How to turn a tank top into a nursing tank

This is one of those projects that takes for-ever. Not to be confused with just forever- but for-EVER! I have been working on it here & there for almost 2 months. Its a project that would only take a couple hours total (minus the dying part) but I suppose it's the fact that I had a newborn & a toddler this summer that set me back on 'production' time. (like how I made it sound like I produce things? Big & important sounding........or not.)

Anyway.

How to turn a shelf bra tank into a nursing tank.

OR I could call the first part of this tutorial 'how to replace the straps on your favorite tank top'

Ok here we go.

If you know me in real life you know I have a slight addiction to shelf bra tanks. I have pretty much worn one everyday for nearly 10 years now. Love. Them. Well when I was pregnant with Little Man I bought a couple of Old Navy's maternity ones (the length is perfect for non-pregnant ladies to by the way). Well apparently after wearing them for 3 years the straps had had enough and started coming apart.

Not wanting to get rid of them just because the straps were falling apart I figured I could replace the straps. But before replacing the straps I decided to dye the top pink. Why? Because I had dye & I could. Hehehe

Then I cut the straps off the tank top

(sorry for the blurry photos I had to take these with my phone)

Here is where you can skip ahead to the strap replacement part if you aren't making a nursing tank.
So then I cut apart the neckline on the front only of the tank top.

Ok if you skipped ahead here's where you want to jump back in.

To make a cute little strap to replace the ones we removed you will need a strip of fabric that is 4 times as wide as you want your strap. So if you wanted a 1/2 inch wide strap you need your fabric to be 2 inches wide. The length is from the front of the tank top over your shoulder and to the back of the tank top plus a little extra for seam allowance. You will need two pieces that are these sizes.

This is the strap material right side down.

Fold it in half lengthwise and iron.

Open it up. Then take each long edge and fold/iron it to meet in the center.

Next fold it in half again and iron.

This is the finished width of your strap. Sew along the edge using a small seam allowance.

If you are not making a nursing tank then attach the straps to the outside of the tank top where you cut off the original straps folding both sort ends under and sewing a square with an X in the center. Add a button as decoration if you'd like. You are done!

If you are making a nursing tank top then you need to attach the straps to the back of the tank tucking the short end under and using the square with an X in center method. Then also attach it to the front but only on the fabric that is closer to your body (in other words not the fabric that is the outside of the tank top.)

Next take some of these:

And hand sew (I know-yuck!) the eye part to your new strap on the front and the hook part to the outside fabric.

You can see in that picture that I sewed some of the extra strap fabric to the front of the tank top- I did this to add some structure before sewing on the hook since the fabric was pretty flimsy. When you see the final product you will see how it looks like a continuation of the strap.

After that all you need to do is try on your tank top, unhook both sides so the front flap falls down and mark where you will need to cut your nursing openings. Then cut a slit in a shape like two facing parenthesis: () on each side.

If your tank top is a jersey material like mine you won't need to hem the raw edges because it won't fray. If it isn't jersey then go ahead and hem all raw edges.


Then you are all done! Wear it alone in the summer, under a cute shrug in the fall/spring and even under a sweater in the winter (just pull up the sweater to nurse.) You can remove the hooks and sew the front flap back to the back flap and have a regular tank top again when you are done nursing too!

mouse over image to see before and after:

There you have it! Let me know if you have any questions & if you make one I'd love to see it!
Have A Happy Day,


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Pro-CRAFT-ination. Do you have it?

I tweeted earlier today that I had 'pro-CRAFT-ination' and it really got me thinking. I have a LOT of projects 'in process' right now and I can't seem to finish them before starting a new one.

I once heard that procrastination is the worst form of perfectionism- it's the paralyzing fear that if it's not going to be perfect why even start? Or you are too nervous it won't turnout perfect you can't even start. I believe I have pro-CRAFT-ination because I'm not afraid to start a new craft project but once it is underway I can't finish it because of this underlying fear that it won't turn out exactly as I envisioned it- aka: perfectly.

Yeah totally realized all that from a tweet.

SO I've decided to list all my unfinished projects here in a post and I hope to check in with you all weekly and be able to cross a project off! I need motivation to get 'er done! (ok that was totally lame and cheesy but I'm leaving it in!)

Here is my monstrous list:

1. Bathroom floor to be painted & sealed
2. Completely empty old craft room & put it into windowless room.
3. Move Lil Man into old craft room
4. Strip & repaint nursery room door & frame (lead paint detected)
5. Paint nursery walls.
6. Lay nursery floor. (currently plywood)
7. Try to reconfigure crib.
8. Make curtains for nursery
9. Make mobile.
10. Make Lil Man curtains
11. Finish lining living room curtains
12. Make playroom curtains
13. Finish fabric storage for playroom
14. Sew Velcro to play kitchen curtains to hang them.
15. Tank top refashion
16. Maxi dress refashion
17. Doggie door painting & install
18. Train table
19. Old window into craft room storage
20. Paint new countertop to match my painted laminate counters.
21. Finish sanding & sealing kitchen floor.
22. Paint trim, stair risers, & railings in dining room
23. Paint kitchen
24. Paint new light for dining room & hang
25. Make Miss E some dresses
26. Strip wallpaper & paint on hallway.
27. Type up & digi-scrap my recipes.

Ok there is more than that but I can't make you read forever. Just a note- most of the curtain projects & paint projects I haven't started yet so maybe I don't have pro-craft-ination on those.
Do you ever have pro-craft-ination? What one project have you been putting off just finishing??

Alright that's all I can type out on my iPhone right now lol! Sorry for the lack of photo- it wouldn't let me add one because I'm using a phone. Hopefully I'll remember to log onto my computer tomorrow to add links & pictures!


Oh and in case you noticed the slow down of posts: I took an unofficial and unplanned bloggy break & rested up while enjoying my babies!!

Have a happy Day,

Guest Post: A Few Short Cuts- a tutorial!

This is a guest post by Amanda Carlisle from A Few Short Cuts. She shows you how to save time and money in the kitchen and at the store with her recipes, coupons and more. She is a stay at home mom of 3, and loves to craft!




Back to School is just around the corner and I wanted to share this craft project with you guys. If you have a sewing machine and can sew a straight line, you can totally make this. I do not pretend to be a seamstress, or know how to sew anything but a straight line. Straight lines can get you pretty far in the world of sewing if you ask me, or my family. So far straight lines have gotten us pillows, curtain panels, and several crafts in between.

This time my straight lines made a grocery bag. Not just an ordinary grocery bag. A grocery bag made out of Capri Sun Pouches; empty of course! Did you know that you can not recycle a juice pouch? They just go sit in a landfill somewhere. Since I am trying to teach my crew not to be wasteful, we are re-purposing those pouches into a nifty grocery bag. Now, not only did we save pouches from a landfill, but we won’t need to use the bags from the store! Did I mention that it is super cute too?

What you will need

• 42 Empty Juice Pouches (easier to do than you would think)
• Sewing machine
• Thread (of course)
• 1” - 2" wide ribbon for handles

You are going to want to make sure the pouches have been washed thoroughly. The best way is to make a slit it the bottom and wash with dish soap! Then, Start by sewing 2 pouches together. Overlap them just slightly and do a zig zag stitch the whole way down.

This is how you will sew all of the pouches together. It is super simple. I used this as a lesson to teach my daughter how to use the sewing machine.

 

This is what the seam will look like

Now, to put the bag together you will need to assemble the different pieces. You will need the following...

• A Front 4 Pouches wide by 3 Pouches Tall (12 total)
• A back 4 Pouches wide by 3 Pouches Tall (12 total)
• 2 Sides 2 Pouches wide by 3 Pouches Tall (6 for each) (12 total)
• A Bottom 2 Pouches by 3 Pouches (6 total)

You can see all of the pieces above!

Now, for assembly.



Begin sewing each side to the bottom. Once they are all attached it will look like this.



Now this is the point where I goofed! I will tell you plain as day! I goofed! I should have sewn the handles on now, but did I?? NOPE! I waited until the bag was all finished, and it was a pain in the butt! Don't be like me! Sew your handles on now....You will thank me for my mistake later! :)

All you have to do is pin the 1"-2" wide ribbon to the inside of the front and back panels. Stitch in a square pattern to hold in place securely.

Back to what I did!

After the handles are attached, Sew the sides together! This is really simple.

That is it you should now have a finished grocery bag!

So far I have heard the following perks to making my own bag!

• It looks really cute!
• It smells really good (fruit punch I am guessing)
• It insulates well (added bonus)
• It is really sturdy!

So, start saving those pouches from the lunch boxes and make your own grocery bag!

Isn't that just the cutest idea? I wonder if it has 'insulating' properties (i.e. could be used as your 'meats' or 'frozen' items bag?) 
Thanks so much  Amanda for the awesome tutorial!

Have a happy day,

Sewing Baby Things!

Hello all! Here's post #2 about all the baby items I've been sewing! No tutorials today- just sharing! :) I would say I am 'done' sewing for now but I keep finding more projects I want to try (I'll list the links to everything that is still on my list at the bottom of the post.).

Here is everything laid out on my table...makes me smile!

First I dyed some onesies & a couple old t-shirts (you'll see where I used those in a minute!)

Then I made 4 bassinet sheets for my bassinet that is an odd size & the store bought sheets are $15 EACH! So I took apart an old dust ruffle & used the center part for the 4 sheets! I used the measuring instructions from here to figure out the size I needed then followed the tutorial. They are super snug and I'm confident they will work great!

Then I did some freezer paper stenciling (two different tutorials at those links-both good!) on a t-shirt for Little Man & on a Onesie for the baby. Then I went a step further and used some of the t-shirt I dyed earlier and made a onesie dress using this tutorial. I think they came out SO cute! The font for the words is called 'Pupcat'. The turtle and bird images are from an animal font that replaces the letter with an animal that starts with that letter- sorry I don't have the name!

You've already seen the burp cloths.

I made some baby legs (like I did here) about a week after I found out it was a girl...so I've been hiding these since January! I should go check out the knee high socks at Target again to find some 'summer-y' socks for more baby legs!

Next I used some fabric I had laying around (it's a thick almost outdoor fabric) and a towel to make a HUGE travel changing pad (No tutorial: I just cut the fabric and towel to the size I wanted sewed them right sides together leaving a space to turn it right side out. Next I topstitched all the way around closing the space I used to turn it). My son outgrew the length of the store bought ones really quickly and the width was never wide enough for me. I want to cover the whole icky changing table surface in the restrooms thankyouverymuch.  Anyway the picture above is of it folded in thirds (I fold it in half again to put it in the diaper bag) and the picture below is of it folded out.

Last is my version of the Baby Life Quilt. I saw this tutorial and I knew I had to make this blanket! I didn't do the 'quilting' part- just little tacks of yellow satin stich randomly on the blanket. I also just did a border of scrappy strips- no binding. I sewed this blanket just like I described for the changing pad- right sides together with batting in there too. Turned it and sewed up the opening.  Here's a few closer pictures of the blanket. I LOVE it!

The pink letters were more of that t-shirt I dyed, the white is part of the dust ruffle I used for the bassinet sheets and the yellow is just a bit of the backing fabric that I had left over from when I made curtains for my family's camp. The green background is actually a sheet that I had made into a duvet cover in college but isn't my style anymore so I cut it up for this! :)

So there you have it for now ;) I didn't have to buy much to make all these projects. I bought the scrappy strips of fabric in a 'jelly roll' type thing for the the quilt, the RIT dye for the projects using that, the t-shirt and onesie for the freezer paper stencil projects, the knee high socks for the baby legs and the diapers for the burp cloths. All the other supplies I already had.

Hope you have a good weekend! Starting on June 3rd I have a few guest posts (What I'm calling "Baby Time Guest Posts") because I'm hoping to go into labor any minute and these ladies were kind enough to write some posts for me so that I can recover and adjust to life with two kiddos!




Here is what is still on my 'list' to sew/make:
Baby Tights
Car Seat Tent (using more of that green sheet)
Changing Pad cover  (ditto on the green sheet)
Summer hat
Swaddle blanket  (I'm waiting on making this because Little Man hated to be swaddled so who knows what this baby will like?)

Also: there are plenty of baby girl dresses that I'm dying to make but they pretty much all require you to measure your baby...kind of hard right now since I'm still pregnant so those will come later! :)

Easy Pretty Burp Cloths

So I hope you all will let me go all baby crazy on you for a post or two. I will be 38 weeks prego tomorrow & am in full on "gotta finish making things for the baby" mode.  Today I want to show you how I made some burp cloths that are BIG (because seriously those little ones they sell in the stores don't do crap) and aren't fully covered in fabric (I've seen tutorials where one entire side is covered in fabric or there is a strip down the middle and fabric doesn't absorb as well as the diaper they are covering).
Anyway, I wanted to use those cheap-o Gerber cloth diapers they sell everywhere (12 pack of the kind you need pins and diaper covers to actually use as diapers) as burp cloths but of course I wanted them to be CUTE while retaining their absorb-abilty (is that even a word?).

Easy, Pretty, Functional Burp Cloth tutorial:

Here's what I did:

Supplies needed:
1 cloth diaper, large-ish scraps of fabric (fat quarters are great for this- you'll get approx. one burp cloth out of every fat quarter), iron, pins, scissors, sewing machine & some sort of measuring device.

Step 1: You WILL need to iron your diaper. Trust me. when you take one out of the package you will see this. You might as well iron your fabric too while you are at it.

There nice & ironed!!

S

Step 2: Lay your diaper out & position your fabric wrong side UP on top. Determine how much of a 'wrap around' you want. Mine was about 3" so I put my fabric 3" away from the edge. (See how I oh-so-accurately measured it? It's a BURP cloth people- RELAX your perfectionism!) Ok now you can pin your fabric to your diaper if you want or just pick it up and put it on your sewing machine (guess what I did....).

Step 3: Sew a straight stitch from one side of the diaper to the other. This is just to secure the fabric to the diaper at your 3" line.

Step 4: Leave your diaper where it is and just flip your fabric over. Iron to make a nice crisp hem/seam/whatever.

Step 5: Flip the whole thing over (diaper and all)

Step 6: Your fabric will be wider (or it should be...did I not mention that? hehe hopefully you read the whole tutorial BEFORE starting to sew!) than your diaper on the sides so you need to fold down & iron the little side pieces to get that hem that was created on the front of the diaper when you flipped the fabric over and ironed. See that picture up there? Not perfect! Just fold and iron. Seriously.

Step 7: Fold in the sides & iron them.

Step 7: This is where it gets hard to explain. Take the bottom raw edge of your fabric and fold it up bring it up around the back of the diaper. See the arrow? That is my seam from the front. I had a large piece of fabric so I just folded the fabric back on itself until I saw the seam. I ironed the fold. (If you pre-measured your fabric- or measured at all -you can just skip the next couple steps until I get to the sewing again haha)

See? All ironed and the fabric is about 1/2 inch higher than the seam. (That is the wrong side of the fabric facing up because it is pulled around from the front of the diaper then folded back on itself-make sense?)

Step 8: Un-fold the fabric and cut along the ironed crease which should be 1/2 inch right above the front seam-make sure you are only cutting fabric & not the diaper!

Step 9: Welcome back if you are a pre-measurer and skipped those last few steps! Fold the raw edge of the fabric under (the opposite direction) Iron it under & pin in place, line up your hem with the seam!

Step 10: Put your fabric wrapped end of the diaper into your sewing machine as shown above. You will start topstitching at the left top corner and sew up the side of the diaper. When you get to the corner (I'm coming up to it in the picture above) ....

Step 10a: Stop with your needle down (see arrow in picture above? it's pointing to my needle being down still), lift the presser foot....

Step 10b:Turn your diaper (arrow in above picture is still pointing to the needle but now the diaper is turned), put the presser foot back down and keep sewing down the fabric. Do the same thing at the next corner until you reach the right hand corner. There is no need to sew along the bottom where the fabric wraps from the front of the diaper to the back because it's just a fold not a seam. You can if you like though.

Step 11: Repeat steps 1-10b for the other end of the diaper. You're done! Make a bunch!

 Aren't they cute!? These make great baby shower gifts or you can also do this with plain dishcloths to dress up your kitchen or give as gifts! (See not just for babies!)

Have a good weekend!




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