Mommy Made It: Binky Leashes & Tags

G-Girl was a binky baby.  She figured out how to get them out of the binky leashes we had pretty early on.  I saw this post last week and got inspired.  I grabbed my fabric store coupons and G-Girl and I went shopping.  G-Girl picked out the ribbon, with much deliberation: there were a few different monkey options. I grabbed the ribbon and the clips, added the brown fabric from my stash and got to work.  The finished product: 

We used the Soothie binkies which G-girl loved, and we were fine with them.   Until she dropped them.  Then they roll and hide under furniture, into corners and all over the place.  Then we would mutter phrases that are not repeatable and join in the crying with the angry infant.  I had forgotten about these ordeals until the Little Guy I babysit came with the same binkies.  And I remembered.  I decided to try to figure out a solution before Itty Bitty gets here.  I made little tags that attach - they're about 3 inches square, and will hopefully prevent the disastrous rolling as well as making the semi-translucent binkies easier to find!

So, here's my stash.  We'll have leashes for the car seats and a couple extras.  When they get grubby, they can go in a lingerie bag in the washer.  What's not to like?

Improvising Dresses

I like to hit sales at the end of a season to snag deals on clothes that my daughter can use the next season or year.  Size up on spring items to use in the fall and the such.  At the end of last summer JCPenney was having a great clearance and I had a $10 off $10 purchase coupon so it was like they were giving me clothes.  What's not to like?  So I thought that since G-Tot was in size 18 months the end of last summer, that a 3T would be safe for spring tunic tops.  Um, wrong Mom.  They were cute little t-shirt tops but the length of a tunic top was lost on my string-bean of a daughter, and I had plenty of other spring T's for her.

So I took the three tops and matched them with three adult size T-shirts.  The green one was from my closet, the other two were from a 4 for $10 deal at our local craft store.



From this point I was completely neglectful in taking pictures of the process, but here's the basics.  I cut about a 5 inch strip from the bottom of each of the adult t-shirts.  Then took the large tubes of fabric, gathered them up and sewed them to the bottom of the tunic tops using a twin needle on my sewing machine.  This lengthened the tops and gave them a "skirt" effect.



I had elastic left over from the Trash Me Pants project and the blue and red shirts were large enough that I was also able to cut shorts out of the side seams.  So I made matching shorts to go under two of the dresses.  I  used a  method similar to the one that I used on the Trash Me Pants, except that I did have to hem the cuffs.

The lesson I learned the hard way with this project is that you cannot sew over pins in your project with a double needle like you do with a single needle.  I only learned this after breaking two of my twin needles.

So at the end of this project, with items I had on hand, and less than $10 of purchased materials (including the replacement needle) I ended up with three dresses for my daughter.  That works for me!

This post is linked up at Works For Me Wednesday.

Trash Me Clothes

As I've mentioned before, we live rurally.  We have grass, rocks, mud and a creek all within 100 feet of our house.  Not to mention plans for gardening and painting and all sorts of other messy things once the weather turns nice.

G-Girl is usually right in the middle of our projects.  And the mud. And the paint.   I subsidize our clothing budget by consigning her clothes that are still in good shape by the time we're past the season or the time she outgrows them.  To this end I try to keep her stuff in pretty good shape.  But she is a kid and should not be deprived of a muddy, grass-stained, paint-covered childhood.  So I have developed her summer "trash me" wardrobe.

One of the dresser drawers at her level (since she now likes to pick  out her clothes) will contain her every-day Trash Me clothes.  The ones that are for the days where we're not going any farther than the back yard.  This drawer will have Trash Me Pants, and a stash of T-shirts dedicated to messiness.

The central piece of the Trash Me Wardrobe is the Trash Me Pants.  I gathered up a stack of old/extra t-shirts we had around and refreshed my memory RookieMoms directions for re-purposing adult T-shirts into toddler/youth pants.  Then I got to work!  I expanded the concept to use the long-sleeves from a long sleeve T-shirt for the legs of the toddler pants.  Since the stack of T-shirts that I started with were white - some with screen printing and some with stains.  So I picked up a packet of black dye to hide the stains they started with and so the pants wouldn't look totally nasty after a good afternoon in the yard.  Since I put too much fabric in the dye batch they ended up more of a steel-grey, but that's just fine.  I wasn't going for perfection on this project, just completion!



The elastic was about $3 with a coupon at Joanns and the dye was $2.50.  The old T-shirts were re-purposed and I had the thread on hand.  The cost of the project and 8 pair of pants/shorts/crops was under $6.  That works for me!

This post is linked up at We Are That Family: Works For Me Wednesday.

Dish Towel Bib: The Utilitarian Version

My beautiful two year old loves meal time, enjoys her food and is learning quickly how to use her fork and spoon.  She usually does pretty well but, she is only two and still learning.  Those cute little bibs we used when she first started wielding a spoon are just not cutting it anymore.  I googled something along the lines of "dish towel bib" and looked through a few different blogs with directions and here's what I came away with.  I wish I could credit said blogs, but I didn't book mark them, and can't remember the exact search terms I used - oops!

As stated in the title, this is the utilitarian version of the dish towel bib.  There are lots of other, more creative people out there who better coordinate their materials.  I was more concerned with protecting my daughters clothes.

Materials: For materials you will need an old bib, dish towels, extra wide double fold bias tape, velcro, sheet of paper and thread.  I used a combination of dish towels I had and some that I picked up at our local DollarTree (love that place!)  Make sure to wash the new towels before you cut and sew them.  The waffle weave towels in particular shrink a lot!

Pattern: To make the pattern, I folded a bib in half and traced it onto a folded piece of paper.  Then, when I cut out the neck hole, I cut about 1/4 inch larger than the traced line.

Put it Together: Cut on the neck hole out of the towel and then cut the fold apart at the spot that will be the back of the neck.  Pin the bias tape on the cut edges of the towel and sew in place.  Sew velcro in place to close the bib in the back.  Ta-da! Done.

It took me about an hour and a half to whip out 9 of these.  That will be enough to cover mealtimes, finger painting, helping mom cook, etc.



And see how much more coverage we get from our old white bib and the new towel bib:



This post is linked up at

:: Finer Things Friday

:: Life As Mom's Frugal Friday

:: Works for Me Wednesday

Sewing a Computer Sleeve

As I was preparing for a recent family vacation, I was lamenting the absence of a computer sleeve for my netbook.  I went searching online, but kept asking myself if I really needed to spend the money on it.  The more I thought about it, the answer was "no".  I remembered batting that I had leftover from the Memory Quilt with Photos.  I also knew that I had a yard of lightweight denim in my fabric stash as well as some striped fabric leftover from some curtains I had made.

I didn't have a pattern to work from - so this is a "freestyle" project.  I knew I wanted it to have the main pocket for the netbook, a pocket that would fall inside the front flap to hold accessories and a pocket on the back side, outside the flap to hold my calendar, notebook for shopping lists, etc.

When I made the Mommy Bag I had worked with a bag pattern that had a pocket that ran around the outside of the bag so I used the same theory here.

I cut a large rectangle of the denim, batting and striped fabric that was a bit wider than the width of the netbook, and long enough to make the main pocket of the sleeve and the flap.  Then I cut a smaller rectangle of the three materials that was 3 inches wider than the first rectangle and about 15" long so that it would make the two outside pockets of the sleeve.

I sewed one ends of the rectangles and  turned them.  Then I folded in the edges of the flap and sewed it with top stitching.  Finally I pinned the two rectangles together and sewed the side seams together.  If you want a totally finished product, you could put bias tape over these seams.  I just stitched and trimmed.  Here's the finished sleeve:





I had some buttons around, so I attached them as closures for the flap.  With about two hours of work and materials I had on hand, I had a computer sleeve that was ready to go.



This is part of the Sewing Show and Tell week.  Check the main post to link up your favorite sewing project or to get more ideas!

Toddler T-Shirt Dress: Reusing Your T for your Toddler

There are many different ways to make t-shirt dresses for your toddling little girl.  One way is to take a shirt that fits the little one add a skirt of matching fabric and voila!  Easy dress.  This is what I had in mind when I went surfing through cyber-space and found so many other creative ideas.  Like this super cute ruffles and roses dress. I also found these directions for taking an adult t-shirt and making a toddler dress.

In this picture GBaby is sporting the finished dress with a white long sleeve onesie and her gray T-shirt pants - we'll have directions for that easy project tomorrow!

For this project I invested in a Twin Needle and it was SO worth it.  It took some tweaking of my bobbin tension (little screw on my bobbin case) to get it right, but it made sewing this together so much easier!

The other trick I used for transforming T-shirts into other clothing pieces was to use as many of the edges that were already finished as possible.  It saved the hemming of the jersey knit which can be kind of a pain.

What You Need: Adult T-shirt, thread, T-shirt that fit's Little One for sizing.

This is the adult shirt I started with:

Here's how I did it:

1.  Cut out Pieces: Lay the toddler shirt over the large shirt and cut through both front and back of the adult shirt to get the front and back for the bodice piece.



Then line up the toddler sleeves with the sleeves of the adult shirt to cut out the sleeves.



Remove the neck from the adult shirt to use as the neck for the dress - either cut as close as you can to the stitching or use a seam ripper.  Then, measure up from the bottom finished edge of the adult shirt the length you want the skirt of the dress to be, and cut across.  You should have a front, back, two sleeves, neck pieces and skirt.



2. Sewing

Pin and sew the stretchy neck material to the neck lines of the dress. You may want to trim the front neck line of the dress a bit to better replicate the neckline of the toddler shirt that is your sizing pattern.





Sew the shoulder seams



Attach sleeves to the bodice



Sew seam along bottom of sleeves and the side of the bodice below the sleeve.



Turn right side out and admire your handiwork, you're almost done!



Hand baste the "skirt" piece and gather it so that it will attach to the bottom of the bodice.  Pin the skirt to the bodice, making sure right sides together and sew:



Here is the finished dress:



Do you have a good way to re-use extra t-shirts?  Link your sewing project up on the  Sewing Show and Tell main page.

*This post linked at It's A Blog Party and Life as Mom's Frugal Friday

Toddler Pants from Adult T-Shirts

I love finding projects that use items that I already have in the house.  This is one of those projects. Gather up some of your t-shirts that need a new use, match some thread, add some elastic and you're ready to make toddler pants. You'll also need a pair of pants that fit your Little One to use for sizing.

Rather than re-invent the wheel here, I'm going to send you over to RookieMoms for the full directions.  They have a great set of video and photo directions.

So far I finished two pair for GBaby: black and gray.  Each pair took 20 minutes-Ilove easy projects!  Tomorrow we're stepping up to a bit more challenging project and GBaby will be modeling her T-shirt pants tomorrow with her Adult T to Toddler T-Shirt Dress!

This is part of the Sewing Show and Tell week.  Check the main post to link up your favorite sewing project or to get more ideas!

Girl-Kerchiefs

This is part of the Sewing Show and Tell week.  Check the main post to link up your favorite sewing project or to get more ideas!


A while ago while surfing the internet I came across a post about uses for the stacks of flannel receiving blankets leftover once an infant outgrows them.  Since GBaby outgrew those blankets by the time she was about 4 days old, I had a stack that needed new uses.

There are a lot of things that you can do with the fabric from these blankets. If you have another baby waiting in the wings, they can be turned into cute burp-cloths.  If you're a quilter, you can piece them together into new, larger blankets (this will be one of my March projects with my Season of Lent non-cooking time).  If you're a mom and your kiddo has a drippy nose and will let you use a cloth, but not paper tissue: you make Girl-Kerchiefs.

1.  Cut blanket in quarters

2. Zig-Zag or serge raw edges (I have a nifty little serger attachment that I got for about $20 that attaches to the arm of my sewing machine which worked great for this project)

3. Fold and keep handy for drippy noses.

This project is so easy and can reduce a little bit of waste.  And they're cute for your little girl to boot!



Do you have a fun re-use for flannel receiving blankets?  Link up your project on our Sewing Show and Tell home post!

'Sewing Show & Tell'

This week I have a great line up of Sewing Show and Tell posts!  I'm taking a break from the kitchen and will be sharing sewing projects that use unwanted T-shirts, extra flannel receiving blankets and old sheets.  For some projects, all you add is time and thread and the re-creation is ready to go!  So dust off your sewing machine and get inspired.

Have you blogged some successful sewing projects?  Link them up below and join in the Sewing Show and Tell fun!  Click the Sewing category to see all of my sewing projects.

Mommy-Made-It Monday: More Soft Baby Shoes

We have had fabulous luck with the first batch of soft shoes.  Remarkably, they have stretched like a good pair of jeans and still fit.  The second set I made have gotten a bit tight.  Somewhere in between I also made a fleece lined denim pair that are getting a lot of use.  So, it was time to make more shoes.

For the khaki pair, the canvas fabric was leftover from my Mommy-Bag, which was left over from long ago curtain project.  The brown fleece was just hanging around and the leather bottoms are from a leather shirt that I grabbed at a thrift store.  Since they're soft and warm and usually rather difficult for the little people to take off, my nephew was jealous.  So I made a matching pair for him.



I made these cute black pair from felt left over from a sewing project HandyMan did (yup-he sews too!)  I lined them with scrap grey fleece.  This pair was particularly simple since both fabrics are non-fraying and I didn't have to 'hem' any of the edges on the back piece.  I had pink thread in the sewing machine from another project, so I just went with it.



Next sewing project(s): Girl-kerchiefs, Bean bag chairs and t-shirt dresses.

Making a Memory Quilt with Photos

For Christmas, I made a photo quilt for my mom.  Mom had a section of wall that she was trying to decide whether to put photos up or a quilt hanging. She was concern by the high traffic past this wall.  So, inspiration hit and three (or four) of GBaby's nap-times later I had the project finished.  I had more photos of the construction of this project but the camera ate them.  So here was how I the photo quilt project went:

1.  Quilt design: This included the dimensions and layout for a basic quilt with sixteen- 6-inch squares to hold 5-1/2" square photos.  Then I had to gather and choose photos.  I think this was really the hardest part of the project as I was trying to get the best shots including Granny & Granddad with their three children and three grandchildren.  So after sorting and debating, I chose the photos and headed on to cutting.

2.  Cutting: I cut all the white squares and ironed on the photos.  I only had to re-do two of the photos which I though to be a great accomplishment in and of itself.  Then I cut the  bordering strips for between the photos, the longer border strips for between the photo strips and finally the wide outside border pieces.

3.  Sewing: I sewed together the strips with the alternating photo squares and border pieces.  This went quickly.  Then I sewed together the strips of photos, with the longer border strips.  This too, was not so hard.  Finally, I sewed the border on it.  I stood back and declared it good.  I was so proud of myself.



4.  Layering: Next came assembling the quilt.  The process of layering the batting, quilt front and back and sewing it in such a way that when you turn it right side out everything is in the right order.  I also worked in tabs at the top to run a dowel through to hang it by. I layered it, sewed it, went to turn it right-side out and had thoughts that would make a sailor blush.  I took it apart, layered it again, sewed it again, went to turn it right-side out and almost cried.  UGH!  Third time is a charm and I had HandyMan double check it before I sewed to make absolutely sure that it was layered right.  It was and the finished project turned out very well.  I know where the goofs are but my Mom was gracious enough to ignore them. :)



It was a fairly simple project (minus step 4) that I will probably do again sometime and is a unique way to frame your favorite memories.

Homemade Christmas: Shape Magnets & Sewing Project Link

For all the folks out there that sew and need a relatively easy and inexpensive way to use up all your fabric scraps, you have to check out the Scrap Buster page over at SewMamaSew.com.  There are tons of ideas and one that I picked up was originally posted at Chez Beeper Bebe for making a plush alphabet and surf around her site for other simple sewing projects too - she did some neat cloth napkins.

I used her method to make a set of magnetic shapes for GBaby.  Since I wanted them to be multipurpose, I did spring for some clearance rack fabrics so that I could have solid colors to work with.  I also ended up with a fun assortment of fabrics: nylon, denim, cotton and canvas.

I stenciled out squares, triangles, circles, arrows, hearts and stars.  I zig-zagged around the marker lines and then cut out the shapes.  Easy - the whole thing took me about an hour.  I was not concerned with the marker showing through the stitching, so I just  used a Sharpie.  However, if you want a more finished look, you may want to consider a washable marker designed for marking fabric.

Here's the shapes traced and the first batch sewn:



And here are the finished shapes on my dishwasher:



I was intentional about the construction of my shapes as I have plans in my mind that they will serve as a multifunction educational toy in the coming months.

-For now they are fun textures for GBaby to explore.

-She's having fun exploring the magic of magnets and how some things will stick to the fridge and the dishwasher.

-As she begins to learn shapes and colors, they're a quick sorting game while I'm working in the kitchen (or wherever).  For example: all shapes start on dishwasher and a star gets put on the fridge - she then finds all the stars and moves them over.  An orange shape gets moved over and she finds all the orange shapes.  You get the idea.

I'm excited about this project and can't wait to see how she grows into these fun shapes!

Mommy-Made-It Monday: Corduroy Jumper & Shoes

My sewing project last week was this super cute jumper for GBaby.  I was chatting about patterns on FaceBook and an old college friend passed along a few patterns that she had.  When they arrived in my mailbox, one pattern was for this really cute jumper or overalls.

I made the jumper and made matching shoes.  I like to selvage fabric from unconventional places so, for this project, I started with this large corduroy skirt that I had found at a thrift store ($3.99). 

After I cut out all the pieces, what was left looked like the shredded skirt that the Ugly Step Sisters left Cinderella with. 

But I pieced it back together and ended up with a super cute dress.





It’s not perfect, and I can’t say that I’m a fan of making the ruffle part but I think that the finished product is pretty darn cute!

For the shoes, I made another pair of the soft baby shoes like I did before.  This time I used scrap fleece, the corduroy and for the soles, I used super soft salvaged leather.  The leather was another of my thrift store finds.  A worn suede shirt was mis-marked at $6.99.  The amount of leather I will be able to use from this shirt is a steal next to the craft store sheets of leather – and this is so much softer.  When I finished the shoes, I was wishing I had made a pair for myself!

Sewing Project: Infant Rain/Winter Cape

My sewing project of the week was a rain/snow cape for GBaby.  There are lots of stories online and recommendations from pediatricians to limit the bulk of winter clothing on children in car seats.  This was the most credible information that I could find after a number of google searches.  So, in an effort to try to keep GBaby safe and after getting myself soaked while leaning in the car to get her covered up before heading out into the rain or snow, I decided that GBaby needed a cape.  It also slips on and off easily as we run out to the car or between car and stores for shopping.  I found this cape while I was searching the internet and decided that I could make that.  So for about $10 and an hour and a half of work I ended up with the Little Red Riding Hood Cozy Cape.

I used rip-stop nylon ($5) for the outer shell, matching thread (1.29), 7-inch zipper (1.99) and fleece from my fabric stash for the lining of the cape and an old t-shirt for the lining of the hood because I ran out of fleece and she has a winter hat that's super cute anyway :).

"Daddy, do I really have to wear this?"



"Ok, it's not so bad.  And I can chew on it!"



And since GBaby wasn't quite in the mood to model, I enlisted the pumpkin for some help and here's a shot to give you the full idea of the finished product.  We used it for shopping in our fall-soon-to-be-winter weather this afternoon and it worked great.  When the car was cool, just buckle her in under the cape, if the car was warm, just pull it off.  So far, it's mom-approved and since it's chewy and has fun little cord stops that are cool to chew on (don't worry, the cord is thick enough that they won't come off unless she chews through the cord too), it's GBaby approved too!