Changing table to craft station

Sorry about my rant earlier in the week, and thanks for being so understanding! Now onto happier things :) After my post on how I organize my fabric, I thought it'd be fun to share a little bit more of my craft room and how I organize all my ever-growing craft supplies. I'm certainly no expert on organization, but I like to keep things simple and use what works, and this baby in the picture above has helped keep all my stuff nice and clutter-free for the past several years. Yep, my craft station is actually a children's changing table and hutch combo that I scored off of Craig's List a few years ago. And it's perfect.

Prior to my current storage solution, I had been using small canvas storage bins to hold fabric and supplies and I was quickly outgrowing them. My husband, Patrick, and I searched the internet to find something affordable that could store all my stuff, but everything that we liked was pretty pricey. While browsing Craig's List one day, Pat found a changing table/dresser for dirt cheap and just knew it was exactly what I needed to store all my crafty stuff.  That same day, we made the 2-hour trip to pick it up, and I'm SO glad we got it before someone else did! I really couldn't ask for anything better, it's surprisingly perfect for storing craft supplies.

The small shelf above the changing area serves as storage for my paints, glue, and other miscellaneous supplies. The bar itself, which is supposed to keep everything from falling onto the changing area below, is used for ribbon storage. This is my favorite part about the craft hutch itself because all of my ribbon is displayed for quick selection and cutting, and the bar can be easily removed to add more.

I use the top of the hutch as storage for my books, iron, and a box of jewelry supplies.

The three drawers serve as a great way to separate my bias tape, ribbon, patterns, and clothing waiting for refashioning into separate compartments (which I know needs even more organizing eventually :). I keep my main supplies in the top drawer so they can be accessed easily.

I have a lot of fabric, so the drawers are perfect to store these. If you remember my post from last week, I used cereal boxes to create mini fabric bolts to organize and store my fabric (I keep more in the cabinet door below and in another small bookshelf  on the floor). The small shelves on the right side of the hutch are perfect for storing the mini bolts and felt squares.

So that's my little craft hutch! I have big plans in the future to repaint the whole thing, remove the backing and replace it with pegboard, and replace the knobs. But that's a project for another day. for now, the hutch is perfect for keeping all of my clutter hidden and organized.

Do you have any organization tips that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!

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A rant and some blog etiquette

 Source: Someecards

Let me preface this post by saying I love you all and I'm sorry for the lengthy rant, but I need to say state some touchy things I have avoided mentioning in the past, and also go over a little blog etiquette. If you want to avoid listening to my rant, please feel free to skip to a happier post :)

I  was informed by a reader this past weekend that someone was selling one of my free printables as their own. I contacted the person and she was very apologetic and removed the product right away, but I was initially pretty upset to know that someone was (knowingly or not) profiting off of something that I made myself and offered here for free to my readers.

As  an individual who loves to create, I enjoy sharing my ideas on this blog in hopes of giving other people some inspiration or the chance to try a project that they hadn't thought of before. I have a full-time job, so most of my craft time is done after my kids are asleep or on the weekends during nap time. It takes a lot of time (and money!) to put a project together, take pictures, edit the pictures, write the post, then promote it to different link parties. I would love to sell my projects, but right now, I don't have the time or money to do so. I have no sponsors  or huge companies throwing their products at me. The giveaways I do promote on my blog are typically mama's like myself who are trying their best to share products and ideas that they have put their blood sweat and tears into, and I'm happy to help them in any way I can! The tiny bit of money I do make (and believe me, it's tiny) is from Google ads. One day, maybe I'll be a big famous blogger who can sell the patterns and stuff I make, but for right now, my blog is my personal creative space where I get to spend some much needed "me time" creating and sharing my projects with you wonderful people for free.

Will I stop sharing my tutorials and projects? No. It makes my day when I get an email from someone who has made something from one of my tutorials! But peoples' projects and tutorials are still their property, and I think there are some important things everyone should remember.

1. Please don't try to sell someone else's project. That's just not cool. If it's not your creation, then it's not yours.
2. If you made something from another person's tutorial and post about it on your blog, don't recreate their tutorial. They put a lot of time into making that project! Pictures (and links) of your final project are perfect. 
1. Here are some examples of projects I made from others' tutorials:
1. Reversible Tunic by Sewing in No Man's Land
2. Simple Skirt by MADE
3. Doily Shirt by Maybe Matilda
3. If you post about a project made from someone's tutorial, link back to the original blogger's post. Extra bonus points for emailing the blogger and letting them know you made their project. I guarantee you they will love to see the project you made with their tutorial (and they may even post about your project on their blog - more traffic for you, sweet!)
4. Also, don't be a Debbie Downer. No one likes negative comments. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If you have something that you think really needs to be said, please email the person directly rather than posting it in the comments section.

So all I'm trying to say is, just be respectful! Most craft bloggers are just mama's like me who have a passion for creating (and doing it for free.) 

Thanks again to all my readers and for your constant support. If it wasn't for you, I would have given up blogging long ago!

Fabric bolts from cereal boxes

My name is Jen and I have a problem. This is my fabric stash.

Ok, well it's part of my fabric stash. It's a giant mess. Pieces of fabric are everywhere, and I hope you're not expecting me to have everything in alphabetical order by designer, color, and pattern because that's pretty much never happening.

I feel like a crafting failure sometimes when I see pictures of peoples' gorgeous sewing rooms. Everything is in its proper, labeled place, and heaven forbid there be anything in the room that doesn't match the color scheme. There's no mess, no half-finished projects laying on the ground. And definitely no toys scattered on the floor.

I'm convinced these people don't have children. They borrow neighbor kids for photo shoots.

There's a reason I didn't show you the rest of my sewing space. I share it with a bin of toys that belong to my kids, and the bin stays organized for about 5.4 seconds before it looks like a hurricane hit the room. I love having the toys in the room because I can still craft and play with the kids simultaneously, but my pieces of fabric everywhere doesn't help the mess.

But I wanted to do what I can to organize the room because, let's admit it, I can't pin the blame for that messy fabric pile above on my kids. I saw this tip on The Little Green Bean for using foam board to make mini fabric bolts. It's a great idea, but I wanted to use something I had on hand.  Then it came to me - cereal boxes! Cereal is something I eat a LOT of, so why not re-purpose the boxes rather than throwing them away?

First, cut your cereal boxes so you have a pile of just the front and backs of your boxes.

Next, use hot glue around the perimeter of one of the front sides of your panels.

Place the other panel on top of it and voila, instant mini bolt! It may not look like anything special, but just wrap your fabric around that baby, and your stash will stay organized!

Ahhh, much better.

So much better than the messy pile right? Too bad I have 4 times more fabric in the drawers below. I have a lot of cereal to eat.

Note: Since cereal boxes are small, you may need to fold your fabric in half length-wise (possibly more than once) to be able to fit them around your cereal box bolt. 

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Shirred top to dress {clothing refashion}

I have this shirt that I can't bring myself to part with. I've had it for about 5+ years now, and I've always hung onto it because I love the embroidery detailing on it, and more importantly, I had my engagement pictures taken in it.

Aw, look at young, blonde me!

Unfortunately in this case, I am a skinny girl and that carries over to my *ahem* bust area. The shirring on the top of the shirt is pretty, but I can't manage to keep it up very well :) I didn't want to throw the shirt away though, it just looked too pretty and carried too many memories, so I refashioned it into a dress for Haley. It's cool to think I wore the shirt over 5 years ago when my daughter was just a dream, and now she's running around playing in it. What a great way to repurpose a piece of cherished clothing!


Supplies:

• Shirred top
• Disappearing ink marker
• Double fold bias tape
• Scissors
• Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Size your shirt. 

Here's the shirt I started with. I put it on my daughter to figure out how much I needed to take off the sides.

I simply turned the top inside out and pinned down both sides. Then, I used my disappearing ink marker to mark the areas that I would be trimming off. Using a zig-zag stitch, I sewed along the sides of my dress on the lines I drew and cut off the excess fabric.

Step 2: Make your straps.

Next, measure your child over the shoulders to determine how long your straps would be and add 1/2 inch. For my 3-year-old, my straps were each BLANK.

Position your bias tape on the inside of your dress and stitch down using 2 separate rows of stitches. Repeat to attach the straps to the back of your dress. I decided to cross the straps so they would make an 'X' in the back.

To add more visual interest to the dress, I made an inverted box pleat

And that's how an old, loved shirt became a new dress for my daughter :)

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T-shirt to a dress {with ruffles}

Hellooooo refashion season! Winter is over, and that means shorts, skirts and dresses. This past weekend, I dug through my kids' clothes and put away all the long-sleeved shirts and brought out the summer stuff. It was like Christmas morning. I get just as excited about putting my kids in new clothes as I do when I buy new clothes for myself. Is that weird? Clothes for kids are just so much cuter than adult clothes sometimes! I wish I could rock a pair of glittery shoes like my daughter. Sigh.

Along with the new clothes, I also pulled out some thrifted shirts and pants for the kids that needed a few alterations before they could be worn. One shirt in particular, a cute Bambi shirt that I got at a garage sale last year, was a bit too long to be worn as a long shirt over leggings, but a bit too short to be worn as a dress. Solution? Ruffles. Made from cutting the bottom off of men's undershirts, because you know how I love using men's undershirts to refashion clothes.

You can see how I utilized men's undershirts in these other projects (click on the picture to be taken to the link):

Here's what you need to make a ruffled t-shirt dress!

Supplies:

• Shirt
• Men's undershirt (the larger the better)
• Dress to use as a template
• Disappearing ink marker
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Sewing machine and sewing supplies

Step 1: Measure your shirt.

First, you'll need to figure out how long you need your ruffle to be. Using the dress you have as a reference, lay your shirt on top of the dress to determine how many more inches you need to make the dress nice and long.

Add 1 inch to your measurement for seam allowance. I needed about 3 inches of ruffle to make my dress long enough plus 1 inch, so I needed a total of 4 inches. 

Step 2: Cut your ruffle fabric out.

Now, lay your undershirt out and measure the amount of fabric you need (in my case 4 inches). Use your disappearing ink marker and ruler to draw a line straight across your undershirt from one side to the other.

Cut out your strip of fabric, and it should look like this. See how the bottom is already hemmed for you? Yay for shortcuts!

Step 3: Make and attach your ruffle.

Now, you're going to sew a basting stitch (which is basically just a really long stitch.) Set your sewing machine to the highest number for stitch length and width. Sew a straight line across the top of your fabric strip about 1/2 inch from the raw edge of the fabric (don't backstitch at the beginning or end!)

Pull one of the threads and push the material away from you to make the ruffle. Make your ruffle the same length as the bottom of your t-shirt.

Next, turn your ruffle inside out and pin the raw edge of your ruffle to the bottom edge of your t-shirt all the way around. The right sides of your shirt and ruffle fabric should be facing each other. Set your machine's stitch length and width back to normal, and stitch your ruffle to your shirt.

 

Ta dah! Super cute new ruffle dress.

Haley was even kind enough to model it for me without much bribing. She's finally getting to the age where she puts up with my photo sessions and (dare I say) enjoys them. I'm loving it.

And she even struck a pose! Check out that sass! Do I have a 3-year-old or a 13-year-old? Sigh....I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Bambi shirts will be replaced with Bieber shirts....

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Teething solution

My poor little guy is working on getting his first teeth in, which means anything he can get his hands on goes directly into his mouth. Fingers, stuffed animals, toys...nothing is safe from the wrath of his sore gums.

Connor is noticeably annoyed by the fact that his gums feel like they're going to explode. He gnaws and gnaws on toys, and starts to get fussy when nothing seems to relieve his pain. I wanted to find some way to help him feel a little more comfortable, then I got an idea when I found these ice cube trays at IKEA:

Ok, so I was recently introduced to the awesomeness that is IKEA when I went to Pittsburgh on vacation. Everyone was horrified when I told them I had never been to IKEA. We don't have an IKEA in Tennessee or in Virginia where I used to live. I know, tragic. My sister-in-law, being the shopping fiend that she is, made sure that I became the newest IKEA convert.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN??

It's this magical land of inexpensive decorations, furniture, and housewares. Oh and did you know they have food there? There's a restaurant inside that serves hot food cafeteria-style (they're big on Swedish meatballs and pasta in the shape of a moose), and they also have a soda fountain with lingonberry juice. It tastes like some kind of cranberry-like fruit, and it's delicious in any kind of pop (or soda to the rest of the world).

Oh, AND they have fabric. Need I say more?

Back to the teething thing. So anyway, I came home with the green starfish rubber ice cube tray and filled it with apple juice (you can water it down some if you want), and stuck it in the freezer for about an hour.

When the cubes were frozen, I popped them out on a plate and got these cute little starfish juice cubes:

Then you just take one of these little mesh baby feeders, which you can find at your local grocery store or Wal Mart, and put one of your juice cubes inside.

Snap the top closed, and let your little one gnaw to their heart's content.

The juice cubes are softer than ice, they flake really easily. It's a great way to soothe sore gums.

And they're pretty tasty too.

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Don't forget, the Button Down Rehab series is starting in 10 days! Go HERE to learn more

I hope you dug out your old button down shirts for this one. We're going to have some fun refashioning them with some great guests.

If you plan on refashioning along with me, or if you just want to share the love, I'd love it if you grabbed my button!

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Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design