What draft?

So, the picture above is what our kitchen floor has looked like all winter long. Our garage is behind that door and the temperature is drastically different between the two spaces. Our door has a small gap at the bottom that allows the cold air to come in, so I used my newly learned sewing skills to make a draft stopper. I took advantage of the great sale and teacher appreciation weekend at JoAnn Fabrics and bought 1/3 yard of upholstery fabric. After washing and trimming the edges, I sewed the two long sides together, pressed the seam flat and then turned the tube right-side out. I then folded in one side about 2 inches and sewed the opening shut. I used kitty litter as the filler then finished off the other end. I am happy with the way it turned out - the only bummer is that the kitty litter has a strong floral smell, which I'm not loving. Hopefully with time the odor will fade and not be noticeable. This project was finished in no time, which made it even more fun for me.

Next in the sewing world is practicing a zig-zag stitch since I do not have a surger. I found some simple skirts that I'd like to make for Brynn's birthday.

Ribbit, Ribbit

I had some leftover fabric from making Brynn's curtains, so I decided to make a little softie to practice my sewing skills. I had these little critters cut and sewed together a couple of weeks before Christmas, but never got around to filling them and stitching them up until the other day. I downloaded the pattern and instructions from the Purl Bee tutorial: The Purl Frog. I opted to not add beaded eyes because of Parker Mei's obsession with putting everything in her mouth right now. I used lentils to fill the frogs and did my best attempt at hand-stitching them together. Hopefully they'll stay together well; one of them is being given to a friend of ours who just brought home a new baby sister.

Crochet Cowl for the Kiddies

My almost 4 year old daughter watched as I made a couple of cowls over the holiday season. She asked if I could make one for her, but when I looked around online I didn't really see anything specific for kids. So, I attempted to work up my own pattern. The first attempt was way too large so I passed it on to our neighbor's nieces for them to enjoy. Prior to that, I had her snap a photo of me wearing it.

Since practice makes perfect, the second attempt turned out just right. Brynn loves the color, especially because there is a shiny piece of tinsel running throughout to give it that sparkly, shimmer that little girls love.

Just in case you are interested in making one of your own, either for your little one or yourself - here's what I did:

Material: Red Heart Shimmer, turquoise; 2 skeins

Crochet Hook: 10 mm

** I used 2 strands of the Red Heart held together. You can use any worsted weight yarn, two strands held together - or- a bulky weight yarn.

Kid's (Adult) Cowl Pattern:

Chain until length measures 20-21 (28-30) inches. Count number of chains, be sure that you have an odd number. Crochet loosely, to allow for a bit more stretch in the finished product.

Join together with a slip stitch to beginning chain, being careful not to twist. You now have a circle. This pattern is worked continually in a spiral without joining rounds.

*sc in first ch; hdc in next ch* Continue from * to * around to end of round (no need to join in the end of the round, just keep on going).

Continue to alternate sc and hdc around until you reach your desired length - 7-8" (12-13"). Fasten off. Weave in ends.

You will notice that by alternating the stitches, you are working each stitch into the other. What I mean is that each sc will be worked into a hdc of the previous round, and vice-versa.

Hope this makes sense. It's a quick, fun pattern to whip up. The one for Brynn only took me about an hour.

Gift Giving

Marshall and I think it's important for our girls to feel the joy of giving during the holidays since they both receive so much. So, this year Brynn and I crafted some ornaments for her to give to the special people in her life. I got the idea from Disney's Family Fun website. It was a process, but Brynn was able to participate in each step. And the best part is that they turned out great, too!

First we had to cut or rip up construction paper into small pieces. One piece of 8.5 x 11 paper per ornament that you want.

The small pieces go directly into the blender because the second step is to allow the paper to soak in very hot water for 5 minutes prior to pulsing into a pulp.

Once you have the pulp ready, you spoon it into cookie cutter shapes and sprinkle with glitter. Press the pulp down to squeeze out any excess water and to pack in the shape. Once it is pressed, place onto cookie sheet for baking. It took a couple of hours in the oven before the ornaments were dry.

(Note to self, it's time to clean the oven!)

We attached a variety of Christmas ribbon to the ornaments with Elmer's style glue. I added a tab of paper once the glue began to dry as a way of keeping the ends of the ribbon more flat - and it made a nice spot to label that they were made by Brynn in 2011.

Brynn is pretty excited to give out her ornament gifts this Christmas. She's really proud of having made them herself and is looking forward to the surprise for everyone. I recommend this project for anyone, any age. We both got a lot of enjoyment out of the process and have a pretty nice ornament to hang on our tree. Merry Christmas!

Embroidered Shirts

I have been reading the blog Made and she has some great tutorials and crafty ideas. I wanted to create a monogrammed t-shirt for Parker's One Year photos, because I loved the one that Brynn had in her's. So I took the idea from Made and created one of her Sprinkle Shirts. I love the way they look on her website and figured it'd be fairly simple for a novice seamstress like me. I enjoyed embroidering the letter, Brynn was even into helping with it a lot. I had a bit of trouble sewing the letter onto the t-shirt. It didn't end up straight, but it's good enough when Parker is wearing it.

After finishing this one, I thought that Brynn may like something similar. Because she is almost 4 years old, I thought she was beyond loving a t-shirt with her initial on it; and since she is so into princesses right now, I decided to make a crown shirt for her. I am much more pleased with this end-product. Practice definitely helps when figuring out how to sew! I even decided to create two more for the neighbor boys' Christmas gifts. If I can get photos of them wearing their shirts, I'll post them later.