Sweatshirt jacket to Vest

I just realized, I dont think I've ever put any pictures of my Monkey up on my craft blog.  So, at almost 4 months old, he's making his blogging debut...

 What a charmer!  This is such a happy-go-lucky kid, which is a real blessing considering how busy my other two are!

Do you see the vest my Monkey is wearing here?  I just bought that for him, its size 9 months but apparently runs small.  He'll only fit it a few more weeks.

Which is sad, because I think he looks downright studly in a vest!

I also realized that this jacket of his just wasnt fitting right.  It was tight through the shoulders and arms, but the tummy and length were just fine.  And since its really winter now he wears a heavy coat instead of jackets.

SO.

I cut it up and made a vest!

It was really quick and easy, too...my kind of project!

Since this was a hooded jacket, and I wanted a collar, I cut the hood off about 2 inches up from the neckline. 

 Then I folded the top edge (where I just cut) in about 1/2 inch.  Since the hood had been lined, this is what it looked like:

I pinned it in place, then stitched!

And thats it!

 I do think I would like it better if I took it in around the armholes, particularly on the shoulder.  But that's easy enough to do; I'll just fold it under one more time and stitch again (although it'll be thick so I'll have to go slow.)

 Monkey just discovered his tongue, if you couldn't tell.  :)



Now, I guess since its December 1st, I've got to get serious about making Christmas presents.  Anyone else out there feeling WAY behind already?!

Batman Slippers

My hubby L-O-V-E-S comic books, superheroes and all that jazz.  He's passed that love onto our kids it seems; my Munchkin can name just about any superhero by sight but, until we bought the Beauty and the Beast DVD this last week, she really didnt care much about princesses.

Go figure that my only girl just wants to be one of the boys!

Anyways, its getting colder so I thought my little Monkey could use another pair of slippers...since he's only 3 1/2 months old he can wear them anywhere, not just in the house which is great!

I used my tutorial for Wool Sweater Slippers found here.  The sweater I used for these had rabbit hair, so its little fuzzier than I like, but they are so soft!!!!  The Batman Logo is made from recycled t-shirts...scraps leftover from the Batman bibs I've been making.

Halloween costumes

ALL THREE kids are down for naps...HALLELUJAH!  This NEVER happens, not all at the same time, so I fully intended to use my time wisely...by taking a nap myself!

But first, I wanted to throw up a quick blog about our Halloween costumes.

Since we are a family of 5 we went as THE INCREDIBLES!

I dont have the best pictures...it was a crazy afternoon/evening with a crazy amount of last minute costume making.  Theres a lot of things I would do differently if I had more time...the biggest one being put a REAL waistband on my costumes, not just the hem of a black shirt!  I had to safety pin my pants to my shirt and pray really hard that everything would stay in place!  (Which, considering I've had three kids in the last three years, was praying for a miracle.)

Hubby and the Munchkin

Dash (SO appropriate, my Monster was EVERYWHERE and that was before he got any candy!), ElastaGirl, Violet, and Mr Incredible, who is giving Jack Jack his binky.  Thats the closest we got to my Monkey being in a picture; he was so good he slept almost the whole time!

For Jack Jacks costume, I took one of my Munchkins old Pink sleepers and dyed it red.  Since it had bunnies on the front, I took a piece of white T Shirt and painted the "I" emblem on it and glued it to the sleeper.

For Dash, I bought a red long sleeve shirt and red (girls) leggings from Walmart, like $3 each.  If I'd had more time/energy/less kids to haul around I could have found these cheaper at thrift stores perhaps, or found what I REALLY wanted: red thermal underwear!  But these worked fine.  I painted the emblem on the shirt with fabric paint, borrowed a pair of black socks to put over his tennis shoes (he kept slipping on non-carpeted floors, it was really funny!) and made some black "underwear" out of a maternity t shirt.  (I LOVE cutting up my old maternity t shirts!)  Oh, and I took a strip of black fabric and stitched it around the neck.

(She INSISTED on posing like this.  I think we may have trouble with this one as a teenager!)
For Violet, I did almost the same as Dash, except instead of leggings I had to buy tights because they were out of red leggings in her size.  Shes also wearing the yellow sash, which my Monster WAS wearing but managed to pull off at some point.  For the black underwear I actually had an old pair of leggings from my youngest sister that I cut the legs off.  I had planned to use the legs for the high "boots" that Violet wears, but SOMEBODY wanted her pink polka dot rain boots.  Oh well.

For ElastaGirl and Mr Incredible, I made the pants out of two ginormous red tshirts that were on clearance at Walmart.  My black "underwear" were from the old maternity shirt, Hubby's were a pair of black leggings that I never wear.  The legs of those leggings made my "boots" (I turned them around and used the cuff as the top so I didnt  have to add elastic.  I just had to bring it in lower on my leg, which was easy enough.)  The "boots" for hubby were the sleeves of the maternity shirt.

My shirt was a white one I've had for years and had plenty of stains.  I bought Hubby a white shirt at Walmart because I was running out of time and energy.  I dyed both mine and Hubby's, then of course painted the emblem on.  Am I forgetting anything?  Oh the yellow belt thing is knit ribbing I found at Goodwill awhile back.  I made an actual waistband for Hubby's costume using the elastic from an old pair of maternity pants, but like I said I ran out of time to do mine!

I hate looking at these pics, because of how unflattering this costume was on me!  Not that I'm gonna be too hard on myself...its kinda expected to still have a tummy less than 3 months after giving birth - especially when its your 3rd kid!

And you know, being ElastaGirl, some parts are more stretched out than others! :)

Recycled Tshirt Baby Bibs

In an attempt to whittle down stash this week, I decided to make some baby bibs from old clothes.  Here's some of my favorites:

These two are made from recycled jeans and an old polo-style tshirt from my little brother.

And, of couse, for Halloween!

I have some girly ones too, but we've been having some technical difficulties, so maybe I'll get those up a little later.

I decided to make a bunch of stuff with what I have, post it on etsy and hope it sells, and if it doesn't then at least I've got a nice stockpile of baby presents ready!

I linked up at the Show Off Your Stuff party here:

Peek-a-boo Pumpkin Trick or Treat Bag

This bag, made from black broadcloth, features an orange felt jack-o-lantern with clear vinyl eyes and mouth, so you can see your loot as you go!

I actually came up with this idea as a kid, when I was about 8.  I thought it would be so neat to see what candy I was getting.  I even tried to make something like this...with a pillowcase and Saran Wrap! 

Obviously it didnt work so well back then, but this time it turned out pretty cute  At least, my two toddlers keep fighting over who gets to carry it around, so I'd say that they like it

Recent projects

I was very impatient to get back to crafting after giving birth at the beginning of the month, so when my brother and sister-in-law were in town I admit I was looking for a reason to whip out my sewing machine again.

My first project was to make a bib for my 5-month old niece.  My crazy SIL was still using cloth bibs on this kid!  She mentioned she's been meaning to get one that wipes off nicely, so that night I pulled out this lovely:

A clearanced Easter vinyl tablecloth.  The only way you can tell it's "Easter" is the little bunny head at the top of the packaging.

After a few hours' frustration (newborns are less than understanding when you say "let me just finish this little part"), I ended up with this:

I used some bias tape to edge it, which was a pain in the rear but made it look nice.  As long as you dont look too close. :)

It has a lovely pocket in the front to catch all the falling food, and then it un-velcro's for easy cleaning!

Its not the most heavy-duty bib, I suggested it be one to just keep in the diaper bag in case you need it.  But I had all the supplies on hand, which makes it a FREE bib so I don't think anyone's complaining!

The other thing that I made was a camera strap cover as a late-birthday present for my sister-in-law.

She just got a nice digital SLR camera (I dont remember exactly which one), and she's starting to build her portfolio.  (She took pics of my kids when she was here, and they turned out GREAT!  If you're anywhere near Rexburg, ID, and need a photographer, check her out right here!)

Anyways, those camera straps can really dig into your neck, so I used a soft fuzzy fabric (not sure what its REALLY called) for the white, and then just a cotton for the design (didnt hurt that it happened to be on sale too!)

The best part is, I have enough left over to make a second cover for my new camera that is supposed to be here TOMORROW!  So I guess I better get on it and make one, huh?

Pink Lemonade dress

My little Munchkin totally made my week.

This morning she chose to wear a recycled t-shirt dress I made for her, one I like to think of as the Pink Lemonade dress.

This evening, as I was getting the kiddos ready for bed, I told her she needed to take it off and put a night shirt on.  This was her response:

(throws herself on the ground, wailing) "NO, Mommy, I love it!!!"

Who can fight with that?!  I let her go to bed in it...its stretchy, so she'll be comfy, right?

I had originally made the dress for the Great Ugly Knit Upcycle contest, but I couldnt get any good pics so I entered a different dress.  I wish I could have made this one work; the dress I entered is great, but its black so it seems very blah next to all the other fabulous entries.  These colors would have stood out much better!

Diaper Bag

(Again, sorry for the crummy pics.  Too lazy to edit them!)

I found these pants at Value Village awhile back, priced at $7 but it was a 50% off day so it cost me $3.50.  I would never, EVER wear these pants.  But for some reason I fell in love with the fabric.  The orange-ish coral design, I just couldn't get enough of it!  (Which is weird because usually I'm more into the vintage-y look.)

So I bought it.  I started thinking it would make a really neat bag; a fun, snappy accessory because I could never bear to have that fabric be an article of clothing for myself.  (Although, now that I think about it I'm pondering some cute little girl outfits I could have made out of it...oh well.)

The only type of bag I carry around these days is a DIAPER BAG.  And I'm about due for a new one, I just couldnt find one in stores that I really liked.

So, with a little help from this tutorial (found via Preser Foot) I made myself a new diaper bag! 

I made it wider than the tutorial suggested with a bit longer straps.  I also didnt use canvas/home decor fabric, so I made the lining (which was just part of a white sheet) into quilted fabric.  And I didn't put a strip of contrasting fabric along the bottom, although I did want to.  I just couldnt because the background of the orange coral fabric is actually an off-white and all my fabric was just too white. 

Like I said, the lining is made from white sheet.  I quilted it with some batting (my first time really using batting; it was interesting!).  I also added some little details inside. Like a pocket, just big enough for diapers, with the other pocket being big enough to hold things like burp clothes and stuff.

Also inside is a little zippered pouch sewn on.  (I would have just done a normal pocket, but it was a last-minute addition and this way was easier.)  I was able to use the zipper from the original pants, and some of the leftover fabric from the pants.  Waste not, want not!

The front of my bag is my favorite feature.  When I was planning my bag, I asked my friends on my family blog what they liked best about their diaper bag.  One of my friends gave me the link to her diaper bag to show me this cool pocket thing that you can slide a blanket or coat or something through for easier carrying.

This is my attempt to mimic that genius.  I wasnt feeling up to another zipper, so I just made it a little pouch that I'm hoping will be perfect to hold my cellphone and keys.  But as you can see, the blanket slides right through.  Marvelous.

And speaking of blanket, I did make a baby blanket for this next kid.  Since we dont know for sure if its a boy or girl, I tried to choose colors that could go either way, but I just cant handle the yellows and greens.  I thought this blue with a chocolate brown would look great.

Too bad Joanns didnt have any chocolate brown in the silky that I wanted, and I was too impatient to wait.  But I found a remnant of that ivory color, so at 50% off I decided it would work fine.  OF course, sewing them together was another adventure...I've never sewn with slippery fabrics much!!  I thought I pinned it enough, but it still had issues.  Oh well, the baby won't care, right?  Plus I went ahead and appliqued a butterfly on it, in hopes that I'm right and it will be a girl.  If I'm wrong, however, we have enough of the blue to make another blanket and I'll get some more silky stuff....and then give it all to my mom to sew for me!!!!



So, there you have it.  My amazing diaper bag...not really.  Everytime I look at it I see something I could have done better or differently at least.  But right now I have no inclination to fix it, so it is what it is!

Baby outfit...I hope!

First off, sorry these are kinda crummy pics.  These projects are just kind of stay-busy-so-I-dont-get-too-anxious-for-this-baby-to-come, nothing special so I'm too lazy to take the time to Photoshop them. 

I'm hoping this will fit the baby when it comes (I'm also really hoping that the baby is a GIRL, but thats another matter altogether).  I keep looking at it and thinking no way is the baby that small!  If not, I guess my daughter's doll is getting a new wardrobe.

Before - a napkin from Goodwill.  $.50 

The napkin was a little thicker and rougher than I would like, but I fell in love with the strawberry plant design.  This was the first time I tried using elastic thread, and it was ...interesting.  If it had been different fabric it would have worked better I think.  (Plus it probably should have been a little wider, but I didnt want to piece in any fabric.)  As it is, I'm still in love.  My husband keeps saying how "adorable" it is!

Can I just say, my sewing machine does NOT like to applique?!  I had SO MANY issues trying to applique that little scrap onto the onesie - and I tried all the tips I could think of.  Iron-on interfacing, fabric underneath, paper on top...still it looks pretty crummy.  And its not centered, but at that point I really didn't care.  I just wanted to be DONE.

And the long strip is hopefully going to be a headband -I'm just waiting to see how big the baby's head is before I add elastic.  (My kids tend to be big but have small heads.)