˚tutorial˚ Book Sling

When my sister-in-law was about to pop with boy #2, I asked her what she wanted. She had been eyeing the book slings that have been around blogger world, so I made her one. She wanted something neutral for boy #1 and something that they could share when boy #2 was old enough. 

The cloth acts as a sling for the books while a dowel slides into each end and mounts on hooks in the wall. 

This is an easy project (even for beginner sewers. Just straight lines.)

I used the applique technique from here to add the letters.

You can find a great tutorial for this book sling and many different examples here.

Happy reading!

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˚tutorial˚ Applique (Continued)

Do you remember the applique tutorial from here? Well, I wanted to share a boy idea using the same technique. These are great (inexpensive) gifts for baby showers. For these ones, I just added a tie and bow tie on each one.

 

 The matching shoes makes the set so adorable. You can find many different shoe patterns online. Trust me. Go to etsy.com and search baby shoes. You won't be disappointed! 

The best part about these gifts is that they were literally made the night before a baby shower. And...I didn't have a card or wrapping paper. Creativity saved me on that one.

A square piece of matching fabric with a button sewed onto a small piece of card stock did the trick. 

And I took matching fabric and wrapped it around the onsies, shoes, and card and secured it with a button in lieu of wrapping paper. At the baby shower, everyone doted over the package while I laughed at the fact that what they thought was a well planned out matching gift was actually an act of desperation. Ha!

And because I used scraps that I already had, and the whole thing cost me about $4. 

Sweet!

p.s. Just saw baby wearing the outfit. He was as cute as could be...

but I think that had something to do with his chunky legs...

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˚projects˚ A Wedding is Coming...

My little sister is getting married in August. I will say that it has been rather fun to be a spring board for her to bounce ideas off of. 

Her wedding will be beautiful. I just know it. (Mostly because she is my mother's daughter...and mom is quite creative.)

I wanted to help with the wedding in whatever way I could. Its sort of lame being far from the sis as she plans it, but she has so graciously let me be in charge of a few fun things as she goes along. She let me design her wedding invite (with her guidance of course). I will show you that later. 

But, I wanted to show you a little something (three somethings actually) that I whipped up and mailed off a few days ago. (note: whipped up is definitely an exaggeration). It was a clothing re-purpose from this $10 clearance shirt from Kohl's (and don't worry...I used a coupon too). This is the shirt in blue. I used a white one instead. My sister and mom are planning on tea-dying it.

After a little research....a little sketching....and a lot of planning. I turned the shirt into this (three different times!)

 Three little dresses for three adorable girls.

Complete with a lining....

And ruffles...

And button holes (buttons to be added after the tea-dying will occur).

And I just love them.

And so did my sister and mom when they opened the package. Phew!

Want a tutorial? Not this time. I will give you one the next time I make something like this. Trust me...I learned a lot!  

So what do you think? 

One step closer to a beautiful August wedding.

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˚tutorial˚ Weekend Skirt out of Men's Knit T-shirt

I took a little trip here recently.

Yes my friends. That is Hawaii. And oh what a vacation it was. Thrifty...mind you, but so relaxing and beautiful. Just what I needed.

But before I make you all too jealous, I wanted to share a quick (easy) tutorial to make a weekend (or vacation) skirt out of a men's knit t-shirt.

Before our trip, Mr. Candid and I went through our clothing to donate what we no longer wear (something we do probably a little too often). When he threw this green knit t-shirt in, I managed to snatch it before everything thing else was gone forever.

And I turned it into this:

And wasted only a few scraps in the process.

Want to make your own?

First, find a shirt that is wide enough to fit around your waist. I think mine was a men's medium. Cut the basic shape of the skirt by cutting off the sleeves as close to the seam as possible. Continue about 1/2 way down the shirt until you get a shape similar to this one:

Cut along the top shoulder seam to separate the front and the back:

Now pin (with the right sides together) along the sides of the shirt like this:

Use a knit stitch (or zig-zag stitch) to sew along the sides.

Now slip the shirt on and fold over the top like this. Mark where you want the top of your skirt to be. (aka: where the fold is in the picture)

Take the shirt off and chop off the top. 

Put the skirt back on, and  figure out how much needs to be taken in on the sides to fit well.
***TIP: knit stretches, so take that into account. You will want to make the waist is tighter than you think it should be. If all else fails, you can always take it in later. Just remember when you wash the knit again, it will shrink back up!

Put in a pin so you know where to sew.

It will look like this once each side is sewn.

Now trim off the extra.

Now its time to embellish. I took the scraps (i.e sleeves) and cut them into strips 1-2 inches wide.

When I pulled on the scraps, one of the sides curled like this:

***TIP: As you plan your embellishments, remember that once the skirt is washed, the knit will curl up like this:

I put the two sides that curled together and pinned them.

Then I sewed across them...

To make one really long strip.

Play around with the strip before you sew it on to see what you like:

If you like more of a gathered strip, sew a basting stitch (straight stitch with a really long stitch length) along the entire strip. Carefully pull one of the threads (either top or bottom) to cause the fabric to gather. 

From there you can make a ruffle along the bottom of the skirt:

Or a really big flower. Whatever you choose, pin the ruffle how you like it...

And sew along the ruffle. 

***TIP: Be careful not to sew over any pins!

This is what it looks like from the back:

***TIP: Since knit doesn't fray, there is no need to finish the top, but you can it you want to!

And that's it! Now throw on your new skirt and go have a little fun. 

And I will say that this little skirt saw many many  beaches in Hawaii. Lucky thing! 

**I didn't include a picture of me wearing the skirt because I was lazy. That's right folks. LAZY! I will try and get one up here soon!

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˚challenge˚ Plant Something

Oh how I love garden tomatoes. If I only had a plot of land that would work, I would plant hundreds of tomato plants (okay...maybe not hundreds) and eat them all day long (this is true). Instead, (with our blessed apartment living/no garden plot place) we decided to plant a few tomato plants in pots, along with some basil.

I feel like a little kid when I water them everyday. Something about helping things grow just makes me happy.

Hopefully our little collection will grow, but first we need to procure some more pots.

So the challenge is to plant something and watch it grow. Vegetables, flowers, grass. Just something. 

And enjoy it!

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˚thrifty tip˚ Cheap vs. Thrifty

How did you like a week straight of thrifty tips? Are you tired of them? Well, I have one more to finish it off.

As you can tell, I like to save money. But, I am not cheap. I am thrifty. 

What's the difference?

Sometimes being cheap means you always buy the least expensive thing. In the end, you might end up spending more than you bargained for (pun intended). Cheap things might wear out or break faster. So....spending a little extra money (if you have it) on something that is good quality (while still getting a good deal) is thrifty.

So there is cheap. Thrifty. And more than thrifty. A few weekends ago, the Mr. and I were more than thrifty and just really really lucky. Want to know why?

 I am a member of REI. (One of the best stores on the planet...and no one is paying me to say that.) You can return any item at any time for a full refund. No questions asked. If I remember correctly, the membership was a one-time $20 fee, with a 20% off on your first purchase. Well, my first purchase was a pair of Chacos (best sandals ever...they have lasted me 5 years so far and they are still going strong) and the discount almost paid for itself. So I did it.

Four times a year, REI has a member garage sale. In order to purchase anything, you have to be a member. At the garage sale, they resale anything that has been returned at a really discounted price. Some of the stuff is falling apart, but some of it is in really good shape.

The Mr. and I decided to venture off to one of these garage sales. As we were browsing the items, a man came over the intercom and said that everything in the garage sale was 50% off the already discounted price...and shoes were 75% off the already discounted price.

As you can imagine, the Mr. and I started looking through the shoes to try and find something our size. This is what we came away with:

Keen hiking boots for the Mr. 
Original price: $140.00. Garage Sale Price: $21.83. Our price: $5.46. Description of item/Reason for return: worn once. (Nice!)
Lowa hiking boots for Kate
Original price: $199.95. Garage Sale Price: $33.83. Our price: $8.46. Description of item/Reason for return: worn for a little while, too small. (Oh darn!)
Chaco Sandals (w/o) back strap
Original price: $75.00. Garage Sale Price: $19.83. Our price: $4.96. Description of item/Reason for return: strangled her toe. (Little does she know that you can adjust these shoes to fit you however you like. Even if you have an over-sized toe.)

And our total, with taxes was about $20. Not bad eh?

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˚thrifty tip˚ Coupons

Coupons can be a great money saver. I'll admit, I am not an avid food coupon-er (does anyone know some great sites for this? Want to do a guest post?) but I do coupon for most everything else. Many stores take competitor's coupons. Take Joann's Craft store for example. When I went earlier this week, I brought a Micheal's 50% off a single item coupon, a Hancock Fabric 40% off a single item coupon, a Joann's 20% off the entire purchase, and a Joann's 50% off a single item coupon. They used them all. (Even though I had two Joann's coupons, they had different bar codes, so they can apply both.) SWEET! They also price match. So...if they carry the product that is on sale elsewhere, you can bring in the add and get the same price. 

And....a lot of places take competitor coupons and price match. It just takes a little extra time to search them out online.  

And don't forget those promo codes that are out there. You can really save a lot by coupon-ing.

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˚thrifty tip˚ Clothes Line

As most of you know, the Mr. and I live in Texas....and it has been around 100˚ for the past two weeks with no end in sight. Ugg. But, that does make for some quick clothes drying on a clothes line.

We made our little porch...

Look like this...

By adding these... 

So we can save money by using the Texas heat to dry our clothes instead of the dryer.

We opted for a $3 clothes line from Home Depot. Since the hooks we used are open, we can remove the clothes line when we are not using it. Same idea as a retractable clothes line...just cheaper. We like that around here.

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˚thrifty tip˚ Using Your Fans Correctly

Did you know that most ceiling fans have a winter and a summer setting. They can usually be changed by switching the little black knob (seen in the picture below) up or down. Usually when the knob is up, the air is blowing up. So naturally, when the knob is down, the air is blowing down. (Pretty sure you would have figured that one out.)

When to use each setting is sort of counterintuative. One might think that having the air blowing down on them in the summer is the best. Then you get the nice breeze. But....lets think of it in terms of where hot/cool air likes to go. Hot air rises, so during the summer, you want to draw the cool air up. So your fan should be pushing air up. During the winter, you want to draw the warm air down, so your fan should be pushing air down. Clear as mud? I thought so. It might surprise you how much it helps to run ceiling fans and air/heat at the same time. Keeps the air (whether hot or cool) circulated...which is something we need here in our 100˚ for-past-few-weeks Texas summers. Ugg!

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