Jane of All Trades Giveaway-CLOSED

Have you checked out Jane of All Trades yet?  Well, now is the time to do it.  Not only is her super cute chalkboard mat being featured over at Sew Can She, but she's also having a giveaway.

 Here's just a peek at some of her cute projects.

 

So head over here before Friday, 1/27 to enter to win this beautiful bag.

Then come back and let me know what you think.

A Little Fun in the Sun

We are on vacation this week, and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

We've dipped our toes in the sand and ocean.

And seen some really cool wildlife.

 

And what trip would be complete without a little fabric shopping.  All these fabrics are from Joanns, but ones I haven't been able to find in my local store.  

The perfect souvenir for me.

Winter Vacation Shorts Mini-Tute

We'll be flying south soon for our annual winter vacation.  So in honor of Rae's KNITerview series, I thought I'd put together a little tute for some knit kid shorts.  Now if you read my KNITerview, you'll see that in my humble opinion, the easiest way to sew knits is on a serger.  But, there are tons of resources out there for sewing knits on your standard sewing machine.  And most people, other than me, do this with great success.  Here's a great post at Prudent Baby. 

I'm calling this a mini-tute because I'm not going to show you how I made my pattern.  Dana over at Made has a great tutorial. for this. 

On to the shorts.  I made my pattern from shorts that fit my daughter.

Lay out your pattern and cut 2 front pieces and 2 back pieces with your fabric folded.  For these shorts I used about 1/2 yard rib knit I bought at Joanns. Rib knit has a nice stretch and is a good medium weight.  You could also use interlock or a thrifted tee.

 

Sew the back to the front (right sides together) at the crotch and on the sides for both legs.

This is what you should end up with

Turn one leg right side out and insert into the other leg, with right sides together. Sew from one arrow to the other.  

Turn right side out.  Super easy and almost done. 

Measure all the way around the waist and subtract 1 inch.  Mine were 18 inches around, so I cut a waistband that is 17" by 3 inches.  

Sew the short ends together.

Fold in half with the seam on the inside and iron.  Mark the center on the front and back, and side.

Match your marks with the side and center front and back seams.  Your shorts will be wider than the band.

As you sew, stretch in between the marks to make the band fit.

Now you just need to hem, and you're done!

For these, I did a lettuce edge on my serger.  From an Igloo has a nice tutorial showing how to do this without a serger. 

Or you can just do a regular hem.

Now we're ready for our winter getaway, though it hasn't really felt like winter here.  

Hope you're enjoying the winter where you are.

Laptop Sleeve

We're going on vacation soon.  I'm typically a light packer. But I've realized that it's not so much clothing I need space for, but my computer, camera, lenses, iphone.....

So rather than carry my laptop bag, I made my computer it's own, little pouch.

I almost can't wait to whip this out at security...I can hear the ooohs and aaahs already.

My little assistant was smitten with the colors as well.  I had to remind him that this is mommy's toy.

I used this tutorial for the measurements, but ended up putting it together more like my diaper sleeve.  

Stay tuned for my KNITerview at Made by Rae next week. 


Happy weekend!

Have you Heard the News.....KNITerviews

If you haven't been over to Made by Rae recently, you need to head over!  She's featuring a series of interviews about sewing with knits. 

 

My KNITerview will be up next week, so stay tuned.  I'm hoping to put together a few tutorials to go with the series....so I better go work on that :)

Have a wonderful weekend and be sure to stop by next week.

Peppermint Marshmallows

I have always wanted to try making homemade marshmallows.  So this year, as a gift for all the teachers at my kids' preschool, I decided to pack up some peppermint marshmallows with cocoa.

I used this recipe.

They are very easy to make and are really yummy in a cup of cocoa.

I swirled in some red food coloring just after pouring the mix into the pan.

I may have gone a little overboard on my packaging, but it was so fun!

Fluffy, minty, yumminess.  These chocolate marshmallows are next. 

Nutcracker Dress

Every year daughter's great aunt takes us to our local ballet company's performance of the Nutcracker.  And every year, I make my daughter a dress of her choice for the show.

She's not so into dresses, so I let her pick the fabrics and the style. 

Here's her dress from last year.  

A year later, she looks so much older (to me at least). 
She chose all the fabrics, and though I wouldn't have put these colors together, I think they look beautiful.  


She looked beautiful. 

A beautiful dress for a beautiful girl and a beautiful tradition.   

Ruffled Trees

I don't usually get too into decorating for holidays. I figure, no sooner do you put the decorations out but then it's time to put them away and get out new ones. But this year, I was feeling festive and decided we needed a few extra. I've seen a couple of variations on this cute ruffled tree here and here.

Both tutorials use a foam cone. I didn't have one and didn't feel like going to the store, so I dug into my plentiful stash of file folders. I work at a university and the ladies in the office call me whenever they have a box of file folders they're getting rid of. It's pretty amusing since I'm a research biologist to have the secretaries call me when they want to get rid of folders!

Anyway, I just rolled up a folder, ruffled my fabric and got out my glue gun. It was so easy and fun, I made 3.

A gift for a dog

Yesterday we went to visit a good friend's new dog, and of course, we had to bring a gift. I found this cute tutorial over at Laura Griffin Designs showing how to make a doggie bone.

Instead of ties on the ends, I braided some clothes-line rope and added it to each side. It was really tough to sew over the braids, so I'm sure it's not the sturdiest dog toy ever made.

Paddy grabbed it right away....

And by the time we left, she'd already chewed through the rope, and made it her own. What a cutie!