Camping with Chill-un’s

So we went camping this past week for the first time with 2 kids. The first time in over 2 years. It was lots of fun, but I’m really glad I did some pinning and research beforehand. Now, the 5+ hour drive really wasn’t too bad. I had plenty of good kid snacks right by me in a bag, and could just hand them something when they were asking for food. I had books to read and books on CD for them to listen to. I had kid music I had put on the iPod beforehand. I got sick of that REAL fast, so I put on Disney, because I can never get sick of the classics . Probably the best thing in the car for my 4 year old?

A magnetic doodling thing. She loves this. She will easily sit and draw for at least an hour. It’s awesome. Best 25 cents spent ever. I had some actual coloring books for her too. For the 1 year old, I had some toys and noisy things (like jingling keys, rattles and such) because she tends to like a bunch of noise Anyway, we made it with no problems (aside from staying at my Grandma’s house & finding out the basement was flooding….Sorry Lisa we couldn’t stop and check it out too much!) and we got to spend the evening with Nat and all her crazy boys. That was lots of fun! Onto the pictures, thanks to Instagram:

While hiking, the kidlets did best if we let them get out and do things on the trail, like arrange rocks in lines, biggest to smallest. I don’t know where she gets that crazy OCD from….She also liked to hike every once in awhile until she got tired.

But her favorite, and what she would have been happy doing the ENTIRE TIME was playing in the sand. She was so funny about it. When we got back to our campsite (which was right by the Green river. Super pretty. Literally could have jumped in from the tent.) I gave them buckets and shovels (from the dollar store) and they were entertained the rest of the evening so we could get dinner ready!

By the way, it’s best to make sure your stove works before planning all your meals around having one, and realizing it’s broken the first night!!! ARGH! Thank heavens Moab had the right part and was only a few miles away!

Also, when hiking, if you’re carrying your kids around in backpacks, make sure you’re in shape (I’m not), and that if the baby you’re carrying falls asleep, she can be stabilized so she’s not flopping all around! We ended up kind of tying my jacket to the backpack and tying her down. Hee hee.

She did really well considering, and she took naps in the backpacks. A few times the 4 year old even fell asleep (which is a miracle!) in the car or backpacks too. Anyway, these are only a portion of the awesome pictures from my phone, but enjoy!

The famous Delicate Arch. It was super windy, but gorgeous. There are over 2000 arches there. Isn’t that crazy?

The hubby and the toddler found a lizard and followed it up the rock. Silly people.

And the grand finale, we stopped at Sam Hawk’s Korean restaurant in Provo. Amazing. I love that place. Oh, who cares if we were stinky and greasy and dirty. We had delicious food! We stopped and grabbed the girls some Wendy’s for them to eat and then we enjoyed our delicious lunch/dinner. So good. Anyway, I’m trying hard to get back into project mode, so hopefully Wednesday I’ll have something. Speaking of, I’m hosting a Norwex party at my place in Kaysville, so if any of you are local and want to come party and eat yummy treats, let me know!

What I Wore Sunday: Week 14

At the beginning of the year, our church time changed from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  While I prefer 9:00 (get up, get going, back in time for Monkey’s nap…) I love the yummy breakfasts we have on Sunday mornings.  This past Sunday, we had homemade waffles with a cream cheese/whipped cream topping with fresh strawberries and chocolate chips.

Mmmm….

Drool…

They.Were.Heaven.

Oh, and don’t mind the green plastic plate.  We have five boys.  We break fewer dishes when they’re plastic!  ;)

Anyway, I love crafting, but I also love cooking.  Love it, love it, love it!

So, onto What I Wore Sunday…

I wore bed sheets to Church.  It’s true.  I wore sheets, and no one even knew!

I bought two sets of sheets off of the clearance rack for less than $5.  They were both queen sized, so that’s A LOT of fabric! 

I made the dolman-style shirt out of the jersey knit sheets I bought and the skirt from a cotton blend.  From the picture, it looks like I don’t match, but there are sage green stripes on the skirt.  Stay tuned for the dolman style shirt tutorial.  I’ve got it scheduled for May 31st.

So, the skirt.  Oh my goodness.  It was so fun to make, but since it was just a trial and error type thing, I didn’t take pictures.  This cute skirt from Shabby Apple was my inspiration:

The sheet just had vertical lines on it, so I cut four separate skirt panels on the bias to get the chevron stripes.  I had to match the stripes up, though.  The panels were shaped like this:

For the hem, I just cut the thick band off the top of the flat sheet, lined it up with my skirt and sewed it on! 

Last week’s party was uber fun.  I am just amazed at how creative you all are! 

My favorite link was this awesome fabric bracelet from Handmade by Hilani

I’m over the craft for our Stake Girl’s Camp coming up.  I think this would be a super fun and easy craft.  We’d have to sew it by hand, but that way the girls learn hand sewing too.  I’ll see if I can get it approved…

Ash’s favorite entry was this adorable little strawberry dress from Polkadots on Parade

Oh goodness.  So sweet.  The dress and the little girl are absolutely adorable.  This tutorial will not only show you how to make this cute, cute dress, but she’ll show you how to sew a french seam, too! 

The most viewed link was this cute, cute refashioned dress from Tales of the Scotts.

You should see the baby in this dress!  Oh yummy!  She is so cute!  I love the way Eva pairs this dress with leggings and a denim jacket.  Love, love, love!

Thanks for partying, y’all!  Be sure to enter the Fabulous Friday Link Party!  :)

Have a great weekend!

Fabulous Friday!

Okay, right now, I’m trying to survive camping with 2 young kids. We’ll see how it’s going…But, here’s some awesome things I’ve pinned this week:

Of course the bookworm in me loved this use for a vintage book! Monogram book is from Ashbee Design. So pretty for a table in the living room.

Okay Desiree from 36th Avenue had me at Reese’s. Cookies? Yum! Sign me up!

Okay, why do I pin so much food? Especially sweet things? how about a snickers dip from Relative Taste? Dip with pretzels and it makes for a sweet/salty dip. Yum.

I love the chunky, eclectic look of this bracelet, and when I clicked over to Flamingo Toes, I found out it was an Anthropologie knock-off. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I love that store.
These last 2 are some things I pinned that are hopefully saving my sanity right now

10 tips from Writing Loud for camping with kids.

Packing lists and tips from Raising Madison for camping. I’ll give a full report on Monday of how it went!
What fun things are you doing this weekend?

What fun fabulousness have you been creating this week?  Show it off!

• No links to shops or giveaways, please.
• Link back to Crafty Cousins on your blog, too, okay?
• Bonus points for following Crafty Cousins!  :)
• Tell your friends about the Fabulous Friday Link Party.  What’s a party without lots of partiers?!

We'll feature the most viewed links next week on Fabulous Friday.

Can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!

Have a great weekend!

Handmade Pajama Pants

It's time to announce the Miracle-Gro Giveaway winner!  There were a whopping FOUR entries into that giveaway, so there was a lot of competition.

According to random.org, our winner is....

....drumroll....

LeAnn!

She said:

We recently moved and finally have a yard with more than two hours of sunlight so we just bought a few containers and plants. I was thinking it would be nice to get a few more so this is perfect timing if I win. :)

Well, congratulations, Lucky Lady!  You won!  :)  Email me your address, and I'll get this to you as soon as I can.

In other news, Ash and I got to hang out last night!  Yay!  I {heart} Ash.  She's so silly and so fun.  I think the hubbies and all the kidlets had fun, too.

Sorry.  It's a cell phone picture.  Oh well. 

You may not know this, but Ash and I live over three hours apart from each other.  We don't get to play often. 

I tried to talk her into moving closer to me, but alas...

...she needs more convincing!

Moving right along...

Have you ever made your own pajama pants?  Oh goodness.  They are so so easy.  I haven’t bought pajamas for my family or myself in years…

You can even get fun, comfy fabric for cheapola.  I got this fabric off the clearance rack for $1.00 a yard.  That means that these bad boys cost me a whopping $2.00!  Sweet!

(wore them last night.  slept like a baby!)

Start off with a pattern for pajama pants.  You can follow the instructions that come with the pattern, or you can use mine.  Trust me.  My way is easier!  :)

I just use the pattern for the different sizes and so I can know where to cut.  Anyway, cut out your pieces.  There should just be two.  Before you cut, be sure that the design on the fabric is going in the direction you want.  Also, make sure that the right sides of the fabric are facing each other.

There are two pieces there.  I just cut them out at the same time.

With the right sides together, sew down each side of the crotch.  Serge your raw edges.  Or not.  Whatever you want to do.

Now take the bottom of one of the pieces of fabric and fold it in half widthwise to make a pant leg.

Line up the fabrics at the crotch, pin it into place, then make one big, long seam from one end to the other.  This creates the inseam, and now the fabric pieces look like pants!  Good job!  But, we’re still not finished.  Oh, yeah.  Serge that raw edge if you want to.

Now let’s work on the waistband.  We’re going to make a casing for the elastic.  Super easy.  Serge around the top of the waistband.  If you don’t have a serger, then fold the raw edge over 1/2” to the inside of the pants and stitch into place.  We don’t want a raw edge fraying at the waistband. 

Okay.  Raw edge taken care of?  Perfect.  Time for the casing.

Fold the waistline over 2” to the inside of the pants.  Pin into place.  When you get to the center of the back of the pants, leave an opening so you can add your elastic later.  I always mark this part by putting my pins in vertically so I know where to stop.  The other pins are pinned in horizontally.  Check out the pin placement in the picture to get a better idea of what I am talking about. 

Now sew around the waistband a few centimeters above the serged/hemmed edge.  Start at one of the vertical pins and sew around until you get to the other vertical pin. 

You now have an opening to thread your elastic through the casing.  Threading the elastic into the casing is easy.  Start off by cutting your elastic the size you need; which is about 2” shorter than the waist measurement.  You need this elastic to stretch and hold up your pants.

Pin a safety pin into one end of the elastic and start threading it  through the casing.  I’ve had too many safety pins open during the threading process, so I like to sew this metal belt adjuster thingamajigger to the elastic with a zig-zag stitch.  You could also use a D-Ring, or a key ring, or just go with the safety pin.

Start threading the elastic through the casing by pushing the safety pin/other object and elastic through one side of the opening until it comes out the other side.

Remove the safety pin or other object.

Sew the elastic ends together AFTER you’ve made sure the elastic hasn’t rolled. 

I sew my elastic ends together by sewing a square with an “X” in it.

Like that.

Once the elastic is sewn together, sew the opening in the waistband closed.

After the opening is sewn shut make sure the fabric of the waistband is distributed evenly.  I like to tack the elastic into place to make sure the elastic doesn’t roll.  I do this at the back, front, and sides of the waistband.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the front from the back of these pajama pants, so I always sew on a faux drawstring to help out with that.  You can make a tube like we did with the neck strap of the nursing cover and hem the ends for your draw string.  Or, you can use some strips of tee shirt like we did for the ties of the ruched sleeve cardigan, or you can do what I did.  Pull out your trusty roll of knit ribbing and use that.

I cut a 12 inch strip of ribbing,

Serge down one side of it--be sure to taper the edges,

…and call it good.

Now sew that “drawstring” to the center seam of the front of the waistband.

Now tie it to make it look authentic!

Now all we have to do is hem these suckers and we’re finished!

These pants are for me, so, rather than measure my own inseam I just measured the length I needed with a pair of my favorite pj’s. 

Measure 2” longer so you have enough fabric for the hem.  Measure and cut.  As Handy Manny says, “measure twice; cut once.”  Good advice, mi amigo!

Now you either need to serge that raw edge, or fold it over and stitch it into place like we did with the waistband.

Measure the hem.  (mine is 1 1/2”)  Pin it into place.

Start at the inseam and sew the hem into place with a straight stitch.

Or you could use a double needle like I did.  It’s fun and gives the pants a professional finish.  Because that’s important.  When you’re sleeping.  In the dark where no one will see it…

Observe.  Double needle.

Observe double needle in sewing machine.

Follow your sewing machine’s directions for a double needle.  They’re in the manual.  You need to thread the machine with two different spools of thread.  I held my second spool on my cone threader, but most machines have an attachment for a second spool.  Mine does, but I have a cone threader that I’m always using, so I just used that.

So thread both threads the way you normally would until you get to the needle.

There should be two little thread-divider-type things on your machine.  Thread one thread through each.

Then thread the needles.

The double stitch will be on top, so be sure to turn your pajamas right side out before you start hemming.

Remember, the double needle hem is optional.  You can just go with a regular hem.  Sometimes I like to use a decorative stitch just for fun.  I know, I know….I like to walk on the wild side! :)

So, yeah!  Now you’re done and you’ve got a cheap and comfy pair of jammies!!

Sweet dreams!