$3 Wool Longies: A Naptime Sewing Project

Today I made the cutest little wool pants for my youngest. It's a great little project that's made with a thrift store sweater that was half off, so it cost about $3. A fun and easy project that can be made during a nap. I plan on using them as an overnight diaper cover but really these could be for just daytime use. .These took about 20 minutes total of work, though my little munchkin woke up half way through.

The pics aren't the greatest, but bear with me, this is the first tutorial I've ever done and I was trying to be quick.

Take your sweater and cut the sleeves off right at the seam lines.










Find a pair of pants that fit your child well. I chose a baggier pair with a little room to grow because I wasn't using an exact pattern. Once you cut, you can never get it bigger, I can always take these in a little or just deal with a little room and get more use out of them.

Cut a piece of elastic that's about 1 inch smaller than the waist line of the pants (remember, we want a stretchy waist band)







With the sleeves inside out, fold the pants in half, right sides in. Smooth them out and line them up with the seam of the sleeve like in the picture and trim the sleeve with the curve of the pants. I put the seam on what will be the inside of the pant.

Flip the pants over, and repeat with the other side.

 

 I've left enough room on the cuff so they can be folded up now, and down when my munchkin gets a little taller

 Now pin the part you cut, right side facing in to form a little ridge, taking care at the crotch area to make sure it's lined up well.

 Starting at the top, I zigzagged the edge, as close as I could get to the edge, to prevent unraveling later on. These aren't felted at all and would be way to thick if I did that, so I took this extra precaution.

Again, take care at the crotch seam to make sure you're getting everything in there. Otherwise you could end up with some pretty funky looking pants.












I then did a straight stitch directly next to the zigzag to keep it from pulling apart. Avoid the temptation to make your stitches very tight and small. If you do, the seam will not be very flexible.

This is where Miss Grumpy Pants woke up, so I took the opportunity to put the pants on her real quick to see where I needed to fold down the top to make the waist band. I ended up needing to trim about an inch off the top so the waist wasn't incredibly bulky or up too high like old man pants.

After trimming the top I again zigzagged the edge and then folded over and pinned where I was planning the elastic to be. I laid my elastic on top of my work to double check there would be enough room for the elastic to be in there with a little wiggle room.

I straight stitched the waist band around leaving about an inch un-stitched so I could get my elastic in later.

Hook a safety pin in the end of your elastic to make pulling through the elastic something you wont pull your hair out over. It gives you something to hang on to. I also pinned one end to the opening to avoid pulling it all the way through and making me cry...I hate doing elastic >.<







I then used a crochet hook to shove the elastic through. It takes a little wiggling, but it works. You could also use a chopstick or even the handle of a spoon to do this.





Tada! My elastic is through. Lay the ends of the elastic flat over each other and do a wide zigzag to make it all one happy piece.










That's it! Now put the pants on your baby and let her parade around in them while you chase her with a camera to show the world what a great job you did.

 

Swagbucks and Me, an Internet Love Affair

I'm sure some of you may have heard of Swagbucks  by now, but if not let me give a little explanation.

Swagbucks is a website that rewards you for doing various things like using their web search, using their toolbar, taking quick surveys (which I rarely do) and making purchases.
Every morning when I sit down with my coffee and open up the internet..BAM! 1 swagbuck. I go to swagbucks.com and spend 2 seconds clicking on an opinion for the daily poll..BAM! 1 more swagbuck.  I use the swagbucks toolbar to search for things like facebook, blogger, twitter, gmail and...BAM! I generally win between 5-12 swagbucks. There is a little box at the bottom of my page called a "Swidget" sometimes they decide to send codes through the Swidget, if you hear about it, come back here and click where it says "find out of there is a code" and BAM! around 8 Swagbucks.

Now, what the heck do I do with these swagbucks? I turn them in for gift certificates.

 

 So far I've turned in for 10 amazon.com cards (I'm waiting on one right now, they take about 2 weeks) ..that's $50 of free stuff from amazon for those of you that don't feel like math...and a $5 gift certificate to the bumkins.com store. You can stack amazon.com gift cards, you can only have 1 Bumkins.com code at a time per their website.


WHY am I telling you this anyway? Well firstly I'm letting you in on one of my little secrets on how I make a few extra bucks for around hollidays and birthdays. Second, their birthday is Monday and from the buzz online, it's going to be full of ways to earn Swagbucks, and in turn, money! Thirdly, I want you to sign up with my referral code, duh! Why the heck should you do that? Well it helps me get Swagbucks, I get a couple when you get a couple..that's awesome for me (hey I did make you wise to this whole Swagbucks thing right?) I'm sure when you get into being a Swaggernaut you're going to want people to sign up under you as well...so ya, that's how I feel now.

My opinion on Swagbucks, I love it. It's a different search engine, but using it gets me money, so I deal. Who doesn't love free freaking money?

Vintage pins

As much as I love to sew, sometimes I hate to sew. I hate using patterns and I really hate measuring and pinning things. I've lost countless pins in the carpet over the years, bent almost as many and stabbed myself billions of times because I have to push the pins in so hard. Lets not forget the time I actually hit a pin with my sewing machine needle, broke the needle in half which then flew off and hit me right next to the eye.
So I don't pin anymore. This is why every large project I've ever sewn has come out wonky in one way or another. Any time someone complements me on a halloween costume I've made my daughter, I start chanting in my head "oh please don't look at the inside, oh please don't check to see if my stitches are straight"

Which takes me to my favorite sewing thing I own...pins.

I was given all sorts of sewing, knitting and crochet things when my husband's aunt passed away. These, I've cherished from the moment I laid eyes on them.

I've always had the habit of loving something kind of small and inconsequential. I love tiny sugar bowls and glass jars of every kind. It may sound silly, but I just love these pins. I love the discoloration of the cube they're stored in. Something about the light blue and yellowing of age appeals to me. It sings of a time where every woman knew how to sew, because their mothers, grandmothers, sisters and friends all did and were taught by example. I'm a little jealous.

Aside from the fact that they have that nifty swirl and come in interesting colors and sizes, they're built really well. You hear it all the time, but they just don't make things like they used to. These pins are long, thick and don't snag. They're a heavy gauge so I never have to shove them in so hard they bend, I'm not sure I could bend them without seriously trying.

I ordered some bamboo terry fabric to make diapers for my daughter the other day and I finally got to cutting and pinning (eek!) them yesterday afternoon and it just struck me, these pins are awesome.

I don't know what the brand is, or what they're called. The pin cube they're in belongs to the plain black pins that are also stuck in there. I have no idea what I'd google if I wanted to find more...but I have the feeling if I ever came across more, I'd pay a stupid amount of money for them.

Free(ish) business cards have arrived!

I got my cards that I ordered for free via Moo.com's collaboration with Etsy. I can't say I love them..but I like them a lot. I guess the only reason I'm not in love with them is that when you're setting them up, they look so photo-ish. I understand they're not going to be like printing pics from a kodak kiosk, but after seeing them on the website like that while editing it's like my brain just loved them that way, and it's a little sad that they're not like that in person.

 

 

 I will warn that the enhance picture option they have brings out any inconsistencies in editing you may have done yourself. As a complete n00b in photoshop, I found this out via my skill (or lack there of) in using the dodge tool to get rid of the background. You can see shadows on the cards. I'm very glad I learned this lesson on a free sample.

They are pretty pricey for full sized business cards, so I'm glad I got this deal to check them out before dumping all that $ on something I wasn't sure about. I think I'll go for Moo's mini-cards next time, they're pretty cute and I could even use them as tags right on my products.

Charity Auction

Bidding has already started, with more to open for bidding on the 7th. Please consider making a purchase or donating an item to help this family out. I've placed a blue fuzzy mini-monkey up for bids.

 

Stephanie and Dan Devries are a hard-working young family who live in Central New York, along with their 1.5-year-old daughter, Lucy. After months of trying for a second blessing, they were thrilled to find out in October 2010 that they were expecting. On Sunday, January 30, 2011, at just 18 weeks along, Stephanie's water broke unexplainably. They hurried to the hospital, to find that there was nothing to be done but deliver the baby. A beautiful, tiny little boy was delivered via repeat c-section. He was tiny but perfect, and his parents were able to spend time holding him until he passed.
Please join us in donating and bidding on items to help off-set the astronomical costs of the unexpected early delivery and laying to rest their beautiful little boy.

100% of the proceeds of each and every auction will go directly to the Devries family.

If you are interested in donating items to be auctioned, please email KumfyKozies at MRBLayaw@hotmail.com

Free(ish) Business Cards

Moo.com is teaming up with Etsy to give free business cards for Etsy shop owners. It says free, but TINSTAAFL (thanks highschool economics class!) and alas, you have to pay $5.50 shipping. I've heard great things about these cards and I've been waiting for a deal like this to come along to try them out. Everyone says they're super high quality photo-like cards. Its still a good deal for the product, so I went ahead and put an order through last night.

The site allows you to upload high quality photos and adjust the size and layout of the image on the card. They even offer 1 click enhancement for your pics if you're not a Photoshop whiz. They are 2 sided cards, 1 side w/your image, the other with your info. You have the option between their original (glossy, photo-like) or a new recycled material as a medium for your cards. That's a pretty cool option, there didn't appear to be any additional charges with either choice.

I'll be posting pics when I get them, but I figured this could be useful to others, so there ya have it.

Giveaway

Thats right, a give away....FREEEEEE stuff for you! I'm hooking up with Raisingmy5sons  for a 24 hour giveaway she'll be hosting soon! Fan her Facebook page for more info and to join in on the fun. Fan mine while you're at it!

I'm giving away this little guy, I'm even paying for his travel to you!

SQUIIIIIIIIIIIIIISHY!!

Can I say, I am  just so excited about the project I'm starting on today. I was contacted for a big batch order of mini monkeys for birthday  party favors. How cuuuuuuute is that? (those lucky kids!!)
I've been searching around for socks that were just right for this project and I found these super squishy, fuzzy socks yesterday. I  may just have to make these a part of my regular inventory if they turn out as adorable as I think they will. Here's a couple pictures of the socks, I'll be posting progress pictures as I go along.

Hip to be square monkey

Now that the holiday crazyness is over, I can start getting more sewing done. Here's this little gal I'd been working on ages ago and she just kept getting set aside and forgotten :(

Showing everyone its still hip to be square, I love this little monkey ^_^ 

Freshly listed on Etsy