Shirt Protectors (and a little catch-up!)

It appears that December got the best of me.

Even though I hardly posted, I certainly did craft...but mostly Christmas presents, which of course I couldnt show!  I'm still finishing a few up - thank goodness for an understanding sister-in-law!  I'll hopefully show all that stuff later.

I do want to say THANK YOU to everyone that voted for me in the Fireflies & Jellybeans Iron Crafter: Clothespins contest. 

I won!  Woo Hoo!  Totally made my day week YEAR!

(I know it says "sweaters", but it really was for the clothespin round...)

And now, on to the good stuff....

I've made a goal for myself this year to post at least one project per week.  This week's project is

Shirt Protectors.

So, maybe this looks like just an oversized bib to you.

That's because it is.

This was my inspiration:

My mom made this for my dad years ago, from the fabric leftover from making him a dress shirt.

But, according to my dad, REAL men dont wear bibs.

They wear Shirt Protectors.

My husband is in desperate need of a shirt protector.  Despite his best efforts, he always manages to get food on his shirt. 

And I strongly dislike spending hours trying to get stains out.

So, I took one of his VERY old t-shirts

(this one saw me through 3 pregnancies, plus the 10 years that my husband wore it) and upcycled it!

It was so easy - I'll show you how:

First, you're going to cut up the shirt.  (If your man's pretty attached to the shirt, you might want to make sure he's not in the room.  My husband almost had a panic attack, even though he had already given the shirt to me to use.)

*I was cutting this out while trying to play Dominoes with my in-laws, so in my haste to keep running back to the game apparently I didnt take pictures of everything.  I'll make do with what I have, but if you have any questions PLEASE ask!*

 

Cut off both sleeves.

Cut off the collar by cutting horizontally right below the front of the collar.  (See where the dotted line is?)  You should be cutting both the front and the back of the shirt at the same time, so that they'll be the same shape.

 

 

 

Cut off the bottom - with a rotary cutter if you have one.  (You'll use this for the ties.)  I would cut at least 2 inches off; for this one I cut 3 and it made pretty wide ties.

Round the bottom corners.  I used a bowl as a guide.

Next, you're going to taper the sides in just a bit.  The top should be just a few inches shorter than the bottom, looking something like this:

With RIGHT SIDES together, you are going to stitch around the outside(the dotted black line below), leaving the straight top unstitched.

Turn right side out.

Press (or be lazy like me and skip it, but get some funky wrinkles when you're done ;) ) and topstitch around the outside edge only.

Now you're going to gather that straight top edge. 

Set your sewing machine to the longest stitch, and increase your tension (I took mine all the way up to 9, the highest it goes).

Stitch across the top edge, making sure NOT to backstitch when you start or finish.  Your machine should gather it as you sew.

*note: this t-shirt was pretty thread-bare from lots of use.  When I made one with a newer, and slightly thicker, t-shirt it didnt really gather.  I just grabbed a thread from one end and manually gathered it, although I think if I had tried to gather the two layers seperately they probably would have been okay.

Now you're going to add the tie.

Take the piece you cut off the bottom (it should be kind of a loop), and cut it so its one long strip.  If your shirt had side seams, just cut along one of the seams.

Lay the strip with the WRONG SIDE up and the hem of the t-shirt at the top.

Place the shirt protector on the strip, centered, so that the straight gathered top hits right below the hem (top picture below).

Fold the strip over, so the hem is now on top of the gathering, with the right side facing you (bottom picture below).

Pin the strip in place, along the entire strip as well as the gathering of the shirt protector.

Starting at one end of the tie, stitch along the lower edge.  Go slow over the gathering, and make sure that you are catching the back of the strip/tie too.  (Thats why I suggested cutting at least 2 inches off the bottom, so you have plenty of fabric to sew on.  And if you used a rotary cutter you will have a nice clean edge on the back.)  You will have a raw edge on the back of the tie, and on the ends (unless you think to tuck them in before you sew, which I didnt) but with a T Shirt thats okay because it wont unravel.  It might curl a little with washing, but I think it'll look just fine.

And you're done!

It was kind of hard to get a decent pic of the shirt protector, because the gathering makes it look funny when its laying flat.  But it does a great job of keep food off my husband's shirt, so thats all that matters, right?!

***I've got a few other projects that I hope to post this week or maybe early next week, and they're pretty neat if I do say so myself, so if you dont want to miss them you can enter your email address at the top of the blog (to the right) and you'll get an email every day that I post something!***

Top 10 - I mean 5!

You're probably getting sick of hearing me say this, but head on over to Fireflies and Jellybeans to vote for you favorite project!

My Butterfly Mobile made the top 5 (usually they choose 10, but they went with 5 this time)...but I really think you should head on over there just to look at the other projects.  Seriously, they are SO creative!

Reindeer Bib

A spin on the old trace-your-hands-and-turn-it-into-a-reindeer-picture...my Monkey is always in need of bibs, so why not a festive one?

The front is vintage cordouroy, the back is a white T-shirt, and the reindeer is made from various scraps I had laying around.

I even handstitched his name and the year on the back, so I can remember which kid this was actually for!

(Showing this totally goes against the whole "code name" thing...hmmm.  Too late now.)

I think he likes it.  At least, he's always trying to eat it!

/

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?!

Why I'm a terrible blogger lately...

I've got a few projects I keep planning to post about, but a couple things keep getting in the way like...

1. SNOW.

 Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've been getting hit with some pretty strong winter storms.  In Eastern Washington, where I live, it seems especially bad because we NEVER get this much snow (technically its a desert here - thanks to that lovely Rainshadow Effect) and never in November!  When this pic was taken yesterday, we had about 4 inches.  It continued snowing most of the day yesterday - I think I heard we ended up with about a foot.  I dont dare look at the weather forecast anymore...since my husband's a Driving Instructor, I'd just rather not know.  Driving with 15 year olds is bad enough...driving with 15 year olds who have never driven on snow before is even worse!

Anyways, so we've been spending a lot of time in the snow, which I'm not a huge fan of because its cold and wet and a huge mess to clean up afterwards...but we get a little Cabin Fever going on if we stay inside all day long.  And I need all the sanity I can get!

(And, in case you're wondering, that is my Monster in the pic above, who does happen to be a boy.  I just put off pulling out our winter gear this year, and when I did I realized he's too big for the coat he wore last year, and too small for the next hand-me-down I have for him.  So he's wearing purple...and a flower hat because its the only one he'll leave on his head.  Seriously...I made him one pretty much the same style just more boyish, but he always rips it right off.  Which is why its now in my Etsy shop.)

(Caught this snowflake on the t-shirt I used to cover my camera...I dont think I've ever actually seen a "traditional" snowflake like this!!! )

B.  ETSY SHOP.

I've been sewing like a lunatic, trying to stock up my etsy shop because I have a spot reserved in the Somewhat Simple Studio Boutique!  So, on Friday morning make sure to check out Somewhat Simple to see all the fun shops and the discounts they're offering!

My shop, Loved Anew Creations, is under "Baby/Kids" and you'll find a code there to use to get 15% off your order!

PLUS...if you mention in the "message to seller" at checkout that you read my blog (you don't have to be a follower, although thats always nice...I'll just take your word for it!) you'll get a FREE GIFT too!

I'll post more on this Friday morning, I hope, because I've got to get my rear in gear and get back to work!



OH!  One more thing I forgot...
I joined a Holiday Craft Swap over at the Tshirt Diaries...because I love getting packages in the mail, and I love making things for others!  If you want to join too, click the button below...you have until Dec 4th to join!

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.

Iron Crafter Top 10!!

I remember back in college I was astounded by the fact that there was an entire TV station dedicated to FOOD.  No, I didnt live in a cave before then...we just didnt have cable.  And considering how much time my roommate and I spent watching the Food network, I'm glad we didnt have cable - I would have been a hermit!

Anyways, one of our favorite shows was Iron Chef America.  One of the Iron Chefs would face off against a challenging chef and they would have one hour to use a secret ingredient to make all these courses.

The excitement of not knowing what they have to use, and the challenge of using it to create within a short time frame is what hooked me.

Which is EXACTLY why I'm so hooked on Fireflies and Jellybeans' monthly Iron Crafter competition!  I entered my Toddler friendly "Board" game using Paint chips back in August and made the top 10. 

This month's secret ingredient was sweaters, which happens to be my current obsession!  I entered my Wool Sweater slippers and guess what...I MADE THE TOP 10!!



Now its up to everyone out there who wins this contest...go and vote for your favorite (it doesnt have to be mine although I would LOVE as many votes as possible!  But there are plenty of other cute ideas to choose from).  Just click on the link above, and then click on the star underneath the project you want to vote for...you can vote once, and voting closes on Friday.

Go check it out!