LiL Blue Boo Hoodie

 

Christine at From an Igloo is sponsoring  a Lil Blue Boo Hoodie sew-a-long this week.  I was excited about this sew-a-long as I would finally be able to sew something for my boys.  I love this pattern!  Ashley from Lil Blue Boo gives really great instruction and step by step pictures.  Not to mention some great tips for sewing with knits such as starching your cut out pieces before sewing.  I think that helped a lot!  The other nice thing about this pattern is that you can use old t-shirts so I raided hubby’s stash.  He has way too many t-shirts!

So here is the finished hoodie!  Isn’t it cute?  The boys are pretty freakin cute too!

 

Not only was this my first time sewing with knits, but it was my first time sewing an applique’ .  Not bad huh?  The boys liked the dinosaur too.  As far as sizing goes, I would go bigger rather than smaller.  Granted, my boys are chunka monks but this is a 3T and they are only 20 mos.  I thought that they would be really big and last through winter.  Other than the length of the sleeves, they fit them right now so we will only get a few months out of them.  Overall, I am very happy with this pattern.  I plan to adapt it to make a dress for the girls next.  Thanks to Ashley for writing it and to Christine for sponsoring the sew-a-long with more great tips!

I had to put this picture in just for the silly hair!

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Monkey Munch

Earlier this week, my niece and nephew were over for the day.  My four kiddos love playing with their cousins.  I figured that since I was alone with six little monkeys it would be appropriate for us to make some Monkey Munch!  I remember making this as a child but didn’t know what it was called.  Then I saw it on an episode of John and Kate Plus 8.  Oh well, at least that show left us with something useful and to think they used to be my inspiration, but I digress. 

Anyway, the recipe is super easy and can usually be found on the side of the box of Chex Cereal under the name Chex Muddy Buddies.  In case you can’t find it here it is.  Ingredients: 9 cups of Chex cereal ( I prefer rice chex to corn.), 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

1. Put chex in a large bowl and set aside.  (Place some of the chex cereal in front of any toddlers you might have with you or else they will go Uhhhh, Uhhhh, Uhhhh until you do! )

2. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter into a quart-sized microwavable bowl and stir together.
3. Microwave mixture uncovered for a minute on high.  Stir the mix again and continue to microwave in thirty minute intervals until it mixes smoothly.
4. Add the vanilla and stir.
5. Add the chocolate mixture to the Chex and stir gently.      
6. Put combination into a 2-gallon, Ziploc freezer bag.
7. Add powdered sugar, seal the bag and shake until distributed.  (This is by far the most fun step!)

8. Spread Monkey Munch out on wax paper to cool and dry.  (We usually eat it too quickly to actually do this step!)
9.  Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for storage.

Enjoy!

I have finally made something for my boys and I hope to be able to post about it in the next day or two.  I just need to manage to get a picture of the two of them actually standing still!

Sew, Mama, Sew Serger Giveaway!

Oh my goodness, one of my favorite blogs, Sew, Mama, Sew is giving away a Husqvarna Viking Serger!  I can’t even express how much I want this serger.  I love to sew.  I especially love making clothes for my 4 kiddos.  However, I often get frustrated with how long it takes me to complete a project.  With two sets of twins all 4 and under, there isn’t a lot of time during the day to sew.  I end up staying up way too late to get a project done.  Ummm, last night it was 3 am when I went to bed.  Yikes!  Of course that doesn’t leave me too energized for the next day.  Can you imagine how much time I could save with one of these babies?  Oh my goodness!!  Please, please pick me!

Besides, wouldn’t you like to know that these cute little faces have lots of equally adorable outfits made by a well rested mommy?

Ice Cream Dress Progress

I posted a few weeks ago, that I would be participating in the Ice Cream Social Sew-a-long being hosted over at Badskirt.  Amy has been doing a great job with hosting duties and has offered some very useful tips. 

 

Here are my pieces all cut out.  It's a bit funky for me but I really wanted to make something with this Amy Butler fabric.  I got approval from my girls so here's hoping it turns out.

I decided to give French Seams a try.  Never heard of them before?  Me either!  However, after reading Amy's post on the subject and the great tutorial over at Oliver & S, I was intrigued.  I really do like that there are no unfinished edges in the whole dress if this technique is used on the side seams. 

 

French Seams were fairly easy.  It did pucker a little under the arm but I think that it will be O.K. when being worn.

Here are my finished pockets.  I like the yoke detail on top.  I didn't get too fussy about them and I think they turned out nicely.  Amy also provided a great link for how to make nice curved edges on the pocket.

Few!!!  Attaching the yoke to the bodice was not easy!  I'm still not really sure why I struggled so much with this step.  To hem the sleeves and attach the yoke to the bodice took me 2 hours!!  SERIOUSLY!

 

I don’t care for how this center back part came out.  I probably should have taken a break and come back to this as others had posted about issues with this step too.  I'm not really sure what to do to make it look better.  That's it for now.  I have one step left, attaching the bottom band.  Oh yeah, and then starting all over again for my other little girl.

In the Garden Dresses and Easy Zippered Purses

I have been wanting to make my girls some “In The Garden Dresses” from the great tutorial over at my favorite blog From an Igloo (go check it out!).  I finally got them done just in time for a special event for my girls this past weekend.  They came out super cute and my girls really love the twirl factor!



I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated when I first reviewed the tutorial for this dress as it involved two techniques that I had never tried before, making a button hole and shirring!  I did a little research and taught myself how to do it and I think that it came out pretty nice!  I’m a bit proud of myself!

  

I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with the Fancy Nancy books by Jane O’Connor.  The girls had the opportunity to go to a book reading and signing this past weekend.  It was a “fancy” dress up event which is right up my girls’ alley.  They had a blast in their new dresses.  When I was in Joann’s last week, I noticed that they had some Fancy Nancy fabric.  I thought that it would be fun to whip up some purses for them and their cousins who were also attending the event.  I decided to try the Easy Zippered Purse Tutorial at, you guessed it, From An Igloo!  They came out really cute and the girls where really excited about them.

One of my girls immediately filled hers with jewels for the big event!  So cute!

 

Here they are all dressed up for the “Fancy” Day!

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Jane O’Connor even commented on their lovely dresses and Fancy Nancy purses!



The last thing that I wanted to share was a quick tip that I learned a couple of weeks ago for turning purse straps.
Sew a small piece of ribbon to one end of your fabric before you sew it into a tube.  Make sure it is a bit longer than your tube and tuck it into the middle near the fold.



  Then sew your tube right sides together as you normally would.  Now use your finger to tuck in the end with the ribbon sewn to it.



 Pull on the ribbon from the other end until your tube is turned right side out!

Freezer Paper Rocks!

O.K. I really love freezer paper!  I had never even heard of it until I tried this tutorial on MADE for freezer paper stenciling.  I posted here about a grilling apron the kids made for daddy and here about some shirts that I made for my boys using freezer paper stenciling.  Of course the girls wanted some too.

  I cut out the  map of the island where we spend time in the summer and I let the girls do the painting themselves.

 

Now for the fun part.  Peeling off the paper to reveal the finished artwork.

They actually did a really good job and we got tons of compliments on the shirts on our first trip over to the island for the summer.  Thanks for the great tutorial Dana!

Of course we had to tie dye some of last years pink pants purple to go with the outfit!  This was a great way to get more use out of pants that were looking a little worn.

Then the other day, my gang was getting a little cranky with each other.  Summers are hard because the activities are fewer and farther between.  On those stay at home days they play nicely for a bit and then…..  On this day I needed a quick activity that would keep all four busy.  I remembered that I had just bought some finger paints and thought that would be fun.  The boys had never done it before and I knew they would love the mess.  Then I realized that I had no idea where the finger paint paper was.  I decided to give the freezer paper a try.  It worked really great and I’m sure it is much more economical.  I love this stuff!

The artists hard at work.

 

 Our finished artwork.

 

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O.K. so I thought that would be the end of this post but then I just discovered one more use for Freezer Paper.   You can use it to trace your patterns onto.  It is nice and sturdy yet easy to see through for tracing.  You could even skip the pinning and just iron it onto your material!

(I just recently discovered yet another use for freezer paper.  You can you it as stabilizer for when you sew on appliques!  Click here to see my post about it.)