Easiest Dress You'll Ever Sew!

When I was a little girl I loved summertime, because I could wear my stash of Sun Dresses!

So comfy! So girly!

Now I've got my own daughter to dress like a little mini me doll...er...to pass on the Sun Dress Love!

We were shopping at Wal-Mart back at the beginning of summer mainly to check out the crafty section. There are only two Wal-Marts left in town that carry fabric and the whole caboodle and so I drove my family 20 minutes out of the way to hit one!

I'm so glad I did, because they had this super cute Tinkerbell fabric. ALREADY shirred and hemmed! YaHoo! I didn't have my Little Ladies measurements on hand, so I stood her up in the cart and wrapped the fabric directly around her. Very professional.

This is so easy, I didn't even take photos. When we got home I re-wrapped her and pinned it to fit. You basically make an inside-out tube of the fabric by stitching up a side (or I did a back) seam. Then I measured the length she would need for straps and cut some ribbon I already had on hand. I stitched both straps into place. Turn it all pretty-side-out. Then I finished it up by stitching a button on the front of each strap.

Wanna See???

Easy Sun Dress Perfection. It makes her look ridiculously tall and grown up!

Oh. As I was doing this "photo shoot" our Middle One got into a huff about me not EVER taking HIS picture or blogging about HIM. So here is Mister-In-The-Middle...posing in his hand-me-down jammies.

First stop...Living Room Sofa Runway. Next stop...Cover of Fashion Magazine.

Shamrock Shirt

I think I've been pinched by a Leprechaun!

But, really, it's all you Fantastic & Inspiring Bloggers who have me on a Holiday Roll!!!

So. Remember this shirt I made for Valentine's Day? The cute pink one with the TP roll stamped hearts? I had gotten the idea over here!

Well, I love TP rolls and I LOVE clearance shirts at Wally World. So I just jazzed up the idea a little for St. Patrick's day! Here's what I did...

TAAA DAAAA!!! A sweet little $2 Shamrock Shirt that took 2 minutes to complete! I'm lovin' it!!! I think these heart shaped TP roll stamps are going to be put on anything that stands still at our house! Funny thing about standing still...my model absolutely refused to!

Ooooo...I want to squeeze those chubby tight-clad legs!

Hmmm...Kat in her Snot-Nose-Tummy-Out-Wild-Hair Glory! Trying to be a "brudda" (brother) (aka...big kid) and get her own snack out of the cabinet! But at least you can see the shamrock!

Linking Up!

Someday Crafts

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you make a big deal out of it with fancy dinners, flowers and such? Or do you keep it low key?

We keep it pretty low key. We did a lot of crafts leading up to today and the kids do their Valentine cards for school and that's about it! This year my lovely hubby surprised me with a subscription to Family Fun magazine (it's my FAVORITE!) and now I don't have to check out issues from the library.

The BEST part of my day, however, was learning that my Stamped Heart Flowers were featured on {Dot}{Dot}{Dot}!!! I am SO excited. If you're a blogger...then you know that when you are starting out (like me right now) it is FANTASTIC to have a fellow blogger (esp. one you are following) feature one of your things! I am Over The Moon excited!!! Thank you, Tasha, I've been smiling all day!

Now moving on to this cute shirt I made for Kat:

She was busy "reading" and couldn't be bothered to pose for me! I got the idea here, and thought these hearts would work just as well for a toddler. I hit the clearance shelf at Wal-Mart (I know. There's a lot of Wal-Mart hate out there...but I just can't quit them!). I gave it a washing and then inserted a piece of cardboard in the center to keep the paint from bleeding through.

Then I grabbed a toilet paper roll from my stash and cut off about a one inch band. It took some shaping, but I got it to resemble a heart.

Then I dipped the edge into some purple paint and stamped out the 3 x 3 design and chose one of the hearts to paint in completely.

Taa Daaa! Now. Go grab some chocolate and cuddle up with your honey. There's an hour and a half left of Valentine's Day!

Our Little Lady Turned ONE!

Last weekend we celebrated Little Lady Kat's First Birthday. Kat has been an amazing Blessing in our lives. We were happily truckin' along as a family of four when BAM, we found ourselves expecting a third. Since we already had two boys, I let myself assume that we would have another one. The day we found out that we were going to have a girl was crazy. James was over-joyed. Me? I don't know. I wasn't depressed or angry. I was so thankful that the baby was healthy and growing like she should. But I wasn't happy, either. What on Earth would I do with a girl??? Girls are just...so...girly!

Then June 5th, 2009 arrived and with it this little bundle of cuteness. I thought it would be awkward having a girl, but she looked at me with these ageless, piercing blue eyes and it clicked. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was perfect. And that has been the story for the last year. Time has gone by so fast with Kat. It makes me sad, because I am enjoying her so much. I don't know if it's because she's a girl, or because she's the third and I'm much more relaxed.

So now our Little Lady is One and we celebrated in Grand Lady Bug Style!

I made this cake by layering two round cakes. Then I star tipped the whole thing. The "black" frosting is chocolate, and the red is strawberry frosting with no-taste red coloring. The eyes are marshmallows.

Centerpieces were the rocks I painted a month or so ago. I also took mini flower pots and painted them red and black. Then I used my pinky to dab black dots on them. We filled these with daisies.
Finally we have the LadyBug Princess herself. I made her tutu by following a tutorial (tutu-orial!) I found here. It was fun and easy and took about 20 minutes total! We will be making many more of these...Kat LOVED wearing it! Then I made her birthday crown by using the pattern I found here. I'm still not very good at sewing, but this took me about an hour. I also sewed a cover to put over the elastic in the back. The crown was a hit! Making it from felt made it comfortable for Kat, and she kept it on for most of the day. Finally, for her "1" shirt, used the applique process I found here. Put this all together and you have the Lady Bug Birthday Princess!

Baby Legs

Disclaimer: I am NOT a sewing whiz (or even a sewing mini-whiz). I took Home Ec. in Middle School and earned a solid B. But ever since having our daughter I've got this crazy sewing-crochet-crafty itch.

So my husband & children got me this awesome sewing machine for Valentine's Day and I'm practicing away. Said daughter is now crawling around the house and her little knees are taking a beating (don't ask me why this didn't bother me with the boys!). These Baby Legs are everywhere and cost a LOT of money, so I did a little research and decided to make some of my own.

Now. There are many ways to make these. A lot of sites I viewed just cut off the foot part and sewed a simple hem either by hand or on their machine. Yeah. Didn't work for me! These socks roll up after you cut them! So I found this tutorial here...and like the idea of making cuffs. Either way...the Baby Legs turn out cute as can be and for a fraction of the cost when you make them yourself!

To start with you need a sewing machine (or thread & needle), scissors, woman's knee socks (the ones I used were on sale at Target), an adorable baby or toddler & some Johnny Cash on itunes (optional, but soothing & fun).

Here are the socks in their original state.

1) Cut the socks directly above and below the heels and above the toes.

2) Discard the heels & toes and you are left with two pieces like this:

3) Take the smaller piece (that would be around your foot) and fold it in on itself. Make sure that the nice part of the sock is on the outside of the fold. This will be the cuff.

4) Stretch out your newly folded cuff and insert the cut line of the other piece inside the cuff. You'll end up with three raw edges together. Note the crazy rolling! I pinned the three layers together in four spots.

5) I stretched the entire thing around the arm of my sewing machine to stitch. Use whatever method is easiest for you, but make sure you are only stitching three layers and not all six or you won't be able to pull these on your babies cute chubby legs!

6) Stitch all the way around the sock. I did one with a tight zig zag stitch and one with a straight stitch just to see the difference. I ended up liking the straight stitch a lot better. I'm not sure, but I think that with the material of the sock and my complete lack of knowledge on sewing matters, the zig zag got all bunchy for me!

7) Finally...fold your newly sewn cuff down and you have achieved Baby Legs! The top one is the zig zagged one and the bottom one is the straight stitched one.

Grab your Super-Speedy crawler and put on her new Baby Legs! The smile says it all! These make great knee protectors, leg warmers, they make diaper changing easier than tights do, a nice lightweight sock would be great for sun protection.

But mostly they make chubby Fred Flinstone feet HaPpY!