DIY Thursday: Thanksgiving kitchen dress towel

A few days ago my mother in law gave me this cute towel that she made. I thought it was too cute not to share! I'm not one who sews, but it looks as if it would be incredibly easy to make. All it needs is some fabric, a dish towel, and ribbon. I took a picture close up so you can see how to exactly attached everything. Go ahead and try to make one! If you're not someone that sews I know that Quilted Bear sells some cause I was just in their yesterday and saw a booth with some! Wouldn't this be cute and good to use on Thanksgiving Day!?!

DIY Thursday: Moby Wrap

Do you see all those moms carrying their babies wrapped up, allowing their hands to be free?  I do!!  And when I had my baby girl in December, I decided I needed to be hands free since I have a very active 4 year old boy and I am on the PTA board at my daughter's school so I am always needing to go helps with stuff, and sometimes a stroller just doesn't work....plus I like to bake a lot and you need two hands for that.  Well, If you want a Moby wrap, those things are expensive!!  $40-$70 for a long piece of material?!  No thanks...I will do it myself for a fraction of the cost.  Your first step....locate a coupon to use for your material...if you have a Joann's nearby they always have at least a 40% off coupon either online, on the mobile app, or in their mailers.  

there are 2 ways to do this, the super duper easy way, or the super easy way.  

The super duper easy way: Find 6 yards of Jersey knit material, or a stretchy cotton (the jersey knit is usually plain colors and the stretch cotton will have designs).  Then, just cut it in half long ways (sometimes you can have the nice ladies at the cut counter do it) and viola!  You actually have 2 wraps....they make great presents.  6 yards can be pricey, that's why I say get a coupon, and if you have a friend go in half, you both get a wrap.

The super easy way:

Get 3 yards of material, cut in half long ways.

Pin the ends together and sew together.

Here is the finished product =)  I actually like having the seam there because when you wrap you have to locate the middle....easy when it is the seam =)  If you just do the 6 yard method, just sew a little mark or even use a marker and make a mark in the middle.

This was me and my pipsqueak baby wearing =)  This was at a  parade....you gotta love doing the self pictures because otherwise you won't be in any pictures..... It was nice having my hands free to chase candy for me the kids.  My little girl loves it too

And this is when we went to the Treehouse Museum.  It was good holding her in the wrap while I kept my hands free helping Brenna and Ian play and be creative =)

And it makes it easy when they take a nap, you just fold the material over to hold their head so it doesn't flop.

Here is a link to some tutorials on how to wrap.

DIY Thursday: Project Toy Cover Up

BEFORE

 AFTER

We are currently using the back of a bar that my husband "rescued" from the side of the road as storage for the boys toys and a place to but the DVD player and cable box. Now while I realize that we cannot afford to get something that I really want for that purpose at this moment, and i am ok with that, the fact is that it is UGLY and I was sick of it. So i decided to cover it up.

Awhile ago I made these pillows to replace the awful pillows that we used to have on our couch and I used the extra fabric from that to make the cover.

I won't bore you with how long it took me to firgure out the sizing that worked for the fabric I had because it is a very very long boring project. Just measure twice and cut once, as my mom would say, and make sure you leave room at the edges for the seams.

I ironed the edges down before I sewed them about 1/2 an in. This is a thick fabric and it made the process so much easier.

At the corners I tucked the end in of one side at a 45 degree angle and sewed across it. I have to say that I was way to proud of myself at how this came out. :) It just looks so fancy. (To me.)

Then I cut four, 3 in pieces of Velcro and spaced them evenly across the top of where I was planning on hanging the cover from. I chose to use the pokey side of the Velcro on the fabric so when it was not hanging people wouldn't hurt themselves of the bar.

Then I sewed them down on all four sides.

I spaced the other side of the Velcro on the bar and hot glued them to it.

And for extra stability I nailed them in.

On two sides.

TA DA!!! I think it turned out pretty well and as a bonus everything around it looks cleaner too. Its magic!

No not really. I had to take all these toys out of the chest to make it close. he he. Well, that's all for now. I hope this at the very least gave you some ideas on how to spruce up or cover up some of the unloved spaces in your home. How do you deal with toy storage?

DIY Thursday: Monster Blanket

 As I was contemplating how I wanted to decorate my little guy's room I wanted either dinosaurs or monsters.  I decided on monsters =)  I made these awesome decorations to go in his room. So I then tried to find some cute cool (I am not allowed to call anything of my little boy's cute....he gets very mad because he is cool and awesome, not cute! =)  ) bedding.  He would be moving from a toddler bed to a twin sized bed so he needed a new bed set.  All of the monster themed bedding was not exactly very cute...and I didn't want Monsters, Inc stuff either.  Then I thought "How hard could it be to just make a blanket?"  I had made several receiving blankets so I figured it wouldn't be much harder to just do a big version.  It turned out that the sewing part wasn't much harder, but it involved a bit more math....yuck!  So here is what I did, and I hope I can make it clear as mud for you =)

First of all, I had to order my monster fabric online.....and it was $10 a yard!  and I couldn't use a coupon =(  So I just got a yard and a half, but if you want to use a bigger piece, it doesn't really change how to make the blanket so go for it =).  Then I had to find my matching fabrics.  I was just going to sew my monster piece onto a plain piece of fabric.  If you are really good at sewing you could probably just piece some pieces around as a border....but that would have taken me using my brain and I wasn't feeling it....so I just slapped it on a big piece of fabric.

For my big fabric, I got 5 yards of fabric.  I wanted it to be about 68 inches wide, and the fabric was 44 inches so I was going to have to sew 2 pieces together.  My original plan was to  cut the 5 yards in half, then sew those halves together and then trim the sides to 68 inches, but leaving a few inches for the hemming.

Then I realized if I cut the fabric into thirds, measured 68 (actually around 68 1.2 for the hem/seams) inches, and then cut. and then just sew the tops and bottoms together, It would look better having horizontal seams rather than a vertical seam.

So them I just had to trim my length, which I wanted it to be around 90 inches.  If you do it that way, you can probably get away with about 4 yards of fabric.

Once I had the big fabric sewn together I need to place my pattern piece on it.  I measured the sides and tops and centered my piece on, and then pinned it tightly in place.

I then sewed it on.  I just did a regular ol' zig zag stitch.  When you want to mark your spots, I just used some chalk to mark my places since it wipes off really easily.

The next step was doing my bottom piece.  I had to sew the fabric like I did the top piece.  Once I had it sewn together and trimmed to the size I wanted, I then put the rights sides together with my top piece and pinned the edges together.

Use lots of needles so you can get it flat and not bunched up.

I'm not sure the exact measurement of the seam I did, but it was to the 2nd line on my sewing machine (I'm still new to the sewing world so I don't know all the terms and whatnot).

I sewed 3 sides, leaving the top open.  I then turned it right sight out.  I got my quilt batting and put it inside.  They had the stuff that was already measured out to fit a twin sized comforter so that make it nice and easy =)  It was also iron on so once I got it in place, I ironed it so It would move around while I was sewing the rest.

 I then folded the top and ironed the hem and then was able to sew it.  I then did a zigzag stitch around the whole thing just give it a bit of a design on the edges.

I knew the batting wouldn't stay in place when we had to wash it (and since this was for a 3 year old boy, I knew we would be washing it).  Then I got some yarn, and just tied it like a regular ol' quilt.  It was super easy.  I just did them in random places because I didn't want to measure.

I know this isn't the greatest of tutorials, but I just wanted to show that even a beginner can make a big blanket.  Now just a warning....if you are wanting to make a comforter hoping to make it cheaper than buying one....it probably won't happen.  Even though I used coupons on everything but the monster piece, it was still a little bit more than buying a comforter.  I think it was about $50 total.  But it was worth it to me because I got exactly what I wanted and this will be a blanket that will be special to my little guy =)

It was hard to get the full blanket in the picture, but you get the idea.  I would have liked to have had the monster piece bigger, but at $10 a yard I was lucky to do what I did.

Ian is pleased with his blanket.  He slept with it before I even had his room done to put it in.  His sister even thought it was nice and warm.  I will be doing a similar blanket for her to match her new sister's.....but that will probably be around March......

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