’t that brown nice? And the pink? That pink and brown paisley-type fabric is actually upholstery fabric from Home Fabrics. They give you sample cuts on Fridays, and that was one I had gotten a long time ago, and it wasn’t quite as wide as the rest of my strips, but I thought it looked good!
Okay, now, for the pillows, these are what I did. I bought a mystery box off Pick Your Plum awhile ago, and here’s the fun goodies it had:

For $30. I used the ric rac to do the pillow I showed you before, and this pillow,

I got the idea from that off U-create, which highlighted it from Flamingo Toes. The last pillow I did was using a tutorial from Sew Dang Cute for her frayed zig zag pillow.

That pink and brown fabric and some white snowflakey fabric were from Wal-Mart remnant bins. See the fabrics after dyeing:

I loved that the little snowflake design gave it a cool look! Okay, here’s my baby’s bed before this bedspread

No bedding except for her blankets. Now, I’m not quite ready for the change of the crib to a daybed toddler bed, but when I am, I’ve got this cute bedding!

With her favorite blanket…

What do you think? Any questions? Let me know!
Linking Up to:

What I Wore Sunday: Week 4

2012-02-18T07:54:00.001-07:00

…and our winner for the $20.00 gift certificate to The Bowlicious Bowtique!

According to Random.org the winner is…

…drumroll…

#15!

Way to go, #15, a.k.a. Debra!

Debra Feb 13, 2012 08:09 PM

I mentioned it on facebook

Congrats, Debra! Email us at 2craftycousins(at)gmail(dot)com and we’ll let you know what you need to do from here! Happy shopping!

Now onto What I Wore Sunday…

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

Wear a different outfit every Sunday.
Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.
Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.
Think outside the box and be creative!

For Week #4 (last Sunday) I wore this to Church:

You have to have known that was coming! See my tutorial for the sweater refashion here.

I also refashioned the tee shirt. The tutorial on that will come soon. Don’t panic! :)

What did you wear Sunday?!

Jewelry Board

2012-02-16T07:31:00.001-07:00

HURRY AND ENTER TO WIN A $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO THE BOWLICIOUS BOWTIQUE! THE GIVEAWAY ENDS TOMORROW!!

**********

Guess what! I got my new sewing machine and serger!

We’ve been spending a lot of time together these past two days, and we’re becoming GREAT friends!

They’re so smooth, quiet, perfect, sigh…I am in love! :)

Speaking of love…

I live with all boys and I love it. But, being the only girl in my world of men has made want to be more girly. Jewelry is one way to do that. It can really add a lot to an outfit and your mood! :)

I love Lia Sophia jewelry, but not their prices. One of my friends had a party, and I decided to have one, too. I got tons of free jewelry…just nowhere to store it.

My father-in-law built me the jewelry box on the left about seven years ago. Santa Claus brought me the jewelry box on the right when I was nine. Both of these boxes have sentimental value to me, so I’ll never get rid of them. I just needed some other way to store my jewelry.

The Hubsters came up with this ingenious idea:

I took an old cork bulletin board we had laying around and spray painted it black to match my bedroom.

I hot glued some cute buttons onto thumb tacks to hold my jewelry onto the board.

This project took less than 30 minutes to complete.

I hung my board on the wall, then hung my most worn jewelry on the wall in my bedroom. My other jewelry boxes are still full, just not as cluttered!

This was a fun, fast, cheap, and easy project. I ended up switching out the thumb tacks for clear push pins. I am short and hung the board a bit too high. It’s easier to hang necklaces and earrings on the push pins.

I love that this is functional and adds to our bedroom decor. We just remodeled our bedroom. I should do a post on that one, too. Hmmmm….

Lady In Red….

2012-02-15T09:23:00.001-07:00

I actually don’t like that song at all, but that is what comes to mind.

How was your Valentine’s Day? Did you do anything fun? My mom & I got Applebee’s to go and I had an amazing sirloin. This one, if you’re interested…The hubsters got home from work around 7:30, so we did the bedtimes for kiddos, then watched my idea of a chick flick…Wanted, with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie that I had recorded on DVR (yeah for having satellite with a movie channel that edits movies I want to see!!). Good times. High body count. Anyway, moving on to something that may say Valentine’s more to others

I bought this dress about 4 years ago, on major clearance, in the wrong size, and wasn’t completely in love with it, but wanted a red dress. So I bought it, and wore it once. That’s it. Kind of ridiculous. So I tried it on again recently and decided everything that I didn’t like about it.

I wasn’t a fan of the ruffles on the neck band.

I didn’t like how it bunched on the waist in the front and back, making it look like you have a pooch/big booty even if you don’t (I do, just sayin.)

Then I let it sit for awhile while I tried to get inspired elsewhere. I found this Pinterest board from Shabby Apple of all red dresses. Ooh baby! I really liked the look of this one

From Shabby Apple, and this one

Seriously looked at dozens of pictures, before deciding how I wanted to go about it. I spent the next few TV watching evenings unpicking the ruffle from the neck and pinning the band back on

Then sewing it on

I like it better already! Next (sorry not many pictures, I kept forgetting…) I unpicked the waist front and back to make it lay flatter instead of bunched. For the back, there was already a middle seam, so I just undid the center bunch, and re-sewed the middle seam, taking in the gathering and tapering the fullness. Did I lose you?

Okay the solid lines are the lines I sewed on the back, and you can see there was a bit extra fabric hanging out on the inside, and I tapered it down to fit the dress where it looked natural. Does that make sense?

I did the same in the front, but I had to unpick the whole thing and take the extra out at the side seams. Then, I decided to cut off some of the extra fabric, and get a look at the waist that still helps camouflage any pooches, while still looking awesome. I layered the cut pieces, and since they were tapered, they are kind of triangle shaped. I sewed that in with the side seams and the waist band.

I took in the sides of the dress, since it was a few sizes too big. This was another dress I ruched in the past, so I’ll show you these pictures to clarify things. I tried the dress on inside out, and figured out how much I wanted to take in to get a good look, obviously you don’t want it too tight, so take it in a little at a time if you’re nervous. The black line shows how much I took in this pink dress.

I also ruched the sides of the dress, because I like that look, and it gives it interest in my opinion. Basically, take some elastic (the pink was 6”, the red was 4” worth) and I started it at the waist, then stretch it while sewing it on over your side seam.

In this one, I haven’t trimmed off the extra fabric when I took it in. Here’s another picture of it with the elastic sewn in.

Here is how it looks turned right side out.

This dress I just wanted the ruching to be the focus, so I did a lot. Back to my red dress, I didn’t want it to be the main focus, just add some interest and character, if you will.

That’s how much I put in the red dress. I used a little thicker elastic, and it was harder to get the gather as much as the thinner elastic on the pink dress. Keep that in mind.

Then, I used the ruffles I took off the neck to make some little rosettes. I tied a little knot in one end

and wrapped the ruffle around the knot, hand sewing it in place when needed

and then put it on the dress when it got the look and fullness I wanted.

The ruching on the sides

The other side

The full waist

And the lighting was horrible by our full length mirror, so I apologize. Maybe someday my 3 year old will know how to take pictures so I can get someone else to take them….

Until then, me sitting down

UPDATE: Me with the dress:

Linking up to the CSI Project

Bathroom Redo: Part 1

2012-02-14T07:09:00.001-07:00

Have you entered THE GIVEAWAY yet?

No?! I’ll wait you enter.

…waiting…

Back already?! Fabulous! ;)

Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s what I’m giving my favorite guys for Valentine’s Day.

No sissy lovey-dovey Valentines at our house! :)

So, as you may have guessed from the title, we are remodeling our downstairs bathroom. It’s in pretty bad shape. I didn’t get any nice before shots, but that doesn’t matter. It looked bad, and now it looks worse.

Take a moment and admire Monkey heading for the toilet. Don’t worry. I caught him before he got to the potty! Also, we don’t shower with folding chairs. That was just for the Hubsters while he chiseled out grout. We’ve actually never used the shower in this bathroom.

After hours of removing grout, we (read: Hubby) realized that the entire shower needed to be replaced. Meh. So, we spent the weekend tearing out the shower. This tutorial will be all about removing your shower.

Start with a shower that desperately needs to be replaced.

Give your boys a hammer…

…and let them enjoy busting up the tile.

They’ll love it, I promise. Just make sure they help haul all the broken tile to the garbage! :)

And that, my friends, is how you tear out a shower. Stay tuned for our bathroom redo progress.

In other randomness; have you seen these floating around Pinterest?

Oh goodness, they make me laugh!

Remember how my sewing machine died? Remember how my serger did too?

Well, look what The Hubsters bought me this weekend:

AND this!!

Best.Husband.Ever.

My machines are supposed to delivered this afternoon.

I.CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!

Hey Hubsters~

(Happy Valentine’s Day!)

So, my weekend was awesome. How ‘bout yours?!

Tie Me Up In Knots

2012-02-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

Just to let you know, I did make those doughnuts I told you about on Friday, and they. were. good. Like I had to force myself to stop. I love old fashioned cake donuts, and these were amazing! They were almost a fail because the recipe was wrong! But, I left a comment asking a question, and it turns out, it was written wrong! So I think they’ve fixed it. But, man, yum!
Today’s post is a quickie. I don’t know who of you can even use it, but I did it for my daughter, and hopefully it will help….Lately, she’s been focusing hard on trying to tie knots. It’s pretty cute, cuz she’ll sit there for 5 minutes working on a loop, tongue sticking out, and then she’ll finally make something tie with all the twisting she’s done, and she is SO EXCITED! So I thought I’d whip this up for her to give it a practice. It doesn’t even deserve a tutorial, it’s so easy, so I’ll just show you the finished product:

I took some cardboard (not flimsy like a cereal box…this was the back of a drawing pad of my mom’s) and punched holes in it with a Clikit…(a handy little tool)

Printed off some pictures on the web of how to tie a knot and bow from here. Cut them out, glued them down, and then put in ribbon in the holes…

I used thicker grosgrain, 1/4” satin, 1/4” grosgrain, and bakers twine, so she could try different widths and types, and we’ll see which is easiest for her. I did most of them with 2 colors so it would be easier to tell what she was doing. I tied square knots on the back and taped them down. By the way, the 5/8” grosgrain ribbon and the bakers twine are both purchased from Pick Your Plum. Today they have cute photo pendants…So fun!

I also melted all the edges of the ribbon, and used clear nail polish on the twine so they wouldn’t fray.

Then they went to town!

Maybe I should have made two?

By the way, you’ve seen Natalie’s entry for Sew-vivor, and I’m working on mine, but do you know what it is? It’s a sewing competition that everyone can enter during the month of February, and they have giveaways and such, and then there’s a competition with judges for the top 10. It sounds like fun, so go here to see other entries and read the rules! It should be fun, and if you make it in, we can cheer you on, and if we make it, you can cheer for us! There’s some great judges and prizes, so what have you got to lose! Just follow along the fun if you want!

Bowlicious Bowtique Giveaway!!

2012-02-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday, everyone! To celebrate the weekend, we're having another giveaway! You can win a $20.00 gift certificate to The Bowlicious Bowtique, and decorate your girls in Rachel's adorable accessories! Here's Rachel to tell you more about herself and her website~

My name is Rachel

from Bowlicious Bowtique and I'm sponsoring today's giveaway for this AMAZING blog!!!

I started my business 4 years ago because I had an enormous love of all things girly and my daughters adored cuteness and fluff in their hair. I was tired of crap quality hair accessories and I decided to make my own. Soon after Bowlicious Bowtique was born! I specialize in EVERYTHING girly and "boutiquey" including headbands, clippies, car seat covers, baby bracelets and MORE! All ribbon ends (even ones not shown) are heat sealed to prevent fraying and all bows are mounted to no-slip clips, which hold tight in ALL hair types (especially fine baby hair). I ♥LOVE♥ custom orders and strive to make quality products that people can afford. Good luck to you all!

Thanks, Rachel! You're the best! Oh, and *someone* told me that your daughter has dreamy eyes! It made me laugh! Love it!
**********
Okay, so you have five ways to enter the giveaway. Here's how:

1. Follow Crafty Cousins, and let us know in a comment that you're following. If you already follow, give us a holla for entry #1.
2. Head over to Rachel's website then come back over here. Leave a comment here and let us know which of Rachel's bows is your favorite for entry #2.
3. "Like" Rachel's Facebook Page. Leave a comment here for entry#3.
4. Blog about the giveaway and link back to Crafty Cousins. Leave a comment here for entry #4.
5. Mention the giveaway on Facebook. Leave a comment here for entry #5.

If you tell us that we're awesome, crafting geniuses, pretty, or that you think our kids are cute; you might get another entry! ;) Ha ha! Just kidding! :)

The giveaway will close on Friday, February 17th at 11:59 p.m. MST. The winner will be announced on Saturday, February 18th whenever I drag my lazy rear end out of bed and get the post up. Mkay? Sound good?!

Guess what?! If you win, not only will you get $20 to spend however you want; you'll also get FREE SHIPPING!! How 'bout that?!

If you decide you don't like your odds, you can always just buy whatever you want from Rachel! ;)

Good luck and happy shopping!

P.S. Be sure to check out my What I Wore Sunday post below!

What I Wore Sunday: Week 3

2012-02-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

Wear a different outfit every Sunday.
Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.
Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.
Think outside the box and be creative!

For Week #3, I wore this:

I didn’t make the vest, but I’ve got a tutorial planned for that soon. It’s gonna be so easy to make! I just need a working sewing machine and some knit fabric.

So, what is it that I’m wearing that I made myself? These earrings:

Click on the picture for the link to the tutorial. I didn’t realize my head and ears weren’t in the picture until I was downloading my pictures onto the computer. Otherwise, I would have gotten a better picture of my ears! :)

See the other weeks of What I Wore Sunday here.

What did you wear that you made yourself, thrifted, or refashioned?

Fab Five

2012-02-10T13:39:00.001-07:00

You know what the thing is with Pinterest? Sometimes you look at the pictures and wonder, “does that really work?” Well, I did that with this one, and yep, it did…

Pretty crazy, since my hair doesn’t like to do anything. I need to refine it a bit, but I was stoked! I’ve done a few of things I’ve pinned on my Hair board, and this has worked! Thanks to Papermama, she even has a video!
I’m hoping to make these from Christie’s Corner

and use the donut holes to make this…

for Valentine’s, from Paisley Petal Events
I’m also really curious how this would work, since I try to have pizza weekly…I kinda love it…

It seems a little scary to try pizza in a crock pot, but I’m game! From Get Crocked (I’ll let you know…)
Finally,

I have oodles of ric rac, thanks to Pick Your Plum (they sell things daily for ridiculous prices, for craft, fashion, jewelry, home décor, etc.), so I saw this link up on U-create crafts for ideas of using ric rac. I’ve already done a few….More on that!
I’ve got to get back to dyeing….Something that was supposed to turn out chocolate brown is more lavender….Oh dear! Maybe it’ll be done next week to show you! Also, I’m super excited! I bought this bad boy this week, so I’m waiting anxiously to try that thing out! What have you been up to? Any fun sewing/crafts/decorating? I’d love to see anything, email us pictures! Thanks for reading!

Refashion a Sweater into a Cardi

2012-02-09T08:44:00.001-07:00

Thanks to some busted plumbing and some awful lady problems…blush…eight weeks after Monkey was born, I had to have a Hysterectomy. Bleh. That was a crapper.

Are you wondering what this has to do with my tutorial? Well, ever since the Hysterectomy, I’m either freezing or frying. There is no happy medium. I have an entire drawer full of cute sweaters I haven’t worn since the hack. I need an easy out for when I start getting too hot. I decided to turn one of them into a cardigan. Here’s how.

Start with a sweater. I chose this one because I love(d) it, and because I was interested to see how the turtleneck was going to turn out.

I cut it right up the center.

I didn’t have to measure this one. I just went with the sweater pattern. If your sweater doesn’t have a pattern to follow, you’ll have to measure it and draw your cut line onto the sweater with a fabric marker.

I selected this stitch on my sewing machine, which is now dead. Sadness.

Then all I did was stitch down each raw edge of the sweater with matching thread. Here’s a closer shot of the stitching.

I love how it turned out kind of scalloped/ruffled.

Now I have a really cute *new* outfit! Only…

I’m not leaving the house today. The heels and necklaces are impractical for packing babies around, folding laundry, and making dinner. So…

…back to my running shoes, hoodie and tee shirt it is. Ahhh…comfort! :)

But now I have a cute outfit for date night or What I Wore Sunday!!

See how easy that was? Now you have a fast and easy way to refashion a sweater! This would work well for a sweater that has shrunk or one that you just want to change up. You could also embellish it with a zipper, buttons, or ties to keep it closed.

Happy sewing! :)

Bedspreads

2012-02-08T10:04:00.002-07:00

Let me first start off saying…I have been hunting high and low for something I wanted for a project and finally found it! Yesterday. Woosh. So, I’ll be showing you that, hopefully next week. Here’s a sneak peek…

Okay, now, I mentioned I’m working on my Valentine decorations…Yup, they got put on hold with the searching. Maybe I’ll get to them this weekend? I’m more excited about this project I’ve started. So, they’re on hold, and I’m not super motivated to do them, since most of my decorations and supplies are in…Idaho. Oh well. So, here’s a project I did for Thing 1. When we moved into a rental, she had to move out of the crib (that converts to a toddler daybed) so Thing 2 could have the crib. To make the transition easier, I made her a pretty, new bedspread. We didn’t have money to spend on silly fabric, so I decided to do something a little more sentimental. When she was born, we got 36 blankets. Wow. She picked 2 favorites, and the rest stayed in storage. What a crazy waste! So, I decided to go through them.

I picked out 6 that were the colors of her room…

Unpicked them all (several nights while watching TV), added a few scraps of flannel from my stash, and started laying the strips out.

With help of course.

Once I had it the size I wanted, I picked them up off the floor, took them over to the kitchen table where my sewing machine was, and sewed all the strips together. I did them double layers so it would be nice and warm, since she tends to kick everything off! After they were all sewn together, with the seams on top, I went through and snipped all the seams, about every 1/2”. That took FOR-EV-ER! My hand was so cramped when I was finally done! I did it in the car on long drives, and while watching movies/TV. When it was finally done (after washing it so the rag quilt looked nice & soft), she was so excited to put it on her bed! She still loves it, 8 months later, so that’s good! It has helped the transition for all the moves (3 since I’ve made it), which was another reason I made it. Something familiar with all the chaos! I didn’t get to make pretty pillows for it, but hopefully I will now!

Now, she has bedding that is warm, and sentimental! A great way to preserve some of those baby blankets you can’t bear to part with!

Handmade Earrings

2012-02-07T07:25:00.001-07:00

***I need your help! I am in desperate need of sewing machine advice! Will you take a minute and answer my questions at the bottom of the post?! Thanks!!***

A few days ago, over on My Girlish Whims, I read a tutorial on making earrings and thought, “I could do that!” It was easier than I thought, but I still need to work on the wire shaping. Ready to try it yourself?

I bought some beading and earring supplies and went to work.

I sorted everything into small piles on a towel. I didn’t want all those small pieces rolling everywhere.

For my first pair, I picked out a few of the green and gold beads.

I threaded the light green beads with small gold beads on either side onto a bar with loops on the end. I did the same thing with the darker beads, only those bars had a flat part on the bottom.

I took the top part of the earring and cut the post a little smaller with some needle nosed pliers. They have a wire cutter on them.

I bent the post and threaded it through the loop on the bottom of the earring hook.

Then I bent the post with the needle nose pliers to make a complete loop and secure the beads to the earring.

I did the same thing with the bottom part of the earring and connected the post to the bottom loop on the top part of the earring.

See how cute, fun, and easy? Now do the same thing with the other earring, unless you only want to decorate one ear! :)

I made a few more and really like how they turned out.

I made all of these while Little Monkey took a nap. It was a fun, fast, and easy project. It was also a lot cheaper than buying them.

It was fun trying something new, too! :)

P.S. My sewing machine is dying. Sadness. If it can’t be repaired, I need to replace it. So, I am in the market for some sewing machine advice. I need help!!

What kind of sewing machine do you have? How long have you had it? What do you love about it? What don’t you love about it?

Thanks, guys!

Valentine’s Day Fun!

2012-02-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from my guest post over at Live Love Craft. Hope everyone had a good weekend! I managed to drop a tree-stump clock on my little toe, so it’s fairly sore…Oh well, I can still walk!

First off, we bought a flower making wreath at Hobby Lobby. I bought one that was 16 inches, but if I were doing this project again, I’d go smaller (it’d look fuller with the same amount of hearts…).

I put extra wire in the middle, like a bike spoke, so I’d have more places to hang hearts. If I had my spray paint, I probably would have sprayed the wire wreath at this point…Silver, white, red, or pink maybe.

Then, I had my girlies come help. Don’t mind the picture, it’s actually the best of them out of 5. They just can’t hold still!

We used my mom’s Sizzix, and cut out LOTS of hearts!

Since I didn’t have any double-sided scrapbook paper, I glued a few pieces together before cutting out the hearts.

Next, we took some glitter glue and decorated the hearts

By this time, their attention was spent, so we went on to other things and decided to come back later, when the hearts were dry.

After they had dried, we came back to the hearts and poked holes with a needle

and threaded fishing line through the holes.

and then tied them onto the wire wreath,

all over, in different lengths.

Let’s be honest, the kiddos weren’t helping by this time. One was napping and the other was watching Mickey’s Clubhouse.

After it’s full of hearts, hang it up!

Just for reference sake, I used 48 hearts, half bigger, half smaller….

In front of a window…

By the way, if this looks familiar, I was inspired by Pottery Barn’s Valentine Chandelier:

So what did I do with the rest of the hearts?

While at the Hobby Lobby, I checked out their clearance Christmas things, and they had these trees. Red and white. For $4.

I bought it to decorate for Valentine’s in my girl’s room, and maybe spray paint white for Christmas! So we made a bunch of paper ornaments (read: free so doesn’t matter if they get broken by said girls)

We decorated the tree, and I imagine we’ll be making more ornaments and additions to the tree until V-day…

This heart is made out of red hot candies glued onto a cardboard heart.

That’s the dollhouse I did for my daughter for Christmas in the background.

They like looking at it, and I imagine we’ll make it even more girly with feather boas, lights, and sparkly beads!

Finally, what Valentine’s wouldn’t be complete without a wreath? Last Valentine’s, before I knew there was such a thing as craft blogs, I made this heart wreath out of Christmas ornaments (on clearance, of course!) and a hanger shaped into a heart. I know there’s tons of tutorials out there, so if you want to make one, you’ll have to go look for one, because this is the only picture I took! One tip I will give is make sure your ornaments are shatter proof, so they don’t break when they fall off (and they will!), and make sure to use hot glue on the metal hanging part before you loop onto the hanger. That will help them not pop off!

But, here’s this year’s version of the wreath.

I bought a Dollar store wreath and chopped the edges with an X-acto knife to make it more rounded shape.

I had seen some candies displayed in a glass vase, and decided that needed to go on a wreath.

If you don’t want to make the wreath, Good & Plenty’s are the perfect Valentine colored candy to go on your mantel in a pretty jar too! My original idea was to make a design like this….

Are you pondering what I’m pondering? I think so, Brain, but if a ham can operate a radio, why can’t a pig set a VCR?

Chevron. But because of gluing issues and the type of wreath, I just went with gluing them on. I didn’t start right, so they’re not exactly straight, but if you do this, you may want to draw a line for the first one to make sure it’s straight. This wreath used up 3 boxes of Good & Plenty’s, so make sure you have enough for your wreath size!

I had some light pink spray paint, so I sprayed the foam wreath, just so that not-so-awesome green wouldn’t show through in gaps. You can wrap it with ribbon if you have it too. Then, just start gluing! Pretty straight forward, so here’s the finished product!

Hung with a loop of ribbon over our door…

There were quite a bit more pinks than whites, so I used my leftovers and hot glued them to a 1 1/2” Styrofoam ball. I was going to use it as an ornament on our tree, but it’s HEAVY!

Maybe just set in on a candlestick, or do a group of them for your mantel!

I had lots of fun making these Valentine crafts and hope you do too! I’m working on a dresser vignette, but it’s not finished yet. Fun fun! I did print my Pride and Prejudice printable and framed it though…have you?

Fab Five Friday

2012-02-03T09:49:00.001-07:00

Ack! I totally forgot it was my turn for Fab Five Friday! …and I’ve posted a lot this week. Sorry! Anyway, this will be my last Fab Five Friday post for the year. I’m going to be doing the “What I Wore Sunday” posts every Saturday. (See the WIWS home base page below.) Ash will be keeping up the Fab Five Friday.

Ready for my Fab Five Friday? Here goes:

(frantically searching Pinterest for my fave five…)

I just LOVE everything over on the Crafty Cousins board! ;)

(…still looking…)

How fun is this DIY PVC pipe sprinkler! Doesn’t it just make you wish Summer was here?!

I really want to make this. I love it! But, if you’re not up to the challenge of looking at it and making it yourself, the pattern is available in an Etsy shop.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas. I made this for dinner this week. It was super yummy!

I definitely need help organizing my creative space. Especially in my head, but so far, I haven’t seen any ideas on Pinterest for that!

And finally…

Who hasn’t done this at least once? I did it this week when I was packing the Babesters down the stairs, only I just thought there was an extra stair. We almost crashed and burned, but thankfully I caught my balance before we did. Little Man thought it was hilarious. I am so happy I can amuse him! ;)

Have a great weekend!

What I Wore Sunday

2012-02-03T09:30:00.001-07:00

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

Wear a different outfit every Sunday.
Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.
Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.
Think outside the box and be creative!

Week 1: No Sew Belt.

Week 2: No Sew Infinity Scarf

Week 3: Handmade Earrings

Week 4: Sweater to Cardi Refashion

Week 5: Ruffle Shirt Refashion

Week 6: Tee Shirt Into Skirt Refashion

This will be a weekly theme here at Crafty Cousins. I’ll update on Saturdays. Anyone can participate in this challenge. The more the merrier!

Email us your outfits at 2craftycousins(at)gmail(dot)com, and we’ll feature them on the blog.

Have fun changing things up and shaking up your wardrobe!

No Sew Infinity Scarf

2012-02-02T07:19:00.001-07:00

Oooh! Have I got an easy project for you!

It’s called an infinity scarf because it goes around, and around, and around…. Okay, it’s just a continuous loop, but still…infinity sounds way cooler.

Start with a knit tee shirt you don’t wear anymore. And some scissors. Those are the ONLY supplies you need for this project.

Cut a straight line under the armpits of the shirt. Now cut off the hem.

Give the center section of the tee shirt a BIG STRETCH--

--and you’re done!

You can embellish this scarf anyway you’d like – ribbons, brooches, buttons, whatever you’d like!

Make a bunch more, and accessorize all your favorite outfits and clear out your closet at the same time!

Make sure you don’t throw the sleeves away. They could come in handy for something – like a face mask for one of your kids. It will help conceal his true identity from all of his ~~brothers~~ enemies.

Just cut off the hem, straighten out the shoulders, and cut some eye holes. Your little guy will love it!

He’ll also love it if you make a wanted poster of him. :)

Okay. That was just for fun. Back to the scarf…

There are several ways to wear this scarf. Here are two ways:

As a scarf; or double it up and wear it as a belt.

It’s fun to change things up, isn’t it? Just like with this dress here.

A few days ago, I realized that every Sunday this year I’ve worn something I either made or refashioned to Church. Granted; it’s only been 5 weeks, but…hmmm…wheels in my head turning…oh my…I may be onto something…

I’ve got a lot of things in my closet that I haven’t worn in forever.

I haven’t thrown them out because I have lots of refashioning ideas…

“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“Um, I think so, Brain, but if Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why does he keep doing it?!” (Oh Ash! Thanks so much for the laughs! I heart Pinky!)

No? You weren’t thinking that? Oh….neither was I…

I was thinking – could I keep changing things up? Keep refashioning? Keep making stuff –and NOT wear the same thing to Church ALL year?! Could I find 52 different ways to shake up my wardrobe?

Gasp! I think I could! I think the challenge will be lots of fun! I’ll call it

“What I Wore Sunday!”

I won’t wear the same outfit the same way twice. Every week I’ll incorporate something I either refashioned or made myself. 52 different outfits. Stay tuned, and we’ll see how it goes!

…but if something looks completely ridiculous, you have to tell me! I have zero fashion sense!

So, lets count this one as Week #1:

Oooh! This is gonna be fun!

Nat’s Sew-vivor Entry

2012-02-01T19:51:00.001-07:00

Hi! Sorry…not to rain on Ash’s parade and her awesome Kindle cover…

…but I just wanted to get this up for my Sew-vivor entry.

I’m going to enter this adorable Mom and Me Apron Set:

I took a pattern I loved and tweaked it until I liked it. Then I made one on a smaller scale for the child’s apron. I used decorative, coordinating stitching over ribbon for the detail on the top flap and pocket flaps.

It has all of my favorites in it; my favorite colors, my favorite flowers, polka dots, and buttons. All of my loves in an apron! :)

…anyway, that’s my entry. Wish me luck!

…now go read Ashlee’s Kindle cover tutorial!

Kindle Case & Printable

2012-02-01T09:35:00.002-07:00

We've been updating a few things on the bloggy-blog. We've added some favorite posts on the left for easy reference, and working on updating the tutorials page at the top to be super user-friendly! What's your favorite posts so far?!?
Since I’ve already confessed to being a complete and utter nerd, it should come as no surprise to say I love reading (husband is nodding head). Once I start a good book, I have a REALLY hard time putting it down (husband rolling his eyes and nodding even harder). Plus, I read rid-i-cu-lous-ly ~~good looking~~ fast, so I have literally probably read more books just this ~~year~~ month (I mean 2012), then most people do throughout the entire year(husband getting whiplash nodding so hard). Seriously. I don’t know if I can actually count how many I’ve read thus far. It’s in the double digits. Not exaggerating. So what’s the perfect thing for someone like me? Meet Henrietta.

Yep, I’ve been researching these bad boys for awhile (over a year….), and daydreaming, and finally after Christmas, I got my beauty. On New Years Eve, as a matter of fact. As soon as I got her charged and raring to go (with the 30 books I already had for Kindle before I even had one….) I started looking into cases for her. On the one hand, they were costing more than I wanted, and they were all online, so I couldn’t actually look and touch, and make sure it was what I wanted. I went to about 10 stores around the Davis County area to try to find 1 case. Nada. So, what’s a girl to do? You guessed it….Make one.

Supplies:

I used felt for the inside so it didn’t scratch the screen (lucky I happened to have hot pink…hee hee), some 1/4” elastic, Velcro, leftover webbing from my Batman Belt, wide ribbon, and some fabric for the outside.

To start, I measured my Kindle (or iPad, Nook, tablet, etc.) It measures 6 3/4” tall, 4 3/4” across, and about 3/8” deep. I figured I’d want it to have about 1/4-3/8” extra on all edges, and I added just a little more than the depth of it for the fold-over area. I can’t give you the exact measurements I cut out, but the finished product is 7 1/2” tall, 10 1/4” across, laying open; and I did 1/2” seam, so that ends up being about 8 1/2” by 11 1/4”. I had a little extra that I cut off, not sure how I was doing it when I went along. The strap was 4” at the longest, but I cut it to a little half circle shape too (and melted both edges so it didn’t fray).

To hold the kindle, I put on elastic. I sewed the outside of all the elastic, then put the kindle on, pulled the elastic on, and pinned it down where I wanted. Then, move the kindle and sew them down.

For the inside of mine, I wanted to do a sort of pocket to hold a paper if ever needed. I didn’t have extra fabric I wanted to use, so I used 2 wide ribbons. I just cut them to length (always melt the edges just in case), pinned them on the pink felt, and sewed them down.

On the outside, I pinned one Velcro piece in the middle on one side, and pinned the other Velcro piece to the webbing fold-over clasp.

I put the clasp on the other side, and put my Kindle in to make sure things were situated right…Sew everything down.

Now, I pinned the clasp so it wouldn’t get caught as I sewed around the edges.

Sew 1/2” around 3 of the edges, leaving the open edge on the back (mine was where the clasp was.) Turn your cover inside out, press the edges all nice out, and press the open side in 1/2”. I didn’t take pictures of this, but if you have questions, you can comment/email and let me know…

This picture is showing it all turned out, making sure everything fits before sewing the last part. You can see the edge on the right is still open.

Now, sew around what will be your front cover…Meaning around half the top, the edge, and then half the bottom. Because mine was 2 colors, I actually had white on my top thread, and black on the bobbin, but that’s purely your choice. Now, measure 2 pieces of cardboard that will be about 1/4” bigger than your kindle all around. Make sure it fits inside of your case. Stuff in the first one…If you have white fabric like I did, I cut a piece of white paper to fit so you didn’t see cardboard or whatever cereal you used through.

Then, once one piece is shoved in, sew right by the cardboard edge. Move over about 3/8” (that’s what height mine is), and sew another line. Sew the top and bottom edges too, leaving the opening open. Put in your last piece of cardboard, make sure your fabric is pressed in nicely, and sew that edge closed. Now, you’ve got your kindle cover! Put it in and get reading!

To clarify, here’s a little sketch. Obviously your lines will join up, mine are separate just to show the difference…

The back view:

The front view:

Open:

And I always put the Velcro on backwards when I’m reading, like so:

I fully intend on making one of these for our iPad as soon as I find fabric my husband approves of…He wants leather, but after this experience, I’m putting my foot down…

Now, in honor of my new love Henrietta, I re-read my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. You can highlight quotes as you’re reading, and then they show up as your clippings, without having to search the book again. So I highlighted some favorite quotes, and they seem especially fitting for Valentine’s day, so here’s a printable (my first I’ve made) just for that big day! (although I plan on keeping mine up in my future craft room. Just sayin)

Do you see a theme with colors….hmmm….Anyway, here’s the links to an 8x10 printable, that I haven’t had the chance to print and frame, but fully intend on doing tomorrow. Let me know if they work or if you have any questions! Thanks for stopping by!

JPEG of printable here

PDF of printable here

Mitered Corner Receiving Blanket and Dribble Cloth Set with Applique

2012-01-31T08:45:00.001-07:00

(Gasp!) I’ve been featured over at Bernina’s website, We All Sew!

If you’re visiting from We All Sew, stick around and stay a while! We love making new friends! :)

Click on over and learn how you can make the perfect gift to welcome home a sweet new bundle of joy!

Eeeek! This totally made my day! I didn’t know it was going to be posted today, and that’s why you get to hear from me twice today. I am completely stoked! :)

Scroll down and learn how to take in a pair of jeans that aren’t fitting right. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Sewing 101: Taking In a Pair of Jeans

2012-01-31T06:06:00.001-07:00

I have a lovely friend, Lynsey, who is so cute and so fun. She’s also a cancer survivor. Woot! Way to go, Lynsey! She is in remission now, but has lots of “pre-chemo” clothes that don’t fit. She spent a lot of money on all of her jeans and didn’t want to replace them. So, she brought them to me to see if I could help.

To start off, I had Lynsey put her jeans on inside out. Sorry, I don’t have a picture of this. I didn’t think of doing this as a tutorial until I was half-way through. So, just bear with me while I explain the process.

Okay. Jeans on inside out? Great. We’re ready to move on. I pinned the outside seam of her jeans close to her hips. We ended up taking this pair in about an inch on each side. We took in quite a bit more on all the others.

I pinned about down to the knee and gradually merged with the regular seam. Then I took it to the sewing machine. Forgive the lighting at my sewing table. It’s awesome for sewing; not photos.

See the pins? See the rivets?

I had to sew between the rivets, and we lost that one rivet close to the edge. No worries, though, because Lynsey’s pants fit! :)

Sew a straight stitch until you get to almost to the knee of the jeans.

Gradually merge your stitch into the original side seam.

Then serge or zigzag stitch close to the straight seam you just sewed. Now say that sentence five times fast. I didn’t use either stitch. My serger died and I have a stitch on my sewing machine that is similar to a serged stitch. So, I used that and cut off the excess.

This will fray a tad, but it won’t matter since it is on the inside of the jeans, and it isn’t the full seam. Now turn your jeans right-side-out and examine your handiwork.

Lovely! You can hardly see where the your seam meets up with the original. Here. I’ll point it out if you really want to see it:

See how much money you just saved? Instead of throwing away a perfectly good pair of jeans and buying a new pair, you just altered the ones you had. Now they’re custom to your body!

…and you can’t even tell!

…unless you look reeeaaallllyyyy closely, but who’s going to be that obvious about checking out your jeans? If they are, they’ll just be jealous of your custom, flattering fit! :)

A quickie project, and a guest post….

2012-01-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

So if you’ll remember my Fab 5 Friday post from, well, Friday, I mentioned I was going to try my hand at a no-sew vest. I’m not sure if I can pull off the look, so free is ex-scell-ent (in Mr. Burns voice…) I had a long and lean tank from my stash of waiting-to-be-refashioned clothes, and this is what it became, with a snip-snip-here, and a snip-snip-there…(my 3 year old got up last night, around 3 AM, and insisted I needed to tuck her back into bed, singing Ol’ MacDonald Had a Farm…I may be a little crazy…)

So, I already had a few of these, so I cut up the sides of the tank top

Then cut off the armpit part to make it a smoother, straighter line

Then laid it down to see the difference between the front and back necklines

and cut off the rest of the seams and bindings, making them all even

and then put it on! Literally takes minutes!

here’s what it looks like in the back…

I still don’t know if I can pull it off, but I can always use the fabric for something else in the future!

By the way, I’m guest posting over at Live, Love, Craft today for Alyssa. She does some AWESOME photography things that I need to learn! Come see a fun Valentine’s Day Craft/Décor!

Cornstarch Finger Paint

2012-01-28T09:10:00.001-07:00

…and other randomness!

Guess what?! We’re doing a guest post over at A Couple Of Craft Addicts today! Click on over and learn how to make

Cornstarch Finger Paint

with your kiddos. Also, take a moment and admire the cute little guy in the pics. Yep. He’s my #4 and that kid is a FIRECRACKER!! Love him!

Go check it out an cook up some fun with your kiddos! :)

…and if you’re visiting from A Couple of Craft Addicts-WELCOME! Stick around! It’s always fun to make new friends! :)

********

Since Ashlee did a TMI post, I think I will too. I was tagged on the family blog, but thought I’d answer it here. I think my family already knows too much about me. Now it’s your turn!!

The Rules:
1.Post these rules
2.You must post 11 random things about yourself
3.Answer the questions set for you in their post
4.Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5.Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

Okay. Here’s a quick self-portrait.

…and here are eleven random things about me:

I’m not a fan of Chick Flicks. I LOVE watching superhero movies with my boys.
I want to learn to play the violin. I also want to learn to beat box. Weird, I know.
I have a wealth of knowledge on lactation. I could write a book. I kid you not.
I have an irrational fear of moths.
I love to cook, but hate the clean-up. I hate pasta, love chocolate and almost anything with green chilies in it.
I’ve been pregnant nine times, but only have five babies. Sadness.
I absolutely detest the Denver Broncos. I don’t even know why.
I love water activities.
I love The Great Outdoors-camping, fishing, hiking, sleeping in a tent, campfires, and an entire week without a shower. Good times.
I like to run because I REALLY like dessert.
I have crooked middle fingers.

Anne’s Questions For Me:
1. If you could automatically acquire the skills/academics, and you had the schedule for it, what is your dream job? Either an Interior Designer designing interiors for rich people where money isn’t an issue; or a Nursery Nurse. I would love to snuggle on new babies all day. :)
2. What is the #1 played song on your iPod (or other audio device)? We’ve had The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack in the CD player in the car for an eternity. My #3 and #4 love it.
3. If you could see, but not necessarily participate in unless you wanted to, any moment in history, what would that moment be? When Harry Potter defeated Voldemort. Maybe when Luke destroyed the Death Star. No. When Frodo and Gollum destroyed The Ring. I know! I’d go to Narnia with the Pevensie kids. I’d be their third sister. Yep. I’m a total geek! :)
4. What is your favorite drink? Barqs Rootbeer
5. What is your least favorite chore? Cleaning the bathroom or sewing patches onto Scout shirts.
6. If you could change your name for a day, what would you change it to? Consuela.
7. When was the last time you had an AMAZING meal? And was it the company or the food? Just now. We tried a new recipe for breakfast that was yummy. I loved the laid back, lazy, Saturday morning breakfast with my favorite guys.
8. What is the worst gift you have ever received? A toilet brush, but it was okay, because it was a gift from a 10 year old, and he gave it to me because it matched my bathroom!
9. What is something that you learned in the last week? That if I treated people the way I treat myself, I wouldn’t have any friends. I need to work on that.
10. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Elaborate. Yes. Can’t you feel how much this boy loves his daddy? You can feel it more from the picture than you could from a thousand words of describing his feelings.

This is my all time favorite picture. It makes me melt every time I see it. It’s the Hubsters and one of my little men.
11. You can only work on one project for the next year. What is it? Sewing. Easy.

So, now it’s your turn. Answer all of Anne’s questions either on your own blog or in a comment. We’d love to get to know you better!

…and go check out our guest post! :)

Have a great weekend!

Fab 5 Friday

2012-01-27T11:31:00.002-07:00

Happy Friday! Today, we’re trying hard to get my car I’ve had since college to start and work again…Sad! Wish us luck! But, here’s some awesome fun inspiration from Pinterest!

I want to go to the thrift store and find some shoes to lace-i-fy right now! Tutorial at How Does She

We made these yesterday…still haven’t tested them, but we bought water bottle ice cube maker at the thrift store, and the glycerin at Michaels, and made these up! So fun! DIY Bathtub Crayons at Kiboomu

This just made me smile. Who doesn’t want to be a princess? And you can smile to yourself all day long, while not looking as obvious as wearing a tiara and dress…like my daughter….Over at Disney this, Disney that

Oh man. I loved this wall of frames. So different and unique! Her whole master bedroom makeover is great, not that my hubby would go for it…Go check it out at Living with Lindsay

I plan on doing this as soon as I finish this. Or something like it. Good times. Go see this over at Wobisobi

I have to make a dessert tonight to take to a friend’s house, and I’m drawing a blank. Anything you’ve had, pinned, or know of that I should make?! Please help!

Thanks for reading!