Two Cute Skirts

I've got a couple of cute skirts for the little girls in your life. Although, you could easily alter either for a mom-size version if you wanted.

The first is a twirly skirt designed by my friend Toni. She said she was happy to share the directions here with all of you. How cute would this look with some calf length leggings and a t-shirt with a big floofy flower pin or hair accessory?! (Yes I like to make up words. And spellings.)

To make this, first take the circumference of your little gal's waist and times it by 2. This will give you the width for the top of the skirt.

Cut 16 triangles out of 4 different fabrics. (I opted to 3-it's not quite as fluffy, but I couldn't find a matching 4th piece )

To figure out your triangles: waist x 2 (40 inches for me). Divide by 16 (number of triangles). This will give you the top measurement of your triangles. (Sophie's was 2.5 inches) The times that by 3 for your bottom width (7.5 here). Confused? It's okay. Keep reading. It'll make sense.

The length is up to you. I wanted my skirt to hang to the knees, so I did 12 inches.

Now that we know the size of our triangle-we're ready to cut! I started by cutting out rectangles 12 inches (my length) by 7.5 (my width).

Next I marked off the top of the triangle at 2.5 and 5.

Cutting from the top markings to each corner will give you your triangle.

Sew your triangles together to make your skirt. (Optional: surging or doing a French seam will give you a nice clean look.)

Round the corners of your skirt so you don't have points on the bottom. Hem as usual. (Toni did a rolled hem on hers.) Now set aside.

Then make your waistband by measuring the new width from the top of skirt. Cut that length by twice the width of your elastic. Be sure to add a little extra to sew waistband to skirt!

Sew the ends of your waistband together to make a tube. Fold in half WRONG sides together. Pin to skirt.

Sew waistband on. Leave an opening to add elastic. Thread elastic through, sew edges together and top stitch to finish off.

This was a fun project and a great way to use some fun fabrics from my stash! Feel free to email questions to twiddlethumbs@rocketmail.com

Skirt #2 is from Make It and Love It and featured on U Create. My soon-to-be 2nd grader and her BFF will be wearing these the first day of school. Get the free tutorial here. You could also combine the two skirts and make this one.

Is there a support group for skirt addicts? I am LOVING this!

Filling in the Blanks

One thing the 3 of us here have in common is a shared passion for scrapbooking. I'm not great at getting the journaling done on every page, but I love that I can have it as a source to give more depth to the pictures. There are little things that don't always make the pages of the family album, though, especially for me being the mom. I hardly ever get out from behind the camera, and subsequently the focus remains largely on my kids. Blogging has helped me some. I get quick funny little things or thoughts written, share a favorite recipe etc. But, I want more. My kids will want more. If not them, then probably their kids. I found some great helps from Creating Keepsakes personality-Becky Higgins. She's got some great "fill in the blank" pages on her website for both teens and adults. (Click here.) It's a great way to round out the family history portions of scrapbooking. I also snuck some pictures of these layouts my cousin did of our Grandma M. and some of her most popular recipes. Another fun addition to a family book! (Thanks Marlene!)

Skirting the issue...

My current craft love right now is skirts. I've made some for myself and have some in the works for my girls. First up is the "Nancy dress." It reminds me of the "units" that were popular in the 80s/90s but so cute and comfy. This dress can be worn as a shirt, dress, skirt, add straps to make a tank, use if for a swim cover up....I could go on. You can find the pattern here for free. It only takes 1 yard of knit fabric to make and makes up in probably an hour or less. Can we say instant craft-gratification?

(To see what the dress/skirt looks like modeled-check outthe pattern link above.

Watch for more fun skirts and other surprises this week!

Can't NOT scrapbook

A week of crafting would not be complete without the chance to scrapbook.... if I have a break from the kids, I can't NOT scrapbook. So, I thought I'd post a few of my layouts that I did. I wish I would have been able to get a lot more done, but I had a little helper that kept me from doing everything that I wanted to do!!!

Do you want to come and craft with me???

Do you live in the Salt Lake Valley, if so, I have decided to start doing craft workshops in my home. Each month I will be creating a different craft project. I will cut out the wood and have all of the supplies and you can come to my home and create your craft!. Doesn't that sound fun? I don't know about you, but I have been seeing a lot of bees around this summer and I thought this little guy was darling! He looks so cute on his little yard stick in my front yard. Or, if you'd like, I could cut him out a little smaller (without the sign) and you could put wire through him and hang him on your front door or a wall. If you would like to join me, here is the info....

Cost: Bee Yard Stake $18

Smaller hanging version $15

Dates: Tues. July 21st 6-9 pm

Wed. July 22nd 6-9 pm

Thurs. July 30th 6-9 pm

Sat. Aug. 1st 10 am- noon

Remember, all you need to do is show up with your smiling face and fun conversation (and your money) and I will have all of the supplies there ready for you. Please email me at ryanisa@earthlink.net if you are interested in attending.

I had a DUH moment today!

I have a couple of lamps in my house with plain white lamp shades.... BORING!!! I have been wanting to jazz them up for awhile but I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do... until I saw this lamp in Pottery Barn Kids. How cute to have gathered ribbon or fabric on a lamp shade. So, I thought that I would literally have to sew the ribbon ONTO the lamp shade. Well, that's just not going to work (I tried it and it just doesn't work). So, I thought I would staple it on. The lamp turned out super cute, but that was the most frustrating craft I have done in a long time. Sometimes the stapler would work but most of the time I would end up poking holes in the lamp shade and putting the staple in manually.... don't try this at home.

So, I just gave up. I figured I put the other lamp shades aside and come up with some other idea some other time. I was done with the frustration. Then I was wandering down the lamp aisle at Hobby Lobby and I saw the same cute pink lamps. After I looked closely at them I realized.... DUH... they were sewn to gather the fabric, but it was glued on the lamp... DUH!!! So, I busily got to work sewing strips of fabric down the middle and gathering them. Then I used my trusty hot glue gun and glued them on my lamp shade. So cute, so easy, I am so blonde sometimes, but I'm not blonde. And look how cute my guest bedroom is!!!

Applique Tutorial

A few months ago our 1 craft 3 ways was applique.

I thought that it would be appropriate to do a tutorial on exactly how to do an applique.

1. Make a pattern of what you want to applique. I am going to applique a tie on my little boy's shirt. I just hand drew the tie, but you could trace an actual tie. 2. Trace the pattern onto an iron on product such as Heat-n-bond. 3. Place the Heat-n-bond onto the wrong side of the fabric. 4. Cut the heat-n-bond and the fabric down to a size that is a little bigger than your pattern. Then iron the heat n bond onto the fabric according to package directions. 5. Cut your pattern out and peel the paper backing off. 6. Iron the applique onto whatever you are attaching it to according to package directions.

7. Now comes the fun part. You need to sew around the edges to keep them from fraying. There are several ways to do this. You could use embroidery floss and do it by hand. I chose to use my sewing machine and do a zig zag stitch. 8 Sew all the way around and you are done! I had bought this shirt on clearance at Old Navy for 97cents. It was kind of plain and I wanted to dress it up a bit. I wasn't sure if my 5 year old would like it or not. When I showed it to him he absolutely loved it! I think he will look so adorable in this with some tan pants. It totally looks like a grandpa tie.

I love Spray Paint!

Another project I thought I'd do this week was a chair for Cami. I had an extra chair, I had two cans of extra red spray paint and a yard of extra black and white fabric. Cami is decorating her craft room in reds and blacks and I thought this would be perfect since she needs another chair for in there!

I LOVE spray paint. I spray paint a LOT of stuff at my house. Our garage has several colors of paint on the floor and there is always spray paint dust on everything in our garage (including my husband's motorcycle... which he is NOT happy about.... come on, it washes off!) So, since I do this so often, I thought I'd give you some tips on spray painting....

1. Clean whatever your are going to paint. Just wipe it down with a wet cloth and let it dry.

2. Always use primer. I don't like to sand the stuff that I paint and sometimes when you're painting metal or plastic or other such things it's kind of hard to sand. But if you use primer, the paint sticks well and covers well. Most primers are white or gray. I usually use white if I'm painting something white and gray for all other colors. But the Smith's Marketplace near us sells black HD Designs brand primer that I love because I spray paint a lot of things black.

3. I paint in my garage with the door all the way open or part way open to let things ventilate.

4. Primer the top with a coat, flip it over, primer the other side. Then paint the other side with the paint, then flip it over and paint the top side.

5. It will usually take about 1 can of primer and 2 cans of paint for most pieces of furniture... like a chair or headboard.

6. Distressing is your friend! If you have paint runs or places that didn't get a good coat, just use your little electric sander or sand paper and sand off those places.

7. Finish your project with a clear coat to protect the places that you distressed.

*You can spray paint almost anything as long as you primer first. If you are doing a piece of furniture that has a lot of smooth flat surfaces like a dresser, table, bookshelf, etc, I wouldn't recommend spray paint. Spray paint will usually leave spray lines on things like that. I would use a small foam roller and brush to get in the corners. However, spray paint is great for things that have rounded parts or hard to reach in places.

Here are a few other projects I have painted since I moved into my new house...

This cute headboard to matchthis cute mirror in my guest bedroom. Most of my kitchen chairs. This cute chair goes in my craft room, but it is so cute I couldn't resist taking my baby's picture on it!