Mud Puddle Splasher Boys Shorts

 This project is for a July charity sewing project at Hopeful Threads to make little boys short.
I chose to make a Size 7/8.    I bought the soccer fabric at Hancock Fabric's today on sale for $2.09 a yard.

I haven't made a boy's pair of shorts since my son was a toddler (he is now a high school graduate) so thankfully the project was a simple one.   I was able to complete this while watching two hour long television shows.

Items used:

• 1 yd fabric
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
•  Straight pins
• Sewing Machine and thread
• Iron
• 22 inches of 3/8 inch elastic

I used the free pattern and instructions for the Mud Puddle Splasher Shorts (through end of July if you agree to make a pair for donation) at Fish Sticks Design.   I printed off the instructions and pattern then pieced the pattern together using the glue stick.  To the left is what it looked like pieced together. 

I decided to make the option without the faux fly front and with pockets, so I only ended up using 3 pieces.

In opened up the fabric and folded each side toward the center and laid out the fronts (cutting 2 pieces) and pocket (cutting 4 pieces) and the backs (cutting 2 pieces) on the other side.

I followed the remaining instructions with the exception of the elastic; I used 3/8 inch as that is what I had on hand instead of the 1 inch in the original project. 






Also linking up to:

Girls Dress from a Ladies Blouse

When I pulled the blouse from my closet I had originally thought of doing a Tim Burton themed dress, but as I plan on donating it to Dress A Girl Around The World and I didn't want to scare little the little gals that may not understand the reference so I decided to decorate with a cheery flower instead.

This size 4-6 slim girls dress was made using a free pattern and instructions by Dana from "Made" using a women's size 10 blouse, around 1/3 yd of contrasting fabric, green ribbon and a sequin embellishment.

The only variations on this dress is I added I cut two pieces for the front and the back that were 3 inches tall and the width of the top of the pattern and stitched it to the dress to thread the drawstring through to make it easier to adjust and added a flower embellishment on one side.

Items used:

• Free pattern and instructions from Dana from "Made"
• Women's blouse (I used a size 10)
• 2 pieces of fabric 2 1/2 inches by 26 inch fabric for bow
• 2 pieces of fabric to sew to the top of the dress
• Printer and paper
• Black fabric paint
• Scissors
• Iron
• Sewing machine and matching thread 
• Straight pins

I followed the instructions up to cutting out and stitching armholes and gather stitching to each side and I made it about 2 inches longer than the pattern.

For the flower, I folded a three inch square into quarters and cut the shape to the right and zigzagged  the top of the flower leaving the bottom open on the front of the dress

I then cut two six inch pieces of ribbon and another around 10 inches.  I folded the two six inch pieces in half and pinned them to the back of the long piece to represent leaves and pinned the top piece underneath the flower and zigzagged the stem piece down.

I then finished zigzagging the bottom of the flower down.

For the embellishment in center I used a sequined start I had gotten in a notions grab bag from Michael's and stitched in down using the machine, but a button could be used instead.

I also top stitched near the buttons to keep them closed (they are more for decorative purposes now).

As indicated above, sewed the 3 inch tall pieces (pink polka dotted) to the front and the back using 1/2 inch seams, pressed under 1/2 inch and then top stitched down.

Right sides together, I stitched the sides  then stitched the long bow piece together and used a safety pin to thread through the shoulder on one side then tie in a bow on the other side.


Linking up to:

Dragon Pin

This dragon pin was made from a "gumball" toy machine at the movies where you put in a quarter or fifty cents and get toy or, in this case, a necklace and it only took about five minutes to make.


Items used:

• Plastic dragon off of the necklace
• Hot knife
• Silver paint (or silver paint pen)
• Pin back
• Hot glue gun and glue stick

I used the hot knife to cut the circular plastic piece off of the top then used a silver paint pen to touch up the white plastic the was underneath where the circular piece had been.











I then applied hot glue to the center or the back horizontally and pushed the pin back down and allowed to drive.

"Suede Says" Patterns for Simplicity/New Look

 Photo:  Source
You may remember Suede, with a large personalitywith the bright colored hair who always referred to himself in the third person from Season 5 of "Project Runway".   In addition to having his own clothing line "Suedesays" he also has partnered with Simplicty Creative Group with patterns of his designs that you can make at home.

There is a page on  Simplicty's site  SUEDEsays that show his current pattern offerings.
There are two girls pattern, two men's pattern and several women's patterns.  Each pattern comes with more than one option so you pick what you want to make it your own style.  Although many of the women's dresses a bit short and great if you have a fab pair of gams, he also offers longer dress for those of that don't (or no longer have).  Another good thing with patterns if you want to make it longer, all you have to do is alter the pattern before cutting it out (although my personal standby is to add a ruffle at the bottom).

The pattern that I liked the best is for the jacket on the left - it could go casual with a hood, edgy with the slanted zipper or girly flirty by adding ruffles. 

Source: simplicity.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

He even has a sporty tote bag  pattern with a portion of the profits going to Keep a Child Alive. 

Source: simplicity.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

 For the more budget conscious, there are also several budget New Look patterns (at the bottom of the page).   One that I really like is 6121 as it has both a short and a long dress along with a little purse. There are not too many piece and it look like it would be easy to make. 

Source: simplicity.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Source: simplicity.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

If your current budget is no budget for patterns right now, he even has free instructions for making this Fringed Scarf

Source: Simplicity

Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with Simplicity Creative Group or SUEDEsay and have received nothing for this post. 

Girl's "Froggy" Dress from a T-Shirt

This is another variation of the "Warhol Dress" by Dana from "Made" that I am making for donation to Dress A Girl Around The World, a non-profit organization that distributes the dresses to little girls around the world that do not have any.  I was able to complete this dress in around 3 hours watching television and the cost to make was under $3.

• Free pattern and instructions from Dana from "Made"
• Printer and paper
• T-Shirt (Women's large-had been a promotional t-shirt for a local radio station "Froggy 106.7")
• 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric
• Iron on rose (optional)
• Scissors
• Iron
• Sewing machine and thread 
• Straight pins
• Saftey Pin (for turning the tie inside out)

I started out with the t-shirt and I folded it in half, making sure the design was centered.

I used the base dress pattern and added 1/2 inch to each side to make it a Size 3-4.  Instead of positioning the pattern at the bottom and using the t-shirt hem as the hem of the dress, I positioned it as close to the neckline as I could as I wanted to use the design on the t-shirt.  I pinned through all layers and cut out the dress and marked the gathering lines with a slight cut at the edge.

I stitched the gathering lines and gathered and pressed under at the armholes 1/2 inch and top stitched in place using contrasting green thread as indicated in the original instructions.

Another modification made was instead of sewing the ties directly to the dress I sewed a piece of the contrasting fabric that was 3 inches tall and around 1/2 inch shorter than width of the dress (1/2 seam allowance).


I turned the edges under on each side and turned the edge under 1/4 of an inch under on the open edge and pressed under and pressed the seam up toward the contrasting fabric.  I pinned the pressed edge to the edge of the seam from the top side and top stitched along the edge on the front side catching the fabric underneath.

For the ties, I cut two pieces of fabric 26 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide of the contrasting fabric.  I sewed the two pieces, right sides together, using 1/2 inch seam.  I then pressed in half, right sides together and sewed along the edge using 1/2 inch seam and used a safety pin to turn right sides out.

I then threaded each edge through the opening at the left shoulder of the dress and the bow is tied on the right.

For the ruffle at the hem I cut two pieces - both 3 inches tall; one was the length of the fabric, 44 inches and another was 16 inches for a total of 60 inches for the ruffle.

First I pressed a hem up 1/2 inch from the bottom edge and stitched 1/4 of an inch from the edge.

Next,  I made a gathering stitch the entire length up to 1/2 inch away from each edge and gathered the material.  Then, right sides together, stitch the piece together.

Then, pinning with the seam at one edge of the dress, right sides together, evening out the gathers, pin then stitched 1/2 inch from the edge all the way around.

As I noticed there was a slight imperfection below the logo when it was completed, I decided to use an iron-on rosette that I purchased at Walmart that was on clearance for 50 cents as it reminded me a bit of a lilly pad, even thought it is red.

I do have some other craft projects in the works, but have been focusing on the dresses as I plan to mail them out in bulk to Dress A Girl Around The World.




Linking up to:

Free Starbuck's Refresher from 12-3pm on 7/13/2012

In our culture when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday (which is does three times in 2012, with January and April preceding this one in July) and reasons as to why abound.  Some are Christian relating to the 13 disciples, Judas's betrayal and the crucifixion of Jesus. 

Others are Norse legend involving Loki, the god of mischief uninvited arrival at a party of 12 other gods, making him the 13th and his orchestration of convincing Hoder (blind god of darkness) use arrow to shoot the to shoot Balder the Beautiful (god of joy and gladness) killing him and sending the Earth into darkness. 

Another is Knights Templar when King Phillip the IV of France who owed huge debts to the Knights Templar and decided the best way to take care it was to devise a plan  to have all of them rounded up and killed on Friday the 13th, 1307, accusing them all of heresy.  As they used medieval methods to torture confession, most were, but the plan to have the grandmaster,  Jaques De Molay, publically admit heresy before being burned at the stake, he instead used it as platform to explain what the King was doing and his final words were to curse the King and the Pope, who condoned the King's actions, would die by the end of the year; both did.
 
There is even a name for the fear of Friday the 13th:  Paraskavedekatriaphobia

But with this promotion at Starbucks, maybe one good thing can happen on this Friday 

This Friday from 12-3pm Starbucks is offering a free 12 oz refresher (Very Berry Hibiscus or Cool Lime) at participating stores (be sure to ask the location before ordering if they are participating).

May your luck be good and may God bless you:)

promotion found via Facebook link

York Photo - $1 Personalized Tote Bags (+S&H)

York Photo currently has a promotion for personalized tote bags for $1(normally $8.99) if you use coupon code  YORKTOTEAD until 7/30/12 and you can get up to a total of 3 bags at that price.

I purchased a total of 3 and shipping was $7.97 and for the above used templates from the "Browse Our Designs" and uploaded my pictures to add.   My total for 3 bags + Shipping and handling was $10.97; a savings for $23.97.

The first one is unfortunately one of the best picture I could get of my son on  graduation day as he has places to go and people to see and didn't have time (and it is a bit Frankensteinish with the van in the background looking like bolts coming out of his neck) using the Apple background.   I used to be a teenager once and understand how it is - you are so afraid you are going to miss out on something cool with your friends so I just had to snap as what I could as soon as possible.

The second one I used the "Love My Soldier" background and added the picture of my son's Edsel and put the "1959 Edsel" at the top.  I using this one to hold presents my son on his birthday and he can later use it to hold cleaning supplies and rags to keep in his car instead of scattering them all over the living room:)

I ordered one more for a friend with a flamingo design for her birthday, but not going to post it so it won't spoil the surprise   I don't have to worry about my son reading this as he has a much interest in reading my blog as I would reading all the strange text acronyms young people type back and forth to each other like IKD, *$,.!!!!,BTW, URHOT, XME, ZZZ or RUMCYMHMD.   

They also have other offers on their "Specials" page 50% off photo books using the code NEWBOOKS until 7/9/12 and the following good until 7/31/12 and shipping and handling will depend on what you buy,

• 5x7 Easel Panel for $7.80 using the code 40PANEL
• Adult T-Shirt for $7.80 using code 40SHIRT
• A Deck of Cards for $10 using code 50CARD
• Water Bottle for $10 using code 40BOTTLE

Also, if you are signing up with York Photo for the first time, you also get 40 free prints.
I learned of this coupon at Jessica's Coupons.


Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with York Photo or Jessica's Coupons and have received nothing for this post - just sharing a deal.

June 29, 2012 Storm and Outage

Last Friday at around 3:00PM the sky suddenly became dark and the power went out. When I went outside the wind was so blowing fiercely it pushed me up against the car. It didn't last long, but the aftermath did for days as we were without power and there were trees down everywhere.

We later learned although no tornado was reported as touching down, the wind did get up to 90 miles an hour in some areas.












A tent was partially blown down


As were signs






Some roads were closed




On Friday, several businesses closed down and people were standing around outside. It was also hard to find an open gas station.


For the businesses that were open, such as this Wendy's, they were busy and the lines long



As I thought it would be up in a few hours, we went to the movies and saw "Chernobyl Diaries" but when I got home the power was still out so I toughed it out with drinks in a cooler and the back open but the screen door locked.

The next day went to a gas station up the road that had a Subway inside. As they had a backup generator they indicated they had been busy non-stop. The fella at Subway he got off his shift just before the storm but was called back in and was there until close and had opened that day and expected to be there until close that night.


We heard on the radio that it would not be until Wednesday midnight that we could expect the power to be restored and I ended up staying over at my ex's on the loveseat for a few days.   While I am only 5'6", it was a bit short, but I could complain because above it was an air conditioner with power:).   I gave Kyle his Season 2 of the "X-Files" that I had gotten for his upcoming birthday in August and we watched a few episodes while I was there. 

I also couldn't complain about the motorcycle he parked in the breezeway on the wood parquet that had cost a small fortune to install (but I wanted to), especially when on Monday AEP's website indicated that it would likely be Saturday at midnight.    I do have to give him credit for being on his best behavior up until the time we found out the power was back on and I got out to my car and he started complaining; it was like he just couldn't hold it in anymore.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend.