Embroidered Hand Print Ornaments

On your marks, get set, GO!  Let the Christmas crafting begin :)

You've seen these embroidered hand prints all over the bloggy world, right?

I decided I wanted to make mine into Christmas ornaments, although I must admit, they turned out a little larger than I thought they would.  Who would have thought that a 3 1/2 year old and a 13 month old would have such large hands?  I guess I really know how to grow 'em.  

The hardest part was tracing my 3 1/2 year old's hand.  The second hardest part was finding my embroidery floss in the basement craft closet.  I've had this stuff since I was in 5th grade, when I first got into counted cross stitch.  I don't really do that anymore since I've taken up sewing, but of course I could never get rid of the floss!

I did go out and buy a water soluble pencil for marking the hand prints onto my fabric, as well as two small hoops.  The white fabric and ribbon was an old curtain from my stash.  I think they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.  (Did I mention this was my first try at embroidery?)

Family Heirloom Recipes on a Towel

Yes folks, this must be the most awesome Christmas gift idea I've run across in years.  I am so stoked to make these for all the women in the family.  I collected family recipes from my great aunt and grandma, my brother's wife's mom, and my husband's grandma, and then scanned them into my computer as a color PDF file.  Next I opened them in Picasa without having any luck, and eventually had my husband help me work on them in Adobe CS5.   That worked out much better for me than Picasa, but it helps to have someone who knows how to use the program.  I don't know how to use CS5 at all, so my husband has to walk me through every step.

When you first open it up and choose "new," you will be asked what dimensions and at what resolution you want your file to be.  This is tremendously helpful, as you need the collage to be 54x36 inches.  I set my resolution to 300 pixels per inch.  That's a pretty high resolution and will work out great for this project.

On your right, you should see where you have your background layer listed.  Currently, it should be your only layer.  You'll want to make it a pretty color that compliments your recipe card, if you want the hemmed edges to have color to them.  Do you see the two boxes of color just above the layers, one overlapping the other and slightly above and to the left?  Double click on the one on the left, and move your cursor around on the color box until you like the color.  Hit okay, and then on your toolbar (mine's on the far left of the screen), choose your paint bucket.  Click on your plain white image, and it should fill with your selected color.

Now it's time to begin adding the recipe photos.  Choose "File" and then "Place."  Choose your first recipe.  It will be too big when it first show up, so hit SHIFT and then drag the corner until it's the size you want it.  You can also drag it around to one of the four quadrants of the image, so that you'll be able to fit four recipes on the same document.  When you're satisfied, click the checkmark.  By the way, if you don't hold down SHIFT while resizing, you will find that the recipe's dimensions will get distorted.

Place and resize your other three recipe photos the same way, and then you're almost done.  I'd make the border just a little thicker than you think it should be.  I made the mistake of making mine too narrow, and it was a real pain to hem.  Just keep resizing (SHIFT and dragging the corners of the picture) until it looks right.

If you want to switch from one photo in the collage to a different photo within the collage, here's what you do so that you're able to grab that second photo: Click on the correct layer on the right side of your screen and then hit CTRL T.  Every time you resize or move an item, make sure you click on the checkmark to finalize the movement.

Want to see some yummy family recipes? Yeah, I thought so. May I recommend Nan's Sugar Cookies, as the most awesomest cookies on the planet? She made them every easter, cut them into rabbits, iced them with white icing and then piped a pink trim. Ah, those were the good old days. Love and miss you, Nan!

Linked up to Fingerprints on the Fridge and Classy Clutter

Dress Shirt Onesie

I'm not very good at sewing something and having it turn out the actual size I want it. It's usually a size or two too big. Oh well- it's a good thing my kids always grow into them! This dress shirt onesie is a prime example. I thought it would be cute for Easter. It's Halloween now, and it fits him. I was close, right?

[Jessica Nash photography] Right before the photo shoot, he pulled off a button at the crotch, so he ended up having to wear pants with it. I thought it would be cute to see him running around in just a onesie, but oh well!

Gerber Training Underwear Refashion

It's potty training time in our household!!! Can I get a Hallelujah! (And on a side note, anyone want to share how you washed poopy underwear?)

Anyway, awhile back, I had thrifted two pairs of new Gerber training underwear (they're they ones with the plastic outside, which by the way, do not stop pee from coming out and soaking the carpet). The tag says "tumble dry low." Just FYI, the dryer completely melted the plastic exterior in multiple places. *Sigh*

But never fear, I have a fabric stash a mile high which came to the rescue :)

I ripped off the old plastic coating, got out a thrifted jersey sheet (that's t-shirt material in case you don't know that term), and traced around the underwear leaving an inch or so all the way around for hemming and for a little extra give.

Cut two pieces out (one for the front, and one for the back). You can make the back piece a little larger if you want. With right sides together, I sewed the crotch and sides first.



At this point, the Gerber interior and the new fabric exterior are still two separate pieces. Then I started attaching the two parts together by stretching out the elastic waistband as I sewed. I sewed the top of the exterior as close to the elastic waistband as possible.







If you have a favorite underwear pattern or idea, I'd love to to hear about it!

Linking to Delightful Order's Thursday linky Party!

Sock Monkey Kids' Travel Pillow

Have you seen these seat belt pillows from Super Jenn? After seeing how comfy her kids looked, I knew I should totally make one for the car ride down to the Outer Banks for my three year old. And on a side note, with the HORRIBLE traffic we hit about just before we crossed over onto the islands, it took us 14 hours to get there. It was supposed to take us 11 hours. Sitting in three hour traffic for the last 15 miles was NOT FUN. Anyway...

This travel pillow was a completely free project! I almost forget about the miserable car ride when I think of the word free.

I already had the sock monkey fabric on hand. I had thrifted two sock monkey pillowcases awhile back and had a little fabric left after making a handmade swaddler for the baby.


Aww... Isn't he cute? He's a month old in this photo.
Now he's nine months old!

I followed Super Jenn's awesome tutorial, but I think I would have made the fabric flaps that go around the seat belt a little larger. I never did put velcro on mine because I don't think my flaps are large enough to get around the seat belt. That's okay though, because I could see my three year old throwing a tantrum on the interstate when he didn't want the pillow on his lap anymore. The way I did it, the pillow just rested on him so he could use it or not. He was free to remove it from his lap and throw it on his baby brother when he was done with it. Not adding the velcro also addressed the safety concern that some people had... although really, I don't think the thin flap of fabric that would have been under the seat belt would cause a safety issue. That flap is thinner than a sweatshirt or jacket!

To fill the pillow, I used a combination of thrifted polyfil and t-shirt scraps. I'd say the pillow was a huge success, and in a year or so, I'm going to have to make another one so that boy #2 has one too!

Pirate Appliqued Jammies

Did you know that Blackbeard was killed off of the Outer Banks in 1718? Argh!


We are home from the Outer Banks! And usually, as you head north to Ohio, the temperature doesn't increase. But holy smokes, as we crossed the bridge from West Virginia into Ohio, the little temperature thingie on the car said that it was 107 degrees.

*Beads of sweat rolling down our faces*

This heat is no fun. I can't imagine what our men and women are going through in Iraq and other hot places. I hear it's like 120 degrees there typically :(

Back to sewing. I found some really cute pirate jammie pants down in the OBX. At $11.99, they were a bit of a splurge, but I bought them anyway because I'm a sucker for anything with pirates on them. They had really cute pirate jammie tops too, but none in his size. And even if there were some in his size, I wasn't about to spend another $11.99 for the top. The way it is, I could have bought 12-24 pairs of thrifted PJs for that (and nice ones too, not the ratty I-would-never-dress-my-kid-in-this kind!).

I also saw a really cute appliqued lady's pirate tee down there, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting it. I found it online in kid sizes and pinned it:

Source: grays-sportswear.com via Jodie on Pinterest

I figured I could free-hand a pretty good pirate head from looking at this picture, and make an appliqued pirate PJ top to match the PJ bottoms I bought on vacation.

As I had already invested $12 in this outfit, I wasn't about to put another single penny into it. Using things I already had on hand, I created a pirate PJ shirt for my son :) The shirt itself was from my sister-in-law's heading-to-goodwill pile. I sewed down a plain black shirt of hers to fit a four year old. And then using red, white, and black t-shirt scraps and some fusible web from my stash, I made the pirate.

I looooooooove how it turned out!!! He, on the other hand, was not thrilled about it until I pointed out that the pants have little guns on them like HIS gun! His gun is a replica George Washington pistol :)









Linking up to:

Old Navy Flag Tee Upcycle

$5 flag tees from Old Navy! Everyone has one (or ten). My in-laws gave me a big box of clothes that was headed to Goodwill, and my brother-in-law's 2011 flag tee was in there.

Free flag tee plus this tutorial from Crafterhours equals an awesome upcycled tank top to wear on Independence Day!

An Independence Day Onesie

Happy Birthday, America!!!
(From the sandy beaches of OBX!)



To celebrate her birthday, I made Jonas a cute USA onesie using everything I already had on hand :) The onesie was actually a hand-me-down that his older brother wore (and it was second-hand even back then). I also used fabric from my stash, as well as fusible web that I had thrifted a long time ago. I saw something similar at The Ribbon Retreat, and knew I wanted to make one :)

Enjoy!
















Someday Crafts Patriotic Linky Party