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.

Monday Sunshine

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

I just realized that I missed last week's Sunday Sunshine.  I'm not sure how that happened, but not surprised either.  We have just finished a couple of full weeks leading up to Easter.

From the last two weeks in no particular order:

::  Surprise lunch out with friends.

:: Hot cocoa with marshmallows on rainy afternoons and chilly evenings.

::  Abundant resources online with toddler craft ideas.

::  Sunny days and bubble machines.

::  Rainy days and puddles to throw rocks in.

::  Playmates

::  Sound, full nights of sleep.  (Shouldn't have let MD go home!)

::  Coffee

::  Talented friends (thanks again for the pix KW!)

::  Childhood delight at discovering new things - like that there were cheese puffs in the Easter eggs!

:: Projects finished.

::  The joyful celebration of Easter and the reflection of the basis of my faith.

It was a good couple of weeks.  I hope you can find the good in your week!

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Reworking a Decent Idea

[gallery columns="2" orderby="title"]

Signs of spring are starting to show in our area - my crocuses are blooming and my daffodils are starting to bud out.  Ok, one of my daffodils is starting to bud.  The rest are still held by the grips of winter.  My little mascot daffodil is embracing the tiny threads of spring that we keep getting.

I discovered, after a day of high winds, that the hoop covering for my early bed needs additional reinforcements.   The wind caught hold of the sheeting and twisted it up and threw it in the yard like a dirty shirt, dragging the hula hoop structure with it.  I'm thinking that I need to come up with deeper stakes to attach the hoops to.  I'm open to any ideas!

Fortunately, I had only put in spinach seeds to date, so there weren't any little broccoli plants to face the demolition.

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Kissing Shoes

I really really really REALLY wish I could remember where I picked up this little trick so I could properly credit the original author.  But I can't. And I googled every possible search term I could think of to find it again.  So instead I'll share my version of it.

G-Tot is getting pretty good at putting her own shoes on.  She loves her shoes and is so proud of herself when she gets them on.  Her delight is not impacted by the small fact of whether or not the shoes are on the correct feet.   I kind of like it if shoes end up on the right feet, but I do not like the extreme emotions that are expressed by G-Tot when I try to switch the shoes she so carefully put on.

Then I read about a mom who drew smiley faces with a pen on the inside of her child's shoes, like so:



Ok, it's kind of hard to see.  It's the blue spots on each shoe and I don't claim to be an artist in any form, but especially ink and rubber.  Here's a close up:



Easy so far, right?  Now I hand G-Tot her shoes, tell her to "Make them kiss".  She matches the little smiley faces complete with kissy noises and puts them on the floor, and then puts her feet in the correct shoe!  Everyone is happy.

This little trick has worked fabulously!  Now I just need to find a silver sharpie and hit her black soled ladybug boots!