The Man in the Yellow Hat Costume is now YELLOW

Woot, woot! My hubby ran to Meijer for milk late last night after the kids went to bed, and I told him to pick up a box of yellow RIT dye too. (In case you missed the post yesterday, I made a white "Man in the Yellow Hat" Halloween costume for my son, and I'm dying it yellow).

Last night I upcycled my sister-in-law's white linen skirt into white pants for Joel. The waist band is a little a lot girly, so I'm going to have to put some testosterone into it, but other than that, I'm lovin' the outfit!

This morning, the screaming darling baby and I came downstairs. Armed with a bottle of formula and a cup of coffee, we got to work dying the costume yellow!

I did it in a stock pot with just over a gallon of hot water and the entire box of dye. I did put it on the stove on low, but I was afraid of melting the plastic lid so I didn't turn it up high at all. The water never boiled and really wasn't all that hot. I only left it in the dye solution for 10 minutes, then I started rinsing. (And in case you're wondering like I was, RIT dye water CAN be saved for use at a later date! I wanted to keep the yellow water in case Joel outgrows the dress shirt. It's a 3T, but with my luck, he'll need a 4 by then. If he does, I'll just thrift another cotton dress shirt, and dye it too :) I have the water saved in an old milk jug with "DO NOT DRINK!" written all over it.

Back to the how-to... I put all three articles of clothes (the 100% cotton dress shirt, the linen pants, and the t-shirt material mock necktie) in the dryer on EXTRA low. Once again, I was worried about melting the plastic piece in the mock necktie, but it was just fine.

And now, drumroll please, I introduce to you Joel's Halloween costume this year.... The Man Who Still Does Not Have a Yellow Hat!



Ok, so I still need to make la piece de resistance, the yellow hat.

Here are some ideas I pinned:

Source: seekatesew.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: homemadebyjill.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Aren't they cute?! These ladies are awesome :)

Linking to
Delightful Order Thursday Linky Party!

Mock Necktie Tutorial

For Halloween, I thought it would be cute to dress up the baby almost-toddler as a monkey, and my preschooler will be the man in the yellow hat. My son loooooooooves Curious George, but the main reason I made the decision is that I found a 18 month monkey costume on clearance for $5 after Halloween :)

(And by the way, I do realize it's not even Independence Day yet!) Anyway...

I plan on taking one of his dress shirts, a pair of white pants, and a tie, and dying them all yellow with RIT dye. That way, all the yellows match. Aren't I smart? :)

I'm going to make him a pair of pants out of a white linen skirt that my sister-in-law didn't fit anymore. For the tie, I thrifted a white t-shirt with large black polka dots for $1. When I saw the fabric, I knew it was just right!!!

Since this fabric is t-shirt material, I thought I'd just make a mock tie. (You know, a tie that's not really a tie at all). T-shirt material is just way too wonky for the real deal. I must warn you: there's hot glue involved. It just needs to last one day. This is the quick and dirty way to get the tie look without all the time it takes to make one the right way.

I took a few pictures as I went, but they're not the best. So sorry. It's hotter than @*#%^&$#, and I just didn't feel like going outside to get better lighting.

I drew and cut out a tie on a piece of newspaper for a pattern, held it up to my son, figured the size was just about perfect, and got to cutting the fabric. With right sides together, I cut two ties out and sewed them together. I sewed all the way around except for the top - I used the top hole to turn it right side out. Iron flat if you're perfectionist. If not, that's cool too. I sure didn't. You can topstitch the opening closed once the tie is right side out. I didn't, but it would look a little nicer from the back if you do. It won't really matter because the back is not going to show, so either way is fine.



Now it's time to start the faux knot. You will need a hot glue gun, some polyfill, a little more matching fabric, and something thin and plastic that you can cut... like a butter lid or something like that. I used a lid from a plastic Gerber baby food container.

Freehand a knot onto your plastic lid and cut it out. Hold it up to your tie to make sure it's the right size. Take your fabric scrap, wrap it around your knot, and begin hot gluing it down on the back. Hot glue down all the sides except for the top of the knot.



Before you glue down the last side of the knot, stuff in a little poly fill until you're satisfied with the look of the knot. Then go ahead and glue the last side down. Make sure you remove all the hot glue stringy things. You can see I forgot to do that before I photographed it.



Then I hot glued the knot to the top of the tie, added some stick-on velcro to both the back of the tie and the shirt, and voila, you're done!

Button Placket Pant Legs

My sister-in-law and her family are moving to Cincinnati this summer, and so she's doing a lot of weeding out of stuff they don't wear or use anymore.

Enter me. The annoying scavenger relative who always wants other people's trash!

I was lucky enough to intercept the box of clothes before it went to the thrift store. Now I can make some upcycled clothes for the kiddoes :) I did tell her that I would make her daughter a few shirts and skirts. I thrifted a 30c girls clothes pattern (still new in the package, never cut) just for the occasion.

I was excited to find a plaid shirt to cut up because little boy plaid shorts are all the rage, you know.

Because I wanted the pocket to be on the butt, I aligned the pattern to make sure the pocket was in the right spot. Doing so put the button placket (although technically they're snaps) from the shirt on the side of the pant leg. I wasn't sure how I felt about that until I was out shopping and saw some shorts with the snap buttons up the side. Now I'm digging it. I even got compliments on the placement of the button placket from my neighbors :)

Now go raid the closet and make some button placket shorts!

Nightstand turned Kiddy Play Sink

At a garage sale years ago, I bought two nightstands for $5. Each nightstand had 4 drawers, but between the two of them, there was only six good drawers. I put four operational drawers in the one nightstand, modpodged it with sheet music, and took it to work for my office (I'm a music teacher).

And then junior high kid wrote the F-word on it. *Sigh*

The other nightstand just sat around in my basement for awhile until I got the ingenious idea to turn it into a play sink for my son.

At a garage sale, I scored a metal bread pan and a chrome soap dispenser. The bread pan is the sink. I envisioned the soap dispenser becoming a fully functional spigot. The water goes in the bottom part that would normally hold soap. There used to be a chrome outer sleeve to cover up the ugly white part, but I tossed that since I didn't need it. After I got rid of it, I had the idea that I could have used it as a pencil holder or something. Oh well!

I got out my trusty little jig saw and cut out the openings for the bread pan and the soap dispenser. And then it sat. For two years.

At the moment, we're getting our basement refinished (yay!), and when we were cleaning out the basement, I found the half-finished kiddy sink from way back when.

My. Son. Loved. It. It's a car wash! It's a rock wash! And so much more!

He had so much fun playing with it that now I have to finish it. I decided to just make shelves instead of trying to fix the two broken drawers, so I used luan plywood that I had lying around in the garage (free from a construction site a few years ago-- just make sure to ask first!) Don't look too close at the luan shelves- I'm not the best jig-sawer.

I envisioned a sink apron to cover up the ugly make-shift shelving. I used a cup hook on each side connected with a dowel rod (all of which I already had on hand) to create a curtain rod, and a piece of $1 kitchen-y printed fabric (that I thrifted eons ago) to make the sink apron.

Nightstand + Bread Pan + Soap Dispenser + Luan + Cup Hooks + Dowel Rod + Fabric + Paint = One Happy Boy :)

I got to sew girl clothes for once!

My neighbor wanted to dress her little girl in some bandana dresses, so I got to sew some dresses for a change!

Let me tell you. Easy. As. Pie. (It's even waaaaaay easier than pie. Making a pie is pretty involved and time consuming actually).

Seriously. I'm talking, like, 10 minutes. Stitch up the sides, leaving about 6 inches for arm holes. Make a casing at the top, and then pull the ribbon through it. Done!

A Father's Day Envelope Shirt

Here's the little one wearing a shirt that I made especially for Father's Day :) I thrifted it awhile back (it was originally for an adult male, and the embroidery was already on it!), and then I sewed it down so that it would be about 9-12 months.

I used this tutorial over at This Mama Makes Stuff, but I just made it t-shirt length rather than baby gown length :)




I'm outta here!

2 1/2 Pillowcases = a Handmade Swaddler!

Alida over at I Make Stuff is flippin' awesome. She came up with a tutorial on how to make swaddler blankets! I had bought three on clearance that supposedly last up to 14 lbs, but seeing as how my son is about 12 lbs and I can barely fasten the velcro around his broad shoulders, I figured it was time to buy some new ones.

But wait! Alida to the rescue! Why buy when you can sew some for free, using fabric I already have on hand?! Stash-busting, that's what I'm talking about!

Before I decided to whip up some of these bad boys, I did find a The Miracle Blanket Swaddler which gets very good reviews online. It costs $30 at Amazon... it cost me under $2 at a thrift store :)

For my first attempt at a swaddler, I decided to use three pillowcases that I had thrifted for their fabric (technically you need 2 1/2 pillowcases for this project). The plain brown one was 75% off for a total of 15c, and the two sock monkey pillowcases were 40c and 60c. I actually found them on two separate shopping trips, one right after the other. I believe that's what we call good thrifting karma :)





Alida uses minky fabric for her swaddlers, however I don't have any of that and certainly don't need to go buy any new fabric when I have a fabric breeding ground in my basement. Instead, I used flannels, t-shirt fabric, or regular pillowcase fabric.

Also, a quick word about the velcro. Last night when I was sewing the velcro on, my two year old asked me what that stuff was. When I told him "velcro," I think he misunderstood and thought I said, "Hell no," because he said, "Mommy! Don't say that! Say, 'Oh my peas!'" Our son has a swearing problem, and whenever he says something bad, I tell him to say, 'Oh my peas!' Now he's taken to correcting ME when I say a bad word... Not that I ever say bad words, ahem :)

Anyway, back to the swaddlers! The first two swaddlers have black velcro, which I actually cut off of a baby carrier that had been recalled. That velcro is awesome because it's much wider than regular velcro. The last one I had to use regular white velcro, so I doubled up on it so that it would be wide like the black velcro. I also didn't place velcro on the swaddler in all the places that Alida did in her tutorial. I only have so much velcro, and I didn't want to run out and have to buy some, since these are freebie swaddlers. My son has slept in it for two nights now, and so far, he hasn't busted out of it (knock on wood), so hopefully it's okay that I skimped on the velcroing!



Back in '09 I thrifted several yards of this red and black lumberjackish flannel for only 50c. Paired with a cut-up black shirt of my husband's, I think it makes quite a nice swaddler. The best part is, I still have enough to make my older son a pair of pants, and maybe even a matching pair for my husband. That's a lot of mileage for only 50c! (My husband has ripped two pairs of lounge pants in the past couple weeks, and one pair he actually ripped twice. I'm getting tired of mending his pants! I'd say that new ones are definitely in order).





My third and final swaddler is made with 50c race car flannel, thrifted last year, and a green pillowcase from my college days. As that was over a decade ago (wow, I am getting old), and the dark green no longer matches any of our bedding, I decided that chopping it up was no biggie.





Whoops... the velcro didn't quite line up because it shifted while I was sewing. If I had to do it over again, I would have used white thread to sew two strips of velcro together before attaching it to the swaddler. Then I could trim the edges to make sure both strips were exactly the same length.







Second Time Around Tuesday