Pajama Day.....almost all week!

It's really funny when your husband questions if your youngest even got dressed during the week. Now let me explain, she's 3 and very persistent so if we don't need to go anywhere except the bus stop I'm not going to pressure her to get dressed. 

This past week was spent doing lots of ironing, cutting and sewing! We only had to leave the house for things on Monday and Wednesday. So I took full advantage of that and spent the other three days at home working on projects!! It was a change from the week before because I had my mom in town the week before and I didn't get much of anything done that week. 

It was a good week and I got several things finished and more laid out and started. It's a good thing too as I signed up to set up a table at a local winter festival in order to try and sell items I've made. Which is great and a good way to get my skills noticed more, but you need products made in order to sell!! Kind of an important part of the process I think! Thankfully, baby girl is happy to play and color and watch some TV while her sister is at school and as long as I feed her occasionally she lets me work. 

So if she wants to insist on staying in her pjs all day and "having a pajama day" as she calls it I'm fine with that!!! We do what works and that's what makes her happy since she thinks it makes her special to not get dressed!! 

Quilt binding tip and useful tool

So I like making my own quilt bindings for anything I sew from blankets to placemats. I like doing this because your not limited to what you find in the store and it opens a whole world of ways to finish off your project.  It also allows you to have different sizes of binding, though I prefer using 2 1/4 inch strips to create my binding. Which gives me a 1/4 inch wide binding when completed.

When making your own binding be sure to cut the strips on the bias so that they have a stretch to them and makes it easier to wrap around your project and to fold corners. I will make a post about how I cut my fabric to make bias strips another day I promise!!! One really cool thing about cutting fabric on the bias is if you are using a striped fabric it will put the stripes on the diagonal giving you a cool candy cane affect if that makes sense.  I wish I had a picture on hand of what I mean, but of course I don't so I will try to find a stripe to do the tutorial on when I do it, so you see what I mean.

Okay, so onto why I really wanted to make this post.  I was given a Quilt Binding Express  by my awesome mom and finally got the chance to use it not that long ago when I finished a quilt that had been sitting in my to do box forever.  Well, I had seen this odd pressing board and wondered if it would really help speed along the binding making process and IT DID!!!!  While I love making my own binding it gets to be tedious when your pressing close to 200 inches of fabric in half to make your binding. This nifty tool helped by folding the fabric in half for me and I just had to press it down as I pulled it through the slot.

In case your lost as to what on earth I'm talking about I'm going to post a few pictures of what I did and how the tool worked!

 

 So here's the tool set up with all the normal ironing tools and my binding strip. As you can see you pull your strip through from right to left and then press on the little board that's attached. It has 3 slots for your binding strips too, so you can use this for 2 1/4, 2 1/2 and 2 inch binding strips. You simply fold your strip in half with wrong sides together and start pulling through the slot marked at what size strip your using. Then you just pull to the end of the pressing mat attached and press the strip while its all lined up on the mat.

 Here's a close up of my strip coming through the slot. One thing you do have to watch for is your strip getting out of alignment. If you pull somewhat slowly your strip will come through the slot exactly even with itself, but if you get to moving to quickly it will get a little out of whack like the picture shows here. It takes a simple pull of the fabric to straighten it back out and get going again though. For the most part I didn't have to readjust my fabric to much and I got through my pile of binding pretty quick with the tool. So totally worth picking up a Quilt Binding Express in my opinion as it does save time and a lot of the headache involved when making your own strips!

Here's a picture of my binding attached to the quilt I made it for.  I have to admit in my rush to get things done I didn't cut the fabric on the bias the right way and so the binding strips have the flowers in the same direction as the border strip at the edge of my quilt.  This wouldn't have happened this way had I cut things right as the binding would have made the flowers be at an angle, but we all make mistakes and I didn't have the extra fabric to start over.  This quilt went to my daughter who is 3 and doesn't care anyways, she's just happy to get the blankey from me! 

 

Anyways, I wanted to show you this picture more because you can see a different way to finish off attaching your binding. Instead of attaching my binding to the front and bringing it to the back of the fabric I did the reverse. Then when I pulled the fabric to the front to sew down using my machine I picked a fun decorative stitch to sew it down. You can see that on this picture instead of just using a straight line to sew down the binding I picked a stitch that does little slanted lines going both ways and has a straight stitch down the middle. So I tried to keep the straight stitch close to the original sewing line I made when sewing my binding onto the back and let the slants go onto the binding and into the border fabric. If you were to see the back of the quilt some spots I did better then others keeping things lined up, but from the front almost all of it I kept things lined up pretty good. This took the stress out of making sure I lined things up right on the back of the quilt so that the front looked good since I worked on the front to finish the quilt. You could even just do a straight line stitch to sew it down, but sew on the front if you wanted to. I just liked the idea of using a decorative stitch that I wouldn't normally use on my machine!

 

Have fun with your binding if for no other reason to give yourself a desire to get it done. I know getting a binding onto a quilt sometimes is the worst part for some people, but if you add fun touches to it then it's more exciting to complete!

Traditional Fleece Tie Blanket DIY

 Tradition Fleece Tie Blanket instructions

 Materials:

• 1-1 1/2 yards of fleece in two colors or a print and a color- I used 1 1/2 for my 3year old, but for a smaller child 1 yard would be plenty.
• Good scissors or a rotary cutter and mat
• Ruler

 Instructions:

So a traditional Tie Blanket is pretty easy! Simply take your two pieces of fleece and lay them with wrong sides together, smooth out all the wrinkles and then straighten up all your edges. You'll also want to cut off the selvage edges from the longer sides. Don't worry to much about getting an even line because you won't be able to tell when your done anyways. The big thing is to not have it to far off, but with all the edges even.

 Then you will cut out a corner that is 4 inches by 4 inches like you see in the picture below. Just discard those squares or give them to your little one to use for their dolls!

Now you will cut strips in the fabric that are 4 inches long by an inch to an inch and a half wide. I am for an inch, but usually end up cutting them slightly wider.  If you use a rotary cutter and a mat it's a little easier to keep this neat and close to the right size. With scissors I like to lay my measuring tape on top of the fabric to do the measuring. Below you can see where I actually did a combination of measuring tape and mat, but I don't recommend using a metal measuring tape like I did! I totally ruined a new blade because I kept accidentally running into the metal tape and it nicked my blade :(

Once you cut all your strips all the way around you simple take one pair of strips, a top and a bottom strip, and you tie them together. I like to double knot them to make sure they aren't going anywhere! Make sure on the edges that feel a bit stretchier (not sure that's a word lol) that you don't tie them as tight or pull as tight because it will distort the fabric a little. No one will notice though so don't worry if your a bit more aggressive in your knot tying. I also like to watch how I pull my knots so that way the solid fabric I chose shows on the top and the printed strips are at the bottom. Check out my picture below you'll see what I mean!

I chose a lavender for my solid bottom fabric and when I tied my knots I just made sure to pull that towards the top layer so it's visible from the top and adds a nice accent to the blanket.

Once you tie all the way around your blanket you are done!!! Then it's ready for your little one to snuggle underneath, or they make a great gift too! If you want to try a different take on the fleece blanket check out my post on the Braided Fleece Blanket!

My little one being silly snuggling under her blanket! Love me some little piggies!!!

****update: if you wanted to make a baby or toddler sized tie blanket, you could use 1 yard and cut that in half, so you'd have 36 inches by about 29 inches and can make two out of the yard. You would cut 3inch fringe instead of 4 since it's a smaller blanket, so you'd also cut a 3x3 square out of the corners! This is a good size for them to have a lovey as some people like to call it and they can be covered by it or just snuggle it, but it's a better size to be totted around with them!

Braided or Crocheted Fleece Blanket DIY

Found an awesome post when I was looking for how much fleece to buy for making tie blankets for my girls.  I was so excited because Hancocks Fabric had fleece on sale for only $3.99 when I went in there on a mission to find it!!!  My oldest wanted to steal a fleece blanket we did the traditional ties around the edges from my Mom, but it's one we made her for Christmas so I had to veto that choice she was making.  Instead I promised to make her one of her own that was bigger since her blanket was from when she was much younger and to small to snuggle under it anymore.

Well, I can't buy fabric for one kid and not the other, so for my almost 8 year old I bought 2 yards of fleece in one print and one solid and bought 1 1/2 for my 3 year old.  The post I found was to make a crocheted/braided edge on the fleece blanket as opposed to the traditional ties most people do.  Still a no-sew technique which is good with how bulky fleece can be, but a much different outcome!

Braided edge on my daughter's fleece blanket!

 I loved this braided look so much I went back to Hancocks  and bought more fleece, which was still on sale, to make blankets for both my nieces for Christmas! One niece is a teen and one is almost there so knowing what to get them is just getting harder and harder! Anyways, apparently summer time is a great time to buy fleece too, I went once a month July, August, and September and all three times most of their fleece was on sale for under $5 a yard! Plus they have great coupons that can be stacked on top of the already great price. This makes it to where if your making a bigger fleece blanket, as I am, your basically only paying for one piece of fleece as opposed to the two layers you need.

Okay, so when making the braided sides to my fleece blankets from the tutorial, I noticed a couple things. The slits need to be cut closer to the edge of the fabric for it to lay good and flat, but I was worried about the fabric breaking. So I had cut mine maybe a half inch in from the edge and with a little wiggling it still laid nicely! Also I noticed it's not easy to get an exact slit cut, but it doesn't matter to much!

I'm sure if you haven't checked out the other post yet you're confused, but I'll post a couple pics of the process in case you don't want to blog hop :)

So just like in a traditional tie blanket your going to cut out a square from all four corners of your fleece. First, of course lay out both pieces of fleece with the wrong sides together, so you have a right side touching the floor and one facing the ceiling.  Then you will cut 2 inch by 2 inch squares out of all the corners, cutting through both pieces of fleece. After that's done you will then cut your strips just like with a tie blanket, but shorter, so these will be 2 inches long by 1-1 1/2 inches wide. Doesn't have to be perfect though you do want them as close to the same as you can.

You can see none of my cuts are perfect, but in the end it really doesn't matter!

 Once all the strips are cut start at one corner and skip the first two strips, then on the 3rd strip your going to need to cut the slits I was talking about. This is where you start doing something different from the original tie blankets. In the post I read she took each pair of strips, (the top and bottom fabric at same time) and folded them in half to cut the strips sort of in the middle.  This works for sure, but I realized I could do the same thing with my rotary cutter!! I did do it by folding over and it works, I just found it more time consuming and it already takes awhile to cut all the fringe. So on my nieces blankets I just used the rotary cutter, setting it down maybe a half inch in from the raw edge and pushing down then cutting towards the center to make about a 1 inch slit in the center of each strip. You will make a slit in ALL the other strips you cut except for those first two you skipped.

If using scissors to cut slits get a good heavy duty pair like these.

This is how I made slits in first blanket by folding strip then cutting it down the middle.

Using a rotary cutter for both cutting my strips and slits made things go a little bit faster and made for neater slits!

Once all the slits are cut you will then start on the blanket working in reverse from where you started. So start on the last slit you cut, assuming you just went around the blanket after skipping the first two. If not just start at the corner next to you two strips that aren't cut and you will take both bottom and top strips and bring the next cut strip through the slit in the one you picked up. You will do this all the way around your blanket until you reach the two strips you didn't cut. When you get there take the first strip without a slit through the last strip with slits and then you tie the last none cut strips to the one you just pulled through. This knots the whole thing together holding all your work in place. I personally double knotted the strips best I could to try and make certain it all stays together!

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of these last steps, but the are shown on the original post that I found!

After tying your knots though you are done and have a super cute fleece blanket to snuggle under!

top view of my daughters blanket

Side view of the braided blanket! This has been washed several times and still looks good, no braids coming undone or anything crazy!

Rambling about blogging :)

I started this blog with every intention of posting way more frequently and getting more tutorials online. I sure haven't done that up to this point!

I've posted some tutorials for sure, but hadn't realized how much work goes into taking the pictures, uploading and typing things out. I'm so meticulous too that I probably type out more then I need to for directions, but I want anyone reading to know exactly what to do without a doubt.

There are times when I just want to type out about my day and have no clue if I should or I worry about what others will think. I know that once it's on the internet it's there forever. Even if I delete it once someone's read it and possibly copied or shared it that it may not be deleted after all.

Some of these are things holding me back whether they should or not, but they are. It's also about the time it takes even to type up a post about my day. I think if it's worth typing it out or not and if anyone would care. I know people do it all the time and we all have our various social outlets we use. I have a Facebook that I use to post pictures for family and friends but even on there I'm hesitant to write things in my status that could be misjudged.

It's important to be this way I think though because it's better to be safe about what you write then to just dish out every aspect of your life!

Sometimes I just want to post on here about the stuff I'm not telling family and friends just so I can get it off my chest, but even that I'm hesitant to do. It's all about what I really want anyone with an Internet connection to have access to.

I realize no matter what I write there will be someone sitting there reading and judging and I just have to get over that! I'm going to try to do that as there's so many ideas I come up with on things I think someone may want to read or know about.

With that I leave you this promise to try and post more even if it's just a quick post about my crazy, beautiful life!!!

My September 11, 2015

Everyone has their stories of where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. Myself, I was in music appreciation class at the college I was attending. When I got out of class my Mom had left me messages and been calling me to tell me what happened. At the time my Dad was still in the Army so that meant he could be going to fight the war that was about to start.

The events of that day have become a huge turning point in the history of our country, but yet some people show no respect for it. Our children learn about it in school now and there are countless amounts of memorials and ceremonies to honor those we lost.

I realize that some people may have only been children when the events took place and may not totally understand how much the attacks affected our country and our military. The thing I don't understand is how some people can't even respect a simple moment of silence on the date that this happened.

I was more shocked by the mother and her adult daughter at the commissary who couldn't stop shopping for one minute to offer a moment of silence for those affected! The commissary for those who don't know is a military grocery store that only military families have access to. So, of all the places to be and to not just stop for a single minute out of respect is unbelievable to me. All families in the military have been affected by the events on September 11th. That was a turning point in our history and when we as a country began the path to war. Anyone affiliated with the military has been affected even now as the nation still is at war as a result of these attacks.

The commissary had done a beautiful job of talking about the events.  They stopped the music and the majority of the store was silent just to listen to what they were saying. All you could hear were a few children who just didn't want to be shopping that day, but the rest of the store was silent especially when the moment of silence was announced. It could have been where I was located that I didn't hear anything else, but I definitely heard this mother/daughter coming down the isle I was on. While I'm standing still head bowed in silence they are talking about what chips to buy the little one in their life. When I looked up at them they looked at me as though I was crazy or in the wrong for stopping what I was doing to give a brief moment of silence for those we lost that day.

I hope that all of us can continue to remember those events and instead of not being able to stop our shopping just take that moment to reflect!

Top 5 ways a puppy is like a baby!!!

So having a puppy seems to be a lot like having a baby!!!! It's been seriously like 12 years or so since we've had a puppy and man I forgot how it can be! Don't get me wrong, I love my new little ball of fur, but man I'm ready for some of these puppy traits to be done!

Thinking about getting a puppy let me tell you some ways they are like babies so you can be warned ;)

1. You have to potty train them!!! Yup they don't just know to not pee on your rug you have to teach them the difference from inside and outside the house. Much like a baby where you have to teach them to no longer just use the bathroom in their pants!

2. They don't sleep through the night! Nope even puppies need to learn about daytime and nighttime and they need potty breaks throughout the night otherwise you have a mess to clean up. Yeah, so if you just got your baby to sleep all night and you don't want to start all over again then maybe hold off a little while before getting a puppy.

3. They like to eat and chew on everything!!! Bring on the puppy proofing which is almost same as baby proofing except you don't have to worry about pup opening cabinets and doors.

4. They need lots of attention and love! Just like a baby needs lots of your time it's better for puppy if they get a lot also!

5. Lots of doctor visits!!! Yup there's lots of shots they need to be protected from this and that and they recommend them starting at 8 weeks and going on every two weeks for I'm not sure how long lol. But it's a good way to be sure they stay healthy just like with your newborn the doctor gives you extra support and encouragement.

So as my puppy whines to go out, or get attention, or her toy, yeah I'm not sure what she wants lol, but it's time to jump off here and attend to her! Good luck if you choose to get a new puppy and just be sure to have lots of time to work with your new pup!

 My sweet puppy!

Super quick DIY puppy bed

Easiest Puppy or Dog Bed!!!!

No seriously this will be the quickest and easiest dog bed I promise!  I recently got the most adorable puppy and instead of spending tons of money on "stuff" for her I'm doing a bit of DIY. So I looked through my fabric stash and found some super cute flannel that was the perfect size to make her a bed for her kennel! Couldn't have worked out more perfectly and thought I would share with you all how I did it!

This fits a 19 by 23 inch wire Kennel!

 

Materials:

 

•  fabric (I used flannel, but any would work) measuring 41" by 26 1/2" 

• Stuffing, (I used leftover batting from quilt projects and extra flannel pieces that I couldn't make myself throw away)

 

Instructions:

 

First take your fabric and fold it in half with right sides together, 

do this on the longer side like your closing a book if that makes sense.

fabric already serged with hole on the right side for my turning!

You will then sew around the three open sides, but leave a hole for turning it and stuffing!  I did my hole on the right side opposite of the fold.  I serged mine for extra stability, but if you don't have a serger just do a zigzag stitch.

close up of the hole I left, since I serged it I just ran off the fabric where I wanted my hole to go.

Now before flipping I decided I wanted to box the corners of this in order to get a fluffier bed, if you want to skip this you can!  The bed just might be a bit big in the cage but it still will fit.  If you don't box the corners your bed will look more like a pillow. (If skipping the boxed corners, skip down past the next 3 pictures and start reading there.)

To box the corners I first brought together the seams at each corner so that they met in the middle,

 then measured 2 inches from the point and put in a pin. (picture below left)

Quick side note, this actually made a bigger "box" then I'd intended. It still fits the cage especially when puppy is squishing down on it, but I almost would measure 1-1 1/2 inches from point if you want a snugger fit in your cage.

you can see how this is the seams together with pin at 2"

when I serged this I lined my pin with the right needle

Now if you are serging this the serger will cut the triangle off for you, if you don't have a serger just zigzag a line where the pin is. Be sure if you are using a regular sewing machine that you secure your stitching at this point by either going forward and back a couple stitches or if you have a more advanced machine do a start and stop stitch at beginning and end.  

You are sewing as if you'd sew over the pin, some people would draw a line to sew on I didn't I just eyeballed it because I didn't want to take the extra time. If you are sewing this on regular machine you don't have to cut the extra triangle piece off unless you just want to. Serging does it automatically so I went with that and sewed with my right needle lined up with the pin!

This is how corner will look after serging and triangles cut off

The pic above shows how it will look and should measure after cutting, like I said above this ended up being a bit deeper or bigger box then I intended. It measures about 3 1/2 inches once flipped, which makes for a good thick bed and only leaves a slight space on sides of cage when puppy isn't laying in it!

If you serged your puppy bed I recommend you put a little fray check at all the corners before you turn the bed. Just sort of an added security measure, but if you want to tuck the threads back in or some other thing you may do for the tails of your serging that would work too. They may be okay without any action but I just wanted to be extra sure.

Next flip that pillow right side out and stuff it as full as you want to! I didn't want to make it to firm, but I did want to be sure the pillow looked more like a rectangular or box shape.  So I filled it to make it full but not stuffed.  I used leftover fleece, flannel and quilt batting to fill our puppies bed because I had just enough on hand! So that saved me spending money and going to the store for this! If you don't hoard scraps of batting and fabrics like I do just fill this up with any kind of craft batting. Just be sure if you buy a  bag of fiberfil stuffing that you fluff it out before stuffing it into the bed, this stuff is crammed into those bags and if you fluff it out it will go a long way for you!

Time to close up that hole! Just flip in the hem that wasn't sewn when you had it the wrong way so that your edges line up nice and sew it shut.  I sewed this on my normal machine versus hand sewing closed as some might say to do. That way it's extra sturdy!!! So I pinned the hole closed and then sewed a straight line as close to edge as I could and once closed I went back over it with a zigzag stitch for added security.  

all pinned and ready to sew

you can sort of see how there's a straight line with zigzag over top

 

That's it, now your done!!!

All ready for the puppy to come lay down!!

here's a side look at the finished boxed corner

 

Here's our cutie testing it out!

Rapunzel DIY Apron for kids, toddlers and dolls

Rapunzel inspired Play Aprons for Kids and Dolls

I'm so excited my daughter picked out some fabric from Hancock Fabric awhile back that she just loved and said was Rapunzel fabric.  So since she behaved while we were in the store I picked it up.  At first she wanted me to make her a skirt, but I was looking around and found a picture somewhere on Pinterest of play aprons.  These were super cute, but it was just a link for someone selling them.  I was bummed and did a search for how to make a kids apron, but didn't find any tutorials that made something similar to what I wanted really. So since I already had an apron in the right size to use as template I just decided to get to work and make my own up along the way.  Figured that someone else may want to make one for their little's and maybe their matching dolls :)

This is the "Rapunzel" fabric that my little one picked out!

Child and Toddler Sized Dress-up Apron Tutorial

Doll Sized measurements are included, directions are the same!

 

Please note that I ended up making 2 toddler sized aprons, 1 older child  and 2 doll aprons from materials I'm listing. I used what I had on hand for everything but the Rapunzel purple fabric, so if you plan to make only one you may have enough materials on hand or not need to purchase as much as I list. A lot of fabric stores have scrap areas for ends of bolts and you can check there for the satin if your only making one.

 Materials Needed for child/toddler sized:

• 1 yard of Rapunzel fabric or any fabric you choose as skirt and accent fabric.  (If you are only making one and the fabric doesn't have to go in one direction because of a pattern you could buy only 1/2 yard)

• 1/4 yard Pink Satin-or scrap satin-toddler sized you need an 8 1/2" square-bigger kids 9 1/2" square

• 1 Roll of Pink Satin Ribbon

• 1 Package or roll of white shimmery rick rack

 Cutting Instructions:

Toddler sized: (made this to fit my almost 3 year old)

• Purple skirt fabric-14" by 36" or wide of fabric-since I bought a yard I just cut 14" off the bottom, so if you buy 1/2 yard you may want to cut to 36" length as it will get bulky if you don't 

• Purple skirt fabric- 2" by 8 1/2"- you need two this size

• Pink Satin-8 1/2" square

• Pink Ribbon-2 at 16" and 2 at 22" 

• Rick Rack I didn't measure as I cut, just laid it how I want on satin then cut after I got the affect I wanted

 Child Sized: (my daughter is 7 and this fit her great and should last awhile as it hit below her knees)

• Purple skirt fabric-16" by 36" 

• Purple skirt fabric-3" by 9 1/2"-two needed

• Pink Satin-8 1/2" by 9 1/2" you could do 9 1/2" square just would be wider across chest and I only wanted to add length to satin.

• Pink Ribbon-2 at 16" and 2 at 22" 

• Rick Rack I didn't measure as I cut, just laid it how I want on satin then cut after I got the affect I wanted

Doll sized:

(instructions are all the same as below with exception of the neck ties.  Instead of ties I used a piece of cute elastic to make neck hole so the kids just slip the apron over the dolls heads and I don't get asked a million times to tie the ribbon necks. Oh and I didn't bother with rick rack on the dolls version either and so far no child has noticed this fact!!!)

• skirt-7 1/2" by 19"-this will fit an 18" type doll (one pictured above was made 5" by 19" for smaller dolls) 

• purple fabric for sides-1 1/2" wide by 5"

• satin-3" by 5"

• ribbon for waist-11"

• small piece of elastic cut to 8" for neck maybe a little bigger as some dolls it was a tight fit mainly because my daughter was nervous to stretch the elastic-if you want to use ties instead I would cut 11" ribbon again for waist.  

Assembly Instructions: 

 Instructions are the same for both kids sized aprons, so once you've cut your fabric to the size you need just follow along should be pretty easy!

First thing is you need to cut the pink satin fabric to make it into a trapezoid type shape. I lined it up on my cutting mat and use a ruler to cut an inch off the top and angled it so it didn't cut any off the bottom, see pic on left of how I laid ruler. I forgot this step when I made the child sized and didn't do at all for the doll ones!

 Next lay out your rick rack, I used two pieces to make this. I started in the top left corner and zig zagged to the bottom right and then did same thing with another piece from right to left. Pin and sew down onto satin in the middle of the rick rack

Take the 2" or 3" piece you cut and this makes up the side of the top. I used a long strip as I made these and just cut it after sewing down, so if you are reading this before cutting feel free to do that too. Sew the strip to the pink satin right sides together so you can press open.

• Now set the top part aside and we will make the skirt bottom. For this I sewed a running stitch on my machine to act as my gathering stitch. 

• Choose what part you want to be at the waist, my fabric had a 2" section without flowers by the salvage so I chose that to go at waist.

• Then if you set your machine to the highest tension and the longest stitch length it will gather the fabric for you!!! The picture above is how it came out of my machine and that was almost gathered enough that I only had to pull the bobbin thread a little to get it to same size as my top piece!  Super easy and love to gather items this way :)

Once the skirt fabric is gathered to same size as the top piece we assembled you will pin the two together and sew them with right sides together. Picture above is it flipped over for you to see how it looks pinned.  I pinned with the top laying on my table and the skirt over it so I could adjust the gathers as needed. (after sewing the top and bottom together I ran it through the Serger to seal the ends in and make the middle sturdier. if you don't have a serger you may want to sew another line down in either zigzag or straight closer to the edge of the two)

After I serged my waist line, the next thing I did was run the whole apron through my serger to seal in the ends. If you don't have a serger you could do a double fold over hem all the way around, but make sure to put your ribbon into the folds before you sew.

• Once serged I folded over the serged edge onto the wrong side of the apron and sewed it down, this is where you would need the double fold if you don't have a serger! (the black thread is where I sewed down the serging to my back of the apron.)

• I also attached the ribbons at this point too. I tucked the ribbon into the folded part and then folded back over the serging so it's visible on the front. Sorry didn't take a picture of this I can if needed of the finished ones.

• The ribbons I attached the 16" at the top for neck ties somewhere close to where the purple and pink are sewn together, I didn't do anything special for this just sort of eyeballed where I wanted them. Then the 22" is for the waist ties and put those by where the top and skirt come together.

 That's It!!!! Your done and now your little one has a super cute apron to pretend to be Rapunzel in! I tie the neck straps in a bow for my girls so they can slide it on and off themselves too.

 

Fits our Dolly great!

Loving how this turned out!!!

I'm super happy with how these turned out and the girls are already trying to get me to make some more in different fabrics! Pattern would work great for a regular apron as well, if you don't want to have side panels on the top just cut the top piece 1 1/2 to 2 inches wider.

Would love to see any projects you make with these patterns, feel free to share pics in the comments section!

Don't be quick to judge another mom!!!

I'll start off with saying since I had my first child over 7 years ago I stopped doing things like getting manicures and pedicures on a regular basis.  I would splurge on the occasional pedi because I just can't go without my toes painted and my poor feet needed some TLC (especially during pregnancy number 2 and I couldn't reach them anymore). That was reserved for the start of summer time though and to get ready for sandal season. 

As far as getting my fingernails done and any sort of prettiness to them, yeah that was saved for super special occasions!!! I used to love getting longer fake nails with the gel stuff they use at the nail places so that they are super strong too. That all changed when I had my first kiddo because I just didn't feel it was as important and I stayed home a lot with her so what was the point.  Besides the items needed for our little one were more important then having fake nails done and having to up-keep them every 2-3 weeks.

Well, my sweet, darling hubby told me just before Easter this year to go take a few hours to myself and get my hair done and my nails all fancied up.  Take a spa day if you will while our oldest was in school and he watched the youngest.  So I did!!!!  He told me to splurge even and get those fake nails I loved so much :) This was one happy momma!!!!  I got my hair trimmed, colored, styled and then went over to the nail salon and let them give me some super strong gel nails (which is great because mine are not so strong anymore.) Nice relaxing treat for me just before the crazy weekend that was coming up.

Fast forward to this week......I kept the nails and got them filled while I put the little one in daycare because my older daughter had her First Communion and she wanted me to keep my "pretty nails" for her big day.  Hubby agreed it was fine to splurge again, so I did, but thankfully not spending as much since a fill isn't as big a process! Well, the nails were fun but had to go and I couldn't take that the edges were all messed up and looked a bit crazy and my hair kept getting tangled in them. (you know what I mean if you've had them before, but it's like the edges start to pull off from your nail and it's just enough space to get hair trapped in it and pull, ouch!)

This lead me to an absolutely necessary trip to the nail salon!!!! Oh and it's not a day care day for my little one, but I truly didn't want to wait until it was. My youngest is 2 and a half (have to add the half) right now and she's usually pretty well behaved, so I figured we will go first thing in the morning and knock out this "errand."  Mornings are also her best time for behavior too!

I walk into the salon and tell the guy what I needed done, I had to get the nails off and wanted a gel polish put on since usually the take off process leaves my nails extra fragile. Well, while I'm signing into their book I overhear these ladies getting pedicures.  What they were saying is what sparked me to write about all the other stuff in this post!  They said "I would never bring a kid into a nail salon like this," the other lady said "I agree it's just no place to have little ones running around."

You know what they were right on one part, it's not a place to let kids run around, but that wasn't my plan at all.  I had an ipod packed and charged and snacks if absolutely needed and no plan at all for my little one to be running around the place. They continued to talk about how it wasn't right and that they'd never even think about bringing their kids, well, correction only one of them had kids! The other person said if she had them she wouldn't think it smart though.

What isn't smart is talking crap about someone bringing their kid and them being able to hear you! Even the nail people just took to my little girl and chatted with us both! This salon was attached to a very small shopping center with a hair salon and a few other small places, but the ones in the mall you see people with kids in them ALL the time! I was shocked that they even felt the need to mention it, let alone talk about it for so long. I kept my mouth shut though and just went about getting my nails done. (I didn't know if my kid would even behave for long enough so why comment if she turned out to be bad then they'd be right again I shouldn't have brought her.)

Thankfully, my sweety of a daughter did great! She sat in a chair the whole time and only got down once to get in our bag, but no running around the salon for her. When she got bored she started peeking over the arm of the chair at these woman getting their pedicures done. They commented to me how cute she was and how well behaved and I said thank you and smiled, but nothing more. I really didn't know if she'd make it the whole time behaving, but she did great! To me that was the biggest statement we could make back to these ladies who were obviously judging me for toting her into the salon to begin with.

The thing that bugged me is they didn't know me or my situation. For all they knew I was coming in during my only free time to get my nails done. Maybe, I couldn't afford day care and had a gift certificate, they don't know! I could be new to the area too and not know anyone to watch her either, or work full time and had to do this during day off. The possibilities are endless and if my kid was a nut case and running all around the salon disturbing their time, by all means judge away because that's not right I agree! Just don't judge me when I walk in the door with my kid in my arms thinking that your pedicure is now ruined because I had to bring along my child.

To all the mommas out there who feel trapped in your homes and just want a quick pedicure or your hair done or anything really, I say go for it! To those ladies who can go it alone please don't judge the rest of us!!!! Would I rather go to the salon or the coffee shop alone?!? Well, yes I would, but I don't always get that luxury and I'm not going to stay in my house the whole time I raise my children either!

Don't Judge a person or their actions to early, you never know what's going to happen or their story when you do!