Soon We'll Be Seeing Twins!

So in anticipation of our trip to Alaska to visit with my brother and his family, I created two matching outfits for Kendall and her cousin Alice.  Alice is 6 months older than Kendall and it will be awesome to see them interact together!  They've skyped with each other a few times and Kendall is quick to let Riley know that Alice is her friend, not his!  (She will concede that Alice is Riley's cousin though).

Please excuse the wild hair do.  She refused to let me comb her bed head after her nap today!  She did insist on the shoes and bag to go with her new outfit - at least they match, right?

Can't wait until we are seeing double!  The two of them will look so adorable together!  Just a couple more days until we start packing yet again!

Birthday Shirts!

My sweet cousin and her family are going to be visiting us during Riley's spring break.  Both Riley and her daughter Madison have birthdays close together so I thought it would fun for the kids to celebrate together.  In anticipation of her 2nd birthday, I made Maddie some new shirts...well, I appliqued them at least.

Madison's birthday cupcake shirt.  I tossed around the idea of a little rolled fabric rosette for the cherry on top, but decided on the blue one instead.

Kendall loved it and wants me to make her another cupcake shirt...but she has one with ruffles.  How many cupcake shirts does one girl need?

I really liked how this one turned out.  I bought the Mini Monograms cartridge for my Cricut for this EXACT purpose!

Reminds me of a girlie colored M&M

I've got one more left over 24 mth shirt that I need to figure out what to put on it for Madison...Thankfully I have a little more time to stir the creative juices!

Now I Really Need A Serger

So after my numerous attempts at sewing clothing for my daughter, I've come to the conclusion that I am ready for a serger.  It would make things so much easier if I had one, but I'm not sure I'm ready to ask the hubby to spend the money on one...It would be like buying a second sewing machine and it's not exactly necessary, but it would make the items I sew look cleaner and neater.

Here is more reason to want a serger:

The pink paisley is to make a matching pair of ruffle pants to go with the knot dress I made Kendall last week.  The green and pink flowered material is to make a skirt for Kendall and the blue and red fabric I envision a pillowcase dress.  Using mostly the blue and a panel of the red at the bottom with bright red ribbon to tie it at the arms.  Even if I don't invest in a serger, I've got plenty of projects to keep me busy for awhile!

Sewing Frenzy

So when my mom was here we made a trip to my favorite fabric store here in Utah.  She helped me pick out lots of fun material for a list of projects that I've had on my computer for the past few months.  I don't know about you, but when I have a stack of new material, I can't wait to get started!

As you can imagine, I've been busy.  Here's what I've been up to this past week:

I made this from an existing t-shirt that I bought for $2 at Walmart.  Cut it off below the armpits and then sewed the dress part onto it!  Super easy and looks adorable with matching pink leggings!

Similar idea to above but cut if off at the waist and made it into a dress.  Looks great with matching leggings!

This is an apron knot dress that I just created yesterday.  I didn't start it until naptime (yes she took a nap when I told her I was going to make her a dress!)  I love it.  I just got a pattern for a pair of ruffle pants that I think will look fantastic with it.  Now I've got to make another trip to the fabric store...Darn!  ;)

Again, another $2 find at Wally World turned into a St. Patty's Day shirt!  Freezer paper stencils are so much fun, especially when you can cut them out with a cricut and not by hand!

Happy Heart Day!

Just a few of the ways we celebrate Valentine's Day here at the Chunko House...

Handmade Valentine's for Riley's classmates...Super easy to do and hopefully original.  I cut the envelopes out with my cricut as well as the hearts, glued it all together and inserted a package of pop rocks!

I just finished this Saturday night...Just in time for Valentine's day, right?  Whew!  Not as perfect as I would have liked, but not bad for a first attempt.  The heart on this shirt is made from strips of ruffled cotton that I cut from an old shirt of Riley's.  

And who doesn't love red velvet whoopie pies in a heart shape served up on a heart shaped plate?  Breakfast will also be heart shaped pancakes served on these same plates!

Normally I don't like to do a lot of candy with the kids so we'll spend time reading about Valentine's day (Kendall loves her Valentine "Fancy Fancy" book she got from my parents) as well as doing things that show others how much we love them!  Kendall and I are also going to decorate cookies with MOMS Club for Valentine's day with some of her friends while Riley has a fun party at school.  Then Andy and I are taking advantage of inexpensive babysitting at church for the night.  For both kids, from 5:30-9pm, it will cost us $20!  Can't beat that!  What a great fund raiser for the youth!  I think we're going to grab dinner and do a little shopping!  Our "real" date night will be next Friday - dinner at Tuscany!  I've been wanting to go there since my friend in Jax (who grew up in Sandy) told me about it before we moved here!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Watch Out! Superheros Have Appeared!

The kids begged me to make them superhero capes this week so one day after school, we stopped by Joann's to see what kind of fabric was on sale and what the kids might have been interested in using for their capes.

Here's what we came up with for them:

Her's is a princess cape and his is a shark cape...That's what they wanted, so that's what they got!

Her's has Rapunzel on the underside and his has sharks on the underside.

Superhero's in action!

They are both running around the house like nuts in their capes - which actually isn't all that different than any other day except they are dressed in princess and shark capes.

Some Things I've Been Working On...

I've taken advantage of some down time over the past few weeks to put my creative juices to good use.  Here are a few of things I've made:

I made this for my little prima ballerina.  All I did was find a ballerina online, print it out, trace it on to freezer paper, then cut it out with an exacto knife.  Then I used fabric paint and once it was dry, I made a ruffle out of tulle and then headed to the sewing machine and VIOLA!  

No, I'm not expecting...but I have a few friends who are and thought these would be a cute little gift for when their bundles of joy arrive!

My niece turns three this month and thought I'd make her a shirt with her name and a cupcake.  My brother and his wife don't celebrate holidays so I thought this would be a cute gift since it's not necessarily a "birthday" gift.

I also made her this picture frame

because she's as obsessed with all things ballerina just like Kendall.  My sister-in-law has some adorable pictures of her pretending to be a ballerina so I thought this might look cute in her bedroom.

And to top off the box of presents for my niece,

a cute rosette headband.  She's got as much (or as little) hair as Kendall.  I made a bunch of these for Kendall and they look so stinkin' cute on her, but she REFUSES to allow anything in her hair except maybe pigtails!  It's so frustrating to have tons of bows, flowers, hats and headbands for a little girl who won't wear them!

Along with the rosette theme, I saw this at Thanksgiving Point in the shops there and fell in love with it, but not the $50 price tag.  

Sorry the picture quality isn't fantastic, I took it with my phone so it wasn't obvious that I was going to try to copy it!

I decided I can make this myself for a fraction of the cost...So I did!

I gave this one to my mom for Christmas and she really liked it.  

I made this one for me and have gotten so many compliments on it whenever I wear it...at boutiques, the mall, from strangers on the street...

Here's the latest one I made...I LOVE this one and can't wait to wear it out!  

I also have a stack of new material up in my bedroom waiting for me to get in a sewing mood.  I think some new skirts and/or pillowcase dresses are in order.  I also have some other ideas bookmarked such as ruffle shirt dresses, bean bags in different shapes and with letters stenciled on them to help Kendall spell her name...Too many ideas, too little time!  Wonder if I could convince my husband to hire us a maid so I could have more time to craft?  Yeah, I know...but a girl can dream, right?

Not So Intimidated Anymore...

Using my sewing machine for anything other than a quick repair, attaching scout patches or sewing straight lines for the past 14+ years was about all it was good for until today...

I've been wanting to create a skirt with coordinating material and a matching applique shirt for Christmas.  I finally figured out what I wanted to do and created a "protype" for it.  My first version is decent, but sloppy.  I had to figure it out on my own with some cheap/scrap material before spending money on the good stuff!  Today I was brave and started cutting the expensive material, daring myself to try something new.  The most I've done is create a pillowcase dress - creating a pattern from one I had bought.  They were pretty simple, but it's mostly straight lines!

This skirt is mostly straight lines, but it required gathering, some top stitching, numerous french seams, and a waist band.  Still pretty simple for even the newbie seamstress.  My mom said she gets intimidated by her computer...that's how I feel when I sit down in front of my sewing machine.  I use to sew with my mom as a kid, but her machine is so different than mine and we haven't been able to sew together for a few years now.

Well, I've kept you in suspense long enough...Here's my finished product:

Kendall and I made a trip to the Fabric Center on Monday and I was overwhelmed by the number of choices...and good choices.  Lots of designer fabrics!  I was in sewing heaven!

The shirt was pretty simple to create as well.  I traced letters I printed off the computer and then sewed them on the front of the shirt so it would coordinate with her skirt.

I'm so happy to have been able to complete this simple one.  The best part is that I didn't even have a pattern.  I just followed some written instructions...the ideas are flowing now...The next one will probably have more panels or twirl or have layers...the possibilities are endless!

We've Got New Shirts!

I posted about this turkey shirt last week and have since gotten myself organized to finally make it over the weekend.  After Riley got a peek at it, he wanted me to make him one, but I can't see a 6 1/2 yr. old boy walking around with this shirt on and not getting beat up, so I made him a different shirt so he'd feel included.

Here's Kendall's Turkey Shirt:

The feathers are made from tracings of her hands.  A plus is that this shirt required NO SEWING!  Unfortunately, she's been trying to feed her turkey at meal times...It's gotten pretty dirty and she freaked when I had to take it off to wash it...She's even slept in it!

This is what I created for Riley:

He really wanted a turkey shirt of some type and I had a different idea in mind for him, but the more I thought about it, it didn't make sense to spend the time or money...He wears uniforms to school everyday so he would only be able to wear his shirt when he's home or on weekends.  Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away so once turkey day has come and gone, it would hang in his closet collecting dust.  The boy loves lizards (and all things reptile) so I made him this shirt from a freezer paper stencil.  I cut the stencil on my cricut and then ironed the paper to his shirt and painted the stencil with some brown fabric paint and voila...a new shirt for my boy that he can wear all winter long!

Wait till you see what I have in mind for Christmas shirts this year!  Last year was freezer paper stenciled snowflakes...Even better ideas swirling around in my head for this year!  Stay tuned!

More Thankful Ideas...

After I posted yesterday's Thanksgiving ideas, I came across a few more that I thought I'd share...

I don't know where I snagged this picture...someone's blog last year and I've archived it for future projects so I can't give credit where credit is due, but I think these shirts are adorable:

You have to cut out the hand shape from the tee shirt and then use material from the underside and stitch around the opening.  What a fun idea.  I have an orange shirt for Riley just waiting for a project like this one!

Here is another cute shirt idea to celebrate Thanksgiving.  This one might require a little more work, but it looks like it would be worth the effort!

The details for this turkey shirt can be found at Treasures for Tots.  According to the tutorial, you don't actually have to sew this one, I believe they just used Heat and Bond...I still like to sew around my appliques to make sure they don't start to peel off at the edges.

I also found this at Better Homes and Gardens website:

How adorable would that look on your dining room table?  So cute and simple to make!

Last year we made these to send out as cards to our family members:

The larger hand is Riley's and the smaller hand is Kendall's.  What a great way to show everyone how big they are getting!

This is another take on that same idea...This one just uses feet as well as the handprints.  I found the idea at Crafts Kaboose:

So many projects...so little time...Maybe if I weren't such a craftaholic I would have a cleaner, more organized house?  Yeah, right!

Happy Crafting!

It's Pillow Case Mania!

Since before she was born, I've been wanting to make Sissy some pillowcase dresses.  They are so adorable and pretty simple to make.  I finally got around to doing it this week.  I made two!  I actually bought a really cute one from Tangerine Threads via ETSY.com and used that as a model.  There is a great video tutorial from the Crafty Gemini that I referred to as well.  I created my own pattern since I used material and not an actual pillow case - which you can do by the way!

Here are my creations:

You can't see it as well in this photo, but the blue in the dress really sets off her baby blues!

She had just woken up from her nap and I INSISTED that she try her "Minnie" dress on...You can see that Momma won the battle, but not the war!  Later on in the day, she was in love with the dress.  I'm contemplating putting a Minnie Mouse head applique on the bottom corner...haven't decided yet.  Any thoughts?

I've got fabric for 3 more different dresses yet.  One is a green print fabric that Sissy calls her "Tinker" dress...can't wait to make that one for her!