Vintage apron remake #1

Remember the vintage aprons I was going to take and make more modern?  Here's the first one...

I took this as inspiration from one of my favorites, Anthropologie. 

And this is what I made...

No, I'm not really a model.  Or a photographer.  I'm just awesome like that.

I dug through my vintage trims and ric rac and found some really great matches.

I hope you like it, Ally!  Enjoy when it gets there!  I'll be sharing the other soon.

Happy Friday

There's plenty of Valentine crafting going on around here. 

And there will be plenty to share...soon. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Pretty alternative to ribbon

Ever since I got this bad boy for Christmas, I've been serging anything standing still. 

So while I was working on some pillowcases last night, I started in on some long strips of scraps.  I'm so glad I did...I discovered a fun alternative to ribbon to dress things up.

Project 365

 

So I guess now there's no hiding I have a real, honest-to-goodness, little kid.

When did that happen?

Madras toddler belt

I found some awesome madras fabric last year that I thought I would make into pants for my boys.  It hasn't moved off the shelf since, so a cute belt is the next best thing. 

First, I measured the waist of my perfectly still 3 year old a pair of pants that fit him without falling down.  I added about 6 inches for sewing and the necessary excess to tighten it once he's wearing it. 

I bought 7/8" D-rings, so I cut a strip of fabric 3 1/2 inches wide.  If you use a different size ring, of course change the thickness.  My formula is 4 times the width of your D-rings.   (7/8" x 4 = 3 1/2") 

Fold the strip in half longways, wrong sides together, and iron.  Please don't be jealous of my totally awesome ironing board cover.

Open the strip, right side down.  Then iron the raw sides of the strip in towards the middle crease you made. 

Fold on the middle crease and iron again.

You should have a long strip with all the raw edges inside.

Topstich along each edge.

I serged each end.  This isn't necessary, but sure is fun when you just got a serger for Christmas.  Tucking under the ends and sewing them works just fine.

Thread one end of the belt through both of the D rings, fold over, and sew.  I triple stitch, for stability.

That's it.  No more "Pants on the Ground."

 And I feel a little silly writing this, and have typed and deleted it five times already...but since it happened recently...please don't sell the stuff I show you how to make.  It's not very nice.

Alphabet beanbags

I made alphabet beanbags for my boys yesterday afternoon. 

I got the idea here, but changed a couple things like the size and my own stencils.  They were fun and easy to make...my favorite kind of project.

But they're even more fun for playing.

And you know a project was a good one when even your scraps are pretty.  How much of a freak am I that I stood and looked at these debating whether or not I should throw them out? 

(I did...  Eventually.)

The Love Shack

Do you have a ton of gingerbread dough left over from Christmas?  Ya, me too.  (Does anyone actually eat the gingerbread cookies?)

So rather than toss it out, we baked it into a Valentine-inspired gingerbread house.

I made my own templates out of a cereal box bound for the recycling. 

I rolled out the dough, traced and cut the pieces and then I baked them.  I let them sit for a few days so they would dry out and be a little sturdier.

A little hot glue later, we put all the pink, red and white candy we could find on it.