No Sew Mermaid / Bubble Guppies Costume

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My friend, Jennifer (who doesn't sew) called Sunday night with a costume crisis.

Her problem:

She needed a mermaid costume for a cruise ship event in 2 days!   

       A search of her closet turned up a sequined tank and a pair of capri pants. 

My assignment:

Figure out how to turn these items into a mermaid costume and tell her how to do it over the phone. 

No problem!

My solution: 

 Mermaid Tail Leg Warmers

       
Supplies Needed:
pair of trouser socks
6" rolls of tulle -preferably in mermaid colors
    (I only had pink tulle on hand, so my version is looks more like Molly from the Bubble Guppies cartoon.)
        
Instructions:

1.    Cut the top band off a pair of trouser socks or knee high stockings.  (I sewed elastic garters to fit my 4 year-old's leg because I couldn't find any knee socks.)

2.    Measure the distance from knee to ankle.  Multiply the length by 2.  Cut _____ 6" wide tulle strips to length.  Add more strips to increase fullness.

3.     Tie tulle onto garter until entire band is covered.  (Make 2.)

4.     Slip these mini-tutus over pants and secure just below the knee.  Voila!  Instant mermaid pants!

      

Baseball Field Trip Lunch

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DFF, my 3rd grader, is taking a field trip to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.  Since I can't tag along, I wanted to make lunch special for her. Yeah, I turned into one of those crazy over-the-top moms who spends too much time looking at Pinterest. But, in my defense, I did have a month to prepare. :)
     The school requires that the lunch be sent in disposable containers. So my goal for this project was to use only recycled items I had at home. No money was spent on packaging of this lunch.  I did purchase items for the lunch though.
      First, I drew on a fruit container with a Sharpie marker and reverse painted it with craft paint from my stash. I stuck on a ton of red, silver and blue foil stars I use for my music students too.  I wasn't worried with making it look perfect.  It is going to be tossed into the trash when DFF finishes eating, after all.

Since I didn't want craft paint touching the food, I lined the interior with wax paper.  I printed off a few fun facts about the Cincinnati Reds and stuck them on the inside of the lid.

I figured, "Hey, I could decorate a couple napkins with a marker too."

So, what goes in my pretty little basket?  Well, I figured all the food should have a baseball theme, right?  So, it contains Cracker Jacks, Big League Chew, peanuts (from my friend Toni at Delta), a Baby Ruth mini,Topps Baseball Cards, and a wet wipe from Red Lobster.

I taped some paper on the top of her applesauce so it looked like a baseball. Remember to throw in a spoon.

Luckily, our Kroger sells water with Cincinnati Reds wrappers.  I took the wrapper off a large bottle and glued it on a smaller bottle. I added her name and a few more star stickers too.

Next, I made a few edibles.  This baseball bat turned out cute.  I got the idea from
http://www.inspirationmadesimple.com/2016/03/baseball-and-bat-chocolate-pretzels/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork .

And, I did a strawberry jelly/peanutbutter sandwich with a Babybel baseball. I just happen to have a 3-year-old at home.  So, I traced a little hand on paper to make the sandwich template. I used a paring knife to cut away the wax on the cheese to make the baseball.  I got the idea for the Babybel here, but noticed my food markers tend to bleed (notice the chocolate pretzel ball bat) so I wanted to stick with keeping the wax on.  https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2b/88/5a/2b885a4ea625aa029a8ee0aefe23dc92.jpg

No meal is complete without veggies.  A pairing knife whittled down carrots into baseball bats and cut out strips of cucumbers for baseballs. Thanks to this blog for that idea. http://www.keeleymcguire.com/2014/06/lunch-made-easy-how-to-make-baseball.html

I thought about adding sunflower seeds and a can of corn, but I just couldn't make them fit. And, That's The Ballgame, Folks! :)  (Hope she understands the bottom of her box.)

Baby Doll Repair

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   When my mother was a little girl, her teacher invited all the students to bring their favorite dolls to school for a baby doll beauty pageant.  Mamma knew she couldn't participate because she only had one doll.  It was dirty, had no clothes, and worst of all, it's porcelain head was cracked open.  So, she didn't even bother to tell my grandmother about the contest at school.
     On the day of the dolly beauty pageant, the teacher had decorated a lovely table to display all her student's prized toys.  Mom looked longingly at all the beautiful babies.  She was saddened that her own had to be left at home, because it was a tattered mess.
     At lunch, she stayed at school to admire the dolls instead of going home for lunch.  Before the bell rang signaling children to return to the classroom, she looked up to see her older brother hurrying toward her with a paper bag in his hands. She thought grandma had sent her lunch back to the school with him..
     When mom looked inside the bag, she found her doll.  Grandma had cleaned the doll, made a pretty little dress and shoes.  The crack in the doll's head had been glued together and was covered with a smart little bonnet.  Mamma, excitedly entered her dolly in the beauty pageant and won the contest.
     This sad little doll reminded me of that story when I saw her.  It was donated to the play area at my daughter's gymnastics studio.  The gym owner handed it to me asking if she could pay me to repair it. 

Poor little baby doll:
Before pic

     I began by reattaching the doll's left arm to her body by basting and then blanket stitching two strips of twill on either side of the rotating disks of the arms.

arm repair with twill fabric and blanket stitch

  

another view of reattaching rotating arm to soft body

     Next, I cleaned the doll's head, arms and feet with a mild detergent and water.  Then came the task of clothing this naked baby.  After measuring it, I found that the doll was much larger than most 18" doll patterns.  I was able to alter patterns for newborn babies for a better fit.  I found inspiration for the blouse by downloading the free Newborn Peasant Dress pattern from Bella Bama.  It may be accessed at this link  http://bellabama.blogspot.com/2012/05/newborn-peasant-dress-wfree-pattern.html .
      In order to cover the cloth arms of this baby, I lengthened the sleeves and shortened the dress by only utilizing the 1st page of the 2 page print out.  Next, I added ruffles to the cuffs of the sleeves and hem of the blouse.  I extended the neckline to cover where the cloth body attached to the head by adding two 1"strips of coordinating fabric to the neckline  of  garment and drawing the elastic tightly around the neck.
      For those of you who sew baby clothes, I highly recommend  This little peasant dress pattern.  It was easy to construct.  It appears to be true to size and was a real joy to sew.  Download this free pattern.  You will use it again and again!  I really loved it!

After
Cleaning, new clothes, shoes and hair grooming

      For the pants, I downloaded another free pattern.  This one is for Baby Bloomers from See Kate Sew http://seekatesew.com/free-pattern-baby-bloomers/ .  I really liked the design of this pattern, because it was just 2 pieces; a front and a back.  Again, I had to extend the legs to cover the cloth on the body of the doll.  This time, I did it by adding 3 strips of coordinating fabric, and serging everything together.  I had to do quite a bit of adjusting to this pattern to fit the doll, but it was very simple to do and I'm very pleased with the result.  This is a great pattern for crafters or beginning sewers.  I'm glad I now have it in my toolbox.

     Next, I moved on to hair bow ties.  I cut 4 strips of 2 coordinating fabrics and hemmed each of the 8 sides on my serger.  I really like the way the 2 sided bows looked after I made some pigtails for the doll.

     Then I decided I just couldn't have a baby doll with bare feet.  See my separate blog entry on creating the little mary jane shoes.  I've included a free PDF of my pattern for you!

     Finally, I recruited my four year-old daughter to help dress our cleaned and mended baby.  We attached a note about paying it forward in honor of the life of our little friend, Gabby Lewis.  Learn more about her story at http://rememberinggabby.blogspot.com/ .

     When we delivered our mended baby, the gym teacher didn't even realize it was the old, tattered doll she asked me to repair!  We named the baby doll "Gabby" in honor of our special friend. When a toddler barreled across the floor, squealing and snatching up the doll, my daughter and I smiled at each other and slipped out the front door.

Newborn / Baby Doll Shoe Pattern - FREE!

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   This week, I refurbished a baby doll.  When it came to making shoes for it though, I admit I was a little stumped.  I had never made shoes before.  I was so pleased with my first attempt I plan on making more shoes in the future.

        Click here and download my FREE  PDF pattern for Newborn / Baby Doll  Shoes
 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6thQdUKGOfycGVzSmk0QzBva2M/edit?usp=sharing

 This pattern will fit a large 20" (or larger) baby doll or newborn baby.  (Wish I had it when my daughter was born!)

Items needed:
1 square felt
Embroidery Floss
Needle

Instructions:
  Cut 4 of pattern.  Turn 2 over, so you now have a pair of felt pieces for a right and a left foot.

Cut holes in the top 2 felt pieces to create the strap and foot openings for the top of the mary janes.  If you accidentally cut the hole too large, affix a piece of elastic running from the left to right side of the strap.  This will create a sling back that can hold the shoe on the foot and remain hidden under the felt heel.

Embellish with decorative stitches, buttons, etc.  Sew the outsides together with a blanket stitch.

Voila, little mary janes!

If you enjoyed this pattern, please let me know!

Thanks,
The Grundy Girl

Gymnastics & Ballet Fairy Garden Teacher Thank Yous

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This week, my 4 year-old completed gymnastics and ballet classes.  She chose to create fairy gardens as thank you gifts for her teachers.  Unfortunately, I didn't know much about creating floral arrangements, so I gathered my supplies and visited my friend, Roselyn to ask for help.  With her guidance and about $15, we created ballet and gymnastics themed fairy gardens.

Gymnastics Fairy Garden - property Tonya Freeman

Ballet Fairy Garden - property Tonya Freeman

     For the gymnastics fairy garden, I snatched up a $6 bucket from the equine section of Tractor Supply.  Then, I headed to the Dollar Tree where I found two types of floral wire, a bag of balloons  and a bag of potting soil.  To create the ballerina fairy garden, I picked up an aluminum mini loaf pan at the grocery store and ordered the musical ballerina jewelry box from www.sears.com.  The jewelry box was only $3.75 and shipped free to my local Sears store.  SCORE!   Grand total of supplies: less than $15 including tax!

      Roselyn provided the plants from her garden.  All the ones we used are succulents.  She also added a little potting mix and fertilizer when she helped my daughter arrange the plants in our planters. 


     Next, I convinced hubby to use the heavier floral wire and a couple bamboo skewers from my kitchen drawer to create uneven bars and a bar for the rings.  He secured the ends with hot glue. A piece of cord and 2 plastic bra strap rings (available at Jo-Ann Fabric) completed the rings.  For the trampoline, we used two types of floral wire and a balloon.  For directions, refer to this YouTube tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOdyJlhjuI.)

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Uneven Bars - property Tonya Freeman

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Rings - property Tonya Freeman

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Trampoline - property Tonya Freeman

       We finished the planters by printing a thank you note found on Pinterest ( http://pinterest.com/pin/479633429035346705/ ) and gluing it to a skewer.  (Our ballet garden has the same wording on the note, but it is printed over the logo of the dance studio.)

     Roselyn will be happy to know, we were able to keep her plants alive until we delivered them this week.  They were a big hit with our teachers --- hopefully, they will be with the fairies too!

Personaizing Patterns

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I loved sewing this!!!!

What an adorable Christmas outfit!  Don't you just love the back?

I modified the Toddler Sizes Olivia Reversible Pinafore Sewing Pattern Tutorial from Romeo & Mae to create this dress. 

My model is a size 4T with a very long torso.  So, I had to extend the straps from the pattern.  (I found they ran a little short. -- My straps actually extended beyond the pattern's size 6.)

The original pattern also covers the entire back of the model.  I wanted to show off the ruffles on the bloomers, so I made small folds under the arms of the pattern that extended to the hem of the pinafore.  This took volume out of the back and opened it up.

The bloomers are a simple 4 piece shorts pattern with elastic inserted in the waistband and around the legs.  I tacked a few rows of ruffles across the back and covered the raw edge on the top ruffle with jumbo ric rac.

The great thing about this pinafore pattern is that it is reversible.  The reverse side of the one on the model is green and white.  I made a matching pair of green cord pants, so she could wear the ensemble on St. Patrick's Day too!

Create Free Read Along Books for Read Across America Day

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      Today, Friday, March 2, 2012 is NEA Read Across America Day. 

                Reading is a favorite pastime in our household.  Books, magazines and e-readers are stacked in every room.  Each night, my husband and I read to our toddler, hoping to pass our love of reading on to her.  As she matures, I see that our work is not in vain.  She appears to love books as much as we do.

                Unfortunately, bed time stories are no longer enough to pacify our little one.  She also likes to spend time perusing her books with some autonomy.  For her third birthday, she received a children's e-reader and several electronic books as a gift.  During the months since, I frequently find her attentively listening as her electronic device reads books to her.  She is also mastering the letter, word and language games it offers.

                Another favorite of my toddler is read along books.  (They were the only thing she requested from Santa last year.)  Years ago, my husband and I enjoyed playing 45s on portable record players as we eagerly awaited the sound of chimes signaling us to turn the page of our favorite books.  Later the books came with cassette tapes.  The newer versions our child enjoys come with CDs or an MP3 download.

                In order to assist Santa in locating these items, I perused online book stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Both retailers stock read along books, but at prices ranging from $10-$30, it can be difficult to stock a library with them.  Dollar Tree stores can help round out read along book collections by offering a wide variety of religious and fairy tale CD books at $1 each.  Of course, there is a way to turn all your children's and even adult books into audio books for free.  All it takes is a little time and a home computer.  Here's how to make your own.

                First, open the Voice Recorder program on your computer.  (It's free software available on most Windows systems.  Then record yourself reading each page of your favorite book onto a separate track. i.e. 5 pages will equal 5 separate recordings.

                Next, open Windows Live Movie Maker.  (This is another free software application available on most Windows systems.)  Download each page's recording into the project task bar.  You may have to also insert a picture or text into the video track in order to get started.

                Between each page sound track, insert a sound effect track which will cue the listener to turn the page.  I like to use sounds like chimes or bells.  Several websites like www.soungle.com offer royalty free sound effects downloads at no cost.

                Then, save the completed project as a WAV file.  Some CD players will play WAV files.  If yours will.  You're done.  Burn a CD, slip in an envelope, and affix it to the inside cover of your child's favorite book to transform it to a read along version.  If your CD player does not recognize WAV files, or your child prefers to utilize his or her MP3 player, another step is required to convert the WAV into an MP3 file.

                Download a freeware WAV to MP3 converter online.  www.wavtomp3converter.com and www.free.mp3-converter.com are just a couple sites offering free downloads.  www.convertfiles.com/convert/audio/WAV-to-MP3.html  allows users to make the conversion without installing a new program.

                And that's it!  It may take some time to complete your first read along book, but once you get the hang of it, subsequent ones take only minutes.  I like to set aside a few minutes each month, to make CDs for the books my child already has.  I also encourage other family members to help me add to her collection by making recordings and emailing them to me for editing.

                On days, I'm feeling especially creative, I recruit grandma and grandpa to read books while chatting with us on Skype.  I use the VOD Burner program to record our conversation.  That way, I end up with a home movie and sound which can be edited into read along story for my little one.  *Note, VOD Burner software can be a little pricey (around $100,)  but it does come with a 14-day free trial.  If you utilize Skype frequently, it is well worth the purchase price. 

                Creating audio books and videos to encourage reading is a wonderful gift for your loved one.  Don't worry, the finished project doesn't have to be as slick as a professional recording.  Young readers will love yours more because you made it especially for them.

               

                In honor of Read Across America Day, I would like to give something back to my friends and neighbors in Buchanan County, Virginia.  I am providing free MP3 downloads I created for my daughter's Dolly Parton's Imagination Library books.  To obtain a copy to supplement your child's reading experience  contact me on Facebook to request an MP3 of their favorite story.  Happy Reading!