Oh Where is my trusty Seam Ripper?

Sunday mornings can be rather chaotic in my house. If I would take the time to find and set out every one's clothes the night before, it might not be as bad, but usually I do have a good idea of what the children are wearing. Livy got a new dress (new to her) from a kids resale shop and I knew I was going to put her in it for Sunday School. The dress is sleeveless and as I was putting it on her, I remembered how cold it is downstairs where the children have Sunday school. I turn to her closet, drawers, baskets, and piles to try and find a small cardigan or undershirt so she won't freeze too bad. In the mountains of clothes she has, I could not find anything. I debated to just let her go without one because honestly, she has been many times with just a sleeveless dress on, but her arms are always freezing when they bring her up, so I was trying to be a good momma and make sure she was comfortable.

I searched again in another pile and I found a cute little cropped sweater that had originally came with another dress. That dress is either somewhere in a different pile or long gone as I can not remember "what" it specifically went to. Yes, unfortunately Livy has THAT many clothes. Between her being the only girl grand baby, & the youngest of all the grand babies, she gets many clothes from Grandma's and Aunts. She also receives fabulous hand-me-downs from some of my friends and so yes....this girl has clothes. This is in addition to all the clothes I need to clean out because they are too small, but when I try and work on all the piles and drawers I get a little overwhelmed......but I digress.....Did I need to get her a new dress? NO. but it was adorable and I had free credit at the store so I picked it up. I like dressing my real life baby doll at times too. (shhhhhhhh) I threw it on her and off to the car we went to get on the road to church.

So here is the dilemma. The dress is black and white with pink trim and the sweater is white but has a little purple bow sewn on it.  This will never work in my matchy matchy brain. And of course the way the children are dressed is a direction reflection on the parents. (at least my mind tells me this in regards to MY children). :)

 Well we can't have that. A five minute seam ripping Chrissy Couture session and we have a sweater that matches. It can now go on with anything! Universal. In my effort to hurry since church was starting, and I did this in the car before I brought her in, I nicked the fabric a few times. Patience is not my virtue. A few zig zag stitches will make it even more un-noticeable. I am sure I will get right to fixing that.....

I think I may just carry my seam ripper around with me all the time....you never know when you may need it! ha. :)

Until next time....
Stay Calm.....and be ready for anything...

Superman...I mean Spiderman Cape

So Noah walks up to me with an LTD Commodities Magazine and says, "mom, can you buy me this Spider man cape?"

"No Son, I can just make you one when we get home".

 



Words I fear to utter again. I do not know why at times I think I am suddenly able to just make anything imaginable, but I was asked all evening when I was going to make it and realized, this wasn't going to be a 5 minute project.

So first of all, we know Spiderman doesn't have a cape, but that's ok. I began looking around my house for anything red and blue and black I could use to make a cape out of. No real luck. The only thing I could find was my huge bag of strips of felt. I had the red and the blue, but I knew they were in thin strips.



I took the strips and cut them 26 inches long. Then I sewed 4 of them together so that all the seams were on one side. I also used a zig zag stitch. Why? I don't know. I thought I heard somewhere that you should use it on fabrics that have more stretch to them. Who knows if it made a difference or not. I also used my pinking shears as scissors because I thought it would give it a fun scalloped edge.





Once I got them sewed together, I cut out an opening at the top so it would fit around his neck. I just had him come to me and I pinned it and then cut it. Again with pinking shears. I also took them and rounded the bottom of the panels.

Then I made a casing with the red felt and threaded some elastic through. I debated a few different ways to make the "collar".

I didn't really want it to have to tie on, for fear of strings/strangulation (overprotective much?) and I also wanted something easy that he could throw on and off and not need help with buttons or ties. Ok, so this is probably more of the truth than the worry of strangulation, but I sound like a much better mom if I throw that in.

After I thread the the elastic through.. (twice ahem....) I stitched the ends to the felt.

Then I attached the red collar to the cape.

Now have you ever heard "a watched pot never boils"? Or how about "that's as exciting as watching paint dry"? Well I kind of had a combined experience. I didn't realize how long it took fabric paint to dry. Of course with my non-expertise in the matter, we shouldn't be surprised. I drew out the awesome spiderweb on the cape.

You just make a X over a cross and then scallop in between the lines.

In the meantime I googled Spiderman "spiders" and hand drew this fella on the felt. Since my felt was in strips, I had to cut the legs separately.

We had to go to bed with the paint drying. It obviously was going to take its time, especially in the thicker, blob-like areas.

Once it finally dried, I was able to stitch Mr. Spider to the cape.

The whole thing turned from "what was i thinking?" to "hey, not too shabby Mom!"

It was really really easy, and other than letting the paint dry, it would have been whipped up in no time.

Here he is, Mr. Spiderman himself. I think he likes it.

 

Beware: Action shots ahead....

 

And Livy wanted some camera time, so just humor me here....


It felt amazing to get behind the sewing machine again. It's so much fun to create and be proud of something you did.

A fun little photo edit and we have a SUPER HERO

Until Next time....

 

 Stay Calm.....and make some Hero Capes....:)

Birthday, School and Couture Dreaming.....

So, I haven’t stepped off the planet.....it seems that way at times though..... I sincerely apologize for not blogging as much as I need to. I really want to do more, but what do you say. Life Happens. I am just lucky if I can snap a picture here and there to capture it.

Here is a rundown of my week since the last blog post….

Dreaming of Couture......

Sigh....what a dream....

Turned the big 29! For the first time....and probably not the last! :)



Yes that shoe is gum paste....amazing right?



Noah started 4 year old Pre-school. One more year before Kindergarten.... sniff.

 Poor sissy girl couldn't understand why she didn't have a backpack. Of course we got Noah a Cars backpack that he wanted. No Spiderman could be found. Well then Grandma found a Spiderman one and got it. Spoiled much?

Other funnies of the week......Olivia Modeling for me....

Then Noah had a field trip with the daycare and got these teeth. Silly fun.

My Goodwill outlet find. I loved it, but didn't keep it. Just bought it to resell.

 Fashion Alert for Fall! Got your boots ready? You know we do!

  

 Current Music Obsession....Karmin. Check them out!

Maybe I will get a tutorial up soon of something fun, until then....

Stay Calm....and enjoy the last few days of Summa!

Craziness and now school starting....but a little secret photoshoot.

Sorry I have been a little blog MIA. I have been extremely busy and haven't even had a chance to get in front of / behind my sewing machine. I plan to end that streak tonight.....however pre-school is beginning for Noah next week and we have a few things to still get for him..... I miss my little Singer. :)

I took some pictures for a friend over the weekend. Its a surprise present for her hubby so don't tell him! It was a blast and since she is gorgeous they turned out amazing. Here are a few ...well most of my favorites....it was too hard to choose!

 

 I loved this shot. I said, "lay in the floor and look up an me, yes on your dirty nasty floor(inside joke to my OCD cleaning friend). I love the way it turned out!! EEeeep!

Gina is so lovely. Seriously this is just her normal not smiling face. She made this shoot so easy!

My paris-envisioned shots....perhaps to put in the Sa-lon...

 Then we went outdoors.....Oh my they just kept getting better and better!

 And my swooning favorite. This little Fairy Wilderness is located right next to her house. It was getting dreadfully warm out but I happened to look over and see this stump. When I turned around to ask if she would do a few more, before I got the words out she said, "what about that stump over there?" We are seriously twins separated at birth. Except she is blonde and gorgeous....and I'm pretty much a psycho brunette.

SWOON! EEeep!

I love being behind my camera as much as my sewing machine these days. Maybe more! (Shhhhh, don't tell my Singer machine....)

Hope you enjoy these. And yes the photo above is SUPPOSED to have those light circles on there. Its a photo filter I added. I love it with it on it. Makes it so much more enchanted looking.

Always Remember....

Stay Calm.......and take some time to do something you love....