book cover tutorial

It's time for another tutorial. I made this book for Christie to keep her FHE lessons in, since she let me borrow & make copies. Anyway, I thought you could make it for lots of great uses. A journal for your kids, photo album, collection of favorite stories from the web or Christmas stories. I get so many "art" projects from my kids school and I thought this would be a great way to store them and not just toss them in a box. Just add a few clear sheet protectors and voila! Personalized coffee table book to show off how brilliant your children are.

I bought a 1 & 1/2 inch binder and started to get creative about what I could repurpose instead of buying batting. I came up with an old towel. I cut it just larger then the book. You can trim it down.

I also grabbed my bottle of spray glue (really makes this project easier!)

Here is yet another idea for a batting alternative. I found some flannel left over from a baby blanket that was the perfect thickness for what I wanted.

Spray the cover of your book and wrap the fabric abound the entire book. 

I cut the edges on the sides, but left about an inch on the bottom & top to wrap around.

Try to smooth out any air bubbles as you are placing on your batting/fabric. Spray adhesive is not so permanent with fabric you can pull it up a few times to smooth it out without loosing your stickiness.

I use spray starch to make sure my cover fabric is nice and flat.

Wrap it just like you did the batting/fabric. Use the spray adhesive to secure it to the batting/fabric (unless you are sewing an applique, otherwise you will use this as a measuring step - wait to glue until after you sew on your applique)

This time I overlapped it about an inch on all four sides to fold over.

I figured out what I wanted for an applique and figured out placement on the top of book.

I used scraps to create a tree and leaves for my applique.

I'm a crappy artist so I traced the basic idea on the back of the fabric before I cute it out.

I placed everything on the top of the book to get a good idea of how the final product will look.

I sewed enough to hold the leaves in place.

I sewed the tree in place and outlined the leaves.

This is how the backside looked with my pieces stitch to it.

I sewed on ric rac to finish the edge and frame my applique.

Next I centered my fabric and spray glued it in place.

This is how the inside looked.

I cut a piece of cardboard to fit both insides of the folder. Sprayed them with glue covered them in the main fabric.

The spray glue isn't strong enough for cardboard so I used my handy dandy glue gun for this part. Just squeezed out a ton of glue to hold it in place.

I glued the corners down & placed it over the inside cover.

This is how it looks finished on the inside.

Here is the finished product. Hope you enjoyed making it as much as I did... 

Giveaway Winners

The winner of the Key Lime half apron is...Catey!

#121 Catey said...
Currently my heart desires Coconut cupcakes. yum. And to get over strep so I can go running again.

But I'll take the cupcakes for now!

Congratulations Catey! Hope you are feeling so much better. (Hopefully the apron will help!)


The winner of the child's Cherry Limeade apron is...Deb!

Deb said...
And finally, I think my favourite summer time drink is a toss up between bubble tea and lemon, lime and bitters! Two very different drinks, I know, but that's just me...eclectic in tastes.

Congrats Deb! A huge thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

Sweet Sundress Stitchin'

I've been itching to sew Myla a sundress and took the plunge when I saw this tutorial from Lil Blue Boo. It was so easy...only took me about an hour to sew up, once I had the pieces cut and ironed. I thought it needed a little something extra so I made a flower pin to go with it, that way I can detach it when the dress needs washing (which it already does and Myla has only had it on 3 hours).

I love how the purple flower doesn't match with the lavender-y color of the coordinating fabric, but matches the accenting violet-red color in the main fabric.

Myla loves it when I make her things. I feel bad because Cade feels left out. I asked him what he would like me to make for him and he said something with Transformers on it. Then he said, "Transformers shorts!" So we went to Walmart this morning, actually found some Transformers fabric, and I will be attempting my first pair of boy shorts this evening. I've never been very fond of homemade shorts...so we'll see how this works out!

Mom's Sweat Shop

My mom called me up a few days ago and asked me to come up with some baby shower presents for some showers that she has coming up. She said she would pay for them and the material if I would do the work, hence the title. I became my mom's own personal sweat shop. Which is only fitting since it is 100+ degrees outside and our A/C is stilling dying a slow and painful death (hopefully this will be fixed this week); I was literally sweating while working these. I have been dying to make these booties from On Pins and Needles. Christie made Elsie a set a months back and I looooved them!

Side note: Don't you love how Elsie looks like she is flying an airplane in the picture? This always makes me laugh. But back to the sweat shop...
So, I started looking through my fabric stash and looking for applique stencils and got to work. We were supposed to go to a family bar-b-que and swim party tonight to celebrate the 4th of July but Elsie has been sick for three days now with a nasty fever and was in no shape to be out in the heat and with other children, so I stayed home with her and Ty went and celebrated for all of us. So, I sewed and created and watched lots of movies (while Elsie slept the day and night away) and this is what I came up with:

How adorable is a plaid and polka dot elephant? I'm going to hand sew a little hair to his tail and give him an eye to complete the look. Can you believe I found this fabric at Michaels? Yeah, who knew Michael's had fabric? You learn something every day.

Have a mentioned that I LOVE argyle? I do, I can't get enough of it. I can't decide if I should leave the diamonds like this or add the diagonal lines to give them a true argyle look. What do you think? Oh, and bonus, there is a little argyle diamond on the bum. How cute is that?

And...

you can't do a baby onesie and not have one with a cupcake on it. That would just be crazy, right? I love the button for a cherry on top!!

SSC Celebrates 2 years of sewing bliss

Yeah!! We just passed our 2 year anniversary and to celebrate we had a Karaoke party at Nikki's cute house. Sorry for the pictures but I took them with my phone and was trying to be as incognito as I could. Here is Carrie bringing out that inner Celine (actually I think she might have been singing 'Born to be Wild').

Jessie entertained up with some Garth Brooks country. I thought about videoing it with my camera, but didn't want my house to get tp'd or worse... my sewing machine to get kidnapped and held for ransom.
I think if we gave a prize for most natural in front of a Karaoke machine it would definitely go to Jill. She is the Karaoke Queen. There is no 80's hair band she can't rival.

Rachel is probably the only one who could sing out of the group and honestly we didn't hear enough of her (me. yes... Frank Sinatra's voice is lower then you'd think, I'll stick to Cyndi Lauper next time)

We decided instead of swapping aprons like last year, this year we will swap the bag. This is the Buttercup Bag made by Rae. It is incredibly adorable and according to Jill & Christie super easy to do. You can find the pattern here. (Thanks Rae for letting us use your images & pattern. It is too cute to pass up). Anyway, we will be posting pictures from the swap August 1st.

Partners (updated 7/9/09):

Rachel has Beka
Jessie has Christie
Nikki has Abbey
Beka has Jessie
Carrie has Rachel
Aubrey has Jill
Christie has Nikki
Martha has Carrie

Abbey has Martha
Maren has Aubrey
Jill has Maren

I just wanted to say it's been a great two years with my best bff sewing sisters and through this blog we have met so many amazing and talented women. Thank you SSC ladies for making the last 2 years fun and helping me to enjoy the ride and thanks to all our online sewing sisters for inspiring us and making us feel united as women, mothers, and friends.

What Can You Do With A $2 Sheet From The Thrift Shop?

Use it as lining for a cute summer bag.
Oh, Fransson Tutorial found here.

Make a sundress for your adorable daughter.


A relaxed skirt for mom.
Polka Dot Cottage. Tutorial found here. I made the skirt less-full than the tutorial calls for. I wish I would have kept it more full.

Another CELEBRATE banner

Do you remember that "Celebrate" banner that I made a few years back? Here is a picture to help you remember.

First off, I have to laugh every time I see this banner. I remember adding that yellow ric rac and thinking I was really adding such a perfect detail to the whole banner and the ric rac was what brought the whole thing together. Whatever! The its three small pieces and actually don't do anything for the banner. The banner would have been better off without it. It just makes me laugh to think how far I have come. I still have a long way to go in my sewing skills (like actually make something that requires a zipper or buttons not ties and straps) but I really was funny about that yellow ric rac.
Anyways, this banner has been pulled out of storage quite a few times and really does make us so happy to have it hang in our house. I have decided that this one will be Ty and mine. And I want to make on for each of our kids. This means that for Elsie's first birthday coming up in a few days (holy crap, where did this year go?), she will get her very own banner. Here it is,

I love that I was able to use scrap pieces of fabric from my every growing fabric stash and that I had patterns and colors that actually coordinated. I didn't think I had become "That" person. You know the person who sews so much that someone can say, "Hey do you have this color?" and I can say, "Let me go look in my stash." That's me, I can say that! But, I digress. I think the pink and green and especially the cream trim suites Elsie perfectly! Now whenever she has a big event in her life, birthday, recitals, good grades, graduation, wedding reception (okay, just kidding, we will NOT be hanging this banner at her wedding reception), she can know it is her special day because her very own banner is hanging up in the house! And the same will go for the other kiddos that will be coming later on...in the future...in the far future.

All Things Lime (recipe and giveaway!)

I love lime. With a sweet passion. Or a tart passion. Whatever way you see it. The color, the flavor, the fruit...I love it all. I've had this idea in the back of my mind for awhile to make Key Lime cupcakes with a Key Lime filling. Key limes were on sale so I picked up 20 for $1 and started searching for some good filled Key lime cupcake recipes. I found quite a few, but none were quite was I was looking for. So I combined and adapted recipes to fit my taste...a Graham cupcake (by Vanilla Garlic )with Key Lime curd filling (by Coconut & Lime) and a lime whipped cream cheese frosting (from allrecipes). I so loved the final product and wanted to share! Oh, don't worry. It's not just a recipe...if you make it to the end there's a giveaway too! Lime themed. :)

Filled Key Lime Cupcakes

Graham Cupcakes by Vanilla Garlic
Makes 20-24 cupcakes / 350 F oven

What You’ll Need...
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt

What You’ll Do...1) Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until well creamed. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes using a paddle attachment until light and fluffy. 2) Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg. 3) Place graham crackers in a food processor or in a plastic bag and beat the crud out of them until it's been ground into small crumbs and powder. 4) Sift together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture, then add some of the milk. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry-wet-dry method, ending with the dry. Continue to mix until just combined. 5) Scoop into cupcake papers, only fill half-way, and bake for 15-18 minutes in a 350 F oven or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Key Lime Curd adapted from Coconut & Lime
3 eggs
6 TBLS butter
¾ cup sugar
½ cup key lime juice
1 tsp lime zest

Directions:
Over low heat, melt butter in saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk continuously for 8-10 minutes, or until mixture becomes a custard. Allow to cool. It will thicken as it cools. Pour into a jar or bowl, cover and refrigerate.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (with added Key lime zest) from allrecipes
1 (8 oz package) of cream cheese
1 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups of heavy whipping cream
1 tsp lime zest

In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped cream with cream cheese mixture. Add lime zest.

Putting it all together--

I use a really long tip (Wilton 230) to fill cupcakes. Just jab the tip into the middle of the cupcake and squeeze the curd into it. You know you have enough when the cupcake starts bulging on top. You can also cut a hold in the cupcake, fill it with the lime curd, and replace the cake.

Filled cupcakes.

Top it with the whipped cream cheese frosting and eat!

It seems like a lot of work, but it's really pretty easy. I made the key lime curd and the frosting the night before, so the next day all I had to do was make the cupcakes, fill, and frost. It's so worth it!

--GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Now, in celebration of all things lime-y (is that a word??), we are giving away a Key Lime apron. Trimmed in ric rac, with a sweet bow and a pleated ruffle, this apron is perfect for baking (and eating) some Key Lime cupcakes in! Check it out:

You have three chances to win. --GIVEAWAY CLOSED

#1. Leave a comment telling us anything your heart desires. (Personally, I'd love to hear what your favorite cupcake flavor is...but whatever you wanna say, we'd love to hear!)

#2. Post on your personal blog about this giveaway and then come back a leave another comment telling us where to find it.

#3. Check out our Etsy site and then leave a comment telling us what you love. There are some new items up now, and more to come in the following weeks!

You will need to leave three separate comments to be entered three times. We will be using the Random Number Generator to determine the winner! You have until next Monday, July 6th at 11:59pm to enter. Good luck!

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Hey... this is Maren. I found this darling apron that I made for Etsy & decided it was too lime-a-licious to miss out on this fun limey giveaway so I decided instead of selling it I will just give it away for FREE (to celebrate me joining Etsy & Christie selling kids aprons). We will have a winner for Christie's green and white scrumptious apron above, and another pint sized winner for my "Cherry Limeade" child's apron. This is for a child size apron 2t-4t.

#4 - To enter for kid's apron, just leave a comment with your favorite summer drink and an email or way to contact you if you win!! Good Luck! Giveaway closes Monday July 6th 11:59 pm.

fun in the sundresses

I was blog surfing the other day (because I obviously do not have enough projects to keep my idle hands busy) and came across these adorable little sundresses from Nanoo Designs. Nannette was sweet enough to let me use her images so I could share with you how stinkin' cute these dresses are...

How much would I love to see my girls in matching dresses. Paige & Abbers would look so cute!

I love the Tutu dress. Seriously, how adorable are Nannette's models? I love the yellow green fabric on the right (but Paige is a pink girl and I know would choose the fabric on the left), and if your not a big fan of tule, I bet you could substitute a sheer silky fabric and get the basic same effect.

I love that this dress is so simple and a classic design. I could see this dress in fabric from the 50's till the present. What a great design that will never go out of style. One other cool thing is that Nannette sales her patterns in groups at a discounted rate so, you getting a great deal if you want to try more then one style... Thanks Nannette for sharing your great talent.

My cute flip flops for my little girl

I have been in the mood to make really cute flip flops for my little girl, my nieces and my friends little girls, and I thought I would put it on here to show you all my creation...

simple storage solutions

I love fabric the most. I love buying it, I love having little hoards of it. I think of myself as Miss Maudie Atkinson from "To Kill a Mockingbird" in my garden surrounded by my pride and joy, just reveling in it's beauty. No one really understands this except fellow sewers/crafters. There is something magical about the endless possibilities of a single cut of fabric... joy. pure joy.

But what do you do when that joy is overshadowed by disheveled madness or you can't find that adorable Sandi Henderson piece in your tsunami sized pile of chaos. Your garden can't be admired if the flowers are piled on top of each other... wait is that a dahlia or hydrangea under that charlotte rose?

I came across the picture of the colored coated stacks above which actually might work well, but I am not a stack kind of girl. I'm a rummage-through-pulling-out-several-only-to-toss-them-all-back-and-come-up-with-a-third-one kind of girl... so this is what my garden looks like. 

pretty little rolls of fabric that remind me what I already have and surround me with beauty. You can store these in any old basket and just like flowers they will make the shabby basket look wonderful. You can keep them up high and pull down the basket when you need fabric or just some nice eye candy.

cute Father's Day ideas

Thanks Brassy Apple and Sunshine & Shade for these great ideas! We love our Daddy's...

Another Sundress

I was a little hesitant to make this sundress for Elsie seeing that Maddie really didn't care too much for her dress but I had been holding onto this pink toille for a long time waiting for a project for it and this dress seemed like the perfect fit. It really is a fun and easy dress to whip up...I see many more filling up Elsie's closet in the near future.

Call me Spoiled!!

My mom came to visit a little while back and we visited some boutiques here in Mesa to maybe spoil Elsie with a one-of-a-kind and extremely overpriced outfit. But it was me that walked away spoiled. We found at one of the boutiques, Domestic Bliss carried adorable Amy Butler and Heather Bailey fabric. I was in love!! I kid you not, I squealed with delight when I saw the red poppy fabric by Heather on the shelf. When my mom saw my face light up, she knew that she had to buy it for me. She claims that I was practically drooling (which could be possible) over the stuff, but really I couldn't believe that I was seeing the fabric that I had been stalking online for months in real life. Isn't that silly? It was like this fabric was a celebrity like Zac Efron or Matt Damon and I was actually meeting them, face to face. So silly, I know. But anyways, of course I had to get coordinating fabric to go with the red and yellow poppies so I walked away VERY spoiled. My mom kept asking me what I have done with the fabric and I kept telling her that I was waiting for the perfect project...not just any apron was going to be good enough for my Heather Bailey fabric. And than I remember someone in the Secret Stitch Club got the Funked Out Apron by Lila Tueller

for a gift and I knew that this apron was THE apron for my precious fabric. The stars had aligned, the apron gods were rejoicing...this was going to be a great apron. And it is:

I didn't want to take it off at all and kept asking Ty to take pictures of me in it because I am in love! I love the vibrant colors of the fabric and the overall shape of the apron. The ruffle at the bottom and the gather bodice on top, too much!!!! And the fact that the ties wrap all the way around and tie in the front is just too perfect! I think I may add my own 1 inch wide bias tape out of the green material to the very bottom of the ruffle to tie that fabric in better but really, what a great apron?
So a huge thanks goes out to Aubrey for buying the pattern as a gift to Christie. To Christie for letting me borrow the pattern. And to my Mom, for spoiling me more than I deserve and encouraging my obsession for delicious fabric and all things aprony!
And speaking of delicious...if anyone wants to try out this brownie recipe and invite me over to eat the whole pan with you, by all means feel free. Don't these S'mores brownies from Joy the Baker just look to die for?

Good thing I am assigned a dessert for Bunko this month because I am looking for any excuse to make these and wear my new adorable apron at the same time!

making dolls with dolls

Yesterday I got to watch my cousins' girls. They are great ages for sewing/painting projects (meaning their attention span is longer then 20 minutes). It was fun that I didn't have to do it all either. This was a team project in every sense. 

Asia is almost 8 and Macey is 9 (perfect ages to begin the madness). They cut out the doll patterns. Sewed the coats and dresses. I painted the faces and shoes, but they stained the bodies. 

I had the boa and pearls on hand from another project, so everything was here that we needed. We had to invest some time in it, but they were so dedicated it wasn't a problem.

Didn't they turn out great? It not only built up the girls confidence in their abilities to create something, but they will love these dolls because they got to make them. If anyone wants the pattern, email me and I will send it to you -  maren_buchanan [at] yahoo [dot] com.

sundresses

Thanks Jessie for getting everyone motivated to make sundresses. I love finding brilliant ideas on the internet, but I hate it when I put them away mentally to do "some time" and never get around to them. Since Jessie made a sundress for Maddie - the fire has been relit and since Myla had a birthday it was a good excuse to peruse my fabric stash and whip something up.

I took the "slacker mom" way out and instead of making a tie, I used thick ribbon.

To make up for my "slacker mom" ways I added some trim to the bottom. I didn't want to hem, so I used bias tape. I didn't want to worry about my stitches so I covered them with rick rack and added the ribbon peaking out from underneath to coordinate with the tie. 

I was on a roll (and these suckers are so easy to make) I made 2 for Abbey & one for Paige. Paige wants to be a twinner with Ab's but isn't sure about the bagginess of the dress (if only I could wear a tent without people thinking I'm maternity and get away with it) but she promised to give it a try. I might be turning it into a skirt with an applique tank before too long if she refuses to wear it (the fabric is too cute to abandon)... thanks Amy for the great idea!

Sewers Block

Does this ever happen to you? It's not that I don't have anything I want to sew...it's that I can't sew it!! Last night I tried to sew up some baby booties and matching onesies for some family we are going to see this weekend. I started off on the baby booties. I've done several of them and thought they were pretty easy. Well, I couldn't do anything right with them last night. I kept picking and sewing. By the time I was done I had a bootie no baby could (or would) wear. And the onesie wasn't any better. Holes, uneven stitches, gaps, bunches...everything that I could do wrong I did. So I decided to ditch that set and start on the other. Bad idea. Even worse. I have decided that when I am having a bad sewing night that I should just put everything away, get some sleep, and try again later. As it is, I have two ruined pairs of baby booties and two horrible tie applique onesies that I'd be embarrassed to give. That was a waste of three hours and a lot of sanity (which is in short supply as it is!) and precious sleep.

So, what have I learned? If it's not working out, give it up and come back to it later. Don't continue to ruin project after project. AND, never put off projects until the very last minute. Target here I come.