After we had two boys, I was very excited about having a girl, so I took every opportunity to gussy up her clothes. The babe is now old enough to wear some of her old clothes, so after a quick rummage through some rubbermaid containers, I had some summery clothes for our trip.

These started out as a pair of plain overalls that were just a tad too small. I chopped off the bottoms of the legs, and shortened them to capri length and added some pretty ruffles….

and to the front I added a pretty little faux dress. I love the way it turned out, especially as I had been winging it. The babe loves it as well and kept walking around saying “pretty”.

Well, today is the wedding, and it is pretty dreary and unfortunately rainy. We’re hoping that the weather will perk up as the wedding is outdoors. Regardless, it should be a beautiful wedding and we’ll have some hot coffee to keep us warm.

To all the mama’s out there, Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll see you next week.

This is one of my go-to gift giving gifts. They are fun and easy to make and hugely practical. This is the tutorial I used. I modified a few things. I added a bit extra for the height of the pockets as some of the tea bags I use are a bit taller and I was having a few problems with them sticking out the top. Oh, and I didn’t use interfacing either, and I think it ended up thick enough, but if you were using really thin fabrics, you would probably want to add it. And lastly, I used one of the girl’s hair elastics instead of making a strip to hold the button in place.

Last year I made quite a few of these for Mother’s Day gifts, and I think they were really well liked. I always have one in my diaper bag, just in case. Now in a moment of desperation for a good cuppa, all I have to do is find a cup of hot water.

I really do love these, and as they use such little fabric, they are great stash busters as well. Have fun making some. I’d love to see them if you do try.

Last week, there was one really nice day where the weather was fairly warm, though the breeze was just a bit too much for the babe. She kept wiping the hair out of her eyes, and I know it was bothering her. The only problem is, she doesn’t keep barrettes or ponytail holders in her hair. If she knows something is up there, she will rip it out, so most of the time she goes accessory free.

I grabbed an old knit shirt and cut a strip and with a small running stitch sewed the ends together. I made it wide enough that I thought she might not feel it so much on her head. She kept it on the entire time we were out, then promptly ripped it out when we got back inside. I guess having a headband on was less annoying than her hair in her eyes.

The great thing about knit fabric is that it doesn’t unravel so you really don’t have to do any hemming. It took me all of about three minutes to make this headband, and most of that was spent looking for a needle.

They look so cute, are so easy to make and are great for little and big girls alike. I think I might be whipping myself up some now that we’ll be outdoors more.

What do you get when your five year old buys her very own Sewing for Children book with some Christmas money?

When she gathers up a pair of mama’s old flannel pajama pants that shrunk too short (and they also happen to have a lovely pink velvet ribbon as a tie),

and a pink glove (the other has been missing for a long time),

some thrifted crochet trim and a pair of mama’s old stripey knee socks that had a seriously large hole in the heel?

You get a beautiful bunny made out of thrifted and recycled materials,

and one very happy little girl who made her very first doll.

She is doing much better now, all the welts and swelling have gone and she is off of the meds. Thanks for your well wishes and concern, she’s her happy little itch free self again.

First I made a fabric covered button, from one of the sets I found at the thrift store.

Then I made some backs.

Added some crocheted flowers from this pattern (which is brilliant, and my favourite flower to crochet)….

and turned them into fun flower brooches.

I am loving these and with changing up your yarn and buttons, they can be made to be springy, wintry, for your clothing…

or to gussy up a string bag.

These flowers are gorgeous, the pattern is flawless, they are fairly quick to whip up and brilliant every time. They would make perfect gifts, and are fantastic for embellishing lots of things. Have a go, you won’t regret it.

I have been looking for some sewing bits and bobs and trims to work on some clothes for the girls this spring/summer and I hit the jackpot at the thrift store. Here are several yards of very girly knit trim.

A stash of red buttons, 27 yards of red crochet trim, and some really pretty red floral fabric.

Several more yards of an ivory crochet trim,

and several sets of buttons to cover with fabric.

I paid 50 cents for the fabric (almost two yards) and 50 cents for the 27 yards of red crochet trim. Each button set was 12 cents and everything else was 25 cents a piece, so all in all I came out with some fantastic deals. I do believe I am ready to make some cute things for the girls as the weather gets warmer, and don’t you love it when all of your purchases happen to be in the same colour palette unintentionally? I know, kind of weird, but I do.

Recently I won a little giveaway over at jennyflower, and it arrived yesterday. Look at all those goodies. I knew about the book and the card, isn’t it gorgeous? I will have lots of fun going through the book and trying my hand at ribbon embroidery, and look at the extras.

My two girls love the hair pretties. The babe grabbed them all in her chubby little hands and started patting her head (what she does when she wants something in her hair). They are all hand crocheted or stitched and they are gorgeous, what a lovely little surprise. Also the fact that the book was wrapped in fabric was so exciting to me. Now I have some pretty new fabrics to work with and I think I know just what they will end up as.

Thanks Jennyflower, it was such a treat. If you aren’t familiar with Jennyflower,you should definitely pop on over, she is such a sweet gal and does beautiful work.

On a side note, my brother leaves today, we had a really nice time with him, and will miss him. The rest of our week should be fairly normal and back to our routine, though I’m hoping for some better weather as it would be really nice to have the kids play outside some. The problem with winter here is that it gets really windy. The cold wouldn’t be so bad by itself, but the wind can be brutal. Most of the time it is too much for the kids to go out, or dry clothes on the line, they just get whipped off, so I am really looking forward to warmer, less windy days.

I am making good progress on my crochet project and hope to have it finished next week. Also, I am trying to decide on what our one small change for March will be. Oh, and we have to take our eldest to the dentist again as he needs another repair on his braces (second one in one week), which is a bit of a pain as it is so far away. So maybe it won’t be such a normal week after all.

I must admit, we aren’t huge Valentine’s Day celebrators around here, and I have been feeling very uninspired by all things red and hearty lately. Until this morning that is. I couldn’t sleep this morning and it was pretty early, and it hit me. Who doesn’t use bookmarks? I wanted to do some sort of project that wouldn’t be tied to one day in February, but could be enjoyed all year round.

I think I may have found my crafty calling. This was the first time I ever did any machine embroidery and I just adore it. A couple of weeks ago, I had an amazon gift card burning a hold in my pocket, and I finally decided to get Free and Easy Stitch Style. I really love the look of machine embroidered items and thought I would jump in with both feet. I’m so glad I did. Here is an excellent tutorial by my friend Marmalade Rose to help you learn the basics.

These were such fun, and after I got the hang of the embroidering, they were very quick. One of the best things about machine embroidery is that it doesn’t matter if your lines are a bit wobbly, they look perfect however they turn out. I made some heart bookmarks, but I also made some flowers. I am more of a flower gal than a heart one, which kind are you?

Oh, and here is a tutorial for the bookmarks, I’d love to see any if you make some up.

A couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I went on a date sans kids (thanks mom!) Though it may not sound extremely romantic, we went to Barnes and Noble and just read quietly for an hour. It was so nice to flip through magazines without having to keep one eye on the kids.

I was flipping through the US Country Living and saw an article about using sweaters to cover items in your home. I loved the vases, but their instructions were vague at best and involved a lot of cutting and hot glue. Sounded kind of messy to me.

I wasn’t really keen on the idea of them being glued together as cleaning the cover and vase if necessary, wouldn’t be very easy. I also wanted to be able to swap out covers to coordinate with whatever was in them, or wherever they were in the house.I knew I could figure out a better way, so I gathered some thrifted sweaters and some empty bottles, and away I went. I am really pleased with how they turned out. I think it’s a really nice way to add some colour and texture to an arrangement.

They are so easy to make, and very quick as well. It’s fun to use different textured and patterned sweaters to create some different looks. Here is a tutorial in case you want to make some of your own.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.

We use washcloths and dishrags instead of paper towels. We use them all the time, and have quite a few. We need them for the dishes, spills, washing up the babe after every meal. For months now, they have been a big pain. They have been juggled from one place to the other not really having a proper home.

When we were visiting Hubby’s grandparents in December, his grandmother had a massive box of magazines ready for recycling. She let me go through them and keep whatever I wanted. I saw this idea in a Good Housekeeping, though they intended it for keeping lingerie in the closet.

I had completely forgotten about this until I ran by the torn out picture the other day. This, I thought, would be perfect to house all of our towels. It needed to be somewhere in reach of the kids (so that they can grab a washcloth), but still not a huge eyesore.

In a perfect world, all of the towels would be neatly stacked somewhere, but let’s face it, that isn’t ideal. I spend all the time to fold them up, and then they just end up in a messy pile anyhow. So now, as soon as they are clean, they go into their new bag and just stay there until needed. No folding necessary.

All you do is find a pretty vintage pillowcase and a wooden embroidery hoop. I already had these in my stash, two vintage pillowcases at 25 cents each, and two wooden embroidery hoops at 25 cents each from my thrift store. I used a 10″ and 12″ hoop. Now, technically this is no sew, unless of course you’re me. Then, because you haven’t loosened the hoop quite enough, when you try and scootch the fabric around, you simultaneously tear two rips into your pillowcase. Then you spend the next 20 minutes hand mending the tears. Normally though, this involves no sewing at all.

If I really wanted to take a lot of time, I could have trimmed the top of the bag to make it even instead of just letting it fold down into the bag, but I kind of like this way better. Then if I ever decide to swap the pillowcase out for another colour or pattern, I haven’t ruined these.

Anyway, you need to put the inner hoop down inside the pillowcase and fold the top down into it. In order for it to lay straight, you need to put more of the front side of the pillowcase down in , than the back. I hope that’s not too confusing. Really, just play around with it and get it to lie like you want it to. Then cut an approx. 6″ length of ribbon (I used twill tape) and fold it in half. You are going to lay the raw edges down on top of the fabric that is folded over the inner ring. Make sure that the raw edges are pointing away from you and that the fold is hanging towards you. Carefully put the outer hoop on top, catching the hanging ribbon, and tighten.

If you are using vintage fabric, especially, be careful not to pull the fabric around too much, otherwise you might indeed end up sewing.

On a completely side note, the other day I really felt like some kind of hot chocolate with a twist. I opened the cupboard that holds all of our tea, coffee, etc. and saw a tub of Nutella staring at me. I wonder… Yes indeed it was delicious. I heated up some milk on the stove, stirred a spoonful of Nutella in, and yum. Yum, Yum, Yum.

The girls both have colds, and I think I’m coming down with one too. I’ve got a nice scratchy throat. I’m hoping it doesn’t last too long.