She's Crafty!

I have been doing a lot of crafty projects lately. I am not sure what has gotten into me. I have specifically been figuring out my sewing machine. I have no idea what I am doing but read tutorials on blogs and figure it out. It has been a lot of fun. I especially made a lot of things for Katherine's birthday.

My favorite thing that I made was her "twirl skirt" and shirt with a "3" on it for her to wear to her family party. I think it turned out really cute. I admit I was really impressed with myself as this skirt had an elastic waistband and 2 rows of ruffles. I used this tutorial. It took me not much over an hour to make so I know I will be making more of these. It is a lot of fun to go pick out fabric and Hobby Lobby has some really cute ones right now.

I made her a reversible superhero cape. Of course it is all girly. I used this tutorial and used the capes I saw here for inspiration.

For party favors I made felt crowns for each of the kids. I had seen a lot of "Waldorf style" felt crowns on etsy and found a tutorial. Really though it was so simple. The hardest part was finding pastel felt colors and cutting it all out. I just used cheap craft felt and not the wool felt.

I then made a banner. I had seen several cute ones online. I used the fabric that I have used in several places in her room thinking that I would hand it over her window. I think it is really cute but if I were to make another one I would use bolder colors as the letters really don't stand out too much. Of course where it is hanging in the kitchen you barely notice the banner at all because of the artwork hanging behind it.

After the birthday festivities, I decided that I wanted to make the girls coordinating outfits for our family picture. Luckily it was cold the day we were supposed to take our pictures and we post-poned them because I was not finished and would have been up pretty late. Now I have finished them. Katherine's is the pink pillow case dress. It was so easy to make and I learned how to use binding for the arm holes.

Caroline's outfit is a jumper with coordinating pants with a ruffle on them. This was the first time I have actually used a pattern. It was supposed to have buttons but I did not know how to use the button hole maker on my sewing machine. So, I sewed snaps to keep the jumper closed and then put buttons on for show. The pants are cute but they were a pain to sew. I sewed the ruffle onto a pair of pants that she already had and they were so small. They turned out cute though. I can't wait to have them try on the dresses to see how they look. It is fun to make them clothes and I have fabric for a few more things ready to go. Then I got off the sewing kick and finally painted Katherine a "You are special" plate. I have seen these but thought I would have one for each child and make it a little more unique. I have not made Caroline's yet. They will be brought out for all kinds of special occasions such as birthdays, 1st day of school, dance recital, good grades, really anything that we want to encourage our kids for.