Learning to sew...

There's nothing like realizing the summer is almost over to motivate you to finish some craft projects.  I have been working on a dress for little miss for months now and I finally finished it! (pause for applause)  Let me tell you, it was no easy feat and my sewing machine and I are not on friendly terms.  In fact, most of my sewing on this project was done by hand. 

The tutorial for my project can be found here.  It's something I found on Pinterest.  First thing I had to do was find a shirt to turn into a dress for Zoe.  Zach was gone on a trip so naturally I chose one of his that he had been unwilling to get rid of but also unwilling to actually wear.

I don't think he'll miss it.

The first part of the project was easy enough.  It wasn't until I attempted gathering the skirt that I had problems.  I followed the advice of my friend Brittney ( you can follow her blog here) and did the gathering by hand.  I tried to do it by machine, setting the tension on high and all that, but it wasn't very pretty.  However, the hand sewing worked good enough.

The next problem I encountered was the straps.  The original tutorial didn't have any way to buckle the straps so that they could be removed to put the dress on.  When I tried to put the dress on Zoe with the straps attached it turned into an acrobatic exercise that she did not appreciate.  On my last entry I reached out for suggestions and got one that was great.  I attached hook and eye fasteners (or trouser hooks) to the straps.  Then I sewed buttons on the straps to give the allusion of button holes without trying to attempt them.

The finished product:

I didn't attempt the pockets from the tutorial because, well, I think that pockets are far beyond my skill level, or at least the skill level of my machine (let's blame it on the machine). 

Anyway, sewing project number 3 is in the books.  Now all I need is some fabric to crank out one of the other ones I have pinned on my Pinterest wall...

Happy crafting my friends!!



Summertime Craft

In my last post which, admittedly, was ages ago I mentioned that I was working on a dress.  I have almost finished said dress but I am stalled because I'm not quite sure how to handle the straps.  Any insight you may have would be greatly appreciated.

In other news, summer is upon us and I am wracking my brain to come up with ideas to keep the kids occupied.  I came across some things on Pinterest that I have started with the kiddos.  Z will be starting Kindergarten in August and, knowing how quickly they can forget things if kids don't keep practising, we continue to work on our letters.  I was inspired by this site first which has several art projects centering around letters.  We started there.  I also came across this site which I actually kind of like better because it's a little easier to navigate in, in my opinion.

Mainly Z and I work on this while little brother is napping but I have actually been able to do some with him too.  He is just now becoming interested in doing art projects, where before he could care less (as his preschool teachers can attest). I'll usually let him do some things on the computer while Sister does her letter, then switch.

Fisher Price has some good toddler games here.

I've learned by doing this that I am apparently lacking some art supplies in my craft closet.  If you go to the sites and then look at what we did, then you will surely notice our projects are missing some of the "cooler" components.  Hey, you work with what you have.

Mainly what I have is paper, markers, and glue.

However, I did buy cheap paper plates specifically for this project.  Now I have enough plates to make 300 more "a"'s...

Oh, yeah, I have finger paints too.

Sing with me "Noah is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s..."

When do kids learn that they don't have to use great gobs of glue??

I am hanging these on the kids doors, at least until I run out of room.  Here's Z modeling her letter's.  We have the rest of summer to finish.

The round thing above her head is an apple she made from a plate (so, 299 left).

She did this project all by herself.

 Noah's door is lacking but hopefully he'll will catch up.  He was also napping when this photo was taken so that's why there's no little guy pointing up to his projects.

He also got an apple (298 left).

So, that's what we've been doing with our time. Please share any projects you may be doing!  I dug my scrapbooking stuff out so I hope to be able to get that done.  And, let me know if you have any suggestions for my dress dilemma!!

Happy crafting!

Long overdue...

It's been a while since I've done any crafting.  Since the holidays we have been sick, busy, or sick and busy.  I have been just trying to keep the house from crumbling and frankly, I haven't had the energy to do anything creative.  Not to mention my computer died and had to be replaced.  However, I still have some Christmas gifts to tell you about.

My kids are the only grandchildren my parents have so I knew that for their Christmas gift I wanted to do something with the kiddos.  I surfed around for the perfect craft idea and never really found anything that really sparked my interest.  However, I have been wanting to do something with photographing letters to spell something out.  I'm sure you've seen those all over the place.  I finally decided to use that idea and have my kids holding the letters to spell out LOVE. 

I recycled an old piece of poster board and drew the letters out and then headed outside with the kids.  The youngest wasn't as cooperative but it worked out anyway.  The hardest part was finding a frame.  We chose to get one with extra openings to bookend the word with extra pictures of the kids together.  Anyway, the grandparents liked it and it was a fairly inexpensive gift.

My next crafting project includes sewing.  I got lots of sewing supplies for Christmas and have been itching to try them out.  I'll be sure and keep you posted.

Uncrafty Mom out.