Repost: Mom Heart Shirt

Reposting this shirt from a couple years ago with an updated picture with #3 in the shirt too!

Today I'll share one of my favorite crafts from the past. The 'Mom' shirt I made for my oldest is perfect for my little Valentine. 

I'm sorry I don't have a tutorial for it, but basically I just cut out the felt and hand stitched it on. You can print out the shapes off from Microsoft Word and cut them out to use as a pattern on the felt. Then just sew in layers; the heart first, the banner, and then the letters.

 It's so cute to see pictures of them at the same age side by side.

             

DIY Nursing Cami

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like I have 3 different wardrobes; normal, pregnancy, and nursing. Nursing seems to be the hardest for me to find functional tops. This time with two little boys running around, I like to have my back/belly covered because I never know when I’m going to have to get up and help or chase a little boy. So I’ve found I really love wearing a cami under shirts so I’m always covered but the one I’ve been using has gotten stretched out pulling it down to access the goods.

I looked at getting a nursing tank, but they were pricey, like $30! What?! Plus I like my tank tops to come up a little higher than the ones I was seeing. My favorite ones are from DownEast Basics and Shade. Over the summer Shade was going out of business so I snapped up a couple camis. So here’s what I did to make it accessible for baby.

Cut the straps about a 1/4” from the neckline

Then grab some snaps

With a needle and thread, simply sew the snaps on. The ‘female’ side goes on the front of the neckline hem, and the ‘male’ side goes on the backside of the strap.

I love how it turned out and it works so well! I’m able to wear it under V-neck tees and dresses and can easily access everything without stretching out a shirt or having to lift the cami up. I’ve made a couple of these so I’ve always got one to wear. The great thing is I can still wear this when I’m not nursing.

What are your favorite nursing essentials?

The Always Tucked Little Boy Dress Shirt

I was at the park with some other moms last week and one of the ladies brought up how much she loved this idea, but once you hit potty training stage, it kinda gets in the way. So I’m going to really be thinking how I can translate this concept to a potty-friendly version for the little bit older boys. Another mom – who has teenagers- said that this shirt should be mandatory for all boys until they’re 18+. haha. Totally, nothing more annoying than tucking in or asking your kid to tuck in their shirt 20 times in one church day. 

Anyway, I’ve posted this project in the past, I just figured I’d give you some better pictures and better instructions with this one.

Ben recently out grew all the shirts like this I had made for Andrew, not too surprised. So I had to make a new one.

I laid the shirt out on my cutting mat and with my yardstick, lined up the bottom of each side and cut across. I learned from the last ones not to take too much off, my boys grow so much faster in length than they do in width so I need all the length I can get.

Then with my onesie, I did the same thing. I think I measured 5” from the top of the leg hole. It was just a guess. I wanted it to be long.

Unsnap the onesie bottom and with right sides together fold it up over the dress shirt and line up the bottom edges.

I didn’t have anyone to help with pinning so I had to improvise…haha. Anyway, pull the onesie to match widths with the dress shirt and start pinning. First on one side, then the other. Then in the middle front, then middle back, etc.

 

All pinned.

Then sew with a zig zag stitch to give it a little stretch. This will make it easier to get on and off your kid. You’ll also probably have to stretch the knit to match the dress shirt if your onesie was slimmer than the shirt, like mine.

Once it’s all sewn, get your model and try it on him.

Ignore the mess – I’m keeping it real. This is what happens when I try to sew and the boys are awake, especially this little cutie. Model pose! hahaha

“Oooh, camera! Gimme!”

Ok, couldn’t get him to look at the camera, so this is as close as I get. Anyway, there’s several inches of room for him to grow into and it fits well over his cloth diapers, which is another thing I didn’t plan for when making the others so he grew out of them extra quick.

It was so much better not fighting untucked tails all day. I didn’t get a picture though because it was straight to nap for this kid. Church sure wears him out!

Ruched Side Maternity Shirt

This week is crazy. I enjoyed Monday to the fullest with my hubby and boys and now the madness begins. I don’t know how you moms with kids in sports/activities do it. Mine aren’t in any activites, but between me and my husband this week, we have something going EVERY night this week. Ahhh!

Anyway, last week, before the crazy, I worked on my sewing to-do list. This one has also been on my list for 2 years. haha. Do you all know Shade Clothing? Great clothes, love their stuff.  Well, I got a bunch of shirts on super mega clearance a while back with the intention of ruching the side for a maternity shirt.

Pre-Pinterest I saw a tutorial on this, don’t know where it is now since I didn’t Pin It, but it’s super easy.

Take a long shirt

and 1/4” elastic. Turn the shirt inside out and along the inside seam, line up the elastic and begin to sew. Sew with a zigzag stitch and once the elastic is secured, after the first couple stitches, begin to stretch the elastic as you sew.

You might have to use one hand to help it feed through, but the more you stretch the elastic, the scrunch-ier  it will be.

Pretty easy, don’t know why the easy projects usually take me the longest to complete!

Baby bump @24 weeks!

Hope your week is going great! If I can manage to feed my family most nights this week, I'll be super happy.

Pajama Pants to Shorts

My oldest son is the cutest thing ever,but the hardest thing about clothing the little stinker is he is just so darn skinny! haha. He’s almost 4 and 18 month shorts/pants still fit his waist. So last summer he was needing some summer pjs but I mostly had pants. Well because of his whole skinny minnie status, the 18 month pants were becoming high waters on him. So what to do? Make them into shorts of course!

You’re going to hate me, I don’t actually have a before picture because like I said above, I actually cut them up last summer. oh shame on me, I know. They’ve been in my mending pile for a year because I accidently cut them at such a funky angle so I thought there was no hope for them.

But I pulled them out this year determined to fix them – and I did!

So ideally if you’re going to do this from a pair of pants, lay a pair of shorts that fit on top to measure the length and cut about an inch below that. That’s what I did, just for some reason at a really bad angle. Don’t do the bad angle though. No bueno.

I turned them inside out and folded up the bottom. Since I cut it all wonky to begin with, the inside is folded up more than the outer edge. You would make an even fold if you cut them well, which I’m going to assume you did.

I pinned on the outside of the shorts and turned them right side out. I sewed with a 1/4” seam allowance.

And did a second seam a little closer to the edge than the first. Then cut the excess fabric out of the inside.

They turned out really good and didn’t end up being too short like I had feared.

So moral of the story is 1) don’t take a year to hem a silly pair of shorts. 2) be more careful when cutting!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Have lots of fun and be safe!!

High Water Jeans to Shorts Keeping the Original Hem

Hey wonderful readers! I hope you all had a great weekend and a Happy (Late) Mother's Day!!

My husband was so sweet. He made breakfast before church and we all ate it picnic style in our bedroom. Then he made dinner for us too. It was great! 

Alright, I'm just busting away at my sewing list so here's another project I got done last week. 

When I was pregnant with Andrew and first went shopping for maternity clothes I got these great jeans. Somewhere along the way though they became high waters. I don't know if I shrunk them or if they've always been this short and I just don't remember, but either way they're too short for comfort anymore. 

So I went about making them into shorts. I found this tutorial from The Pretty Poppy for hemming jeans with the original hem and decided to give it a try.

I laid the jeans on the floor (should be inside out) with a pair of shorts the length I like. 

With the jeans turned inside out I marked them the length I wanted them to be.

I measured from that mark to the bottom of the pants. 

Using that measurement I made marks all the way around the pant leg. 

I cut around the pant leg following the lines.

Then I cut the original hem off about 1/2" above the seam. 

Then using seam rippers, I removed all the stitching from the hem of the jeans. 

So if you were doing this to just hem jeans a little, you wouldn't have this problem, but since the bottom of the jeans is wider than where I cut them off at, I had to sew the cuff a little bit smaller to line up.

Mark where they line up and sew a line and cut off the extra.

With the cuff open, fold the top down about 1/2" 

Then insert the cuff into the leg of the shorts and fold the cuff over top of the jeans.

Sew around the legs with thread that matches the original thread. And you're done. I didn't notice the color difference until I was finished, but it doesn't matter. I'm happy that they aren't just cut off looking shorts so I'll take it! :)