Table tent

My kids are constantly building tents... in the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms.  It involves taking all the blankets off the beds, and moving all the books off the book shelf since they are needed as blanket anchors.  Oh, and the toys.  Yes the toys get moved out of their room to where ever the tent is and get all set up. 
They spend more time setting up than playing with it.

Every time the house ends up looking like a tornado ran through it, 

and Mom usually ends up putting most of it away.

A friend of mine told me she got tired of the same thing happening, so she made a table tent.  

I liked the idea!

This afternoon, I got set to work using what I had in my stash, and made the girls a table tent.  

After my 3 old looked at it, she gave me a big hug and said ' Thank you Mom! I love you now".  

Umm, not sure how to take that!  

They played for a few hours in it, and wanted it set up so they can play tomorrow with 2 of their friends.  It seems to have cured the "take all the blankets and books" part of the problem, but not the "move in the toys" problem.  

Oh well, at least they are now confined to a 3.5'x5' space instead of an entire room.

While taking pictures of it tonight, I found this:

Hmm, I wonder who did it?  :)

Blankets

A number of months ago, I decided to use some minky I had bought last year, to make new blankets for the girls. 

Their room is quite cold in the winter, and my youngest especially, really likes the feel of minky.  The blankets they had a babies were barely long enough to keep them covered anymore, so in a few hrs, I had these 2 whipped up.

 

K's was made with some scraps, but she loves it.  The blue has hearts in it, so that was her favorite part.

 

They bring them everywhere they go.  Their "warm blankets" travel with them to bed, the couch, the car, friends houses, and make they great forts too!

more sewing for my kiddos

While I was on visiting my parents place last week, I went through her patterns, and came across a few I wanted to try.

Since cabbage patch dolls are the ones my kids play with the most, I started with this one.

I went through my fabric stash, and found some knits I could use to make them a few of the outfits.  I didn't finish of the edges like it called for... I would have had to use a lot of bias tape... I started by zig zaging the edges, then realized knits don't fray, and opted for the rolled up look - it's less time consuming too!

They love them.  

The one with the pink ice cream is a smaller, baby version of the doll, so they don't fit her too well.

Barbie got a new dress too.  Out of some extra fabric from a shirred dress. 

... and one for K

 This one was made for K. 

I used pattern ****, and a cotton fabric I found at Joanns.

She will be able to wear it in the spring and summer with a shrug. 

I also like how it turned out, except that the zipper doesn't line up at the top... and I was too lazy to fix it since I figured she would be wearing a sweater/shrug with it anyways.  :)

New dress for M

I am r.e.a.l.l.y. behind in posting the projects I have completed.
I know I didn't really speak about it on here, but I volunteered my time for the first half of the school year, teaching some high school students how to sew.
I had help, so I wasn't alone, but it still took up lots of time during the week.
I am glad I did it- the students all seemed to have fun, so it was not time wasted.
I am now in my second week without teaching (they moved on to cooking), and am enjoying my new found free time.
My oldest started Kindergarten back in Aug, which is also when I started teaching, so I am now feeling what it is like to only have 1 child home 2 days a week.  I am liking it so far!
So, here is a dress I made for M a few months ago.

I used a decorative corduroy, and butterick 4852 as the pattern.
I really like how it turned out, and only wish I had made it a little longer.  She is not the most modest 3 yr old, and often protests to wearing tight or leggings.  I improvised, and cut down a pair of leggings that had seen better days.

She now has some legging shorts to wear underneath- which she likes so no fighting!

michael miller fabric is in!

All the Michael Miller fabric has arrived!

round about aqua- $7.95/yrd

carnival bloom- $7.95/yrd

lagoon hoopla dot- $7.95/yrd

lagoon zoo animals- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot aqua- $7.95/yrd

round about lavender- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot orchid- $7.95/yrd

lolli dot sky- $7.95/yrd

  spice hoopla dot- $7.95/yrd

Doesn't it look great?  

It's in the shop, ready for purchase.

If you're local, feel free to send me an email, or call me to avoid the shipping costs.

Down time

I visited my family last week.  I went from rainy Washington to the snow filled province of Alberta, Canada. 

There was A LOT of snow there.

My older sis also came, and we helped them out by clearing the larger roof of their house off.

Then we celebrated the accomplishment!

From there, I visited a friend I have known for 17 years.  We went to the fabric store minutes after I arrived (it was closing in an hour) and sewed the night and day away.

She made a scarf

and we both made a skirt using a pattern from the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love.  

 hers

You can read more about it on her blog Making More with Less 

 

mine

It didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, so I plan on cutting about 4" off the bottom of the lining, and either add a bottom band, or ruffle instead.  Since it is the one thing I forgot at her place, I will have to wait a bit to get it.

Newest sleep sacks

In my absence, a lot of sewing has been accomplioshed.  Here are some pre-mades done in newer fabrics.  Some have sold already, others are still available in the shop.