The sewing machine has been humming!

 I'm not sure there's anything that brings on nostalgia quicker than the sounds and smells of your childhood! It hits me every time I pull out the serger... for some reason the sewing machine doesn't quite smell the same way!

I've been working on this project for awhile - too long - and since Kyrie wanted to be able to wear it for her school Christmas program, I figured I'd better get moving on it!

This pair of Jeans caught her eye while were were "back to school shopping" - I thought they were cute but I don't think there's anything modest about "skinny jeans" on a 7 yr old so I bought them with the plans to make them into a skirt! Found just the perfect Corduroy at Joann's Fabrics and an idea was born!

Here's pictures of most of the process. Kyrie & I were both happy with the finished product! =)

Riccar has been busy...

(Riccar is my sewing machine, silly!)

I'm REALLY happy with the way this one turned out! I can't wait to see pictures of my Niece Jessi in it!

Feeling domestic

I've been feeling the itch lately to pull my new (to me) sewing machine and serger out and put them to good use! I've been drooling over several sewing blogs and tutorials and then last month I stopped in at Joanns and bought some adorable fabric. It's been rainy and wet the last few days so I decided it was time to start creating! I did most of it yesterday and last night and when Kyrie saw it she was begging for me to finish it so she could wear it to school. I finished it about 11:40 - in time for her to wear it to school at 12:05!
Here's the tutorial if you're interested!

It's great for twirling too!

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I would do a few things different next time... the tutorial doesn't say anything about what to do with the pockets in the back when you're cutting off the jeans, and I didn't want to pull them off so I just left the tops intact, took the seams out of the bottom part and then hemmed them under when the rest was done.
Next time, I'll make the denim part shorter so it's not so tight on her hips. But all in all, I really like it!
(and THANK YOU to those who donated old jeans for this project!!!)

Skinny kids - sewing project

I don't get all this talk of childhood obesity problems. I mean, I do, but I sure don't see the problem in my house! Just the opposite. In fact, I'm sure if I was good about routine well child visits, the pediatrician would have labeled my kids as "failure to thrive"! At 1 year, Kyrie was 17 lbs, and impressively enough, Trey was actually 20 lbs at 1 year but was only 23 lbs at 24 mos!

So as you can imagine (or maybe you can't...), clothes shopping is REALLY fun. I am SO glad that a lot of brands put adjustable waist bands in their "bottoms", but there is still a lot that don't. And I don't like to be limited when I find cute clothes for my kids! This spring, Trey ended up with 4 pairs of shorts that didn't have an adjustable waist in them and of course, basically fell off of him! So I pulled out my (not so) trusty sewing machine and got to work. I had intended to post these pictures right after I took them, but as we know, the best laid plans...

So lets get started. (our model wasn't too sure about having pictures with his shirt off!)

It's really hard to play cars when you have to go around holding your shorts up!

On the inside of the waist band, using a seam ripper, I made a vertical slit

Attaching a safety pin to the end of the elastic,

Thread it through and out the other side.

Secure one side with a pin and tighten to the desired size.

Now we're all pinned and ready to sew.

Zig zag stitch forward and backwards a few times to secure the elastic well.

Here is the inside, finished.

And the outside stitch... you can hardly see it with this pattern!

No more holding your shorts up!

This is a very simple thing... it can be sewn by hand if you don't have a machine, and honestly takes no sewing skills!