Friday, December 21, 2012

Snowman Dress

Recently I had the opportunity to guest post over at Sugar Bee Crafts. There I shared the tutorial for Abby's Snowman Birthday Dress. Today I'm sharing it with you all.



 I'm excited to share with you the snowman dress I made for my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday party. It's super simple and adorable which makes it a win in my book. Let's get started...

What you need:




 - White shirt in your little one's size. Make sure you pre-wash it to prevent shrinking
 - iron-on interfacing
 - White fabric (I used Cozy Fleece)
 - Plaid coordinating fabric
 - Buttons to make up your 'snowman'
 - Needle and coordinating threads


I found these Snowman Buttons in a pack at Joann and used a 40% coupon to nab them for a deal. You could use individual buttons or fleece to make up the same design. Use what you have on hand.



















To start, grab you flannel and cut out or piece together a piece that is 8 inches wide and long enough to fit around your little one and tie. My Abby wears about a 4 so mine was 8" x 38". My plaid was a small scrap so I had to sew 2 pieces together.

Next, fold your plaid hot dog style, yeah I went there :) and sew along the long edge. Turn it right side out and press it flat. Next tuck each end in and topstitch arond the entire outside to finish it.
Your finished sash will now look like this.
Now for the dress part. Start with your shirt inside out. Iron on your interfacing where you will be sewing on your buttons. I make a black box to show you where. White on white is hard to see.
Now turn your shirt back to the right side and position your snowman buttons to create a face. I just used a pencil to lightly mark in the button holes so I wouldn't lose by place. Next you just grab your coordinating threads and sew on your face.

**If you have a little guy you could stop at this step and have a cute snowman shirt instead of a dress. **
Now you'll want to measure the width or your shirt. You will need this number later for the skirt portion. You will also want to mark off where to cut to make your bodice.
To make the skirt part you will want it to be 3 times as long as your shirt is around. My shirt was 10.5" accross the front (21" total) so my width was 63" wide. Abby requested her skirt be long and twirly so I cut it about 22" long.
Start by sewing up the short sides of your skirt to create a tube. You will want to gather the skirt width to match up with the bottom edge of the shirt. If you've never gathered before it's really easy. Sew a long stitch accross the top and then pull the bobbin thread to gather.
Next put the shirt inside the skirt with right sides together and edges lined up and sew along the edge. You may want to serge your finished edge, but that step is not necessary because knits and fleece don't really fray.


Turn your dress right side out and you are pretty much set. You can top stitch the waist if you want and hem the bottom. I tried to hem Abby's but she insisted that I leave it be. It's her birthday not mine.
She wasn't really in the mood for smiling because she was in a really silly mood but here it is on my little lady. Is it just me or does she look way to big to be turning 3? 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Embroidery Hoop Snowman

My youngest recently had a snowman themed birthday party. I was trying to figure out a cute door decoration that I could keep up past the party and I came up with this Embroidery Hoop Snowman.

A few months back I found this bag of embroidery hoops at Goodwill for $1.49. I didn't have anything specific in mind for them, but at that price I couldn't pass it up.


Once I had decided on the snowman I gathered my materials:
3 embroidery hoops, white fabric, stabilizer (optional), Buttons, Ribbon, Tacky glue.


I took white fabric and stabilizer (because the fleece I used was stretchy) and placed it as tightly as I could ithe embroidery hoops. Then I took the buttons and attached them with Tacky glue. I let that dry overnight then made a bow instead of a scarf and attached it with tacky glue as well.

Once everything was dry I ran a ribbon through the top of each hoop then I tied the 3 hoops together and made another knot about 2 inches higher to make a loop to hang it on the door.

I love that this decoration will be cute long after Christmas is over. Snowmen are my favorite winter decoration.


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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Guest posting over at Sugar Bee Crafts

Today you can find me over at Sugar Bee Crafts. Stop by and check out my tutoral for Abby's Snowman Birthday Dress. :)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Snowman Birthday Cake

Sunday my youngest turned 3! I still can't believe it. She had a snowman themed birthday part and I LOVE how her cake turned out.



If you want to make an adorable cake like this all you need is:

2 boxes of cake mix
2 containers of frosting
5 large oreo cookies
5 mini oreo cookies
1 candy corn
3 twizzlers

I had 3 different sized springform pans, but 3 circle cake pans of the same size would work just as well. Once they are cooled, cut the domes off the top of each to make them flat.
Then I took the bottom of the spring form pan that was the next size smaller  and cut out a small semi circle so the circles would sit together.
After this step the 2 larger circles should look a bit pacman like.
I didn't have anything long enough for my giant snowman so I took 2 sides of a cardboard box and covered it in foil. It just barely fit in the fridge.
If you stick your cake in the fridge after your thin crumb coat it will take less frosting to get a nice smooth finish.
I thought that 2 tubs of frosting would be enough but it wasn't enough to add a boarder around the egde as well so I went with marshmallows. My Maddie said it made it look like a girl snowman.
After the second layer has set it's time to add the face and accents. I used a dab of frosting on the back of each cookie to "glue" it to the cake and then used some gel icing to write next to the cake. 
The cake was a huge hit at the party and Abby couldn't stop coming over and looking at it. That's a win in my book.


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Saturday, December 1, 2012

One Artsy Mama Ornament Exchange

I signed up for an ornament exchange over at One Artsy Mama. I was so excited to hear that I was paired up with a fellow Ohioan named DeDe who blogs over at Designed Decor. I wandered around her blog for a while and checked out her Etsy shop. She does some adorable glass work. I wanted to make something that was fun.

*Sorry for the bad pictures. It was late at night*


I started with a clear ornament then decorated it with scarlet and grey polka dots. Scarlet and gray are Ohio State football colors for those who didn't know. :)
I then decided that the ornament needed something inside so it connected 3 little white buttons with some white thread and tied some ribbon around his neck for a scarf.

Coincidentally I received a snowman ornament in the exchange as well. It's a beautiful handmade glass ornament with my initial in it. I LOVE my ornament. As soon as I stop procrastinating and get my Christmas tree up this will be one of the first ornaments up.


You should hop over and check out the exchange and all the awesome ornaments. 

Friday, November 30, 2012

Christmas Countdown Calendar

I'm a little behind on my Christmas crafts, so far in fact I bought all the supplies for this craft last November and didn't get around to it.
 I was flipping through Joann online and I saw these countdown calenders and I thought it would be perfect for Advent. I nabbed one for each of my girls as well as some Christmas scrapbook paper.
I was trying to figure out the best way to number the drawers when I opened the package and DUH! it comes with the sticks to number the drawers.
 I just measured one of the boxes then cut the paper just smaller. For the finger hole I used a 1 inch circle paper punch and cut a half circle at the top of each. I mod podged the paper onto each drawer, let it dry, placed the number sticker on, then mod podged over the sticker as well.
The girls are so excited for December 1st so they can start opening the drawers and stop peeking through the finger holes. 

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Whimsy Couture Empire Dress - Pattern Review

Back in October I did a pattern review for a long sleeve Empire Dress by Whimsy Couture. It is definitely one of my favorite online pattern shops. I saved this post for a while because the fabric I chose it scenes from the classic Rudolph movie and when I sewed it it wasn't even Halloween yet.
When we lived in Texas the local Walmart was getting rid of their fabric section *HOW DARE THEY!* and I nabbed a few really cute fabrics at next to nothing including 4 yards of this awesome pattern. I wasn't really sewing much back then or I would have grabbed way more fabric than I did. Live and Learn.
I had been looking everywhere for a cute and simple long sleeve dress for the cold months so when I spotted this pattern I knew I had to make it.
With no zippers or buttons (aside from the faux one in front) this was super easy and great for twirling. I even had enough of the fabric left to make a matching dress for my 5 year old as well. So far every time the girls wear them they get TONS of compliments and I was able to complete each dress in an evening. Can't beat that.

What are you sewing for the cooler months? Do your girls have an aversion to pants like mine?

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Snowman Applique Shirt

My youngest will be 3 on December 2. I can hardly believe it! She is having a snowman themed birthday party and has the cutest birthday dress. I can't show you yet because I'm guest posting about it over at Sugar Bee Crafts on December 8th so It's a secret for now. I can however show you the applique shirt I made for my oldest, Madeline, so she could join in on the snowman fun. She chose a purple shirt (her favorite color) and I went from there.
 This little guy was super easy to make and came together in about half an hour. The snowman is from the same soft fleece as Abby's birthday dress and the nose and scarf are scraps from other projects as well. I Ironed interfacing to the back of my materials before I cup my shapes to give them a little bit of weight. I just traced around 3 glasses for the snowman pieces then hand drew the scarf and nose. The eyes and and belly are obviously black buttons because who doesn't have buttons just lying around? I used pinking shears to cut out my snowman to make it a little more girly but since it's fleece it really wasn't necessary.


Before I sewed the pieces onto the shirt I ironed a piece of interfacing to the inside of the shirt so it wouldn't be so stretchy and the buttons wouldn't pull so much. Then I laid down my snowman body all down, stuck a pin through each circle to hold it in place and sewed as close as I could get to the edge with white thread. Then I added the nose and scarf and just sewed close to the edge with a coordinating color thread. All that was left was the buttons. Super easy and cute project. The best part is that it is not exclusively a Christmas shirt so it can be warn all winter long.

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Thanksgiving Faux Mantel

Our house doesn't have a fireplace so I usually decorate the kitchen table or the island for the seasons/holidays. Recently I inherited this hutch from my Grandma so I'm excited to have a set place to display my 'mantels' that won't have to be moved out of the way to have work space.
I was able to replace my cookbook shelf and my art closet I had in my dining area with this one piece and it looks so much better now. I'll be posting later about how I reorganized our art supplies. I love the pictures I have displayed. They are my Great Grandma and my Dad's senior pics. :)

For my Faux Mantel I used the same place mat and Fall letters found here. The rest of the pieces are Good will finds. I fould the 4 candlesticks for $.99 each and the Cornicopia for $1.99. The flowers are left over from a flower pen gift that the PTO provided for teachers.

Are you still decorating for fall or have you already skipped to Christmas?


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