Swimsuit Alteration

About 5 years ago on a little getaway with my hubby, I bought my first 2 piece swimsuit. I've only worn it that weekend and maybe once or twice since them. It's such a cute bathing suit, but I have to say I felt a little uncomfortable in despite the fact that it was a tank top instead of a bikini one. With a trip to a warm and tropical location coming up and without the kids, I thought I'd risk pulling that old suit out. I tried it on and still felt uncomfortable, but thanks to all the great posts different crafters have done on clothing alteration I felt not only the inspiration to make my own alterations but also the courage to try it! Here's what I started with (I apologize in advance for any and all wrinkles you may see): See that little gap between the top and the bottom? Not so pretty on a mother of 3. (At least not me.) I headed to the fabric store to check out their Lycra selection and found just the color I needed to add a few inches to the bottom of my tank. I only purchased 1/3 of a yard and probably could have gotten away with 1/4 yard. What I did: 1. Unpick the hem around the bottom of the tank. If the holes from the seam are too big, you may have to trim the fabric just above the hem. Mine turned out just fine, though. Iron flat. 2. Lay your fabric down and your tank on the top edge. Follow the natural flow of your top to cut out your new piece. Don't forget to add a little extra for seam allowances. 3. You should have two pieces of fabric now. Sew the sides together and fold in half, seams inside. 4. Pin your new fabric band to the suit, matching side seams to side seams. 5. Using a stretch stitch (check your owner's manual), sew together. The stretch stitch will allow for extra movement and will prevent all your hard work from coming apart the first time you use your newly altered swimsuit. 6. Iron again with seams pointing up. If you are lucky to have a Serger or at least have access to one, you can serge your raw edges for a more finished look. Here's what I ended up with: It was a quick, inexpensive refashion and bonus-no swimsuit shopping this year!! (BTW-It was so much more comfortable to wear on the beach and swimming. )

Practically Cute

Practically meaning practical. My little family has a BIG road trip planned soon. I've been a little nervous as it's just me and my man and 3 kids 7 and under-no grandparents or other babysitter type help. All summer I've been thinking of what to do to make the long hours in the car happy ones. Three of three little monkeys like to color. So I thought I'd do something practical like this: that they can use as a little lap table for their travel projects.

But, how could I leave that sad little thing so plain? I couldn't, so with Pride and Prejudice on my ipod and a few hours to myself....

So much better. Practical and cute! I love what a little Mod Podge, paint and paper can do. the kids have seen these and love them. The best part is they can be simple like this or go crazy with embellishments. This just worked well for us. (I did not want to take the blame for a flower-rubbing on a Darth Vader picture if ya know what I mean!)

My Latest Scrapbook Project

I am a chronological scrapbooker. This essentially means that I have a large binders in which to put a record of my family's life. It also means that there is no real end to the project that is scrapbooking. That is precisely why this mini-album of my trip to New York was so much fun to make! I made it for my husband for Father's Day. This was the first visit to New York for both of us. I started with a post-bound album from the Target dollar aisle. It already had a 'window' in the cover and I applied Making Memories rub-ons for "New York." Cover page.

The paper used throughout the book is from an 8x8 Cosmo Cricket Paper Pad called "Hello Sunshine." It included a several of the sayings I used here.

There's still some journaling to complete, but I want my husband's help. Husbands are not easy to pin down for crafting time.

When I ran out of pages in the album, I just cut some creme colored cardstock to size, punched holes, unscrewed the posts and added the pages. On the final page, I used put a photo on the back cover to utilize all available space. Most photos were 4x6 but I did have a few printed as 5x7s.

I think cropping my photos first helped make this a really quick project and using items I already had on hand (I only bought my photo prints) made it very inexpensive.

The best part? My husband loves it. That quick turn around from the experience to the recorded memories really worked for him (I made it within two weeks of returning from New York). He's taken it on all his recent business trips to show his co-workers and it's going with him this very day to Seattle. He's having dinner with his sisters and wanted to show them too.

--C

1 Craft 3 Ways- Travel Bag!!!

For our 1 Craft-3 Ways this month we decided to do some type of bag that you could use on a vacation. I have always wanted a HUGE swimming bag. We go swimming a lot and I need a bag big enough to hold 5 towels, 5 swimming suits, cover ups, life jackets, toys, etc..... that's a lot of stuff! So, when Angie made her placemat purse, I thought I could kind of do the same thing with a beach towel and make a BEACH TOWEL BAG. It took a little trial and error because the first bag a made was just tooooo huge. But I think I have perfected the process.

Look for my tutorial on how to make this awesome bag on Wednesday!! -Anisa

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This little baby has been on my craft to-do list for sometime.

I knew it would be the perfect little tote for vacation for my kids (and me too). Then I started seeing little reusable sandwich bags popping up here and there. A perfect match. A water bottle holder paired with a reusable treat bag. LOVE it. I got the tutorial for the holder here at Pink Chalk Studio (via Ucreate). The treat bag is of my own design. (Hey-sometimes reinventing the wheel is much more fun than following the directions.) In order to make it day-out friendly, I attached some grommets (a.k.a. eyelets) to both the treat bag and the holder and fastened them together with a key ring (the kind that pull open). Now the kids can carry their own water AND their own snack. Brilliant!

Watch for a tutorial soon on making your own reusable treat bags!-Ang

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I had no idea what I'd do for a travel bag until my friend Rachel mentioned she liked a bag that another friend had and that she'd love a similar one herself for a writer's conference attending. Like a true crafter I blurted out: "We could make that!" and I did. I got the original concept from this pattern, but enlarged it somewhere in the 25-30% range. I also designed interior pockets to fit the user's purpose better. (If you'd like clearer pattern instructions that the link, email us and I'd be happy to provide them.)

The finished bag was about 18" x 13", enough to fit legal length writing pads and a larger laptop. The hidden closures were also my design (along with some other cosmetic changes). Buttons are sewn to the main body of the bag and coordinating button-hole straps are sewn on the inside of the flap. Being only my second challenging sewing project, I'm pleased it turned out so well and as requested: serious on the outside, fun and girly on the inside! --C

Waterproofing My Kids

My family has been planning an awesome road trip for the end of summer. Two weeks on the road, DVD players, salty sea air, fresh fish, GORGEOUS scenery, and rain. The problem? We're desert dwellers. With the exception of the strange rainy season Salt Lake just experienced, we don't do rain. Not that we don't like it. We do. We just have no protection from the wetness besides an umbrella (or rain-brella as my 2-year-old calls it). As our vacation has a great possibility of being damp for a good portion of the time, I figured my kids will need rain jackets. Luck was on my side. I found these adorable little rain coats at Target (on clearance even!). I got them home and made my kiddos try them on immediately. Sadly, the jackets were too short in the sleeves on two of my 3 kids. Here's how I solved my problem for about $1 per jacket. The jacket: I bought 2 different colors of ribbon (by the yard-1 1/2" wide on both pieces). Measure around the cuff of the sleeve and add a little for your seam.** Since I was using 2 pieces of ribbon, I glued them together using my favorite glue, E6000. Starting at the inside seam of the sleeve, I glued the ribbon all the way around. Add a little embellishment. That's it. When I showed my hubby after one sleeve, he didn't realize I was showing him the "finished" side. He was amazed. (And why shouldn't he be?? ;) ) The best part is it fits her!! **To give your grosgrain ribbon a finished look on the raw edges, I used a propane lighter (like the ones for your grill) to burn the edge. No more fraying!

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

In my own haste to get ready for a first-time trip to New York City, I forgot to add our brand-new feature to the blog. Before you read the rest of this post, take a gander over to the top of the left column to see our new Creative Concept corner. Sometimes, you just need a small word or idea to send you into a great creative mindset. This month the theme is: travel. So many of us have recently traveled or are about to go on our summer vacations and there are a lot of ways crafts can make your trips easier or more fun.

This very theme inspired my craft for today. It was also inspired by an odd book called The Big-A** Book of Crafts by Mark Montano, pages 142-143. The author says to laminate a color copy of a map, cut it to the desired size, punch a hole in the corner, thread a key ring through it, write your info on the other side.

It sounds easy, but I think I've made it even easier (and less sharp around the edges).

I used these great easy-to-use Photo Laminating sheets from 3M.

I printed off a map of where we spent our recent vacation from Yahoo. I wrote my info on the reverse side and even added the quote I put in the title of this post. I glued the map and info back to back and slipped it into one of these sheets. Easy! I then cut a small slit in the top and threaded an unused hair elastic through the slit to attach it to my luggage. I even added a small ribbon for good measure and to cover the metalic connector on the elastic.

The finished product:

-C