Fun Scrappy Dress

 I have to start off by saying this was one of the 

funnest projects I have done in a while.  

I wish that I came up with this clever idea but, 

alas I am short of original ideas as I spend too many hours up at night with a sick kids.  

I was searching online to find projects to re-purpose and up-cycle clothes and I stumbled upon this awesome dress from :

Cheri at I am Momma Hear me Roar.

 She was recently featured on Martha Stewart demonstrating how to contruct this dress.

Cheri shares quite a few re-purposing projects that you should go check out. 

Here are a few photos of my steps in re-creating the dress: 

 

 All of the girls were fighting over who got the dress.  So, it looks like I will be making more.  

 

 First gather all of your old t-shirts.  

 Pick a decent shirt for the top.  This works great with ones that have holes, snags, or stains on the bottom.

 Start stacking up the layers.  Play around with different colors and patterns.  This was the fun part.  I am pretty conservative with color and pattern mixing.  This was my chance to mix and match.:)  

 After you decide what shirts you are going to use, cut the top piece to fit under the breast. 

For a size 5T-6 dress I cut all of the additional strips 4" wide.  Keep the width the size of the t-shirts.  You will trim those up later.  Cheri gives a great tip: make your bottom piece the hem of one of your t-shirts so you don't have to hem it up later.  I love short cuts!

Here comes the fun part.  I have never painted fabric before.  I had some fabric paint collecting dust so a great chance to pull it out.  I used some foam stamps for stamping.  They worked great!  I have always been afraid that painting fabric had to look perfect but, I realized that if it looks faded it actually looks really cool and vintage.  I wanted that look for this project.  So, it worked great.

 I would recommend putting a piece of cardboard between the layers so it doesn't bleed through.

 Hanging to dry.  It took a couple of hours for it all to dry.

 Sew all of your strips together and trim off the excess.  

Line up the sewn dress strips to the top piece and trim down the sides.  Angle the cut out so they have room to walk and stretch the bottom.  Since I don't have a photo of this step check out 

Cheri's tutorial for more photos.

Sew the front and the back pieces together.  Then attach the bottom skirt to the top shirt piece.  

Then sew it together.  That is it!

I love how it turned out.  So fun and cute.  I love the freedom of painting your fabric.  It adds a unique look and my girls loved it! Ava all ready for school.  She couldn't wait to put it on this morning.

Such a fun and funky dress.  I am so glad for the great ideas that come from blog land to save me from my recent creative block.

I would encourage all of you to try this project. 
You could make a shorter version for a boy that would make a cool funky t-shirt. 
I had a lot of fun with this one--I hope you do too!

 -Julia

Art Therapy

My family received some very sad news on Friday, and after spending a lot of time crying and talking it out, I had this fire in me that talking and crying weren't really going to solve any problems, and that I needed to DO something.  When someone is in crisis, it feels good to feel like you're helping in a small way.  Somehow it makes you feel just a little less helpless.  But it took me a while to figure out what exactly I was going to do.  Most times, I make a meal for a family in need, but I knew that wouldn't be a good fit in this situation, and that there was plenty of times to make meals later on.  It wasn't until Mike reminded me that we all just have to take things one day at a time, one step at a time, that I knew what I wanted to do.  I sewed this up last night, and there so much love, so much hope, in every stitch.  I hope it lifts the recipient's heart just the tiniest bit and she will know how much I love her.

-Amy

Circle Scarf

I love circle scarves!  I have been wanting to make my own for a while.  I saw that 

American Apparel has some really cool ones but, for $37--no way.   I knew I could make it for much cheaper.  A few months ago I found yellow knit fabric at Walmart of all places for $1.50 a yard on clearance.  Yep this was my chance.  I bought the whole bolt.  

 

 

You can wrap it up.  Amy this smile is for you!

 Or wear it long.  (My husband was trying to make me laugh.)

Do you want to make your own?  It's easy!  I followed this awesome and easy tutorial over on Come on Ilene.  All you need is 2 yards of fabric cut into individual yards.  Like Ilene, I agree knit is ideal because it usually comes with a wider width than other materials.  This gives your scarf lots of body.  You only have to sew 2 seams!  There is no need to finish the edges because knit doesn't fray.  

I know what you are thinking and no it doesn't get much easier than that!

I even made one for my mini that wanted one to match her favorite shirt.

 

While I was at it I sewed a green one to match my new green earrings.  I have a few others in the works just because they are too easy not to make more.

 -Julia

Green Zing Smoothie

Say hello to the green zing smoothie.
So green smoothies are all the rage right now.  My husband and I have been drinking different smoothies for breakfast for about 9 years.  We have tried many many concoctions and variations of different fruit and vegetable smoothies.  I feel like we have really got it right with this smoothie.  It has 4 cups of spinach which is packed full of so many nutrients and vitamins.  This smoothie is naturally sweet with all of the added fruit so you don't need to add any sweetener to it. The best part is I love how I eat 4 cups of spinach for breakfast!
I have been drinking one of these every day for the past 2 weeks and I feel really good.  It gives me an extra kick of energy that I need with 4 kiddos running around.

 

 All of the ingredients.

What you need to make your own:

4 cups of spinach

1 banana frozen or fresh (I freeze my bananas for easy use)

1 large grapefruit

1 orange

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (frozen or fresh)

1 cup plain Almond milk (you can use soy, cows milk, goats milk, or whatever you like)

2 cups of cold water

Add all of the ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth.

 

*A couple of notes:  I love almond milk because it has 50% more calcium than cows milk and only 60 calories.  It has such a nice rich flavor.  If you haven't tried it you should!  I also freeze all of my bananas when I get home from the store.  This way they always stay nice and ready throw in a smoothie.  

 

 My frozen pomegranate seeds.  I cut up 20 pomegranates during Christmas time.  I took out all of the seeds and froze them.  20 pomegranates will last us a whole year.  It is quite time consuming and it actually took me a few hours to harvest all of the seeds.  Well worth it though. 
Don't have pomegranate seeds to add throw in some strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries.  They will all add a great flavor.

                    Before                                               After

Just look at all that green goodness!

  As you can tell it makes A LOT.  It takes me about 2 hours to drink it all.  

Hey there you've got a little on your face. 

My 3 year old loves green smoothies.  If I am making them for the girls I usually omit the grapefruit and substitute an additional orange.

I promise you will love how you feel after you drink this smoothie and it tastes great!

 -Julia

Pom Pom Scarf

I think in my last post I mentioned that I watch Bones.  In the last year, I have caught myself up to the current season by watching (and skimming) the previous episodes on Netflix.  I have found it is the perfect show to craft during, because you really don't need to pay a lot of attention, and the good parts are usually at the very end of the episode.  It was an episode in season six where I spied a pink pom pom scarf on Angela, and I coveted it and knew I had to have one.  After that, I started noticing poms everywhere, and thought I better get sewing quick!

This definitely a Spring scarf, airy and light, but could be worn as an accessory indoors during any season.  I made mine out of some leftover linen, but you could make yours out of any lightweight fabric.  A striped seersucker would especially cute.  To make one like mine you will need two rectangles of fabric, measuring 52 x 10 inches.  You will also need nearly 4 yards of small pom poms.

Start out by attaching the poms to one rectangle of fabric.  I used a zig-zag stitch to adhere it in place, with the tape on the outside edge, and the poms towards the inside of the fabric.

Pin the two rectangles together, with the poms on the inside.  Leave one short end open.  Then stitch the scarf with a 5/8 inch seam allowance along three sides, like a pillowcase.  Turn the scarf right side out (poking out the corners), fold in the open end and pin, and then topstitch the entire scarf.

Then SMILE so your husband can take your picture -- my favorite thing in the world!

Look how happy I am!  I think I'll be wearing this pretty much everywhere.

-Amy