Mama's Gotta Brand-New Bag!

^Click title for full picture tutorial and printable pattern at "I am Momma, Hear me Roar"^

Okey-dokey, all of you crafters out there, you are defiantly going to want to try this one!  I pinned this purse tutorial from Pinterest, thinking to myself..."I need a new purse, I should just sew one, but I'm not that great on the sewing machine, but I don't want to go out and spend money on a purse-I've been out there and have not liked what I have seen, but when I am going to find the time to sew,  I don't even  have time to go search for one, I guess I will just pin this for later."  As chance would have it, I found myself home from work one day while my daughter had the stomach flu.  I was determined to get as much done as I could before I surrendered to what seemed like the inevitable illness I would fall pray to and while cleaning out my craft closet, I found this fabric that I've had for about 5 years and knew that it was just waiting to be made into my new purse.


Like I stated, sewing is not my forte, but this pattern for the blog "I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar" was so simple, if you are familiar at all with a sewing machine and patterns you will be able to do this.





I didn't have a magnetic snap on hand, so I just left that out and I felt the bow didn't match the style of fabric nor did I have enough of the brown polka dot, so I went with a button-and-yo-yo combo instead (my husband felt off-center was better, so I went with his artistic vision here).




You will notice that I also added a center purse divider with pockets, but being that this was my first purse of any kind and I went rogue on the pattern, that part didn't turn out as well.  When I layered the lining together I should have adjusted the divider so that it wasn't so baggie when  placed inside the shell of the purse.  O' well, live and learn.  It still works great and I love it!

P.S. The stomach flu never made it to me that weekend, but I found myself to be very productive while I waited.

Pattern and Tutorial at: http://www.iammommahearmeroar.net/2011/09/tohoku-tote.html

"Hey, that's my shirt!"

   The other night I brought this adorable little apron downstairs and said to my husband, "Look at the cute new apron I made." His response was, "Hey, that's my shirt!" to which I responded "No, it WAS your shirt. You put it in the give away pile and now it is my new apron!"

  This is yet another idea I pinned from pinterest and made it in under an hour! If you would like to make one too, click on the link below the picture!
http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/search?q=mens+shirt+apron


So wives, go raid your husband's closets and see what you can come up with! Or better yet, shop your local thrift stores for some cheap men's dress shirts! 

When Your Adorable Shirts No Longer Fit You...

There are these 3 shirts that I keep coming across in my closet that I cannot bear to part with because they are so cute, but yet I never wear them because they all fit me tighter than I would like...

So the other day my friend's little girl was wearing this adorable little sweater dress and it gae me a great idea- turn my too tight fitting shirts into adorable dresses for my daughter! So I did it in a matter of a couple hours, while the little man slept and it actually turned out, so here's my "how to".
 
But before we get into it let me just say that I am by no means a legit seamstress. I have no idea how to follow a pattern and probably break most, if not all, sewing rules but sometimes it works out o.k.!

So here's what I did...


1. Put shirt on your little model, turned inside out, and pin above shoulders and under arms until it fits how you like. You can also use one of her dresses as your pattern, but this way has never really worked out for me.

2. Take the shirt off and lay it, still pinned and inside out, onto a cutting mat. Then with a straight edge and a rotary blade, cut a diagonal line from the underarm to the hem of the shirt on both sides and pin in place.

3. Once the shirts are cut and pinned, take them to you sewing machine and sew up the seams! The way I did mine was I sewed a straight line from the top of the shoulder to the end of the sleeve and then from the othe end of the seleve, under the armpit and all the way down to the bottom hem of the dress.  This is why I say I am not a legit seamstress and break all the rules, but this time it worked for me!

Last, all you need is your sassy little model to take some pics for you! She seems to be enjoying them, don't ya think?! 

Cozy Up Your Coffee Cup

 While camping at the beach we are constantly asking the question "Whose cup is this?" as we inspect one of the many red plastic tumblers with red wine remnants.  After the millionth time, Julie began to run through ideas for Camping Wine Charms, as she called them then.  A few months later we discovered Pinterest and she came across the Coffee Cup Cozy.  Most were knitted and adorable and for purchase on Etsy, but we decided to "Old Yarn" the situation.  We figured that we have piles of felt and vintage buttons from making our flowers so, we took a break from hair doodles and began our new craft with a purpose.

1:  We gathered felt, scissors, a marker, a paper towel, elastic thread and a buttons.  You will need to choose your own form of decorations and gather those supplies as well.

2:  To make your templet you can use a paper coffee sleeve opened and flattened, cut out and flatten the center of a paper cup or place something paper around the cup and trace the approximate band width you want, then cut it out.  Now use this as your pattern for the felt sleeve.

3:  It;s time to decorate your felt.  We used a fancy stitch from the sewing machine, embroidery floss for a blanket stitch around the edges, fabric shapes with fusible interfacing to iron on, and a felting needle and brush to embellish our many cozies.  Be sure to center your main design and if you are using the sewing machine to jazz up the edges, be sure you don't sew on your button until the end.

4:  With your design done, now is the time to sew on the button and the elastic thread making sure your cozy will fit snuggly around your cup.  You don't want the cozy to fit to high toward the lip of the cup because you will then be drinking from the felt and that could be gross,  especially after camping for a few days.  We found the best way to attach the elastic loop was to sandwich it between the cozy and another piece of felt.

5: We were worried about slippage, so on some we ran a bead of hot glue along the back to act as a grip for extra insurance.  Be careful with this idea.  The best place for the glue, ended up being behind the decoration or smearing it flat with the tip of the glue gun because a regular 3d strip of hot glue along the top and bottom made a bump that could be seen once the sleeve was placed on the cup.

   





We made one for each camper and it really did solve the problem.  The entire camping trip we knew who was drinking from what and everyone one "felt" special with their very own AND very campy Coffee Cup Cozy!

That's The Way The Cupcake Crumbles!

So, I am sitting here frosting a batch of cupcakes that were requested for a Pot Luck when the ultimate cupcake disaster strikes.  You know what I am talking about, when the novice cupcake maker like myself decides to frost a chocolate cupcake with white icing!  O, the first few come out great and then I get cocky and think I know what I am doing when suddenly the cake pulls up and now I have chocolate cake crumbs mussing up the pristine finish of the white icing!

What to do, what to do!  Good thing my daughter was sitting there watching me.  She suggested that I sacrifice one cupcake to crumble up and use to sprinkle on the others to hide the imperfections as well as jazz up the final appearance.

I loved the idea!  You don't have to buy anything extra, cupcakes have a finishing touch AND you don't have to have those gross waxy bits ruining the texture of your dessert.