As promised, here are the leggings I made in a jiffy for Petunia yesterday. I followed this tutorial over at crafting a green world . She did such a great job with this tutorial, I have nothing to add! So I have pointed you to her site if you would like to try this. Do it! It’s so easy…

Here are a few pics of the progress of the project:

My computer apparently doesn’t like the photo of the step where you turn one leg (sleeve) inside out, put the other leg right side out into the inside out leg and sew the crotch seam. It won’t upload it from my camera. But that’s what would go here!

Then you put your elastic in the waist, attaching a safety pin to thread it through the opening you have left in the waistband. Sew the elastic together, sew the opening shut and voila!

Last night I was perusing some tutorials about how to turn an adult sweater into items for Petunia and woke up this morning ready to go! I was so motivated that I started before I had even drank my coffee. That’s unheard of for me. Generally sewing before coffee is a complete no-no for me. Too many instances of early-morning seam-ripping have been experienced. But not today. And it was so easy. Seriously. You can find the other tutorials that I used here .

I was starting with an old, tired gray hoodie sweater that had a zipper. First: cut off zipper.

Second: cut off under the arms so that you have a “sweater rectangle”.

Third: put cut edges together with right sides together, ready to be sewn into a tube. Sew them together using a zig-zag stitch.

Fourth: fold over cut edge (the one you cut right under the arms) with a thin hem and sew with a zig-zag stitch, stretching it as you go. This makes a ruffled effect. This looks best if your thread matches your sweater really well. The dark gray sweater I used was very forgiving. I forgot to take a picture of this step…sorry!

Fifth: fold over the finished bottom edge of your original sweater to make the waistband. I folded it over around 1 inch but you can eyeball it and use whatever measurement you’re comfortable with. Sew with a straight or zigzag stitch, leaving an opening to insert your elastic.

Sixth: attach small safety pin to elastic and thread through waistband. I used my daughter’s waist measurement minus an inch because every time I use her waist measurement, things fall off. Not sure what’s going on there, just telling you what works for me! Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew the opening of the waistband shut.

And there you have it! Petunia is wearing the sweater-skirt with the leggings that I made from the sleeves of the same sweater. I’m posting that very, very easy tutorial tomorrow because, in all honesty, it took more time to edit pics and write this post than it did to make both the skirt and leggings!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the leggings…so fun and easy! Petunia says “Mommy, they’re from your sleeves!”. This really tickles her…

Okay, so Katherine over at sevidesigns.com is always posting tutorials on her site and, silly me, I go and read the blogs that she references. This ends up with me having a much too long list of things that I want to sew, craft or otherwise fiddle with in my “spare time”. (When is that “spare time” anyway???). Well, I didn’t need her help this time. I was thinking about a tee shirt refashion I wanted to do that was inspired by tearosehome and it came to me! I have an ill-fitting sweater that I have meant to get rid of for about a year. For some reason, it’s still in my closet. I don’t wear it. I’m not sure what I expected, that it would get up and march itself into the donation bin? Anywhoo, I thought it would make the cutest sweater-skirt for Petunia. Then I got to thinking (always dangerous): maybe there’s a tutorial out there for this. Oh yeah, Baby! There were several, which I will share with you in a minute. On TOP of that, I happened upon a tutorial for making leggings out of the sleeves of the sweater, which I had thought about anyway but now I see that it is definitely do-able. Seeing the different types of sweaters used in the tutorials inspired me but, as my own closet is pretty bare bones these days, I will either have to raid The Daddy’s side (probably not a good idea) or head to my local thrift establishment (always a good idea!) to see what they’ve got for me. Ooooh, this is gonna be fun!

Here is whipup.net’s take on the sweater-skirt

I love, love, LOVE the ruffley-ness on the bottom!

Crafting a Green World has this take on the sweater-skirt.

Again with the wavy ruffles…love them! And the vibrant colors in her picture gives me all kinds of fun ideas…

The tutorial for the kiddo leggings by way of adult sweater is here .

Well, I’ve done it again…I’m up past my bed time contemplating, writing about, and doing crafty stuff. Going to go get some sleep so as to have the energy to keep up with Petunia as we troll the thrift store for sweaters tomorrow! Happy crafting!:)

Remember the other day when I mentioned that I have a problem? Well, here is the result of said problem:

Just in time to be put in Petunia’s stocking by “Santa”. Along with Christmas Bunny, of course.

Now I just need to finish binding that quilt before Thursday…

The title of this post is not something I would ever have thought I would utter in my lifetime but, today I did. I finished Petunia’s stuffed duckie’s matching Christmas pajamas today and here they are:

Our pajama tops are just gray thermal tops but I used gray jersey knit for the duck’s instead because that’s what I had in my stash. When cutting out the pajama pants from the remnants left over from my and Petunia’s pj’s, I realized that there was this long triangle shape at one end. It looked like it might fit as a night cap for the duck so I cut another one and voila! Night cap a la ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas! She is so excited that he has pajamas that match ours and I’m so grateful that I can create memories like this for her.

Petunia comes home from preschool today after participating in a “ginger bread man hunt” in her class and says “I wish I had a gingerbread man doll”. This mama thinks “Hmm…the Christmas Bunny pattern without the ears and a little bit more pudgy would look just like a gingerbread man…”. I have a problem knowing when to stop.

Leave it to me during the busiest time of the year to come up with more and more (and more) ideas of things to sew in time for Christmas. My latest (after matching pj’s for Petunia and me and before matching pj’s for her stuffed duck) is a friend for Pink Bunny, which I made for her for Easter this year. His/Her/It’s name shall be Christmas Bunny and here he/she/it is:

That’s all. All I have time for. All I have to say. As Ludwig Bemelmens says at the end of “Madeline”: “That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.”

This year I decided to make Petunia and I matching Christmas pj bottoms to wear on Christmas Eve and, as time permits, I’ve been sewing a seam here and there. As they are still in progress, I’ll just show you the cute flannel I picked but, rest assured that I’ll take a pic of the matching pair when they’re finished!

The Daddy politely declined my offer to make him a pair.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers! Our little family is going to enjoy a couple of electronically disconnected days to celebrate the holiday and I’ll be back on the grid late Friday. I have to say I’m really looking forward to spending some down time with my little family. I hope that you have an opportunity to do the same.

Before I go, a little “What I’m Thankful For” list (you didn’t think you’d be able to read a Thanksgiving post without one, did you?):
My miraculous daughter
My marriage
That we have “enough” and that I can adjust my expectations of what is enough not based on what others have but based on what I need.

My extended family–my sisters and brother, Mom and Dad. They are my foundation.

The ability to adapt and choose to be happy. My hobbies and my family help me tremendously with that but I know people who are miserable and who don’t know how to not be. I am grateful that I can always find a way to be happy.

Pretty basic stuff, I know and kind of off the top of my head (I’m being told it’s time to disconnect and get on with it! LOL) but there you have it. I am very grateful this year. Life is good.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that all I have been doing/talking about lately is the Holiday Open House that happened last Friday night. One of the moms in our play group graciously opened her home to those of us work-at-home mommies with businesses/franchises to show our stuff and we had such a good time! It was a great time of socializing, checking out the creative inspiration of others, and getting exposure (and sales!) for our businesses.

There were vendors like Party Lite, Stella Dot jewelry, and Tupperware but there were two Mommy Businesses besides my own that were of a decidedly more crafty nature. Let me tell you a little bit more about them.

Amy at Sweet Baby Chic brought the most adorable hair clips and burp cloths to sell. She uses the most fantastic fabric!  And I couldn’t resist buying a couple of flower clips for Petunia.  She loves them and wants to wear them every day. Amy started by sewing baby blankets and burp cloths for friends and family, branching out to other baby items after having her own little one. Now that she’s a Momma herself, she enjoys coming up with new designs and ideas for her hair clips and loves coordinating fabrics for her sewing creations, all during nap time, of course. She just can’t stop coming up with fun things to create for our little ones!  Here are a few pictures of her products:

These are the ones I picked for Petunia:

She also has some great chenille burp cloths available.

Be sure to check out the rest of her creations at www.SweetBabyChic.etsy.com

Leora at Mylyte Creations brought her darling hand-stitched baby rattles and hair clips to the Holiday Open House. Leora learned to knit and crochet from her grandmother when she was young. She decided to offer her charming stitched creations to the rest of us at www.MylyteCreations.etsy.com while she stays home with her little ones doing what she loves.  She offers rattles, hat/bootie sets, and crocheted hair clips made from 100% cotton yarn so that the Little Ones don’t get that nasty fuzz in their mouths if (when!) they decide to put them there. The filling in her toys is non-allergenic polyfill and they can be machine washed and dried. Talk about convenient!

Here are a few pictures of her products:

I love these sunny colors!

These rattles also come in other adorable pastel colors.

How cute is this little guy?

It was great to hang out and get inspiration from these two crafty Mommas the other night! I really had a good time at the Open House and, of course, forgot to take pictures. Bad blogger! Next time, I promise. I made some sales, talked to a few people about custom orders and got the word out about Snugglebug Designs. All in all, a very good night!