Christmas Outfits Continued...

Now that I had Eliza's Dress (see previous post), I had to figure out what the rest of us were going to wear!

So I used a pattern I had for a simple pleated skirt for me. Full disclosure: this pattern was clearly made for someone without a butt. I cut it 2 sizes bigger then I wear, but it still came up so high in the back, I had to make alterations.

I made my skirt in the same manner as Eliza's dress. I cut out the pieces and followed the directions for sewing. It was basically 4 pieces, pleated and sewn. I added some of the taffeta from Eliza's dress to the bottom and here it is...

I bypassed the zipper for an elastic panel in the back just to make sure would cover my butt well enough. The problem with the zipper and waistband was that it made it sit very high up my lower back. With the elastic I was able to wear it lower, thus covering everything. 

 I wasn't too worried about lining up the plaids, since it is a pleated skirt, it would just look like any other pleat. Plus, its just for pictures, so who cares?!

I had a nice black knit top I was planning on pairing this with, so for now, my outfit is done!

Moving on to my son...

He already had black pants, and a white button down shirt, so my next stop was to find him a tie. I went to my local thrift store and found a boy's clip on tie for $.99. I took it apart, and traced the shape onto my fabric. I cut it out and hot glued it to the "clip" part of the clip on tie. Again, its just for pictures, so it doesn't have to hold up well.


While at the thrift store, I also found a black vest. It was a little "linty" so I took a lint roll and cleaned it up. So Riely's outfit was done, for under $3!

Now, I was running out of fabric and I still needed something for my husband. We borrowed a plain black sweater from a friend and I didn't really want a tie for him. So I decided to make a "collar" to pop out of the top of the sweater.

So I took one of his shirts, and laid it on top of the fabric. I traced the shape of the collar, with a little extra for a seam allowance.

Once I had the shape, I cut out some interfacing to put in between to make it stiff and sewed it. I left some of the raw edge below to pin it to his t-shirt. 

Here are the looks hanging up (minus my husband's since I hadn't finished when I took the picture).

Total cost: $26
Total time: Eliza's dress=3 hours, My skirt=1 hour, Riely's Tie and Rod's collar=1 hour (total 5 hours)

And here are my little angels....

 And the family picture....

 Enjoy!

The Christmas Dress

So the holidays are coming fast. And now that I have my son and my daughter I have all these visions of cute Christmas card pictures in matching outfits.

Well, those cute matching outfits are not only hard to come by, but way expensive!

So here is the inspiration dress: $38 dollars at Carters. The problem is, my son is a 4T and there was nothing in the same pattern to match for him.

So there is this one at Gymboree, not as cute and over $50.  And then I guess I could by this shirt for Riely, for $30, or even a scarf for $17.

No, no, no!! No way am I spending that kind of money. And then what would my husband and I wear???

So I went down to my local Hancock Fabrics and picked out a cute red and black plaid fabric. I got 3 yards, 2 zippers, and 2 patterns (during the .99 cent pattern sale). I also got a remnant piece of black lining, 1 yard of black 1 inch ribbon and 1 yard of black sparkly taffeta.

Your first step is to spread out and cut our your pattern pieces. Now, if you have never worked with patterns before, here is a little advice. First, cut out all the pieces first (regardless of if you will need them all). Then using the guide in the directions, determine what pieces you will need. Most (if not all) patterns come with variations, so you will not need all the pieces for the design you want.

 Once you know what pieces you need, pin them to the fabric. Look at the pattern pieces, they will tell you if you need to cut 1 of fabric, 1 of lining, or 2 of fabric or 1 on the fold, etc.

 Also, some will note (with an arrow) which way the grain of the fabric should be going. In the photo below, you will see that piece 7 had to be cut that way to align with the grain (although you can't really see the arrow in the picture).

 Cut out the pieces, making sure to note any notches or marks for later.

Next cut out our pieces of lining.

 For this dress, I wanted to add a layer of the taffeta between the lining and the fabric, so I cut that out of the skirt pieces as well.

 Now you just follow the sewing instructions for the pattern. First I sewed the ties, then sewed them into the bodice.

 Next I sewed the ribbon on.

 Then sewed the bodice front to bodice back.

 Then the sleeves.

 For the skirt, I sandwiched the taffeta between the fabric and the lining and basted them together.

 This particular pattern said to "gather" the material at the waist. I decided instead to do pleats. I feel like with the weight of this fabric it would be too difficult to gather. Plus I like the way pleats look better.

 So, I pleated it all the way around, then basted the pleats in place.

 Then I sewed the "skirt" to the bodice.

 Now it was time for the zipper! Many people get nervous about the zipper, so lets take it one step at a time. Look at the photo above. Start by opening the zipper and sewing the right side of the zipper to the right side of the back of the dress. (when I say right I mean the "front" of the fabric, not the right vs left).

 Sew that using a zipper foot. Then flip it to the back so that it looks like the photo below. This will "hide" your zipper.

 Baste along the edge of the zipper.

 Now repeat on the other side, and zip it up. You are done!

 Now this patterns showed how to add flowers to the dress. Start with a circle, and fold it into quarters as shown below. Then baste along the outer edge.

 Flip the "quarter circle" so that the right side is showing..

 And roll it between your fingers until you see a flower you like.

 Now all that is left is to hem. I hemmed the front up a little shorter so the taffeta would show on the bottom.

And you are done!

 This is it from the back...

 Here is the hem...

 And here is my little Eliza...

Stay tuned for what I did next...

A dabble in Home Decorating...

When we got pregnant with our first child, our son Riely, we decided we would do everything gender neutral. That way we wouldn't have to redo/rebuy anything when we had a second child.

Well, when we found out Eliza was a girl, that plan went out the window. How could my little girl come home to a boring beige nursery. No way!

But my husband, of course the voice of reason, had to tell me that we could not afford to re-decorate the nursery. Or so he thought! I asked him if I could sell the gender neutral stuff, and use the money to buy new stuff, could I do it. He said only if he had to do nothing. Challenge Accepted!!!

I began by listing all of Riely's gender neutral stuff on craigslist. I was able to get about $250 for it! So that (plus a little help from my friends at my shower) was my budget.

I began by finding an inspiration fabric. This pink, purple and green fabric was the basis for her entire room.

I decided to start with a quilt, since I knew that would be the most money and time consuming. So I took this fabric to a bunch of fabric stores trying to find coordinating fabrics. Then I trolled the internet trying to find a pattern I liked.

Luckily, my friend was also making quilts for her kids, and she found a really cool block pattern that was pretty easy to modify for the dimensions I wanted (crib sized).

Then I set out to buy the fabric. Armed with coupons, I bought 1-2 yards of 6 fabrics, plus 2 yards of flannel for the backing. The initial fabric purchase was about $50.

 

Then I began the long, long process of piecing it together, sewing it, and quilting it to the backing. 

 But I think it came out fabulous! I added a pink satin blanket binding to the outside, and we were done!

Now to move on to the bumpers. The bumpers I had for Riely didn't line up right with my crib. So I decided to cover the old bumpers, and put the ties where I needed them to be for my crib.

I began with 2 yards of pink, fleece with little stars. I cut the strips to match the size of the original bumper, but with about 1/2 inch extra. Then, because I am crazy, I decided to add welting using the inspiration fabric. This took a long time, but I think it came out great. Then I used extra left over from the quilt to make the ties. Total cost was around $8 for the fleece.

Now for this next item, I can't take credit. My amazing best friend made this mobile for me from the left over inspiration fabric and some cloth ballerinas she found online.

 

 Moving on to the walls. I pulled the pink and green color from the inspiration fabric. I bough a gallon of each, so about $50 for paint. I had all of the rollers and brushes, and I did the work myself.

Then I brought in the king of crown molding. My dad! Grandpa and Daddy spent an afternoon installing this awesome chair rail. Total cost, around $40.

I don't know why, but I felt like I needed vinyl. So I ordered this amazing set from a store on etsy. I got the dancers, the stars and the words for just over $50.

 

The good/bad news is when the guy initially sent it, he cut the words WAY to big. So he sent me another set. Good news is, I used the extra giant E elsewhere in her room. 

  

Now, what's left??? Window coverings! 

I used the same black material with ballet slippers from the quilt and made a simple ruffled valence. I then got a spool of ribbon with the same pink and green on it to trim the bottom. Total cost was about $8.

For the sheers, I was worried. I really loved the sheer pink fabric with sparkles, but it was $12.99 per yard. And let's face it, no matter how beautiful it was, I couldn't afford that. But my friend who was throwing my shower used a 50% off coupon and bought the 6 yards to use as table coverings at my shower. Then she gave me the fabric! Score!!! All I had to do was sew a rod pocket along the top, and hem the bottom. Gorgeous!

 So for those of you keeping track, we are at $206. Eek, we are running low! So at this point, I broke down and put an extra $50 into the budget as my gift to Eliza. (shh, don't tell daddy). With around $95 dollars left in my budget I turned to accessorizing.

What ballerina room would be complete with out a mirror and bar. I thought, realistically, she wont use this for ballet, but how cute is it? I used an old closet rod and hanging hardware to instal a bar below the window.

 

I then went to Home Depot and looked for large mirrors, but they were so expensive. So instead I bought these sets of 12x12 mirrors that come in sets of 6 for $19.99. (I bought 2 sets, so $45 after tax)

 

 For this wall, I already had the frames, so I just needed to fill them. I  went on eBay and bought 2 classic Degas prints of ballerinas. The outside 2 frames I left empty and have since put pictures of Eliza in them.

I also already had these shadow boxes, so I used my old ballet shoes to decorate this wall.

 I used a die cut machine at a local craft store to cut out her name in chip board, and color coordinating paper. This hangs on her door, $10.

With my last $40 I got some pink and green canvas bins for her book case at Target.

Total room re-decoration was under $300! Mission Accomplished!

Halloween Costumes

People say I am crazy for taking on so many projects. But there is nothing that I can't stand more than a lame Halloween Costume. And what's worse, when 5 kids wear the same lame costume.

So about mid August, I asked Riely what he wanted to be for Halloween. Yes, August. I had to give myself time to prepare.

My 2 and a half year old looked at me and said, what else, "Thomas the Train"! Yup, saw that one coming. So my follow up question, who should Eliza be? One of Riely's favorite episodes of Thomas is when Rosie, the lavender engine comes to Sodor and splashes in puddles for some reason. For those of you unfamiliar, here is a screen capture from said episode.

Anyways, the creative juices began to flow. So basic Halloween shops offer a smock like costume with a Thomas face on it and a conductor hat for about $20. LAME!

I wanted Riely to be a real, 3-d train. So my first attempt at Thomas began (yes, first. there were many). Cardboard box+ spray paint= semi crappy version of what I saw in my head. 

My second attempt involved stenciling the designs onto boxes, but it still wasn't great. 

Then Thomas 3.0 was born. I cut the shapes out of remnant fabric and covered the box.

Then I took an oatmeal container, covered it with black fabric and hot glued foam batting to the top for steam. Finally, I took a thick piece of ribbon and sewed it to the box to make a strap. 

And TA-DA! Thomas the Train :)

Now for Eliza. I obviously wasn't going to make my 7 month old walk around wearing a cardboard box. Mostly, because she can't walk. Also, I wanted to "girlie" it up a bit. One day, while browsing Pinterest I found this...

And it really got me thinking...I decided to make Eliza a lavender onesie, paint the face on the front, and then add a tutu. Perfect!

 

And here are my two little engines all dressed up!

Now for the bottom line. Cost. For Riely's, the box came courtesy of Amazon.com. The blue fabric was 1 yard of fleece I bought a while ago, which was roughly 3.99. The rest was remnants. He decided last minute he didn't want to wear his "funnel" hat, and in stead wore his conductor's hat.

For Eliza, I had to buy the tuile, which was 1 yard of lavender, 1/2 yard black, for a total cost of about about $3. The rest was remnants. So if you had to buy everything, you are looking at about 10-15 dollars for both. That sure beats $20 for Thomas and $45 for the tu-tu costume.

Now, who wants to see the awesome Zelda and Link costumes I made for my friend's kids...

This one was more complicated, but ended up costing around $50 for both.