Up-cycling Onesies

Today, I finally got around to a project I've been wanting to do for months. (I love summer!) I was inspired a while ago by my friend, Heather, who did something similar with her son's onesies. (Check out her awesome cloth diapering fluff on her business's fb page or here!)  I made some old onesies into t-shirts and a dress.

Our sweet baby is officially growing up and potty training. Onesies are not the best wardrobe choice for the potty training 2 year old to manage. I have not been super impressed with most of the t-shirts I've seen lately. They're either plastered with junk, overly sassy phrases, or out of my price range for a toddler's t-shirt. I do, however, like the prints of many of the onesies. I also like that they are easy for my, "I do it all myself, Mama!" girl to get on by herself. The wider head hole doesn't hurt either. I also like that I own these already so in my brain that means they are free.

This was crazy easy. You may have seen other DIY posts on this, but this is how I did it. I hope it helps you on your quest for making more with less!

I spent a little less than an hour and ended up with 8 "new" t-shirts!!! I was on a roll (and Lill was sleeping) so I also threw together a dress made from one of the onesies and scrap fabric I had. The dress took about an hour, mainly because I wanted to make pleats and I'd never done them before so I was figuring that out. I bet it would take 15-20 min less for the next one.

Want to give this a try? Here is what I did. I hope it works for you!

Onesie Up-cycle T-shirt

Materials:
Cute onesie
Sewing machine and thread
Iron
pins
scissors (or better yet a rotary cutter & cutting mat)


Steps:
1.  Cut off the bottom of the onesie as close to the leg openings as possible.

What to do with the snap part??

2. Get your iron warmed up and give the onesie a once over. (Be sure it is inside out.) Then turn up the bottom edge about 3/4" and press. I do this first to be sure my bottom hem will be nice and
straight. Now, you have 2 options. I did it both ways and bother are suitable.
              a. Leave this as is and go on to step 3.
              b. Fold the raw edge under so it touches the inside of the hem you just pressed and press again. This will  give you a finished hem on the top and the bottom of it. I'm sure there is some technical  term for this, blah blah blah.

This is the hem as it looks on the outside of the shirt.

3. Using a straight stretch stitch, sew the hem all the way around the bottom of the shirt. Press the hem once more to set the stitches.

BAM! T-shirt! You're done! See? It is super simple!

8 "New" shirts!

Onesie Dress

To do the dress follow the above directions- I used option A for finishing the hem for the dress. Set this aside.

4. Then, using pretty much any coordinating fabric cut it to the desired length for the skirt. I wanted it to be a bit longer so I made it 9 3/4" AFTER it was hemmed. I cut 2 pieces of fabric to 11 3/4" x 34" and laid them right sides facing each other and stitched them together to make 1 long piece for the skirt. (This proved to be a little longer than I needed, but it was better to have more than not enough length.) **I made box pleats, so I needed more fabric. If I hadn't done pleats probably 1 piece at the above dimensions would have done it.** Here is a box pleat tutorial. I didn't do each other the steps in this tutorial, but read through it, got the idea and winged it. It worked fine for a 2 year old's dress. ;)

5. Hem the piece of skirt fabric on the top and bottom edges. I made a 1/4" hem at the top and a 3/4" following option B above.

With pleats: If you're doing pleats, use your iron and pins to set the pleats along the top. Press them really well and pin after each one. On your sewing machine, run a stitch along the top where you pinned to secure your pleats. Remove the pins and press one more time.

Without pleats: If your fabric is stretchy, run it through your sewing machine with a straight stretch stitch, but stretch it a bit so that when you release it is bunches up a little. This will look super cute once you attach the top.

Fold the skirt in half printed side to printed side and line up the edges. Secure with a couple pins. Sew the seam.


8.  Attach the skirt to the top you set aside. With the top right side out, pin the skirt to the shirt. When you're pinning the skirt should look like it is flipped up with the underside showing.

9. Sew the skirt and the top together on your machine. Iron the seams, remove all pins (duh!), snip all loose threads.

BAM! Dress!

Notes & Tips
I used size 18 month onesie for the dress & t-shirts.
You can use either the jersey type onesie or the more stiff t-shirt type. The first t-shirt I did was the latter- it was a little easier to work with until I got the hang of it. The jersey is more stretchy, but still manageable.

Happy up-cycling! Pin It Now!

Super Simple and Super Cute and Our Super Fun Halloween!

Halloween time was a whirlwind of a time in The Stronghold. The weekend before, we took our first airplane trip to South Carolina for my brother's wedding- more details of that adventure to come. So needless to say I was very behind on making our Halloween costumes this year. All my life I have worn homemade costumes- not once- ever, have I worn a store bought, packaged in plastic, made of paper thin polyester costume. It just worked out that way. It was our family tradition as a kid to head over to the fabric store and flip through the pattern books to choose the perfect get-up and then pick out the fabric. My mom is a wonderful seamstress and passed on that sewing to me, though I'm not as skilled as she.

Anyways, mix this with my type-A attention to detail in costumes and throwing something together the night before isn't easy, but I made it work. We'd planned on dressing up the toddler (!!!!!) as Jessie from Toy Story. I had several of the parts of the costume, but when we got back from Charleston it was my job to put it all together. Since our flight was delayed getting home I had 1 less day to do this. The costume still came out great. Below is what you'll need if you're so inclined to dress up you little one as a cowgirl or cowboy next year.

We kept our Halloween night SUPER simple this year. We had homemade pizza (thanks to my MIL) and Mummie Dogs (thanks mom) and witches fingers for dessert. There aren't many trick-or-treaters in my in-laws neighborhood so it was a pretty quiet evening. Ok- actually there were I think only 4 kids ALL NIGHT!!! So pretty much we just sat around the fire pit and watched our little Jessie run around "Yee-Ha-ing!" It was actually very refreshing to veg out after our big trip and after a wild day with my 3rd graders at school. Sometimes- no, a lot of times- less is more.

Here comes November!!!!!!

 Jessie Costume Materials:
Cowboy boots
Cheap pair of jeans
Long-sleeve white collared shirt (I used a boy's onesie)
Brown belt- attach a big western belt buckle to it for added cuteness
Jessie Hat (we bought our at Disneyland)

1/2 yard of yellow cotton fabric
1/4 yard (maybe more if your child is bigger) cow print fabric
red roping
fabric glue
1 package Heat n Bond Iron-on adhesive/ fusible interfacing
Peal/silver western style buttons 4-6 *optional for the detail freak ;)
2s sheets of newspaper to make your patterns
Iron on Velcro dots or strip that you'll cut into 1/2" squares
Red marker, fabric chalk or pencil

Prep your fabric:
I always wash & press cotton fabric before I sew it. So I did this a head of time.

**I didn't want to have to sew hem/seams to prevent fraying because honestly I didn't have time. You totally could do this, but I think the way I did it was much faster and it came out perfect. (If you were going to use this as dress up and needed to wash it many times though taking the time to cut out the pattern and then hem the edges of the yellow fabric may be worth it.) For Halloween it wasn't worth it to me.

1. Cut the yellow fabric in half. You're going to fuse these two pieces together to make a nice crisp, but flexible piece to cut the pattern from. To do this just cut a piece of the Heat n Bond to the size of the half. Follow the directions on the package for ironing temps/times. Peel off the paper backing and then place the other half and fuse them together by ironing again. *Now when you cut the fabric won't fray! :) Side note: before you fuse the fabric do a rough check on how big you'll actually need it to be for your child. I was able to cut the shirt piece and the two cuffs from doing it this way, but I have a little bitty 18 month old... I trimmed out the pieces in rough squares so I didn't need to fuse more than I'd use. Make sense? I hope so!

Making the Shirt: 
1. Take one piece of newspaper and fold it in half. Hang the white shirt on a hanger and poke a hole in the center of the newspaper (on the fold) to poke the hanger through. Trim the news paper so the edges go just to the shoulder seam on the shirt and so that it goes down the front and back just to below the arm pits (a little farther down in the front than the back since you'll be trimming more off the front to shape it.). Also mark how wide the neck hole needs to be.
2. Take the newspaper off and use a pen/pencil to outline the front edge of the yellow piece for the shirt. It kind of makes two shallow arches. I just did my best at eye-balling it. The points should end up where a pocket would be on the shirt.

3. Pin the newspaper to the yellow fabric (the pieces you fused together already) and cut along the lines you drew and the edges of the newspaper (where you trimmed it up to fit the shoulders). Remove the paper and cut out a neck hole. **You will need to make the neck hole bigger by cutting a slit down the back- just see how big of one you need for your kiddo's noggin' before cutting. Big heads gallop in our family! Give it a test by hanging it back over the shirt to see how it fits- trim accordingly.
4. Cut out, from the scraps of this, 2 rectangles approx. 2"x 8" for the cuffs (again if you're not sure on the sizing make a test run with the newspaper to assure a good fit). Sew on 1 button onto the end of each and cut a small button hole. *Be sure to fit this to your child's wrist before cutting the button hole so you can size it correctly. I also glued on a small piece of felt I'd cut to look like fringe. (Details people!) Use a red permanent marker to draw the loops on the cuffs. I guess you could use roping here too, but since our cuffs were so small the roping was a bit to bulky.
5. Use the iron on Velcro dots or cut pieces and apply them to the corners & middle of the yellow piece so it attaches to the white shirt. Iron the other part of the Velcro onto the shirt. I did this on the front and the back. I also added a piece where the slit is on the backside so it would stay closed after putting the thing over her head.
6. With the yellow fabric removed from the white shirt, use fabric chalk or a yellow highlighter to draw on where you'll glue the red roping. If you're awesome you can just wing it- I'm not. (Actually my hubby did this part, and it was a good call since he is also a perfectionist.) Then glue on the red roping in the same looping way as it is on Jessie's shirt. This will need to dry for several hours- over night is best.
7. **Optional Detail: If your shirt has buttons, remove the 2 that will show once the shirt is tucked in and the yellow fabric is in place. Attach the cute pearly buttons in their place.

Making the Pants/Chaps: (this is the easiest part and only take about 5 minutes)
1. Lay the cow print fabric out flat on the cutting board and then lay the jeans on top. Use fabric chalk or a pencil to make an outline of just the pant legs. The chaps will start just at about the same level at the crotch of the jeans and be the same length as the pant legs. Round the the corners on the bottoms. 2. Cut out the chaps. Cut out 2 small pieces of felt to make the fringe- glue onto the backside of the chaps on the outer edge.
3. Cut out two pieces of Heat N Bond the same width as the top of the chaps and about 3" long. Iron each piece onto the top edge of the chaps. Remove the paper baking and place the chaps onto the jeans where you want them to be. Iron the part that has the Heat N Bond on it. BAM! Jeans with chaps!


Sorry if my directions are a little vague and not with exact measurements. I hope you can follow them if you're looking for a way to make an adorable Jessie costume. It seriously was so fun to watch our daughter love wearing her costume. It was comfortable for her to wear and cheap to make (especially if you have some of the sewing materials laying around and if you buy the shirt/onsie, belt and jeans at a thrift store)

Happy creating!

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Summer Time Fun

I'm so blessed with a career that allows me to just be a mom for 2 months out of the year. (Please note that teachers only get paid for the days they work- so before you get all cranky about how you work all year keep in mind that you also get paid all year.) I absolutely love teaching. I'm passionate about giving ALL kiddos the access to high quality education. That being said.

Teachers are people too. For 2 months out of the year I get to just be with my family and not worry about other people's children. I get to rediscover the things I enjoy doing in my personal life that always get put on hold during the school year. I can devote 100% of my attention to my family, which Lord knows doesn't happen, as much as I try, during the school year. Even most weekends during the school year get filled with things to do for school. I get to relax, stay up late to watch movies, get up early to go running, reorganize my house, cook dinners that aren't ready in 30 minutes, and my favorite- part play all day long with our daughter. Summer is a magical time for me and if it were a location, rather than a season, I think it would be in Neverland... If you just squint your eyes you can see it all year in the not too distant future.

So. This summer is extra special. We won't take an official vacation, we didn't pack our schedule with things to do all summer. We are just playing it by ear week to week and day by day. The only place we have to be is at swim lessons twice a week. It is very freeing for me since all year I'm literally dictated by my iCal. (I couldn't get to all the places I need to be without it during school.) Here are a few highlights from our summer so far.

Talking, talking and more talking! Lill is such a chatter box! She went from saying mostly nouns to adding some adjectives and verbs and now she has complete and compound sentences. She also has big opinions about everything. She started changing the tone of her voice depending on how she feels about whatever she is saying. For example, "Hi." became "HI YA!!!Mama!!!!" *my heart melts for this one, especially when it is followed by a huge hug* 

Road trip! Immediately after school was out my dad, Lill and I took a road trip. We visited Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, and Sedona. I learned that my daughter is a fabulous traveler! My mom's trick of the car bag full of new books & toys worked great!! The travel potty was also super helpful since she is almost potty trained- only 4 wet diapers in 1 week!

I love making homemade ice cream!!! Summer hits so far: chocolate with marshmallow fluff & pretzels, vanilla chocolate chip with black cherries, and mint chip. I will post recipes soon. 

The garden is bursting with zucchini, cucumbers, basil, mint, jalepeños, and watermelons. Our tomatoes are almost ripe and that means it's almost time to make fresh mozzarella! I'm also excited because we tried growing watermelons this year and we have 3 almost ripe ones and 5 little ones on the way!!!!!! I cut one open today. They need a week or so more. It's so tough to tell if they are ripe or not!

 
What do you love to do during summer with your family?

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We're Taking the Challenge!

How many times do you think you use your dryer each week? For us it was usually 3-6 times!!! When it was SO stinking hot here in July I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the dryer. I found a clothes line and started line drying everything. I loved it! The clothes were coming out a little crunchier than I'd hoped so in doing some searching for what to do, I came across a very fun blog! They happened to be doing monthly challenges and guess what August's challenge was? No Dryer! I wasn't brave enough to post this before bc I wasn't sure how long this no dryer thing would last for us, but it's been over 5 weeks now and I'm not missing it! Colin is even into it! So here's to the No Dryer Challenge- we did it and probably will keep it up for months to come!!! By the way, adding less detergent to the laundry made a big difference in how crunchy the clothes were once dry.



 

So for this month the next challenge is "Eat Your Pantry" Something we need to do. I know there are the makings for lots of good meals in there I just need to cook the stuff! Going to spend some time this week coming up with meals (or side dishes more likely) from what we have in there.



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What We Don't Do

"Sometimes I think what you don't do has a just as big- if not bigger- impact as what you do do." This thought popped into my head the other day as I watched my sweet girl have one of her first melt downs. I don't mean to say that doing things doesn't have an impact, of course it does. But, sometimes the things people don't do, especially when it comes to their children, can greatly impact (positively & negatively) the children's lives. I'm sure we could brainstorm tons of examples. I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that when I see children struggling in their lives a lot of times it's caused by things the adults in their lives aren't doing. It's also true that when I see successful children there is a list of things their parents aren't doing also. I guess the implication for me reflecting on this, as a new parent, is to be aware of the things I'm not doing. Then decide if by not doing these things I'm benefiting my children. Food for thought. Pin It Now!

Feeling Sew Crafty!

One of the nice things about summer is that I have time to catch-up on projects I've been putting on the back burner during the school year. Today, I checked one such project off my list that has been there since Fall!
I've really been unhappy with changing pads since my daughter has out-grown the one that came with one of our diaper bags (I think that one was maybe 20" long by 12" across.) I know this seems kind of trivial, but those public changing tables gross me out so much. I just want to sterilize the whole thing! I know there are disposable changing table covers, but since we are trying to be a waste & money conscious family I don't think those are up our alley. I shopped around a lot and the ones I liked all came with "changing kits" to hold wipes and diapers. If we were using disposable diapers or maybe even different cloth diapers these would work. However, with what we have they didn't fit well. Soooooo I made my own! I have to say I love how it turned out! It was SUPER easy. Check it out!

Making a changing pad:
Decide what size changing pad you want to end up with then add 1-inch to allow for a 1/2" seam then buy a little more than that so you can make sure you can trim it so all sides are straight.

Materials:
-PUL fabric (I used Babyville PUL fabric available from JoAnn for about 12.99-$14.99 per yard, but use a coupon for goodness sake! Note: They sell 3 packs of this fabric, but it is only 21" x 24" I wanted my changing pad to be longer so I bought the fabric off the bolt instead. If you're ok with a shorter pad then the 3-pack is a good option.
-Fleece or terrycloth to add absorbency and a little cushion (I used fleece for this one.)
-Cotton or flannel print fabric

Step 1: Cut the fabric to desired size including 1/2" seam allowance. 

I cut mine to 19" x 31"

Step 2: Pin the fleece to the back of the print.

Step 3: Stitch around several of the owls to tack down the print to the fleece. (This could be optional, but I think it looks nice and keeps these two fabrics snug together.)

This is how it looked from the back of the fleece.

Step 4: Lay the PUL fabric and print fabric face-to-face.

Step 5: Pin around the perimeter and several in the center to hold all three fabrics in place. Then stitch around the perimeter with 1/2" seam, leaving about 6" in the middle of the bottom open.

Step 6: Turn it right-side out.

Step 7:  Push out the corners & seams nice and tight. It's really important to then iron the seams flat. *This is before I ironed.

This is after.

Step 8: Finish the seams. I used a zig-zag stitch to finish the seam. I also ran 2 straight stitches down the length of it at 6" & 12" to hold it all together in the middle for washing and to make folding easier. I threw it in the dryer of 20 minutes to "seal" up the holes in the PUL fabric around the stitches per the manufactures recommendation.

Step 9: Come up with a closure. I sewed one end of a ribbon to the changing pad and attached a large button to it. I then sewed it into a loop at the other end of the ribbon, folded the changing pad into thirds and secured it shut with the ribbon. I'm sure snaps or Velcro could do a good job of closing it up too.

Folded up, not smashed down at all, it is about as tall as a spool of thread. It is able to be compressed much more though. if it was folded differently it could be thinner, but it would have a larger folded perimeter.

Folded up it is only  7" x 9" approximately! Nice and compact.

Unfolded it is 18" x 30"!!!!!

Ta-Da! It fits perfectly into my diaper bag!

I think it came out pretty well for my first attempt and I think it could easily be used for more than a changing pad. I like that it is waterproof so if she goes to the bathroom mid-diaper change it won't soak through. It could also be used a great outside tummy time blanket/picnic blanket if the grass is a damp. I obviously haven't washed it a bunch yet, but I imagine it will hold up well. I plan on line drying it with our CD covers since this is supposed to prolong the PUL's life.

I hope this has inspired you! If you like it & need more details please feel free to ask.


UPDATE:
I've now been using this changing pad for a year and it has been washed multiple times. It has held up beautifully! I always line dry it, though.  Pin It Now!

The Best Worst Camping Trip Ever

In 2009, my husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary. We were entering that "almost broke, but at least we're broke together" phase of our relationship. We decided that to celebrate year #1 we'd take a cheap little camping trip up to Big Sur. The campground I really wanted to stay in was booked up (San Simeon Park). So I found another, private campground, that has plenty of sites open for the weekend. The website made is seem like it was a great place- with a stream large enough to play in and float around on tubes lazily. There was also a little store and bar beside it. There were several trail heads within walking distance of the campground and the sites were nestled in between Giant Sequoias. Beautiful, right?

We'd also be celebrating my birthday since it is only 2 days after our anniversary. For my birthday I'd asked for a new Colman camping stove. I received one, it wasn't Colman, but it seemed to work just fine so I was thrilled. (This becomes an important detail.) Now, I've been camping with my family since I was too young to remember. We usually went camping in a small trailer, but sometimes tents too. Over years of watching my meticulous mother, grandmother, and aunt pack for tons of camping trips, by osmosis, I inherited their type-A precision in packing all the necessary camping supplies, beyond the basic tent and sleeping bag. Everything we needed would fit into a.) the cook stove's storage bag, b.) the Rubbermade tub, which doubles and a nightstand in the tent or side table by the campfire, or c.) the ice chest.

We hit the road nice and early and drove to Anaheim. (Pit stop for the day at Disneyland!!) The next morning headed up the coast to Big Sur. Gorgeous drive once we got on the 1! We found the campground fairly easily got checked in, found our site and set to work pitching the tent.

The downward spiral:
The camp site was SOOOOOOOOOOOO small and sooooooooooo close to our neighbor's. We figured it'd be ok since no one else was checked in around us, and online the campground wasn't booked to capacity. WRONG! By nightfall it was packed was LOUD large camping groups. So whatever, we cracked open the wine, and got that fire going and cooked a delicious meal. Our nearest neighbors arrived after us and literally set their tent up within arms reach of our camp fire. Really!!! Who does that?

Camping Pet Peeve: Blasting loud music. I'm not a fuddy-duddy (well maybe a bit) but I go camping to get away from this kind of noise. I don't wanna hear your "Best of the 90s mix tape", R&B slow jams, or anything else for that matter. I just want to hear the sound on the wind in the tree, crickets, birds, crackling fires, and kids riding their bikes. That is it.

Then, all night, seriously all night one of the neighbors' infants cried and cried and cried. I'm talking like ear infection horrible screaming. Camping with babies is totally fine, but if your child is screaming for hours on end at 2am and you're tent camping.... go sit in the car, go for a drive- everyone in the campground will thank you. Poor baby. Poor baby's mom bc you know she was stressing out. Poor campers within earshot- it was baaaaad.

We should have known the day was not going to be quite as we planned. I got up and set to work whipping up some eggs, bacon and pancake batter for breakfast. Guess what wouldn't light? Yep- the dang camp stove (Note to self: buy the Coleman brand when it comes to things you really need to work well! So we had PB & J instead. :(

We were looking forward to a day of floating lazily in the water...... wrong! There were SOOOOO many people it was rediculous. It was more like a kid stew- yuck!

See that tent to the right of Colin- that's NOT ours!!

Plan B to the Rescue: Hit the road and explore Monterey. Neither of us had been since we were kids so it was a great adventure. The aquarium was awesome. The weather was beautiful. I love that my husband is easy going. Our nice relaxing camping trip turned into day tripping up and down the coast for the next few days, but we had a blast.

Seriously- how darn cute are these Sea Otters?!?!?

We got creative with our camping cooking. Yes, I know we had a fire, but we had planned on the cook stove so we didn't have the things more suited for fire cooking.

The trip could have been ruined. So what we didn't get to have all the delicious camping meals we'd planned. We could have been grumps and been cranky about the situation, but we made the best of it and ended up having a fantastic trip! What matters most is how we spend the time with those that we care about most- it doesn't really matter if everything goes as planned or not.

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