Crochet Slippers

My feet are always cold - I have been known to take my slippers to friends homes :)  I wanted a pair of slippers that I could easily fit into my purse to take with me.  I thought that would be much easier to remember to take slippers if they were just already in my purse.  I found this pattern and got to work.  The pattern is written to make a slipper much bigger than I need, but she gives great instructions on how to actually construct the slipper so I was able to adjust the size to fit my little foot.  There are also a lot of good tips in the comments too.

I ended up making two pairs for myself.  I really enjoy wearing them.  I usually can't wear slippers without socks because it just feels gross.  These I can wear without socks though - they actually feel like I'm wearing socks. 

I used this tutorial for the bows.

I used this tutorial for the flower.

My boys saw me working away on my slippers and immediately started requesting their own slippers.  I was only able to manage pictures of my youngest son's slippers. I think they look like something I would see a character in a Dr. Seuss book wearing :)

Mini Ironing Board

I came across the idea to make a mini ironing board just over a year ago.  I of course pinned it to one of my many pinterest boards.  A few months later I actually did the project!!!  I love having a smaller ironing board, especially when I am working on quilt blocks and don't need the whole big ironing board.

I started with a blonde wood TV table.  I'm not in love with the blonde wood.  Also, it just didn't go real well with the fabric I had picked out for the top, so I spray painted it gray.  I did deviate from the original design and drilled some holes in the top as was suggested to help with airflow.

Then I stapled batting and fabric over the top and viola a mini ironing board!  The funny thing about the color scheme of the ironing board is that even though it matches my craft room perfectly, the matching was totally unintentional.  I made the mini ironing board before I knew that I would be moving to a house where I could have a craft room that I could paint the way I wanted.

White Bolero

About a year ago my husband bought me a yellow dress.  After having three younger sisters my husband knows a little bit about choosing clothing for me, so this is an awesome dress.  The only thing was that it has no sleeves and a very low back.  Normally not a problem, I just wear a bolero, cardigan or sweater.  However, there is so much cute detail on the top of the dress and a bow in the back that none of the boleros, cardigans or sweaters I had looked quite right.  I've been keeping my eye out for one, but still no luck!  Finally when I was at my parents house for Christmas I remembered that I had a black bolero with my formal dresses that would be perfect.  However, it being black wasn't going to work with the dress - it really needed to be white.  I had a light-bulb moment and realized that I could copy it...hopefully!  I brought it home with me where it has sat in my closet for the last three months.  That is until Friday morning.  I decided that I really wanted to finally wear that yellow dress to church on Sunday.

So I pulled out my big paper and pencil and got to work creating a pattern.  I read a few really good tutorials on using existing pieces of clothing to make patterns.  They can be found here, here and here.  I was still nervous since I had never even come close to doing anything like this. 

Finally I had my patterns and it was time to cut out the fabric...

At this point I stopped taking pictures.  I was concentrating way too hard!  It actually came together pretty quickly and easily.  Making the pattern took way longer than actually sewing the bolero together.  Much to my surprise it even fit perfectly! :)

After finishing my bolero Friday afternoon I decided to be crazy and whip up some ties to match my dress for my boys to all wear to church on Sunday.  So I frantically got all the ties cut out on Friday afternoon and then finished up just in time on Saturday evening.  It was so much fun to have everyone matching that I informed everyone that we would be taking a family picture after church.  The boys weren't real thrilled with that idea until my hubby and I informed everyone that no one would be eating candy until we got a nice family picture.  Everyone shaped up real fast after that announcement and we got this beautiful family picture taken in record time!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

New Wallet

Back in July the snap on my wallet broke.  Of course we were right in the middle of moving from Oregon to Texas when it happened.  I had been wanting to make a new wallet for a while, but since we were pretty busy at the time I just kept using my wallet without the snap and put a 'make a new wallet' on my ever growing 'to do' list.  In the meantime I kept coming up with other projects to do instead of making the wallet.  Finally I was tired of my wallet having a broken snap.  I searched the internet and finally found this tutorial.  It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for and a huge bonus for me - I didn't have to figure out all the measurements!  Her tutorial was very easy to follow.  I did make a couple of minor changes, but other than that I followed the tutorial and I love my new wallet.  Honestly for me the hardest part of the wallet was choosing what fabric to use!  I spent days (no seriously I really did) pulling fabrics out of my stash.  I should have taken a picture of all the fabrics I was considering.

There are plenty of pockets for cards, receipts, cash and anything else that I need to stash in my wallet.  I love having family pictures with me, so I added some clear pockets for those too. 

Since I need to access my military ID quite frequently I added clear pockets on the flap for both my military ID and my drivers license.  I also opted to use a sew in snap rather than a magnetic or I'm not sure what you call the other kind - the kind that pokes through the fabric - snap.

I also added a zippered pocket along the back for coins.  I had never installed a zipper before this one.  I followed this tutorial.  I only had a hidden zipper, so I could have gone with a smaller opening for it.  Oh well, it works for my needs and really was not hard.  I don't know why I waited so long to attempt a zipper!

All Patched Up

Having three active boys we tend to go through a lot of jeans.  More often than I would like to admit we have jeans that look like this...

I really like each of the boys to have one pair of jeans without holes in them.  However, there are time when I am amazed at how fast they put holes in their jeans.  My middle son got two pairs of brand new jeans for his birthday at the end of November.  By January both pairs had huge holes in both of the knees.  Ugh.  I found some jeans on sale at Target so I bought him those, but am only giving him one pair at a time. We just need to make it to warm weather so he can wear shorts.  Luckily we live in Texas, so shorts weather is not too far away.  In the meantime I decided to patch up the holey jeans in hopes of making them last a little longer.  I let the boys go through my scrap bin and pick out the fabric they wanted for their patches.  I wasn't sure how they would react to it, especially my oldest since he's starting to care more about what he wears, but they all love their patched up jeans.

I ironed a piece of interfacing on the inside of the jeans so that the hole was covered on the inside too.  Then I sewed a piece of cotton fabric on the front using a tight zig zag stitch.  Since the fabric is cotton I don't expect the patches to last forever.  I'm just hoping they'll last until summer!

Linking up to: A Bowl Full of Lemons, Chef in Training, So You Think You're Crafty, Gingerly Made, Six Sisters Stuff, Your Homebased Mom,

Peaceful Peacework Afghan

I actually made this afghan about three and a half years ago, but ran across the pictures as I was cleaning up some folders on my computer.  I just couldn't help but share it. 

This is the biggest crochet project I've ever attempted.  My sister started it, but then went away to college.  I found it and was just in love with it, so I asked her if I could finish it.  I had so much fun finishing it and giving it to her for Christmas that year.  I did end up having to take out all of her hard work since our crocheting tensions were different and it just wasn't laying right.

The pattern I used came from the book Scrap Afghans For All by Anne Halliday and is called Peaceful Peacework.  There are lots of other fun patterns for afghans in this book too.

linking up to these parties: Gingerly Made, So You Think You're Crafty

New Layout

I think I figured out part of what was keeping me from blogging...it was my blog layout.  I wasn't in love.  I didn't enjoy looking at my own blog.  After spending more hours than I want to admit and going through countless layouts I have finally come up with something that I love.  Let's see if I can stay on top of everything and get some posts done.  I already have a long list of ideas and projects that are completed that need posted.  For now I need to get off the computer and get a few things done around the house before the boys get home from school.  I'm hoping to get some posts put together tonight :)