4th of July Shirts

I think I've talked about this before, but we have a tradition of designing our own flag shirts to wear for Independence Day. And as usual, Magnus always picks the same design. I guess when he likes something, he really likes something!

My favorite this year is Soph's. I went a little daring and used two designs instead of one. Wowza! I lead such a radical life! haha 

And Odin's was the most easiest to do! Once I had a star template on the freezer paper, all I did was take the eraser part of a pencil, did it in paint and dot the shirt with it. So simple, so easy, but so cute!

 Here's all of the shirts. Did I mention, I am such a procrastinator??? We made these shirts the morning of the party.. At one point a blow dryer was used to speed up the drying process. Yeah, please don't be like me...

Magnus' Halloween Costume

This Halloween I sure stretched myself! Magnus said he wanted to be a policeman so mommy peruse the internet like crazy and came up with this outfit. Shirt was a refashion from dads no longer want to wear pile. 

A few accessories from the dollar store, a cub scout belt, and mom's old name tag from her working days completes this look.

Crushing crime!

Cousin Joey was such a good sport!

Of course, no crime scene would be complete without evidence.

I made this with dark transfer paper that I got at Walmart. It came with a few sheets in it. You choose the image you want off of the computer, make sure your printer is well stocked with ink, print it out and iron it on your shirt. Pretty simple!

The hat was handmade with a little dollar store accessory. Phew, thankfully Halloween only comes around once a year!

Soph's Halloween Costume

A few Halloweens ago, Soph's cousin Lilly was Little Red Riding Hood. At that time Soph was too little to understand what it was, but since then she has seen pictures of it. And whatever Cousin Lilly does, Soph must do too. Since she also has a mom who has such a big ego and doesn't like store bought costumes, one had to be made.

Look at that cutie! The cloak is mommy-made along with the dress. A bonus from this handmade item is that it will last a lot longer than some flimsy cheaply made store bought item.

Another bonus is this cutie loves anything mommy makes, especially if it twirls when she twirls!

I love the wooden button!

Ahhh, I love this girl!!!

4th of July Shirts

We have a tradition here that every 4th of July, we make our own decorative shirts to commemorate the holiday. We start by looking at some images online, printing the image, then tracing the image onto freezer paper. Once I cut out the intricate parts because little hands are not allowed to use an x-acto knife, we are ready for some fancy shirt painting. Funny thing is, we don't veer very far from year to year. And whatever big brother wants little sister wants also. So fireworks it is! This year, last year, and probably next year!

Big brother

Little sister

And the littlest one!

Last Sewing Project

It has been quite some time since I have sewn anything. Time is not by my side for this thing. Keeping house, keeping children in harmony, and keeping up with school takes precedence. But the kids are becoming more independent and I think I could be back to this real soon!!!!

I got the pattern from here. It's super easy and super cute! Hopefully I can make more cuteness like this and not have to wait a year or longer. I'm talking about the dress...

A new dress for Soph

I have been working on this dress for almost the whole last year to now. It's one of the many half finished projects that I have laying around. I tend to lose steam when I have no inspiration/vision for it. I didn't know how to finish the hem or have any idea of anything else to add to it. It was just a sad.plain.brown.dress. 

Since Soph needed something nice to wear to Magnus' promotion night at his school, I figured I better finish this dress. I used fabric covered buttons-my favorite right now, and I remembered I had some leftover ribbon from Soph's baby shower invitation. I know...it's crazy that I still have something from that long ago. After some hymming and hawing, this is what I came up with. This I think, made for a more polished look and definately added the umph that it was lacking before. 

I am not the best rossette maker, but I think this'll do since it was my first time! Adding the strips of ribbon in there made the look more cohesive. This fabric was from Walmart's crazy $5.00/bolt bin. There's still a lot left too! Yeah for cheap stuff!!!

A refashion for Magnus

At Magnus' school, they have an end of the year grade promotion ceremony that they do. Everyone is suppose to get all dolled up. Since we don't ever have anywhere to go to get all dolled up, we were lacking in the necessities. Plus this boy has been growing an inch a day, so this mama didn't want to shell out $ for something he was only going to wear once and then have it become capris!! So my friend Windy and I walked to the thrift store that is down the street from our house and found a pair of these pants. They were $2.50, which is a great price. BUT they were 1/2 off of that! A great score!!! Now even if I messed up I wouldn't feel too bad.

 I took an existing pair of pants from Magnus, layed it on top and cut around it. I kept the hem to make it easier on myself. Added some elastic to the waist and Ta-da!!! Nice pants for the promo night!

                                   Not too shabby for $1.25

Soph's dress

 My first, all my creations dress. It's still tricky for me to cut and sew the arm hole, but perhaps with more practice I might make it the right size. It's either too big or too small. Sewing it is another problem altogether. At least it' s wearable in public. The fabric is a thrift store sheet.

Soph's Easter Dress

 I found this tutorial on this blog and I was smitten! I had to make something special like that for Soph. So the next festive occasion she could wear this to would be Easter. This is my first time using fabric covered buttons and I am hooked. It looks beautiful and classy. It's on the back of the dress, but I couldn't get any pictures of it. Soph is pretty fast at getting away when you want her to be still for the moment. The stripe fabric was something either from Joanns Red Tag clearance or Walmart and the green pok-a-dot is a thrift store sheet. So overall so cheap!

Her foyer runway!

                                                             Admiring the craftsmanship!

Holy hot-cakes, my mom's got skills!!! Yes, that's what she said!

Hobo Bag for Soldier Men

Magnus loves playing with his soldiers. He likes to line them up and put them in inconspicuous places so then the soldiers are ready for attack at any moment. But when he is done playing with them, they lay all over the floor until I come around and step on them by accident. I guess he was waiting to ambush me! Needless to say ouchy for my poor feet. So I figured he needs to have something to put them in. So I saw this tutorial and  made one for him.

There's more of them than that!

Toss them in the bag....

And presto! A nice place for everything. Now my feet will thank you!

Magnus' Halloween Costume

I know it's a little late for this, but I haven't had a chance to write about it since we have all been sick since then and I have been busy taking care of that instead of blogging. We made this out of cardboard that was hot glued together to hold it's shape and then spray painted silver. There are some bottle caps, cds, old wires, and lights. We got so many compliments on it as we were treat or treating. It was a little heavy after a while for Magnus, it didn't help since this was his first day of being sick and he was already exhausted. Poor thing, but the thought of missing out on candy was enough for him to tough it out. He ended up getting a lot of candy that night. I think the costume helped!

Sewing for Lilly- Peasant top

I got this free pattern from Ikat. She is an amazing smart mom who crafts, sews, and makes her own patterns.

I think this is another successful sewing project! I love this fabric! Can you believe that it is a thrift store sheet?? It costs me $2.00 for a full sheet and I still have a lot of it left. Yippee!!!

Sewing for Lilly- Made Andy Warhol Dress

Magnus has a cousin, Lilly, that is his favorite because she is always nice to him, he says. Anyways she is 2 years older than him, but they are the same size. So cute!





I made this with instructions from wonderful Dana at Made. I made this from a thrift store pillowcase. This was easy to do. I think I got it all done in an hour, including the pattern cutting. I like it a lot. I hope Lilly does too. She's spending the whole next week with us, so we'll see.

A shirtdress-frock by friday

This was a hard thing to sew. There was a lot of new techniques that I had never done before and it kicked my butt. This was a mon-fri project, but it didn't work out that way for me. It took me over 2 weeks to finish. Mostly because I needed to take lots of breaks before my brain would explode. All the cursing didn't help to eleviate the frustrations either. After I had everything sewn, I still needed to make dart adjustments in the back to it so it would fit better. After that, I tried it on for the kabillionth time and I realized that somehow the collar got sewn on crooked. It's longer on one side! So I decided that I've worked way to long on this and I am no longer making any more changes!

I did learn what stitch in the ditch meant, made my first button strip, and made my first collar-even though it is crooked.

A pinafore

After sewing my crazy complicated frock by friday, I was ready to sew something a little more simpler, like this pinafore. I think it is soooo cute!

I love the buttons on these! It's a little big on her now, so we'll see if next summer she can still fit into it.

I had to bribe her with some pizza rolls so she would stand up so I could get a better shot of the back piece. This girl loves food!

I added a sew on snap in the middle of the back because I wasn't sure how it would hold together. I didn't want it the split to part too much when she would bendover. A little modesty for the girl. This was less than 30 mins to do. The buttons were extras that came with some clothes I bought a while back. (I knew that there was going to be a use for those later). This is also lined. I wish I had taken a photo of the other side, but I didn't. After 2 mins of having this on Sopheary ate everything in sight that would stain so there goes the photo opp.

An apron for Magnus

This is reversible! Since it is I made just one strap for the body and placed velcro to both sides of the ends. Then on one side of the body of the apron I put the other part of the velcro on. (Pardon the laundry and toys in the background. Sometimes I only have 2 secs to take pics before someone wants up please or food or to be in the picture)

The strap at the neck has elastic so it stretches to fit his noggin without having to deal with adjusting rings or anything of that sort.

I got this fabric a while back ago when Joann's was having some sort of holiday sale. This was $1.50 a yard and was totally cute not to get it. I've been wanting to make Magnus an apron for quite some time, but didn't have the right material. This was the right price and also paying homage to his dad's work. It took me maybe an hour to make it. I basically sewed all around the edges leaving a 3 inch gap on the body to insert the side strap and I left the top part unsewned until I figured out where I wanted the strap to be. Then I sewed both straps in and added the velcro and that was it. I wanted to make this as child friendly as I can.This means he can put it on all by himself without my help. That is always a plus!!!

Another shirt refashion

This is a little different because I didn't make the collar ruffles as long as before. I think I actually like this version better.

My first refashion

The husband is back at work following his 2 wonderful weeks here at home with us. So now everything is back to normal, including time to sew. I made this last night following the tutorial from this blog. She was one of the finalist from Rae's Spring Top Challenge. I took 2 shirts that I bought from Wal- mart that were $4.00 each. It was fairly easy to do. This was also my first time using elastic thread too. Can I say LOVE elastic thread?? LOVE! So in all a pretty shirt for $8.00, plus I still have the top half of the other shirt that I can use to make something else with. Ahh, the mind is working....

Pj's for Magnus

Magnus proudly showing off his new pj botttoms I made for him. I'm glad he likes and I like it!

I made these for Magnus because he is running out of Pj bottoms. He seems to be growing taller since most of his bottoms are getting shorter. I made this out of my own pattern. I will post the how to another day. For now I think

I did a pretty good job on this one!

This is what I've been doing the last week

This was what happened when I took the bumper out of her crib to try and fix. I guess there is a need for those things.

I had made this before she was born with a little bit of batting, but it would always fold over. So I took it apart and added pillow filling to make it more substantial. It took me over a week to get this done because I had to hand sew the tops of each section closed. I tried putting it through my sewing machine, but just ended up breaking a couple of needles. I think this was too thick to put through.

So now we have a new situation to deal with...she is able to pull herself up to a standing position. Now we have to put her bed at a lower level. Something new every week!