My friend Kathy made some of these for her baby a few weeks back out of a thrifted purse. I’ve been obsessively checking thrift stores for purses ever since. This weekend it hit me…DUH!

My old leather coat got cut up to make some shoes for my new (still nameless) niece.

I bought the pattern from this Etsy seller. It’s the Basic Booties for Babies and Dolls pattern.

Next on the chopping block? The tan leather skirt I wore the first time Sheri and I met.

(Yes, really.)

This coat turns out way cute, but this is quite possibly the worst pattern I’ve ever used.

If you make it, here’s what you’ll need to be aware of:

Every single part of the coat or jacket is listed separately (jacket/coat, collar, sleeve, sleeve cuff, yoke and front facing). You’ll need to tally up ALL these to figure out how much fabric to buy. I somehow missed the yoke and front facing but after 2 trips to the fabric store, I didn’t care. Luckily, the amount of yardage they tell you to get is way over estimated and it was fine…at least on the size 10.

If you make the jacket, the cutting layout will tell you to cut out pockets. Don’t. You can’t put pockets in the jacket, only the coat.

The front half of the lining comes with it’s own pattern piece. That back does not. You just cut out the same piece that’s used for that back of the jacket. This makes the back lining about 1.5″ longer than the front lining. You’ll have to cut it off and even it up for the finishing instructions to have any chance of working out.

If sewing the sleeve lining confuses you, safety pin it the way it will need to be sewed and then pull the sleeve back through the lining and sew it.

Back view:

And I really should have gotten a shot showing the fabric Macy picked for the lining. VERY orange.

Bath and Body Works’ foaming hand soap in Fresh Lime Basil. Do not, however, get Herb Garden. Campbell came out of the bathroom demanding to know “why it smell like ‘lantro in here”.

Cover Girl’s Lash Blast mascara. The first words out of BC’s mouth when he walked in the door were “Are you wearing mascara?” My lashes were THAT much longer and more defined. Truth be told, I’m more likely to be wearing someone else’s snot on my shirt than mascara, so that could be why he noticed, but we’re going to go with the other angle.

Hey there fellow fans of Char and her awesome blog!
My name is Stephanie and I am the busy creator over at somewhat simple.

I am honored to be taking over this blog today!Char and I have had this swap in the works for a month now!

Anyway, come join in the fun and get inspired!

I hope to see each of you soon! Thanks again Char for swapping with me today! I love all your CRAP! (which, lets be honest, isn’t very crappy!)

Have a great weekend!!!

(via Random.org)

Comment #21/Dani

and

Comment #15/Amanda

Email me at [email protected] to find out how to pick up your tickets!

OK…just kidding! I already emailed both of you!

Guest blogger in the morning….good night!

If you will be in Utah this weekend, don’t forget to entere the giveaway before 10:00 tonight!

How to turn this:

Into these:

I’m not good at just winging it when it comes to sewing clothing. I liked the little ruffley draw string waistband, so I picked this pattern. I did want contrasting fabric at the bottom, but not SO MUCH. I also wanted the waistband to contrast. When I cut out the pattern (2 pieces, seriously easy) I added 1″ straight up the top and 9″ straight off the bottom. You may need more or less on the bottom, depending on how long you need your pants to be. I drew the lines with a pencil right on to the fabric because my fabric marker is MIA.

I also chose to make my own drawstrings. You’ll need a 1.5″ X 60″ piece of fabric. Make sure you pin your pattern pieces close to the fold and then you can just rip the drawstring piece along the selvage edge. Fold in half the long way and press. Then, open it and fold in both long edges about 1/4″ and press, tuck in the short ends about 1/4″ and press, then fold and press on the center fold again. Edge stitch on the long edge.

I assembled the pattern according to the directions. Once I was through the waistband stitching (not elastic-ed or draw string-ed yet), I laid the pajamas flat and cut the tops off, about 1.5″ below the bottom stitching on the waistband. Then, I swapped waistbands and sewed them on to the other pair of pants, using a 1/2″ seam (1/2″ on the waistband + 1/2″ on the pants = the extra 1″ we added to the top of the pattern when we cut it out).

Follow the pattern directions for inserting the elastic and drawstring.

I tried the pants on the recipients at this point and marked where they needed to be hemmed. I cut 1.25″ below that and hemmed them according to the pattern directions. Then, I took the parts I cut off and cut a 3.25″ tube. I folded the raw edges in about 1/4″ on top and bottom and pressed. I put the tubes on the pants cuffs, up about 1/2″ from the hem, matching seams, and edgestitched them in place.

Fabrics are Joel Dewberry’s Deer Valley line.

***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

I have TWO sets of tickets to the Utah What a Woman Wants Show going on this weekend at the South Towne Expo Center!

How do you enter?

1) Leave a comment on this post (that’s one entry)

2) Become a follower and leave another comment telling me you are a follower (that’s another entry).

Contest closes tomorrow night (Thursday) at 10:00 MST! I’ll pick 2 winners.

Tickets courtesy of Seasons Boutique.

If you don’t win, and you still want to go for free….you can!

Wear your pajamas and show up Saturday morning between 8:00 and 10:00.

The vendors will be in pajamas, too.

Look for my sister and step mom in these:

Good luck!

This is another old project from cleaning off the memory card.

I found the idea originally in Family Fun magazine, directions here.

It’s SUPER easy. It’s been 3 years or so, but I’m pretty sure my sister (yes, the one who set my cake on fire) and I whipped the ones in the top picture out by ourselves in under an hour.

I loved them so much that I put more up in my playroom a month or two later. Great way to use the wasted space behind the door, right?

Kari over at UCreate featured some full wall length ones recently, too.

We have a giant roll of paper on the opposite wall in my play room. I’m thinking about putting a long one under it to hold pencils and crayons. You could use one to hold chalk and eraser on a chalkboard painted wall, too.

My sister was in charge of the candles on my cake. She decided 34 was WAY TOO MANY candles. (She’s 20. What does she know?)

She decided to write my name with candles instead. That took 39 candles, thank you very much.

And when she lit them?

Guess who’s an aunt!

This sweet baby girl made her appearance at 8:31 this morning….only 13 days late.

Congratulations to my brother and his wife!