Minnie Mouse Halloween Costume

     Right now my 3 year old loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! :) I thought for Halloween she could be Minnie Mouse and it would be pretty simple to make.  I received a pattern from Little Lizard King and I LOVE IT!!!

You can find the exact pattern HERE.

     This pattern was simple, so easy and the pattern piece was the best part.  You only have to use this tiny pattern piece to cut out the arm hole rather than the whole top. BRILLIANT!  It has options for different sleeves and bottom of dress. I plan on making a few more of these asap with different sleeves. This dress is so fun.  PLUS it runs true to size.  I made a 4t because with other patterns for this type dress they always fit super small on her and she is already super skinny. This dress turned out a little big because I planned for it fitting tight. I would TOTALLY buy this pattern readers! it's a basic pattern everyone can use and has so many options to make it your own. It would be great for someone learning to sew too! :)

I added a tie to add some Minnie Mouse character and to help it fit better because I made it extra big. 

I've had tops like this before that I've done ties for and they just end up slipping off or falling down all day. I decided to sew it on to the dress in the front just a little. I didn't go all the way across because it would look funny with the gathers and pleats that are naturally made. This will just hold it in place enough and keep the fabric from folding over and bunching up. It works great! 

don't mind the sloppy bow. I was in a hurry. :) 

do you think she likes it a little? 

I'm having my friend from Crafting Friends make this hat for me to go with it: 

Now all she needs is some white gloves and she's ready to go Trick or Treating! :) 

I love this little girl! She always has crazy hair, a princess dress on, and a bow she puts in herself. She is going to love this costume and I love that I can make her smile just by doing something I love to do for her. It makes me feel good. I may not be the best mom all the time and I constantly get frustrated with the tantrums and whining, but sewing for her makes me feel like I can do something right for her. 

UPDATE:

Happy Halloween!

Ruffle Butt Onesies

    For my daughter's Halloween costume I decided she would be a little calf.  I feel like a cow and all she does is drink milk and cry, so it fits. :) plus the costume is adorable.  I feel like all I do is copy other people's ideas because I don't want to pay the price to have someone else make something I could make myself If I put in a little time and energy.  This is the outfit on etsy for sale:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/108671376/cow-belle-rufflebum-halloween-costume?ref=sr_gallery_13&ga_search_query=halloween+costume&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=ZZ&ga_min=0&ga_max=0&ga_search_type=all&fb_source=message

My friend from Crafting Friends is making the hat to go with it:    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafting-Friends/180595232008676?ref=ts

I also ordered cow print leggings off of ebay for about 5.00. everyone else wanted to sell them for double that.  I'm ordering from China.  It will take longer to get here, but it was free shipping and i'm good with that. It's a good thing I'm prepared. :)

This is the onesie I finished today:

The ruffles took me forever! probably because I had a busy day of being a mom involved there, and my sewing machine was acting up again.  I still think it turned out great! 

I grabbed the wrong kind of heat and bond in the store and the package says not to sew.  I sewed it anyway. I didn't see any problems with it.  Come to think of it, maybe that is why my sewing machine is acting up. Guess it's time to clean my machine. 

     I also wanted to make a zebra print onesie for my baby to wear whenever.  The ruffles on the butt of this one turned out interesting.  I'll explain in a min. 

.

This is the interesting part.  I wanted to try this a little different than the ones above.  I zig zagged the edges, opened up the onesie side seam to tuck the ends inside and stitch it closed. The pink turned out cute, but I couldn't get the zebra stripe sot work right.  When I was sewing this, like everything else I made, I winged it all.  I didn't measure strips and because I just eyeballed it, the strip was too big and not ruffly enough to be anything but a stip really.   I was using scraps left over from the canopy I did earlier and I didn't have much at all left.  I tried to sew on pink ribbon in the middle of it, I tried pink ruffly headband material, I tried a pink zigzag stitch to make it more interesting. I hated them all.  I ended up getting another strip and making a tiny ruffle.  The bad thing is the stripes were running the other way and it didn't change the look much.  OH WELL!! don't I say that a lot?! lets just say, it will have to do because I'm done.  after working on this all day and having a screaming baby and a trouble maker daughter I should be thankful it turned out as good as it did. I'm done looking at onesies for a while now. NEXT! 

A day of firsts: monkey pants, doll clothes and t-shirt

I recently bought this pattern for "monkey butt pants" and wanted to try it out, but I have never sewn with knit before.  
   www.etsy.com/listing/91287677/monkey-pants-pattern-3m-24m

   so, I thought before I spend money on fabric, i'd try them out with an old t-shirt. I have my favorite shirt my husband brought me from Alaska, but it's falling apart around the logo on the back, so I thought i'd use the usable fabric to make some cute pants. and BOY did they turn out cute!

    I also recently picked up some cabbage patch dolls from an online classifieds page and needed some new clothes for them all to wear. .. along with the current dolls at our house. We now have quite a few. :) I found this tutorial and I couldn't resist!

 http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2009/12/baby-onesie-into-doll-onesie.html

http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2009/06/baby-clothes-to-doll-clothes-tutorial.html

These are what I came up with: 

(This girl loves her babies!! Crazy hair from the bath! :) a very common occurrence at our house)

         This doll is for Carli when she gets old enough to play with it.  Keira will share her others too, but this will be just hers, like Keira has one that is just hers. 

             

        This outfit is one that Carli wore and I loved it. It was a onesie, but this was the last outfit I did, and I got lazy.  the bottom part looked complicated and I didn't have patience. Plus, I was afraid The girls would wake up any moment.

         

          If any of you are scared to do these yourselves, don't be.  just wing it like I did. :) they turn out just fine! the instructions from the tutorials are only ONE way of doing things too.  I changed it up a little on a few and ended up taking them all apart like the zippered pj's.  I did them more like the onesie tutorial and took the sleeves off.  I think they turned out darling, but now I think i'm all doll clothes-ed out for a while.  it's a lot of tedious stuff. 

        Another thing I did for the first time today was "shrink a T-shirt."  :) My brother in law gave me a shirt when we saw them last. It was an XL and I usually wear a M in mens t-shirts.  So, I took one of my favorite fitting shirts and laid it on top.  I ended up cutting the sleeves off  and fitting them like the other shirt and traced the outline of the shirt that fits onto the big shirt.  I pinned it all over, sewed it up with a knit stitch and hemmed the bottom.  I pinned the sleeves in place and stitched them in place too. it's like you never knew it was a different shirt!!! :) this one does fit a little tighter though, I think it's different thickness shirt. Oh well! :) 

Projects for the week

Lately, I've been wanting to keep myself occupied so I don't feel so lonely during the week. This is a "K" for Keira's room I did. I used scrap book paper for the front and cut the birds from scrap book paper also. I used glitter all over the place wherever I could too. 

This block is a 1.5" block that I used scrap book paper, pictures and modge podge all over. :) it turned out really cute! 

I made blocks for each of my girls the same size as the sister block. each has a foot picture, the princess quote, a side that is just their name, weight, time of birth, date of birth and in between the name and date I have their actual footprints that I shrunk down really small. I'd post it, but I don't want that information shared. 

These were a really fun project and I did all the print work on microsoft works. :) 

headbands

I wanted my new baby girl to have a little headband that she could wear on a daily basis, that would look adorable, and be affordable.  In my case, free!

I used these tutorials I found off pintrest: http://prudentbaby.com/2010/10/baby-kid/no-sew-rolled-fabric-flower-baby-headband-2/

http://natsprat.blogspot.com/2011/03/rolled-fabric-rosette-headband-tutorial.html


http://www.make-it-do.com/make-it/peony-clips/

it's just fun to play around with and learn new ways.

I found elastic for headbands like shown in the very top picture at Bernina fabric store. I have not come across any yet at joann's or walmart yet. it was only .45 a yard so I go a little for tying.  the other elastics are some i've just collected over the years.

measure the childs head and subtract an inch. sew together with sewing machine and place your flowers over the seam with the glue gun. after flowers are glued on, hot glue felt to the back of your headband and trim so you can't see it when worn. easy!!!

ANOTHER Diaper Bag

The story behind my 2nd diaper bag with this fabric and style:

         SIGH. On my last road trip, I threw the kids in the car in a hurry and placed my diaper bag on top of the sunscreen on the floor of the backseat. Without me knowing about it the bag got sprayed with the entire bottle. When I got to where we were visiting, I decided I would wash it like I have in the past.  This time I was using a front loader washer. These washers don't have the same capability to spin things like this dry like a top loader does, and because of the washer, the bag looked like it had been run over by a semi truck and drug 10 miles after one wash.
          I decided I'd try to dye the outside black again and make the black look better.  I knew the dye would bleed so I sprayed the inside fabric with scotchgard. It did nothing, so don't waste your money. After spray bottle spraying the outside bag with dye and washing it, the outside looked the same and inside looked destroyed and purple.
           After bawling at the loss of my hard work, time, and the fact that I really did like my last bag, my husband said "make a new one" knowing it would cost more money, but I would feel better.  (Oh, how I love that man!!!)
            I tracked down the fabric again online, had it shipped and by the time I got home from my trip I was ready to sew!
            This time, I wanted to add a few inches length to the bag because there was never room for my older daughter's toys and books in the bag when we went to church, and honestly it felt small to me even though it was the biggest bag I've had yet.  I thought adding 4" to the length of the bag wouldn't be too big of a change, so I altered the pattern and added 4 inches to the length, not thinking about how it would change the whole look.  This picture above looks good.  the proportion of fabrics looks fine and it doesn't seem too weird.  well, by the time I got the binding on top bith the seam allowance, it looks .....weird. long and way too skinny.  I should have made it a little wider and shorted the outside pockets a little.
            I had a whole night of bawling AGAIN over this diaper bag dilema and couldn't get past how silly it looked to me, not to mention I ran out of fabric for the outside and ended up using pink for the lower half pockets not realizing that it would turn into the bottom of the bag later. My brain was overloaded at the time with "motherhood." (If I sound like an absolute wreck and emotional disaster, you are right... I was. Having a baby messes you up for a long time. .... Still not back to my old self.)
            I skyped my sister and showed her the bag, sent pictures to my husband on the phone, posted pictures on facebook and finally figured out how to make it better. Having a pink bottom made the odd shave more obvious and it would get dirty so fast, so I took a regluar cotton piece of black fabric (It was all I had, and I don't live down the street from a fabric store.) and I ironed fusible fleece to it. Then I pressed under all the edges and hand sewed it on to cover up the pink.  It will do and it makes the bag less awkward to me.

(i've been having trouble with blogger and now have lost the before picture. I also deleted it off my computer)

          

 I love the inside of this bag now! I have 2 more pockets than the last bag.  I did the inside completely different than last time too.  I did each side of the bag separate, then pieced it together rather than doing it like I did the outside of the bag. it worked out great!

I even added a place to keep my keys, because lately, I try to get the kids out of the car, and by the time i'm ready to go into a store I can't remember where the keys are or if I locket it or not. THEN, I can't find them later when I need them. adding another kid in the mix messes with my memory and focus ability big time.

Pocket inside pocket on the outside of the bag. I keep all my chap stick and pens etc there. 

pocket on the outside

 while making the bag, I ran out of black fabric, so I used pink thinking it would look ok. first mistake is that it will get dirty fast.  it also makes the size very evident and makes it look more short. it just plain looks weird to me. so under estimating the amount of fabric is a mistake. always get more! I don't live down the street from a fabric store either. 

                                                    I love the way the top turned out.

fully stuffed!