Magic Elastic Thread

So, as I have said before, I am new to the sewing world.  I have been doing it for just about a month now!  I have had a blast and am learning more and more all the time.  I will have to say that the best thing thus far that I have discovered since I started sewing is ELASTIC THREAD!!! If you have not used this before, you have to try it out! This stuff is AMAZING.  Just load it in your bobbin and away you go!!!  It does all of the work for you!  I mentioned it briefly in my Ruffle Booty Bloomers Tutorial.

I have to give credit to Susan from Living With Punks and her tutorial I found over on Momtastic.  Check it out HERE.   I took this tutorial and made this cute dress below for my little girl!  This was made from 3 bandannas I picked up at Walmart for just $1 each!!!

Here is the latest thing that I did with my elastic thread.  My kid's daycare celebrates Arkansas Children's Week each year and they sale t-shirts for the kids to wear on t-shirt day.  Well, the smallest shirt doesn't actually fit until your child is about 3 years old and my youngest is 15 months.  I wanted to do something cute for her shirt and I thought I could surely come up with something using my ELASTIC THREAD. 

Here is the t-shirt before:

And AFTER:

And my little baby Model! (who was not being very cooperative!)

 So, what are you waiting for???  Go out and get buy some elastic thread!!!!

Blogger Parade of Homes 2011

Poppies at Play is hosting a fabulous online parade of homes featuring 4 extremely talented bloggers each day this week!   I am loving the office over at Honey We're Home.  Isn't is fabulous? 

And this is only a glimpse of this home.  She has an amazing closet any girl would love to have as well!

Subscribe to Poppies at Play so that you don't miss out as she shares this free parade of homes all week long!

Sew-Along Complete

As you saw in my post at the end of last week, I have been participating in a sew-along sponsored by Living With Punks.  Hopefully, some of you were able to join in with this effort.  It has been fun and Susan has been a great instructor posting day-by-day tutorials!  I got a couple of days behind, but finally got the time to finish it all up today.  Here are a few pics of the process.

Finally sewing on my girls!

Even though it is Spring, I had a hard time finding a short sleeve white shirt.  So, I just got a long sleeve and cut the sleeves off! I think it worked out okay!

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!!

Close Up of my girls!

I have to mention that I LOVED that it was called the Chloe & Meiko Friends Forever t-shirt, since I have a little Chloe of my own!!!  So, maybe this shirt from the home of Chloe will find a little girl named Mieko in Japan!!! How cool would that be!



My First Tutorial: Ruffle Booty Bloomers!

I was walking through our hospital gift shop today and spotted some super cute ruffle booty bloomers.  I stopped and looked at them and then looked at the $22 price tag.  Then, a light bulb went off and I thought I can so make these myself!  I did not feel like stopping off to purchase any fabric, and then I thought about all of the old t-shirts and tank tops that I have in my closet.  I could sure put some of those to use for this project.  Most of them have moved with me 3 or 4 times without being worn!!! 

So, I got to pinning and cutting.  I found a great diaper cover pattern over at Dana Made It.  This is a great basic diaper cover/bloomer pattern!  Check it out!  You will be glad you did!

Click HERE to get her pattern.

Supplies needed:

Tank top or tee shirt

1/4 inch elastic for the legs

3/8 inch elastic for the waist

Elastic thread

Sewing machine

Serger (optional)

I started with a plain pink tank top.  I forgot to take a picture before I cut it all up!  Pin and cut the front and back pieces.  Once you have cut front and back, cut three strips along the fold about 1 1/2 inches wide and the length of the widest part of the back side of bloomers.

Start with your strips and serge the outer edges.   (If you don't have a serger, you can leave the edges raw or do a zigzag stitch instead.)

Once you have serged all three ruffle strips, remove bobbin and insert bobbin threaded with elastic thread.  (This stuff is magical!!!)

  

Sew down the middle of each strip and watch those ruffles start to appear!

There you have it!  A lovely ruffle for that little booty!

Pin the ruffles in place and attach them to the back side of the bloomers.  Remember to leave enough space at the top for your elastic casing.  I kept the elastic thread in the bobbin for this part to allow it to ruffle up even more.

Now, you have the back side of your bloomers ready to go! 

At this point, continue with the tutorial over at Dana Made It.  Click HERE for the tutorial.

Check out the finished product!

These are too small for my baby girl, so I used teddy as a Ruffle Booty Bloomer model!

What do you think???

Sew Along for Japan

Hey all!  Join me in this great cause!  Susan at Living With Punks is hosting a sew along to benefit the children in Japan.  We all know that they are experiencing great distress and loss following the earthquake that hit their country 2 weeks ago.  I will be joining in to make the t-shirt below for a child in Japan.

 
Starting on Monday and continuing through next week, Susan will post a tutorial each day of each step for making this cute shirt!  When you are all done, you will send them off to Chelsea at Pink Fig Design.  Chelsea is even going to throw in a 50% off coupon for her new doll pattern being released in May.

Oh, and let's not even mention the FABULOUS giveaway you will have a chance at winning by linking your completed  shirt(s) at Living With Punks between March 31st and April 3rd!   I can't wait to get started on mine!

Click HERE to get all the details!!!

It Just Keeps Growing and Growing...

My obsession for craft blogs that is! I have had this growing obsession since this past fall when my good friend over at Sweet Potatoes and Sunshine introduced them to me. I am pretty sure it only took one night and I was hooked!!! One blog would lead me to another and then another and then to the pages on facebook. Each day over lunch we would talk about what we had discovered the night before. After months and months of obsessing over other blogs, I have decided to take this plunge and give it a go at my own blog!

I am so excited to share with you the adventures I have while crafting and most recently sewing (which has now added sewing blogs to my obsession)! I hope to share with you some of the great things that brought me to the craft world by sharing the things that I find out there, as well as bringing some new things to the table as well. Jump on this train with me and if I am the cause for you becoming obsesses with craft blogs, then I have done my job!