Crossover Pinafore

I saw the cutest little girls outfit on Smashed Peas and Carrots. So I pinned it on Pinterest. Then Cousin Jamie told me that if she has a girl she wants me to make her one. Well lucky Jamie and me because Maggie offers a free pattern!

Image from Smashed Peas and Carrots

I thought I should try it out before I make her a few (if she finds out she is having a girl).

I dug through my scraps of fabric and managed to find some black and white polka dot fabric. I wanted to line it with a cute hot pink fabric but didn't have any on hand. I did have a grey and made do. Julia helped me pick out the red buttons.

Excuse the picture on it's side.

I know that I imported it right-side up.

This was the easiest little outfit to sew! For the bloomers I used the diaper cover tutorial by Dana at Made. She also had a free pattern!

Thank you Maggie and Dana for an easy night of sewing. Now I'm crossing my fingers for Jamie or maybe Emily, Jenny, Stephanie, Shannon....... My list of preggers is pretty long this year.

Ruffle Pants

Julia slept in the skirt I made her so I thought it would be cute to make her a pair of pajama pants out of the left over ruffle fabric. I had just enough fabric left to try making Julia a pair of pants. I might even have a little scrap left to make her a matching top or matching skirt for one of her dolls.

I made them a little long so that she would be able to wear them for a long time. Why do kids grow so fast?

I used the tutorial for pants found on MADE and just used the same waistband technique from Altered Cloth that I did on the ruffle skirts.

Ruffle Skirt

I happen to live near Solvang, CA and in Solvang there is a store that sells fabric by the yard for only $1! But you have to check regularly to see what they have in stock and sometimes you have to dig. They happened to have some ruffle fabric. It was only a scrap and not on a bolt. But I did get about a yard and a half of it. I have not sewn in a while but with finding out that 3 cousins, my sister-in-law, and a few friends are pregnant has got me in the mood again.

I saw a cute skirt on Little Birdie Secrets that she found a tutorial for on Altered Cloth. But instead of making it for myself I decided to make one for Julia out of the $1/yard ruffle fabric.

I followed the tutorial and adjusted the size to fit my daughter. I also didn't make the skirt as full. I originally planned to make it really full but then changed my mind as I was sewing the skirt. It was an easy sew and I finished it in just over an hour. In fact I was able to make two skirts in about an hour and a half.

Skirt A

Remember how I said I changed my mind about the fullness of the skirt? Well using the fabric that I cut off I was able to make another skirt. This skirt is slightly fuller and twirls a bit better.

Skirt B

Julia liked Skirt A the best and we happen to know a little girl who loves to wear skirts everyday that we can give Skirt B. Not to shabby for about 50 cents worth of fabric!

I have a little more of this ruffle fabric left to experiment with.

Pink Crochet Bead Socks

While my niece was visiting I thought I would whip her up a pair of pink bead socks. We did a lot of sitting and chatting, her mom and I, so it was the perfect time. Then I forgot to send them home with her! I'll try to ship them off this week.

In the past I have used tri-beads on the socks. I thought these beads looked a little fancier.

Enjoy Gwen!

Crochet Bead Socks

My mom used to make me these in all color combinations. Then she taught me how to make them. They are a good project to do while watching "Design Star". :) I have plan to whip some up for the little girls in my life. I know of one little girl coming next week that will love these.

Wrapping Paper Station

You might remember these pieces from a previous post. I had just gotten a new nail gun and couldn't wait to use it. the piece on the right is the one I'll be highlighting today.

I search for just the right wrapping station on various blogs and found that I like this one the best from Design Gal & Her Handyman.

After caulking and painting the piece it was time to put on the hardware. I started by putting the picture hanging saw tooth hangers on the back first. I knew it would be difficult once I put the cup hooks on the front.

To make sure that the cup hooks lined up from one side to the next I used a jig that I created myself. To make it even easier make your jig the same size as your frame. Then you can mark your center dot directly on the jig. My scrap piece is 3" long but too skinny so I used a ruler.

I put the jig directly up against the cup hook and the ruler up against the jig. Then I would remove the jig and mark my dot at the 1 1/4" mark.

You might be able to see my tiny dot at the 1 1/4" mark on the ruler.

I would mark a dot and install a cup hook. When my fingers started hurting from turning the cup hooks I used a tool to help me turn them. A screw driver works really well.

All done!

The dowels are 5/8" x 36" and were found at JoAnn Fabrics. I used a 50% off coupon to purchase each one so it was like getting 4 of them for free. The cup hooks I purchased at Home Depot. They are 1 1/2". Take your dowel with you to make sure that it will slip into the cup hook. I had read on another blog that she only painted to the ends of her dowels because it would just be covered up by the paper roll. It made it really quick and easy to paint.

The blank space

Newly installed! I used a ruler and level to make sure that I hung it up nice and straight.

I purposely left room at the bottom without cup hooks because I planned to hang tissue paper. I'm not sure I like it. I better save my jig just in case I want to add a few more hooks for more wrapping paper. It feels so nice to have my paper up off the bottom of the closet floor where I can get to it much easier.

Primary: Temple Pieces

I am the primary chorister in my ward and I'm rather new to primary music. I love to check out the Friend to see if there is anything that I can use in Primary or have the kids use at home. In the July 2011 Friend on page 34 I found the following images:

Our song this month is "I Love to See the Temple" and I thought I could use these in some manner. First I had to make them bigger. I scanned the page, straightened the picture out, and then cropped the pictures out.

When the pieces are put together it should look something like this:

I put my 5x7 pieces onto 8.5 x 11 inch page and printed them on photo paper at home. I also laminated them so I can use them forever.

Feel free to grab and use these images or email me and I can send them to you. I also have each piece of the puzzle as an individual jpeg in case you would rather print 5x7's through Costco or another photo print source. Happy Singing!