Child's Sleeping Bag

I want to show you my idea for making a small child's sleeping bag- I didn't take pictures along the way to make it tutorial style, because I think you would read this and say "duh", but I will explain briefly what I did.

We were given a set of four regular-sized quilted pillow shams which I thought were beautiful, but we didn't have the matching comforter, or anything that would look good with them, so they sat in storage for a year or two. 

I decided to use all four of them to make a sleeping bag for my son- they were the perfect size.  I sewed the openings in the back closed (the ones where you put the pillow through) on the two shams that would be on the bottom.  Then I just sewed straight lines to attach all four shams.  I left the sides unsewn for the top 1/4 on both sides so the flap could be folded down, and I also left one side unsewn about half of the way down so I could attach velcro for easier climbing in and out.

You may have to look closely to see the velcro:

Since my son is still so small, and he doesn't need much leg room, I attached velcro to the bottom corners and up near the top, underneath the flap, so the bottom would stay folded up, thereby giving extra warmth on top or cushioning on bottom. 

No need to add lining to this one- we'll just be using it indoors and it is already quilted.  If you wanted to make a warmer one, you could just cut your batting to the same size, as well as some flannel or other liner fabric, and sandwich everything together before sewing the whole thing.  There are actually tons of ways you could modify this idea for your own use.  I mentioned that I didn't sew the pillow openings closed on the top two shams- that makes it so I could slide a small pillow inside and it would stay in place.  Also, I could roll the whole thing up, and tuck it into one of those little pockets.  Handy!

Vintage Sheets to Cute Pajama Pants: A Quick How- To

I found this old top sheet at DI several months ago in pretty good condition, and loved the contrasting fabric and lace trim.  I just knew it could become something adorable, so I had to buy it!  After washing it and thinking over all the possibilities, I decided to make a pair of pajama pants to start out with.

Now, I am an advocate of sewing things, but I feel like the purpose is somewhat defeated after buying fabric, the pattern, all the time and effort put into the project- do you see what I'm saying?  Many times  it ends up cheaper just to buy the article of clothing you want.  That is why I love re-using clothing and fabric- upcycling.  I also rarely buy patterns.  I mean, I would for certain things, especially if it was on sale for a great price, but most times you can just use clothing you already have and love as a pattern for new things.

I used this old comfy pair of pajama pants that I got way back in high school as my pattern.  I dearly love those PJs.   Just the right length, super roomy, and honestly- I am sentimentally attached (a friend and I bought matching pairs on the way home from- what was it?- I don't remember, but we were freezing cold and soaking wet.  Those felt so good to put on!).  I will keep those pants until they fall apart in shreds.

Ok, so I folded the pants, pinned them to the fabric, and cut all the way around, adding about 1/4- 1/2 an inch as a seam allowance.  As you can see, I lined up the bottom of my pants with the cute lacy cuff of the sheet- so there will be no hemming the pants up!  That makes it easy, and that is why I didn't add any extra fabric on the bottom.

I did the same with the other leg.  Oops, somehow I cut off the extra fabric at the top of the backside piece- not good because now the pants will not have as much room in the back for my... backside.  Hmmm, these pants may be going to my skinnier- bottomed little sister.  Ha.

I pinned and sewed the outside leg seams together first, then placed the two pieces that look like the picture below together, right sides in, and sewed the circle (crotch) seams. 

Then I pinned the inseams together and sewed those up.  Nearly done!  At this point, it is a good idea to serge all your seams or do a zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying and seam- splitting.

I then made a casing as small as possible for the elastic to go in.  I put a safety pin on the end of the elastic to help thread it all the way through, then sewed the two ends of the elastic together.  Finally, I sewed the small opening in the casing closed.

I love them!  So springy!  So cheery!  Maybe I will have to keep them for myself until I lose all this baby weight.  (Or not.)

New Page!

Hello all! Its been awhile since we last posted (sorry about that!  Just one of those weeks to attend to all the business and sickness in our families), but there's a new little somethin' we've been working on, if you want to take a look...

Check out our "Meet and Greet" page- the link is up near the top- so you can get to know us a little better. Because we're kind of a big deal.. and stuff... um yeah.

Ok, so maybe we have delusions of grandeur when it comes to how many people want to get to know us, but all the same, we would love to get to know all of you better too, so please visit the page anyway, and link up your own "About Me" page on the linky party.

And we promise to post some new material in the next little bit!

Oops..

Sorry guys, I totally meant to post that Shabby Apple Giveaway on my personal blog, I didn't realize I was signed into our craft blog!
But Grosgrain is a cool blog, feel free to enter her giveaway for this adorable dress!

Laundry Tip

One thing about pregnancy that is rather inconvenient to me is the "butterfingers effect" combined with (a) my inability to lean over the table while eating in the latter stages of pregnancy and (b) the tendency of my belly to catch falling food.  Um, that combined with having a toddler who considers me his personal napkin, gets my clothes pretty dirty by the end of the day. 

I recently had two of my favorite shirts, a brown one and a black one, out of commission because of the unfortunate placement of some grease spots on them.  If ya know what I mean.  I washed them over and over, using Spray and Wash, pre-treating with detergent, washing on hot, cold, anything I could think of, but they wouldn't come out because (I presume) they had been through the dryer.

Not wanting to reduce my already small-ish (usable) maternity wardrobe, I called my mom and asked her if she knew of anything that would remove set- in grease stains.  Of course she did.  Her first suggestions was Energine Spot Remover.  I did not have that on hand, have no idea if they still make it, and recall that it has a horrible, strong smell to it.  Then she suggested Fels Naptha soap.  Ding!  I realized at that moment that I had a fresh, unopened bar of that somewhere in my cleaning stash, but had forgotten all about it until that moment.

 

Photo courtesy of http://www.hardtofinditems.com/fels-naptha-soap-632902.html

I followed my mom's suggestion, and used an old toothbrush to work up a lather on the bar, then rub the suds into the stains on my shirts.  I didn't even let them soak long- just threw them in the wash.  They came out grease- spot- less!  Hurray!  I have since used the soap to get out more set- in grease stains, chocolate stains, amoxicillin stains (from my poor, ear infection prone toddler), and even blood.  I don't love doing laundry, but this makes me want to do a happy dance.  Or at least a happy wiggle, as dancing around is getting increasingly awkward.

I also found out that this soap is great for treating poison ivy, poison oak, and other itchy stuff- you wash your clothes in it, and can actually use it in the shower to remove the oily poison residues that are so hard to get off.  This might not be very relevant to some people, but I grew up on a Christmas tree farm (my family still lives there) and we had poison oak everywhere.  So that bit of information was especially interesting to me.
Apparently there are all sorts of other uses for it, but I won't bore you with the details here.  If you want to know more, I found an interesting page from my Google search here.  (And no, I'm not getting paid to write any of this, I just found it really useful!)

Recycle your jewelery/ ring boxes into photo frames!

I have a couple of  shoe boxes full of those little boxes that rings, watches, and assorted jewelery come in- both the fancier hinged kind, and the cardboard ones.  Being the recovering packrat that I am, I still have to look the other way when I am decluttering in my craft room, because they are just so dang cute that I cannot get rid of them!  And anyway, I might be able to turn them into something fantastic, right?

Well, after 12+ years of collecting these little boxes that I might use "someday", I am finally figuring out how to give them new life!  I hope to share many different ideas; here is my first.

I kept the boxes my engagement ring and wedding band came in, thinking they were just too pretty to throw away.  I wanted to do something sentimental with them, and display them somehow without looking junky.  They reminded me a little of photo frames, and that seemed like a feasible option.

 

I had to rip out the padding so that photos could lay flat over each square opening.  I thought about also ripping out the other piece that covers the hinge, but decided to leave it in.

  

I used E6000 glue to stick the two boxes together, and the drying time was pretty short.

I measured the squares and chose 4 portrait- oriented photos and resized them to fit the openings, which for this project was 1.5 x 1.75 inches.  For sentimentality, I had to choose one photo from the day we were engaged, where my husband was actually holding the ring box- it seemed only fitting.  The rest are from right after we were married, and from our reception.

I glued each photo over the square opening, and let it dry.  I kind of wish now that I hadn't left the white strip that covers the hinges, but not enough to rip the whole thing apart and start over.

For now, my little frame will live on top of my computer desk.

This idea works well if you have 2 identical ring boxes, but you could still use just one with cute results!  I am going to tweak the idea a little more with some of my other gazillion boxes and see what I can come up with.  I would love to see pictures if anyone else tries this (or some other way of recycling a ring box)!