Alphabet Tree

We have just started using the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Part of it involves putting letters on a tree like in the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  

I'm not much of a fan of palm trees, so I decided to make my own deciduous tree.  I tried free handing one, but I didn't like the look of it at all.  I searched Pinterest  for "diy wall tree" and found a free template that I could use.  I wish I could have painted it like it was intended, but I didn't want something so permanent.  I had thought about tracing it on some cardboard, but the image in my head didn't look so great, so I used construction paper.

Since construction paper is larger than printer paper, I printed it on printer paper, taped it and cut it out.  Then I traced it onto brown construction paper taped together and cut it out.  Then I taped it to the wall and cut out all the leaves from green construction paper and taped them up.  Other than being able to see all that tape, I really like it.  It is super cute and perfect for our school room.

Mom Shirt Re-purposed to Kid Pajamas

This is one of my recent projects I thought would be fun to share today since tomorrow is Earth Day.  It is a good re-purpose project.  

One of the shirts I've had for quite some time decided to develop a hole near the hem so I thought it would be fun to turn it into pajamas for Eleanor (although with all her growth spurts lately they should probably be going to Laurel already).  I tried to find a picture of it in it's first life, but couldn't so you only get to see Eleanor.

It was one of those kinds a shirts made to look layered.  I seam ripped off the tan deer long sleeved section and used another pair of pajama bottoms to get the right cut for the top part of the leggings and used fold over elastic at the waist.  I used a pajama top to cut out the main part of the shirt.  I made sure to use the neck as is, because I'm not too fond of doing binding.  For the sleeves, I left the hem intact and just cut off all the old seams, then gathered it and sewed on.  The bottom of the shirt was left not hemmed to give it more length (needed thanks to a growth spurt).

They are some pretty fun pajamas.  I love the deer and apple tree!  I just need to figure out more clothing for her or rather find more time to sew more clothing for her and apparently Laurel is going through some spurts of her own.

Eleanor's Bag for Dance Class

I made Eleanor a bag for her ballet and tap shoes. This one turned out much bigger than the picture led me to believe, but it is still really nice, so I adopted it, especially since she has refused to continue going to class.  Despite being gigantic on her, she loves it.  As soon as I finished, she started filling it with all sorts of toys.  

I used the tutorial from here and the fabric I used was Richloom Trixie in Crocus. .  It was really easy and gave me no troubles at all.

New Ironing Board Cover

For a while now, I've been wanting to replace my ironing board cover.  It was looking a bit on the grungy side, so much I refuse to show a picture of it.  I get the newsletters from Sew Can She and one day she featured a tutorial on making a new cover.  The tutorial is from Sweet Verbena.

I ended up making it twice, thanks to a stupid mistake I made on the first one (apparently remembering what marks you made for what is important).  The second time, I made sure to buy a piece of fabric that was plenty large enough so that I didn't have to piece anything together.  I love how pretty it is!

I'm so glad those scorch marks and water stains are a thing of the past!