DIY Lace Trimmed Shorts

Last post I told you how I went to Goodwill on a quest to fill my desire for colored shorts. I came home with a pair of bright blue/aqua mom jeans that I turned into cuffed shorts and these red shorts. They are No Boundaries brand (Walmart?). I tried them on at the Goodwill and liked the fit and the color, but thought they were a bit short. Thus, I got them with the mindset of adding another inch or so with some lace. 

Here is a step by step of how I turned these "booty" shorts into much more modest lace trimmed shorts. 

Turn your shorts inside out.

Find your lace. I had this eyelet lace in my stash. Lay your lace on top of your shorts, making sure that the right amount is showing from the front view, and start pinning.

 Pin your lace on both legs of the shorts

 Just like so, making sure to fold under where the edges meet so that they won't fray and will look finished.

Then take your shorts to your machine and sew along the hem that already exists. Don't forget to match your thread!

 After your lace is sewn to your shorts, take out the pins and figure out where you want to trim your lace, if you need to.

Start trimming away, being careful not to cut your shorts.

And here they are all trimmed! Now, for the finishing touch, hand stitch the lace ends to each other, so that they don't flap around. Again, with matching thread.

 Now turn your shorts right side out and admire!

 I personally love mine!

So cute! I think the lace adds some length and a feminine touch, don't you?

Time for you to make your own!

DIY- Little Gal Summer Jammies

I am starting to work through my pins. And recently I pinned this tutorial on how to make some super quick, easy, and (best of all) COMFY jammies for the little gal. I didn't actually use the tutorial while making it, I had read it when I pinned it and just kind of took from what I remembered of the tut. 

The first one is Vneck cuz it was made out of an old t-shirt that my mom passed my way. 

The second one is made from a pink cotton stripe material that I got at Goodwill. Honestly- I got like 5 yards for $2. Who can pass that up???!?! 

The consensus is that J loooooves them. She didn't want to take them off after I had her try them on, so she wore them the rest of the day. I love it when she likes what mommy makes her!

If you are wondering if you should make them.... DO!

Go on over to The Mother Huddle and check out the Tutorial!

DIY- Make Your Own Cuffed Colored Shorts

I love that colored shorts are "IN" right now. So fun! But being the overly $$ aware person that I am, I am always looking for ways to get things for less. And one of those ways is DIYing styles or decorations, or pretty much anything. =)

So instead of heading out to a mainstream store (meaning JCPennies, Dillards or Target, here) to grab myself some new colored shorts I headed over to our HUGE HUGE HUGE Goodwill store (God bless that place).

I had in mind to make some shorts similar to these  shorts found at GAP. And to find some other colors to make into shorts. I ended up finding exactly what I needed!

Today I'm showing you how I took some bright aqua blue mom jeans and turned them into cuffed shorts.



I started out with these.... um, not the most flattering "mom style" jeans. Meaning- they come up a good inch or two above my belly button, and they were high waters!

 Laying the jeans out on the floor, grab some shorts that are a length you are comfortable with (and hopefully flatter you) and lay them on top. Adjust, so that the inseams of the jeans match up.

 Now, grab your sharp sewing scissors and carefully cut about two inches below that point (if you want an inch wide cuff, which I did.) AND be aware that however tapered your jeans are, they might not cuff very well. If the jeans taper too quickly, they will be very bunched up and not look nice. So if you are going for a cuff, you need to look for a pair of jeans that are the same width from the thigh to the knee. Or as close as you can get to that.

Then take the leg you cut off and lay it atop the other leg. Cut accordingly. This helps to make sure that the shorts are the same length. 

Then you will have some shorts that are ready to cuff!! And some left over jean legs to keep and make into something else!!

 Make the cuffs by folding your shorts legs up by one inch and then fold the fold you just made up another inch. Pin in place.

 Now you want to try on your new cuffed shorts to see if you like the length or if you want to adjust it. I liked mine, so I finished them off by hand tacking the cuffs down.

 After you finish tacking your shorts cuffs down, try on your new shorts with a fun top and admire!

You just made some stylin' new shorts for a fraction of the cost of store bought ones!

DIY Red Skinnies from Red Thrift Store Flares

If you remember my rough tutorial when I made white flares into skinnies, you will know how I made these. I picked these red pants up from a local Thrift store right after R was born, with future plans to turn them into skinny pants. Little did I know it would take 7 months before I had time to do it. But, I'm slowly getting my sew on again, and thus my To-Do list is slowly getting smaller and smaller.

Anyhow- here is the Before and After. Enjoy.

Before- regular flares

Trying them on before taking them in some more. 

All done! 

The finished product

Remember, go look at my previous post to find out how to convert your own flares to skinnies!

Gifting that New Baby-Mama

One of my friends just had a new baby- a precious little girl. I was unable to make it to her baby shower (before her baby was born) and found out from her this last week that she still wanted/needed a nursing cover. Perfect! 

This is how it turned out! 

Blocked fabric panels cuz I somehow got the wrong amount of the patterned material when at the fabric store. Silly me. But all in all it turned out cute. 

 A handle both on the outside and inside to hold down the cover when that little girl decides she wants to expose mom to the world.

A flower, because who doesn't need one of those?

It's much cuter hanging or on, than laying on the floor..... at least that's what I think.

What do YOU think? 

DIY Naptime Project--- White flare ankle pants to skinnies

Naptime is sooo wonderful when both kids cooperate! Recently I was able to take that time and convert some white flare ankle pants from GAP into skinnies.

If you would like to make some of your own, grab some pants and follow along. 

The other day, I tried the pants on and decided I wanted to keep them, if they were updated. 

Inside out view. They are a stretch denim. 

I really liked this split side a few years ago. 

I layed them down making sure they were very smooth (inside out) and grabbed a pair of skinnies that I own and like the fit of. I placed the already skinnies on top of the flares and got my fabric chalk (you could use a pencil, or fabric marker, or pen- if you dare). I traced the line of the pant and pinned them so the jean wouldn't move. Then I sewed. 

After I sewed them skinny, I tried them on and adjusted where I wanted them a bit smaller (which happened to be right above the knee). I sewed the adjustment and tried them on again. And then, only then, did I cut off the excess. To finish off the inside seam I chose a zigzag-type stitch and went over the raw edge of jean that I had just created. And WHA-LA, new white skinnies!!!

FYI- you will want to decide what line of the pant you want to sew on. The inside seam of this pair was the fancy seam, so I had to sew the outside seam and remove the flap. But on other pairs you might have to sew the inside seam (or maybe both, depending on how flared your pant is). 

Now go and make yourself some new skinny pants, for FREE!!!!!

DIY Goldfish Crackers

In the last few months it has become all too noticeable, the affect that sugar has on J.  With even the slightest intake- she becomes irritable, irrational, unable to listen (more so than the average 2 yr old), crazy, and just down right difficult. Thus I have been on a mission to cut it out of her diet. It started with taking away all juices (even the 20/80 juice/water blend we used to give her), all fruit snacks (even our nice organic ones), all flavored rice milk drinks, and all crackers and chips (except on special occasions), etc. It was a rough first few days, but she has gotten used to it and mommy has greatly appreciated the results.

Now I'm on a mission to find fun snacks for her to eat that are both healthy, yummy, and easy to make at home. 

A little bit ago, I pinned the recipe for homemade goldfish crackers from Tasty Kitchen. 

These are a winner because they use only 5 ingredients (which I pretty much always have on hand), are very simple to make, and best of all--- J has put her stamp of approval on them. She looooves her homemade goldfish crackers. *Though if your child is used to Goldfishes, he/she may not like them as much. Our play date wasn't as thrilled. And I can't offer my opinion, as my dairy allergy won't let me eat them*

My first try looked something like this:

I had the dough all rolled out and started cutting out my "fishie" shapes with my homemade fishie cutter, fashioned from an old soda can. 

Here they are all organized on the lined cookie sheet, waiting to go in the oven.

After baking, they were a bit puffier, the thinner the dough, the crispier the cracker

As you can see, I got a bit lazy and finished the DOUBLE BATCH by just cutting diamonds.
So I guess they kind of morphed into homemade cheese-its? 

The result was a container of healthy-ish goldfish crackers, that I can give to J without worrying. 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you would like to make your own crackers, this is what you will need. 

Ingredients

8 oz cheddar cheese, grated

4 Tbsp butter, cubed

1 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tbsp cold water

How to

Add everything (minus the water) into a blender and pulse until the consistency of "coarse sand".

Take your water and add that 1 Tbsp at a time, while continuing to pulse. 

(You may need a bit more water if you live in a very dry place like me)

Remove dough, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes (if you leave it too long, it is hard to work with.... just take my advice)

After dough is chilled, remove and roll out.

Cut desired shapes out and bake on a lined cookie sheet at 350 F for approx 15 minutes, or until crispy. 

Remove from oven, let cool and ENJOY!!!!

Let me know if you make the crackers, and how they turn out for you!!! 

It's Grease Lightnin'!

A friend of mine was asking on Tuesday if anyone had any poodle skirts available to borrow. I have one at my parents house (don't you?) that I used a few times for themed events... But that sure wouldn't help.

Come to find out, her neighbor (a SR in High School), is in Grease and needed a poodle skirt. Apparently, she has a main part... and APPARENTLY needed it by Wednesday afternoon. Ha! I remember trying to gather all these last minute "details" for concerts, performances, etc..... glad I don't have to worry about that anymore. She couldn't find one already available, so I offered my needle services.

Thus, on Wednesday morning I gathered the kiddos and off to "town" we went. (Yes, we live in an area where we have to go to "town" to shop at any major or semi-well known stores.) A 20 minute drive later and we arrived at Joann Fabrics where we shopped til we dropped. (Oh, wait- we did hit the drive through Starbucks first... Mama needed some energy). And when we got back in the car, I literally dropped in my seat.

This mama was once again reminded why going to the fabric store (former pleasure) is currently on hold (because it becomes a current disaster!!!).

You see, being that we have to go to "town" to get to the fabric store... the children's "sit still" and "don't touch that" limit is already half used by the time we actually GET THERE! So, the first 20 minutes are great. One child singing, the other child happily looking around at everything. BUT, is 20 minutes enough time in a sewing heaven when you only get to go every 2 months? NO!!!!!! Thus, the break downs begin because mama still has things to do. Snacks suffice for a small amount of time and diversions/ songs another small amount and then.... then..... THEN comes the grabbing of everything in sight, the pushing of the sissy, the "NO, mommy, I say NO!!!!", the wiggling, the climbing out of the cart while it is moving, the unwinding of ribbons, the throwing and dropping of threads and buttons, the dumping of fabrics.... Oh, and the screaming child who wants to nurse every 10 minutes because she is teething.  Need I go on? I didn't think so.

But don't fret, because we all came out alive (and surprisingly happy). And we got some adorable new Easter decorations (A little late, you say? Right on time, I say. 70% off on time, I say!),  fabrics and embellishments to boot. Oh, plus the reason we went---- to get everything needed to make a 50's style poodle skirt.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to comfort a teething 7month old (who will not sleep and is not happy on the ground or with her paci) while sewing a poodle skirt. Most of it was done while Little J was napping (Thank the LORD for a long nap!) but the rest was finished up quickly after she awoke.

This being my first poodle skirt, made without using a tutorial or pattern, I was quite pleased with the results.  I hope hope HOPE it fit the girl it was made for and that she likes it!

See for yourself.... Purple is apparently the new red when it comes to poodle skirts. 

Hanging view

I think it looks cool all flat

Free-handed poodle from a picture

I love the string of black pearls for a leash 

side closure of velcro and button

Side closure  

All folded and ready to go! 

Kind of makes me want to watch Grease on DVD---- but only kind of.

Happy Mothers Day to Me!

Mother's Day this year was very nice. I felt very loved and special. Yay!  Hubby and I celebrated on Thursday as he found out that he would have to leave on a work trip for Sunday night. We had steak dinner, he brought me a dozen roses, and Starbucks!!! It was a very nice relaxing night! Then Friday night his brother (in the airforce) happened to be picking up and flying an aerobatic plane across the country for a friend and was able to land in town and surprise his mom. So we had a great weekend of family fun. I ALMOST got my first aerobatic ride, but the plane stalled right before we look off. We were literally at the end of the runway about to go up. HA! Glad it did the stalling on take-off and not the landing. (Apparently the engine was complaining about the mix of low RPMs, heat, and high altitude.... but don't worry it got all worked out later) And then Sunday was a relaxing day filled with sleeping in, skipping church (eeeeeekk!!!!), hemming some pants for Robert to take on his trip, playing outside and putting together my mother's day gift...... A Garden!!!! Or rather, a box to put my garden in! I was/am super duper excited about it! We are renting a house with a rock backyard, so my garden has been non-existant. SO SAD!!!! But now! NOW I get to plant my veggies and hopefully see some fruits (or veggies rather) of our labors! And the best part? When we move (hopefully in July.... another story for another time), we can take this box apart very easily. 

Go ahead, take a look at my garden box.... soon it will have all sorts of goodness coming out of it!

What an adorable gardener in the making! 

I hope your Mother's Day was as good as mine!

Daddys Gift to the Littles

He didn't know it when we bought this shirt, and I can't say I knew it either.... That one day his old work shirt would be transformed and grace our daughters closet as "new" dresses!

Daddy's shirt has recently taken on a new role, and I must say it has taken quite nicely to it.

Here are the outcomes, which look adorable with their little navy leggings!


Another tunic top for Little J

Front, complete with oversized pocket. Every child's dream

And back. 

And another dress for Little R

Back

Front

Sigh--- I love turning something old into new. ISH.