Church Bag

During the pandemic I bought 30 yards of fabric from some friend of a friend of a friend in Ghana who was trying to earn some money. I was hoping to use the fabric for mask covers (I made more than 1000), but it took so long for the people bringing the fabric to get here, that it was too late for masks. So, I ended up using some of the fabric for American Girl doll clothes, gave some to an African man who came and bought something at our house, donated some to a charity that makes bags, then made a few bags for us. The fabric is heavier than quilting cotton, but not as heavy as duck cloth. I wanted to record here that I think the perfect size for carrying a folder and a few things to church is 14" x 32" with 3" x 27" straps.

I don't need to go into great instructions on making the bags, but you need to fold the big piece of fabric in half and sew up the sides and create your depth in your preferred manner. For the straps, I just ironed in each long edge 1/2" then folded the whole thing the long way in half and sewed down each side. I probably put each end of the strap in from each edge of the bag about 3-4". I re-enforced each strap also.

12 Days of Christmas 2020

Everyone's been missing everyone, so to make some connections again we decided again to do the 12 Days of Christmas for all my 7 Primary activity girls' families (one of them being us). As I was planning it, I got a new partner, so she planned 3 of the days I hadn't purchased for yet. I didn't take good pictures, but wanted to at least make note of what we did for future reference. It was nice because we didn't need to deliver to ourselves, my partner took care of that! Our family all took turns delivering. My 11-year old probably enjoyed it the most, but it was a great family activity. I wonder if anyone didn't know who was making the drop offs since all of them have doorbell cameras!

1. I was going to do pears and a tree and a picture of a bird or something, but my partner got some nice pear chapstick.

You can see that my partner does way cuter stuff than me!

2. Turtle candy individually wrapped from the dollar store and Dove soap. I hope the chocolate didn't taste like the soap in the end!

3. I can't remember what my partner ended up doing for this, but I was going to make French bread and shape it like birds.

4. Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.

5. Ring Pops.

6. I was going to do a half dozen eggs, but my partner did those European egg candy things with the toy inside and cute golden-sprayed feathers on top. I'm sure the girls enjoyed the egg/candy more than actual eggs!

7. Hot chocolate pouches with a bag of marshmallows for the swans.

8. Graham crackers and milk (Honey Maid(s) a Milking).

9. Pirouettes, but I got the Pirouline's from Walmart and put a Pirouette label on them, since Pirouline's isn't a balet move.

10. Grasshopper cookies for Lord's a leaping, but I got the Winco kind and put a Grasshopper sticker on it.

11. Instead of pipers piping I did poppers popping with popcorn.

12. Instead of drummers drumming, I did dummers dumming with Dum-Dum suckers. Yeah, I got *really* creative.

To make things cute, I added a little text to pictures online.

Parrot Costume

I decided to be a pirate for Halloween this year. I had everything I needed except for boots, so I decided to make some shoe covers that looked like boots with some fake felt I had. I tried and tried shapes mainly for the Sonja costume, but still needed to know how to do them for myself. I found a couple tutorials that helped:

http://littlestonecape.blogspot.com/2012/10/childs-pirate-boots.html
http://www.practicallyfunctional.com/diy-rain-boot-liners/

For my little parrot I just made some wings to pin to a red fleece thing I made her (ok, I probably made it for her brother 12 years ago?), then made a little hat. I really liked this pattern, but made the hat too small, so she really ended up looking like a squid. I didn't bother putting a beak on the hat when I realized it was too small.

Sonja the Hedgehog

Did you even know there's a Sonja the Hedgehog? Yep. It's Sonic's sister. I think she turned out pretty cute, pink hair and all.

Colonial Day

In the middle of Halloween madness, it was Colonial Day for the 5th grade. I was crazy and decided to make a dress a week before. I was able to borrow a pattern and the dress turned out great. A little big, but super cute. I should have made the 10 rather than the 12 so it would fit my smaller daughters in the future in 5th grade.

Halloween Fun - Boho Bag

I used this tutorial for this cute hippie bag:

Sergers Rock

My daughter keeps asking for skirts. Sometimes it's just easier to make them yourself, ya know?

This one was a women's XXL from Target, cut down:


This was a L shirt from Kohl's cut down for a 7 y.o. I might round out the bottom, but we'll see how we like it on.



Then, I bought this HUGE poncho shirt (it was marked a small, but it's more like a man's XXL in width). I found this AWESOME tutorial from It's Always Autumn on making a easy t-shirt and simple baseball/raglan shirt. I didn't want to mess with the cute neck on this one, so I just did the easy t.


I also took in a cute peasant top, but didn't take a pic. My old one is just a little tight in the bust since I'm nursing and fatter thank I'd like to be. I needed a bit more room.

These were my starting experiments with old t-shirts:

I also learned how to put in elastic with the serger!

This is so awesome. The options are endless. I should probably take a class.

Garage Shelves

It's been almost a year since I posted anything. Go figure. It's been busy.

Anyway, we moved into a home that had a bare garage. I liked the Monkey Bar system, but didn't want to pay for it, so I found this idea on Instructables.

We modified just a tad, of course, and my husband did the quick math. We think they turned out great.  I'm saving the math for future reference.

Big T-Shirts to Little Nightgowns

I recently inherited a serger from my grandmother who died a year ago.  Also recently, my husband cleaned out his part of the closet.  In the process, he pulled out a bunch of t-shirts that he didn't want anymore, so I thought I'd pull out my "new" serger and see if I could make those shirts into girls' nightgowns! I just traced shirts that fit my girls and came up with a few:

This "small" t-shirt was way too big for my 5 year old, so I made it smaller.

Scripture Bags

It's a tradition to give our kids scriptures when they turn 8. Well, I can't say it's really a tradition as we've only done it once, but we intended to when our 2nd child turned 8, too, but forgot. So, as a late gift, we got her scriptures and I made a case. The 4-year old (at the time) of course wanted a cute scripture bag, too, so I pulled out some of my old scriptures and made her a bag for them for her birthday. I think they turned out cute. I didn't even really measure anything!

Little White Dress

Around the time I made the baptism dress, I also made a dress for our 4 year old. It turned out like this:

She's super skinny so we can fit it over her head, but I should have put in a side zipper or not made the waistband so tight and added a tie in the back (but I ran out of fabric anyway). I may be able to go back in a add a zipper in the side. Perhaps I can go back to the fabric store and buy a little more fabric and change the waistband. Bummer. It looks more like the dress I was baptized in.

Updates from 1999 to Today

I like it! I even put zippers in the pillows.

8-Year Old Baptism Dress

Our daughter turns 8 at the end of the month, and I wanted her to have something other than the traditional jump suit to be baptized in.  I was baptized in the same dress as my mom and some of her sisters, as well as my own sister, but my mom doesn't think she'll be able to find the dress anymore at my grandma's house.  So I thought I could recreate the dress, but decided not to when I saw a picture of it.  This is my sister on her baptism day in the dress:

This is me on my baptism day in the pink dress.  These days, the trend is to get baptized in the jump suit, then get a fancy white dress for the little girl to wear to church. Honestly, the fad kind of bugs me because why would you even consider putting an 8-year old girl in a fancy white dress??  It's not like she's a bride on her wedding day, and it's just going to get dirty.  I hate following the crowd, so it's really hard for me to do this.  I did ask our daughter if she would like me to make her a pretty white dress to be baptized in and then get her a new, regular dress (not white) for church.  She said she wanted the fancy white dress.

So, I searched around on Pinterest and found a white dress bodice on Pink Princess that I liked.  I didn't like how it looks busty here, so I just made a regular width waistband rather than a high one.  Although, if I make another, I see some alterations I'd like to implement.

I used Liz Clark's pattern and came up with this:

I think it's super cute, but it would be so fun to wear to church, too! 

So, I got some more fabric and took a dress I liked and reverse engineered it:

I came up with this this morning, but it is so plain that I wonder if we may as well use the jump suits!

For the baptism, I dressed it up a bit with a few flowers. I think it looked just lovely; I also made a clip for her hair with 2 more clips for her little sisters so they could match.

American Girl Doll Clothes and Sewing with the 7 Year Old

We got our 4-year old a Julie American Girl doll for Christmas. We had a 6" Julie, but she somehow she got lost in a pile of laundry and went through the dryer, which melted part of her hair together. The 4 year old had been so good to little Julie - except for the dryer - that we thought we'd get her a big Julie. Big Julies don't get lost in the laundry pile, right?

So, of course, the first thing Julie needed was some PJs, and I had an old T-shirt that was the perfect color. We couldn't find butterfly ribbon, but picked something the 4-year old liked.

I used and modified a PJ pattern from All Things with Purpose.

As we went through fabric scraps, we found an old bandana from a cowgirl birthday, and thought it would make a great cowgirl dress. After debating, I used a peasant dress pattern from Call Me Crafty Momma (I found the instructions to be overly confusing, but the shape/size is right). The little dress needed a belt, so we made one out of felt. It still needs a belt buckle.

Then, I was just messing around with scraps and made some little Christmas skirts, 2 for my girls and 2 for our little friends and their dolls.

As we were sewing along, our 7 y.o. wanted to sew, too. Calling her crafty is an understatement, so I thought we'd give it a try. She really liked it. (Wow my chin looks really pointy in that picture!)

I thought it would be easiest to start with a tube skirt.

Then we moved on to an a-line skirt, but I goofed up my measurements and it didn't work out.

Then we moved on to a pillowcase dress.

She wanted to make one for her friend, but I was helping her pick out some stitches, pulled the fabric and it just fell apart. I think the fabric was pretty old (or else I'm really strong, ha).

Instead, she just made her friend a skirt from a leftover Christmas goody-bag we had, just like the red one up above.

Her next project is a peasant shirt, but I think she's a bit bored of sewing for now.

My next project is a corduroy A-line skirt and then a sailor dress.  And maybe to clean up the sewing room.

I've been keeping a Pinterest board of the patterns I'm finding, so check it out!  There are lots of great links (including free patterns) out there!

And P.S. I read somewhere out there that if you use a little bit of water on the doll's curly hair, it helps, and it TOTALLY does!  Then if you curl the damp hair around some sort of tube/dowel it will curl it (10-15 seconds) - and that works too!  Looks great!

Ruby's Christmas Stocking

The poor baby didn't even get a stocking last year because I was too beat to make one.  Things are better this year so she gets one.  I've tried to have a Christian theme (not Santa theme) for the stockings, so after making 3 other stockings, I was searching for ideas.  The eldest has a baby Jesus on his; our 2nd has some lambs, and the 3rd has an angel.

Since this one's name is Ruby, and a ruby is precious, I thought, hmm, maybe I could do something with the gifts from the wise men.  So I put three "gifts" on her stocking to represent the three wise men and their gifts.  I'm not sure I'm loving the colors, but I'm not going to change it now.

The more I think about this, though, the sillier the whole thing is to me.  Why am I putting these Christian symbols on these pagan stockings?  Stockings really have NOTHING to do with Christ, so why am I trying to tie them in?  Anyway, I surely don't have time to make 6 new fully-pagan stockings, so I'll just continue my already established theme for now.

Stroller seat, hat, & nightgown

I've had a few little projects lately.

Our oldest daughter got a bag of clothes from a neighbor, and it included a nightgown, so naturally our next daughter also wanted a "new" nightgown. Lucky for me, I had a shirt that was a hair too small lying around, so I cut it down for a nightgown for her.  It turned out great.  Even better, the shirt was only $2.50 in the first place!  I just took one of her t-shirts and copied it's shape onto my shape and cut it down and sewed it back together.  Funny thing was, my shirt was only about 2" wider than hers!  Yeah, that could explain why it's a little tight on me!

The seat for this stroller has needed a makeover for some time now.  I had this leftover fabric that worked great!  Again, I just copied the basic shape of the original for my pattern and re-used the straps.

This hat isn't perfect, but this girl will be 4 soon.  She wants a "beat bug" party.  If you don't know what beat bugs are, they're little critters that help kids learn the beat of music in Kinder Bach.  For some reason, she really, really likes the beat bugs.  I wasn't sure how we'd have a beat bug party, but thought I could at least make army hats for her and her friends so they could look sort of like the beat bugs.  I found this pattern/tutorial online from Sisters of the Wild West.  OK, so it looks a little weird in the picture.