Another cute Buttercup Bag for the shop!

Awesome Buttercup Bag! Victorian Romance light blue design with an amazing pink mural-like lining. The mural-like pictures are of children playing in a long ago era. Bag has pink stitching and pink piping that really compliments the light blue! I really love this purse and I loved seeing how it came together! (this one has a zipper inside too).

check it out in the Etsy shop by going to the "Etsy" tab at the top of the page. Or click here

Feather Your Nest Challenge - Tee to pillow

All week I've been wanting to do something for the Feather Your Nest Challenge over at Stumbles & Stitches; I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I've been trying to decorate my living room in a woodsy, whimsical, owl-y theme and I couldn't find any pillows I liked to match it.  I remembered an old T shirt of mine that I loved and wanted something similar for the living room.  Then I realized, why not make the shirt into a pillow!  It took me a little bit to find where and how I wanted to cut it, and place the zipper into it.  But I like the end result, it fits my living room perfectly! (sorry for the 1/2 pic of the actual tee, it was the only picture I could find of me wearing it... back in 2008).

New item in the shop!

I wanted to fully participate in the KCWC over at elsie marley but I also wanted to finally get something in my Etsy shop.  I have all these creative juices flowing in my head, tons of fabric flowing all over my spare room, and I needed to have it all come together.  Well I settled down and got focused!  I have 3 medium Buttercup bags that I wanted to finish and get into my Etsy shop.  I finished one today and added it!  You can see how cute it turned out!  I can't wait to get the other two done!

Interested in purchasing this little beauty?  Click on the "Etsy Shop" tab on top of the page and head over there :-)

Now I'm off to start a 20 page paper on Ethics :( boo and bake some cookies for my daughter's school bake sale. 

Upcycle; Dad's old Tee turns into Son's favorite new sleep shorts!

Mr. T was getting a bit down that his sister was receiving all the fun sewing things.  I started making him flannel pj's for summer (shorts and short sleeves of course), but I started the project, and then stopped.  I seem to be doing that lately.  Maybe it's because my mind is everywhere this month.  With my husband's finals arriving he is stressed out and I'm in the middle of a very intensive class myself.  I'll be glad when the end of May comes and things settle into lazy summer days here at home.  This will be my first ever summer home with the kids!  I'm actually really excited and have some things planned already.  Anyway, back to the Upcycle.  My husband has two T-shirts that are really old and no longer fit.  They are so soft from being worn so much.  I thought it was a shame to throw them out but they had holes in the armpits.  Then I realized I could make a cute pair of shorts out of the shirts for Mr. T! He loves all things soft and fuzzy.
It was so slick and fast that I didn't realize how easy it would be!  I think I'll browse my husband's closet when he leaves today for some old shirts without his knowledge!!! shhhhh.
The XL Tee worked perfectly.  I laid the shirt out as below.

The pattern is from Simplicity 2046 and is just one piece.  I had  already made Mr. T's flannel shorts out of it and they fit him perfectly.  The pattern actually fit the XL Tee just right.  YAY!
So I cut out the pattern and whipped it up in about 45 minutes.  Mr. T wore them all night long.  He was loving them!!!

So Dad's old shirts have found new life in our house, which is pretty cool! (PS. Mr. T hardly ever wears a shirt.....).  I dig the contrasting white thread to the navy shirt too!

Buttercup Bag!

I initially printed off the free pattern (at made by rae) for this amazing purse but then fell so much in love with it and how fun it was to make that I went back and bought the pattern and license to sell them!  I'm super pumped about making my mom one for mother's day!!  I plan on having some piping on it though.

I really dig this fabric, it is so cute and spring-like!  This was made with the free pattern so it is the smaller version (my 6 yr old, Miss K. claimed it already).  I'm excited to make the large one now!
I was very happy with the medium weight interfacing that I used for the outer shell.  It makes the purse so much more durable and less floppy :-)

Thanks so much Made by Rae!!! I LOVE THIS!

Cute Spring Outfit for Miss K!

Have you ever started a project and then didn't really feel like finishing it?  That's how I felt about this pattern and outfit.  Don't get me wrong, I love the fabric completely and I had amazing visions in my head; however, I just didn't feel like sewing this one up.  The pattern was a Butterick B4176 and the directions were lackluster.  I really just winged it the whole time.  The most time consuming part was the bias tape around the whole thing.  I would have had Miss K model it for you..... but she isn't really digging the outfit.  Which is sad because now that it is finished it is so adorable! I'm proud of myself for muddeling through and finishing it.  Embarassingly it took about a week to do because I kept stopping and only doing little parts at a time. 
So have you ever started a project you didn't want to finish?

How to Make Skinny Curtain Ties (with Velcro)

 1. Use a fabric tape measure to measure around the curtain to the length you need and add 1 inch (I'm using a vibrant green duck fabric from Hancock Fabrics)
2.  Cut out two rectangles out of your fabric.  I used a width of 4 which gave me a finished width of 1 inch. The length I came up with was 11 inches (which is 10 inches in finished width).
3.  Press both flat.
5.  Fold 1/2 inch in on both 4 inch ends and sew (like making a hem-- you can choose to skip the sewing of this part if you do not want the extra lines on the box pattern for the velcro.  I liked the pattern it made.  If skipping, simply press 1/2 inch in on both of the ends and then fold and topstich)

6. Then fold each rectangle in half(bringing long sides together) as shown below so that you have a long strip; Press

7.  Open what you have just pressed above and fold in the top side to the middle line (that you made by pressing) and then the bottom side to the middle line you made as shown below. Press

 8.  Next fold top to bottom and topstich all the way around the entire strip.

9. Place a piece of Velcro on top side of one piece and the alternating bottom side of the same piece. This way when wrapped around the Velcro meets each other as shown below. sew around entire piece of Velcro

 10. This is the cute square pattern you will have when you have finished
 11. Hang on curtains as shown below!  See that wasn't so hard!  Now since they are Velcro they hold tight and you can make as many as you want to change them out!

To keep them secured when not in use I used a piece of the soft fuzzy circle Velcro that adheres to fabric with no sewing.  I placed this soft fuzzy circle on the backside of my curtain and then I just hang the one sticky piece of Velcro to that each night.  They stay behind the curtain and thus are not visible! :)  Enjoy!

Happy Easter! Meet the girl bunny puppet!

So Easter is here and my kids are at Grandpa's.  I totally forgot about Easter Bunny stuff when I agreed to let them spend the night! What was I thinking!! Oh well, I figure the Bunny can hide their stuff before they get back home tonight. 
Fast forward to today at noon when I realize I haven't made girl bunny hand puppet yet!!!!!!!! Yikes!  Panic sets in.  Scramble to find all pieces and start to whip her up.  Only took 20 minutes as sweat was beading on my forehead.  I could just picture Miss K, apple of my eye, crying HER eyes out because Mr. T had an adorable puppet and she didn't.  Sigh.

Crisis averted, Girl Bunny Puppet made and I even added a cute pink bow.  What do you think?
I'm loving her!!  Template and all credit for the design goes to The Purl Bee

I had the Easter Bunny type up a cute rhyming letter for the kids and somehow a carrot ended up on the floor by the letter. Oh my! and Easter grass is trailing through the house... did the Bunny sneak into our house?? lol.  :)

Happy Easter to you all!

Easter Bunny Puppets!

Easter time is so fun!  I had my eye on these ADORABLE BUNNY puppets for the last 2 weeks and I was just dying to make some!  I jumped on my favorite fabric site and ordered the materials quick!  They arrived today and I quick made a bunny.  I am planning on putting these in my kids Easter baskets on Sunday!!! I can't wait to see their faces! :)  How cute is this little guy? (apologize for the crazy picture but he is in hiding in the spare bedroom so my kids don't see him).

Want to make some of your own?  They are fast and fun!  Head over to The Purl Bee and get the pattern and instructions!!!

Easter Dress

Miss K grabbed this fabric the last time we were at the store for her Easter dress.  She is starting to love fabric almost as much as I do!  Now that my serger is here I've been going crazy with it.  I love it so much! 
I used Simplicity's pattern 2377; fabric and ribbon are from Hancock Fabrics.
In hindsight I should have used a solid color for the chest but it's still ok.  Miss K has already put it on and twirled around the house in it :)

Plastic grocery bag holder ~ fyi I love mushrooms!

I've been wanting one of these plastic bag holders for a long time now.  I was growing tired of the pile of bags in a corner of my computer room.  On one of my late night browsing sessions I came across this ADORABLE bag.  I quick buzzed over to Great deals from Fabric.com! Click here and grabbed some fabric (which I'd been eyeing).  My serger came last week and I thought it would be a great project to start with on it!

When I first read the directions I was overwhelmed but as I did each step, it was SO EASY to make!  I love how it turned out too!  What do you think?  It matches my kitchen perfectly!

I can't wait to make my mom one now!  I did end up having the circumference a bit smaller because halfway through the bag I had a runaway serger incident!  It was bad.  I've learned my lesson not to chain off on the serger when I'm not paying attention.......  However, the bag still turned out great!

Great deals from Fabric.com! Click here
fabric: "To market to market mushrooms retro" (I'd cover my whole house with this if I could!
            "Moda Marble Swirls Green"
            "Secret Garden Daisy Petal Brown"

The super awesome blog with the tutorial is Sew 4 Home and I stalk this site daily to see the cool things they come up with! :)