DIY Little Mermaid Apron

Naptime crafting is the best! I have been wanting to make a dress-up apron for a long time now. Today's craft is a little mermaid inspired dress-up apron. 

The whole project cost me about five dollars in materials. I have been buying fabric from Joann's for forever but someone recently told me that walmart has fabric in store. Holy cow! Can we say bargain!? The selection is minimal and since I don't shop there, it was an added trip, but the price was great. I paid 1/3 of the prices at Joann's!

The whole project took me about 2 hours  since I had to do a lot of pinning. It was easy and a fun play accessory for my toddler. When I showed it to her she squealed and said, "mermaid". I call that a win! ;)

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Sew Your Own Queen Elsa Dress from Frozen

So if you have a daughter then it's likely you know all about Frozen. As the mother of a two year old, I sure do. I call it Frozen Fever, it's highly contagious and causes symptoms of: desperate merchandise shopping, panic attacks, 4 hour disney store line waits, and lack of merch induced depression. Luckily, my toddler is still so young that I don't have to run around collecting the character plushes just yet (even though I'd like to).

I did make my daughter Elsa's dress, or at least something similar. Here are some more pictures of it. It cost about $25 in supplies.

The cape is made of the same sheer fabric as the sleeves. I also went through and hot glued gems onto the cape in the shape of a snow flake toward the bottom. I put gems all over the cape at random as well. 

I love how it turned out and for my first dress with sleeves, I kind of impressed myself! LoL

What has Frozen done to all of you?

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Toddler Gardening Apron

Sorry y'all, I have been seriously MIA lately. That's what happens when the hubby is gone for a while.

Yesterday's project was a gardening apron for my daughter. I didn't follow a pattern since I have a huge pattern-phobia. Those thin sheets of puzzle like patterns seriously make my heart race a little, go ahead and laugh but they freak me out. Usually when I sew clothing, I look at Pintrest and make a sketch of what the plan is. I bought 100% linen in brown. This apron only took a 1/4 of a yard. 

The end result reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. This spring my toddler will be helping feed the chickens and water the garden and this apron will be great for that. 

It looks much cuter on her than the floor. ;) Next up, my own garden apron in a tan shade of 100% linen. 

In chicken news, we started with 4 hens this past fall and despite have a bitter cold winter, they all survived. 

The weather here hovered between -20F and 10F for quite a while but between a sturdy coop and hot drinking water every couple of hours, they thrived. If anyone would have told me 5 years ago that I'd be a mother of 1 toddler, 2 dogs, and 4 hens today, I would have had them committed. Having a daughter really brought out my inner hippy/farmer/green self ;)

Has your inner hippy come out as well since having kids?

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Easy Sew Minky Blanket DIY

I made this blanket for a recent gift exchange. I liked it a lot and eventually may make one for home. It was so easy. Cut, pin, sew! There was a 30 minute hiccup with my sewing machine but generally went smoothly. 

You'll need:

1 yard of minky fabric

1 1/2 yards of designed fabric

Color appropriate thread and two bobbins worth of the same color. 

The fabric I bought was perfect and I didn't have to cut but once. You want your minky fabric to be 4 inches shorter in length and height than the designed fabric. I folded the designed fabric in to barely touch the minky fabric and then folded it again to cover the minky fabric. This will give you 3 layers to sew together. Do this and pin as you go. Sew along the middle of the fold and again closer to the seem. 

These look darling and couldn't be easier. I will be making 3 more as christmas gifts. Throw questions in the comment area and I'll do my best to help you along. 

Ps the excess fabric makes a great little toddler scarf!

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Easy Sew Toddler Pajamas

POOF! All of a sudden I have become a lot more comfortable with my sewing machine. I have a basic Singer that was a gift 4-5 years ago from my mom&dad. I have made skirts, dog beds, pjs, and curtains and all have been ok. Tonight I made some pj pants for my 19 month old daugther without a pattern. I used this blog to guide me in making these pants. 

http://mycottoncreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/christmas-eve-pajama-pants-tutorial.html?m=1

Start to finish they took about 1.5 hr for my first pair and that included my sewing machine giving me fits for about 25 minutes. Follow the instructions and if you have any questions feel free to ask! :) these were super fun to make. Thank goodness because I am totally anti-patterns ;).  Happy crafting!

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Pillowcase Dress DIY

Tonight I had a great time crafting in the kitchen. I decided to attempt the "Pillowcase Dress" that often pops up as soon as the summer begins. I am very green when it comes to sewing, very green! Let me preface that by saying that I am not a puzzle person. Does that make me anti green puzzles... maybe so. I look at sewing patterns like a puzzle and I find them very difficult to follow. This is why the pillowcase dress appealed to me so much (though I didn't use a pillowcase). I just browsed google images and free sketched my basic design. Here is my finished dress.

The end result was decent although I marked the dress in pen and so this was just for practice. I have made drawstring pj pants for myself using the sewing machine (the hubby walked me through the pattern portion of it, darn puzzle!) My other projects included: 2 dog beds, 2 dog coats, a 6 month onesie, car seat canopy, a skirt with a zipper back, and drapes. The dog beds were the easiest and turned out the best. The pj bottoms are great and I still wear them occassionally. 

This week has been a doozy! We have had my niece over three days this week as well as plenty of fall chores to complete. We've been working on the chicken coop as a family. The floor is in and two walls are up now!

We also finally had good conditions to burn up the huge brush pile at the back of the property. It may look small but those are 4x4x8 posts in the picture. Luckily we kept it very tame and the neighbors didn't call the fire dept.

We also mapped out the dog run and next year's raised bed garden. All in all, it was a productive week. What have you done to prepare for shorter days and colder nights? As always...

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