Sewing: Felt Pillow

Here's a project that came about because I saw this pillow here and wanted to make it immediately. Not having all of the supplies I should have at home and not wanting to go shopping, I winged it with what I could find. It actually came out better than I thought, though one of the most tedious projects ever! Seriously, if you're into quick, don't do this. It took forever!

I had small sheets of felt at home, not one large piece. Therefore, the front is actually made up of 4 of those pieces sewed together. That's why you can see that lovely seem down the middle.

Next, you have to cut about a million small circles. Since I do not have any sort of die cutting machine, I cut them all with scissors. Lots of swearing and several episodes of Biggest Loser later, I had about 1/4 of the circles I needed. Ugh. On to Hoarders and more cutting.

Next, I ran out of the pink felt I used for front of the pillow and had to make more circles out of a different color pink. I planned on it all being the same shade but I REALLY didn't feel like buying more felt.

And finally, since I used up all of the pink felt to make horrible circles, I had none to make a back for the pillow. What to do, What to do? Scour your kid's room for anything that is pink and they won't miss! Yeah, that's it! I found an old baby blanket in my daughter's room... Pink stripes, close enough!

In the tutorial I followed, all of the circles were sewed by hand! No really, by hand. If I went that route, I'd still be sewing circles. Instead, I folded and grouped them in twos and ran the bottoms under the sewing machine. Then, I hot glued the clusters to the pillow front. I was sure they were going to fall off eventually, but 6 months of being on a 3-year-old's bed later, still holding strong! Yeay hot glue!

It really is a cool pillow. I've gotten several compliments on it and a few people who wanted to know if I'd make them one... to which I kindly directed them to the tutorial and wished them luck. : )

My kid loves her ruffle pillow too.

Let's be friends!

Sewing: Ballet Bag

So in school, I was a bit of a jock. Yes, I did cheerleading, but over the years I also played softball, soccer, tennis, ran track and cross country and did a small amount of time with the swimming team. I loved sports. So when my daughter was born, I had visions of her in her shin guards, scoring goals at 4 years old. Over the next few years I even picked up a pair or two of cleats at various consignment sales sure that one day she would need them. Then she turned 3.

It was time! Time to start looking for things to enroll her in! Yippie! However, the only thing she ever seemed to talk about was princesses and ballerinas. Seriously, a girly girl. No problem. I too was a girly girl who could also kick a soccer ball and swing a tennis racket. She would of course do the same. No dice. Even with my pushing, er, I mean encouragement, she was addiment that she wanted to be a ballerina. The final straw came when I picked her up from daycare one day and ran into her best friend all dressed in a tutu on her way to dance. My battle was over. "Mom! Jayden is a ballerina! I want to go to dance class!". She realized that there actually was a place to go to be a ballerina. Thus, my child does ballet every Thursday and loves every second of it.

Because I had zero experience in anything dance, I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, several cousins and close friends knew what I needed and got me on the right track... tights, ballet shoes, leotard, etc. Check. We arrived the first day, and she jumped right in. Smiled the whole time. I took a million pictures.

Then class ended and all the girls ran up to the front of class to grab their bags full of who-knows-what, and left. There was my daughter. Standing alone in the middle of the room in tears... she had no bag. "Mommy, I want a bag too!" Not in a whiny, I want-my-way-all-of-the-time cry, but in a I'm-the-outsider, I-feel-really-left-out kind of way. I felt so bad. (mommy guilt, mommy guilt!) I knew what I had to do... time to make a bag pronto. Next dance class was in one week and she would have a bag to grab at the end of it! (even if it was filled with blankies, Snow White's broken shoes, play dishes, whatever...)

I went to my trusty craft blogs and found it here. Perfect. I even had all of the supplies on hand and bought nothing for this project. The pink fabric is a curtain from the Walmart dorm room section I got on clearance for $4! I bought this for another project and have tons left over still. The lining is another Walmart special I got in the remnant stack for a couple bucks also for another project. And the applique is left overs from a skirt I made, a scrap of felt, and a random button. (I went applique style since I didn't have any fabric paint) It came out awesome and I have plans to make a larger version beach bag for myself.

You now know the story of the ballet bag... isn't mommy guilt harsh?

Let's be friends!

Mom Tips Part 1

Because I was the first of my friends to have kids, I became the veteran mom when they started to have kids. Not that I have 8 kids or anything, but I had one kid at the time that had made it to two years old. So I think they figured if she was still alive, I'm doing something right. Here are some tips I have come up with that seem to have worked well for me.

• Buy used. They are going to out grow it, poop on it, puke on it, draw on it, swim in dirt in it anyway.

• Use the money you saved buying used to start a college fund.

• Park next to the cart returns in parking lots. You can load up toddlers and heavy baby car seats and push them into the store. Less sweating on your part.

• When your baby/toddler wakes up with a high fever, administer Tylenol and wait 15 minutes before making any decisions about rushing to the emergency room at 3am.

• Use coupons. If you are going to buy the stuff anyway, save the $3. If someone mailed you $3 in cash, you'd take it. $3 in coupons on things you buy anyway is the same thing... cash in your pocket.

• Buy Pampers. Cheap diapers suck.

• Take a lot of pictures and videos. You'll never regret having too many.

• When your newborn cries or makes any noise for that matter, just feed them. Ignore that every 3 hour BS. Pretty much never stop feeding them until they are 3 months-ish. Then maybe you can start timing things. (I credit Jess with this one)

• You will say the words... "but I just fed him/her" a hundred times when you have a newborn. See above tip on what to do.

• Daycare is never going to be awesome. There are going to be days when you hate dropping them off. But there are going to be days you can't wait to drop them off and sing old school Mariah Carry in your car as you drive away sipping your coffee for the 20 minute "me-time" you get on the way to work. It's a trade-off. Find the balance that works for you.

Let's be friends!

Sewing: Tank Revamp Toddler Dress

This dress came about when I took a stroll through the Walmart fabric section on my lunch break and saw this paisley. Had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I loved it. Five dollars and a wait in the Walmart check-out, it was mine. Weeks later, I remembered that I had an old Target tank top remnant (I cut the bottom off of it for another project) sitting in my fabric pile at home (Juniors-sized tank). I put the two together, and came up with a dress for my sassy 3-year-old.

I started by measuring my kid (I got her to sit still with a combo of snacks and “Princess and the Frog”). I put the tank on her inside out, pinned the straps at the shoulder to fit her, and marked how long I wanted the tank portion. I didn't have to take in the sides because it was the "long and lean" variety of tank which is code for, "you will look like a sausage stuffed in here". Really small... the reason this tank got cut up. Then I measured (eyeballed) how long to make the skirt portion (it ended up about 18"). I cut a rectangle of fabric 18" x however wide my piece was from the paisley (I know, very exact) and sewed it into a tube. I used “french seems” which I learned from here. This is when I stopped and waited for the kids to sleep. Having a hot iron, a sewing machine, and kids up and running gives me heartburn.

After dinner, baths, a bottle, the nightly brush-your-teeth fight, having to pee 3 times, and finally bed, I got back to work.

Realizing in my excitement I completely forgot about adding for seam allowances and cut the skirt portion too short (doh!), I decided it needed a ruffle at the bottom... yeah, that's what I meant to do all along. I cut a 3” wide strip and made it twice as long as my skirt rectangle, hemmed it, and sewed it into a tube. This required me to sew two pieces together to get it really long. Then I pinned like crazy and sewed them together (I am still shocked this came out as well as it did).

Next, sewed the skirt portion to the tank and added the satin ribbon on top leaving the ribbon free at the back.

All was well until 3-year-old put it on and kept pulling the front down to her bellybutton in a very non-lady-like fashion. (Look mom, boobs!) Sooo, I figured the tank was still too big. I gathered up the front a smidge, and hand sewed that like so.

Done! Total cost was about $5 and I recycled an old tank. Go ahead, try it.  That old shirt is too tight anyway.

Let's be friends!