Reverse Applique

 Reverse applique is a technique I have never tried, but have always been interested by it.  As with most of my projects I mull them over in my mind before I try to do them--this project has been in my mind for a while.  When I was visiting my family a few weeks ago my mom had a basket full of clothes ready for donation.  I went through the pile and found a red mock turtle neck-just typing turtle neck makes me feel hot.  It was the perfect color of red for my little guy and I whipped this out...

His birthday is in a few days and he is ALL boy-anything super hero, trains, cars, or dirt fascinates him.  I thought about wrapping this cape up for his birthday-but couldn't resist to see his reaction now.  He loved it and even wanted to wear it to show his sister when we picked her up from school.

He hasn't taken it off today-even to eat lunch, color, or play outside.  I cut the back out and kept the collar of the shirt attached and uncut-so he can just slip it on and off.  It still worries me that it can choke him-but it only took me 15 minutes to complete- and I think he will take it off when it starts to bother his neck.

When we picked up his older sister from school she asked for one too.  We scavenged through my clothing stash and found a shirt to make a girl-superhero cape.

Blue/silver stripe with a pink "S"

Now I have two superheroes in the house

The fun thing about the capes is that it makes them want to run and jump-I love things that motivate movement.

This is my favorite picture-I love his arms moving, his feet obviously in motion, and the shadow to the left of his face and hands

If you are looking for superhero symbols I found this great website

Side Tie Shorts

I found this pattern, at craftpassion.com, a few weeks ago and whipped out a pair for my little girl.  I lengthened the shorts (maybe a little too much) they are more capri's now.

Her teacher even commented on them.  They aren't too hard to sew and make for a great summer outfit.

Soft Yummy PB Cookies

It has been awhile since I posted a recipe.  I made these a few days ago and wanted to share the yummy recipe.  I promise these are soft and they stay soft (even if you leave them on the pan for a full day-still soft)

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C Shortening

1 C PB

1 C Sugar

1 C Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

Mix until well blended

2 1/2 C Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

Mix just until blended

Chill Dough

Preheat oven to 375

Roll into walnut sized balls used flour fork to press dough in criss-crosses or

use an unwrapped kiss to press the cookies down and bake with kiss in middle.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

 Enjoy!

Just a Note

Have you noticed a few sponsored posts lately?  My hubby and I are really trying to get out of debt and I have found some way to bring in a little extra money to help with my projects.  So enjoy my regular projects and posts, but note that I have started posting other (non-project) posts here and there.  It is my intention to not post anything that I don't agree with or would drive people away from my blog-so keep reading and enjoy the projects as they come.

Have a great weekend!

Pink Pillows

My little girl loves her duvet cover.  She has made her bad more often and seems to be more careful about what she puts on her bed.  Her bedroom is at the top of the stairs and it's the first thing you see when you walk upstairs-it bothered me that it was missing some fun pillows.

Aren't they cute?

Before...

After

It's not much.  I didn't want to put too many pillows on there because I'm terrified she will suffocate-I've walked in and seen her face right up against a pillow with not much breathing room.  She know they are decorative pillows and shouldn't be on there to sleep with-she watches me take off my pillows every night.

For the small pink flower pillow I made the pleated flowers the same way I did on the duvet cover, with more layers.

This fabric is from Home Fabrics. I found it for $2.50 a yard.

The edge has some striped fabric to give it a little detail.

It wasn't quite complete without a soft animal.  After finishing this bed I'm excited to sew the duvet cover for my little guy.  I have a fun idea that might have something to do with this project.

Bam! Pow! Whap!

A local fabric store is going out of business.  I have only gone twice to the clearing out sale because I know my bank account would suffer seriously.  One of the times I went my two year old was pointing out all the fun things around the store.  He almost started hyperventilating when he saw the DC comic fabric-Superman & Batman.  To my knowledge he has only seen one cartoon batman show at a neighbors house and has never seen a Superman show-but this kid loves his superheroes.  So I gave in and purchased some awesome fabric, normally I don't buy characterized fabric-I want my things to be more classic.

 I was happy that the batman fabric looked more like the old school batman-not a dark and evil batman.

 

 So in about 15 minutes I whipped these pillow cases out.

It's so easy to sew things for my girl and easier to find super sales for the boy clothes-does anyone else feel like this too?

And made up some shorts (hopefully he will let me wash these at some point)
When I could sew something my little guy would love I was excited.

After he saw the pillowcases he pulled them down to the family movie night and had to make sure it was next to him the entire time.

It sure made going to bed a little more exciting, at least for one night.

 Do you think it's like wearing socks with sandals if he wears Spiderman with Superman?

August Wreath

I loved my patriotic wreath, but didn't want to have red white and blue for the rest of the summer.

 While my SIL was visiting she helped me fold, staple and cut out different colored paper bursts.

 The white wrapped around the wreath is crepe paper-I have a covered porch so I don't need to worry about it getting wet.  My favorite part about this project is that I had everything on hand.  The summery colors bring a smile to my face every time I come home.

Express Jeans Giveaway

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Express. All opinions are 100% mine.

 I have always had good "birthing hips" a small waist, and a "ghetto booty"- it's a combination that makes it hard to find jeans that fit.  My roommate in college introduced me to Express jeans. I was amazed that the jeans were long enough, fit my hips and waist perfectly and made me look like I spent hundreds on them.  Who doesn't want to find the perfect fitting jeans?

My favorites are the Flare jeans

They are perfect and make my long legs seem super model long--Always good for slimming my hips.  Even after having two kids I still want to show off my curves and Express women's jeans have many different styles to do so.

Jean leggings are practical and slimming too.  I love the versatility of wearing a tunic with them, or boots over the leggings in the fall-always a classic.

Why I'm I telling you about Express Jeans?  Because they are having an Express giveaway .  Follow the link and just like them on Facebook.  They are giving away 50 pairs of jeans.  Once you like them on Facebook you can earn more entries by getting your friends to like them too-so simple and a great prize too.

So tell me, which jeans do you love and why?

You Get What You Get

My SIL was here for a few days while her hubby, my brother, attended a sign painting workshop.  He has been learning the trade of hand painting signs-an art that most people probably don't know still exists.

O's-hard to get perfect

My brother didn't paint this sign-he earned it by printing some business cards-but it is an impressive sign.

At the workshop he started this sign.  Isn't it awesome?  His company is called Voila Press.  He explained the many processes he did to get just to this point.  Gold leafing, sand blasting, acid erosion--all technical stuff.  By the way if you need some letterpressing, sign painting and many other things my little brother is very talented and always looking for work.  So as a gift for my birthday while at the above mentioned workshop he whipped out this little sign for me...

It's what I say to my children-at least once a day.  I'm excited to hang it up, probably in the kitchen.

I love that I can still see the drafting lines-something you don't get with vinyl.

Pin-It Up Thursday=Ruffle Dress

I'd like to start something new here at the Project Corner.  First let me explain something, Pinterest seems to be the current buzz word of the blogosphere.  I love it because:

1. Eye candy

2. I feel organized

3. Great ideas with included links

It's like starring all your favorite posts in Google reader, but having them organized into folders with an instant visual reminder of what you have in that folder.  And when you pin something it usually has the link to the original source-so you can get the tutorial or any other information.  My only complaint is that swear words pop up on pins-and I wish I could filter those out.

So on to my "something new."  I've seen several Pinterest Challenges and will probably participate in some, but I wanted to start to share projects that I have pinned and redone in my own way.   This may be weekly or monthly or bi-monthly-but it will be posted only on Thursdays.  So for my first

Pin-It Up Thursday project:

Inspiration~

 My SIL has a dress similar to this, she wore it to church while visiting us last Sunday.  I analyzed the dress and Monday afternoon this image popped up on Pinterest.  I really wanted to sew this dress in a linen or cotton, but I didn't have any of that on hand and didn't have the funds to get more material.  I found some grey waffle knit in my stash and used the Coffee Date dress pattern.

My Version~

 Ruffles, sleeves and length.

Here's what I did...

Duvet Cover

This project has been on my project list for a long time.  I bought the sheets at Ikea last year.  At first I thought of doing a ruffled cover-but it just wasn't going that way when I started to put things together.

My sister-in-law was out for a few days and she helped me put it all together.

I used the excess material from one of the sheets.

Here's what her bed looked like before (I should show you the pile of toys that she puts on her bed every night-it helps her fall asleep to play)

 After-I have several pillows that I need to finish up, I'll post those when I complete them.

A close up of one of the flowers.  Each of the flowers has a big white button in the middle.

The back of the duvet cover has 5 buttons that match the buttons on the front.

 

 On each corner in the inside I sewed ties.

The comforter has places for the ties-it's what makes it so the comforter doesn't get all bunched up.

Each of the flowers stems is made out of bias tape-just like this dress.  I pinned the design down and zig-zagged it.

 My SIL and I debated whether or not to put 3 or 5 flowers-we decided on three because it is only a twin size and the flowers that I am planning on putting on a pillow will help balance it out.

 One more shot-love how sweet and simple it is.