Tie Hem Shorts

These are the most absolutely precious shorts I've ever seen and I actually made them myself! I couldn't be prouder. I used up that adorable woodly creature fabric I picked up as remnants a while back. They even have pockets!

I did run into a few snags through out the tutorial at Craft Passion. The basis of these shorts are from the appropriately named Kids Shorts with Pockets.  There were a few steps that could have been elaborated (such as putting the fronts and backs/sides together) for those of us who are not expert sewists (see how I used that word? Not "sewers" again!). But since I have some common sense I was able to figure it out and push through. I did make notes on my print out, because I will be making these again without the ties, since they were so easy.

The most disappointing part of the tie hem tutorial was the pictures and instructions on attaching the ties to the hem. The words were confusing and she has you turn the ties right side out after you attach them to the shorts. I literally tried this three times and each time it tried to suck the shorts through. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. The tute has all kinds of great comments with people saying they did it with ease, but I just wasn't getting it.

So, I just righted the ties on their own and then attached them to the hem. It left the inside a little wonky, but no one's looking at the inside. Still, I am super impressed with myself.

They are sized for a 3T so I didn't bother to measure against S since she's started into 3Ts. The waist is ok, though they are more like capris than shorts! At least that means she can sprout into them. ;)

Better Late Than Never

When I was downloading the elephant skirt pictures for the last post, I realized I had some old pictures of projects on the camera.

This one is the end of school gift for Monkey's PreK-4 teacher Mrs. Rose. A very easy one I saw on Pinterest. I picked up one of those plastic compartment boxes that you can get cheap at Michael's or other craft stores. I cut out and glued scrapbook paper to the top and used chipboard letters and stickers to spell out her name. The fun part was filling it full of all kinds of fun teachery, school supply type things.

This next one is one that I've been planning since last summer and finally got around to this year. Got a 4x4 piece of plywood from Lowe's and painted with two coats of chalkboard paint. Instant chalkboard for backyard shenanigans.

To top it off, we made some spray chalk for the kids to use their creativity. As you can see, the temptation to spray the fence (and each other) was hard to overcome. I would link to the recipe here, but my Evernote won't open for some reason. I'm sure you can Google it if you're interested. Sorry!

Elephants and Triangles

OK, I hit the fabric store again yesterday to return the material I bought for the Infinity Dress that I decided I didn't like. And of course I hit the remnants bin! The manager told me they had been working on remnants all weekend, and it showed. So now I have six more pieces with no plans. But how do you pass up magenta knit and pink princesses?? Something will come of them, I'm sure.

In the meantime, yesterday I was busy with Berry's elephant simple skirt and July 4 triangle dress.

Are those elephants not the cutest!? Berry loved it and wore it over her dress yesterday after she got home from camp.

She wore it appropriately to camp today.

I'm not quite sure of the length on the July 4 triangle dress, since she was being goofy when I was trying to hold it up to her. I left a good sized hem on it, so I can lengthen it as she gets older and get more use out of it! Some of the instructions on this tute were weird, but basically it's a pillow case dress where you cut the rectangles into semi-triangles before you put it together. I love the "shooting stars" on this one!

The Fabric Stash is Growing!

Yikes. I really need to get to making some more stuff. I went to Hancock's Memorial Day Blowout today and got mostly what I went looking for plus a couple of other things. Didn't do too much damage, but as I was putting things away I realized the amount of stash I have with no particular plans for it. I have a ton of Halloween remnants, and several yards of Christmas I bought before Berry was born, I think. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I was able to clear out some scraps, I know I'll never use, so that was good.

The biggest finds today were two remnants (of course!). One is a precious seersucker cotton with hot pink, yellow and green tiny flowers all over it. Just enough for a summer skirt or top for S for a mere $1.25. The second is a brown cotton with tiny orange butterflies all over it. And get this, it coordinates perfectly with a remnant I bought there months ago, that's peach with adorable foxes, owls and other woodsy critters. I had to snatch it up because of that fact, besides its only being $1. Now to figure out what to make with it.

I did some planning the other day and figured out four items I want to make in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open for updates. This was the real reason for my trip today: to get the last batch of fabric for these projects. I did also pick up some adorable patriotic cotton to make Berry a July 4th dress.

Project plans, in no particular order...drum roll please!

• Simple Bow Tie Top by Sweet Verbena (for me)
• Simple Skirt by MADE (for S)
• Tie Hem Shorts by Craft Passion (for S)
• Little Red Infinity Dress by Sew Like My Mom (mine will be gray, not red)

I think I'll use this Tiny Triangle Dress by Purl Bee tutorial to make the July 4 dress. I offered to make something for Monkey, but he was no-go. Oh well.

Quickie Dora Outfit

I went to JoAnn's the other day to buy some velcro to fix Monkey's nap mat for school. Of course I had to check out the remnants bin! I found 1/3 yd of this cute purple cotton Dora fabric, and about 2/3 yd cotton/poly blend yellow seersucker. I had to get them!

Since I was pulling out the sewing machine to fix the nap mat and hem some pants, I decided I was going to whip out an outfit for Berry.

I only had enough Dora to make some shorts, and the yellow was used for the top. I actually made a pattern for the top using another top she had as the basis, and some ideas from this one.  I searched the internet for an easy shorts pattern and used this one.

I had to take a couple of inches off the top of the shorts to make them fit, since I wasn't using a knit like she did.  And I cut the fabric wrong initially, so had to patchwork a 2 inch sized piece in the back, but it came out fine.

I had to be creative with the top, since I realized I needed some way to give her room to actually get into it! I'd used a top that had buttons down the back as the template, and didn't plan on adding buttons to the new one.  So I hemmed up around the arms and neck, and sewed in some hot pink & black patterend grosgrain ribbons to tie it on at the shoulders.  I trimmed the neck, arms, and hem with zig zag stitch in black to give it some oomph. It came out really cute!

And they both fit perfectly! It's hard to see the shorts since the top's a little long, but you get the gist.  Poor Berry was crying for something, who remembers what. But she did have two lambies, didn't she?

I'd totally  make these shorts again, maybe with some knit next time, but the cotton worked well too. They're short shorts, so they're perfect for South Louisiana summers!