Valentine's Ruffle Pants

A long, long time ago, I saw a tutorial from Make It and Love it on Pinterest for some cute and easy leggings. I knew that was a doable sewing project for me but never really got around to it.
Then last week we were walking around in Hobby Lobby when I saw that their Valentine's fabric was 50% off and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to try out the leggings tutorial.
To see the original tutorial, go here.

I bought a cute pink fabric for the pants and cut out the pattern using another pair of leggings. I sewed the pieces together using the tutorial above and then got started on my ruffles. Isn't thi heart fabric adorable? I spent less than a dollar on this much fabric and I still have a lot left over! I cut two 4 inch strips of heart fabric and hemmed one side. I then ruffle the fabric and attached it to the bottom of the leggings.Cute cute cute! After the ruffle was sewn onto the pants, I sewed the top and put the waistband in. This literally took me less than an hour from start to finish.And with that extra fabric, I made a pair of leggings for my baby niece, Ellie. So cute!Here's a picture of the matching girls. Unfortunatly, Ellie's pants were too small(!) so we put another pair of pink pants over them for the pictures...and then we brought them home and gave them to Petey's baby doll. :)I also made a cute little headband for Ellie.I am so glad to have another girly in the family. I love making things for little girls! :)

And that's how Suze sews it.

Ruffled Jeans ,Hard Days, and FHE

Wel, today was quite a day.
More on that later but first, I'm here to show off my latest craft project.

I have this cute pair of capri-length jeggins for Petey that I wanted to try some ruffles on. I've seen the idea ALL over Pinterest and wanted to give it a try! And boy, do I love it! I think they turned out adorable and added just the right amount of girly fabulousness to my Petey girl's pants.
So now would you like to hear about my hard, hard, very hard day?
Well, this morning my kids woke up at 6:30. Bleh! But anyway, we got up and I realized we had almost nothing in our kitchen. No milk, no eggs, no bread. So as soon as 8am rolled around, we headed to Trader Joe's to go grocery shopping.
An hour later and a cart full of food, we were checking out when I realized I didn't have my correct debit card to PAY for said food so after a quick call to my husband, I put my groceries on hold and left the store.
My husband insisted he didn't have the card so I headed to my parents, where we'd been staying these past 2 weeks, to see if it was lost somewhere over there.
I came up with nothing so we headed home, still with an empty kitchen. For lunch, the kids and I ate a total of 8 granola bars (I won't tell you how that was divied up), dried blueberries, and tap water. I was feeling extremely stressed out and was a crappy mother most of the morning.
I finally decided we needed to leave the house so we could all be less grumpy (especially me). So we headed to the park for some fun! And it did the magic trick. We were all giggling and playing and had a great time.
And mostly because everyone could use a laugh on a Monday, here is a video from our park trip. Pay close attention to the first 5 seconds of the video. Poor Spidey...
I love that my kids fit in our single stroller together. And no, Petey isn't choking her brother. :) We went on a nice, long walk after playing at the park and it really helped my mood.

Of course Boss got home at 3pm and at approximately 3:03pm, he found my card! It was on the floor in my car. I'm so thankful that he found it and as soon as he did, Petey and I headed back to Trader Joe's to pick up the groceries that they still had on hold for me. Phew! I am so glad everything worked out today.

Tonight, Boss had to go to the library to get a bunch of homework done so the kids and I had Family Home Evening by ourselves.

We watched our Living Scriptures video of the Nativity 3 times (Seriously, 3 times) and then had a blast playing Dont Break the Ice and Duck, Duck, Goose.

I am so thankful for my children and my husband. We all play a role here to make this family work and stick together and it is important that we keep our end of the bargain and make this life as much fun as possible (At least that's how I look at it.). :)

And that's how Suze sees it.

Sassy Zebra Dress

As you know, I'm obsessed with Pinterest. My husband is actually not one of those who hates pinterest because I've actually put it to good use. Yes, I can easily spend 3+ hours searching for cute ideas if I don't set a limit but usually, I'm pretty good about it.
Tonight, as I finished another pinterest-inspired project, he actually said that he liked Pinterest, since it gets me to sew and create more often.
Which brings me to...The Sassy Zebra Pillowcase Dress.
I first saw my inspiration for this dress here. It is adorable and I wanted to recreate it. Then I saw this dress and realize how much easier and cheaper it would be.
So off we headed to Hobby Lobby for some $.87 bandanas!

How did I get so lucky to have such a beautiful, happy little girl?

I actually never even clicked on that second link before making this dress. I just looked at the picture and created it on my own. As you can see, just sewing the two bandanas together was the wrong idea. It was HUGE around Petey. I got frustrated and almost gave up but decided to stick with it.

So I cut off about 4 inches on one side, sewed it back up and added a little piece of elastic to the chest area to scrunch it up a bit.

Simple and cute.

Here's the back. I cut a slit in the back of the dress so the tulle would be tied back there instead of on one of the sleeves.

Well, after Miss Petey went to bed, I decided the dress needed even more so I added a 3-layer tulle ruffle to the bottom. And yes, you read that correctly...I did a ruffle! Not a pleat as I did with the last skirt I made Petey. I don't even know what I did differently but I successfully did my first ruffle tonight. And I think it looks pretty darn adorable.

Petey will probably be wearing it to church tomorrow so I'll try to get more pictures of it on her.

Thank you, inventor of Pinterest!

And that's how Suze sees it.

Repurposed: Jeans into Skirt

My name is Suzanne and I am a Pinterest addict.
Phew, so glad I finally admitted that.
I signed up for Pinterest 3 days ago and have been it's newest addict since then.
One of my first "re-pins" was for a cute little skirt over on Mary Janes and Galoshes. I immediately thought of a pair of pants Petey had gotten holes in on our recent trip to Carlsbad.

So last night, I got brave and started following her tutorial. I took the very cute pair of jeans (they are actually "jeggings" and Petey hasnt even completely grown into them...so you can understand how sad I was when she got a hole in the bum)...

And I cut the jeans right below the pockets.

I didnt take pictures of the next part but you can find it on the tutorial above. I cut two strips of fabric, one of them was 4 inches and one of them was 6 inches, and hemmed one long side of each.

I then sewed the two pieces of fabric together on the non-hemmed side. I was going to attempt my first ruffle but it didnt work out. Maybe I didnt make a big enough stitch but when I tried to pull one of the threads, it didnt budge. I was pretty bummed but decided I'd try a different approach.

So I pinned little tiny pleats around the raw edge.

Then, I pinned the fabric to the cut off jeans and slowly sewed around the whole thing, being careful to take the pins out as I went.

And there you have it! I think it turned out adorable.

And Miss Petey agrees. She was so happy when she saw it on the couch waiting for her this morning.

And that's how Suze sews it.

Arm Warmers

Do you remember these cute leg warmers I made for Petey for her awesome Halloween costume? They now serve two purpose. Leg warmers---and arm warmers. I found the idea HERE and just knew I had to try them out but we were in a hurry to get to the park so I used a pair I had already sewn into leg warmers and just cut tiny holes for Petey's thumbs. The thumb hole is her favorite part about them. :)

These are perfect for our Arizona winter weather during the day. It gets cool but not freezing so we usually wear light sweaters but I think you'll be seeing a lot more of these on my girly. The only thing I did differently than the tutorial was that Petey's arms are shorter (and actually her legs too, since we originally made these into leg warmers) so I cut the socks right after the heel.

By the way, I apologize for missing Flashback Friday. Did you even notice? :) I'll be missing it this week too with all of the Thanksgiving festivities but possibly it will start back up in December.

And that's how Suze sews it.

Altering a dress shirt

I bought a really cute shirt (technically a dress but too short for my liking so I usually pair it with jeans or leggings) about 6 months ago without trying it on. Brave, I know. I never do that. But it was unusually cheap and I didnt have time to try it on (nor did I have the patience with 2 kids tagging along). I got home and was excited to try it on but was sad when I found out it was extremely tight on my chest.
You see, I do not have a small chest---quite the opposite, actually, so sometimes it's hard for me to find clothes that fit right.
That's where sewing comes in.
I altered my dress and it fits a lot better now! Curious as to how?

Here is the dress. Isnt it cute and sunshiney?
I started by cutting the chest part at the seams so I had 2 pieces. Make sure to keep them attached to the straps so you dont have to worry about sewing that again when you're done.

I found a piece of brown fabric and pinned the edges, with right sides facing each other. I sewed along the line, removing the pins as I went.

Next, I needed to round out the triangles so that the part attaching to the sides of the dress was smaller (because adding the brown meant extra fabric attaching to the side of the dress).

Then, I just pinned the chest parts to the brown fabric, right sides together, and sewed in a straight line and I was done!

I think it looks pretty cute! Still a bit snug but tons better than it was before.

And that's how Suze sews it!

Tutorial Tuesday

Today I got brave.
Petey has a dress (that she now wears as a shirt) that I absolutely love---all except for one thing. The sleeves have always been way too tight. And not just because she is 2 1/2 and wearing a size 12 mo dress. They were tight when she was 12 months old wearing the dress too.
So today I decided that I would fix the sleeves and make her shirt/dress more comfortable to wear.

This is what the sleeves looked like before I did anything to them.
I thought about cutting the sleeves to get the elastic out but I'm glad I didnt. I picked the seam and took the elastic out instead. That way, the sleeves would stay the same length.

I folded the raw edges back up and sewed the sleeve exactly on the seam where it had been.

I am lazy. You probably know that. I had white thread in the machine and decided not to change it (because I hate changing the thread and bobbin). I figured white thread would be cute and outline the sleeves a bit.

Well, next time, I'll change the thread. :) But that's ok. They still look pretty good.

Petey dressed herself a couple of weeks ago and this is exactly the outfit she put on. I actually loved the orange tank top over the red dress so now I usually put the two together. Who would've thought my 2 yr old would be teaching me fashion tips? :)

And that's how Suze sews it.