I do crafts!

It's been quite a while since I have attempted to do any more crafting.  The main reason being a rough pregnancy and other pressing matters.  I did work on decorating Zoe's room and the baby's room so that's something, right?  Well, now the baby is here and so is summer.  What that means is that I am spending a lot of time at home and needing something to do so I don't lose my ever loving mind. 

My wonderful mother-in-law gave me a new sewing machine for Christmas.  I was super excited to get it home and try it out.  Unfortunately I had no space to set it up and attempt some projects.  Now that school is out Zach has been spending more time at home and he cleared a space for me in the garage, set up a table, and set up my sewing machine.  What a good husband.  Late night feedings have meant that I have been perusing Pinterest A LOT and I have many projects that I'm just itching to try my hand out. 

The first use of my pretty sewing machine (which I love by the way) was to make the baby a headband.  I found the tutorial here.  I was drawn to the tutorial because I could use up more of my old t-shirt scraps from when I made these.  It was the perfect craft to try out my new machine.  I just made one so far but will soon be making some for the older daughter.

This little project just got me in the mood to do more so the next project on my mind was to try these cute little circle skirts, again for the baby.  I started with these because I had all the materials on hand and because it only uses a fat quarter of fabric.  I didn't want to risk messing up any more fabric than that.  The template can be printed off on a regular sheet of paper and the instructions were super easy to understand.  One thing quickly became evident though during this project: I can not sew a straight line, at all.  I'm hoping that more practice will help that.

I had some scraps left over from this skirt so I decided to make a hair clip.  After looking for a bit and still not finding a tutorial for one that met my fancy I decided to just do a rosette style, twisting and gluing on a scrap of felt.  Another thing I learned: I can't use hot glue without burning at least one appendage.

So, these three projects pair nicely together.  The little clip I made easily attaches to the head band but is also something that can be worn directly in the hair.  I'm pretty pleased with how they all turned out and will be making more of these in the near future (hopefully with straighter lines and no injuries).

My little model.

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.

Crafty Christmas part I

As I have stated in earlier posts, this Christmas was slated to be a crafty one.   I had several ideas of gifts to make for my family and friends and I actually did some of them.  A few of our grand ideas didn't quite turn out as I had envisioned so those had to be scrapped.  However, there were a few projects that I am actually quite proud of.

As many of you probably know, I have an addiction to Pinterest that I'm proud of.  One of the first things I pinned was a gift idea for the inlaws.  I know you have all seen it.  A board painted with clothes pins for photos of the grandkids - you can see the one on Pinterest here.

The hubs went to Lowe's and got a board that I painted with some black latex paint.  Then I tried a tracing technique, also found on Pinterest here, and painted on the words.  I had found the cutest little binder clips at Office Max after Thanksgiving that I hot glued on and printed out some wallet sized pictures of the kids from Walmart.  Here's my final product:

Overall, a pretty simple project that just requires a little time.  The cost was pretty low, all under $10, and if this uncrafty woman can do it, I know you can!

In my next craft blog I will show you another gift I made.

Happy Crafting!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Crafting has had to take a back seat lately due to the holidays and all the commitments that go with it.  However, I have had it in the back of my mind to make a holiday outfit for Z to wear to multiple Christmas events.  On cyber Monday I cruised on over to hobbylobby.com and found some super cute fabric that was just perfect.  So, I got on the web and visited multiple sites and how-to's to see how I can best put this fabric to use.  I decided on a pillow-case dress because it best seemed to fit my skill level.  I never could find a tutorial that I liked online so I just kind of winged it.  It was, in a word, aggravating.  I am still getting to know my machine and we had many "come to Jesus" moments this week as I worked on the dress.  We had to have it tonight for a school Christmas program and I was literally sewing ribbon on minutes before walking out the door.  Here's my little model, not the best pictures but you get the drift.

She loves her new dress and it looks great with the Christmas Tree bow I made.  It's plenty big so hopefully, after all the blood, sweat and tears, I poured into this dress, she can wear for a couple more years.

I have other crafts that I am going to be tackling, but, they are gifts so the blogging on those will happen after the holidays.

Enjoy the season!!

It's finally happened!

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting this day, and yes folks, it has finally happened...I have a sewing machine!  My mother-in-law apparently has a cache of them in her barn and graciously dug one out for me.  I picked it up on my trip home last weekend and today I set about trying to get to know the machine.  Now, let me assure everyone, I am a complete novice when it comes to sewing.  Yes, I did try once, 20 years ago, to sew, and if you have read my first blog entry you know how that turned out, but I retained nothing from that experience.  Thank goodness for Google and it's powerful search engine, which sent me to numerous videos and tutorials.  By watching a delightful British girl I learned how to thread a bobbin and my machine.  I was set to go!  I practiced on some fabric scraps and, although they were not straight, my seams did stay together. Success!!  So, what was I going to do with this new found skill?  I had pinned a link on Pinterest for a DYI skirt made from an old pair of jeans.  My sweet daughter is very slender and tall so most of the pants she has are too short.  I designated a pair of jeans that fit well around the waist for this craft.  Here's the link to the tutorial.  My try was...well, not the best.  The tutorial is specifically a no-sew craft, using fabric glue instead of a sewing machine, but I went ahead and tried anyway.  Basically, after a few injuries, I was able to complete the skirt, but no, it does not look great.  Thankfully, Z is only 4, and although she considers herself quite stylish, maybe she wont notice my crooked seams.  Perhaps denim wasn't the ideal medium for a first-time sewing project.  Live and learn, right??

I will post a picture of the machine at another date, frankly, I'm too lazy to get up and go take one at the moment. ;-)

Happy crafting and as always, I welcome any suggestions, ideas or comments!