Easter outfits-tutorial

This post is really early or really late ;) I think we all know which one, but I am going to go with early for next Easter in case you want to make one for your kiddos-or maybe you can use it for Christmas?  I took one of Greg's old dress shirts(that don't fit him any more), and got to work on making the kids Easter outfits.  I was able to get a vest for my little man and a dress for my sweet girl! I loved them and think they looked adorable, what do you think? Also, 2 apologies while writing this post-lack of pictures(so very sorry for this one, as it can get hard to explain without pictures), and long post and I'm putting everything into one post(since it is so late) instead of separate posts for each item!

 Double trouble!

Big boy!

Sweet girl!

Flower for Headband Tutorial:

This was the flower that we clipped onto Athaiah's head band!

 

First, cut out 6 circles that are fairly big in size, I used my big cups as a guide. (this is the patterned fabric in the background of the flower).  You will need one more circle that is the same size, you can use a pattern if you like, I just used the plain yellow for this one.  You will also need 6 circles(the pale yellow pictured above) in a smaller size as these ones will go on top of the bigger(patterned ones).
Next, you are going to fold all of these up in half so they are now a semi-circle, and them fold them over again so they make a triangle shape(like above)-I apologize for the lack of during pictures, it makes it hard to follow.  Put a small amount of hot glue on the end to hold them together and keep them folded.
Arrange them on the big circle that you cut out and didn't fold. Put the point sides in the center so that it makes a circle. Hot glue them onto the big circle.  If you would like you can put buttons or any other decoration at the center of the bow! I used buttons off the shirt sleeves since they were small and extra pieces of the shirt, (the pale yellow fabric was fabric from the sleeve of the dress shirt, I was making sure not to waste anything I could use!)
Hot glue the big circle now to an alligator clip so you can clip it on a headband or whatever you like, or so you can just pin it directly to their hair(If your little girl is lucky enough to have hair unlike mine!)

Dress Tutorial:



Take the dress shirt, and line a current dress up with the dress shirt across the bottom and center it. You want to make sure that the dress is centered so you can have the dress button down the front and you want it to button in the middle not on the sides.
With everything lined up correctly-make the skirt part of the dress a little bit bigger so that you can gather it(if you don't want the waste gathered at all just add extra for the seam allowances(1/2" on each side). Then cut out the dress pattern.  I made a separate part for the top and bottom-this was so that I could gather it so it would have more of an A-line shape and so it wasn't so boxy looking.  Just a personal preference.  If you are cutting it into two pieces instead of one just make sure that you add extra to the bottom of the top piece and the top of the bottom piece for seam allowance.  Also make sure the top part will fit perfectly and cut the top part of the bottom piece wider than you want it so you are able to gather the fabric! (I hope that makes sense, I'm sorry I know it would have helped a lot more if I had pictures to help explain things)
Sew up both sides of the bottom piece, and the top piece.  To do that put the right sides of the fabric together and sew up both sides, so the seam will remain on the inside of the dress.  You are going to also sew up the neckline seam.  I use a zig zag stitch because that is what I like and I don't have a serger currently(maybe one day) To sew up the neckline just make sure you tuck about 1/4" under and sew it up so it is nice and smooth.  I used a rounded neckline just because! Just make sure you don't sew it closed! I had to watch out on that part honestly because I almost did!
Last part is to sew the top and bottom pieces together.  IF you made it all one piece congrats you are done-Easy right? Put the right sides of the fabric together and get to pinning, this is to gather it by hand so you don't have to do a gather stitch and then sew it up again.  I like less sewing if possible.  Make sure that you are again keeping the front part where it buttons open(if you like it that way), and sew the two pieces together.  Congrats you are done!  I added a bright pink ribbon to it(not attached, just tied it on) just for a pop of color since it was such a pale yellow shirt! Your done with the girly stuff, now onto what to make if you have a little man! 

The BOW TIE: (My favorite part)

Ok, bow ties are super, super easy-are you ready for it?  You cut out a rectangular shaped piece of fabric(make it double the size you want length wise because you are going to fold it in half).  So if you want a bow tie that is 5" wide and 2/5" tall.  Cut the piece of fabric 11" wide and 3" tall.(the extra is your seam allowance!) Fold it together with the right sides facing.  Sew up 3 of the sides.  Turn it so it is right side out, and sew up the last side.  This bow tie has 2 layers so then do this again, but make it a couple inches shorter! 

For the knot- You are going to cut a piece of fabric 1"x1.5", hem the sides so they don't look rough.  Then sew the two ends together so that is makes a circle! 

For the strap- Cut a piece of fabric a couple inches longer than your child's neck so you can tie it in the back(or if you like you can put a snap on it)  Hem the edges so they look nice and finished.  Attach this to the back of the knot-I hand stitched it on because I had already sewn the knot closed.

Assembly- Stuff the two rectangles into the knot(circle), Adjust the rectangles so they look how you want them to.  I then ran it one time thru the sewing machine to hold it all together.  BUT you don't have to do that part.  My little one is 2 though and can play rough, I just didn't feel like taking a gamble that it would stay all together if he was pulling on it!

 

The Vest:

Take the leftover piece of your shirt.  Make sure this is the top half of the shirt! OR if you are only making a vest you really can use whatever part that you want.  I used a different vest that he already had for the template(makes it easier that way).  Cut out all around the template leaving room for seam allowance.  Sew up both sides by putting the right side of the fabric together and sewing it up!  I then removed the pocket off of the shirt, cut it down to size and placed it on the vest!  For the neckline, just tuck about 1/4" of fabric down and sew it all up so it looks nice and even! Do the same for around the arm holes.  And there you go- A super simple and easy vest! 

 

All of this was made out of 1 dress shirt.  A bonus it was one that no longer fit my husband, which means it was free! The best way to do things!

Grandma Kiki visits...

Ok so I will start off by saying this is old, but life is crazy busy with 3 kids 2 and under and getting back into the swing of things.  How on earth do people keep up?  I have a mountain of laundry, another of dishes, a messy floor, and a gross bathroom. (when I'm done with this I am off to tackle the lingering housework).  Any way enough excuses and onto our fun time!

Grandma Kiki(my mom) came to visit us right before I had to go back to work.  It was a short visit(don't they always seem way too short!), but fun was had by everyone.  She got here on Thursday and we all took the trip to go and get her.  The kids where so excited the whole way talking about seeing her and getting oh so very excited. Hard to contain yourself from the excitement when you have to drive a whole hour to the airport! Pretty much when we got home we went to bed since it was already getting late.

The next day we lounged around in our pjs, I think for most of the day.  This was great! I love to not NEED to go any where or do anything.  We just hung out with each other and with the kids.  She brought presents for everyone, which was not needed but much appreciated!  She got the kids a memory game and then she taught Elijah how to play. We just played it the matching way with all the cards face up-he LOVED it.  He still loves to play HIS game. He loves having his own game and not one that is for mommy or daddy to play!  We all went out to dinner that night at applebees.  Thank goodness there was an extra pair of hands.  Off to walmart we went after that to get Elijah stuff to potty train.  He had decided the day she was arriving that he wanted to use the potty.  Grandma had fun buying him some big boy underwear and some special treats(Reese's pieces) for when he went potty.  It was a huge help to have her there to help us start the process and get all excited with us.  Elijah loved the extra praise and was loving going to the bathroom!

Saturday we hung out for a bit in our jammies and then it was time to take Grandma back to the airport.  Elijah said he wanted to go on the airplane too! It was sweet.  We had such an amazing visit.  We absolutely love when family can make it all the way out to the boonies to come and visit us! Hopefully we will get some more visitors some time soon!

Lost Socks

Does any one else have lost socks?  I once heard that someone was convinced that the dryer lint was the cremated remains of all the lost socks, I would like to agree with this statement-because where on earth could they have possibly gone?

Anyway, I saw a sign on pinterest that said lost socks...Amazing!  I knew this was something we needed for our laundry room-just because I loved it so much and thought how useful!

I took another piece of spare wood from our pile and got to work.

 

I painted it brown(that is the color my husband wanted it to be)! 
I put a bracket(may not be the correct term, sorry) on the back to hang it to the wall.

I painted Lost Socks on the front.
Last but not least, I glued clothespins to the front of it to clip the socks to.

Yeah! I now have somewhere to put all the non matching socks besides laying on a dresser! Best of all, it was free!

Potty Training

Yep folks it is that time in the Turley household-time to conquer potty training.  Now this was not quite our idea, I probably would have waited until things settled down a bit on the home front.  BUT Elijah came to me the morning my mom was supposed to come in and said he needed to use the potty.  Now he does this on occasion-nothing ever happens.  I do always put him on the potty so he is well aware of what "going potty" means.  This is never a regular thing and this is never something he has actually accomplished.  He usually just sits there for a minute then says all done and goes about his day.  On this particular day, I set him on the potty like usual.  Nothing happened(of course, I'm thinking), and I set him on the floor.  As I'm turning around to leave and get him a new diaper he pees on the floor, REALLY??? He peed and he knew he had to pee! I felt awful, I took him off the potty too soon and now he peed on the floor-totally a mommy fail. I just thought this was the same routine as usual! Nope not the case.  Well since that wonderful morning, we have been potty training. He has shown so much interest in it making it pretty easy on us! I definitely thought it would be a whole lot more difficult.  He has always been one to wait until he is pretty much ready and then there is no turning back.  I never thought folding cute little boy underwear would be fun, but as a mom let me tell you what-there is nothing better(especially when you have 3 in diapers)!

It is a great reminder every time I'm folding a load of laundry that time flies, I mean REALLY FLIES.  I always thought we wouldn't potty train until closer to 3 just because he has always done things at a slower pace, come on he didn't even start walking until he was 20months old so to be potty training not even a year later is amazing to me.  My little man is growing up.  I absolutely can't believe it!  Where is time going, and why won't it slow down?  My baby is not a baby any more and wait I have 2 more babies. AAHHH!

My best advice in this potty training experience so far is-if you have a boy, naked is the way to go! I let him run around the house with no underwear on all the time. For one thing, it saves on laundry and we have talked before about how much I hate laundry. For another thing no accidents.  He only has accidents once he has underwear on.  This is something we are working on, and he has been accident free out in public.  He only has them at home with his underwear on-can't quite figure that one out, but that is ok.  We are just beginning the process and I think we are all having fun! (at least I hope we are all having fun)
I will say his little underwear bum is too cute for words!

Garbage Can

I found this really cool old looking garbage can at Target.  I decided this was something that I would like in our downstairs bathroom, but trying to be frugal and save money where ever I can I decided I could instead make something very similar!

Off to work I went!

I had my husband cut out the pieces of wood.  The wood was 9.5" wide already so that part was easy and I decided I wanted it a foot tall.  Off he went(being the wonderful husband that he is), and cut me 4 12" pieces for the sides.  The then cut another piece at about 9.5" long for the bottom.  I wasn't really look for conventional at this point-just simple!

I nailed all of the sides together with finishing nails that were 1.5" long-could have gone shorter but I couldn't find the 1" nails and I had the kids with me, digging in the other nail buckets so I just went with it.  Greg giggled when I came home with them and said "well at least it will be one really sturdy trash can, can't beat sturdy."  I think it makes him laugh when I do something silly just because I'm in a hurry-but they worked so no complaints here and let me tell you what-it is a VERY sturdy trash can!

I sanded all the sides and tops so they were smooth and I sanded them so the parts around the edges have some slight rounding to them, but nothing major.  Just for a little something extra...Next I put on the bottom.  I just nailed it around the hole on the bottom.  This doesn't cover the whole bottom-but it covers the hole which is all I really care about because I think it gives it a unique feel. 

Now, for the part I love.  I got to stain it.  I love staining and painting things, not sure why but I LOVE it!  I tell Greg I like to remodel the house just because I like to have some paint therapy every once in a while!

Here is the finished project...

Sorry I didn't take any during pictures, I had my 2 year old helping me so between watching nails and little fingers, I wasn't feeling putting a camera in the mix! Although he is a huge helper and I could have gotten some good pictures of him "banging" in the nails(after they were already in of course) This project was a total of $1 instead of the $19.99 the one at target was.  It was $1 because I had to buy nails, we had the wood(from the scrap pile) and the stain. I like the price of $1 much better than $20, don't you??

Busy, busy

Life has been really busy needless to say!  I am waaayy behind on posting to say the least.  I have a lot of things in our life to update people on.  I am hoping to get some good posts moving by this weekend, since both hubby and I will be home! I will say I love having 3 children, although they do keep us hopping, and we are all doing extremely well! I'm not even sure on where to start with these posts but hopefully they will be coming soon!