Blog Catch up

You know you've gone too long when you can't even remember your last blog post.  Since that last post, I have been doing some sewing projects but honestly sewing is at the bottom of my list these days.  I love the name of the blog called "Stop Staring and Start Sewing".  If only I would follow that mantra.  It's so easy to vicariously live through other people's blogs than sit at the sewing machine trying to find what little brain power is left that day and focus on completing a project.

This is what I've been up to.

A table runner for my sister's birthday that was in March.  I followed this great tutorial.

Liked it so much, had to make a spring one for myself.  Similar to the first one, just a couple new fabrics.

Then, my daughter wore this panda bear dress ALL winter long.  She LOVED it!!  It was worn as soon as it was washed so she wore it twice a week. 

 As you can see, there is no chance of her wearing it next winter so to preserve her fave outfit and make it last longer I turned it into a skirt.

Happy Girl.

Next, some more owls.  Loved how these turned out.

And last, 3 cozy car caddies.  One for my son for his Birthday and two for my nephews for their Birthdays.

I like this post from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I'm going to try to find the ten-15 minute windows so that my sewing with resume on my list.

My own Make it do

I should have listened to my sister but I didn't! She warned me that once my kids went to school, their pants would fall apart due to being on the floor for carpet time and P.E. At the beginning of the school year I splurged and bought some jeans with embroidered hearts on the side for my daughter who started Kindergarten. They were $20 WITH Gymbucks!!! For me, it was just a few more dollars then I would have liked to spend on jeans but I couldn't resist the cute hearts and justified the purchase with, "Her sister will be able to wear them too so really it's only $10." Do you dig my way of thinking?? Half the year into school it finally happened. I hole in the knee.

I had to rescue these pants and make sure they would make do. So I used an idea from MADE and wah-la!!! That hole is gone and replaced with a stylish heart.

Had to even out the pants with a heart on the other knee which hopefully with prevent another hole. Now I'm crossing my fingers these pants will hold up for just one kid.

I learned my lesson not to buy $20 jeans for a kindergartner and foresee these pants becoming shorts.

Food Storage Cans

What do you do with leftover cans? Last year I saw this cool idea on Toad's Treasures.

Here are my soup cans recycled as pencil holders/organizers.

And then I thought, FOOD STORAGE CANS!!

Turned this one into a Utensil holder and I LOVE it! It's the perfect size and it was free.

Then I used the storage cans for my girls Valentines gifts. I put candy and toys inside and they got to open it up on Valentines Day!! Easy way to store all of their stuff!! I'm thinking there are other things that I could store that need a little dressing up.

I know there are more possibilities out there, so what do you do with your leftover food storage cans?

Not the only one

making it do this year. After a little Google time, I found lots of blogs that are making it do.

Check out this awesome dress! It was made from an old women's dress suit.

No, it's not a picture of me before kids. It looks fabulous. I am so amazed at the talent that exists in the sewing blog world. As for my blog, it's a blog of sharing. I share other peoples talents that I copy. Anyway, check out her blog called Sew Weekly for the full redo and other great redos or knockoffs.

Passing along the Love

Check out these cute Valentine's Gift Ideas for your hubby from Mommy by day..Crafter by night. You still have a little time to prepare or just do a few like I'm planning to do. Have fun!

Make IT DO

Remember the saying I mentioned recently, "Use it up, wear it out, MAKE IT DO, or do without"? Well, along with re-purposing this year, I want to MAKE IT DO. So I plan to have some posts on how I can MAKE things DO. It's a little different from re-purposing. A RE-Purpose is taking one thing that has a specific function and changing/using it as another function. A Make-it-do is taking one thing and using resources on hand to make it still function as it is meant to be used.

Here is a Make-it-do.

I had a friend ask if I could fix her girl's jacket. The collar got mangled up in the wash. Who wants to buy another jacket when El Paso's "winter" is almost over? Besides, the jacket seemed new so it deserved to be saved. I just put the seams back in and sewed on top to close it up. It looked very modge podge so I asked permission to embellish it which would also be a way to conceal the holes that were just patched up.

I took a piece of 4" width fabric by the length of the collar and pressed in half. Then opened it up and pressed each side in half towards the middle. It's like bias tape but I cheated and didn't cut on the bias.

Then I pinned it over the collar, half the fabric on each side and sewed on top.

Results.

Hope it lasts through many more washes.

tie one on

Making a gift for my sis-in-law who's having a B-day soon. I love making these cute tie on towels that I found on the Trey & Lucy blog. Adds some fun color and print to the kitchen and they don't slide off.

Teething necklace

For me. Really. I like this dual-purpose craft I found on See Kate Sew. Made one for me and the funny thing is, I don't want my baby to slobber all over my fave Amy Butler fabric. Oh well. I would rather him ruin this necklace then break my other ones.

It's super simple and seriously took me no more then 5 minutes (with supplies on hand). Give it a try. I think it's a cute necklace on its own, no baby needed to gnaw it.

RE-commited

Since the New Year, my head has been swarming with the many projects that I wish were completed last year. I've been thinking about how I want to begin blogging again because though I haven't been sewing, the blogging world still has and there is so much to share. I have decided and realized that I can post even though I have nothing to show of my own doing except eye candy of others' accomplishments in their craft rooms.

Another concept that is new to me that I came across on some blogs is RE-purposing clothing. I love it!! This blog called Make it and Love it has so many ideas that as I was cleaning my closets this year, I decided to create a little stash so that I could try this re-purposing thing out. This year I am really trying to be more frugal and want to live the saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." I think the "do without" one is the hardest for me. I think being more creative and re-purposing will help me achieve my goal. That means I've got to start using the piles of fabric that I have on hand before I go out and buy more and use up the piles of scraps that are on top of my piles of fabric.

It's going to be a fun year and hopefully my baby will start sleeping through the night so I will have energy and brain power to craft and blog once more. What? How old is he? Yeah, 6 months and still not sleeping through the night. Little stinker. :)

A TOAST to RE-PURPOSING!!!!

New Year

The New Year is almost here!! Hopefully this year will bring more posts to my blog which will mean that I am SEWING!! :)

Fun Contest

I know, I know. Blogger slacker. Posts just aren't going to happen until baby #3 sleeps through the night. That applies to crafting/sewing as well.

However, here's a cool contest to enter over at Lila Tueller's Blog. Have fun!!

(picture taken from Lila Tueller Blog)

Let's hear it for the boy!

My boy! Lincoln Craig McCune arrived July 8th at 6:40 p.m. weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. My smallest baby. So glad he is here!!

In the arms of his Dad.

At home.

The week before having Lincoln I punched out these baby necessities. I got my nesting wind at the very last minute before his arrival.

Diaper bag.

Close up of the owls.

Diaper/wipe holder.

Changing pad.

Burp clothes.

And a hooter hider for nursing. It is a genuine hooter hider because there are owls on it.

Now I'm busy using these items as well as doing laundry on a daily basis. This is one messy boy.

KCWC day 7: 2 for 1

As you can see, I bought a lot of cupcake fabric. I made an apron for B and C. When C is pretending to cook she calls it "making". I plan to let them use their aprons in the real kitchen too. It should come handy. Whew! What a week of sewing. If only I would be so dedicated to other important endeavors in my life.

Well, up next is preparing for baby boy. I've got so much to sew up before July 8th! Diaper bag, diaper/wipee holder, hooter hider & more. Hope I can keep up this sewing marathon.

KCWC Day 5&6: Cupcake fun

I bought this fabric last year with the intention of making these Girly Skirts for my girls to wear on their Birthday. Now I'm ready for Birthday 5 and 3. I appliqued some cupcakes on their shirts to complete the outfit. They call it their Pinkalicious outfits.

KCWC Day 2,3,&4

For some reason blogger has not been working the past couple of days. Did you have the same problem?

This is what I have been up to for KCWC. I made two Chloe & Meiko shirts to be donated to the children in Japan. The deadline is the end of May so I'm glad I made it.

While making these shirts my girls dove into my sewing stuff and found this rag doll panel by Patty Young that was on my to-do-list. They wanted me to make them so I bent the rules on the challenge. Though it isn't clothing, it is for my kids. I think they are super cute and I made the each doll a simple little dress. FYI: Sewing knits is new to me and a challenge.

They love them! So glad I made them.

KCWC Day 1

The challenge started yesterday but since my sewing is usually done at night when the kids are asleep, I will post the following day.

A fave pattern called the Bella Pants was used as well as Heather Bailey fabric. You may have seen these before since I made them for B a couple of years ago. C needed her own pair. Is it considered cheating for having the fabric already cut out? Otherwise this project would not have been completed in an hour. Just goes to show how behind I am on my project list. Glad to cross one thing off.

These are great pants for El Paso since we've got 6 months of warm and sunny weather. See ya tomorrow.

Eye of the Photographer

I asked my husband to take pictures of the girls on Easter while I was making dinner. In my head I thought, get a pic of the girls in their dresses before they rip them off since coming home from church. Well, he got a pic of the girls as I asked. Hopefully, you can see their dresses. C's dress was B's last year. I just turned the sleeves into straps so that it was more like a jumper.

Monkey see, Monkey do.
Just B.

So proud of B!! She did an excellent job performing as a butterfly for her dance recital this past weekend.

Now on to my challenge. This Spring I am taking on KCWC which is Kids Clothes Week Challenge. All week I am suppose to take aside 1 hour each day to work on Spring clothes for my kids. I really should be finishing some quilts that I started two years ago but maybe this will get me the sewing groove by having some accomplishments along the way. Wish me luck and you are welcomed to join in the fun!

I've been up to something

Another pair of SweetHeart Pants.

So easy, I promise.

New hooded towels for my girls and boy on the way.

For baby boy.

Last, crayon rolls using a tutorial from Skip to my Lou.

This is a fun easy project and my girls love toting it around.

So though I haven't posted in over a month, I have something to show for my absence.