Yeehaw, It's Rodeo Time!

Here in Houston we devote almost an entire month to the rodeo.  Even my daughter's preschool has a Rodeo Day.  This year my daughter wanted to have chaps that look like Jessie's from Toy Story for Rodeo Day. 

They were not as hard as you'd think.  I used her jeans to make the pattern.  Lay the jeans down on craft paper or tracing paper and draw out the design.  Don't forget the back of the chaps.  You will need to add a little extra all the way around for hemming.  Also, add enough at the top so that you can fold it over to make a tab.  This will be used to attach the chaps through a belt. The picture below shows the basic shape of one leg.  You will need to cut 2 pieces like this.

 Measure the waist to make a belt.  Allow for extra length. 

The last part of the pattern you will need are small strips that you will use as ties to tie the front and back of the chaps together.  I cut out 8 ties to make a total of 2 places on each leg to tie them in place.
First, you will hem all around the pieces that will go on the legs.  Then you will take the piece for the belt and fold in half with right sides together and sew the edge shut. 

Turn right side out and turn end in and sew shut.  I went ahead and top stitched the belt. 
Now you need to make the tabs for the chaps.  At the top of the chap turn down enough so that the belt goes through and that it fits in the right places. 

After this is complete I added the ties on to the sides of the chaps to keep them closed.  To construct the ties, cut 4 pieces per leg.  Fold in half with right sides together and sew.  Turn right side out and turn end in and sew shut.  Now you will sew them on to the chaps.  I placed them at the top and the knee.

 

Use the belt to loop through the jeans and the chaps.  I tied the belt in place, but you could add a piece of velcro or use D rings.   

 

Tie them on to the legs and your child will be ready for the rodeo. Giddy up horsey. 

SYTYC - Blog Spotlight

I'm a week behind on my blog spotlighting from SYTYC.  This week I'm spotlighting the winners of SYTYC, Season 5, KoJo Designs.

We are Kirstin and Jordan, sisters who blog over at kojodesigns.  We’re both stay at home mama’s… Kirstin has a 2 year old, Burke, and a newborn baby, Piper Jane, and Jordan has two little girls, Keadryn (3) and Sayla (2), and she’s due with Number Three (another sweet baby girl!) in February.

Pretty much, we love to make things… We have slight addictions to pretty paper and fabric, love nothing more than putting together a kickin’ party or shower, and both still subscribe to Martha Stewart Weddings even though we’ve each been married for 7+ years- haha!  .

Other fun facts about us- Jordan loves salty treats, Kirst loves sweets, Kirstin’s favorite season is summer and Jord’s is winter, Jord would live in a hoodie and jeans if she could, Kirstin would wear a sundress every day if the weather permitted. In our pre-baby lives Kirstin taught elementary school in the ghetto and Jord gallivanted around the world, living in exotic places and learning Spanish and Arabic.  Oh, and we both LOVE travelling, Jesus, dark chocolate, happy hour at Sonic and being in the mountains.

Check them out at KoJo Designs.

KoJo Designs Crafts:

Prickly Pair Chair

Here's an interesting looking chair for this Friday.  The Prickly Pair chair was designed by Valentina Gonzalez Wholers.  The chair is a blend of Mexican and European design aesthetics.  Valentina describes them as, "frivolous and humorous yet simultaneously encourage reflection and acceptance". To see more furniture that she has designed click here.

Skinny kid - Part 2

I showed you how I lengthened my daughter's pants because she grows in length faster than anything, but now I'm going to show you how I adjust her waistband.  If I buy her the size pants that fit her in length they will inevitably fall right off of her waist to the floor.  Recently, we went shopping for athletic shorts for soccer and I bought the extra small and of course when she tried them on they fell right off.  Poor thing, what a curse to have, haha.
I fixed them by putting two darts in the back of her waistband.  This is beyond easy.  Why mess with putting safety pins in when you can just fix it for good.  The easiest way is to turn the pants inside out and have them try them on.  Then pinch in two places on the backside of the waist.  I usually do it about an inch and half from the middle seam on either side.

Now just sew it closed.

You will need to make sure you angle it.  Here's a picture showing the angle with the contrasting thread.

Now we are ready for some soccer!

President's Day Hats

Here is a fun kid's craft for President's day.  My daughter came home from preschool last week with a George Washington hat and I thought it would be fun to make an Abraham Lincoln hat.  Here she is in her George Washington hat.

To make the Abraham Lincoln hat all you need is black construction paper, a paper plate, tape and glue.  I used black paper plates since I had them on hand, but you could use white and paint it black.  Cut a hole out the center of the plate to fit your child's head. 

Next tape two pieces of construction paper together, lengthwise.  I used 3 pieces of construction paper and taped them all together to form a tube.

Now you need the glue to attach the construction paper tube to the paper plate.

 

Trying to keep the hat balanced on her head.  

My daughter thought our dog needed to try on the hat as well.   

Striped Tubes

Today I found a designer out of The Netherlands named, Bertjan Pot.  He designed these really cool striped tube lighting for his own house.  I think they are great and love the colors.  To see more of his designs, click here.

Adding length

I'm sure my daughter isn't the only one who outgrows the length of her pants before the waist.  It always seems to happen right around this time of the year.  I need the pants to last just a bit longer before it's shorts weather.  I've come up with a solution that you can change out to coordinate with outfits instead of attach permanently.

I found a pair of jeans that were too short to add the length to it.  I thought it would be nice to be able to swap colors out on it.  My model was asleep by the time I finished this set.

All it takes is a little bit of fabric and velcro to make this happen.  I attached the velcro to the inside of the bottom leg of the pant.  I used the loop side for the pants and the hook side for the fabric strips.

I cut out two strips with the right length that needed to be added to the pants. Sew a hem on all sides of the fabric. I also went ahead and sewed a coordinating ribbon on at this time too.

Next you baste the fabric so that it can be gathered to fit the leg of the pant.

Once I figured out the right size I sewed the hook side of the velcro on to the fabric.  Now it can be velcroed on to the pants and you can get those jeans to last a little longer.

The Aftermath

Well, our house survived the recent foundation overhaul.  It has left behind some big weekend projects, but I'm sure we will get them fixed in time.  Here's what we've been left with to fix. New flooring will need to be installed in my kitchen as you can see from the picture below.

Here's my laundry room.  New flooring will go in here too.

Here is my living room floor.  We just took the carpet and threw it back over so it looks nice and wrinkly.  My daughter wanted to know who cut our carpet, I had a hard time explaining that it was a seam to our carpet.

And of course there are cracks all over the house that will need to be patched and painted.

 

 Now on to the latest home repair project, re-tiling our entry way.  This is the before picture.  Beautiful 1970's tile.  I think it was time for a change and it needed it since we had that gorgeous concrete patch there.

After the tile was removed with the hammer drill.  I love this tool. If we didn't have one, then I would definitely want one.  It made taking tile out a snap.

Next step was to put down the self leveler. Here's my hard working husband putting it down.

Here's the start of putting in the new tile.  My dad and husband started putting this down this weekend.  I'm almost positive my husband was cursing me under his breath about the tile pattern.  It wouldn't be a problem except the smaller tiles are not the same thickness as the bigger tiles.  Hopefully, we will get it done to show you after pictures next week.