Fleece Carseat Poncho

Winter is here again! Nothing like negative daytime highs to say "Welcome to the Midwest!" Not so pleasant for school drop off and pick up or running errands.

I originally made this poncho for D who is 18 months, but he wasn't too fond of it and his sister was happy to adopt it!

The poncho is perfect to cover up while the car warms up...

 and doesn't interfere with the seatbelt like a puffy winter coat would.

Here's how I went about it. I started with my fabric, I think I had about 1.5 or 2 yards. Basically just measure your child from their shoulders to where you want it reach on them.

I used my measuring stick to draw the circle. I used a pen to hold it in the center, then held a sharpie at the measurement I wanted and drew around in a circle. Kinda like a giant compass. (I now realize, after the fact of course, that if you were to fold your fabric in quarters, you could do the same thing in less time.)

yay, an almost perfect circle!

Then I folded the circle in quarters to determine the neck hole.

I laid a shirt on top to give a better estimate. I didn't match it up exactly, I pulled it up a bit and it worked out great. You could also measure the largest part of your kid's head to determine the size of the whole as well.

testing it out...he looks so happy, but that didn't last long.

I made my poncho double layered, because, well...negative temperatures exist in this crazy new place we live!!!! lol I had some fleece that needed to be used up so I sewed those two pieces together to make the bottom layer. I just used the stars fabric as a pattern and cut it out.

For the hood, I again used something that already fit, traced around it giving plenty of room for seams and general room to grow, because boy do these little humans grow fast!

Did the same with the outer fabric. So you have two hood pieces, one in the inner fabric, one in the outer. Then with right sides together, I put the inner fabric inside the outer and sewed around the face part of the hood.

Flip it right sides out.

Then you're ready to attach it to the body of the poncho. I tucked the hood fabric in between the two layers of the poncho.

At first I sewed it like this, with the hood only coming to the halfway point on each side of the poncho. But it looked super awkward and isn't how real hoods are so I removed it and reworked it.

My daughter loves the poncho and always asks for it. It is so nice not to have to put on and take off jackets when we're running errands or taking brothers to school! She also really really loves to twirl in it! :D  AND her big brothers both asked for ponchos for Christmas and I went about it a different way, so stay tuned for that!

Top 10 Posts of 2014

(So apparently I never hit publish on this post....oops)
I don’t know about you, but 2014 was interesting. There were some up’s and some down’s and lots of uncertainty and waiting around.

As for as the blog goes, I had some very consistent periods and then well I kinda unintentionally took the last month or so off. It has been very busy and stressful the last couple months at church with my calling.
Here are my top 10 articles posted in 2014…

Reupholstered Glider – I still smile when I walk in my little girl’s room and see this!

 

DIY Baby Gate – Now that our little girl is walking around the house, this is essential for our sanity and her safety!

DIY Bath Tub Tray - My dad still loves and uses the tray. Now to make one for me :)

Natural Remedies for Children’s Eczema – my kid’s skin still gets a little dry from time to time, but the eczema patches have never come back!

How to Clean Baby Poop Stains Naturally – no baby stains here!

Clean and Disinfect Kid’s Toys (without toxic bleach) – No one has been sick yet this winter because we’ve been keeping on top of the germs and boosting their immune systems with high quality supplements.

DIY Composting Bins - I've since had to move into larger bins, but these worked great while I had a small amount.

Baby Food in the Crockpot - I love making homemade baby food. My youngest doesn't eat the purees anymore, but this really was such an easy method, I would highly recommend it!



Best Ever Chocolate Banana Bread – yumyumyum is all I have to say!



Little Girl Flower Headband - this is one of my favorite styles of headbands I have made for my little girl. She won't keep a headband on to save her life now, but hopefully I can put these on some cute hair clips soon and she'll leave them. 




There you go, the top 10 posts from 2014. I hope your 2015 is everything you want it to be! I know I’ve got goal and plans and dreams for what I want our New Year to be, I will be working hard to get there and am so grateful for each and everyone of you – my readers for supporting this lil blog of mine!

Mummy on the Move Halloween Tradition

Happy Fall! How was your first day of fall? I kicked it off by making some soup, yum! I can’t wait to make even more! 

Well I’m back today with this cute craft. My sweet neighbor told me about this a few years ago and ever since I’ve been wanting to do it. So you’ve heard of or seen those mischievous elves at Christmas time. Well this is the Halloween equivalent. My husband and I are really trying to keep the focus of Christmas on Christ because that is what the holiday is about to us. So we didn’t fell like Santa and elves fit into the picture very well and haven’t really had them apart of our kid’s Christmas. 

So this guy’s name is ‘Mummy on the Move’ and he will be playing trick or leaving treats for the kids leading up to Halloween. I haven’t ironed out all the details about the back story or anything like that, but I feel really comfortable with this new tradition because it’s fun, memorable, and since Halloween isn’t a big holiday in our house, it fits.

Here is how I made the little guy. All you’ll need is wire and muslin ripped into 1” strips

Start by shaping his legs

Make the torso by wrapping wire around some fabric that is bundled into the torso shape. Then attach the legs and wrap them in the muslin. Tie knots as the bottom layer to give it some shape, then just simply wrap over top. 

For the arms, wrap around the torso and extend out, overlapping the wire.

Wrap the arms

Then create a head by making a sphere.

Attach the head and wrap with muslin.

You can then draw a face or not, that’s up to you.

I hope to be back with some fun ideas and crazy thing this little guy does. 

What kind of Halloween traditions do you have?

Rainbow Tulle Tutu

Is she not the cutest thing EVER?! ok I might be a little biased, but seriously, my little girl is growing up. She’s going to be 1 year in just 9 days! ahhh! I doubt we’ll do much more than a family dinner, maybe a homemade cake…we’ll see.

But even if we don’t do a party, I wanted to make her something cute to wear. I had this tulle leftover from the Easy No Sew Tutu Crib Skirt so it didn’t cost me a penny, my favorite kind of craft!

So here’s what I did. I cut the tulle in 10” strips. It’s doubled over here

so then you cut it down the crease to make two pieces.

For the waistband I used 1” elastic and all you do with that is cut it to size plus 1”. Then sew the tow ends together with a straight stitch.

Loop the tulle around the elastic and pull the end through the loop.

Continue that all the way around varying the colors and you’ll end up with a super cute tutu.

Here are some of the ‘outtakes’ from trying to photograph Cadence in her tutu…

You can tell she has older brothers. She loves planes and she ‘flies’ them over her head and even makes the flying noises.

Or there’s this…lol more she’s learned from her brothers.

No words, just smiles! :)

 

What did you do for your child's 1st birthday? A big party or just a family gathering?

DIY Baby Food: Zucchini Millet Medley

My little girl is just growing up so fast! I could have sworn she was just rolling over yesterday, haha! I’m pretty slow when it comes to feeding my babies, and by that I mean I’m slow to progress them along. Partially out of just wanting to keep them little and partially because purees are so easy to make.

I have started to make a few more advanced meals like this one and the Squash and Quinoa meal and she seems to like them both so far. I really like to make sure anything I make my babies is healthy, nutritious, and fresh. This is all of those!

Zucchini Millet Medley
-1/2 cup Millet
-1/3 Cup Zucchini Puree (see below)
-2 TBSP Apple puree
-1/4 Cup Fresh Basil

Begin by boiling 2 cups of water, add millet, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Once done cooking, divide the millet and store half away for later. With the other half, combine with zucchini and apple purees. Let cool. Stir in basil just before serving.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months. I like to use storage containers similar to these and these.

If you don’t happen to have zucchini puree on hand already prepared, here’s how to whip some up….

Take 2 large or 3 small zucchini and wash. cut into 1 inch rounds. Place a steamer basket in a pot with 1 inch of water over medium heat to boil. Once boiling, place zucchini in the steamer basket and cover for about 7 minutes until the zucchini is very tender.

Puree the zucchini in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Store unused puree in a sealed container for 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.