Aprons for the Kids

                        

Caleb and Alice love playing kitchen these days.  They are constantly making me food, bringing me tea, and feeding their dollies and animals.  So I thought it would be fun to make them their own chefs aprons along with dishclothes, dish towels, and oven mitts for Christmas.  I followed this pattern  for the apron and then added the cute details.  I just made up the pattern for the oven mitts, dish towels, and washcloths. 

The floral fabric that I used for Alice’s apron used to belong to Bob’s Grandma Wiegers.  Alice’s middle name is Florence, after Grandma Wiegers, so I wanted to try to use this fabric to make Alice something.  I was orginally going to use it for her curtains but those plans were changed.  I love how her apron turned out using the vintage fabric.  Its so darn cute I could eat it.  My new machine lets me sew letters, so I put their names on the aprons too.  I’m sure they’ll be all over that.  I wanted to add big big pockets so they could fill them up with all the food, plates and tea cups they can.  I can’t wait to see them running around in these cooking up a storm for me, daddy and all of their little lovies. 

               

           

Closet Update

Just in case anyone is keeping track, I did miss my deadline for my closet cleaning challenge.  We are actually almost done with it, but still need to paint and hang some peg board.  So I’m changing my new deadline to January 31st!  Aren’t you so relieved you have more time?  I am.  But I am already reaping the benefits of wonderful shelves floor to ceiling!  Its great. 

Jingle Bells

              

While hanging the stockings this year the kids got way into playing with the bells at the bottom.  Not wanting to be a jingle bell party pooper, but also wanting to keep our hand knit (by my friend’s mom) stockings nice, I made the kids their own jingle bell necklaces.  I used some bells and buttons I had on hand and made a festive little necklace.  It was so nice listening to little feet patter through the house along with the slightly ringing jingle jingle.  We’ve not been able to find Caleb’s since that day and just yesterday Alice’s broke while we were at the doctor’s office.  Guess I need something stronger than thin ribbon to keep them together.  (any suggestions Katie?)  They’ve been a fun thing to wear and play the last several weeks. 

The kids get Christmas crafty

  

 

      

   

             

Super Why!

Caleb simply loves the new PBS show Super Why.  He’s always headed off to the bookclub and talking about Super Why doing this or that.  So in keeping with this year’s Christmas present theme for the kids, homemade gifts, I made him a Super Why cape and mask, along with his very own Super Why doll.  I had so much fun making this for him.  The doll got more and more intricate as I went along, but it was a blast doing it.  I hope he loves loves it! 

I used freezer paper a ton when making the doll for him.  See the bottom of this post for some tips on how to do this.  I also used this pattern for making the body.  Then Bob printed a blown up picture of super why off of the PBS kids site so I could pattern his head and face after that. (you can see what I mean in the picture below of me laying out his face on the ironing board)  Bob helped me with making Super Why’s logo that I then put on Caleb’s cape as well as SuperWhy’s cape.  I also made Caleb’s cape reversible, based on this pattern, so he can be either Super Why or Alpha Pig.  (by the way that cape pattern is super easy!)  For the most part I used felt and fleece to applique everything onto the doll.  I did some hand sewing and some machine applique.  I learned a lot about applique through making this doll.  Its always fun to have a challenging project that teaches you new things. 

I can’t wait for Christmas morning when Caleb gets to open this gift.  There’s just something about making a gift for your kid that you know he’s going to completely love!  (and making something that you can’t buy in the stores!)  Enjoy the pictures.  I kept them small so Caleb doesn’t happen to see a picture of his Christmas present too early!

   “Super Why contemplating his next adventure.”

           

 And here’s some tips on using freezer paper when sewing.

Bunny Cakes

My baby is 2 and she asked for a bunny cake for her birthday.  I was able to refrain from reading the Bunny Cakes book during her party, though it was very hard to not run and pick it up.  (If you’ve been paying attention I can’t resist a good natured double entendre or pun)  But I had fun making her cake.  Bob baked it for me, and I iced it.  Its so much fun to use the few simple tips I bought, but the store bought icing was a little tricky.  I wasn’t quite up to making all my own icing this time, so I used store bought.  It just isn’t as nice to work with as the buttercream icing I made for Caleb’s guitar cake.  I didn’t have any red wilton cake dye, so I used food coloring.  It really did make a difference in making the icing runnier.  So I’ll have to buy more of those icing colors (I only have blue, black and brown) next time. 

     

What’s wrong with this picture?

I was using this tape measure recently while working on one of Caleb’s Christmas presents.  As soon as I realized the problem with it I couldn’t believe it and threw it out.  Crazy!  Made in…well you can see where its made.