That Thing Called Life...A Day in the Life of a Crafty Mom

It was evident the sewing bug would get to me eventually, with both of my grandmothers being the seamstresses that they were.  My Maw Maw made all my Sunday dresses while my Granny made special things and costumes for me.  Granny was a seamstress for a living, and my favorite thing about her house was "Maude", her dress form.  When I stayed with Granny, she would show me her extra stash bash, hand me a box of safety pins and let me go to work on my own designs.  I would make sure Maude was right in front of the long mirror just like a model. I inherited Maude after my Granny passed away.  For the longest I was scared to use it again because it was so old, I didn't want to tear it up.  I finally brought it home from my parents house and started to use it.  My daughter also liked it, just like I did, and wanted to dress it up.  It didn't take long for her to tear the thread bear fabric that covered it.  It was upsetting to me, because I didn'...

These are really cute and really easy to make.  I searched and searched for instructions and finally came up with my own so I am going to share it with you.  Thank you to my girl Angi over at Bows n Bottlecaps for reminding me of this! WHAT YOU NEED: FABRIC (I USED A BANDANA FOR THIS ONE) FUSIBLE WEBBING PONY O MATCHING THREAD SEWING MACHINE RULER OR MEASURING TAPE FABRIC PEN CRAYONS MEASURE AND CUT: 3 PIECES OF FABRIC 13 ½" X 5" 1 PIECE FUSIBLE WEBBING SAME SIZE IRON ON THE FUSIBLE WEBBING TO THE WRONG SIDE OF 1 OF THE 3 PIECES OF FABRIC TAKE THE 2nd PIECE OF FABRIC, FOLD IN HALF AND IRON PIN THIS PIECE TO THE 1 ST PIECE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF FABRIC. ALIGN THE OPEN EDGE OF 2 ND PIECE WITH THE BOTTOM OF 1 ST PIECE. JUST PIN ON EACH END TO HOLD IN PLACE.   NEXT YOU WILL BEGIN MARKING YOUR LINES. USE A WATER SOLUABLE FABRIC PEN. START BY MAKING YOUR FIRST LINE IN THE MIDDLE, WHICH WILL BE AT 6 ¾". THEN MAKE A LINE EVERY INCH AFTER THAT. YOU SHOUL...

As tired as I was after a weekend of birthday celebrating, I still managed to make my little girl a birthday dress to wear to school on Monday.  Remember this fabric? How about the ribbon flowers? I wanted to make a long peasant dress/top from the Brook Dress pattern I have, but I wanted to change it up a bit.  I wanted to try out searing since I finally got the technique down pat.  I increased the width by 50% for each panel and then sewing in 5 rows of searing about a 1 1/2 inches from the top. Trial and error. Sorry I don't have pics to post, but I was a little too frustrated to think about it at the time.  The dress itself is a non-fitted design, and I believe I could have done the searing without increasing the width, or with minimal increasing.  Needless to say, it was too big.  And then I gave too much at the top for the elastic and made the area under the arms too small.  It took a little adjusting, some seam ripping, but I got it to work....

Thursday was more about getting the house cleaned than anything, but I did manage to get a few more party things accomplished.  I made the home made icing and put it in the fridge for Friday, coloring part of it and giving it a chance to set up and become a brighter pink.  I also decorated the table and wall but neglected to get picutes as I was going, but final pictures are coming below. I got the idea for the streamers and balloons on the wall from this link on Pinterest .  I used tacky finger to secure everything to the wall, which keeps the wall from getting damaged.  Unfortunately the tacky finger was blue, and it showed through.  Easy fix.  I took the same polka dot duck tape I used on the water bottles and ran a strip across the top of the boarder and the table cloth.  I used a matching table cloth to hang on the wall; I didn't think my green wall flowed well ;-) When I got off work Friday, I had 2 hours until the guests arrived...and then 2...

As the week dwindles down I am getting the final preperations in order for my little girl's first sleep over party.  I told her she could have 2 friends stay the night, 3 at the most.  We are up to 4, possibly 6.  So if you don't hear from me for a while after this weekend then you'll know I didn't survive lol! On Wednesday I worked on a cake stand made with 2 items from the Dollar Tree: a silver platter and a 6 pack of plastic wine cups.  I wanted to keep in the pink-black-white theme, so I pulled out the trusty paint.  I took one of the plastic cups and painted it hot pink-2 coats.  Next, I took a pencil and stuck the eraser end into black and white paint to make polka dots. After it had all dried, I coated it with a finishing spray and let it sit.  It was then time to put it all together. Because this is a plastic cup, I wanted to weight down the inside before attaching my silver platter to the top.  Too much weight on either side of t...