So with parade season starting up and softball season right around the corner, I've sadly realized that pretty soon, I won't have much time to craft and sew. :( I will try my darndest since it's something I do thoroughly enjoy, but it won't be an every weekend adventure...probably until August or so when both seasons start dying down. ~sigh~
With all that said, I've decided to take on a rather crazy (for me anyways) project before I get too busy with life. I LOVE Pinterest! I get lots of ideas from that site. I also follow a ton of crafting and sewing blogs (thanks to Pinterest). And if I've ever talked with you about buying clothing for my kids, you know that with them being 9, 6 and 19 months (and my boy being in the middle), I have a hard time finding clothing that coordinate with each other when looking for "special occasion" outfits. I'm not into clothing being too matchy, but I'd like to coordinate them because even though I know my house is a circus, I'd like for people to think that we're well put-together; even if it's just for the holidays.
With Easter approaching in a few weeks, I was resigned to the fact that I would never get my children to remotely coordinate until the other day while cruising Pinterest and I saw this picture:
And when I clicked on the picture I realized it's from one of my favorite blogs; Make it & Love it! I got really excited that Ashley has 3 kids (like me) with her boy being in the middle (like me). They do look closer in age than my children, but this picture just showed me that I can have coordinating holiday outfits. And I got inspired!
Patrick would never agree to florals, so I scoured the internet looking for fabric that was "boy" enough for him, but that would still look cute as a dress and skirt. I ended up at Fabric.com because that site seems to be the easiest to navigate when it comes to finding fabrics and there's no guessing as to whether or not they have the fabric in stock, it's stated right under the picture of the fabric pattern just how many yards are available. So there's no disappointment after you fall in love with a certain fabric. I decided to go with Riley Blake's fabrics. A lot of the blogs I follow use her fabrics so I decided to give it a whirl. I decided on her Zoofari Organic line. I chose the stripe blue as the main fabric for the girls and the green dots as the accent. Then I will make Patrick a tie from the leftovers. Hopefully I will have enough to make him one of each fabric.
So this weekend I will be heading to Hobby Lobby to get the rest of my supplies (threads and elastics).
I just hope the fabric gets delivered to my house with enough time to sew these all up!
Upon seeing the tutu I made for Claire (which Claire immediately rejected), Julia asked that I make her one as well. In blue. A color I didn't even think about getting. ~sigh~ A quick look at the following weekend showed that I could take another trip to Hobby Lobby after Julia's riding lesson.
When Julia told me she wanted a blue tutu, I had envisioned all these different colored blues and was quite excited to get the supplies needed so I could get started. When we got to the store, something TOTALLY different happened. I like to give my kids a choice - especially if they're the ones that are going to wear whatever it is I'm making; and Julia LOVES color. The brighter, the better. So once she saw all the colors Hobby Lobby had to offer, my vision of a blue ombre tutu went right out the window! I had to limit her to 3 colors and reminded her that she originally wanted a blue tutu. I also had to give her a quick lesson in what colors matched what and what colors didn't. So she chose turquoise, yellow and black.
Then I had to move on to finding something for Patrick. Poor kid; because there is so much more to offer girls when it comes to crafting/sewing, he usually gets the short end of the stick. I did promise him that I would make an attempt at sewing him up a few pairs of shorts after making some shirts for Julia with some fabric she had picked out a while back (I will get to the story behind the fabric in a bit). So I let him roam the fabric section to see if anything piqued his interest while doing some looking myself. I showed him all these great plaids, stripes and ginghams but he turned each and every one down. I was about to lose hope on him choosing fabric (he's more picky than a girl sometimes!) when all of a sudden I hear "Mom! I like this one!!" and I turn around to see him carrying a bolt of this:
Trying to be a good mother and quickly reassess in my head what I'm going to make for him I tell him that Sponge Bob is a great choice and to put it in the shopping cart. I'm making my way to the cutting table when I hear "Mom! This one too!!" and I turn around to see him carrying this bolt towards the shopping cart:
Once again, I tell him he made some great choices and we make our way to the cutting table; where I get 2 yards of each fabric. And while we were getting our fabric cut, he then proceeded to point out every other fabric pattern he fancied as well. Most were fleeces and flannels so I told him that I would make him some pajama pants when I'm done making his shorts.
Anyways, on to the tutu!! So like I predicted, the knit elastic was SO much easier to work with - I didn't get the 1/2 inch like I mentioned in my last post, but the 1 inch was easy to work with too - it folded over very easily when I tightened the knot of the tulle. And sliding it to the side to make room for more tulle was a cinch as well! This time I also measured the waist and cut that exact length because of the stretch - and it worked out great because I know Julia won't put the tutu right at her natural waist anyways. For the tulle, I also measured to the knee, doubled that amount and added 2 inches to make up for the knot so the tutu falls closer to the knee for Julia than Claire's did for her.
Here is the "progress report" I sent to my friend Mandy (don't mind the mess in the background, that is from the day's worth of fun that I didn't get to clean up yet before turning in for the night - I was making this while watching Amish Mafia last night):
And here Julia is trying on her skirt. You really can't see the blue because she's wearing blue jeans, but she's super stoked that we're going to incorporate it into an Easter outfit:
And I even managed to get Claire to try hers on for 3 seconds while distracting her with the remote:
Patrick decided to get in on the action too:
So yesterday was my first experience at Hobby Lobby. Except for the fact that I had an antsy 19 month old with me and I really couldn't take the whole store in, I was in heaven! Hobby Lobby is a combination of Michael's and Joann's all wrapped into one.
I decided to finally make an attempt at one of those DIY tulle tutus. The first tutorial I saw was here on the Make It and Love It blog. Ever since then I was hooked on researching DIY tutus.
So while at Hobby Lobby, I picked up a few spools of tulle in light purple, pink and white (it was pretty much unanimous from all the blogs I've read that buying the spools over getting yards of tulle cut off a bolt was the easiest/best way to make a DIY tutu), some elastic and a small bottle of food coloring that I've been dying to try (when I figure out what to do with it, I'll post about it).
There was definitely a learning curve in the beginning, but once I got the hang of knotting the tulle around the elastic it got easier and the time it took to complete the skirt went really fast. And finding the right chair to wrap the elastic around almost didn't happen as my kitchen chairs are rounded and too wide. Thankfully, Julia's desk chair was just what I needed. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the finished product because my model refuses to try it on for me. Claire took one look at the tutu and said "No." So I guess that was the end of that. LOL I hope to wear her down and eventually get her to wear it so I can get a picture.
For now, one of the only pictures I have is a "progress report" I sent to my friend Mandy (I think she gets as excited as I do when I'm crafting something) when I was halfway through with the tutu:
And this picture of the finished product resting on top of my wrapping paper caddy:
So - everything I did wrong with this tutu? First, I think I chose the wrong elastic. I wasn't paying attention to what I was buying (thanks to antsy 19 month old) and I bought a package of woven elastic and a package knit elastic. Not really sure what the difference is, I chose to use the woven for this project. It was really hard to tie the tulle around the elastic and slide it along to make room for more tulle. Second, I used 1 inch elastic and it curled when I tightened the tulle. Next time I hit a craft store, I will get 1/2 inch. Third, I didn't take into consideration the "stretch" of the elastic and cut it too long - but that was easily fixed with some scissors and my sewing machine. Oh and lastly, I also didn't take into account that once the tulle was a single layer the color is even lighter than it shows on the spool - so choose darker colors.
I was really hoping to make a few of these for my girls, but Claire doesn't seem to be interested at the moment. ~sigh~ Maybe Julia will be interested. I will have to check with her when she gets home later today.
