I’ve blogged about this before, but the page I linked to with directions is now gone.  So, I decided provide a step-by-step guide here based on my experience.  If I were a supa-awesome blogger, I would make one and post pictures along with my directions.  I, however, am only awesome.  (And Lydia has 6 of these, so I have no reason to make another one.)   But since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m going to add some really crappy drawings that will hopefully make the directions easier to understand!  Hopefully is the key word.  (Click on “pcdress#” to see the drawings.)  **I’ve never inserted pdf files before…I hope this works!  And if not, they weren’t that great anyway.**

This is such an easy project that if you can even barely work a sewing machine, you can make this adorable dress in less than 30 minutes!!  And if you make it large enough, this is  a “grow with me” item.  Lydia has worn hers so that it was long, and now it’s short.  I have seen several girls wearing them as shirts(adorable!)

Materials you’ll need:
1 pillowcase
matching or coordinating thread
2 yards of matching ribbon
Fray Check(optional)
Washable fabric marker or chalk
Tape measure
Sharp scissors
Sewing machine

Lay the pillowcase flat, with the hemmed end at the bottom.  Measure upwards according to the following measurements:
6 month – 14.5 inches
12 month – 16.5 inches
18 month – 17.5 inches
2T – 18.5 inches
3T – 19.5 inches
4T – 20.5 inches

Once measured, cut off everything above the line you’ve drawn, saving the scraps. (pcdress02)

From the leftovers/scraps, cut a strip that is 1.5 inches tall.  Cut the strip open and then in half, so that you have 2 strips.  Each strip will be about 1.5 inches tal by about 20 inches long. (pcdress03)

Now take the large part of the pillowcase and fold it in half longways.  You will be cutting out the armholes, and it keeps it even if you fold it in half and only have to cut one time. (pcdress04) For sizes 2T and below, cut in about 1.5 inches and 3 inches down. For larger sizes, cut 2 inches in and 4 inches down. (pcdress05)

(You will have to read and re-read this next paragraph several times, I assure you.  There is no way I can draw this for you.  It won’t make sense until you try it, so just get out your machine, start sewing and make sure you have a seam ripper in case you make a mistake!)

Take one 1.5 inch strip and place it on the inside of the armwhole, right side of strip to wrong side of dress/pillowcase.  Fold down the top of the strip about 3/8th of an inch.  Meet the top of the fold with the top of dress.  Stitch the strip all the way around the armhold.  When you get close to the end of the armhole, stop and cut off the extra strip, leaving enough to fold down 3/8ths of an inch.  Fold down, and finish off the armhole.

Next, fold the strip TWICE: once so that the raw edge of the strip is touching the raw edge of the armhole, and then fold it over again to the other side of the armhole(essentially making a binding).

Fold like that all along the armhole, pinning as you go.  Then stitch along the binding.  Don’t stress out about trying to make a pretty stitch, the inside stitch won’t show when you’re done.

Now do the other armhole just like this one.

Then fold down the top of the front, first by 1/4th of an inch and then by 5/8ths of an inch.  This will form a casing (with no raw edges exposed) for the ribbon once its stiched up.  Stitch it up, and then do the same thing to the back of the dress.

Now thread a yard of ribbon through each casing.  If the casing is small and the ribbon is wide, it may help to put a safety pin on the end of the ribbon to help you pull it through.  Once you have the ribbon through the casing, trim the end and seal with Fray Check.

Now just tie up the ribbons and you have this adorable dress:

I love Bailey Boys, Ragsland, Kelly’s Kids, Just Ducky and all those other adorable brands.  I’ve always thought appliqued shirts were oh-so-fun.  But I’m just too cheap to pay $25 (or more!) for a TEE SHIRT!  Seriously?  It’s a tee-shirt.  It will probably have a big red blob of pizza stain or paint or grass stain on it after the first wearing.  I just can’t justify spending that kind of money for a tee-shirt.

But I really like appliqued shirts.  So…off to Etsy. I found a bunch of cute stuff I liked, but I started wondering just how hard it would be to make them on my own.  You all know how I love a good craft project.  So after some Google action, I discovered the joy of Wonder Under!  With this “magic paper” you can make anything fusible!  Woo-hoo!

Here is a play-by-play of my latest creation for Carter:

1. Pick a picture(you can sketch one by hand, find a template online or just use a simple coloring book page), and draw out a template.

2. Cut out your templates and place them on the fabric to get an idea of how much you will need to use.  Cut out the section the fabric that you will need.

3. Cut out enough Wonder Under that you will have enough room for all of your templates.

4. Iron Wonder Under to the WRONG SIDE of your fabric pieces.  Trace out your templates BACKWARDS!

5. Cut out all of your pieces.  Peel the back off of the small black lines.  Iron them onto the yellow piece while the backing is still on that piece(to keep it from sticking to something else).  Then remove the backing from the yellow piece and iron it onto the green tractor body(while its backing is still on).

6.  Fold the shirt in half long ways and iron it so that when the shirt is open, you can easily see the center.

7. Peel the Wonder Under backing from all of the pieces, arrange them onto the shirt and carefully iron on.

8. You may want to stitch around the edges with a sewing machine or make a nice hand-made outline.  Otherwise, you’re done!  Wash and wear as usual!

A few other things I’ve made recently with this easy applique technique:

For Christmas, I’m making silhouettes of the kids for my mom and MIL.  I wasn’t sure I could do it, but it was actually much easier than I thought!  I’m going to show you the pictures of Tucker along the way, and I’ll show you both kids at the end.  (Emmie would not put on a shirt, so it’s kind of risque…)

Step One: Put your subject(kid, cat, dog, whatever) against a white or light background, and get a good profile picture.

Step Two(much easier if you have Photoshop): Go into Photoshop and use the “Magic Wand” tool to select and delete the background.  I turned mine black and white, so the lines would be more distinct.  Then you can print(on white cardstock for best results) the back-groundless picture and cut it out.  OR…go the old-fashioned route of printing out the picture at a store photo-lab and cutting out the shape.

Step Three:  Use the picture/shape you cut out as a template, and cut out the silhouette onto a piece of cardstock.  I used traditional solid black.  (Eyelashes are the hardest part…I suggest using little bitty manicure scissors.)  But you could do some really fun and funky stuff with all different kinds of crafting papers!

Step Four:  Mount it on a background(once again, I used traditional white).  Frame, and  you’re ready to give this keepsake!  (I obviously haven’t framed this, and there’s a little bit of a shadow, but you get the idea.)

Have fun making yours and good luck!

With Christmas and a baby due at the same time, I’m trying to be as pre-prepared as possible.  I’ve purchased all my gifts, and wrapped about half of them.  I’m a big fan of the gift bag.  I like to wrap, but if I can put something in a bag with some tissue…why not?  But when I went to the store, I had a specific snowman gift bag in my mind(to match the little teacher gifts I’d already bought).  Oh, I could find a plethora of snowman gift bags…but nothing was just right.  Too big, too little, too lime green, too this, too that…and pink and blue for Christmas?  I guess they were maybe reaching out to those who celebrate a non-Santa-and-reindeer-yet-still-nothing-to-do-with-Jesus holiday, or (more likely) people who are just more stylish than myself.  (Oh…and what’s the deal with penguins?  When did they come onto the Christmas scene? But I digress…)

So I decided that it’d be fun to let the kids make gift bags for their teachers(and once I saw how cute and easy it was, we made a whole pack of 10!)  This is what the finished project looks like:

If you’d like to make some, here are the directions. 

Step One 
For starters you’ll need to gather your supplies:

-White gift bags(can be purchased in packs of 10 in most craft stores) 
-Some type of black fabric for the hat, 1 per bag(I had plain cotton fabric in my “scraps” box, but you could easily use felt)
-Black circles for the eyes, 2 per bag(I used “Foamies“, since my kids love them and they already have a sticky back, but you could also use felt or just paper)
-Orange “Foamies” paper(or regular paper or felt) cut into the shape of carrot noses, 1 per bag
-Buttons, 2 per bag(I used actual red buttons for most of them, but Em wanted some pink ones so we cut those out of “Foamies” paper, too)
-Strips of fleece in three different lengths, 1 of each length per bag
-Black paint or black pen
-Glue (and/or “glue dots” for putting on the buttons, if you’d prefer)

Step Two 
Cut out the hat shapes from black felt or fabric.  The size will depend on the size of your bag, so that part is up to you!

Step Three
Cut out the strips of fleece.  The shortest will need to be the same width as the small part of the hat.  The longest strips will need to be about 10-12 inches long.  The medium strips can be made by cutting the long strips in half(5-6 inches long).

Step Four 
Let the gluing begin! Glue on the hat.  Glue on the smallest felt/fleece strip.  Add eyes and a nose.

Step Five 
Mark the bag with little lines(one on each side, as seen below in the yellow circles), and cut the bag on those lines.

Step Six
Thread the longest piece of fleece through the holes in the bag, and then tie the medium piece on to the longest piece to make a cute knot in the scarf.

Step Seven
Add the buttons(with glue or craft dots if you’re using real buttons, or with foamie paper made to look like buttons).  Draw in the smile.  I used black puff paint dots to make it “pop” a little, but you could easily use a sharpie.

Add a little tissue paper, fluff it up, and you’ve got something you(and your kids) can enjoy and share with others!

My Augusta friends are coming tonight!  YAY!  Tomorrow we’re heading off to an arts and crafts festival(love ’em!).  We’re belatedly celebrating a birthday tonight, but they’re already had cake a time or two.  So I thought I’d make banana nut bread instead.  Jesse doesn’t like nuts in her food, so you’ll see that there are several ways to make it- with or without your choice of goodies. 

This is a recipe I made up on my own.  Although those types of recipes usually tend to be the tastiest, I’m usually not creative or patient enough to find what really works. But, without being too conceited, I think this is the best banana bread recipe out there!  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Ingredients: 3-4 ripe(read: almost black and ready to head to the garbage) bananas, 1 good splash(about 1 tsp) of vanilla extract, 1 -1/2 self rising flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/3 cup melted butter.  Here are all the optional “goodies” I’ve added: 1/2 cup chopped nuts(pecan, walnut, cashews…although the cashews tend to be a little chewy when baked), 1/2 cup cranberries, a handful or two of chocolate chips, you can really put most anything in here!

Directions: Preheat oven to 350.  Mash bananas.  (I have a potato masher, but you can easily use a fork or your hands.)  Add sugar, egg, and vanilla flavoring.  Mix.  Add flour and mix well.  Add melted butter, and whichever optional goodies you want.  (It’s pretty common for me to add nuts, cranberries and chocolate chips.  But remember the more stuff you add, the longer it’s going to take to cook.  So don’t add a full 1/2 cup of each one or you’ll have a gooey center when you’re done!)  Pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 mins. 

Happy baking!