Christmas Eve pj's

Every Christmas Eve we all open one gift- a new set of PJ's, and occasionally a book. One thing I've been wanting to do for us for Christmas was to make PAJAMA PANTS. I found an awesome sale at JoAnn Fabrics and got just what I needed.

This was my first time doing this task, so I followed these simple HOW-TO instructions. Maybe next time I'll try the whole "technical pattern" route, but these turned out great! I picked some nice snuggly fabric that the WHOLE family LOVE. Jackson told me he's going to wear these even when its NOT Christmas. :) 

My matching boys REINDEER PJ PANTS.

And... the girls matching pink and purple REINDEER PAJAMA PANTS.

 I will definitely do this again!

homemade stockings

I've been wanting to make us ALL new, coordinating stockings for year's and I finally DID! I found a great sale at JoAnn Fabrics over Veterans' Day and I got started. 

I followed THESE instructions to assemble the stockings (although I traced the stockings we currently have instead; they are bigger and I like their shape better than the one on the pattern).

I wanted to embroider the names on the stockings myself. (Secret: I really enjoy embroidery and cross stitching). I found this cool link on SHADOW EMBROIDERY. It was pretty easy once you get the hang of it and I LOVE how it turned out.

This is how it looks as you're stitching along...

And this is the back side (which will be used at the front side).

All 5 all finished! HOORAY! I love how they turned out! Unique, and coordinating but individually styled. Go Mama!

pioneer trek clothes

Not only was I excited to go on Pioneer Trek but I was excited to MAKE as many of the clothes as I could so I could learn HOW! I think I did a pretty sweet job for my first time sewing more than a square. Check it out!

SKIRTS:

I used 2 1/4 yards of fabric along with this pattern and instructions.

I followed the instructions exactly and my turquoise skirt turned out just like their's (which has a TON of room in the back) and is VERY adjustable for all sorts of different sized ladies.

Skirt front

Skirt back, according to instructions

For my purple skirt I made a front AND a back waistband (instead of making a casing for the ties). I like how this skirt turned out better than the original pattern. I think it looks nicer and more finished. The only thing I'd do differently would be to make the front waistband 16" long (rather than 15") and the back waistband about 18-20" long (so you have lots of extra room if you need it).

Skirt front- with my own variation of the pattern

Skirt back- I made an extra waistband for the back of the skirt,
put my buttonholes in for the skirt ties and I love it.
I really like how this skirt turned out. Looks so much more "finished".

APRON:

I followed this pattern for my very simple apron. Next time I make an apron, I will NOT make it white (even though that's the color they tradtionally were), but a colored or patterned apron instead- more realistic because on trek it's BOUND to get dirty. ;)

BLOOMERS:
I followed this "make your own pattern" for my bloomers. They turned out fine. I'm glad I used the lightest weight muslin I could find. ALL THOSE LAYERS makes for a long, hot day of walking and pushing.

BONNET: Matching bonnet for my turqouise skirt. :) Love this fabric.

I used this pattern- McCall's 9423

I did end up making a plain white bonnet too. I followed this same pattern but made everything a little smaller. This pattern had my little head LOST in the bonnet; I know that's kind of the point but mine were bigger than they needed to be and I felt kinda silly in them, especially looking back at the pictures. Oh well, I was trying to be authentic and it was fun. :)

Josh's Shirts:
These shirts were no doubt the hardest task of ALL the trek clothes. I was hoping to make shirts via the 15 minute shirt method below, but I couldn't find solid, lightweight fabric that were one size too big (to cut down for the modified shirt) so I ended up going with this "pirate-type" peasant shirt. I used a McCalls M4952 pattern.

I attempted the blue shirt first and I think it turned out great for my first shirt. However, the arms were VERY FLOWY and my sweet mother-in-law volunteered to cut them down for me (at this point I was too panicked and worried about packing up for trek that I wasn't mentally up for THIS challenge). They look much better, yet still flowy, but not NEARLY as much.

1st shirt attempt

My 2nd attempt at a shirt turned out just about perfect I think. It's amazing what experience will teach you. This time through I didn't mess up the cuffs and I knew how to sew the placket just so. ;) Instead of having to worry about the HUGE flowy sleeves this time I modeled my pattern pieces after my husband's button-down church shirt. He thought they were great. 

2nd shirt attempt

The only thing I'd do differently for these shirts would be to find ones that have buttons on the cuff so the sleeves can be rolled up. As it was, he could push these sleeves up to about mid-forearm, which was better than nothing. ;)

MY shirts:15 minute pioneer shirt

http://homedelicious.blogspot.com/2012/05/pioneer-trek-week-15-minute-pioneer.html

FAMILY FLAG:

I had NO pattern to go off of for our flag so I made up my own. Our paper said it should be between 2-5' big. Our's ended up about 2' and was BY FAR the smallest flag, but I LOVE it and I wouldn't change it. :)

I think I made the edges 4-5" wide. I sewed right sides together (on one side), then folded the open edge side over about 1/8-1/4". Iron that little edge down. Then fold the rest of the edge in half so it is even on both sides. Then I cheated and did a large zig zag stitch down the side to secure both sides. 

Oh and be sure to leave the left edge of your flag open on the bottom so you can put your pvc pipe in to hold up your flag. Next time I do this I'd leave the top edge open too to put a pipe across the top so you flag isn't so floppy. (Hindsight is 20/20.)

We downloaded this font for our cool "old west" letters and found this temple silhouette to use. I printed them out on an iron-on transfer sheet, and ironed it on to our heavy-weight muslin fabric.

Josh found this custom hat shop to make him a hat. It turned out AWESOME and he loved it. That hat will be with us for a long time. Thanks Dirty Billy!

NECK COOLER-

I found this cool little do-dad after the fact but I think this might be really handy for next time on trek.

{sewing} hooded towels

I started making these hooded bath towels maybe a year ago? I really like them. I think they make great baby gifts, and they're so quick! All you need 1 a bath towel & 1/2 a hand towel, along with thread and pins of course. (I usually buy 2 towels and 1 hand towel to make 2 towels.)

I like this pattern because the hood part isn't all pokey.
See the instructions in the link above. Here is my step one of sewing the 2 wrong side middles together.

The finished product all rolled up and ready to GIFT! (If I'm calculating correctly I think I've made at least 10 of these so far!) I like using these for baby gifts because it seems like after about 2-3 months old, the baby is too big for the baby hooded  towels. These give them enough room to grow and stay warm and dry!

Here are my 2 boys bundled up in their's.

fabric luggage tags for business cards

Early this past summer I found these cute luggage tags for business cards, and decided I wanted to make A BUNCH! I made 10 for all our bags for our Summer Vacation and then I had some materials left over so I decided to make some up for all the gals in my family for Christmas! Kinda fun I think!

Follow the link above for the better "How To" pictures and instructions. Use this link for instructions on making the strap, which is what I'm doing in this picture.

When it comes to sewing over the vinyl, I found this help that said to take off my presser foot, put tape on in (so it glides over easier), and cut the whole out in the middle for the needle.

 

That's what I did here.

I used clothespins to hold my business card in place while I sewed around it.

**Don't have a business card? I used some Avery 8371 business cards. They're great! I just run them through my printer and can change my luggage tags inserts out as I need to!

I think they turned out pretty cute! Hooray!