Best aunt ever

Well, probably not, since my niece's birthday was in December. These are her combination late birthday/kindergarten graduation gift. I was going to make some fabric strap flip flops, like THESE, but then I found all these little jewel beads (that actually used to be my daughter's dress up bracelets, but she broke them) and inspiration hit.

 Little bejeweled flip flops. So cute, right? Here's how I did it:

First up was gathering supplies. My daughter helped me sort out the pink, purple, and white ones.

{Upholstery thread, scissors, needles, the beads, hot glue. }

 The beads had two sets of holes in them, so I threaded them like this.

There they are. I had measured the flip flop straps before, so I knew how many beads to thread.

I used hot glue to keep the beads down at first, but knew a little extra something would be a good idea if I really wanted these to wearable. 

So I wrapped more threads around the threads that held the beads together. That sounds confusing. Here's the picture:

And then I was done. I sent them off one at a time and I can't wait for my niece (who is 6) to get them.

3-tier aqua maxi skirt

So, my little Pinspired project is still in the works- it's taking a bit longer than I thought. I think I'll just count this skirt, since there are a few different maxi dress/skirt tutorials on my board here. I didn't really follow a tutorial for my skirt, since none of them were quite what I had in mind. So I came up with a little something on my own:

{In somewhat related news, Picasa has a new filter called 1960's.}

I love this skirt so much already. It's soft and comfy, doesn't restrict movement, and doesn't wrinkle in the wash. That last one's a big deal for me. I don't even know how many shirts and skirts I just love but hardly wear because they're always waiting to be ironed (I really almost never iron). It's a plain cotton knit, but if I make another one (I probably will) I think I'll use a knit blend that has a little more bounce back stretch to it.

If you want to make a skirt like this, you need 2 measurements- your waist or hips (wherever you want the waistband to be) and then down from where you want the top of the skirt to be to the top of your feet. Easy. After you know that, it's easy to figure out your skirt pieces. Depending on your measurements, it will take between 2 and 2-1/2 yards of knit fabric, give or take.

So, for the actual skirt pieces, decide how tall you want your waistband to be (mine was 4 inches). Then subtract that from your total vertical measurement. Then divide what's left of your vertical measurement by 3. Those will be the heights of your tiers.

This skirt is basically 4 rectangles, like so:

The waist band is 8 1/2" high because it will be doubled over, plus seam allowances.

My vertical measurement was 30" after subtracting waist band height, so my 11" tiers include 2 half inch seam allowances, since I only really needed the tiers to be 10" high. As the rectangles get longer and longer, you'll need to connect 2 or maybe even three shorter rectangles because the fabric won't be wide enough for one continuous strip.

After all your pieces are cut, use a simple basting stitch to gather the top of your 3 tiers. I learned how from my mother-in-law, but there's a great tutorial HERE at Make it and Love it.

Here's another excellent diagram (because, as always, I am terrible at taking pictures of my actual process):

There's 2 ways I've seen tiers on similar knit skirts sewn together. The first is right sides together, so the seam is completely hidden on the inside. The second (and the one I prefer) is to lay the right side of the
upper layer beneath the layer below, so it's right side to wrong side. Like this:

{I used a double needle and a straight stitch- whatever you use, make sure there's some stretch to it, since you're working with a knit.}

A tip for gathering- after you add the basting stitch but before you pull any threads, mark (with pins or a fabric marker) the quarters and halves of both of the pieces you'll be attaching. Then, as you start gathering, you can line up the marks on your gathered piece with the marks on the flat edge of the piece above it to help keep things even.
 
After all your pieces are sewed together, you can just do one seam up the back to connect things (this one you'll want to do right sides together) and that's it. It only took me a few hours to get the entire skirt done, tops. And that's including all the distractions a 3 year old and an eight month old provide. 

And voila! The 3-tier aqua maxi skirt!

By the way, I think it's pretty funny that right after I posted about having a regular post each week HERE, I totally didn't post for 3 weeks, and I still haven't finished the project I started on. (In my defense, we have been working our butts off in the yard, getting some big landscaping things done.)

My new favorite headbands

My "tutorial:"
Buy a half yard of crocheted lace.  Tie some ribbon around either end.  Put it on your head. 

Seriously, I love these.  They go with everything. 

Do-do-do dodododo do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do

If you couldn't tell, the title of this post is the Mario theme song.

So, most of these costumes are a repeat from 2 years ago.  (This was last year, if you're wondering.)  I knew I wouldn't get around to making new costumes for everyone this time around, what with the new baby and all.  Elle's is new- all I did was make a little turtle shell that strapped onto her back and some booties.  Mim's is improved- I cut off the flat foam bottom and did a gathering stitch around the bottom edge.  I also improved my costume- lace on my gloves, a Princess Daisy hair style, and earrings that I made with buttons and nail polish that I forgot to wear.  I didn't let Mike grow his mustache out for this year since we got our family pictures done on Saturday and he looks like a creeper when he has one.  We also forgot to draw one on him, like we did for our family party on Friday.  Ahwell.

Hope you all had a safe and candy-filled Halloween!

Lacy scarf

I saw this, loved it, pinned it, then made my own yesterday. 



Our family pictures are on Saturday and I'm using a skirt I got for my daughter as a jumping off point for our palette.  There's a bit of mustard yellow in it, which I DO NOT look good in.  Not in any large quantity, at least.  I thought if I made that lace infinity scarf with the goldy yellow underneath and a dense lace over it in white or cream, maybe I could pull it off.  Here's the result:

It's still a maybe, so far as it making into the family pictures.  Still, it was a lovely tutorial and my fabric only cost a total of like 4 bucks, so I feel good about it.

Fun fabric flip flops

Sigh.  Now the whole blogging world (because I assume everyone reads this blog) knows that my feet are totally shaped like flippers.  Seriously.  I have a skinny little heel, but by the time you get to my toes, my feet are overflowing a normal sandal.  Ahwell. 


I found the tutorial here.  So awesome and comfy.  I'm going to make more pairs, too.  For $2.50 (I got the flip flops at Old Navy), why wouldn't I?

Sad face shirt fail

After the old man shirt skirt, I wanted to make myself more stuff.  It didn't go well.

 

 There's the fail.  I very carefully removed some ruffles, but it didn't go well.  Well, I started started removing ruffles carefully, but then after I made a bunch of little but noticeable holes, I gave up and ripped the second ruffle off (those are the bigger holes you can see).  

I'm pretty sure the real root of the problem was not having a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like.  After I realized my original idea wasn't going to happen because I wouldn't have enough shirt left over, I didn't take time to adapt my plan.  

It started off well, at least:

I've learned my lesson- next time I'll make sure I have a doable plan.  There will be a next time, too.  I realized I can make a whole army of embellished tees from knit shirts from the thrift store, and I want to do it.

Some headbands

I made these awhile ago.  They were presents for my sister-in-law that I repeatedly forgot to give to her.  Simple to make, but I really like how they turned out (hope she does to!)

Old man shirt skirt

See?  It's a skirt made from an old man shirt. 
Its beginning:

We had this old man shirt floating around our house and I was going to make a dress for Mim out of it.  Then I decided I wanted a skirt.  Mim has a ton more clothes than I do, so it's justified.

I cut it up first:

 

And here's how I put it back together:

 

I can't decide if I'm glad I preserved the original hem shape or not.  My original plan didn't call for a ruffle, and that's why I wanted to preserve the hem at first, but maybe when I cut it off to add the ruffle I should have just done it straight across.  I can't decide.  Here it is for now, at least:

In reality, I'd wear it with boots.  

And from the side:

It's super comfortable.  The flannel is all worn and soft- I think this is an ideal fall/winter skirt for me.

It was so stinking hard to take pictures of myself in this.  I was bending over all awkwardly, stretching out as far as I could to get a wider angle...it was awesome.  Oh, and I was totally in an ugly pink t-shirt and my hair was in a towel turban.  It was super.

This one was a miss, but check out those gorgeous leaves behind me.  I can't remember a fall in Utah ever lasting as long as this one has.  It's fabulous!

Halloween, nerd style

My husband and I are both nerds, and we're both cool with that.  Mike's nerdier than me, though.
And we love Star Wars.  And I wanted costumes that Mike would get excited about.  So:

{Mike felt like Han Solo probably didn't smile for pictures, so he didn't, either.}

Han Solo, Leia, and our little ewok.  I made/put together most of our outfits myself.  

Mike's wearing a cheap-o Walmart shirt that was the right color under a fishing vest I dyed black (one of my dad's old ones that he said I could have).  He had some navy blue pants already, so I just attached a red ribbon down the sides.  I bought some gaiters at Walmart, but I wish I'd had time to make some- I could have done a much better job.  The holster belt, which you can't really see in this picture, was mostly made of fake suede and spray painted cardboard.  

For the Leia costume, I used a pattern with a high neck as a guideline for the neck and armholes, then just widened it out from there and cinched it with a felt and spray painted cardboard belt, which you can't see.  The collar was easy and totally meant I didn't have to do any type of facing or lining for the top.  

Mim's costume was definitely the toughest.  Turns out, I do not have the skill necessary to work with a fabric that tricky.  I even used my mom's Bernina for most of it and still struggled.  I broke about 8 of her needles, as well.  Uhg.  Three of the four appendage holes were hemmed with hot glue.  Whatever.  It's a costume, not a day to day wear item.  I used a pattern for it- a McCall's one for a lion, tiger, duck, or sheep.  All I really needed to modify was the hood part and then make my own ear shape.  Oh, and I left off the mitts, since I knew that would be a lost cause with Mim anyway.  The leather hood thing was separate- I cut slits for the ears and hot glued that sucker together and left all the ragged edges.  

{One of the most awesome things about Mim's costume is that she really looked like an ewok from behind.}

{A picture of Han's belt- Mike was totally excited when he came home from work and saw it.  It really unbuckles.}

{She was not a huge fan of the costume at first, but once she associated it with candy, she would leave the hood on!}

I hope everyone else had a Halloween that was as much fun as ours!

May the force be with you.

New brooch

Well, I don't have a pin for it yet, but it will be a brooch. 

Here's how I made it:

Cut out a bunch of circles from a polyester-containing fabric.  That smaller circle is my base circle.

Grab a circle in the middle and squish it up.

 Then cut off the bit where you were holding it (this probably isn't necessary, but I did it to reduce bulk when I glue everything to the base circle.

Put some hot glue on the cut off squished up end, to help preserve the pinched-ness.

Then make a glue puddle on your base circle and stick the squished end into it.
Repeat.

You could leave it all fray-y like this, but I took it one step further (because I live on the wild side).

That's it!  Glue it to a headband or a brooch pin (like I will do as soon as I remember to buy one) and voila!

It probably looks more like a carnation than anything else.  I like it.