Dick and Jane Denim Outfit

Tutorial coming soon about how I sewed this detachable collar.

Smiles,
Deborah
P.S.  This outfit was made for the 3rd Challenge: Denim,  for Season 10 of Project Run and Play. Happily, this outfit is already a winner, as she chose to wear it to school already.

The Repurposed Princess

We hope you enjoyed our story.  

This repurposed outfit was created as an entry to the Project Run and Play's Season 10  Challenge for Week  Two. The cost for the whole outfit was $10 for the ribbon and buckle.  Everything else was either repurposed or in my stash already!
Smiles, 
Deborah

"I Love My Daddy" Care Bear Jacket

Here we go... Project Run and Play's Season 10 Sewing Challenge! 

You'll find my Care Bear Jacket entry in the Sew Along Group.  

It is so much fun sharing my ideas and reading about other garments created for each challenge.

The first challenge is 80's Cartoon Inspired.  

I love the soft colors, cuddly fabrics, and positive vibe of the Care Bears.  They were always willing to help each other and solved problems together.

As a child, my 6' 5" son-in-law collected all the Care Bears that are shown in the picture above.

 So I thought he would enjoy seeing

 his daughter become his very own...

 "I Love My Daddy" Care Bear.

These are the fabrics used to make the jacket. Notice that I used WOOL felt. While constructing this jacket, you need to use the highest steam heat setting on your iron. Since you don't want to compress the felt, or have it melt, be sure to use wool felt.

Wool felt can be dry cleaned too. Lastly, the combination of wool felt, fleece, and minky lining will provide the warmth needed for cold Minnesota winters.

This is the pattern that I started with.

Simplicity 1477

Here are some of the changes that I made to the pattern:

• I drafted a different coat front that was double breasted.
• Made a separate front facing 

The pattern pieces I drafted to change the pattern.

• Lined Belly pockets
• Hood has hand embroidery and added felt Care Bear features
• 4 buttons
• Top-stitching at the hem line and on the edges of the jacket
• Bear ears 
• Lengthened the sleeves to make turn up cuffs  
• Though the pattern instructions don't mention it, you must reduce the amount of thickness in every seam allowance anytime you can. I basted each fleece fabric piece to the felt at 4/8 inch and trimmed the excess fleece away to reduce the thickness. I graded the felt seam allowances also.

  

  Grading the seam allowances

The Care Bear were my inspiration, but I didn't want it to look like a costume. So I used the characteristics of the Care Bear cartoon characters that I liked..pastel colors, cuddly fabrics, and positive vibes while designing this jacket. 

The scariest part of sewing this jacket was making the buttonholes. I actually practiced making 10 buttonholes before I was ready to sew them on the jacket. After all the work that went into making this jacket, I DID NOT want to screw up the buttonholes!!

Thank goodness they turned out fine, but I have to share the fact that my heart was pounding while I was sewing them. Two of them were a bit close together, so I used my husband's box cutter with the razor blade in it to cut the fabric.

Smiles,

Deborah

Coloring with Permanent Markers on IKEA Fabric to Make a Skirt

I bought this uncolored black and white fabric from IKEA. 

Then my granddaughters and I together had an old fashioned 'coloring' session and colored the drawings with permanent markers. 

Then I cut out this skirt and constructed it for them to wear.

 I knew the idea was a winner when we didn't finish coloring the skirt material the first night and the girls had to go to bed. The FIRST words out of their mouths the next morning were.. "Can we go finish coloring our fabric now?"

Smiles,

Deborah

Learning How to Thread a Needle.

 

Success!

Smiles,

Deborah

Keeping Toys and Play Areas Organized

To my way of thinking you can't hold children accountable 

for keeping their toys organized until you provide

 the system behind that organization.

Here's a little look into my granddaughters (who live with me) playroom area.

I went to IKEA and purchased this bin system.  I must also say that I assembled it myself without CURSING- which is a positive change.

Each bin is labeled with a picture of the contents and a word label. I did this because I have one reader and one non-reader.

At Christmas time, my gift to the girls was this art center. I bought the cart at Sam's and filled it with crafting supplies.  Each drawer is labeled with words and pictures too. I took pictures of the contents with my camera and printed them out on the printer.

Here is the kitchen area.  I still want to put up a hanger for the aprons, chef hat, and potholders.  This area also houses the cash register, bags, and money drawer for a grocery store scenario.  

All those stuffed animals drove me crazy. But this fabric storage cart fits the bill perfectly. 

A rocking chair, book in a cabinet and larger books in a bin encourage reading or playing school. There are also white boards, markers, reading tube, coloring books, sticker books, and erasers here.

I put up this pegboard over some exposed studs and now we have a place to post that school work on the magnetic board, hang our kite, a mirror for dress up, an old karoke machine and stage under it, and of course "Our Frozen Painting" that we made this summer.

Lastly, here is an area for dress up clothes, wigs, shoes, and the shelf housed the play-dough that is only brought down after asking if it is okay. (I have a love/hate relationship with Play-dough!)

This area is located in our basement with a foam square floor, no ceiling, and painted concrete walls...but my girls LOVE IT!

Smiles,

Deborah 

How to Design and Build a Built-in Bookcase with a Windowseat

My blog friend, Elizabeth from Simple Simon and Company, is asking her blog friends about some suggestions on creating a living room that you love.  So I sent her a comment and invited her to take a look at my finished built-in bookcase with

 a connecting windowseat.  

Adding this architectural detail to my room made such a difference!

It all started with this set of arched bookcases that I purchased from Craigslist.

Since I posted 10 times as I worked on this project, I wanted to make it easy for you to see all the steps involved in making it come all together from the beginning to even making the cushion and pillows.

Just click here to see the whole story.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,   Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10.  

So Elizabeth, my advice is to add architectural interest.

By the way, I'm not finished with my living room either. Any advice from my readers about what to add next?

I'm thinking about adding this coffee table in front of the couch.

Smiles,

Deborah