Two Things Tuesday...done with one type of fabric...

I am in a bit of a rush this week because it is the count down to my littlest girl's 3rd birthday and birthday party! Which means guests who will stay and guests who will visit and I always have this last minute "oh my goodness, I haven't done ANYTHING to the house since the last time lots of people were over" madness. It is a true sickness. I have people over to my house quite regularly actually. It's just really around the birthday parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas that I get all in a tizzy. I'm really hoping that saying it "outloud" will be some sort of therapy. I KNOW no one is really expecting anything...like I said, it's a sickness , an inexplicable one. Anyway---


THING ONE: New curtains! This is a project that has been on the list for 2 yrs *whince* and I finally bought fabric and completed it--yippee! I Have really been on the fence about my house's color scheme lately. I thought I was going to go green and turquiose-ish, but now I think I may go green and red-orange. Maybe some turquoise will still get in, although that seems like a lot of bolds. I found this fabric on sale at Joann's for $1.99/yd--couldn't buy them at IKEA cheaper (I tried). Very simple, not much to them. That pattern is so busy I thought it was enough. (PS--Curtain rod, IKEA, $1.99, 'nuff said)

Obviously, this is the playroom....someday, turned guest room. Those dots are so fun and modern, how could I pass it up?

THING TWO: Then I went orange dot fabric crazy...slightly. I have had these two floor lamps (other one depicted above in curtain pic) from Target for...ever. They had a crinkly paper thing going on which, I don't know if you know or not but, paper rips!! Kids grabbing stuff to hold onto+paper lamps= horrible looking!! So I did an impromtu recovering of that white one in the pic above. It was ok, just sorta boring. Well, give me a little extra orange dot fabric and TADA--new and interesting lamp shade! I really can't decide if I truly like it or not. It does give off an orange-ish glow I'm not used to.

Here it is, turned off, so you can see what it really looks like.

The recovering is amazingly simple. Measure the length, add a little for a seam. Measure around the metal rings at top and bottom and sew a tube to match that measurement. Then I just folded the fabric around the metal ring to the inside and handsewed all the way around. I literally just tore that paper lamp shade thing off the metal rings! It was pretty much no going back from there! Had I known how easy it was, I would've done it a long time ago. I also found out that those types of lamps give you a big range of length to play with. I went pretty short with the plain white one, and longer with the orange dot. Something to think about...

So, there are two things with one fabric! Hope my hubby recognizes the house when he gets home...!

It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dot...SHIRRED HALTER!!

Yes, it's true...I have successfully integrated shirring into a project. I just started with a simple halter top for my 5 yr old. I have been hanging onto this yellow with white polka dots forEVER and it was finally it's moment to shine! I love it!

Here's what it looked like when I was doing the shirring...not very gathered until I did the ol' spritz and iron!

Yep, that's a real plastic flamingo in our backyard...not a photo shoot prop unfortunately...

A little tie halter...

I am officially in love with the shirring. It adds a cute detail very quickly!

Shirring---VICTORY!!

I really want to take a line from my kids and say, here and now, "NANA NANA BOO BOO!!" to shirring!! You have NOT conquered me! I have, in fact, conquered you, shirring!! Go check out this video tutorial about shirring on Grosgrain. It has saved my shirring self-confidence. The main piece--- SPRITZING AND THEN IRONING! If you have tried to shirr many times to no avail I say, watch this video! You will have springy, tight shirring in no time. YAY!!

Easy Livin' T-Shirt Dress 2

I am in LOVE with making these little dresses! They are super easy. They are comfy. They are endlessly customizable! Knit is so much easier to work with for me right now. Any little additions you make will actually look ok once you wash them. I always have trouble adding stuff onto reg cotton fabric because once you wash and dry it---it looks different, wrinkled, yucky.

Sweet little pleated neckline...

The addition I made this time was these little pinched rows on the bottom. I have no idea what the proper name for these might be...

Close-up view. A very easy detail, very hard to mess up. I think next time I'll try some that are kind of uneven, wavy almost.

Anyway, just another something quick to whip up. This one was made out of one of my old tees. It ends up being a good length for a 3T, with the gathers ofcourse. I'm thinking these will also be cute with leggings and a long sleeve underneath for the colder months. Assuming we actually get some colder months before they outgrow these suckers!!

Post-Storytime Bargain Browsing Pays Off!!

The girls and I have been enjoying storytimes this summer at Barnes and Noble. We were never able to get to them when the in-home daycare was up and running...so now we are hitting them up pretty much every week. Plus, it is air-conditioned and it is OVER 100 degrees here right now so...

Usually, after storytime we browse. Browse the children's section, browse the parenting section, browse the cookbooks, browse the sewing/crafting section and ofcourse, the bargain section. Well, today I found a BEAUT!! Lookie, lookie!!!

Love this!!! I love sewing knits and now maybe I can figure out how to sew knits ...ahem ...correctly! But the best part...did you notice the BEST part??!

That's right! $7 for a $25 book!! WOOHOO!! That made me happy for the rest of the day! Needless to say, I've been pouring through it and really want to sew up some stuff! But I promised myself I would read all the way through before starting any projects inspired by it. It is excellent so far...so many, many valuable tips in all facets of sewing that I honestly have not read on any of the bajillion sewing blogs I've stumbled onto. That's pretty rare I'd say!

Lesson of the day: ALWAYS take your kids to storytime. HA!