Bible Covers

L has been asking for a real bible for the last month so I finally took her to pick one out. When we were there, they both wanted bible covers, but I didn't want to spend $25 on a cover each. I told them I would make some and they were ok with that. I found a ton of really cute ones on pintrest that were simple and both kids liked. Then we went to JoAnn's and they both decided they wanted zippers and pen holders. No matter how much I told them how cute the other ones were, they were insistent they really wanted to zip up their bibles. So, back to searching for a good tutorial. Sure, I could figure it out, but it wouldn't turn out quite as good as if I followed directions or it might have taken me a few tries. I really didn't want to do that.

I found this tutorial by Tracy's Treasury. It was perfect! It was exactly what I was looking for and almost everything was sewn on a surge. I love using my serger!

After both kids picked out their fabric, I went to work on their covers. Little C wanted his cover to match his bible exactly. I came up with this, not quite exactly, but pretty darn close.

I thought I'd show you how to do the zig zags. It's really quite simple. You just basically cut straight across, then cut slits in at the top. Fold those slits down like the picture...

And iron them...

Here is the other side.

Pin it onto the fabric you want to sew it to and top stitch right along the edge.

Little C was very specific about wanting a pen holder.

For the zipper, I needed some interfacing to make it a little more sturdy. I didn't want to use anything toxic and I try to stick with 100% cotton fabric so I found this 100% cotton interfacing. I don't know much about the glue and how toxic that is, but at least the fabric is good.

Happy boy, all done!

L wanted a pen holder also. I made it a little big though. 

Since her bible is so tiny, it was harder to sew the zipper on. The back side turned out a little better. The front looks a little crooked on the corner where the zipper is. On both their bibles, I made the outside pockets a bit too small, I think. But, the kids don't think so and that's all that matters.

Now that I got my experience on C & L's bible covers, I needed one for myself.

I was very happy with the way mine turned out. On C's I learned that the zipper needs to be a thin robe zipper. That is much easier to sew through and I didn't break as many needles.

I ran into one little problem, I didn't have enough fabric to make the zipper part wide enough. I really didn't want to go back to the store to buy 5 1/2 inches of fabric, wash it and re-cut it, so I added a bit of the coordinating fabric instead. I actually really like the way it turned out. I wouldn't have wanted the grey next to the white zipper, but that little bit on the edge was perfect. You can look back up at the first picture to see how it looks from the top.

My cover is roomy enough to fit my bible study book and some extra papers.

It's always fun to have a little sewing project!

Kristen

Party Day

As promised, here are some pictures of how the party turned out. The first picture is my only kitchen counter space and hour before the party began.

My little Strawberry Shortcake

I reused the canopy I made for L's birthday party last year.

I went with the berry theme for the food too. L loves berries.

I can't believe how time flies! It seems like just yesterday when she was a cubby rolly polly crawling around on the ground, now she is such a big girl.

Robes

It gets freezing cold in our house at night, so in the morning, C has been wearing his old robe that I made him 2 years ago. Needless it say, the arms and bottom was about 3 inches too short.

Now, C and L have cozy robes to wear and they actually fit.

C wanted a button at the top so none of his skin hit the air and he didn't want to wear a shirt under it because then he wouldn't be able to feel the softness.

Back inside to play legos together.

Now we are all so warm and cozy in our robes!

Refashioned dress

I had this lovely dress.

Sure, it looks cute on a hanger, but wearing it is another story. I loved the fabric and I thought it might be a cute sun dress, but it's just so puffy! I kept wondering if it was me or it really was puffy then, I was trying it on one day and little C came in and told me, "Mommy, I'm not sure if I like that dress." I told him I wasn't either and asked him why he didn't like it so much. He said, "It's big and wide, I don't like wide dresses on you." Well, my little 6 year old has a fashion sense. A better one then me sometimes. Good thing the dress was on clearance for really cheap because it will become a new dress for L.

I chopped off the smocked top and shortened it. then cut the bottom to size and sewed them back together. L wasn't so happy to take a picture.

I don't like it when the dress goes straight across that it seems too low on her. So, I cut arm holes and serged the edges. She is still not happy about taking a picture, but now that C is trying to get in, she is cooperating.

Now she is just trying to keep him out of the picture.

Now she is picture happy. Now that she is playing that is. And, it doesn't even matter that it's not even January (when I'm typing this), L will just throw a jacket on and maybe some tights if it gets any colder.

Perfect summer, I mean winter dress.

Kristen

Ammo Sash

C is modeling yet another girl item. My poor boy. Although this one, he really didn't mind. It is an ammo sash for some nerf dart guns he got for his friend's birthday. She is a very girly girl, so I had to make it girly. C was so excited about this little sash that he can't wait for me to make him one.

C kept asking me, "Mommy can you make me one now?" "Can you make it right when we get home?" "When will you be able to make it?" "Can mine be in camo?"

He is a blurry close up. That happens when I am sewing up until 15 minutes before we have to leave and I still need to take a shower. I rush through the pictures and they just don't turn out very cute. I will have to do amazing :-) pictures when I make C's sash. If I can.

Kristen

Checkers anyone?

I have been trying to spend some one on one time with C each day. I was thinking it was going to be homework during nap, but so far there hasn't been any. So, I thought it would be fun to have some old fashion games.

C really wanted Connect Four, and I wanted Checkers. Well, I went to Target and returned with what C wanted and Guess Who? (The game, I'm not really asking you to guess who.) They were all out of Checkers which turned out to be good because it saved me $13.99. Connect Four has checker pieces and I realized I can just make a board!

64 little squares later I decided it's much better this way, I had the scraps, no spending money, no waisted resources as in packaging and I lowered the carbon foot print, no deliveries. Perfect! Now, I'm sure tons of others have had this brilliant idea, but am just thinking of it now.

Yes, yes, I have said many times, I am not a quilter. Can you see why? This just irritates me so much. The darn squares are never perfect! At least it was only a couple that this happened to.

Also, this isn't a quilt, there was no quilting involved. I just sewed tiny squares together. Actually though, this is the tedious part of quilting to me, I would like the actual quilting part. (What ever it's called.) Yes, I am so technical in my terminology.

I also have to say, yes, I do know a checker board is black and read. BUT I didn't know I had red until I was all done with the top and looking for the bottom fabric. I couldn't find anything I liked until I stumbled upon this perfect red. Oh, well.

Ok, it's really late and I'm really tired. Off to bed and checkers tomorrow.

Shirt from scraps

Remember that orange knit I made one of the Haiti dresses from? Well, I had a thin strip left and I have been wanting to make Lacey a specific top that needed just that amount of fabric. I cut 20 inches of that strip and smocked the top and bottom, added straps and ta-da...

I just love this print! The hair isn't bad either. Now that it's short, I don't have to detangle it every morning.

Such a perfect summer top. Very girly too.

Kristen

Haiti Dresses

Look at all this wonderful knit!

All this lovely fabric is for that project I was working on this week. My church has this thing call, "Threads of Love," it's an outreach for people that can sew, knit or crochet. I was so excited when there was an e-mail that went out about it an a meeting, I so wanted to do something. I went to the meeting and found out they needed people to sew clothes and diapers. Perfect! They also needed quilts sewed, but that's not really my thing. Anyway, one of the things they needed were dresses for Kenya and Haiti. An orphanage in Haiti was the most immediate need. There are girls that are in some way disabled and they can't dress themselves very well. So, the girl from our church that works there requested tub type dresses! Perfect! I could do that. She wanted strapless, but I thought that wouldn't be good if they were too loose and falling down. Especially as these girls go through puberty. Anyway, I made some dresses this week and they are all a tad different. I will put the whole story of Threads of Love and what it is all about on a Threads of Love page soon, but for now this is just the basic.

I had so much fun creating these dresses this week. L sat with me many times at the sewing machine helping.

It was so cute, both C and L wanted to know so much about the girls, L had these specific questions, "Why don't kids have moms?" "What were their names?" "Can we see the girls?" "How old are they?" "Where are they?" "Can we see them when we give them the dresses?" and "So, the dresses aren't for me, I don't get to keep any?" Yes, she is only 3.

Now onto the dresses.

I am told that many of the children are very thin because of malnutrition. I was given no sizes really so I used C as my model and made them long for him. There are a lot of girls in a lot of different heights. These dresses will stretch and are long so hopefully they will work.

This orange one is one of my favorites. I made it tie so a child can put it on with the straps down and a worker can come and tie it for her later. If she wants she can wear it with the straps tucked in. (Lovely picture with the fabric and paper air planes all over!)

I made some smaller dresses too. This is when L was a little disappointed that she doesn't get to keep any dresses. On this dress, I sewed the straps on, but it's a good knit that stretches both ways, so the straps stretch. I thought this would be easier to get their hands in.

This one is my favorite. I loved the feel of this knit! It was SO soft. I did it without straps because I ran out of time this morning before I had to drop them off. But, I thought she can try one strapless. If it works, I can do more, if not she can send it back and I can add straps. I love the way it turned out with the lettuce hem at the top and bottom.

Here are all the dresses. I know, it's a bad picture, but I couldn't find either camera with all the mess so it's taken with my phone.

This project is on-going, so there will be many more to come. Diapers, shorts and shirts too. If you are interested in the project, I will have the Threads of Love page where I will post everything and have a tally of how many dresses, etc are made for all the kids by all the sewers. It should be fun!

Dress refashion

Yea! I'm back. I haven't been sewing much lately. It's been crazy around here, I've been packing, cleaning, going on vacation, unpacking, cleaning and doing it all over again. In-between River trips and vacations I've been very busy with swimming and beach trips, so there hasn't been much sew time. I also haven't had anything I've been dying to make. Until today! I got the sew itch yesterday.

First thing this morning I pulled this dress out of my closet.

I never wear it, it just doesn't look that cute. I bought it for about $2 on clearance. No wonder, huh. So, I cut the top off and cut down the skirt part to 1.5 times L's chest size.

I put the right sides together and sewed it closed.

Then I smocked the top and used the straps from the original dress for this new dress. Not much work at all and L loves it.

She was a little upset because I already made 2 other dresses this weekend and she wanted to wear those, but they aren't for her. So, I had to make her something too. You can probably see some of the sewing mess in the background. I have a big project I am working on that I will share with you soon. I'm so excited for it!!

The visor is from JoAnn's. L and C each brought $2 with them to pick out something. She has been wearing it ever since.

Happy sewing, I'm so excited to be back and sewing again!

OH! I almost forgot!!! I am SO excited! I got a serger for my birthday!!! It should be here between July 13th and 16th. I can't wait to get started. Oh My Goodness, I am so excited.

Kristen

4th of July Dress

Last year, I made L a little dress for the 4th. I made it a little long so she could wear it again this year. Holiday stuff just doesn't get worn enough. So, I pulled it out yesterday and it fit perfect. My little girl has gotten taller, but hasn't gained much weight. She's just a little peanut.

I just did a very basic dress, cut 3 pieces for the front, 2 for the bodice and 1 for the skirt. Then for the back I cut one piece and smocked the top part of it so it fits nice and snug and pulls over easy.

I used ribbon for the bow and the straps. I had some ribbon hanging down from the bow too, but that frayed since I didn't use any fray block, so I had to remove that.

It's hard to take a picture of one without the other sneaking in.

Very simple, just my style.

Kristen
I'm linking with:

I am linking with the blog hop party over at: