Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Princess Hair

L loves putting towels or shirts on her head. She pretends it's long hair. Every time she sees one of those band things with the fabric down the back she asks for one. I keep telling her, "That's a lot of money when I can just make you one." Yep, I always tell my kids that. I just can't see spending $25 on something so simple.

Well, I FINALLY got around to making it. I don't know why I didn't do it long ago, it took me about 15 minutes.


Obviously I didn't take to time to see how long the "hair" was. But L likes it that long. So, I guess it's perfect.

Here is my non-professional or correct way I made it. The right way would be to make a tube of fabric, fill it with batting and sew it together. I don't have any batting so I used fleece and rolled my fabric.

First, I lined the fleece with my purple, sparkly tule.


Then I rolled it into a tube and zig zagged the edges together. If I wanted to hand stitch it probably would have looked a little better.


Then I sewed the ends together with a zig zag and added my "hair" piece of fabric. I call it hair because that's what L calls it.

Here it is from the front, a little big so she can grow with it. I guess since it only took me 15 minutes I could have made it fit better and then made another one when she grows. I might take it in a little.


Here it is again from the back.


Kristen

Monday, November 28, 2011

Renewed Table

A friend found this old table and thought I might like to restore it.

Here is a close up of the top, all pealy and yucky.


Here are the drawers.



The whole table was really weathered. We decided to spray paint the black parts black and stain the top.

Here is it half sanded, already looking better.


Now, ready for the stain. It already looks so much better!


I kept some of the old paint on the edges to give it more of an older antiqued look. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but not bad for a free table.


We also got new knobs for the drawers.


I love the color of the stain on the top!


Much better then before. Now I have a table to work on my sewing projects. I can cut standing up instead of criss cross apple sauce. 

Kristen

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Little Indian Vests from Paper Bags

I got the wonderful job of cutting Indian Vests out of paper bags for C's kindergarten class. Yes, I am being sarcastic. Anyway, how hard could it be, right? Well, they were supposed to look like this...


And this is what I did...


So, I searched and searched and I couldn't find any picture tutorials. Finally, I folded the regular vest back up like a bag and I saw how simple it was. Now I can make it very easy for anyone else that wants to do the same.

First you need a brown grocery bag.


Next, open it up and cut that little "V" at the bottom of the bag.



Now, flatten the bag and cut straight up the middle. I cut my line on the back of the bag. That way the printed side will end up on the inside back of the vest.



Fold the bag in half and cut out a 1/2 circle for the neck. Also, cut the bottom off to make your vest the desired length.



Unfold the bag and flip it inside out. You now have your vest.

You can crumple it to give it that leathered look and you can add fringe to your bag.


Our kindergardeners are going to do that part themselves.

Well, there you have it, 22 vests cut and ready. I'm so glad it's done.


Kristen

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween - Last Minute Costumes

Since I wasn't into Halloween and because I think the reason was that we just don't dress up anymore, I decided yesterday, yes, on Halloween that we were going to dress up! Mr. C always calls us closet hippies. How appropriate, I thought to be hippies for Halloween.

I had this fabric, so I thought I'd start from here.


I bought it FOREVER ago thinking it would make a cute bag. Well, I needed a little hippie sac to go with my outfit.


I used muslin for the lining and it turned out perfect. It holds my keys and phone in it and there is still lots of room. I was able to sneak a little candy in there too.


So here we are in this terrible picture. It was dark and the person taking the picture couldn't see through the camera. You can kind of see my little bell bottoms. I made those to go over my pants and got a couple of shirts at Party City for Mr. C and I. I didn't think I would have enough time to make our shirts considering I started sewing at 2:00 pm.


Here are the children trick-or-treaters.


I just love watching them do things as a team, it's so precious.


Now candy sorting time.


Don't you just love how they sorted their candy? Today C made a list of all the candy he has. Such a kindergartner.


Kristen