Jenn Tries...

You know why Mom's are so great, right? Because they can always find the one gift you need, that you never knew you needed. Case in point, this past Christmas, I just asked my mom for money. I had a bunch of miscellaneous things I wanted (and really I'm so indecisive that even I wasn't sure what I really wanted until after Christmas). So my mom happily got me a gift card... but she also got me this: That's right a whole book committed to Pokemon Felties. And I'll admit it, at first I thought it was a little silly. I did like Pokemon in my youth and I do plan on taking Lion to make a Charmander once I get my tax money back. But it didn't mean that I wanted to make little felt Pokemon. And then I started reading the instructions (which if you've read any of my blog posts to this point, you would know I'm really bad at) and I realized that this was actually a solid manual for working with felt in general. And so I knew I had myself a new mini...

Okay so here we go the long promised write up for my Children's play Chritsmas tree (that I finished too late for a Christmas post, so I held it for a year!). For the past couple of years (much to the humor of my father-in-law) I didn't decorate our Christmas tree. Since both of the boys are little and well, I didn't trust them not to have to play (and break) all of my ornaments. (And yes I'm trying out shatterproof ornaments this year. So far the balls are intact, but the tops are being ripped off.) So this year I was wasting time at work on Facebook, when I stumbled upon a play tree project from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I couldn't believe my luck and knew I had to make it for my boys. The Project Create a Christmas Tree for the Boys Instructions from Joann Fabrics Makers Guide (all product links are affliated. So if you like it or need it please use the links and the blog with get a kickback at no expense to you!) Results The project instruc...

Since I often just finish my projects in time for the blog post, I thought for this Throwback Thursday I would give an update on how some projects are fairing. So here we go Project 1: Elbow Patches Here is how my elbow patches turned out: And I left off writing I didn't know how I was going to wash it since I used fabric that shouldn't be washed. Well I actually stopped wearing the sweatshirt for a while before I finally sucked in up and started washing it. And I'm happy to report that after a coupe of times through the wash cycle it is still looking all right. So I guess the solution is not to not wash it, but wear it too often, so it doesn't need to be washed as often. Project 2: Glitter Dipped Mug I hope I made it clear that I created my glitter dipped mug with a sort of homemade approach. (That varied greatly from  White Houes Black Shutters ) So while I was hopefully it would work as well, I was a little nervous that it wo...

I'm about to let you in on a little secret. Most of the stuffed animals we have for the boys were either mine or were gifted from my mother. That would be all but one, actually.  Alf .  That funny looking Alien Life Form belongs to Mike. And he protects Alf like a third son, too. So Alf actually doesn't get played with a lot and spends a lot of time up on a shelf (and if he should make it down, Blue demands he goes back up). So since Christmas is right around the corner, and since Mike and I haven't gotten into Elf on the Shelf , I thought it would be fun to dress Alf up for Christmas. And thus have our very own Alf on the shelf! (And depending on how this goes Alf may be getting dressed up for all holidays from now on) The Project Dress Alf as Santa pattern from Feahter's Flight Results I think I searched pinterest for every version of Stuffed Animal Santa Pattern and I came up with nothing. So I decided to just rework the pattern fro...

I've actually had this project on my radar for a while now. When I first found it Blue was too big for me to turn any of my t-shirts into rompers for him, so I put it on the back burner for baby #2. And well by the time we had Lion and life had settled in, we were well into football season and I'm too superstitious to switch game day shirts mid season. Plus at that time, I still was too nervous to use my sewing machine. So I put it off again. And then while I was looking at projects for this blog I stumbled upon it again. I knew I wanted to try it, but I just didn't know to use to make it. Luckily my friend Megsy got pregnant and I just happened to have a spare Michigan State shirt laying around (I'm an Ohio State fan, so its a very long story why I have a Michigan State shirt at all). So I put two and two together and decided that this would be something nice to make for her and her baby. The Project Turn A T-Shirt into a Baby Romper Instructions from  Fe...

Its no secret that I love my Kitchen aid Stand Mixer. Now that I've started using it, I just can't stop. So while I perusing Pinterest for ideas one day, I stumbled across a project for making a stand mixer bowl cover. I instantly pinned it and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to make it. And I really thought this would be a useful project and something to help me with my sewing skills. And finally I knew there was no other project I wanted to do for this week. The Project Making a Mixer Bowl Cover instructions from  Laura's Craft Life Results I originally wanted my make my entire cover out of some left over red minky fabric I have laying around. But unfortunately I didn't have enough to cover the outside of the bowl, so I decided it might be nice to at add a pop of color to the inside. (I call this mistake number 1). And then for my outside fabric I decided to use up some left over fabric I used on the curtains. (I call this mistake number 2)....

I know, I know. How many more t-shirt upcycles can I possibly find? Apparently the amount is endless. (As is my t-shirt supply right now and we haven't even gotten into my 16 orange shirts that I have somewhere from college!) But for this week I decided that instead of transforming the t-shirt into a new item, that I would try to keep the t-shirt as a shirt only a better, more useful version of it. So below I tried out three different hacks that are supposed to be easy and transform the shirt as well.  The Project Try out a couple t-shirt hacks Results T-shirt Hack #1: Turn Your T-Shirt into a Work Out Tank Instructions from  Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth If you are looking for an easy way to make over your t-shirt, then this is the hack for you.  Unfortunately there are no words with the tutorial, so I just kind of winged it when it came to making my work out tank. I decided that I wanted to make it have a low cut back. (you ca...

I've been promising for a while now that I would start going through old posts and start reworking them. So I decided to start today with one of my most popular upcycle ideas (at least when I use them in public): The t-shirt shopping bag. I wanted to make these bags for a while now, but I knew to make them I would have to learn to use my sewing machine. And well, I like everything to be perfect and when I'm not sure what I'm doing, it completely freaks me out and I don't even want to try. (This is exactly why my sewing machine has collected dust for over three years and why my t-shirts have sat in a box for about as long).  But I knew how important this project was and I knew that if I didn't start using the sewing machine now, I likely never would. So here we go...  trying to make some t-shirt shopping bags! Experiment Upcycle T-shirt into Reusable Shopping Bags Instructions from  ReFabulous! Results I think the best way to start this pro...

Way back at the end of June, I shared my monthly upcycle project of turning T-shirts into shopping bags. Well after having (and frequently using) mine for a little over a month now, I made a couple of updates. T-Shirt Bag Update 1: Produce Bags (inspiration from  Sewtorial ) All right I guess the are two ways at approaching a t-shirt produce bags. You can either flip your t-shirt around and cut off the sleeves in a circular shape and cut handles in the bottom (like seen in the link above). Or I just used a couple of smaller t-shirts I had (I think they were size 3T shirts that I had used to dress up my stuffed tiger in college and Blue never wants to wear them. So I took them back and made something out of them). I made mine completely different, but I think the result is very similar.  I just cut them and sewed them together like I was making a larger t-shirt bag. And then I cut holes. I tried to keep my holes on the small side. (and I cut around the logo...