Bookworm Birthday!

Eleanor just turned 7!  To celebrate we had a little Bookworm Party at the park with some friends and family.  I didn't do a ton for it, but wanted to share a little of what I did do.  If you want to see my inspirations for this party, you can see them on my Pinterst board.

I made invitations to look like library cards.

My frosting job was beyond terrible, because I did it at the park and the cupcakes were sticky, but the fondant books and bookworm we made were really cute.

I used the 3D letter printable from Mr. Printables and glued book pages to the back before cutting out.  It took some reengineering since I made the letters inside out, but it wasn't too hard to figure out.  The worst part was being in the depths of despair from cutting up an "Anne of the Island" book I got from a thrift store.

Since the book was already cut into, I figured I might as well use it to make my wrapping paper and bow.  I love how where the pages meet it looks kind of like ribbon was wrapped there.

Eleanor just devours books (thus the bookworm theme) so we asked that if the guests wanted to bring gifts that they bring books.  She finished reading one of the chapter books in less than a day and a half and it would have been sooner, but we forced her to play at the park.

4th of July Outfits!

See, I don't always use Ottobre Design.  For Fourth of July of weekend, I made my girls and niece some fun matching outfits useing the Sweetheart Halter by Peek-a-boo Patterns.

This is such an easy pattern.  All the pieces are rectangles.  I lengthened my girls' to be dresses and left the baby's as a tunic for ease of crawling.

I even tried making stars in the girls' hair.  Eleanor's is made from braids and Laurel's has twists.  I found the idea on Pinterest.

The tunic needed a diaper cover so I used #7 Tiny Toes Bikini Bottoms from issue 3/2016 of Ottobre Design.  I love the little bows so much.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July!

Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders: Logan's Guitar

At the end of the summer, we were invited to a last minute birthday party and forgot to pick up a gift and one of our nephews' birthday sneaked up on me, so I sewed something up twice, two days in a row (because I wasn't smart enough to remember the next day was my nephew's birthday).  Luckily, Logan's Guitar from Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders was a fast and easy project that turned out pretty cute.  I only wish I had a dowel to stiffen the neck.

2 Little Hooligans Casserole Carrier

Another one of my homemade gifts that I made are casserole carriers.  I made four.  I used the tutorial from 2 Little Hooligans and I did the same changes as suggested by Homemade by Jill.  They were pretty easy  and speedy to put together or at least they would have been fast if I wasn't making four at once.  Another change I made was that I only put Velcro on the flaps that would be on top so that it would have more flexibility for different sized dishes.  I jostled the carrier with a dish in it to make sure it would hold and it did.

I'm really glad I decided to use the cotton webbing.  I think it really helps to break up the pattern.

Now just two more gifts to sew.  I hope I can make it!

Gingercake's Play Mat/ Messenger Bag

This year for Christmas, I'm making most of the gifts.  One of the first ones I got done were for my two nephews.  I wanted a gift that would be fun and practical. I made them a fun car play mat that folds into a messenger bag.  I used the tutorial from Gingercake.

For the main fabric and what would be the roads, used some discarded jeans from my large jean supply.  I had a couple scraps I wanted to use for the "city blocks" from Monaluna's Taali collection.  

I also purchased two more prints to give it more variety and I didn't have enough of the other two.  I found a really cute collection at Hancock Fabrics with cats, dogs and various forms of transportation called M'Liss Pets.  I really wanted to get a couple yards of this one for the girls.

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I learned that I do not like fussy cutting.  It feels too wasteful for me and I can never decide the best place to cut.  Other than that, it was really fast and easy.   I forgot to take a picture of the first one I finished till the morning after I wrapped it, so oh well on that one.

I used some old jeans for the main fabric/streets and an old belt for the handles.  I also used regular snaps instead of magnetic snaps, because I didn't have any.

In the tutorial, she suggested hand sewing the side panels by hand, but my hand sewing is atrocious so I sewing it with my sewing machine with a bobbin of clear thread that would be on the play side.

I love how they turned out.  I hope my nephews get a lot of use out of them!