How to make your own Pantry Play Food

This past week we celebrated my sweet girl's birthday.  As the time approached closer I had lots of thoughts about what I wanted to make her and what gifts we wanted to give this sweet thing for her birthday.

As I was brainstorming I knew mostly I wanted to get her play kitchen in order.  We were given these darling Pottery Barn play kitchen sets almost a year before she was even born.  All this time they've been hiding in storage, waiting for her to get old enough to play with them.  As her birthday approached we knew it was time to bust these out and fill them with fun things.

We ended up purchasing pots and pans and play food from Melissa & Doug, but I wanted to make a few more things for her pantry.

So I give you:

MATERIALS:

1. 4 foot wood cut into 6 equal pieces.  (I used a solid piece of aspen cut 8" x 4")

2. Paint

3. Mod Podge

4. Clear Spray Paint.

STEP ONE: Cut your wood.

For this project I first started at Hobby Lobby, then JoAnns looking for nice finished wood that I could paint.  I came home from both stores empty-handed.  Then I thought, "hmm, perhaps I better just get my own wood and sand it."  This thought process brought me to Menards (think Home Depot) where I bought a solid 4' block of Aspen wood.  Then I brought it around to the guys out back and asked them to cut it for me every 8 inches.  They obliged. 

STEP TWO: Sand the ends of the wood, thoroughly. 

I bought this nifty sand sponge.  I thought it worked pretty well, but by the end it was all used up.

  

STEP THREE: Draw out your designs.

Of course you can do whatever you want for your pantry items.  I wanted to do fun foods that my kids like.

STEP FOUR: Paint all sides of the wood, except the front (where the design will be).

STEP FIVE: Draw your design on the dried painted wood with a pencil.

STEP SIX: Paint your design.

STEP SEVEN: Once dry, outline everything with an extra fine-tip permanent marker.

  

STEP EIGHT: Once you've painted and outlined each block, cover with one coat of Mod Podge.

I have a little trouble with my mod podge projects because I purchased the gloss kind (not matte) and it makes all my projects want to stick to each other.  So once I was all done, and everything was dried I figured I'd better cover it with some clear spray paint.

STEP NINE: Spray each block with clear spray paint, let dry. 

All done!

I love the bright colors.

Everything looks so great in the Kitchen together.

The kids at play.

Stay Tuned Thursday where I'll be sharing how I made the apron she's wearing.

The Sunbeam Skirt Tutorial

Hello, again.

Today I'm sharing with you how I made the sunbeam skirt.  

I mentioned two days ago how I had just learned how to sew with knit and I think it's really fun.  So when designing this skirt I decided to go with my new love of knit fabrics.

MATERIALS:

1. 1/2 yard of knit fabric

2. 1/4 yard of 4 coordinating yellow fabrics

3. Elastic Thread

4. Hair clip

STEP ONE:After washing all your fabrics lay out and prepare to cut. 

 I followed the pattern of a skirt my girl already had.

Fold up the material twice so you can cut once and have two equal pieces.

  

Don't I have a nice helper?  Your skirt should look like this when you're done.

STEP TWO: Now we need to cut out the material for the waistband.

I measured out 10" x 4".

With right sides together pin the waistband and the skirt.

STEP THREE: Zig-zag stitch waistband together. 

Iron down the seam.

Fold waistband in half.

STEP FOUR: With right sides together straight stitch skirt down both sides.

Iron down seams.

STEP FIVE: Turn skirt inside out.

Place waistband (right side) down inside skirt.

Pin in place.

STEP SIX: Wind elastic thread around bobbin.

Sew to attach waistband to skirt using a straight stitch.

Now the skirt is done.  I opted not to hem the bottom, since it won't be seen and won't fray.

STEP SEVEN: Making the bias layers to wrap around the bottom of the skirt.

Katy from No Big Dill explains how to do this in her tutorial.

I cut 2" strips out of my four different fabrics.

STEP EIGHT: Then I lined all my strips up and sewed them together.

After that I folded my huge long strip (everything now sewn together) in half and ironed it all down.

STEP NINE: Now I attached this long strip to the skirt by sewing it down-- around and around I went.  It made for four layers.

STEP TEN: I had some sheer material that I made into ruffles for the top layer.

I switched the machine to a wide zig-zag and a long stitch and I pushed the sheer materials through and made it all gathered up.

STEP ELEVEN: Sew ruffles on.

How to make the Sun.

STEP TWELVE: To make my big sun, I took one strip of each material, folded it in half and ironed it.  

Then I sewed down the tips into neat points.

STEP THIRTEEN: Almost done.  

I sewed the strips together at the top, then braided the strips together.

Then I took the braid and just worked it into a circle until it made a neat sun shape.

Then I pinned and sewed it to the skirt.

Lastly:

Repeat steps 12 and 13 to make the sun.

With the extra ruffles, I sewed those onto my sun.

Then I hand sewed the back of the sun onto a hair clip.

While I was hanging up this outfit I clipped the hair clip onto the sweater and decided it would also make a really cute broach.

What do you think?

The Sunbeam Skirt

Project Run & Play is starting Season 5 this week.

I really wanted to enter this season...but I was literally in between moving across the country and totally missed it.

However, I am excited to join the Flickr Group and to join my projects from there.

Week One's theme was to remake No Big Dill's Very Biased Skirt.

I have no experience with cutting and sewing on the bias, but was excited to try it out.

And though Katy explains that cutting on the bias = no frayed edges... that idea made me nervous.  I hated to go to all the trouble to make this cute skirt and possibly have it all fray away.  So, I made my skirt with folded under edges, so I wouldn't have to worry about fraying fabrics.

Okay, enough talk, here's my skirt:

A closer look at the skirt.

And my darling model the skirt was made for.

 Please come back tomorrow and I'll share my tutorial of how to make this cute Sunbeam Skirt.

How to Sew with Knit Round-UP

It is a proud, proud day here in my home.

After only one year of purchasing this knit material..

Simple?  yes.

Basic?  yes.

Story?  

Well, you see I bought this this royal purple knit material almost exactly a year ago.  Summer was ending and I wanted a new skirt for the fall.  So I promptly picked up some material.

And there it sat for the next year.

WHY??

I was scared of that knit material.  I had made one other attempt at knit and it turned out disastrously and ended up in the trash.  Silly me, I didn't know there were rules to follow when using knit.

I was too nervous to pick it back up, until I noticed this influx of "How to Sew with Knit" tutorials and helpful hints.

Loaded with all this great information-- a couple days ago I felt brave enough to try again.

I followed these instructions for my maxi skirt from Elle Apparel.

Results?  So happy/comfy/easy.

FYI-- Yes, I'm pregnant with another baby girl.  Hooray and the skirt can now grow with me!

Anyways, I didn't want all that useful "How to Sew with Knit" posts go to waste-- so I rounded 'em up here.

 1. Up First a favorite from MADE.  

Her post literally gave me the courage to tackle this project.  She doesn't use a serger or a double needle?  Well, shoot that's right up my alley.

2. Up next, Prudent Baby. 

She explains everything you want to know about sewing with Jersey fabric.

3. I loved this one from Me Sew Crazy.

I literally sewed every single stitch using a piece of tissue paper under my fabric and it totally worked.

4. Lovin the Mommyhood has tips and tricks and a round up of her own.

5. Have you seen the gorgeous patterns from the Oliver + S site?

Well, they have tips for sewing with knits, too. 

6. Up next is SewaHolic

She has a huge list of tips for sewing with knits.

7. And Lastly Gertie's new blog for better sewing.

She has a guest blogger explain all kinds of helpful hints.

Well, that's my round-up.  Do you feel inspired?  Or have you been sewing with knits for years?  Either way, I'm happy to be entering the knit fabric sewing world.

How to Call your Missing Cell Phone from Gmail

If you're like me, you've ditched the land line and are now the sole owner of a cell phone to be used for all calling needs.  This works really great since I'm often on the go.

My only complaint of only using a cell phone is on those occasions when husband's gone(with his cell phone) and I'm now home, needing to leave...cell phone-less.

Where did I put that CELL PHONE??!

So I give you...

 

After hours minutes of searching I usually want to get grumpy.  Who wouldn't?  But worry not, dear friends.  I've got a fool-proof way to call your phone, from your gmail account so you can Find that phone.

Your first question might be, "But, What if I don't have a gmail account?"

And to that I say, "Go get one, it's free."

Okay, now, how to make a call from your newly acquired gmail account.

1st go to this website from Google and click on the Try it now button to get ya started.

Log into your gmail account.

Then on the side of your email you'll see this button at the very bottom, left.

This button enables you to chat-- which I never do.  But after you click on it, you can click on the phone icon.

Over on the very right, bottom side of your screen should pop up a little phone.  Before you can make a call you have to download the voice plugin-- so you can talk.

Before you can make a call you'll receive a call from Google Voice to make sure everything works.

If this is your first attempt at finding your phone, this is a great time to listen-- as google's calling you.

After that first time, then you just dial your numbers and listen for your phone.

I suppose this is also a great resource for calling people in the US and Canada for free.  So when those cell phone minutes are getting low, what a great place to go to talk for free.

Now, If you'll excuse me, I gotta go. 

WHERE'S MY CELL PHONE??