Re-fashion Sweater

I've been holding on to this black cardigan for the past few years and I'm not sure why.  It looks terrible on me.  This past week I decided I'd cut it down to size for my 4 year old daughter.  It turns out it looks much cuter on her!
It's a very easy project, so if you have an old sweater or cardigan hanging around go get it. 

To get the measurements I used a jacket of my daughter's to pattern the size. Then I cut out the pieces and sewed them back together.

The tricky part for me was the neckline, but luckily my mom helped me with that part.  She just pinned it with her wearing it and then sewed it in place.

SYTYC Blog Spotlight

Today I'm featuring another wonderful lady from SYTYC - Season 5.

Heidi @ Made by Heidi

Hi! I’m Heidi and I happen to LOVE crafting. Seriously, it’s my Achilles heel… I love photography, paper crafts, sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc. I’m originally from Utah but have lived on the east coast for almost 8 years. My husband and I met and married in Utah, moved to Manhattan in 2003 and lived there until my husband decided to go back to school. We have 2 little girls and they happen to be the best things that have ever happened to me. I’m so excited that we will be graduating next year! Crafting on a student budget (no money!) has been difficult but it’s also forced me to think outside of the box in terms of what I can create. Don’t get me wrong, it will be great to have money again!   So excited for this season! Thanks!
Heidi blogs at Made by Heidi

Heidi’s Crafts:

Dressed Up Furniture

This Friday I found a design company out of Korea that made this fun furniture line called "Dressed Up Furniture".  Their concept was to combine clothing with furniture.  Looks pretty cozy!  I adore the little stools with the buttons.  Click here to see more designs from Kam-Kam. 

Valentine's

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and I've been trying to come up with a creative Valentine for the kids in my daughter's class.  I was browsing at Target and came across these colorful bubble containers. You can't go wrong with bubbles.  I dressed it up with a heart shaped tag and ribbon.

Elmo Thank You Card

I've been meaning to post the thank you cards I made a few weeks back.  I can't tell you how much I love my Cricut. You can really do some cool things with it. My son had an Elmo birthday party I wanted to use Elmo for the thank you cards. I use the Sure Cuts A Lot program with my Cricut and it gives me the ability to cut out anything I want.  Then I found this great blog that has a wonderful library of svg's.  This is where I downloaded the Elmo for my card.

SYTYC Blog Spotlight

This week I'm featuring Chica and Jo from SYTYC - Season 5.  These ladies made it to the top 3.  Fantastic projects.

Chica and Jo

Hi everybody.  We are Chica and Jo!  We are family-oriented,
fun-loving women who enjoy life to the fullest, and our favorite way
to do that is through crafts.
We attribute our craftiness to our creative minds and our clever
solutions to everyday problems. Some of these solutions are quick and
easy and help us save time. Sometimes they are affordable alternatives
that save us money. Sometimes we come up with neat ways to track and
organize things in our lives, so that we can focus on the important
things. Then there are the times where we do outlandish things simply
because we can and we want to. But no matter what the purpose, the
outcome is always crafty and our friends can’t stop talking about it.
We started ChicaAndJo.com so that we could share our ideas with the
world, one crafter at a time.  Our mission is to inspire you. We want
to give you ideas and guidance, and maybe help you think of unusual
solutions to common problems. We want to help you use your creative
side and “wow” your friends with some clever solutions of your own.
Visit us whenever you need party ideas, recipes, kids’ crafts, wedding
projects, sewing patterns, or advice and inspiration.  Our hundreds of
free tutorials loaded with photos and video make us your ultimate
online guides for all things crafty!

Chica & Jo Crafts:

Faux Roman Shade

 As promised, I have a picture of my new faux roman shade.  I opted for the center pull look instead of the tails. I'm not sure if it was because I wanted it to be higher up and it just wasn't working for me.  Here is a picture of what I originally wanted to do, but as seen in my previous post, it looked nothing like this.

This is why sewing window treatments make me crazy.  I can't tell you how long I stood in the bathroom trying to make the curtain work when it wouldn't.  I scrapped it and made one that was much longer so I'd have a little more fabric to play with and could have a few different options.  After polling the household (my husband, 4 year old daughter, 1 year old son and our 2 dogs) the consensus was to go with the center pull roman shade.  Phew, that's done.  Thankfully, I had plenty of the Marimekko fabric leftover to make a second one after I messed up the first curtain.

Project Flop

I've been staying on task in getting some of my projects around the house knocked out each week.  This week I've been working on a little curtain for my bathroom.  You wouldn't believe how long I've been working on it for as small as it is.  I can't seem to get it to look right.  I think I've finally got it figured out, but I'd thought I'd show you my project flop.  I was trying for a faux roman shade with tails, but this is what it turned out like.  I ended up changing it and will show you what it looks like tomorrow. 

New Painting

Over the weekend I finished up a painting for a friend's baby.  I don't get to do enough paintings for baby boys and I thought this one turned out pretty adorable.

SYTYC - Blog Spotlight

Today I'm featuring Ashley from Simply Designing, a fellow interior designer that I competed with on So You Think You're Crafty.

Ashley @ Simply Designing

I am so excited to be part of So You Think You’re Crafty’s Season 5!

I am Ashley, the face and voice behind Simply Designing.

I am fairly new to blogland but am loving every minute of it!  I am an interior designer and a floral designer.  I own my own business.

I love to dabble in home decor, seasonal decor, interior design, crafts, floral design, baby / child items, very occasional sewing, lots of baking, cake decorating and a variety of other things.  I also host a weekly Friday link-up party on my blog.

I love finding ways to make my life more SIMPLE!

I enjoy keeping busy and I have a list a mile long of “projects” I want to do.  And I love posting about my projects on my blog!

In addition, I am a wife to a wonderful husband for 9.5 years, and a mom of a 4 year old spunky little girl and a sweet cuddly 7 month old little boy!  So much fun!

Thank you so much for letting me come and participate in this wonderful competition!  I am so excited to be here!

Ashley’s Crafts:

Stools

It's Friday and I found another fabulous piece of furniture.  I love the texture on these stools. They are designed by Claire-anne O'Brien in London. If you'd like to see other work by her, click here.

Simple Furniture Fix

Another little thing accomplished in my bedroom.  I bought the Hopen dresser at Ikea about 5 or 6 years ago because I liked the way it looked. Nice, right?

Except this is what it looks like once you put clothes in it. Not exactly what I want it to look like.  I guess they didn't think anyone would actually put clothes in it.

So, I finally have a fix for it and it was so simple and cheap.  Another moment where I thought, why didn't I do this sooner?  All it took was poster board cut into strips.  I found a poster board that was a silver/gray color.  It looks more like the first picture, right?

Elmo Shirt

I wanted to show you the onesie I made for my son for his birthday.  His birthday is very close to Christmas and my goal each year is to make sure he gets the attention he deserves for his birthday.  Everyone that I've ever talked to that has a birthday close to Christmas hates it.  For his 1st birthday we gave it an Elmo theme.  I made the onesie with small pieces of knit fabric in the colors, red, yellow, black, and white. I found a onesie at Target and sewed them on to resemble Elmo.  I was happy to hear my sister ask me where I bought his shirt.  He looked so cute in it!

Lion Painting

I finished this painting before Christmas and didn't have a chance to post it up on my blog.  I love how it turned out and wanted to show you all.  I'm starting a new painting tonight for another cute little boy. 

SYTYC - Blog Spotlight

I am doing a spotlight of all the lovely ladies that I competed with on SYTYC, Season 5.  This week it is Angie from The Country Chic.

Angie @ The Country Chic Cottage

I am a full time working wife and mother to three great kids! Plus I blog and have a shop on etsy. Boy I must be crazy! Actually I started blogging after a new year’s resolution to spruce up my home. Blogging keeps me following that resolution. When over 1,000 people are waiting for you to post your next home decor or crafty item you tend to get it done! The etsy shop naturally followed. And heck I am not going to get rich from it but it is a place to share what I enjoy…thrifting and crafting! The other day I stepped back and looked around my home…ya know what? In the past year, I have made some really great changes. It happens slowly and on a tight budget, but it is happening. If I can share with my readers how to do that in their home, I have succeeded! Mission accomplished. And at the end of the day, the blog and etsy shop make momma happy…and when momma’s happy, everyone is happy! Come on over for a visit at The Country Chic Cottage!

*Learn more about Angie in her interview*

Angie’s Crafts:

 

Balloon Wreath

We received a fantastic balloon wreath for my son's birthday.  It was made by my cousin's wife who is a very talented and crafty lady.  It is such a cool idea and she found it on a blog.  I'm not sure if this is the blog, but at howdoesshe.com has instructions on how to make this fantastic wreath. My daughter is pretty excited to use it for her birthday too.  I just love it. 

Resolutions

Now that it's a New Year I started thinking about some resolutions that I would like to have this year. My first resolution is to get my bedroom draperies done.  I've had the fabric sitting on a roll in the corner of my bedroom for a year and a half, maybe longer.  I had been putting it off because I wasn't sure what style I wanted and if I wanted to use that fabric, etc.  Seriously though, my mom was doubting that I have a degree in Interior Design since I was so clueless as to what I wanted for window treatments.  :)  I'm not sure what took me so long.  I think I was waiting for the sewing fairy to sew them up for me.  I worked on them this weekend and I have to say I love them.  My bedroom is starting to look like a real bedroom rather than a prison cell.  My bedroom is the last room that I spend money on and it really is depressing.  So, I'm making it my mission this year to make it beautiful and to finish up window treatments in some of my other rooms.  My other resolution is to get some pictures printed and start working on the kids' scrapbooks.  I did place an order for pictures today for almost 300 pictures.  Good grief, I haven't printed pictures in ages and I'm sure there are more on the computer that I need to print out.  Aaack.
So, I can show you that I got one thing checked off my list, here are my bedroom drapes.

 

Child size oven mitts

 
Now I'm not recommending you put your kiddo to work in the kitchen with these oven mitts, but they make a great addition to any play kitchen.  This year for Christmas I made my niece an apron and chef hat.  After I sewed that up I thought some oven mitts would be fun too.  Really easy and they turned out super cute.


I first cut out the material in the shape of an oven mitt.  Since there were some requests.  I've gone ahead and added the pattern of the oven mitt.

Child Size Oven Mitt Pattern


Then, I used a triangle to draw lines out on the oven mitt for me to sew. 

Next I cut out a piece of batting and white muslin in the same shape.  Sandwich the batting between the patterned fabric and muslin and pin in place.

Sew on the lines to give it a quilted look. 

Repeat this for the other side of the oven mitt.  Pin right sides together and sew around the edge leaving the bottom open.  Turn right side out and finish the raw edges of the opening with a piece of bias tape along the bottom.

Here is the apron that I made to match and the little cutie modeling her new cooking ensemble.