Sewing with Scraps

I love Etsy.

I recently purchased a bag of fabric scraps for $9.99 and this is what I came in the package:

All of those fabrics on the right were at least a 1/4 of a yard, some of them even a 1/2! 

I made a top for my oldest daughter and still had some of the daisy chain print to spare. 

I was digging around in my sewing room and found some fabric I purchased a while back from Quilt Taffy. ( I think it's from the Seaside Rose collection). 

I made a skirt for my youngest daughter with the charm squares.

And this coordinating top with the yardage. Such pretty fabric. 

I've been wanting to try a simple pillowcase type dress pattern for a while (google pillowcase dress tutorial and you'll find a bunch).  This one was for my youngest (2 years old) so I scaled it down quite a bit. I used a 1/2 yard of  2 dollar fabric from WalMart and lavender fabric from my scrap drawer for the trim.  So this dress ended up costing a dollar.  

It was super easy and I love the way it fits.

Now if it would just warm up so my little ladies could wear their new summery garb.

While I'm on the subject of bargain fabrics, I've added some new vintage sheets to my collection.

  

I found the two on the left (pink and yellow) brand new in original packages at the thrift store. 

Oh, happy day!

Springtime in the Desert

Last weekend we finally hit the road.  We headed to Southern Utah for some much needed fun in the sun with family.  My hubby's family is big - 8 kids.  Even bigger now that everyone is married, with kids up the wazoo.  Almost everyone was able to go on this little adventure.

We spent time in Snow Canyon.  This is a regular stop for us.  The kids LOVE the orange sand dunes.

There are also great little hikes for kids.

Every year we take pictures of our heads peeking through this hole.  The following is evidence of the differences between the genders. 
 First off, our sweet, cooperative girls...

Next, their crazy brothers...

Dorks.

We also spent time at Sand Hollow where half my in-laws were camping. 
Can I just tell you how much I love the contrast of the orange sand against the blue water.

Of course, any time we are out in the wild, the boys are on the hunt for possible pet candidates.  This time they caught 1 lizard, 2 horny toads (one of them pictured below) and found one large snake.  We weren't sure what kind of snake it was so we left it alone.  Despite the begging, none of these animals came home with us.  Not after the last snake episode.

More pictures of Sand Hollow...

And my favorite...

We also spent a day at Zions National Park.

It was Free Admissions day, so the place was hoppin'. They no longer allow vehicles in the park, instead you have to park outside and shuttle in. Kind of tedious when you have a whole slew of kids in tow, but the scenery was worth it.

The hike up to the Emerald Pools was slow going with little ones.

But the views were spectacular.

 

About 30 seconds after the following photo was taken, this little guy fell in and things got pretty rough (wet, tired etc.).  This was the farthest point in the hike.

But we made it.  All 2.6 miles of it.  No small miracle.

One pro to the no cars allowed rule, you can stand smack dab in the middle of the road without having to worry about getting plowed down.

We had such a good time, nobody wanted to come home.

Vintage Inspired Bedroom Make-Over

My daughter just celebrated her 8th birthday. This year I wanted to do something extra special for her, so I came up with the idea of a surprise bedroom make-over. She has been wanting us to paint it a light blue for a while, and this seemed like the perfect way to get motivated.


On her birthday she went to school with her bedroom looking like this...


And came home to this...


I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get it all done in the 7 1/2 hour time frame, but I had help. My mother in law watched my 2 youngest while I painted, and my mom picked up my daughter and oldest son after school and took them out for ice cream to give me a little more time.


Everything in the room is vintage, from the up-cycled furniture that I painted a while back, to the linens.


I based the decorating scheme around the vintage sheet quilt I first started last summer (my daughter fell in love with it at the time). I finally finished quilting and binding it the weekend before her birthday. The bed skirt was made from a green gingham vintage sheet.


We brought in the desk that we had used as a changing table in my youngest daughter's room. I found an old chair at the thrift store for $5 and painted it Green Apple and then reupholstered with a vintage sheet.


For wall art, thrifted embroidery hoops with the vintage sheet fabric used in the quilt.


Can you tell that this particular sheet is my favorite? last year, I found a pillowcase of this pattern at a thrift store and used it in the quilt. When recently I found a brand new (still in original package from the 60's or 70's) twin flat sheet on eBay, I was so excited!



I haven't yet made a sham, so for now her bed is adorned with never used before vintage pillow cases.


My talented mother-in-law crocheted this super sweet pillow for her after I fell in love with these on the Sew Mama Sew blog.



I still need to make curtain panels out of this sheet, just didn't quite get it all done it time.


The BIG REVEAL...


She LOVED it!

Cowboy, take me away...

Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to heaven above and
Closer to you
Closer to you

My husband was a HUGE Lone Ranger fan when he was growing up. He was obsessed the same way our little guy was obsessed with Disney's Cars.


A few years ago his mom came across his little collection of Lone Ranger action heroes from the 70's and passed them on to us. For a while they were mixed in with the chaos that is our toy room. Then one day I hunted them down and rescued them, deciding they deserved a little protection and respect for the history they represent. Besides, they are pretty cute, don't you think? And recognizably human, which is more than I can say about most of the boys' toys you see at the store these days. Now I keep them tucked away in my sewing room.


Last week while I was working on some projects I came across these little fellas.


It's been a while since they were able to stretch their bowed legs.


As they stood watch over me while I worked, I thought of my husband  - the hero around these parts. The past few months have been extra busy for him at work, and crazy for me at home - part of the being entrenched in real life I mentioned in my last post. I am grateful he works hard for our little family, but I missed him when he was working those long hours. Not just because there were less hands to help with homework, and housework and family life in general, but because it's just not the same when he's not here. The squirrely little natives missed him too.


But things are back to normal at last - YeeHaw!


Now I can't seem to get summer/travel plans off my brain. Enough with the cabin fever already - this mama is ready to hit the trail (remember...I suffer from chronic wanderlust).


Hi Ho Silver!

Dressy Church Bag

I'm still here. Just been entrenched in real life. But now, thanks to antibiotics, I'm feeling like blogging may be do-able again (among other things like cooking and laundry). Wouldn't it be great if there was a substitute mom to call when we are sick, just for the sake of domestic damage control?!


There are a few projects I've been trying to finish. Birthday projects with finite deadlines. I'm not always good with deadlines. My mom's birthday was yesterday and she had a very specific request: A scripture bag for her extra large, can't read things up close any more, scriptures (gonna happen to all of us I'm afraid). So, without a pattern and using fabrics from the stash, this is what I managed to come up with.


I used a Waverly decorator fabric for the outside. I love the texture and the added weight. I used interfacing on everything for extra strength.


She wanted a long, over-the-shoulder strap, but I only had enough fabric for one side. I cut up an old pair of brown corduroy trousers for the other side. The multi-textural thing is working for me.


(You can also see the Olive colored dresser I made over a while back and never got around to blogging about)


Happy (& relieved) to say her scriptures fit perfectly.


And,
My oldest daughter is having a birthday next week. I'm hoping to have this finished in time...

I Hope you all have a Happy Easter!

(This darn snow better melt quickly!)