Athletic shorts to toddler pants refashion

This is how you can very simply (and without buying a pattern) turn an old pair of men's athletic shorts into some sporty pants for your toddler.

Start by laying out a pair of your toddler's pants on top of the shorts, like in the picture below. Pin in place.

Using the pants as a guide, cut the same shape from the shorts. Don't cut the outer leg seam- no reason to make more work for yourself. (I cut the pants quite a bit bigger, partly for the seam allowance, but also because my son is growing out of the pants and I wanted the new athletic pants to fit for a while. I went back and cut the waistband smaller, though, since it already has elastic in it.)

Using the leg piece you just cut out, cut the exact same thing on the other side.

This leaves you with two leg pieces that only need to be sewn up the crotch (circle seam) and the inseam.

Below are both leg pieces spread out and stacked, right sides together. The top left and right angled seams are pinned- sew just from the waistband to the pointy part, and that becomes the crotch seam.

Match the two seams you just sewed together, still with right sides together. Pin the inseams and sew. The bottom is already hemmed, and the top is already finished with elastic. You may need to tailor it a bit to your child's waist size.

20 minutes from start to finish, and your little one has some sporty new (free) pants!

Sassy Shelf Makeover

My Husband found this poor shelf at a school surplus sale for just Three bucks, and decided to bring it home and give it new hope. It was terrible - it had big ugly plastic hooks (Which we had to lovingly break off, because there were no screws holding them on) and some pretty bad screw holes where it had been secured to the wall it had previously hung on. I was assigned to do most of the prep work, after my hubby informed me he hates sanding. And since its so cold outside, I did all of the sanding in...(dun dun dun!) our living room...(not a good idea - that dust is hard to clean up, and I didn't even mention the decreased air quality)! Anyway, I learned a couple lessons for furniture makeovers:
1. Don't sand in your living room.
2. Don't use wood glue to fill in big nasty holes, it takes multiple applications (it took me about 5-7 applications) and a lot of wasted glue by the time the holes are finally filled. Use real wood hole filler (or whatever its called).
3. SAND AFTER YOU FILL THE HOLES. Unfortunately we realized this after it was too late... you can see where the glue was covering the wood, and instead of the wood grain showing through the paint, you just see smooth patches where the glue is
4. Glossy finish paint is best for furniture, it just looks so much more classy.

So, 'nough talk, here's the fun part...pictures! Before, and after:

See the yucky holes? Poor homely shelf.
(You should have seen it before, with those terrible plastic hooks)

Looking much better already, with a fresh coat of glossy black spray paint...

Now, with a little help from Mod Podge, scrapbook paper, and some cute knobs from Home Depot (not to mention my wonderful hubby who drilled all the holes, and hung the shelf):

Drum roll please....

TA-DA! Look at my gorgeous new shelf!

up close and personal:

Some Decorating ideas:

Hang pictures/plaques from the knobs...

...and put pictures on top. This is how it looks, currently, but I'm going to be thinking of other ways to adorn my lovely new shelf!

I'm Linking to:

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/
http://romantichome.blogspot.com/
http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/
http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

Meal planning, part 1

True confessions: I hate strongly dislike meal planning, grocery list making, and grocery shopping.  I am not comfortable cooking dishes than involve more than, say, 5 or so ingredients, unless I have had a lot of practice.

I am not proud of these facts, and in truth, it is my goal to face and conquer these unfortunate... problems... for the sake of my husband and children, and of course, my own sake, since I have a long career of meal- fixing ahead of me.  >sigh<

Baby steps!  This blog is certainly one way I hope to face my inadequacies- i.e. trying new things and getting more comfortable cooking.  I am under no illusions that any of these dislikes will change over night, but here are some of the steps I have taken so far to make meal fixing a little easier for myself.

1. I have about a gazillion cookbooks, but I have narrowed it down to about 3 that I regularly use and know where certain recipes are.  One of these is a 3-ring binder with page protectors.  When I find new recipes that sound good, or sample someone's delicious dish that I just have to have the recipe for, I add it to the binder.  I plan on making a section in the binder of tried and true, fairly simple and quick recipes that I know my whole family likes.  (Also a section on ideas of meals to make when nothing sounds good- i.e. during the pregnancy morning sickness stage)

2. I have come up with a pretty good grocery list (with the help of my husband) that lists things in categories.  The idea is to keep the list handy, and as we run low on things we need, we circle the item on the list.  Looking over the list also jogs my memory as to what things we commonly need to replace, so I don't end up forgetting something really important, like toilet paper.  Also, at the bottom of the grocery list is a little area where I can write down the meal ideas I have, and what cookbook it came out of, page number, etc. because I hate it when I buy all the ingredients for a dish, then it all goes bad because I either forgot about it, or I can't find where the recipe is.  That little corner can be torn off the grocery list afterward, or can simply be written somewhere else (like on a magnetic calendar I bought for the purpose of meal planning which still has the menu from May 2009 written on it  >huge sigh<).

3. Baby steps, remember?  I think I will take another look at the easy recipe book blog my family made for my brother, who left 8 months ago to serve a church mission in Australia.   Want to check it out? Here is the link: Mission Recipes

So, do you want a copy of the grocery list I came up with? Click the link below.  I put it in my Google Documents, and you should be able to download it as a Word document.  Feel free to edit it to meet your needs.  If you find it useful, I would love to know! 
 
Grocery List

Manicure kit cover and bath mitt

Here are a couple more gift ideas, they were easy to make and went perfectly with the rice bags I made as a Christmas gift.

The fabric manicure kit cover was made using this tutorial at www.dhbuscher.com

Find Joanna's tutorial for the bath mitt on Michael Miller Fabrics.  I used an extra bit of terry cloth from a baby hooded towel I had made, and made the bias tape from extra fabric from the manicure kit cover.  I also added a little loop at the top for easy hang- drying.

Clock Re-do

So, we got this clock for our wedding (almost a year and a half ago!). It's pretty cute, but I have always disliked the face. I wasn't crazy about the color, or the roman numerals - they just didn't match the frilly-ness of the frame. So, I decided that I would make a new face for our poor, unloved clock.

BEFORE:

This wasn't as easy as I originally thought it would be - I was planning on just taking the hands off, and putting in a paper over the top. However, the hands were not removable, at least not by me... So, I had to think of a plan B.
I found a bowl that happened to be the exact size of the face of the clock, and traced around it onto my new paper. I found the center of the circle by cutting out another piece of computer paper the exact size, folding it in half and then in quarters, and cutting a hole in the center, large enough to go around the middle post. I lined up the two circle papers and traced the center hole onto the new face. Then I cut a straight line from the outside to the center, so I could slip the new paper around the post, without having to remove the hands. I used double-stick tape to secure it on the face. I couldn't find any cute number stickers that I already had, so instead I used two sizes of hole punches, and used the dots for the number places.

AFTER:

Not bad, eh? I just used paper I already had, and now I have a brand new clock for FREE! I would love to try this again on another clock, and maybe use colors that are a little brighter, and use things like pictures, silk flowers or even jewels for the number spots.

High chair re-cover

This is my son sitting in the high chair at my parents' house on Christmas morning... the chair doesn't look too bad in such a tiny picture, but if you were to take a closer look, you would discover that the reason for the green and white striped towel on the seat is to protect the baby from all the sharp cracked vinyl sticking up all over the seat.   This is a well- loved, well- used high chair that is probably at least 16 years old.

My mom and sisters and I decided to take this project on, so- first things first- we pulled the foam pads off the high chair, wiped it down, removed the sticky velcro from the backs, and used duct tape to cover all the holes and cracks in the plastic.

Then we made a pattern for the new seat cover by laying the foam pads on some paper (we used the white side of some wrapping paper), tracing around the pads, and then cutting our pattern out, adding about 3/4 inch as seam allowance and wiggle room.

We pinned and cut out the pattern shapes from some soft tan vinyl we found on clearance at Jo-Ann Fabrics. After sewing the pieces together with right sides facing, leaving one side open, we put the cushions inside the new covers, and used sticky velcro to keep the open side fastened shut.

We had the sticky velcro that was holding the cushions to the chair before, but it was slightly weakened.  Not wanting to waste, we decided we could just hot glue the velcro to the appropriate places.

The highchair needed a good washing, then we re-glued the velcro that had come off the chair back in the right places.

The new cushions fit perfectly!

What a fun, collaborative effort- with lots of helping hands, it took us less than an hour from start to finish.

We all agree, it looks much better now, after the re-cover!

Homemade Baby Gift Ideas

I made all of these about a year ago and gave them to a friend... Now that I'm expecting again, I think I'm going to have another go at a few of them for myself!  I found free patterns all over the blogosphere, but here are my favorites:

You can find the tutorial for this diaper bag over at A Mingled Yarn:

homemade by jill put together an easy to follow tutorial for these contoured, over- the- shoulder style burp cloths.

I like the diaper case by Jan Andrea the best.  I love matchy baby accessories, and it really does keep baby's diapers from getting crumpled from floating all over your diaper bag.

These nursing covers made my life so much easier when I was nursing my son.  The boning in the casing at the top holds the cover out enough to allow eye contact with your infant, while also  maintaining privacy.  I wish I would have found the pattern at Made by the Mama Monster before I spent $30 on mine.

Skirt to Maternity Shirt

Here is my basic "how-to" on making a maternity shirt (or regular shirt) out of a long skirt.

I started with this mid-calf- length skirt that I got years ago and no longer wear (the truth is that I still like it but just because I can still get it on doesn't mean it "fits").

I don't remember exactly what it was made out of, but it was quite stretchy and it had an elastic waist.  I laid the skirt out flat, and found a cotton shirt that I wanted to use as a rough guide in making pattern pieces for the maternity shirt.

I pinned the edge of the sleeve to the top of the skirt, so that the elastic waistband would be the new sleeve edge (thinking ahead to save as many steps as possible- no hemming required here!)

I did the same for the other sleeve, cutting generously to include a seam allowance.  At this point I also cut off the tags and some little belt loops that were attached to the waistband.  I folded the sleeves exactly like they are in the picture, but with right sides facing (inside out) and I sewed along the short edge so that the sleeve was then round, like... a sleeve.

Then, I pinned the shirt on the the skirt so I would have a cutting guide for the bust of the shirt.  I picked a bigger shirt because its always good to make maternity clothes a little bit larger than you would normally wear (or you could actually use a maternity shirt as a guide if you had one handy).

After the shirt was pinned, I cut a similar outline from the skirt, and continued cutting down to the bottom of the skirt, allowing it to flare slightly (I actually went back later after the shirt was made and sewed it so there was less of a flare because I didn't like the fit).

On the shirt front, I cut a deeper neckline than the back.

Now for the easy part: I matched up the shirt front and back with right sides facing each other, pinned them together, and sewed the shoulder seams and up the sides of the shirt.  Then I pinned the sleeves in place and sewed each of them in.  For the neckline, I initially just folded the fabric over and sewed it, but it didn't look good, and felt too flimsy, so I cut a sort of "facing" from some stiffer black fabric I had, sewing right sides together, then folding it behind the shirt and top-stitching.  The photo below is what the neckline looks like from inside the shirt.

Here is the neckline from the outside of the shirt.  I felt like the front needed a little more detail, so I used some of the scraps of fabric I had left to make little ruffles.  I basted up each strip, pulling on one thread to gather the material, then I pinned and sewed the ruffles in place.  It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but I think it gives some depth to the shirt.

Here is another attempt to show the detail on the front of the shirt.  There are 5 ruffles of differing lengths, sewed on in a somewhat orderly manner, but nothing too mathematical!

I didn't have any extra fabric left over- I ended up using every bit of it!  Here I am, at 6 months pregnant.

 

And that's it!  Embellish and tailor to fit your preferences and your body type, and you have a brand new shirt that didn't cost a thing to make!

Note: I opted for a basic how-to rather than a detailed, step by step tutorial because, quite frankly, I forget to take pictures of every step.  However, if there is an interest, I can certainly add more detail- and please feel free to email or comment if you have questions, and I'll do my best to answer them!