Scrappy Skirt

Today I'm going to show you the scrappy skirt.  Its perfect for all of those small pieces of fabric you have laying around.  Its so quick and fun and the possibilities are endless.

I thought it would be fun to let me little one help out and pick her favorite fabric for her new skirt.  Well that can be pretty tough...

.

but so fun!

she decided on 5 but we narrowed it down to 3 and 1 solid color. 

First cut your solid color to the the width of your skirt-I did selvage to selvage for my little 4 year old or another way I like to make my skirts is measure the waist and then double it.    It gives it a fun twirly effect that any little girls loves. Make make the solid color as long as you want -don't forget to add about an inch for casing and seam.

 Next decide how wide you want your panels and then decide how many you will need to meet the width of your skirt-don't forget to calculate seam allowance.   Mine are about 6" wide and I cut six. add about 1 inch to the length for top and bottom seam. 

Alternate your patterned fabric and sew right sides together to make one long row

 

 you should have something like this.

 next sew your solid color to the bottom of your panels right sides together. 

Now fold your skirt in half right sides together and sew the two end panels together to create a long tube. 

Hem the bottom of your skirt and make a casing, add elastic to skirt. (I forgot to take pictures on a couple of steps but I have a similar skirt here-with better pictures and a little more detail if you want to check it out.)

Here's the finished skirt!

Patriotic pillows

I love to decorate for holiday's but I don't really have the budget or the storage space to go all out for every singe one.  My solution pillows and pillow covers.  They are quick to make, inexpensive, can be made for any theme, easy to change any time, and they are pretty easy to store. 

The Fourth of July is coming up and I needed some decorations so I pulled out some red, white, and blue fabric scraps and went to work. I had just enough to make an adorable patchwork pillow.  If you can sew a straight line you can make this! add a little stuffing and it's ready to go.

With the left over scraps from the first pillow I was able to make a cute bunting design to add to this envelop style pillow cover.  Again minimal sewing, an old pillow, and a clever way to make the perfect letters (quick and easy of course!) completes this pillow. 

First I cut a few triangles for the corner

 On my computer I sized and printed out the words

 pin it under your fabric

 use a sharpie and start tracing the letters and coloring it in.  (you can also use paint or a paint pen)

 don't forget to draw the line behind your bunting.

 sew your bunting, and the back of your pillow (either envelope style or you can stuff it)

With the basics of these two pillow styles and your choice of fabric, makes decorating for any room or holiday easy and fun!

Craft Room Inspiration

Right now my craft room is a disaster.  I had this grand idea to pull everything out and organize it a couple of months ago umm yeah months.  And then life got busy and it was  never finished and just continued to get messier and messier.  So this week I'm working on my craft room so I actually have somewhere to craft.  So to waste a little more time, wait I mean find inspiration, here are some beautiful craft rooms.

found through pinterest

found here

found here

Next 3 found here

found here

Heather Bailey's studio-found here

What are some of your favorite craft rooms?  Do you have a craft room (I'd love to see pictures)?  Any organizing tips?

Easy Frames

Idea and instructions can be found here.

Easy frame makeover

Do you remember my shelf makeover I shared last week?  Today I'm going to show you how I made the frames (Its super easy!)

You need a wooded frame (needs to be flat).  I bought these at a yard sale buy you can find them at any craft store and even Walmart for about $1.  Paint the edges and let it dry.

 Pick some cute scrapbook paper and lay it face down on your table. then lay your frame face down on your paper and trace the edges.  Cut the paper out.  I used spray adhesive to glue my paper to my frame but mod podge would work as well. 

I used a printable from here for one frame

 and pictures of my girls for the other one.

Its quick and easy and can fit in any room depending on the paper you pick.

Free Owl Printables

I know many of you decorate your daughters rooms with owls so I thought I would share the printables I made with you.  Right click and save to your computer.  They are made to print 8.5 x 11 I centered them to print perfectly as an 8x10.  Let me know if you have any questions or trouble saving them.

*Made with My Memories software.  Don't forget to enter to win your own software here.

Choices and Consequences Sharing time or FHE idea

I thought I would share what I am doing for sharing time tomorrow in case anyone need a last minute idea or it would be really fun to use for Family Night. 

I printed out the words choices and consequences and taped each to the end of a stick (mine was actually a light saber)  Quickly explain that we have the wonderful gift of agency and are able to make our own choices.  However that doesn't mean we can do anything we want with out consequences.  Pick up the one side of the stick and show that it effects the other side.  (This is from the sharing time manual)
I'm then going to tell them how much I love ice cream shops and getting to pick my favorite flavors.  Then display my ice cream cone (just cut one from paper).  Then show my 8 scoops of ice cream. (I used the template from here).  On the back I have a different scenario of a choice some one made.  Take turns having a child come up and pick a flavor of ice cream.  Read the scenario on the back and have them tell you the consequences that would follow.  Add the ice cream scoop to the cone.  See how big you can build it!

*I'll add pictures after we use this for family night on Monday :)

Here are the scenarios I came up with:

You see a new girl at school sitting by herself.  You decide to go ask her to play.

Your mom asks you to clean your room and you quickly do it.

Your mom is cooking dinner and your little sister is crying.  You decide to read a book to her.

You are walking home from school.  You know you are supposed to go straight home but you decide to stop and swing at the park for a few minutes.

During primary you thought of a funny story and told your friend.

During a spelling test at school you couldn’t remember how to spell a word so you peeked at your neighbors test.

After you are already in bed and the lights turned off you remember you forgot to say a prayer.  You quickly jump out of bed and say a prayer.

You are playing outside and you see your dad is pulling weeds.  You ask him if you can help.