Skin Serum

Life has been more hectic lately.  In addition to our regularly scheduled craziness, we moved last weekend and are now in recovery mode.  Things went pretty well considering everything we had to juggle, but blogging has been shunted to the bottom of my to-do list.  However, I have a few quiet minutes and I thought I'd write about an easy skin treatment I've been using. Ages ago, I found the Sonya Dakar Omega-3 Repair Complex.  Since I live in an arid climate and have sensitive skin, it was a great addition to my routine.  I have to say, while I liked the product, I wasn't crazy about the price tag.  So, I looked around to see if I could make something similar.  Sweet Almond Oil is great for your skin.  It has Omega 6 and 9, Vitamin E and is easy to find in lots of stores.  I got a 1 oz. glass dropper bottle and filled it most of the way with the Sweet Almond Oil.  Then, I added 20 drops each of Chamomile, Geranium, Franincinse and Calendula essential oils.  I put 3-4 drops on my skin before my moisturizer. I think it's made a difference.  My skin is definitely much softer and clearer.  And, for the price, it's a great solution.  The almond oil is inexpensive, and the essential oils are pricier, but a little of those goes a long way, so you don't have to buy them frequently. More fun skincare posts to come.  As soon as I get a few more boxes unpacked...

Fabric-Covered-Button Rings

I've been on a big accessory kick lately.  I think it's because now the girls are older, I want to move out of a yoga-pants/stained-shirt look to something more polished. Well, at least when I leave the house.

I found a tutorial for some great fabric rings, but my execution was sorely lacking.  The ones I made looked really "home sewn", and didn't give the right "punch of color", if you understand where I'm going.

I was still intrigued by the whole "fabric ring" concept and, some searching on Pinterest led me to fabric-covered-button rings. I found success!

From Minus Minions

I used fabric from a couple fat quarters, I tried to find fabric with smaller prints that would translate well onto such a small surface.  I had a bit of a hard time finding ring blanks with pads, neither JoAnns nor Michaels had them, but I found some at Hobby Lobby.

I didn't use the extra button in the linked tutorial since the button fit snugly over the ring blank pad.  I also brushed a couple coats of Modge Podge on the buttons as a last step, to keep the fabric clean.

I absolutely love them.  I might make more, or even try making a bracelet or a necklace!

Homemade Princess Dresses

The girls are almost 3 and 4 , so it's natural they're starting to hit The Princess Phase.  They've always loved all things shiny and fancy and I think "princess" is an extension of that.

The Bean got a blue Cinderella dress for her birthday a few years ago and it's definitely showing signs of wear.  In fact, it looks like Cinderella's mouse-made ballgown after the evil stepsisters got their hands on it.  I wondered if I could make them each a dress, without going overboard, of course.  Something a little sturdy, but with enough razzle dazzle to be princess like.

Armed with ambition and coupons, I went to the fabric store.  I found Simplicity 5695 and thought view F, with the overskirt, would work nicely.  Some pink and purple cotton fabric, tulle, ribbon and rosettes and I was good to go.  And all for $25!

I had a happy accident when I was cutting out the cotton.  Since it was quilting fabric, it was narrower than I thought, so I didn't have enough to cut out the sleeves.  However, the tulle was 60" and I'd gotten a little extra, so I cut the sleeves out of that fabric and it added just a bit more of the fanciness I wanted.

The dresses were incredibly easy to sew.  There's no zipper, buttons or velcro, just elastic around the whole neckline.  The gathered skirt is very forgiving and a even easier if you have a narrow hem foot.  You could customize it any way you wanted with trimmings.

Both girls love their dresses. And thy love to wear them while they're running, jumping, and playing with dinosaurs.  Just what the best princesses do.

Rumi Quote Quilt

I got the inspiration for this quilt from Denyse Schmidt's Proverbial Quilt pattern.  Instead of making the quilt elements into geometric shapes or houses, trees, etc., the quilt design is a quote (or series of quotes), proverb, whatever words strike your fancy.

My friend, J, loves the writings by the poet Rumi, so I went through and found a quote that spoke to me, and that seemed like it would fit onto the size quilt I wanted to make.  The full quote is "Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of that which you really love."

 I didn't want to piece my letters together and quilt over them, so I made each letter an applique and quilted in the leading spacing.  I cut out the letters in freezer paper using my Silhouette, ironed the paper onto starched fabric and cut them out, including a seam allowance, as I needed them.

The quilted sections were just randomly sewn, I changed direction every few stitches and made sure to wander back and forth in the space.

It was definitely a lot of work.   I did all the applique and quilting by hand, which was fun, but next time I do this (and I certainly will), I think I'll cut out the letters on the Silhouette with fusible webbing on the fabric and quilt the outlines of the letters.

Happy birthday, J!

iPod Case Stand

I'd been wanting to upgrade my iPod nano to an iPod touch for a long time, even more so when I saw this tutorial on All Free Sewing for a case stand.

It's a great way to use up scrap fabric and batting.  I had a bunch of this Eiffel Tower and black/pink polka dot Michael Miller fabric from another project.

 I made one change to the pattern--instead of using triangles for the corner holders, I made an elastic casing with pink bias tape.  I wanted to be able to plug my iPod into my audio jack in my car without taking it out of the case.

 I also made the snap tab out of the bias tape.  Partly for design cohesion, partly because I'm lazy.

This was a really easy project, especially after watching the video at the bottom of the tutorial.  I might find some more cute fabric, maybe some fat quarters, and make another one.

Flannel Night Shirt

Since it's winter, being comfy and warm in bed is a high priority.  My regular nightshirts just weren't doing it for me, and I was looking for a clothing-type sewing project, so I headed out to JoAnn's to see what I could find.

This Simplicity pattern had exactly what I wanted and I found a cute cherry blossom pattern flannel fabric, black buttons and black trim. (On a side note, if you have a smartphone, both Michael's and JoAnn's have coupon apps that you can use in conjunction with your normal print/email coupons.)

I'd never really made anything with piping and I don't have a special foot to use with it, so figuring that out was a little tricky.  Maybe next time I'll try my zipper foot.  

The only adjustments I made were shortening the sleeve and body length and cutting the hem so it was straight instead of curved.

I really love it.  The flannel is so soft and cozy and I feel kind of cute when I wake up in the morning, crazy hair, morning breath and all.

Cupcake and Heart T-Shirt

I had fun refashioning my own ruffle shirt, so I thought I'd make up some for the girls as well. And since Valentine's Day is coming up, this cute Cupcake and Roses Valentine T jumped out at me.

I found a couple old black shirts in the girls' shirt drawers, went through my stash and got to work. Seriously, making 2 of these shirts only took about 1 hour. They are so adorable and functionally cute.

Both girls love pink and purple, so I used those main colors in my fabric, and sewed everything with purple thread. The Bean was so happy with hers, she wore it to school the next day.

And that made me so incredibly happy.