neck coolers to the rescue

skip to my lou neckcooler

Every July, car enthusiasts migrate to Kearney, NE for Cruise Night. It’s actually an entire weekend of events. We just go for Saturday afternoon and evening, leaving right before the actual “cruising” begins.

The highlight of the afternoon is the car show. It’s hot. Steel, pavement, brick and asphalt radiate an overwhelming amount of heat. That doesn’t seem to keep anyone away. In fact, if people aren’t talking about cars, they are usually comparing heat indexes.

“This is better than last year.”
“No way! Last year was much hotter.”
“Remember that first year we came? It was miserable!”

We are crazy like that.

This year I came prepared to beat the heat with neck coolers. These things were so easy to make and they ROCK! They are supposed to work best in low humidity, but stick them in an ice cooler for a few minutes and they feel heavenly!

Since it was a car event, I used checkered flag fabric for the guys. My daughter picked out lady bugs for herself and (thankfully!) wore it all day long. If you are spending any amount of time outside this summer, I highly recommend them.

pattern: I used Skip to My Lou’s tutorial exactly for the adults. For the kids, I decreased the length to 26 inches and sewed on some velcro to keep them in place. I found cracked ice crystals at Michael’s in the floral section.

How do you keep cool outside during the summer months?

the ladybug dress

girl bug fabric

blog flashback: Two years ago I refashioned a woman’s shirred shirt into a dress for my daughter.

A few months ago, I got a message from a friend about some free fabric. I tried to resist. I really don’t need any more fabric. I did need a little quiet time with friends, though. Besides, what if I found something really cool?

girl bug fabric

I have always wanted to make a dress out of pre-shirred (or mock-smock) fabric. This happened to be the perfect amount: just shy of 1 1/2 yards. (It’s hard to tell how much you’ll need with all that elastic. My daughter’s chest is 21 inches, if that gives you some perspective.)

girl bug fabric

I made the dress long, hoping and praying she might be able to wear it next year. I even hid some extra strap length inside the back. I guess I could always turn it into a shirt next year, too.

What do you think about mock smock fabric? Have you ever shirred fabric with elastic thread?

fabric dog tag (good for penguins, too)

fabric dog tag

You’ve met Puppy before. He’s the one who got a new nose. He’s my daughter’s best stuffed friend. I get really nervous when we take him on trips. I can’t imagine what life would be like if he got lost.

Right before our San Diego trip last year, I made fabric tags for Puppy and his little cat friend Gnocchi. It was a last minute idea. I cut out small rectangles of muslin and applied fray check to the edges. When they were dry, I used a fabric marker to write “If found, please call” with my cell phone number. Then I hand stitched the corners to each stuffed friend.

It was my intention to make something soft so it wouldn’t poke my daughter at night. Of course, now she sleeps with a hard, plastic penguin, too. Kids! I wound up stitching a label to Pengi’s leg for this trip. When everyone gets home safely, I snip the stitches and save the labels for next time.

Does traveling with your child’s “special friends” make you nervous? How do you ensure their safe travels?

how to: adjust the side seams of a dress in
4 easy steps

how to alter little girl dress

I’ve been waiting for this dress to fit my daughter for two years. When she tried it on this Spring, it was just above her knees, but still too big in the body. The only way she would be able to wear it would be if I took it in at the sides. It was actually very easy. All you need is a seam ripper and some matching thread.

Step 1
Unpick the facing under the arm and the bottom hem a few inches on either side of the seams.

how to alter little girl dress

how to alter little girl dress

how to alter little girl dress

Step 2
Unfold the fabric. Press the facing and hem flat.

how to alter little girl dress

how to alter little girl dress

Step 3
Mark the new seam and stitch. (My daughter is kind of squirmy. I measure in thumbs, not inches. I took this dress in one thumbnail on each side.)

how to alter little girl dress

Step 4
Re-fold the facing and hem. Stitch over the original holes.

how to alter little girl dress

how to alter little girl dress

See? Really easy! I didn’t even trim the new seam allowance. The edges were already finished with a serger, so I just pressed them toward the back of the dress before stitching everything back together.

I have a feeling I’ll be doing this to a lot of my daughter’s dresses this Summer. Let me know if you try it!

handmade goodies from the farmers’ market

haymarket farmers market crafts

There’s so much more to the Farmers’ Market than fresh veggies. Last weekend we went with my parents and my mom wanted to buy a few things for my daughter. The hair clip and headband are from Owl People (my friend Kaitlyn) and are lovely.

I wish I could tell you who made “Ladybug Girl.” I can’t remember the name of the booth and she didn’t come with a card or hang tag. Nothing was even stamped on the bag. If you know, post in the comments! (Note to artisans: always put your name on your work!) My daughter loves her.

What are your favorite non-food items from the Farmers’ Market?

diy hair elastic holders

diy hair elastic holders

If you have long hair, how do you store your hair ties? I used to keep them on the original cardboards, but they are kind of flimsy and tear easily. I wanted something more sturdy.

Using the plastic leftover from making my place mat sock blockers, I traced the original cardboards and came up with these.

diy hair elastic holders

We’ve been using them for awhile and they are holding up great. It’s really nice to pull them out the basket and not have the elastics fall off. You could use any kind of plastic that can be cut with scissors or even the thick chipboard from a legal notepad.

embarrassing: I went to link to my place mat sock holder post and can’t find it. Did I not share them on the blog? How is that possible? Here’s the tutorial I used. I’ll have to get a pic to share with you.

how to: personalize end-of-year teacher gifts
in 3 easy steps

tutorial fabric marker artwork on sewing gifts

Ok, so this really could be a how to: personalize any gift. It’s just that I really wanted to get my daughter involved with her teacher thank you gifts this year and this was all her idea.

She had been playing with a fabric gift card sleeve of mine and asked if we could make something similar for her teachers for “receipts and stuff.” She also wanted to decorate it herself.

You could do this with any fabric gift: zipper pouch, bookmark, you could even buy some blank canvas tote bags from the craft store. The important thing is to get your child involved!

Materials
In addition to your project supplies, you’ll need:
-disappearing ink pen
-fabric markers

Step 1
With your disappearing ink pen, mark off the area where your child can draw. It’s ok if she wants to draw outside of the lines, just make sure that the most important artwork is in the marked area.

Step 2
Let her go to town! When she’s finished, follow the directions on your fabric markers. Mine did not require heat to set the ink, but it did recommend two coats of ink. I traced over her lines after she went to bed.

Step 3
Sew up the gift!

tutorial fabric marker artwork on sewing gifts

What surprised me most about this project was how specific my daughter was for each drawing. Sueann received a picture of a treasure map (something she saw at school) with X marks the spot at a heart-shaped rock. Lorie received flowers (it was nature school—makes sense). Diane received a picture of “things falling” (not sure about that one—neither was Diane). They were all so different! She made sure I put a tag on each gift so it went to the correct teacher.

stash: I wish I thought to put a note about all of the recycled textiles that went into this gift. Nature school teachers are all about reusing. The fabric was thrifted and the zippers were recycled from other textiles. I wish I took a pic of the insides. She picked out different linings for each teacher, too!

ikick freezer paper stencil

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my first freezer paper stencil was a prototype. Now that the recipient has received his gift, I can show you: iKick!

kids karate freezer stencil tshirt

I used two coats of paint this time and got much better coverage, but it seeped under the freezer paper in some places. Not a big deal for this shirt because I like the edginess it brings to the design. I wonder if I could get better coverage with a smoother edge by using fabric markers instead of paint. Hmm…

stencil art: Karate guy from clip art I had on my computer. Font is Myriad.

Did you happen to catch Apple in the headlines today? It bumped Google out of first for most valuable brand.

mother’s tea

kids handmade mothers day gift

Last week, my daughter’s nature school class hosted a Mother’s Tea. It was a really sweet morning. The kids sang us a song, gave us presents they had been working on for a few weeks and then we all went on a hike to the Butterfly Garden to plant flowers.

preschool butterfly garden

If you are local and happen to be at the park, you should check out the garden. All of the flowers are planted by the preschoolers. They were so proud.

butterfly sculpture

The benches, sculpture and garden itself were donated by preschool parents over the past few years in memory of some of the mothers, teachers and children related to the program. It was a very touching morning.

handmade gift idea: The bracelets were so cute. They are beads on pipe cleaners chenille sticks. The poem was written by one of the teachers. The kids re-used old greeting cards to make new Mother’s Day cards. It’s a great project for little ones to do mostly on their own.

thrifty find: fabric book panels

Remember all of those hours I spent thrifting without finding anything to wear? Well, I did find something cool on the way out of one store: a huge box of brand new quilting fabric. I couldn’t resist a little peek and what did I spy? Books!

fabric books

I don’t know why I haven’t thought of making fabric books before. My daughter had a few and loved them. She’d crumble them up, chew on them, drop them on the floor and after a run in the washing machine they’d be just like new.

thrifty second thoughts: Last week, I was proud of myself for not going overboard and buying the whole box. After doing a little online search, I wish I would have bought a few more.