Baby Tank

I'm really into the denim top with patterned leggings trend for kids right now, especially for the baby.
I've bought a few sets that I love but I also knew that I had some denim left over from a skirt so I found a cute pair of leggings (at Walmart) and threw together a quick tank.

I really liked the look of the raw edge as the bottom of the tank and didn't think about the orientation as I did that. But I've decided I don't mind the sideways hearts.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Fall Decor

As things are finally cooling down around here I figured it was time to get some fall crafts going.

So I threw together a few sheets of leaves for the kiddos to pain and then hung them as garland in their rooms.

(KK's and KL's beds, since they have bunk beds theirs are mixed together)

(KM's bed)

(KN's bed, with KN of course- she loves to have her picture taken)

These were super simple. I just free-handed a few pages of leaves and set them up with water colors.
The twins used a cheap store bought paint palette, because the hard paints are harder to make a mess with, the big Ks used homemade liquid water colors I wrote about a while ago but never showed how the colors turned out, for this project I thinned them out a little bit.
After they dried, I cut them out with a little margin to show were stems were painted, and then paired them with varying sized circles cut out of fall colored paper. Punched a few small holes and strung them on fishing line. 

Here's a few of my favorites:
(In order: KL, KK, KN, KM)

KL went through after painting all hers and used orange to trace the stem and veins of them all, some of them were super cool. KK played with mixing/blending the colors and tint by going over areas more than once to darken areas. 

We also colored some store bought sun-catchers with permanent markers because I didn't want to dig out the sun-catcher paint. We tried using regular markers but they rubbed off easily, so we redid them. I hung them in front of the window with fishing line but didn't take a picture. 

While I'm on, here's the skirts I made for coming niece (I was feeling the pink and gray apparently, and the baby's nursery is in elephants): 

That's all for now,
Jo!

Next on my project list is a skirt for another niece's 3rd birthday and I may add a few hair bows to match if I can find the time while the kids are home on fall break this next week. 

What's New

Hello, I know I've been gone a while, but I promise I have good reason:

Meet Baby KO. She was born July 1st, late at night, and has been a wonderful addition to our family!! We are all so in love with her.

Since baby is here now I can tell you how I feel about the booby pads I made. Honestly, there fine for day time use but they cannot stand up to overnights. They are too small and don't hold enough liquid to stand up to prolonged periods of leaking, but it happens that way sometimes. Some projects work, others don't quite. Oh well.

This is my newest finished project:

Here are about 20 (and 2 not in the picture because my girls stole them already) headbands made from old tshirts. You can find instructions on Pinterest a million times over for the Celtic Knots. The chevron style ones I adapted from a scarf tutorial (found here).

I know that seems like a TON of headbands, even for a family with 5 daughters. That's because it is, but they were made to give away to Operation Christmas Child, and they all came together in no time. I found the idea one day and made one of each style to try them out (around 2-3 PM) and within about an hour I had made 8 more. Some are sewn together in the back, which takes a little longer; others are knotted, but I think that gives you the opportunity to turn it around and wear that side as the decoration if desired. I made the first 10 out of 2 old camis that had stretched and I no longer liked the way they fit. Later that night (after putting the twins to bed around 7) I cut the strips for the rest, I think I did 6 strips from 4 different shirts and knotted them all together before I went to bed that night. When I came back to it (a few days later) I spent about an hour and a half sewing and knotting the tails together. And that was all she wrote. It was quick and simple and for a great cause.

I also made this patchwork headband, but felt it was a little too stiff to make more of. (Meaning I gave it to my girls to try and KL said too tight):

I also finished a few needle points in the last week of waiting on KO to arrive.
Here is one, I can't find my photo of the other (it was a hummingbird crewel embroidery), this one was bought on sale at Hobby Lobby, like usual, and I've included the packaging in the photo so you can see brand, because I thought about that this time.

Here's hoping it's not too long before I get time to do more crafting again. Now that school is starting back up and even the twins will be in I have hope, but it depends on how much KO wants to snuggle.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Cross Stitches

I admit, most of my time right now is being spent making sure that everything is ready for baby's arrival so I haven't done too much crafting. I have still been sitting down to cross stitch to help relax at night. I've recently finished 2 so I thought I'd share them.

The first is baby KO's birth announcement, although not technically done since I don't have a birthday or weight to put on it yet, but everything else is done.

I bought this Dimensions kit from Walmart (one of the few that I've bought that wasn't on sale). I didn't want to repeat themes from my other kids so I avoided farm animals and nursery rhymes. KK was born before I was doing cross stitches, or at least in a period of me not doing them. KL's is a stack of cute, characterized farm animals and the twins' has nursery rhyme illustrations around the announcement details. So I thought the alphabet & numbers, even with animals, would be just fine.

After finishing the birth announcement I started a small embroidery project, bought on sale from Hobby Lobby and also a Dimensions kit.

This one was quick moving, I think I spent 2-3 days total. It was super simple.
KL was using it like a story to tell KM this morning. Something about the key to the house with the flowers in the window, and it went on but I don't remember. The twins like to point out all the hearts and of course the cupcake also, because what almost 3 year old isn't attracted to cupcakes.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Infant Circle Skirts

I have to be honest, I absolutely love making circle skirts. Partly because they are just absolutely adorable, and partly because they come together so quickly. Today I've got 2 new ones to show you, following the same basic process that I have with all the others.
I made these in preparation for baby KO, and I figure they'll be so easy to just slip over a little plain white/solid colored onesie for a super cute outfit.

Here they are together.

These are the fat quarters I picked up while shopping Hancock's sale a few weekends (probably closer to months now) ago. And the pink polka dot elastic was bought there also.
This was the project I had in mind for them, so I purposely picked out coordinating colors for the ruffled hem on the skirts.

Since the ruffled hem is the only difference- here's a quick talk through, because I have a hard time remembering to take pictures through the steps and really I'm not posting anything that you can't find a pattern/tutorial for somewhere else on-line, especially since that's where I usually get my ideas.
I knew that I wanted the hem to be about an inch, so I cut 3 pieces off the long end of the fat quarter (21-22 inches, depending on the brand and shrinkage) that were 2.5 inches wide. I sewed them together to make one very long piece. Then I ironed it in half, so it was only 1.25" tall. Then I ran basting stitches to gather it to size. Then I sewed the ruffle to the skirt, using a .25" hem so I had my 1" ruffle. I don't have a serger, so I did a zigzag stitch over the exposed edge to prevent fraying. And then I ironed the ruffle down and stitched above the ruffle to secure the edge of the ruffle to the skirt, keeping it in place.
If you ask me, the gather on the pink is better than the red, but on a cute infant no one will notice.

Here are shots of them individually:

I will say, that as much as I love making circle skirts, I have a love-hate relationship with visible elastic. I'm always terrified that the amount of tension I need to attach it properly will cause uneven stitches and ugly seams. Luckily with this project, my tread matched perfectly to the elastic and is better hidden, but there have been times when I use a contrasting thread for decoration and ended up wishing I didn't. Oh well, sometimes -okay, usually, it isn't perfect, but it's still a labor of love.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Tutu

I've seen the pictures and tutorials on how to make tutu using a crocheted/woven headband and tulle a million times over and always think "my girls would love one- or twenty" but I've never made one... until now.

I was looking for the elastic for KL's squared circle skirt and found a headband on sale on JoAnn's site while I was there. I also used the left over tulle from the circle skirt and the teal glitter tulle from my niece's bow.

Here's how it looks:

 It's pretty much a big poof ball.

Look at that^, that's 8 full inches of flare, but it's oh so adorable.

The headband I found, is perfect for about size 6-9 months, so I won't be able to try it out for a while. (I will say is stretches far enough that my K twins were each able to try it on while making it because they were just drawn to it.)

This was actually so simple that I was done in 2 hours (counting cutting time).
I started by finding an infant skirt pattern online to see what the length should be (about 5-6 inches depending on the pattern- I chose 6 just to be safe). Then I cut up all the remaining tulle on my spools, in twice the desired length because they'll be folded in half (but only used about half of what I cut because it got so full so fast, I honestly expected to need another layer that I definitely did not need). And I used my latch hook tool to attach them, and from there it was like magic.

Here's how they're attached- just folded in half and loop them through the holes- it's so simple!!

Here it is before I attached the teal. I finished the row of pink alternating dark and light (although I did all the dark first and then all the light) and then just a few rows up I added the teal about every forth loop to spread it out because it was already full, and because I didn't have as much.

 Can you imagine the big poof on a baby learning to crawl? The thought just makes me smile!!

That's all for now,
Jo!

Baby Gifts

So my best friend is having a little girl and I couldn't be more excited! (I'm starting to get baby fever again but, with 4, I'm done and so I'll live vicariously through her.) This is the first little one since I've started sewing again so I was ready for special gifts for very special baby!
Here's my theme- or at least what I'm thinking: Rock-a-bye Baby.

Here's how it works out-
"Rock-a-bye Baby" (in this cute little dress)

*This was a super simple pillowcase dress made with pink chevron flannel because even when your baby is born in summer you're still worried they're not warm enough! Then added a cute Wal-Mart sew on applique (isn't that little birdie cute!).

"In the tree top" (where the owls sleep)

*Again super simple- just a yard of flannel and a yard of black satin with a pink satin bias trim. Easy as sew together and add trim- I made my corners rounded so I wouldn't have to worry about making the squared corners perfectly folded.

"When the wind blows" (these will keep your hair in place)

*I had a ton of fun making bows. There's seven here (I think I added one more small one with a cupcake that was made after this picture was taken) but I made over 20 total- my K girls are in bow HEAVEN!!

"The cradle will rock" (I'm not sure quite how I'm going to tie this one in, I'm thinking something about how this is a diaper "cradle")

*I followed a pattern from 7 Layers Studio, it was much easier that it looks, I promise! I added a pink trim to the top after this photo was taken, just to make sure the layers don't slip and to stiffen the opening. It's perfect size to hold a container of wipes and 5-10 diapers, depending on the size of the wipes container. It's great for quick diaper changes on the go instead of having to dig through the diaper bag to find everything.

That's it- I'm so glad I get to give such unique gifts to such a unique and loved little girl!

That's all for now,
Jo!