Turn a pair of jeans into a skirt

 A successful sewing project? From ME?

YEAH!!!!!!!!!

 Perfect? No. It's better than perfect. It's done. ☺

A friend of mine (hi, Korina!) makes these and we've been wanting to get together for a little tutorial sewing session but... pregnancy (hers, not mine), kiddos, sickness, trips, LIFE seems to be keeping us from being able to do that. I had the materials (no cost!) so I thought why not try it on my own. So I did.

And I think I like it! Maddie really likes it. Woo-hoo!

I'll let you in a funny little secret though: the pink insert you see there... it's the legs of my old PJ pants. Cute ruffle action, huh? The waistband on these pants were stretched beyond usefulness, which is what happens when one wears non-maternity PJ pants through 3 pregnancies. Or just keeps any PJ pants for that long. But snip snip snip and viola: jean skirt insert. My friend had let me know that I should use a material for the insert that had a bit of stretch to it, so this was perfect-o!

I'm sure there are very helpful online tutorials or videos. Just a basic run down of what I did:

Ripped the inseam out. Continued ripping out the seam to the belt loop in back, and the zipper on front.

With the skirt/jeans inside out, sew the back together first, using a ruler to make a semi straight line from the waistband to the existing hem. This leaves excess material where the crotch was formally; this gets cut off after sewing. I then put a zip zag stitch along the inside of this seam to help make it more sturdy as my little tom boy plays. I will admit to you that this step had to be ripped out and redone, as this was an experiment. I've since done another pair with an elastic waistband and no back pocket and it was very very easy. This pictured skirt needed a little bit of tinkering to get the pockets to look normal and to have a gradual, A-line shape but the end product looks fine to my unprofessional, non perfectionist eyes.

With skirt turned right side out, sew the pink material into the upside down V. The front of the skirt had  retained a hemmed appearance along the upside down V (though the hem was ripped out, the fold was still there). I placed my pink material inside where it looked good to me. I pinned the two bottom hems together first, then worked my way up the V. Then I used a zip zag stitch and put 'er together.

Maybe it looks totally dorky to some people. I think it's rather cute, and Maddie is a big fan! ☺ Since the jeans were hand me downs, and the pink material was salvage, it was FREE. ☺☺That gets TWO smiley faces!


Love,

I made a dress... sorta

My latest mis-adventure in sewing: There are lots of wonderful tutorials out there to describe the correct way to sew a dress. Some people actually break down and buy a pattern. But not this girl. And so I will now teach you the very INcorrect way to sew a dress for your daughter.

1. Pay way too much for material.

As I passed by this adorable shirred fabric the other day, I thought, Hmmm... I think I could make dresses for my girls out of that! The pre-shirred fabric seemed like a wanna-be seamstresses best friend. And I loved the bugs and butterflies, and the fact that it was not pink. We're starting to divide our laundry into whites, darks and pinks. So yellow was a welcomed change of pace. I took the bolt to be cut, paying little attention to the price. It was mixed in with the inexpensive cottons and I only needed a yard, maybe a yard and a half to be safe. (As indicated by the make believe pattern in my head). The material was cut and I received my little slip of paper to take to the register. I glanced at it on my way... $18.00?!?!!!!!! groan BUT if I could make the intended 3 dresses from it, it still was cheaper than buying them AND they would match AND I would have the pleasure of making them.

2. Sew a right side and a wrong side together.

Can I blame pregnancy for that one? It's a little embarrassing. I did not even notice this serious blunder until putting it on Madison. I simply wanted to check the hem length and figure out where to work on sleeves when I noticed the front was suspiciously brighter than back of the dress. Oops.

3. Don't bother measuring.

The first version of the dress fit Maddie perfectly. But since I had sewed the panels together with a right side facing a wrong side, I had to start again. No problem, I though. I'll just cut the seams out and it will no doubt fit Eden just right. I will simple cut a new one out for Maddie and hopefully have enough for the newest little McCoy girlie, too. So that is what I started to do. I then had to majorly adjust the length for Eden, which meant cutting a few inches out of the middle of the dress (because the cute stuff is all over the bottom edge of the material, you see). To make it look cute when I put the top and bottom back together, I did that ruffle business below the shirring. And if you look carefully at the photo, the ruffles do not line up. They aren't even the same width. Oh well. It's that special touch that says "My mom made this".

4. Assume it will fit the recipient. Kids don't grow that fast, after all.

I had it to the stage you see in the picture before I thought it would be a good time to try it on Eden. I really did think it would fit her fine. I simply wanted to figure out where to put sleeves (you don't even want to know how I planned to do that... very unorthodox!).

I did not fit... at all. It wouldn't have fit her 6 months ago.

So there you have it. 4 easy steps to making a mess on your dining room table.

And so, THIS dress will be the baby's. I have decided to put away the rest of the material lest I ruin it all. When this baby fits the dress, I will practice sleeves on it. And then, maybe by then I can successfully make matching ones for Eden and Maddie. (Or maybe this poor dress will end up on a stuffed bear! HA, and I though Build-a-Bear was expensive!)

In the meantime, I may learn to read a pattern.

Love,

P.S.

Thank you to those who have been praying for my mother in law. Mrs. McCoy went to the ER on Friday where they determined that while she does have viral and bacterial pneumonia (as we already knew), there is an infection of some sort and her lungs appeared "abnormal". She will be seeing a specialist tomorrow. It has been several weeks since the pneumonia began but in the last 2 weeks she has really declined. She literally can not get out of bed. Having always been a person who gets up and gets going even when sick, she is truly not well. Please continue to pray for her.

Making hair bows!

I decided to try my hand at making hair bows for my girls! And ya know what I found out? Its really fun, and after a few trial runs, pretty easy!

Here's what I have finished so far:

For these classic looking bows, I followed these instructions.

(Just a quick disclaimer about the instruction links I attach to posts like this: I often only read that particular page so I'm not endorsing the entire site. Venture off the linked page at your own risk... though I think this particular site I am linking to right here is strictly hair bow ideas... FUN!)

I used floral wire to secure the bows. Floral wire is such a versatile house hold item! I use it all the time, especially at Christmas for hanging decorations up or replacing lost ornament hooks. It's so cheap and one roll lasts a long long time. After twisting the wire in back and snipping off any extra, I hot glue it to an alligator clip (I found small ones at Walgreen's). Before hot gluing it to the clips, I "lined" the clips with ribbon... very easy to do. I didn't take a picture but you simply cut ribbon slightly longer than the clip, hot glue on top. Wrap the ends of the ribbon under and glue down for a more finished look. This is basically what I did. The clip doesn't show very much with bows this big so I wasn't too meticulous about it.

On the green satin bows above, I used a contrasting ribbon but for the yellow and white I just cut additional pieces of the same.

Its important to seal the ribbon after you cut it so that it doesn't fray. All that means is running the cut edge over a flame very fast. You need to be careful not to singe it, and different fabrics are more fragile than others, but a quick pass will take care of any possible fraying. Here are some instructions... I used a lit candle so that both my hands were free.

The second type of bows I tried were these fluffy organza bows. I loosely followed these instructions.

I was going for more a fun girlish look rather than the elegant ones on the link. Instead of decorating the middle of each flower with beads, I pinched the back of each flower after sewing all layers together to make the flower fluff up. I sewed the pinch in place. Make sense? Hmmm.... now I know why crafting sites post so many pictures!


Here is what one layer looks like all by its lonesome. It was a funky flower- ish shape, then the edges were singed over the candle. (This white organza was very delicate and couldn't tolerate much singing without turning into a wholly mess. The purple material in the flowers above was a lot more resilient and easier to work with. When I make more out of the material, I'm going to try singing the edges even more for extra curling effect.)

You simply stack 5 to 6 layers together, and sew threw. Glue to a lined clip.

I could easily become addicted to hair bow making! It was really fun, and they are much cheaper than buying them! Let me know if you try it yourself!!

Love,

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Maddie had lots of fun with these stickers as we went over the Christmas story again. She traced the word, "Jesus". The red line by the wise men is Eden's contribution.

And Eden just looked so cute for church today, I HAD to take her picture! It's perfect... except for the bright green mint hanging out of her mouth! : P
Currently, the girls are napping/resting while Seth gets a few things ready for our church Christmas festivities this evening. We're singing quite a bit tonight and I still have major congestion going on... so hopefully no one ends up with a wad of phlem flying at them in the middle of "O Holy Night!" That would not exactly foster the Christmas spirit!

Autumn Tree

Maddie made this beautiful piece of art for me today using this picture, some construction paper and her fingerprints in red, green, brown and gold paint. I did this craft with a primary Sunday School class and I really wish I had taken pictures of their finished products. Those 4, 5 and 6 yr. old kids really did a fantastic job! I think Maddie's come out very well, too. And she had a great time making it.