Memorial day weekend!

One of my favorite places to browse around is over at the Silhouette blog!
It has the BEST ideas! I love it.

They posted this awesome idea for a Mother's Day idea, but when I ran onto it I couldn't help but think it would be perfect for a loved one on memorial day!

I only wish I had a picture like this of my dad and myself.
I will have to start digging for a cute picture I could use!
I lost my dad a year ago, and miss him very much!

I just love this picture and the message it gives!
My parents have done so much for me!

I will never forget!!

You can find this tutorial Here

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
I am going to be visiting graves and spending time with family!

I will be back Tuesday!!

Super hero cape

Last week was my nephew's birthday and I wanted to make him something for it.
He, like all little boys, loves super hero's, so I thought I would make him a cape.
I already had some real nice heavy black fabric that I could use.

So, I went to work, and loved how it turned out!
So did my son (the model...by the way, he definitely needs modeling lessons, it was like pulling teeth to get these pictures!)

I found this awesome tutorial that I used over at Keeping it Simple!

So I started with just drawing on some printer paper a pattern for the neck piece.

I measured my son's shoulders and made the pattern 1/2 of the distance between his shoulders, since the fabric will be folded in half.

I folded my fabric in half, and cut it out. Make sure you measure how long you want your cape to be.

I cut out two pieces, because I didn't want any fraying.


Pin your pieces together and sew all the way around, making sure you leave about 5 inches open to turn it right sides out.
Once you have it turned right sides out, sew up your open part.

Then I added some Velcro on the straps.

I used my silhouette for the L star figure. I used the white heat transfer paper.
Make sure you mirror your image before you cut it on your heat transfer paper.
To mirror your image, just right click on the image and it will bring up the mirror option.
Once you have cut your image, peel off any excess paper you don't want ironed on.

Then stick your image on your cape where you want it

Make sure you cover with a cloth and iron for about 1 minute.

Then let it cool and peel off your plastic adhesive.

Whalaaa!! You have a personalized cape!!1

My son thinks this is very cool!
I think I will be making one with an "M" in the middle for him very soon!!

Now if I could just get him to model better! :)

Re-purposing: Turtle neck shirt to dress tutorial

Today I am going to show you how I took an old turtle neck shirt of mine and turned it into a dress for my daughter.

So, if you have an old shirt and would like to give it a try....grab it and give it a shot!!

It is so fun to take something old and make something new!!

I forgot to take a picture before I started this lovely project many months ago, so it is already attached to the bottom, but you get the idea what it looks like!

Just a normal shirt...right?

I started off by cutting off the turtle neck part, leaving about 1/4 of an inch.

Then from the part that I cut off, I took it and folded the ends in and iron flat.

Then fold again and iron flat

Then I pinned it all the way around the neckline and sewed it with a straight stitch.

Now for the sleeves, I wanted to add something to the boring old sleeve.

I marked with a pin where the middle of the sleeve was.

Then to get the gathered look, I sewed a large straight stitch about 5 inches up.
(Make sure you don't back stitch on either end)

Then take your top thread and gently pull and it will gather as you pull.

Then when you get it as ruffled as you want, I tied off the strings, or you can sew on top of the gathered part to keep it in place.

Now for the bottom part, I took my material and hemmed up all the sides.

At the top I also did a gathering stitch and then attached it to the shirt.

Here is a great tutorial on this part!

After you sew the two pieces together it should look like this.

Then I added a waistband to it with left over material.

What a great way to use an old shirt!!!

Give it a try...you will be glad you did!

Rhinestone tutorial

As promised, I am going to demonstrate how to do rhinestones with my silhouette.

I ordered the starter kit, which had all the supplies to do this.

I cut my shape on my template material and then placed it on my backing board.

Now I took my nifty little brush that came in my starter kit and spread out the rhinestones.

As you move your brush around in a circle motion, the rhinestones will go in the little holes.

Once you have them all in the holes, just brush off any excess.

Take your sticky transfer tape and carefully place it over your design.
This is the trickiest part...you have to do it fast, but carefully!

Then lift up your transfer tape with your rhinestone design in place.

Then I place it on this shirt and covered it with a cloth and placed my iron on it for about a minute.
Then I would carefully lift up a corner and make sure all the rhinestones were sticking good.

And that is how it is done!!!

Super fun!

Re-purposing: another turtle neck to dress

I finally finished this dress that I started months ago for my daughter!
I am so ridiculous! I have projects everywhere half done!! It drives me crazy!!!

So I told myself I am not to buy anything for another project until all my half done projects are finished....we will see!!!

Remember this dress for my 4 year old!
The bottom of her skirt actually came from the top of the dress that I made for my 9 year old!! Does that make sense???

This actually started as a turtle neck shirt that i never wore....
and now we have 2 dresses from it!!!

I love the way it turned out...and my daughter was pleased, which lately is very hard to please her with clothes...pre-teen years!!!

You can't see in the pictures very good the front of the dress.

I did some more rhinestones...which I will demonstrate tomorrow!

Here is the back view of the dress!

Check back tomorrow for the tutorial on how to make this dress!!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

This is my favorite recipe for freezer jam! It is so good! My family just loves it!!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

3 1/2 cups strawberries (crushed in a blender)
6 1/2 cups sugar
Stir together in large bowl until sugar is dissolved
Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, set aside.

Dissolve 1 package of pectin into 1 cup cold water. Bring to a boil in a small pan. Boil 1 full inute. Slowly stir into berry mixture. Continue to stir for 5 minutes.


Enjoy!!!