Lil’s first birthday is quickly approaching.  She puts everything in her mouth.  I wanted her to have a party hat she could chew on and I wouldn’t have to fish pieces of it from her mouth. I found a few tutorials for sewing fabric party hats.  One used interfacing, and the other used a serger.  I have a lowly Minimatic that is as old as I am.  I used the pattern from Jane of all Trades, and made my own mash of directions.

1. I made a cereal box template from the Jane of all Trades pattern so I could sew these for everyone at the party if I acquire more Wonder Under and get some crazy burst of energy.
2. Using the template, cut Wonder Under & reclaimed blue jeans to the pattern size.
3. After ironing the Wonder Under to the wrong side of your top fabric, cut it out.
4. You should only have 2 pieces now.  Put the right sides together.
5. Pin the elastic where it was marked on the pattern.
   
6. Stitch nearly 1/2″ around the curved edge.  Back stitch over the elastic to make sure it’s secure.
7. Remove the paper from the Wonder Under.  Otherwise you will be cursing as you try and pull the little papers from along the seam you snipped.
8. Snip along the curved edge.  Every 1/2″ will do.  I tend to get a little carried away and snip more frequently.
9. Turn your wrong sides together.
10. Press according to the Wonder Under directions.  Damp cloth, 10 seconds, iron to dry it a bit.  Try not to iron the elastic.
11. Make a cute ribbon pom for the top.
    
12. Fold the hat in half with the outside fabric facing in.
13. Place the pom in the tip of the hat, pointing toward the curved edge, upside down, pin.
    
14. Stitch up the straight side.  Make sure to sew the pom in well.
    
15. Turn the hat right side out and admire your handy work.  Press the seam to one side.  Give yourself lots of praise for how cute it turned out.
16. Find your little and try it on them.  Tie a knot in the elastic because even though you measured it, it’s still too long.
    

These could be embellished and made super cute for an older crowd; think fuzzy boa stuff!  I’m keeping it simple for the 1 year old.  I’m still keeping my eye out for some cute ribbon to add detail along the bottom of the hat, but it’s pretty darn cute even without it.

Nearly a year ago when it started getting nice out it was getting harder and harder to get our son to sleep.  We went on a search for kid’s blackout curtains.  We found some at Target, but they were not exactly what we were looking for.  I shopped JoAnn’s for fabric and didn’t find anything I liked until near the end of the summer.  I purchased the fabric and then found the perfect tutorial for making blackout tab top curtains!  The fabric has set in my closet in a bag since then; until today.  I’m washing the fabric, measuring the windows, and reading the instructions over and over again so I can finally get the curtains ready for this summer.

I purchased the fabric before I had a pattern, measured the windows, or knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I bought plenty of the cute leaf pattern for the curtains, but I only bought 2 yards of the cute contrasting owls.  I thought the owls would be too much as curtains.  My son loved the owls as soon as he saw them.  He was much more interested in them than the leaves.  I can’t blame him, they really are cute.  I figured JoAnn would be all sold out since nearly a year has past since I first purchased the fabric.  I called the store before I drove out there.  They still had the owl fabric, enough for me to make curtains and have some to play with!

I was intimidated by the many long straight cuts I’d have to make to piece together the panels.  I found a technique that worked great for me.  We have laminate flooring so I cleared and cleaned a large area to work on.  I folded the fabric where I would need to cut.  I carefully measured the length of the fold and pinned it in place.  Then I pulled my scissors through keeping everything as even as possible.  It worked great!

I still need to finish the panel for the other window.  All the pieces are cut and the right color thread is in the machine.  I keep hoping I’ll get an energy boost before baby sister gets here.

My little man has the scrawniest waist.  He’s three, 40 inches tall, and his waist is only 18 inches.  Finding pants that fit him is hard.  I snagged two shirts my husband was going to get rid of to turn into some soft pants for him.  I thought I could make a pattern from an existing pair of pants, but I had trouble with that.

I used Butterick pattern B5510 Large and modified the pattern for pant D.  I cut out the large size, leaving extra length to the bottom of the pattern paper.  Then I took in the width, 1.5″ at the waist and 1.25″ at the cuff.  I was able to fit the pattern in the body of the shirt and use the existing hem for the cuffs; yea for less sewing!  Since I didn’t need to hem the pants, I lined up the bottom of the XL length on the pattern with the shirt hem.  Then I mostly followed the pattern directions.  I left out the elastic around the cuffs and the stripes down the side.

My son was excited to try on his new soft pants.  I am excited to move several pair of 24 month pants out of rotation; they were much too short!

My son has been noticing paint brushes; on TV, on signs, and outside the local art Gallery.  We had a couple yucky days this week.  After reading a post from Ashley Ann, I felt brave enough to take the plunge.  I covered the kitchen table with an old shower curtain and got my box of paints out.  I told him he could pick 3 colors.  To my delight he chose the primary colors.  He was a natural at dual wielding paint brushes.  He had so much fun.  He asked to paint again when he woke up from his nap; so we did.