Shirt Re-Fashion for Shiloh

i thought i'd share this "upcycle" that i did last night. i was going through my closet and realized that i NEVER wear this shirt. it's made of pretty nice material, it's a decent design, it just doesn't fit me quite right and it's a little uncomfortable. soooo, i decided to give it a new life as a dress for shiloh.



she wore it to church this morning.

i trimmed some off of the sides and separated the bust from the bottom of the shirt to get rid of any bunches. then, i sewed them back together. next, i sewed the two overlapping bust pieces together so they wouldn't gap (and wouldn't be indecent!). because the material was so stretchy, after i re-connected the top and bottom sections, the fabric still looked sort of stretched in places and bunched, so i added a belt made from some scrap brown fabric i found in my stash. i tacked it in the center back and tied it on loosely, so that it hung down a little bit, but gathered all of the extra bunches that were a little unseemly (or unseAmly -- get it? hah! yeah, okay, i'm corny.).

anyhoo, she liked it quite a bit and had no problem posing for the camera in her new dress.




it's been awhile since i've sewn, and now i've caught the bug again. i'm going to go through my closet and "give-away" piles and see what else i can refashion. :o)

Success!!!

I made soap!! okay, well, i didn't really make soap. i made the melt-and-pour kind, where you buy the base already made, then you melt in down, add your own fragrances and colorant, and put it into the mold of your choice. but, still! a few hours ago, there was no orange soap in my house, and now there is! i made soap! :o)

if you think you're seeing things in the soap, it's because you are. i thought it would be weird to put things in the soap as it was hardening, just to see it what it would look like. not sure why. i rummaged around in the kids' toys and found a few very small things that they would never miss (until they see them in the soap!) to put in there. i used way too much fragrance and colorant, though, so i'll need to scale that back next time.

i've got some lye, shortening, and everything else i need to make the REAL kind of soap, though, that needs to cure and set and that will burn your skin off while you're making it if you're not careful. i have a recipe that supposed to produce this really rich, creamy, soap that you can use for the shower. i'm interested to see how that goes!

second thing i made today -- quilt and pillow for shiloh. in the st louis area, it takes fifty years to get to wherever you're going, it seems. you can't just "run out to the store" and grab a thing or two, you'll be gone for half an hour, at least! the kids are always wanting to take pillows and blankets in the van, then they leave them in the van, then they don't have pillows and blankets inside to use, then they find some more, then the next time we leave, they want to take more pillows and blankets in the van... it's a vicious cycle. so, i'm making them both pillows and quilts that STAY.IN. THE.VAN.

i let them choose their fabric. i LOVE this cool flower print that shiloh chose.


(sorry about the lighting -- it looked much better through my camera!)

closer look at the fabric:

and shiloh refused to pass up an opportunity to have her picture taken, of course:


tyler's is a fighter-jet print with a black backing. i'm still learning as far as quilting goes. with shiloh's, and her friend katelyn's that i did awhile back, i did a super-easy wavy line to quilt the front, batting, and back together. i'm going to try a diamond patterned quilt with tyler's. we'll see. i haven't yet ventured into the quilt piecing and designing or anything, yet, though. i just learned how to make mitred corners (although, they're not even really mitred, just made to look that way!).

anyhoo, i'll get better. it was a fun day of making things, though! :o)

Girly Pictures

:o) so, renee made a blog post recently and made me realize exactly how long it's been since i posted any pictures for family to see. i'm sorry, guys! i got together several tonight, so hopefully this will make up for it somewhat!

i'll just jump right in with (i think) where we left off, at the tail end of summer. these first few are from rick's company picnic in fulton in mid-august. they had alot of things for the kids to play on and they even made veggie burgers for us! how thoughtful. :o)

i know this looks bad, but she's actually not crying. i was going to snap a picture of her bouncing in the thing when she stopped and yelled "STOP EVERYBODYYYYYYY!!!" to all of the other kids in there. *sigh*... she apologized to them afterwards, but still. diva much?

daddy teaching shiloh how to throw a basketball.

back in the bouncer-thing. happier this time, mostly b/c i think there weren't any other kids in there to bounce her around. hah! :o)

shiloh and rick:

this is shiloh's effort at taking my picture at the park one afternoon:

then it was my turn to take hers. :o) in this next one, she's making a classic 'rick' face:

then, a classic 'shiloh' face. :o) i love this picture of her!

after playing outside one afternoon, she had a really dirty face and wanted me to take her picture. i think she did it on purpose. ;o)

at the Magic House, St. Louis' Children's Museum. we went there when kathy and dan, rick's parents, came to visit. the battery ran out on my camera so i took a TON more pictures with my phone, but they're still in my phone. :o( here, she was in the "detective" section of the museum, using a magnifying glass to look for clues in a painting.


lara and shiloh, being sisters.

outside with dallas:

this is just random. i was making a shirt for shiloh one evening while rick was making dinner. i was talking to him and got distracted, sewing the arm of the shirt into the neck hole. hah!
one weekend, we went to cahokia mounds, a historic Native American burial ground.

i'm not sure why i like this picture so much. maybe b/c they're both so calm in it. ;o)

and then they weren't. ah, well. :o)

cute! shiloh running to her daddy:

and then, we couldn't leave without taking advantage of the beautiful backdrop for some pictures!



getting ready to climb the steps to the top of the mound. this was the first tier. there was another, much longer, one after that. the girls were much more enthusiastic than we were. :o)

but, we made it. barely.

the only good picture i could find of me and the girls, and shiloh was picking her nose. ah, well. at least it's a good representation of us. ;o)

you probably can't tell in the picture, but they're pointing to the arch. you could see it pretty well from on top of the mound.

afterwards, we had a picnic lunch there. (shiloh is in different clothes b/c she had an accident. blah.) anyhoo, this is just a funny picture of her and rick. it looks like shiloh's telling him off about something!

at home in the back yard, just random.

lou and shiloh before church one morning.

one saturday morning, watching cartoons downstairs in one of rick's tshirts. she sure is a cutie.

wearing her new coat:

outside on one of our first colder days, picking wildberries. this is BY FAR one of her favorite things to do outside.

lou had a difficult time at the beginning of the year, but after working with her and her teacher quite a bit those first few weeks, she's been doing so much better! we were SO proud of her when she filled up her "good behavior" chart and the teacher sent it home. we put it on the fridge to remind her that she IS a good girl. so awesome!


random cuteness: lou and shiloh watching a movie together.

shiloh and rick outside the mall. we went and let her play at the indoor play area while lou was having a visit with her bio mom nearby.

shiloh and dallas. i LOVE this picture. :o)

shiloh working on her cutting skills on a construction paper pumpkin we made. she's been doing pretty well, but she gets tired of following the lines sometimes and just cuts out whatever she wants. we're getting there, though!

at the park, daddy helping shiloh on the monkey bars.

cuteness. i love "swing" pictures!

i think rick had a pretty good time, too. ;o)

i love this picture. shiloh looks soooo happy!

my girls. they got tired of playing and wanted to go for a walk, picking leaves and wildberries.

okay, here's a new section. these are things that i've sewn recently. most of the things that i've made have been for shiloh b/c lou's mom and her dad and his family usually buy her clothes and send them. so, i haven't forgotten lou, it's just that she tends to have more clothes than shiloh does unless i buy/make some, and making them is just so much more fun than buying them!

this is a shirt i made from an old pajama tank top i used to wear in college. i made the sleeves from new fabric, but the rest is from the tank top. it has a strawberry on it that says "sweet."


these are the infamous pajamas. for those who don't know, i made these for lara for her school's "pajama day." i told her that i was making them as a shirt and capri-style pants, showed her the fabric, etc, but she got it stuck in her mind that she was going to get a nightgown. so that night, i finished them late and put them in her room so she would be surprised the next morning. she WAS surprised, just not in the way i'd hoped. she absolutely hated them b/c she was convinced that she was getting a nightgown. so, i altered them slightly and gave them to shiloh, who loves them and wears them all the time. :o)

a church dress. this was made from a scrap black/white patterned fabric that a friend had given me about a year ago and the black fabric i'd had for longer than that. i'm trying to use up my fabric stash before i go buy more, and this turned out pretty well, i think!




this was sort of random, just a long-sleeved tshirt. shiloh really liked the fabric (it's yellow with little blue and red flowers), but there wasn't enough to make it long-sleeved for the colder weather, so i cut up a tshirt that was in my "donate" pile of clothes that's ever-growing to use for the sleeves. the neckline is a little ill-fitting, so i'm going to have to go back and pull it in a little bit, but she does really like it. :o)




these are their winter coats. i made them for lou and shiloh, and they both actually like them. even lou -- YAY!! i also got about half of the material from my fabric stash. the outside is denim, which i already had, and the inside is thicker fleece, which i bought on sale at 50% off. woo-hoo! there was enough fleece left over to make them matching scarves, too. :o) shiloh's is the first one with a white patterned fleece with blue, green and yellow flowers all over and bright green buttons.


lou's is the same on the outside, with various bright colors in an alternating geometric pattern and bright pink buttons.
and the back. pretty plain. :o)

lastly, i made a dress for shiloh out of an old sweater i hadn't worn since high school. i got the idea from reading one of the craft blogs that i read, although i can't remember which one. at any rate, it was pretty easy, took just an hour or so to make, and looks super cute on shiloh!

before:
after:shiloh wearing it. she looks kind of awkward in this first picture. she wanted to hold her big stuffed nemo that she'd brought outside with her, but i told her no b/c i wouldn't be able to see her dress. so, she's just trying to get the pictures over with so she can have her nemo back. ;o)

then, i asked her to make a funny pose and this is what she came up with. goof!

i've crocheted/knitted/hand embroidered a lot of other things, too, but i don't have irresistibly cute models for those!

all righty, guys! that's it for pictures! i don't have the halloween costumes quite done yet, so i'll post again when we get that taken care of. love you guys!