Fitted Ruffle Tablecloth

I love the concept of table cloths, but I hate using them with kids because they just get constantly messed up, shifted, and pulled off. That's why I fell in love with the idea of a fitted tablecloth!

Just like a fitted sheet, the tablecloth stays in place throughout the meal...even with kids getting in and out of their seat and sliding plates everywhere. The ruffle gives it a fun, feminine feel and makes the table setting feel that much fancier.

Tooth Fairy Bag

One of my biggest regrets with the tooth fairy is having my kids put their teeth under their pillow! It is so stressful for the poor tooth fairy to dig around under their sleeping heads to find those tiny little teeth. My 5 year old lost her first tooth last year and she was very concerned that the tooth fairy wouldn't be able to find the tooth, so we improvised and made a tooth fairy bag to hang on her door.

I didn't take any other pictures because this was a last minute craft to appease my sweet girl, but it was so worth making it! The tooth fairy's life just became so much easier because she just has to find the bag hanging on the bedroom door, retrieve the tooth, and leave the money in the bag!

To make the bag, I just free-handed a tooth shape on some white felt (make 2).

I sewed along the edge of the tooth bag, leaving the top of the tooth open to put the tooth/money in.

I used some red ribbon and sewed that to the top of the bag for easy hanging, and we were done!

I'm linking up to Creatively Crafty Link Party, Creative Compulsions Linky Party, 

Dress Shirt to Doctor's Coat

When my daughter was 2, she loved Doc McStuffins, so I knew a doctor's costume would be perfect for Halloween for her. I didn't want to spend a fortune on a doctor's coat or lab coat, so I used one of my son's shirts to make her lab coat!

Felt Mitten Ornament

These felt mitten ornaments are perfect for making as little add-ons to Christmas gifts this year, or for having your kids make to teach them basic sewing skills!

Simply cut out a basic mitten shape from two pieces of felt. Cut out some rectangles of white felt for the cuffs, and start sewing the pieces together (or have your kids do it).

Leave a hole big enough to stuff some poly-fill inside, sew a ribbon to the top to hang it with, and sew the opening shut.

You can easily add embellishments like buttons, lettering (I did my son's initial and the year-14).

Here's my inspiration for this ornament.

Handmade Owl Ornament

How cute is this felt owl ornament?!

I made one for my daughter since her brothers have light-saber ornaments this year. 

To make your own, go to Juicy Bits for the directions and template.

Sewing Scout Patches

Growing up, I would often help my mom sew on my brothers' scout patches to their Boy Scout uniforms. Now, I have an 8 year old and am entering the world of scouting all over again. A friend of mine gave me the best advice ever for sewing scout patches...use clear thread!

I found the transparent thread at WalMart and it made sewing bunches of patches on a cinch. I didn't even mind when I had to take some off and resew them because it went so quickly.

Scout moms, you're welcome :).
I’ll be linking up to  Mom’s Library, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Mommy Club,Whatever Goes Wednesday, 

Stroller Recover

I found a little doll stroller at a garage sale for only $2! It was in great condition except for the fabric seat...there was a tear in the front corner. So I decided to make a new seat!

I used my seam ripper and took out all of the stitches in the original seat. I took pictures as I went along so I knew how to put my new seat together.

The pieces to the old seat were my pattern. I pinned them to the new fabric and cut out the pieces. Using the photos I took, I sewed the new seat together and I was able to use the original purple binding around the edges. Not bad for $2 and a little bit of time! Plus, the fabric I used is much thicker/stronger so it should last longer than the original fabric would have.

  I’ll be linking up to  Mom’s Library, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Mommy Club,Whatever Goes Wednesday,

Rag Dolls

When I saw the rag dolls that Red Ted Art made, I knew I had to make one for my daughter! While I was at it, I decided to make more for nieces and friends' daughters.

Before I knew it, my house had random, disembodied doll parts all over the place! But, I finished them and think they turned out adorable. I'm saving one for my baby's first birthday this summer :).

You can find the pattern and directions for these rag dolls over on Martha Stewart's site.

Sharing the Holidays with Febreze

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Febreze. I received products and compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

This will be my baby girl's first Christmas and I am so excited! I can't wait to see all three of my children during the holidays. There are so many wonderful things to look forward to from winter/Christmas crafts to the Christmas parade in our town. This year I just want to soak it all up, because time only seems to be going faster and I don't want to miss the wonder and awe in each of my children's faces.

Butterfly Mobile

When I was expecting my boys, we were in school and had a very small income. I spent as little as possible and we relied mostly on gifts or hand-me-downs from family and friends. Suffice it to say, decor was basically non-existent for my boys.

This time, however, I have loved decorating a nursery for our baby girl! The room she is in was already painted a sage green and I knew I wanted lilac/purple butterflies as the accent. My husband declared that purple wasn't girly enough and pink needed to be involved, so we ended up with purple and pink, and I love how her little corner of our home has turned out.

After searching for a mobile that fit the style of the nursery and not finding one, I decided to make a mobile for our daughter and here it is:

I used the butterfly felt soft toy pattern at Sew Sweet to make the butterflies. The only things I did different than she did, was to stuff the wings so they wouldn't flop down while hanging, and I sewed circles/hearts onto the wings. This was a great project for me while pregnant because it kept my hand busy while I was sitting/resting (which I had to do a lot!).

I sewed some purple ribbon to the backs of the butterflies and glued them to the inside hoop of an embroidery hoop I bought at Walmart. I glued more ribbon to the hoop and hung it from a hook.

It’s a Girl!

I’ve been keeping a little secret, and you can tell by the title that we are finally getting a little girl in our family! Everyone is very excited, and my boys are so glad that I won’t be the only girl in our family anymore. She will be joining us sometime in July and I can only imagine how much things are going to change around here…I’m so used to dinosaurs, dirt, cars, and everything boy!

As soon as we found out, I came home and started looking for patterns to start sewing for my sweet little girl and here’s what I’ve come up with so far: The top two pictures are from Made by Rae’s Little Geranium dress pattern. I love the details from the gathered waist to the cute little pocket and can’t wait to dress up my little girl in this. I think this pattern is more complicated than other dresses and definitely more time consuming because of the gathering and lining.

The bottom dress is the Peasant Dress from Sew Much Ado. This is a perfect dress for beginner sewers with mostly simple lines and a casing with elastic at the arms and neck. I added purple ribbon on the bottom to make it a bit more girly but think this will be perfect for the summer heat.

I found the idea to make the peasant dress and matching diaper cover from Quilt Story. You can find the diaper cover pattern at Made. The diaper cover was tricky for me because it doesn’t lie flat as you are making the casing…a little annoying for someone who is obsessive over sewing.

So, there will likely be more pink, frills, lace, etc here in the future. I can’t wait to share it with you :).

Fold & Snap Bib Tutorial

Last year our friends had a baby girl so I decided to send them a few fold & snap bibs. These bibs are wonderful because you can either leave them open to protect baby’s shirt or snap up the bottom to catch crumbs as they fall from baby’s mouth.
I first saw the idea on Made by Rae and fell in love with these simple-to-make, practical bibs that are so easy to personalize!

Last minute snow mittens

We get snow maybe once a year where we live, so snow gloves/mittens are not something I usually feel the need to invest in. This year, however, we had an entire week in December of no school because of snow, and we had a big “snowstorm” last weekend that left us with 5 or so inches of snow on the ground. My boys refused to go outside unless they had warmer gloves, so I whipped up a pair of fleece snow mittens (similar to my shark mittens) for each of them and they worked wonders!

Denim Flower Patch

I bought some pants for super cheap from Target last year, but they came with holes in the knees. The holes have only gotten bigger and started looking ridiculous, so I used denim scraps from other jeans to make flower patches on the knee. I think it turned out pretty darn cute if I say so myself…

Here’s how I did it:

1. I printed out a flower I liked and traced it onto Wonder Under.
2. I then (following the instructions on the packaging) bonded the Wonder Under to some scrap denim and cut out the flowers and flower centers.
3. I removed the paper backing and ironed the flowers over the holes (I put paper in the pant leg so I wouldn’t bond the pants shut). And then I bonded the flower center to the flowers.
4. I took thread and hand sewed the flowers to the pants so they wouldn’t fall off. The edges have frayed over time and look super cute. I used back stitch.

It took a little time, but they look so much nicer than a traditional square patch and these pants should last me quite a while longer! This would be super cute on jeans for little girls, especially if they wear holes in the knees faster than should seem humanly possible :).

Felt Fortune Cookies

Ok, so Chinese New Year is coming up…Sunday February 10th. If you’re planning on celebrating, and if you’re looking for cute table decorations (or if you just LOVE fortune cookies…), try making these felt fortune cookies! These little cookies are also perfect for putting little love notes in for your significant other for Valentine’s Day this year!

They are super simple. Just cut out circles of felt. Mine were 2 1/2 or so inches across (I traced the lid of a mason jar directly onto the felt.

Monster Patch

We are officially to the ages where pants don’t stand a chance in this house with two active boys. I am seeing more and more holes in the knees and knew something had to be done! After seeing some posts on Pinterest linking to here, I knew monster patches were exactly what those holes needed :)…

I loved how cute it turned out and how simple the patch was to do…just cut a red piece of fabric slightly larger than the hole. Cut some teeth out of white felt or other fabric and sew it to the top of the red patch so the teeth show. Place the patch on the inside of the leg with the teeth facing out and either sew it on or fuse it on using Heat N Bond or other similar products.

Cut two circles from white felt and two smaller circles from blue or other colored felt and hand stitch them above the “mouth” patch to make the eyes.

Now your kids’ knees won’t get cold and they’ll look super cute! Roar!!!

I’m linking up to Kids Get Crafty, Works for me Wednesday, Look What We Did, Mom’s Library, What are little boys made of? Clever Chicks Blog Hop, and Share It Saturday.

Bobbin Organizers

I have a lovely sewing desk that I inherited from my mother-in-law and I love having an actual desk to put all of my random sewing supplies in, but my bobbins were causing trouble! I’m sure you understand…bobbins rolling everywhere, getting unwound and tangled, making a terrible mess :). Until I saw this pin from Pinterest and my life changed…

I had a bunch of the toe separators from random pedicure kits given to me and all of my bobbins are neatly rolled up and contained with an easy way to see what color thread is on each one…so there you have it, Toe Separator Bobbin Organizers. Try it out!

I’ll be linking up to Mommy Solutions, Mom’s Library, Works For Me Wednesday,

(I would have linked to the original post that I found through the pin, but apparently it doesn’t exist anymore…)

Fabric Growth Chart

My dad used to measure our height in the doorway to his office in the house we grew up in. I remember so vividly the excitement, the fighting over who got to be measured first, the comparisons made between siblings. Sadly, when I was 13 we moved and the doorway remained…all those measurements were lost.

So I got thinking about how I can give my boys the same experience without losing those measurements should we ever move and this is what I came up with:

I used scraps of old khaki/tan colored clothes for the middle section and hand-embroidered the green loopy-line. I envisioned it to be sort of like a vine.

I then sewed the green fabric to both sides, making it like a long tube. I took stiff interfacing and ironed that on to the inside of the growth chart to prevent it from stretching while it hung.

Then I sewed the hanging loops on and finished the top and bottom.

It has been so fun to see my boys get excited and to have a visual comparison of their heights as they have grown up (I cheated and used old records to add their previous heights). I plan to measure them at each birthday and hand embroider a line with their initial and age.

What do you think?

While pondering how I was going to make this, I stumbled across this growth chart and used it for some of the inspiration…thanks!

I’ll be linking up to Sew Crafty Saturday, Show and Tell, Weekend Wrap Up Party, Friday Fun Finds,

Back Pocket Pot Holder

I LOVE creative ways to reuse jeans. When I came across Creating My Way to Success, I had to make my own back pocket pot holder that day! It was super simple to make and I had everything on hand :).

All you need is:

• A back pocket from a pair of jeans (I used men’s jeans so the pocket was bigger). Make sure to leave as much denim around the pocket as possible.
• A piece of fleece the same size as your back pocket piece. This acts as the insulator to prevent you from getting burned. I have used this potholder several times and have never been burned so I know the fleece works fine.
• A piece of fun fabric the same size
• Bias tape of your choice in color
• A sewing machine

Embroidered Cards

I thought it would be nice to send my dad a unique, embroidered card for his birthday and I truly hope he likes it because it took a lot longer than the usual cards I send and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out…

I just printed out the image I wanted, traced it onto cardstock and used a needle and embroidery thread to carefully embroider the image onto the cardstock. If you know how to embroider or want more practice this is a fun, unique, personal way to show someone you care!

I’ll be linking up to Works For Me Wednesday, Penny Pinching Party, Show and Tell, Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice, Creative Share Blog Hop,