Saturday, January 24, 2009

Funky PJ pants


Last week was my daughter's BFF's birthday, this weekend is her party. My daughter wanted me to make pj pants for her BFF for her birthday and asked me about this the beginning of December. We were at Fabricland a few weeks before Christmas when my daughter found the circle fabric and convinced me to buy it to make pj pants for her BFF. Of course I don't need any convincing to buy fabric, since I am so addicted to fabric and knew this would be perfect and it was on sale (the best!). BFF saw this fabric on my ironing board a week before Christmas when she was over and told my daughter she loved the fabric (which worked out perfectly because the fabric was bought specifically for her for pj pants). Of course BFF needed a shirt to go with the pj pants. The shirt was plain and purchased at Wal-Mart. I then appliqued the cupcake on it to go with the pj pants. We were at Old Navy two weeks ago and saw the cutest slippers - pigs, cows, sheep and rabbits on sale so we got BFF some pig slippers too. I also threw in the gift bag a stencil book and a note book both found at a toy outlet in Toronto in November for dirt cheap. I love picking up little things to have in my stash to add to a gift.
We went to Fabricland today - it's their Last Call sale and got a bunch of fabric. Instead of my usual - oh look this is so pretty and on sale for a great price I'll get it now and figure out later what I'll make - I bought with purpose and knew exactly what I was going to make with each fabric that I bought. Yeah for me! Now to get the time to make everything!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Whirl Into Winter Giveaway - Winner

The giveaway is now closed. The winner is KK. There will be another giveaway on this blog in the spring, so come on back! I may even have another giveaway before spring as this one has been so much fun!

There will be some sewing updates soon!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Handmade Christmas - Part 5

This is the last of the Handmade Christmas posts.

Below is a picture of the bag I made for my daughter's BFF.
The rainboots fabric is from Hancock's of Paduca, purchased on clearance a year and a half ago. The stripe fabric on the handles is also the lining of the bag and came from Hancock's of Paduca as well. The pink dots fabric on the inside of the handles was also used for the inside pockets and is left over from a top made for my daughter in the spring.

I received two amazing gifts this year. The first is a photo album my daughter made for me with pictures of the kids, friends, family. She worked really hard on it and is very proud of herself. At one point she didn't know if she would get it finished in time, but she made it! This is a gift I will treasure for a lifetime.

The other amazing gift I received was a Serger (Janome 660D). I had looked at it the beginning of December and it was on sale for half price. I talked to my husband about buying it, but decided to wait, as I really didn't have to have it. Well I was surprised to open the box on Christmas morning! Even though we agreed to handmade gifts this year, I think I can over look the rule breaking, given that I can use the serger to make gifts - right? I do feel badly though because I stuck to the handmade rule and didn't spend that much money, but did put a lot of myself, time and effort into the gifts made for him.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Handmade Christmas - Part 5

These are the pjs my daughter made for her brothers.

For the youngest.

For the oldest.
The tool fabric was purchased from Joanne's Fabrics. She sewed the pants together on her own, and I did the hem and the elastic casing as she is still nervous about having her stitching showing on the outside of garments. We were running out of time so the shirts were purchased at Wal-Mart and she made a freezer paper stencil to get the hammer and saw shape and used fabric paint to get the image on the shirt. We did the freezer paper stencil on t-shirts for her birthday party last spring and it was a hit with her friends. She kept this idea in mind for Christmas gifts. She did a great job and I think I've convinced her to really take the chance on doing the hemming and elastic casing for the next pair of pj pants she makes.

She also sewed 2 other pairs of pj pants for her cousins, but I forgot to take a picture.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Handmade Christmas - Part 4

The boys made each other these tractors for hanging on their bedroom wall. The tractors were purchased as a felt kit at Michael's for $1.50 each. I thought we would have to glue the tractors together, but they came as one piece which we glued onto a foam rectangle with a hot-glue gun for the background. The boys then cut around the glued on tractor. This was a very age (4 and 2) appropriate project. The boys told me where to put the glue and I used the glue gun given that the glue was very hot. They really enjoyed spending the one-on-one time with Mommy for this. My husband spent one-on-one time with the other boy so what they received from each other remained a surprise until Christmas morning. We used double sided foam stickies to stick the tractors to their bedroom walls after the gift opening on Christmas morning.

Our 4-year-old boy made this bulletin board for his sister.
The stripe fabric came from Fabricland. I think I picked it up in June on sale and didn't have a plan for it. The ribbons were purchased at Michael's for 60% off and there is still some leftover. I had a bulletin board kicking around here and used it. We hot-glue gunned batting on the top of the bulletin board, cut the fabric down to fit the bulletin board with a little extra overhang to keep the stripes straight. We then stretched the fabric around the bulletin board and staple-gunned the fabric in place. Then we determined the placement of the ribbons and staple-gunned those in place. This project didn't take very long and the 4-year-old was quite happy to use the staple-gun (closely supervised of course).

Our 2-year-old boy made this picture frame for his sister.

We glued the guitars on the top corners of the picture frame, then glued the buttons on. He chose the buttons and helped glue the buttons in place. I put a picture of the two boys in the frame for her. I erased the boys out of the picture before posting the picture of the picture frame as I don't want pictures of my kids on the internet.
I think there will be one or two more days of Handmade Christmas gifts to come.