Not enough to call a real sewing project!

Anyone who knows Demi knows her world is all princess. I made this outfit for her. All I did was cut jeans from an old adult pair of jeans. I made them with an elastic waist. Took me about 10 minutes to make them. I then used some ribbon I found at Walmart (think it cost about $3) and added it to the bottom of jeans. I bought a $4 top at walmart and carefully added the ribbon across the front of it. I thought that because it was such a cheap and easy project I should share it. Project took under 30 minutes to whip up.Here are the jeans I stated with. I almost made a BIG mistake!!! My MIL gave me the jeans and I thought they were normal jeans. I folded them one leg on the other and I was ready to cut them to Demi size when I glanced down to the hem and noticed one leg was LONGER than the other! My MIL did NOT alter the jeans. Whom ever gave them to her did the hemming of the jeans. My MIL is a very fussy seamstress and would have never done something like that. It looks like the type of thing I would have done when I was younger. The person who id it used large stitches with white thread (my mil would never sew without matching her thread). You can see the stitches here.

Here you can see my finger on the bottom leg with the other leg laying flat on top. It's a half inch off at my finger and over one inch off at the one end! LOL!
Photos below are of new hem and trim.


The top.
Close up of top. I put the ribbon right over the gathered seam. Putting it up a bit (just above the gathers) would have been easier but I didn't like how it looked. I chose line up the center of the ribbon and put that right on the seam. I had a lot of fabric under the bottom of the ribbon compared to the top because all of the gathers are under it. I took my time and kept it lined up and had no problems. I am very happy with the ribbon placement. I think next time I need a quick outfit or want a very small project to pass the time I will make another outfit like this.

Panda Crazy

The weekend before Thanksgiving I got some time to sew some clothes for Demi. I was going to embroider gnomes on a pair of jeans when she tossed a fit yelling gnomes are old men and not good for her. Demi wanted "girl jeans". I took a look at the other embroidery designs I had been making and noticed I had a panda that was almost finished. Demi yelled panda's are also not a girl thing and will not be good for her. Quick on my feet I asked her what about a panda with a pretty bow in her hair. Demi smiled and said that would be a great girl thing. I finished making the panda design and got the embroidery machine humming. It quickly got panda crazy at my house. First I made her jeans.
Then I added a panda to a cheap walmart T-shirt.


Next I made panda barrettes.

and panda socks.


Demi loved it. Zee did too. The night before Thanksgiving I decided to make one for Zee. I only got 3 hours of sleep but I did finish her outfit. I was too tired to remember to get a pic. Below are action shots but they don't show the outfits much (sorry about that). Here is Zee with Mike's girlfriend.

Here is Demi with Rob's mom.
The jeans I made by cutting up some old adult jeans. The shirts were $4 each walmart. I spent about $0.80 for 2 sheets of felt. Total cost was around $8.80 for 2 outfits.

My Daughters first wearable sewing project.

Demi sews a lot. I try to keep her busy with many types of sewing projects. She is now 4 years old and has just finished a project for someone (a baby) to wear. She hand embroidered a dog on some fabric and then sewed the sides and top shut (with a bit of my help using the sewing machine). I am such a proud mama! It is a little doggy hat for my cousin's baby (her baby shower is this weekend). The embroidery isn't perfect Demi made a few mistakes with the outline near the tail and the ear. We tried to fix it a bit by adding the mistakes into the design when she stitched the tail and ear details on the dog. I love things that look handmade and this has a very handmade look to it. I am so tempted to keep this and put it on a doll or stuffed animal. (sigh)... This will make it to the shower (even though I really really want to keep it) BUT the next embroidery project Demi makes is going in a frame on my wall!!!! I took pics of her doing this project and I will post them on my homeschool blog I am posting a week in advance on that blog so the pictures should show up by next week. The hat is nothing to make you can find patterns similar to it all over the web. I didn't use a pattern (I made it from a sleeve of a knit shirt). I know the hat isn't an original idea but I might post how I set it up for a young child to make herself. I will try to post how to make this project simple enough for a preschooler to do by the weekend on my tutorial blog I did set this project up a tiny bit different for her than I would have if I was doing the embroidery myself.

OK enough of my chatter! Here is the hat!Isn't it very CUTE????? I LOVE IT!!! I think it is beautiful art (considering the artist is 4).

Below is a close up of the embroidery.

I hope to have my project finished up by tomorrow. My baby shower gift is something that kind of goes with this hat. I hope I get my project done before the shower. Fingers crossed I will have pix to share tomorrow of my project!

OOPS!

I just noticed that this poor blog has been left getting dusty for a very long time! Sorry! I have done a lot of crafting but I don't remember what all I made. I also got off track with taking pictures of my projects. I remember making my dad a BBQ set for a gift (I embroidered an apron, oven mitts, and pot holder. I made my mom a set of embroidered bath towels for her birthday. I made a ton of summer clothes for my girls (and lots more late in the season to wear to the beach). I made both my girls hooded towels (plan to embroider them someday to make them look nicer). I made several little things for some of my friends. OH! I am still working on a pair of socks for my mom. I NEED to get back into the routine of snapping a quick pic and post a few notes here. I am still working on my girls fall/winter clothing. I will remember to set the camera by my sewing machine as I do some crafting this week. We have babies galore popping up in my family so I plan to do a lot of cute baby gift projects. I hope to have pix of a new finished project by tomorrow night.

sorry! I will be back in just a few days.

I will be back soon. Life is a bit crazy (and a bit ugly right now). I did have to take a tiny break from crafting (I went almost a week of no crafting). I realized that I need to create things (have craft time for myself) because it helps me forget some of the ugly things in life. I am now back to crafting but as many of you know I am dealing with a bunch of ugly, unkind, and bothersome things in my life right now. Adding to this difficult time is Zee hasn't been sleeping so until I get some sleep I don't think I will know how to properly deal with all the troubles that keeps popping into my life. I hope after some sleep everything will be OK. Sleep and letting time pass sometimes have a way of working things out.

I am so lucky to have my family and some wonderful friends who have been by my side. My friend Kris is a life saver (OK, that is a bit extreme BUT she is a true tear saver). Kris is one of my best friends (we have been friends for 12-14 years now). Over the last few weeks she has called daily and helped me stop crying and even start laughing so many times (more times than I can count). She has her hands full with her 2 autistic children yet still has time to help me with my dumb little problems. I love her and feel so blessed to have such a wonderful friend who lets me know I am not alone when life gets a bit ugly.

I will be back with nothing but happy thoughts in the next couple days. I promise to find a way to push ahead and put the ugly stuff behind my by the end of the week. I will also start posting again by next Monday on my family/school blog. Nobody wants me to post on that right now because all I would do is cry and complain about more the little things that are bothering me. By Monday I will be back to my happy self! I promise!