Girls Jean Skirt Purse

This skirt was too small for Rebekah, but it was so cute, I couldn't get rid of it.  Instead, I turned it into an adorable purse!  The picture below shows what I started with.  The fabric belt came with the skirt, and made a great shoulder strap.  I used a seam ripper to remove the pink eyelet fabric and used it on a different skirt you can see here.  One thing I wish I would have done, was add a magnetic snap to keep it closed.

 

Then I laid the skirt on top of my lining fabric and traced around it.  I cut two out and sewed them together leaving the top open, shown in the next picture.

Then I sewed the bottom of the skirt closed.  As an alternative, you can leave the bottom of the skirt open so you can see the lining fabric.

I then pinned the lining into the jean skirt, folding the raw edge under as I went.  Make sure you pin your straps in too!  Then sew around the purse to secure and that's it! 

This purse was given to my niece for her 5th birthday.  A girl can always use another cute purse!

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

If you love corn dogs at the fair, then you will love these muffins.  I made them for some friends this weekend, and I couldn't stop eating them!  Yum!  I plan on making them again this week to bring to a pot luck, keeping them warm in a crock pot.  I found this recipe on Pinterest, but it came from Kristin at Iowa Girl Eats.  While you're looking up this recipe, be sure to check out some of her other ones too, they all look yummy!

Yellow T-Shirt Dress

 A beautiful sunny day was perfect for sewing a cheery yellow dress!  I absolutely love this fabric, and it went perfectly with a stained yellow T-shirt that Rebekah already had. 

 

My supplies:  A stained yellow T-shirt and matching fabric.  I found the fabric on clearance at Walmart for half price!

First, I measured one of Rebekah's dresses to figure out the length I wanted the bodice to be.  Then I cut the bottom of the shirt off. 

Then I measured the width of the shirt, her's was about 12 inches, which makes 24 inches all the way around.  I decided I wanted the skirt to be twice that, and then gathered at the top.  So, my total width of the skirt would be 48 inches, divided by 8 strips of fabric, which equals 6 inches each, 6 1/2 with the seam allowance of 1/4 inch.  I cut out 8 strips of fabric, each 6 1/2 by 18 inches long (measure a current dress to get the length).  Here are my pieces laid out:

Sew all the strips together.  I also zig zagged each edge after sewing them together, which will prevent fraying.  Then zig zag the side that will attach to the bodice.  Next, bast the same edge without back stitching.  Pull one of the threads to gather the fabric.

Pin the skirt to the bodice and sew:

For the tie, I just made a tube of fabric, hemmed at each end, and then top stitched it to the dress on the top and the bottom.  Don't forget to hem the bottom of the skirt!

For the ruffles on the neckline, I used the bottom of the shirt.  I cut it into one inch strips, basted down the middle of each strip, and pulled the thread to gather it.  You can see a tutorial on Make It & Love It.

Rebekah was up for a photo shoot, until someone else took the camera and tried to take a picture with me in it!  Here she is pouting, but you can see a nice profile of the dress!

 

I'll be linking up with Keeping it Simple today.  Spend some time looking at all the other creative projects if you have time today!

Also linking with:

Swagbucks & Character Builders

Have you heard of Swagbucks?  I saw several bloggers refer to how they used Swagbucks to purchase things, which had me wondering if this was a way I could make some extra money.  I thought it might be a scam, but decided to check it out anyway.  I found out it's not a scam at all!  There are several ways to earn Swagbucks, which can then be redeemed in their store for prizes or gift cards.  So far, I have redeemed mine for $5 Amazon gift cards, 8 of them, which can be stacked together!  I just purchased this:

I plan on using these DVDs as part of our homeschooling curriculum next year.  They teach character traits like honesty, obedience, responsibility, confidence, and many more.  The best part is, I got it for free!

So, how do you earn Swagbucks?  First, you use their site as a search engine, just like Google.  Sometimes after entering in a search, you will win Swagbucks.  This is completely random in the amount or when you win.  Secondly, there is a daily poll worth 1 swagbuck, and a NOSO (No Obligation Special Offers) worth 2. There are also random codes, special offers, survey's, games, and TV clips to watch.  I recommend their Facebook page, and searching swagging101 for great tips.  I usually earn about 15 a day, and a lot more if I want to spend the time doing surveys or watching cooking shows.

If you're interested in joining, you can click on the logos on this post or any of the banners on the side.  If you sign up using my referral link, then I'll earn matching Swagbucks on your searches.  Thank you to any of you that do!

Jj Jewel Homeschool Highlights in MFW

Jj Jewel was a very fun week!  Our bible words were "Jesus is more valuable than anything else".  I don't own too many jewels, but I do have a small amber pendant that the kids thought was cool (remember, amber is the kind with bugs stuck in it... really cool to a 5 year old boy).  Both kids enjoyed gluing fake jewels on their letter J's, and also on crowns made out of paper bags covered in tin foil. 

Rebekah especially loved being a queen!

We also attempted to make rock candy, which was one of the activities listed in the teachers manual.  However, it's been over a week, and there's still nothing on the string... but it did get nice and crusty, so they could see the crystals at least.

Another activity listed in the teacher's manual was to string beads to make a necklace.  We used cut up straws for our beads, and instead of making a necklace, we decorated their room with long strings!

Here are a few of our books.  We also watched a DVD about rocks and minerals.  I really wanted to do a treasure hunt too, but I didn't get to it in time.  Once the weather gets really nice, I think I'll make up one for outside with written clues to find the treasure.

Dandelion Honey

Most of us have heard that you can eat dandelion leaves in your salad, right?  Who would have thought you could turn dandelion flowers into honey (aka syrup)?  I was amazed when I came across Mooberry Farm's recipe for Dandelion Syrup!  The kids and I had great fun picking dandelion heads!  The pictures are of us picking the stems off.  This is a great job for young kids to help with.  I didn't have to worry about them ruining the dandelions...

Here they are boiling in water with a chopped up lemon.

After straining the juice and cooking it with sugar, we got two-thirds of a quart jar full of honey.  It has a very strong taste, which is a little weird at first, but I like it, and the kids think it's amazing that we made our own honey!  They were very proud to have daddy taste it... unfortunately, daddy thinks it's allergies in a jar...  He did take a lick, but that's all.  (His taste buds are weird though, he ate pickled sucker fish for lunch and then turned his nose up at our honey!)

Now hop on over to Mooberry Farm for the recipe, and then go pick some dandelions!

Dress Pants to Skirts

This was a pair of dress pants that my mother-in-law asked me to turn into a skirt.  She requested the seam to come straight down from the top instead of curving over like I do when I make a regular jean skirt (see here).   Making this seam was much easier than I expected.  The dress material was thinner than denim, so I was able to fold and pin it straight down, still adding a triangle of fabric on the bottom.  Normally, I sew two seam lines next to each other, which prevents the seam from fraying and coming apart, but because I was trying to keep this skirt dressy, I sewed only one line.  Then after cutting the excess material off on the underside, I zig zag stitched the raw edges.  Lastly, I used a blind hem stitch on the bottom.  This was the first time I've done a blind hem, and I think I should have made my stitch width a little smaller, but it looks okay.  The skirt shown below is another one I just did for her.

Eyelet Trim on a Girls Skirt

This brown corduroy skirt started out as a pair of pants.  My jean skirt tutorial will give you directions to do this.  I had some pink eyelet trim that I removed from a different skirt.  (see here to see the original)  It looks great and Rebekah likes it.

I had to share a smiley picture of Joshua I took this morning.

Rr Rock - Homeschool Highlights in MFWK

This is our Rr Rock unit.  We learned "I listen and obey.  I build my life on the Rock."  I think my kids have already forgotten the "listen and obey" part!  Above is the front of our lap book.  I had them cut out letter Rs and pictures that start with R, like rock, rain, and railroad tracks.  Below, they are looking for rocks for their rock collection.  It was cold out, so mom and baby didn't want to travel very far to find rocks... 
 

It just so happened that the kids sang at church this week in the kids choir, guess what song?  I go to the Rock.  This was Rebekah's first time singing up front and she did a great job.  She sang really loud, and she knew all the words!

Here's a version of it on youtube:

Practicing the letter R:

And our books.  I also found a DVD about Rocks and Minerals that I'm going to have them watch this week.

New Tractor Seat

This is a new seat cushion for my Step-Dad's tractor.  Because the cushion was torn and rotting away, I had to start by buying a new piece of foam.  Jo Ann Fabric had 5 inch thick foam that worked great.  Here's a tip I learned: use an electric knife to cut the foam to the correct dimensions.  I used a tan upholstery fabric to sew the cover (I can't remember exactly what it's called).  Below is a picture of the backrest with 2 inch foam. 

 

Because I didn't have the plywood backing, I left 3 inches of fabric that can be pulled tight and stapled with a staple gun to the plywood board.  

Re-purposing Too-Short Skirts

Rebekah was given this adorable purple plaid skirt, but it was definitely too short for her.  I just happened to have the top half of another too short skirt.  (See the original jean skirt here, and what happened to the bottom half.)  When the two were combined, it made one adorable skirt!  She loves it, and I love that I didn't have to buy it!