New Family Christmas Stockings

I'm making stockings like mad. They are fun and easy, so why not!

We are having a low-key easy Christmas this year, and that includes decorating. I decided not to get the tote boxes out of the garage and unpack, decorate, undecorate, and repack. The boxes are staying put. But, that's where our nice matching stockings are stored.

So.....

I made new stockings!

All different!  The kids love them! Let's hope Santa fills them up to the top!

Christmas Twirly Skirt

Guess what? It's Christmas season and my kids have nothing festive to wear. And, I did the silliest thing ever: I misplaced my Redondo skirt pattern! I've been searching for it for over a month now and still cannot find it!

Out of desperation, I took one of Libby's skirts from her drawer and used it to trace out a new pattern. At least now I have the size 6 version of the pattern. I would freehand it, but it's hard to get the sizing and the swirls just right.

I scored some funky green and red chevron printed fabric and I paired it with some green and red polka dot. It's going to be so colorful and fun!  It will also double up as a Dr. Seuss skirt in March for his birthday celebration at school. Awesome! Love it when I can get two occasions out of an outfit.

I made one Redondo skirt for my daughter, and one for my Etsy shop. I wish I hadn't run out of the chevron print, but I got the end of the bolt so I know that's all there is to that. I only have half a yard left and that's not enough for another twirly skirt.

Merry Christmas and Happy Twirling!

Pink Christmas Stockings

I made a bundle of little Christmas stockings out of fabric printed with breast cancer pink ribbons and sayings.  I also used some other pink prints to make enough stockings.  I am making these for my new "cancer club" friends. The ladies in my breast cancer support group have been really great and we are having a group meeting in mid-December; these will be fun to bring along and show my gratitude to them for becoming such a source of information, strength and friendship to me.

I made the stockings by freehand drawing a stocking shape and cutting out several. No big deal there, pretty simple. I tried to keep it small, yet big enough. They aren't too large.

Then I added a cuff made of a small pink gingham print. It's cute. I embroidered names on the cuffs before I cut them and added them to the stockings. They aren't perfect, but they are good enough. I then folded the cuffs over and attached them to the tops of the stockings.

I see that I have stockings going in each direction. Whoops. Oh well. Since they won't be hung together (each lady will take one home with her) it shouldn't matter.

I made them completely on the serger. This was a good project if you want to practice serging curves because the stocking has the heel, toe, and ankle curves.

When you get to this point in the stocking:

 You need to curve around the ankle but you can't because the knife will cut the fabric. This is how I do it and I get a great seam every time!

I pull the fabric so that it is straight. It will come out just fine when you lay it flat again.

When I go around the toe and heel, the curve is the opposite way, so I just serge slowly and lift the presser foot to adjust if needed. Those are easier.

I showed the top picture to a breast cancer support group on facebook and the ladies there went crazy for it! There were at least 50 requests for me to make them and sell or give them to the ladies on that forum. Amazing response!  Because of the positive response, I went out to search for more pink ribbon fabric. I purchased this fabric at a quilting shop that went out of business last summer. I checked every store that sells fabric, and couldn't find any. I did find some online, but by the time I order fabric online, get the stockings made and shipped out to buyers, it would be after Christmas already. So, I will keep this project in mind for next Christmas and get ready earlier!

In the meantime, the ladies in my breast cancer support group are going to get these cute little stockings. They are quick and easy to make and come from the heart. I'm sure they will really like them! (hoping anyway!)

Little Makeup Bag

My husband invited me to tag along to an overnight conference. I could hang out in the hotel and just relax while he and his cohorts went to meetings. I thought that was a grand idea! I quickly threw together an overnight bag, but I didn't have a makeup bag that I wanted to take. I had one that was too big, another that was too big, and another that is too dark inside and I can never find anything in it. Hmmm.

What else would I do in a situation like this? I made one!

First thing I did was look through my zipper stash and I found a 7" plastic pink zipper.  Great!  Then I looked through my PUL fabrics and found something that matched up. I cut two rectangles of the PUL so that the zipper edge was 8" giving me plenty of room to secure the zipper on the corners.

I sewed the zipper on each piece, one on each side, and then I sewed up the sides and bottom of the bag.  When I finished, I boxed the corners on the bottom edge to give it a little volume and a base to stand on. Worked great!

My little makeup bag was cut and sewn in about 20 minutes. It was the perfect size, not too heavy and a nice bright color. Love it!

Opened my Etsy Shop!

I'm so excited! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and I finally got it put together this past month. I opened an online store on Etsy!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaryMadeIt853?ref=hdr_shop_menu

I actually opened it a few weeks ago and so far, I've sold two hats. I'm super excited about that! I've been sewing and building up a bit of an inventory for the Etsy shop.

I'm mostly selling items that I've given as gifts and people just love them. Those are the wet bags and twirly skirts. I'm also selling the duplicate items. Sometimes, I make two or more of something and give the best one as a gift and save the others to give as gifts later. This way, if I screw up a project, I have a backup. A good example of this is the Charlie Brown dress. I was asked to make one for a little girl who loves the Peanuts gang, but the mom wanted it sleeveless and I really thought it would look better with puff sleeves. I made both and they both looked good. I made four fox scarves too. In fact, I like those so much that I'm going to make more!

My daughters are outgrowing their deep desire for princess dresses. They used to beg for every dress from every movie and now they just don't want to play dress-up like they used to. I haven't outgrown it though! I still love to sew princess dresses and costumes, and so I will!  Someone out there will enjoy them if my girls won't.  I'm also going to sew more for boys.

Anyway, I'm happy to have my little shop open. My serger needs to go in for its annual servicing soon and I need more thread and supplies, so I'm hoping my sales will help support my hobby. I don't expect to get rich or anything, but why not make a buck?

In progress right now are child sized aprons, alligator scarves and reusable baby wipes (eww!).

I'm already looking forward to making a bunch of Christmas things. I think some stockings with names embroidered will be perfect!

Go check out my little shop and stop back periodically to see what's new. Thanks!

Pirate Costume

Ahoy, Matey!

What do you do when your grandson has Pirate Day at preschool the very next morning? Well, this is what I do!

I ran to Walmart just to grab up some plain black fabric for a pair of pirate shorts, I had the skeleton fabric left over from several Halloweens ago and I didn't think of the candy stripes until I went shopping. This is my pirate fabric collection now! I picked up the skull and crossbones (with glitter), the candy stripes and the solid black at Walmart.

Walmart isn't my favorite place to buy fabric because the quality is so cheap, but this is for a 3 hour preschool day so I don't need to spend much or drive further for higher quality fabric. Walmart fabric is just fine. As you can see, I scored.  

It didn't take long and I had a pair of shorts done!  I used a pajama pattern to make the shorts; I just adjusted the length and made them pointy. I didn't use a pattern for the hem, winging it worked just fine.  I did a small rolled hem on the bottom instead of leaving it to fray. I didn't know if leaving the bottom unhemmed would cause a problem with unraveling the fabric, so I hemmed it. Hemming a chevron is a bit of a challenge, but it can be done.  The waist is a simple elastic waistband. 

I also cut out a little skull and sewed it to the knee of the shorts to bring it all together. From far away it just looks like  a smudge, but it's pretty cute close up. 

The belt sash was easy. I just guessed on width and length and it came out just fine. I decided to make pointy tips rather than blunt ends.   I'm sure pirates had some of each. The candy stripe sash really added to the fun of the costume! Glad I thought of it.

The vest is the best part of the costume if you ask me.  I used a tank top pattern and just cut the front down the middle instead of cutting it along the fold of the fabric as instructed. I also tapered the neckline straight down to the middle instead of doing a scoop neck. I cut out two, one of the skull fabric and one of solid black so that the vest is lined and has a bit of a heavier vest weight to it instead of a light vest. I didn't think it would hang well if I just  hemmed it up.

I topped it off with a headband made of the skeleton fabric. They're just too cute to leave out of the costume.

As you can see, he is wearing a store-bought Tshirt. I was in a time crunch and we wanted him to be comfortable, so an old Tshirt did the trick to finish off the costume. The color was just right, but white or black or stripes would have been good too. 

Since this is a sewing blog, here is the obligatory back view photo of the costume:  Just as cute as the front!

My grandson wore it all day! He didn't take it off until pajama time and guess what he wanted to wear the next morning?  Yup! You guessed it!  His new Pirate Costume!

Birthday Twirly Skirt

A friend of mine, a really sweet generous lady, posted on Facebook that it was her daughter's 6th birthday that day.  I had a hankering to do some sewing and I'm sort of stuck on my current big project, so I thought "what a great opportunity to sew up something quick and cute!"  So, I sewed!

I quickly cut out a Redondo skirt from some Little Mermaid printed fabric and I serged the pieces together.  Next thing you know, the skirt was done!   I set a new personal speed record!  A Redondo skirt in 45 minutes!  Including cutting the 12 pieces, pressing them, and sewing them together. Also put in the elastic waistband in that time!  I hoped it would fit since I just eyeballed the size of it. 

Luckily, any length is in fashion these days, so I never really worry if it's too long or too short, but it must fit in the waist. Elastic waistbands have plenty of sizing wiggle room, but still, it can't be too big or too tight. I don't see my friend and her kids often enough, but her daughter is in between the sizes of my daughters so it wasn't too hard to guess.

This Redondo pattern is from Studio Tantrum.  Totally cute pattern!  It twirls great too!  I don't know how little girls can twirl and twirl all day long, but they do. I'd puke.

We ran the skirt over to the birthday girl and she was thrilled! She loves to twirl, she loves skirts, she loves the Little Mermaid, she loves pink and she loves glitter too! This skirt had it all!  I didn't realize I was scoring on all counts, but hey, cool! 

I have an Idea!

A couple of years ago, my mom came to visit me and she brought with her two lovely old dresses from her friend Gladys. Gladys is in her 90s now and she made these dresses for her daughter's prom. I'm going to guess that the dresses are aproximately 50 years old.

Gladys wants me to make something pretty and fun for the girls to wear out of the old dresses. They are special to her and she wants to see them revived and made into something new. They are definatly out of style, but the fabric is good and still pretty. 

One dress is white and has a white lace piece that may be a veil or a shawl or something, and the other dress is a light green with pink flowers printed in stripes. The green one is just the right shade of green for Tinkerbell or Tiana, but the floral print isn't right for them. I can't think of another princess who wears green.

I put the dresses in the back of the closet and waited for inspiration to strike, and then I sort of forgot about them. I'm a visual person, if I can't see it I tend to forget.

My mom recently reminded me that Gladys was waiting for me to sew those old dresses into something fabulous.  So, I looked in all the closets until I found where I had stashed them, and drug them out.  Hmmm...

And then it hit me!  The green dress is perfect!  I'll make a Princess Anna dress!  Anna's coronation dress is the perfect costume to make!  I'm excited now!

Wet Beach Bags

I'm going to call these Beach Bags, all though you could use them for whatever wet stuff you end up with. Me? I need a wet bag at the beach, or any mall fountain.  My kids like to "stick their toes in".  Yup. Toes. Toes to head!

I've outgrown the need for a diaper bag, but do you ever outgrow the need for a wet bag? They're great for muddy little shoes, restaurant spilled on clothes, potty accidents, and so much more. I keep one in the trunk of my car and I'm really surprised at how often I use it.

I've even used mine as a temporary trash container.  Fast food wrappers and ketchup packets and straws and cookie wrappers and all of that sort of thing has to go somewhere. The best is when my kid bursts into a bloody nose mess and she needs a bag to toss in the used kleenex. Like I really want to pick those things up off the car floor! Yuck!

Good thing they are easy to launder! Stinky wet stuff and all can just be tossed into the washer and dryer. Presto! Mama's work is easier than ever now!

These are made from Polyurethane Laminate fabric. It's BPA free, same thing that I use for the sandwich and snack bags.  Since they have a bigger purpose, they are 16" x 14".  Nice and roomy.

Cars Twirly Skirts

I love this Redondo skirt pattern! It comes together so nicely and the kids just love to twirl in these skirts. The pattern is from Studio Tantrum.

This time I tried something different: Five panels and five thin panels for stripes.  I really like how it came out!  The thin stripes broke up the busy print fabric nicely without being too bold. I will do this again, the thin stripes. It measured out to be a little more than if I had used 6 panels, not too much but still lots of twirl.

I also decided to try to invent some sort of yoga waistband. I used ribbing and some knit elastic, I'm not sure if I got the desired effect, but close enough. It's soft and can be folded over. I think I'll make the waistband longer and easier to fold over. It should be comfortable and hold tight at the same time.

I made two of these skirts. They are birthday gifts for two adorable little girls who love Lightning McQueen. I'm so glad they adore these skirts because they are sure a lot of fun to sew!

Superhero Capes

I made six superhero capes in one day!  Thank you, serger!

I was only going to make one superhero cape for Henry. It would be a great 3rd birthday present!  If Henry has one, Alfie will want one. Charlie should have one too. The girls will each want one.  Next thing you know, I had six capes done.

I used some old royal blue polyester. This stuff was given to me and it's probably from the 70s. But it's bright and keeps it's shape, so it was just fine for a quick party cape. I used up my leftover cheap red fake velour stuff for the outer side of the capes. It's too flimsy on it's own so the two fabrics were a great pair! 

I decided to applique a  superhero emblem on each cape.  I cut them out and ironed them on with fusable interfacing, then topstitched along the edges.  This ended up being very important since every cape was a different length. Alfie had the smallest cape and Gracie had the longest. We'll need to tell them all apart! 

Since I didn't have a pattern, I just freehanded the cape shape.  I tried to make it shoulder width across the top and taper out to the bottom. I made the neck in backward bib fashion and used velco as the fastener.  I wanted velcro so that it will pop off if the cape gets stuck at the top of the slide or something, I don't want the kids to choke!

I serged around the outside edges and have the seams on the outside. No turning! Much easier and the kids really didn't care. With the serger, I can get away with finished edges on the outside from time to time, and this is one of those times. 

The birthday turned into a superhero party since every kid had a cape. They all loved the capes!  It was so much fun to see them all in their capes running and "flying" around saving the world from imaginary villains.

Sandwich and Snack Bags

More Sandwich and Snack bags!  I've been making a bunch of them as gifts and for my girls' lunch pails. They are just perfect for lunches and snacks on the go!

So far, the bags have been holding up really well. I handwash them sometimes and I toss them in with the laundry sometimes. Either way they come out clean and ready to reuse. No problem! I'm actually quite impressed with how well they are washing up.

Again, the nylon zippers are the best. I like using zippers rather than velcro on the bags. The nylon zippers are a lot easier to sew in and a lot easier to use. The metal zips just can't compare, but they are fine. Not that big of an issue to complain about, but I do think I've lost count of how many sewing needles I've broken while sewing in the metal zippers. Had to add the cost of a couple packs of needles to the cost of my sandwich bag supply!

Costs so far have been pretty good. I can get a lot of snack bags out of one yard of PUL fabric. I am not sure how many snack bags, but it's close to a dozen. I counted it up and promptly forgot. That's me. Ha!  The zippers are a cost if I buy them; they run around $2 each.  I'm almost out of my zippers in my recycled zipper stash. That was really cool having recycled zippers to use and not spend money on them, but the drawer full of zippers is now just a  handful. They were mostly the metal zippers anyway.

The PUL fabric is where the money goes. It's $16.99 a yard? I think? But if you get a coupon it that brings the cost down. In any event, a dozen bags costs around $25 - $30 to make. If I bought them on etsy from someone or through retail that would cost me a whole lot more!

I also bought some food printed fabric to make lined snack bags. The PUL is plain white and then I put a quilting fabric over the outside. I think these are my favorite because of two reasons: 1. the seams are all on the inside and 2. they are just so cute!

These have been fabulous gifts. Everyone likes them a lot and I can give more than two.  Here are photos of the fun snack bags that I've been making lately.

Mulan Dress meets Dog With Scissors

We got a new puppy a few months ago, she's probably 8 or 9 months old by now. And she's very talented! Her name is Penny.

According to my five year old daughter, who is sweet as can be and always honest, Penny the puppy went into her room, used a pair of scissors and cut the sleeve of her precious Mulan dress. The dog cut and cut until the dress was destroyed!  That dog didn't even ask to use the scissors!

My poor little girl was crying her eyes out over the ruined dress. It's her favorite and the dog cut it up!

Well, that puppy sure is a troublemaker.  But she insisted that the dog did it. "Penny is a cutter. She likes to cut things." Hmmm.

My big eyed little girl begged me to please please please fix it. Of course, dear, Mommy can fix it.

I suppose I should have let her worry about it and face her destroyed dress for a while. Maybe I should have told her it would be very difficult to fix and I might not be able to do it.  But, I think she felt bad enough and she never acts out, so I went right to work on it.

Normally, she doesn't destroy anything. She doesn't misuse scissors. And she doesn't lie.  This must be a pretty bad day for her. I think she's crying for attention and so I'm going to do what only Mommy can do, and fix her dress.

The puppy was underfoot as usual, so I turned to Penny and gave her a stern lecture on the proper use of scissors and the impact of destroying special things. I scolded her firmly. Then I congratulated her on her fine motor skills, especially since she lacks thumbs. I told my daughter to get the scissors off of her dresser and put them where Penny cannot get them any more. Then I put the puppy out in the yard for her time-out (and because it was probably puppy potty time by now).

While I picked apart the shoulder seam to remove the slashed sleeve, I had my daughter sit next to me and draw pictures of hearts for me. She drew and drew. I wondered if that would bring out the truth, but she was sticking to her story. The dog did it.

Once the sleeve was removed, I used it as a pattern piece to cut out a new sleeve.  One nice thing about always buying a bit too much fabric for every project, is that I have an awesome supply of scraps, and I lucked out and  had plenty of the same fabric for a new sleeve. Score!

I cut out a new sleeve, making sure to allow for a seam allowance on the edges. When I removed the old sleeve, I cut off the seam that went from wrist to armpit to flatten it out to use as a pattern. Rather than use the seam ripper on that line, I just trimmed it off with the scissors and remembered to give it a seam allowance when I cut the new one.

I serged around the shoulder seam and around the hem before serging down the inside seam of the sleeve. And then I straight stitched the top of the sleeve to the armhole of the dress.  And there we have it:  Perfectly repaired Mulan dress!

My little daughter is so happy to have her favorite princess costume in perfect condition again!  I told her that I can only fix it once. There will be no next time. If the dog cuts her dress again, or anything else, then we'll have to throw it away. The dog gets no second chances.  She nodded and said she understood. So I had her go show Penny that it was all fixed so the poor puppy could get over her guilt.

The repair really didn't take long. The most difficult part of it was keeping a straight face when my daughter was telling me how the dog used scissors and cut with them. She is totally sticking to her story. When Daddy came home, she repeated it for him and then proudly showed off her new sleeve.

Grandpa's Quilt

When it comes to quilting, I am just winging it.  This was my first quilt. It took me a year to make it.

After my grandpa passed away, my grandma gave me a big box of his shirts and pajamas and things he wore daily that would not be suitable to pass on to anyone else.  These were shirts that he wore day after day, year after year, while working on his ranch or relaxing at home.  She told me to do whatever I wanted with them.  I assume she meant to sew them into whatever I want.  

After lots of thinking and searching for a quilt top pattern, I made this pattern up myself.  I wanted to showcase the shirts and not lose sight of the fact that they were Grandpa's shirts. If I cut them into pieces too small, they might look like worn fabric, but not necessarily look like his shirts.  I wanted to keep the pockets and yokes in tact.  I ended up making rectangles with small squares in the center for the blocks. 

I tried to lay the blocks next to each other, but then decided I liked a border between each block to frame them all. First, I used a striped pajama pant as the framework between the blocks.  It didn't look right when I backed up and saw it from a distance.  I ended up using this dark blue, which wasn't part of his box of clothing items, but it framed it in so nicely and it was a nice strong bold color.  I like the strength of it as it reminded me of my Grandpa's personality. 

Honestly, I don't remember what the back is.  It is probably the same blue as the borders on the front.  I think I bought a set of sheets to use as the back and borders, but I can't recall.  I made this quilt 15 years ago and my focus was the shirts on the front, not the insignificance of the back.  Nobody sees that part anyway.  

I know I put two layers of poly-fill in it though. I like my quilts to be fluffy and heavy.  If anyone is ever going to sleep under this quilt, it will be warm and snugly!

After a year of sewing (and sometimes just gazing or feeling it or thinking about it)  I gave this quilt to my grandma.  She enjoys it very much!  It lays on her bed. I am more proud of this quilt than any other sewing project that I've ever made. I miss my grandpa a lot, but I feel so good having made this tribute to him and sharing it with my family.  This quilt warms my heart!

Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf

I found this awesome fox scarf online when I was browsing around for quick and easy projects.  I've been enjoying simple sewing projects and I immediately fell in love with this fox scarf!  And the blogger who made it offered up a free pattern too. Awesome!  I found it at Prudent Baby.

I especially love the orange plaid flannel or wool or whatever she made her scarf with. It looks adorably foxy and warm. I looked and looked for some orange plaid warm fabric that wasn't fleece.  Fleece is super popular, and yet, I just don't like it.  Finally found some fall clearance broadcloth at Joann Fabrics and decided that even though it isn't cuddly, it would do just fine.  I picked up some white shaggy minky at Hobby Lobby.  I think that's really all I need, aside from some black trim and embroidery thread for the snout.  I'm sure I'll find something in my stash to accommodate the facial features.

When I think of this fox scarf, I hear George Clooney's voice. Thusly, I have named this scarf  "Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf".  There ya go, George.

Cutting minky is best done outdoors!  In mid-January we have sunshine and temps in the 70s and 80s. Perfect weather for cutting fabric out on the back deck.  When I cut the minky, the edges of the fuzz fall off and float around. If you dare to cut this stuff, do not touch your nose or breath in too deeply!

I cut enough pieces to make four fox scarves. I think it will be so darn cute that I'll wish I had made more, so I'm just going to make more right off the bat.  One yard of each the orange and the white minky will yield four 36" fox scarves. A little extra will help with getting all of the legs and ears cut out though. Squeezing those pieces into the layout was tricky.

After I cut each piece, I shake it to shake off the loose fuzzies before bringing it in and running it through my sewing machine. I made it snow!

Putting together the legs and ears was fun. The small pieces are adorable. . Once I had them sewn together, I flipped them around and stuffed them with polyfill.  I didn't stuff the ears much, just enough to give them a bit of poof.  The legs are stuffed nice and plump. I then folded the edges in just a tad and topstitched the openings before I zig-zagged it to the scarf. I enjoyed having a bin full of legs and ears. Fox parts!

Sewing the legs onto the minky fox tummy was a challenge. My presser foot was continuously becoming tangled. I used a pair of tweezers to pull the loops off of the presser foot when they looped on, and I learned this by using my fingers and stabbing myself with the needle that is right there. Whoops. Jab yourself and you learn pretty fast the value of a nice pair of tweezers! The minky is fabulously soft and fuzzy! Cannot wait to wrap a fantastic fox hide around my neck!  Won't leave it on long in this summer weather though.

I didn't have much in the way of buttons, but I found a matching set of brown buttons. I also had a brown piece of fleece that I used for the nose. Very cute. Black is a better contrast, but the brown looks great too. I prefer the soft fuzzy nose to the embroidered nose anyway. The whiskers are just a couple of strands of embroidery floss.

Once I had all of the noses, eyes, whiskers, ears and legs attached, I sewed the fox tops to the fox tummies. Putting the right sides together, I sewed around the edges making sure not to sew the legs and whiskers into the seams. I left a hole in the side of the "hide" to flip it around. Then topstitched the opening closed.

I believe that if I had used a heavier fabric for the fox top, the scarf would lay better. It doesn't have that thick and wooly feeling that really keeps a neck warm in the winter. The minky is very soft and fuzzy, it feels wonderful. It is more of a whimsical feeling scarf, which is also great!

I tried the scarf on and immediately wished it was longer. Finished length is 35". My 5 year old thought it was great, and I like the length on her as well. Next set of fox hide scarves will be longer.  We both enjoyed wearing a Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf!

And I just have to laugh at my "selfie" picture in the bathroom mirror! Notice the bandaid on my finger? That was my sewing lesson of the day: Tweezers are a great tool!

Horse Race Track Game

Last night we went to a party and the  hosts had a game that they made, it was tons of fun! They had a "race track" that was sewn on a large piece of green felt. And they had six toy horses and a pair of dice. Since we were at a party for adults, we played horse races by betting on the horses. Me, I was checking out the sewing on the felt and thinking how I could reproduce it.  My husband was thinking the same thing, he mentioned to me to take notice of the racetrack so I could sew one. Great minds think alike!

It was done on one piece of green felt. The stitching was in a contrast white. I asked the guy who owned the game about it and he said his step mom made it. It was serged around the edges and straight stitched with double lines for the lanes and single lines for the spaces.  I could do that.

Today, I looked through my fabric and what did I find?  A large piece of dark green polyester!  It was polyester, but it was the perfect size and color.  It would be great for a practice piece if anything.  I had a feeling sewing long straight lines might be a challenge.

My green piece of fabric is 40" x 56".  I made six "lanes" that are 6.25" wide and I made spaces that are 7" long.  Like the felt at the party, I serged the edges and straight stitched the lanes with double lines and the spaces with a single line.

I discovered that sewing straight lines is actually harder than it sounds!

I googled and looked for some tips online, but all that I found were methods of sewing straight lines by using the guides on the machine. That does work well, but only if you're sewing near the edge of the fabric.  In this case, the guide marks will not be of much use.

That's ok. I'm resourceful!  I measured and pinned to mark the lines.  Then I took my cloth to the ironing board and ironed a crease where my stitching would go.  Measured again to make sure I had 6.25" all the way down the row and was keeping my line straight.

Then I moved the fabric to the machine and sewed along the crease.  When I was done, I ironed the stitching and flattened out the crease. Ta-Da!!! Worked like a charm!  My stitches are (mostly) straight.

I repeated the same process with the spaces.  I made it six lanes across and 8 spaces long. I think my lanes are wider than the game board we played on last night, but that's ok. I think this is a flexible project. As long as the spaces are big enough for a toy horse, they're just fine. I'm sure that four lanes or eight lanes would be fine too, you could make this race track any size you think would be best for you.

Once I had all of the stitching done, I began to applique the lane numbers. The lanes or the toys need to be numbered. I printed numbers on Word, flipped them backward and cut them out of some bright red scrap fabric that was in my scrap basket.

Using Heat n Bond, I ironed the numbers on to the fabric in the first row (which is when I flop them over right side up again). I top-stitched the numbers and the race track was ready for action!

Since we didn't have six toy horses, we improvised and gathered up some toys that looked like they wanted to race.  The kids were all skeptical since Mom and Dad usually have really lame ideas, but they soon were laughing and cheering for their favorite toy to win.

The game is played by rolling two dice. Each die moves a player one space. For example, if a roll of the dice results in a 3 and a 5, the toy in lane 3 moves one space and the toy in lane 5 moves one space. If a roll results in snake eyes, the toy in lane one moves two spaces because it moves one space for each time the number one comes up.

When we played as a family, each person chose a toy to cheer for. We took turns rolling the dice. We showed the kids that it doesn't matter who is older, wiser, stronger, or faster. Everyone has the same chance of winning. It's a game of chance and random results. The winner can be anyone! Only the dice know.

Pantsuit for Grandma

My grandma is my biggest sewing fan; she loves everything I make!  Honestly, I'm not sure if that is entirely true because she would never hint otherwise.

I made a pantsuit for her once.  This was probably around 1995. I cannot remember.  I know I sewed this when I lived in the house on Filmore Street, which means I used my Brother machine.  

My Brother sewing machine was just a basic machine. It was my first machine. It wasn't fancy, but it had a buttonhole stitch which I used extensively.  

My grandma wanted me to make her a nice pantsuit. I tried my best, which at that time was not too bad! I've gained skills now though and I am sure I could do a much better job now that I have a serger and my sewing skills are more polished (still have lots to learn though).

I don't know if my grandma wore this pantsuit more than once, but she at least posed for this picture.  She looks thrilled, right? 

Around The World Day at school

My kids' school has a "Spirit Day" once each month. They choose a theme and the kids can dress accordingly. It's always a dress up sort of day, such as hat day or pajama day. The theme is also usually pretty easy to pull together and not much notice is necessary. Not all of the kids participate in the dress up days, they are not always something people have on hand, and notice is pretty short.

Last week, I read my Monday email from the teacher on Tuesday, and discovered that Thursday was a Spirit Day called "Around the World" day. The students were to wear traditional clothing from around the world.  That's a really neat idea!  Aside from reading the email on Tuesday, I was too busy to do anything more about it except let the idea simmer on my mind for a while.

Libby was easy. She decided to wear her Chinese Hanfu. It's her Princess Mulan dress that she loves to wear any chance she gets. Wear her princess costume to school? Why, yes!

Gracie has a Merida dress, but it's not all that representative of Scotland.  She also has the Cinderelly working dress which we could say is a German, Dutch, Norweigian style of traditional dress. It's close. She really didn't want to wear a princess costume though. She had her heart set on me making her something. She looked on Google Images for ideas.  Germany, Holland, France, Lakota, Sioux, hmmm.... she liked them all but Renaissance France was what she really wanted.  Well, gee, kid, I would love to  but I have limited time. We looked up USA and those were cute. I told her I could probably make something red, white and blue and that would work. Maybe some other time she could be France. She said, no.... How about Cambodia.  Hmm, ok, let's look.  Cambodia girls wear very pretty outfits. Yes, she wants to be Cambodia!

Since my serger isn't working, there's no way I could whip up a dazzling colorful Cambodian dress. I would have to use poly-satin and it frays so bad, I just wouldn't want to make anything using satin without my serger.  Sorry, Cambodia, but we'll have to make a Sampot (dress) another time.

Wednesday came along and I was again too busy to sew anything for Around the World day.  The girls were excited for it, but I was drawing a complete blank. I didn't have anything at all to make and I didn't have a chance to run out and buy something that was Red, White and Blue for the USA.  I told Gracie that she just wasn't going to be able to participate because she doesn't have anything and I didn't have time to make anything. She was disappointed, but I told her that I'm pretty sure they'll honor Dr. Seuss' birthday in March so I'll start working on something for her to wear for that day.  She was fine with that. Whew!

Wednesday night I thought about what I could do for Gracie to Around the World day. Seems like USA should be simple enough. And I started to dig around my sewing area. I was hoping to find an old 4th of July Tshirt that I could resize for her, or maybe some red, white, and blue ribbon that I could sew onto a plain Tshirt, something, anything?  And then I found some flag print fabric!  Score!  I quickly made a Tshirt style top for her out of it and was very happy with myself!  In less than an hour, I worried, searched, found and made a USA top! It turned out pretty cute too.

I went to bed happy and relieved, even though I know she didn't want to be USA, but she'd rather be something different, something exotic and foreign and exciting. I was just drifting off to sleep after 11 pm when it hit me.  I have France fabric!!! I bolted out of bed and dug through my fabric stash.  Eureka! I found it!  Fabric that I bought a while back that has the Eiffel Tower on it!  France!!! Thank you, Fabric Gods!

I cut out and sewed up another top.  Cute! Glittery Eiffel Towers, cute little coffee shops, and the word "Paris" all over the top.  Now, she had two countries to choose from for Around the World Day.  I think I just saved the world!  Unless of course, she wakes up grumpy, the tops don't fit, or she dreams about Cambodia and their beautiful Sampot gowns.  By no means am I in the clear.  It's worth a shot though.  If it's a total flop at least I can take pride in the fact that I made two tops in under two hours! And that includes going to bed and relaxing in between them. The last one only took me 30 minutes from finding the fabric to completion.

Luckily, Gracie woke up and found her surprise shirts to be very exciting! They fit and she was super happy. She knew I made them after she went to bed and she was so happy! Yay!  Of course, she chose France because France is her vacation dream and it had glitter.  It was itchy though. We found an old tank top to put underneath, it's an ugly battered tank top, but it's white and soft. She was comfy! I pretended not to notice that it hung down on one side. It wasn't a full traditional costume from France, but it represented the country well and she could wear it anytime too. Perfect.

The girls were so excited for school that they were ready early!  Taking advantage of that, I shooed them out the door before they could unravel themselves or decide they needed to do or play something.  With time to spare, I took the girls to the donut shop for a treat. The donut shop has a world map on the wall so we sat at the table under the map and found China and France. While we were at it, we looked at the oceans and continents. It was a nice little geography lesson before school. Yummy too!

As it turned out, Libby and her friend were the only two in their classroom who participated.  Libby wore her hanfu and Riley wore a Tshirt that said Vancouver on it. In Gracie's class, only four kids participated. The teacher forgot too. I didn't see many kids in the other classes dressed up neither. Riley's brothers are both in upper elementary and they wore Canada Tshirts as well, but we didn't see any traditional costumes. It was disappointing, but not surprising since there was such a short notice to the parents. A couple of girls in Gracie's class wore Flamenco dresses. They looked very pretty! Gracie was thrilled to participate too, and I thought it was age appropriate for her to decide against a Disney princess dress.

I used this pattern:  It's an oldie, but it's very basic and it fit great. She's growing so fast that I am always just guessing about how big to make things for her. I got lucky and the shirt fit great. It was quick and easy too. I think I'll whip up a few more shirts for her with this pattern just to build up her wardrobe.