I made it for my Mama.

UPDATE:  I've gotten so many emails asking where I got this fabric, I figured I would just post it.  I got it here.  Yup, it's from Walmart.  I bought it in the store, not online.  There is also a black version.  Good luck, hope you find it!

Isn't that a bad rap song or something?  No, no, no..."I got it from my Mama..."  Okay, I'll stop.


I made my first gift!  Mother's day was approaching and I knew I wanted to make my mom something that didn't include spray painted macaroni or my hand pressed into clay. Think, think, think.


My mom and dad often take quick, long-weekend vacations to an island near by (we live in Florida) where there are no cars!  So cool right?  You can only get around by bike or golf cart.  So, I decided upon a beach bag.  I used my ballet bag (tutorial from Simply Modern Mom) as a base for the design but made it much larger/wider, added a closure, and changed the handle.

Because I knew I would forget to take pictures of my mom with the bag, and because I knew we would be in a poorly lit restaurant when I gave it to her, I asked my friend Christy to model for me the day before so you could get a sense of the scale.  I must say, lovely elbow. : )

The closure is actually a snap.  I sewed the button over top just for looks.  Maybe soon I'll teach myself real button holes. 

I just kind of winged the flappy thing that the button is sewed to.  I hope it stays on.  Nothing says I love you like a bag that falls apart.

This project took me two nights after the kids went to sleep... so probably like 3 hours total?  I'm sure I stopped and watched a bit of HGTV in there somewhere, ate some cookies, & put a kid back to bed 3 times, so you could probably do it faster. 


Hope your Mother's Day was happy.http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cotton-Duck-Mod-Floral/17190569

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Tutorial: Duvet Cover

I made a duvet cover.  Wanna learn?  Sure you do!  Below is what what I'm working with... AKA, the before.  When I got this white duvet cover 5 years ago I had visions of cozy luxury hotel bedding all squishy and fluffy.  Fast forward to now... I looks like an old flat sheet thrown on the bed.  Like I gave up and went with white because I couldn't pick a color. Not cozy.  By the way, there is a 3 year old in the pillows there.  Apparently there is a rule that she must jump on and destroy all made beds while flinging cheerios, juice and snot.  It's probably because made beds are rare in my house and she doesn't see them often.

What do I need?


• All your regular sewing crap. (machine, thread, scissors, measuring tape, pins, etc.)
• A LOT of fabric.  I measured my old duvet insert.  Remember you need a top and a bottom, so double what ever measurements you come up with to determine the amount of fabric.
    - Side note: I used a set of king sized sheets for the majority of my duvet.  I only put the expensive fabric on the top where you can see it. If you wanted your duvet reversible... use a different fabric on each side. And remember this is what you will be sleeping with... make it comfy.
• Fasteners.  You need a way to close your duvet at the top.  You can add ties, snaps, buttons, whatever.
• Space.  You have to lay your fabric out somewhere to cut, measure, pin...  I have a king size bed and not a king size living room.  I had to move the couch every time I worked on this.  Not fun.  Be prepared for it.  It's big.


Here are the two fabrics I bought at JoAnn's.  I never ended up using the brown one.  I might still make a pillow or something one day.  

Very important note!  Wash and dry all of your fabric before you start!  Here's a good example why....  My "expensive" fabric from JoAnn's was dry clean only. There is no way I'm taking my duvet to the dry cleaners... who has time for that?  Anyway, I decided to wash and dry in the same manor I intended to wash and dry it when it was complete. That way, any shrinking would be taken care of and I could wash and dry at will down the road. Holy shrinkage! (I was in the pool! I was in the pool!  George Costanza?  No? Never mind.)

Yes I realize that because it was dry clean only it shrunk more than other fabrics, but they all shrink to some degree.  See how wide it used to be? Don't go through the effort of making this to have it shrink to an unusable size later.  OK, enough shrinkage lecture.

Let's get started!

I took out my duvet insert and measured it.  It was 105" wide.

I then rolled out my expensive fabric and cut it to 110" wide.  5" bigger for seam allowance and wiggle room for the insert.  

Because I only had one roll of this fabric I knew I wanted it to be a stripe across the front of my duvet.  Like this...

Then I laid out my sheet to cut the top and bottom "stripes".  Because I was not smart enough to buy two flat sheets, I had to use the fitted sheet for the stripes (I cut out the elastic) and the flat one for the back of the duvet cover.  Make life easy on yourself, buy two flat sheets if you are going the sheet route.

See that thingy there?  It's a laser level and it came in super handy for cutting such large pieces of fabric square. (See that juice cup way back there?  Probably some rancid milk in there for me later... sweet)

After I had all of my "stripes" cut, time to sew them together.  I used french seams which I also used in the Tank Revamp Toddler Dress.  Soooo much nicer to have a perfectly finished project inside and out.  Check it out.

See the little pocket it tucks all of your raw edges into?

Then I top stitched both of those seams to make it look professional.

Then I felt like this toward my duvet cover...

That's it in a giant pile on my floor.  So tired of all the measuring and endless lines of sewing! It's not a hard project, just BIG!  Ugh.  

Once my funk wore off I layed the whole thing out again (move the efing couch, AGAIN). Make sure at this point to hem what ever is going to be your top on both the front and the back of your duvet.  

Then put the pieces together, pin, and sew a giant "U" around 3 sides (both sides and bottom).  I again used french seams.  Leave the top open so you can stuff your duvet insert (or old comforter) in there.

Last thing to do, add your fasteners to the top to close it.  I used snaps with this thingy.

Aren't they pretty?

And now that you've moved furniture and crawled around the floor for days, take a nap in your new finished duvet cover!

Had to post this.  My husband and son were waiting for me to finish taking pictures so they could wrestle on the bed.  I told you made beds don't last in my house.

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It's a start

Soooo, I started my first quilt this week.  Here's what I have learned...

A. This is going to take forever.
B. It might have been cheaper to just buy a quilt.
C. Your rotary cutter gets dull eventually.
D. My iron is hot.
E. This is going to take forever.

Other than that, I'm excited about what I've done so far.  Stay tuned.  At this rate I might be done before Christmas.

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Citrus Pillowcase Skirt

I love this skirt. I think I would have loved anything made from this pillowcase.  It's about 40 years old it was my mother-in-law's back in the 70's and my husband inherited it when he moved out for college.  It's soft, it has that old linen closet smell (minus the mothballs), and it looks oh so vintage in it's worn yellowey citrus goodness.

So, what to do when you come across such a pillowcase?  Pillowcase dress naturally!  One rainy Monday, kid #1 went down for morning snooze and I decided to wing it with kid #2 awake. (Of course I didn't take any pictures... not to worry... my artistic genius is below to entertain you)  A quick glance at some tutorials and I was off.  After all, I only had 2 hours to take out sewing machine, set up, heat up iron, measure kid, etc.  Speed sewing... it could be a new sport.  She was coloring, I was quickly stitching and ironing away.

30 minutes later, I was done!  Woo hoo! (Time left over to pee by myself... I actually think about this.  Getting to pee minus an audience. Nice, isn't it? Never mind... getting off track)  I am awesome!  Kid jumping up and down stripping in the kitchen, ready to try on.  Here we go...

That pretty much sums it up.  It was awful.  It looked like a giant cube of butter was swallowing her face.  She actually cried when she looked in the mirror.  I think she was terrified I was actually going to make her wear it.  "Take it off, take it off!" I yelled as if the dress were on fire. Maybe I should have read the directions and actually followed them.

Determined to save the pillowcase dress disaster, I laid a skirt she already owned on top of the butter-cube-mess of a dress, aligning the bottom hems. I added two inches for the elastic casing at the top, cut, sewed the casing, and put the elastic in.  I think it took about 20 minutes total. Hem and side seams done already... thank you pillowcase.

Because my kid has an obsession with rocks and mulch, I asked her if she would like me to add rock/mulch pockets. She excitedly agreed.. it needed pockets... for acorns too.  I cut two small squares, and folded all of the sides in, and pressed.  Then I pinned in place and sewed a big "U" shape around them.

She also loves to go through my stash of buttons and asked if we could put a couple on.  After convincing her that it didn't need 14 different colored buttons, I sewed the two yellow ones on after she went to bed.

Done! Just perfect for a trip through the orange groves on a warm spring morning (though almost all of the oranges were picked clean).

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Sewing: Place Mat Pillow

When I got pregnant with #2, a boy, I was really excited to have a reason to redecorate an entire room (it was our guest room/office). I started in Photoshop and slapped together my ideas. I take a picture of the room then "paint" the walls in Photoshop, add pictures of furniture I like from different websites, add art work, bedding, fabrics, etc. Doesn't everybody do that? (no? heh heh... ummmm) Anyway, here is what the room looks like today...

It's light blue, navy blue, white, with an orange accent. The furniture was all bought on Craig's List, the chair is from Walmart.com, and the rest is from IKEA. (That blue chair could sure use a pillow!)

I also had this white ice cream parlor style chair with a pink seat I got at a thrift store many years ago. It traveled to all of my college apartments with me and I couldn't let it go. I think I paid $8 for it, my husband hated it, and it was really uncomfortable. Sounds dreamy, eh? Here's pretty much what it looked like... with a pink upholstered seat.

I decided that I was going to recover the seat and it would make a good place to sit and put on your shoes. Genius! Fast forward to IKEA shopping. I found place mats. Blue and white striped place mats! Like this, but a different pattern...

See how cheap? They would be perfect to recover the chair! I got 2. Then I brought them home and they were too small. Dang it! I guess that's why you should measure and why IKEA provides paper tape measures. So smart of them. They were also too thick to sew together and make a bigger piece of fabric. I thought of that. There would have been a big thick seam in your butt if you sat down. No good.

So, the place mats became a pillow and the chair went to the curb. (Someone took it before the garbage people got there... don't worry... it lives on.. on a farm with other forgotten chairs... and pets... and other gross furniture we have put out there) But I tell everyone that the pillow was my plan all along. Why does it seem like a lot of my craft projects develop from accidents?

Here's the finished product.

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Sewing: Men's Shirt turned Toddler Dress

Let me start off by saying I'm aware of the wrinkled mess this dress is in the first picture. It was either the wrinkled mess picture or the night-time-flash one in our living room (below). I opted for natural light, and plenty o' wrinkles first. The wrinkles were courtesy of an entire day at day care... now you understand. I'm sure there is a pound of sand in her shoes as well. The one with the flash was taken in the morning before day care... yep, still dark out.

I saw this dress here. How awesome is that?! It looked a smidge on the difficult side to me but the tutorial is step by step and I can follow directions. Genius, I know. Here we go! (Hey, that rhymed)

First step, my husband's closet. I know, I raid his stuff a lot for sewing projects. But, since we had just done a closet clean out/Goodwill trip, he had no dress shirts I could cut up. Plan B, go to Goodwill. Since the closest Goodwill to me is actually really close to my work, I went on my lunch break sans kids. One trip through the men's shirts and I found this striped one with some pink it it for $2.00 ish. Did I mention it was a men's XXXL?! So much fabric for $2! Awesome!

Side note: Those pink shoes she is wearing I also got on the Goodwill trip for $4! They are from Gymboree... score!

Here is a really horrible picture I took with my phone the night I started to cut the shirt up. Since the picture was so bad anyway, I crapped it up further by making it black and white, super grainy, and added some lovely hand drawing ala the mouse.

There's my kid sitting on the shirt. If she were to lay down she wouldn't even take up half. It's huge. I also want to point out she went to bed right after this photo. I don't know how the tutorial lady did it with her kid there and awake. I sewed while the kids slept and my husband was on a conference call. I do remember running in to excitedly mime to him the progress I was making while waving dress parts in his face. And him waving me off like a I was a crazy homeless person trying to wash his windows or something. Maybe I should have waited until he was off the phone. hmm.

There's the post daycare wrinkletastic back. I did not do the knife pleats in the tutorial. I opted for a simple ruffle. All of the pink you see is that same Walmart curtain panel I bought for $4. I also used it in the Ballet Bag and still have tons left over. I will be shopping the dorm room section again this fall : )

I think the sleeves are so cute. Make one! Goodwill has way too many dress shirts anyway. Can you tell someone is really sick of taking pictures?

The end.

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Sewing: Baby Yoga Pants

So, I have a confession. I have made very few things for my little boy. Let's admit it... girl stuff is just so cute and easy to make. A skirt is a tube of fabric with an elastic at the top. Easy peasy. Pants and shirts are harder.

I knew a lot of bloggers/crafters out there were making pajama pants (Or yoga pants. Many people stop short of calling them "pajama pants" because of all the rules there are with infant pajamas... fire resistant, yada yada) so I decided to give it a try. If they can do it, I can do it, right? Because I was pretty sure these were going to come out terrible, I didn't buy anything for this project. : ) Here's where I went for instruction.

I cut up an old t-shirt of my husband's (he won't even know it's gone... I think it had Woody Woodpecker on the front. Eww.) and used navy blue thread because I didn't have any brown. Ha! You can even see the blue thread in the pictures. Bad, I know. However, they actually turned into functional pants! Even with my lack luster attitude, I managed to make some pretty stinking cute yoga pants for my little man. (ok, maybe it's the baby that is making them cute... and not the actual pants that are cute..hmmm)

My mistake this round: I cut the crotch length too short (Maybe I should have paid attention more to step 6 in the tutorial... haha, nervous laughter). Before you sew the elastic in, it looks like you are making old man pants that are going to come up to his pits. But, after you fold it down twice and make the casing for the elastic, they should come up right to his belly button. I saw the old man pants taking shape prior to making the elastic casing and cut them down. Now they don't come up high enough to cover his diaper. Oh well. Live and learn.

There's his big sister showing off the brown pants/blue thread special in her stylin' purple monkey jammies, as we call them. (Gotta love Target clearance)

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