Tutu Cute!

My good friend Jennifer asked me to make her Little Cutie a tutu skirt which of course I was thrilled to do! It's so fun to make frilly pink stuff! I had never made a tutu before so I scoured the Internet for tutu how-tos. I found TONS of tutorials for making a no sew tutu, but her daughter is 2 and if she is anything like my littlest Munchkin, she will have her tutu untied in no time. So I just decided to wing it. Kinda like I usually do. Most of my sewing is total trial and error and if it weren't for all the awesome crafty bloggers out there who are way better than me giving me free tutorials, it would probably be mostly error. Here is what I did. It probably wasn't the "correct" way to do it, but I'm really happy with the results!

First I took my three colors of pink shiny tulle from Hobby Lobby (1 yard of each) and folded them all together into about a 12 inch wide stack. I cut all the folds and then cut strips about 4 inches wide. Sorry, I didn't measure, just eyeballed it.

Then I took 2 strips of the same color and folded an inch over on the short end and sewed a casing.

I did that for the whole stack of strips. Take 2 of the same color, fold, sew casing.

Then I took some 3/4 inch elastic and threaded it through the casings. I went white, light pink, hot pink, but the pattern is up to you! I pushed it all on so the tutu was nice and gathered then sewed the elastic together.

I LOVE how it turned out!

I decided to make a little pair of matching trunks too ( I call em spanky pants, but people look at me weird) I can't wait to see how they look on Jen's Little Miss!

Linking up at these awesome parties!

Before and After...Sort of

Last week my Hubby bought a couple cans of black spray paint for a project he was working on, and ended up only using one of them. Which made for a very happy Wifey, since I had a few projects of my own to do! I recently went shopping in my parents' garage (thanks Mom and Dad!) and found an old blue wooden coffee cup tree that used to be in their kitchen when I was growing up. It had definitely seen better days. I found some other stuff too, but that's for another day.

First, I took this down...

and painted the frame. Much better. The colors really pop now!

Ok, so I realized when I was getting the pictures together for the next part of this post that I broke the cardinal rule of Before and Afters. I KINDA forgot to take before pictures. Yeah, major fail. But I can assure you that the after looks way better!

A few coats of glossy black spray paint and things are looking up!

Here's the end result and I LOVE it now! I also painted my paper towel holder to match, it used to be plain old natural wood. It looks so nice now with my white mugs and sugar bowl (which I forgot to put in the pic). See my sad knife block back there? That's getting a makeover too, but not black. I'm thinking maybe a rusty red-ish to coordinate with my valances. I really like this one from Infarrantly Creative.

Only problem? I don't have a Silhouette. Big sad face...Maybe a stencil, or scrapbook paper and ModPodge...I guess I'll have to experiment a little. Any suggestions?

More Pretty Canvas Bags!

It's funny how things happen. On a whim I made this cute Canvas Tote Bag as a gift for my daughter's dance teacher.

I really liked how it turned out so I listed it in my Etsy shop, MissNicoleCreates! I also posted it on my Facebook page and the response has been awesome! I have since added pockets to the lining and a zipper closure. These are my latest bags, for a good friend of mine, Jennifer. Hope you like them Jenn!

Linking up at these awesome parties!

Pre-Shirred Fabric!

Ok, so I'm in love with elastic thread. I've made half a dozen little sundresses now using it and absolutely love how cute they come out with so little effort. Then I saw pre-shirred, pre-hemmed dresses right off the bolt at my local Walmart. All you have to do is cut the width you need, sew up the back, and add straps. If you want them. You don't even have to do that if you like strapless dresses. Waaayyyy to easy, I felt like I was cheating, but I'll admit it was super gratifying to have two adorable dresses for my girls done in like 15 minutes. And it only took me that long because I had to change thread colors! And then we got to have fun playing outside and have a little photo shoot. (It was really sunny out, and my littlest munchkin couldn't keep her eyes open, she looks either sleepy or sad in almost all the pics!)

See? Way to easy, just sewn up the back and ribbon for straps!

Linking up at these awesome parties!

Happy Birthday!

Today we celebrated our twins' 4th birthday. The birth of these beautiful boys changed our lives forever. They may have given me my fair share of gray hairs, and some days I may look at them and think "how in the world am I going to survive this?" but at the end of the day when I look back at all the silly, cute, smart, amazing things they did and said, I wouldn't change a thing!

Happy Independance Day!

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful 4th of July! My family sure did. July 4th is also my Mom's birthday so we celebrate double every year, whoo hoo! It was so nice to get together with family and friends, eat yummy cheeseburgers and hotdogs, (thanks Dad!), and swim all day long. And what's a birthday/ 4th of July party without cake?

Homemade chocolate cake with buttercream icing, YUM! I might have snuck a second helping....ssshhh, don't tell!

Happy Birthday Mom/Grammy/Gramma/Mangie! (that's not mangy like a dog, lol, but a hard G sound...it's how my 2 year old says Grammy :)