T-shirt Bibs

I was really excited about this project because I think it is a fun way to make something a little more personal for your kiddos.

Its simple to do. All you need is some towel like fabric, some of your old t-shirts you were going to give away, velcro, and a simple bib pattern.

The first thing you'll need to get ready is the pattern. I just freehanded mine. To make it the size I wanted I had to tape 2 pieces of paper together, its just a bib shape, nothing you need to be an artist to draw. Here's how mine looked.

Once I had my pattern ready I placed it on the shirt. For most of the shirts I was trying to include the logo of some sort so I placed the large part of the bib over the logo and cut it out.

Here is one cut. Yes, we are still watching The Office.

Some of the logo's were a little bigger than the bib shape. For those ones I just improvised and cut a little bigger. Also on the shirts where the logo is up closer to the neck of the shirt it cut off some of the straps. On these ones I just added a little extra material up there if that makes sense. It made it take a little longer but it wasn't terrible.

Once all the bibs are cut out of the shirts I placed the bib on top of the towel material and cut to match each bib. I did it this way because I did change a few of the shapes to fit the logo.

The next step is to make sure that you have the fabrics good sides facing each other so that you can sew around the edge and turn it right side out. Leave an opening at the top for you to pull it through.

Cut off any excess and then pull it through the open and flatten out. Once it looks nice you can sew the top together as shown below.

Alrighty, almost done... now cut 2 small pieces of velcro about an inch long.

Sew the velcro in on the neck where they will connect and you are ready for your kids to dirty up some of your old Tee's!

Enjoy!

Easiest Aprons Ever

Every time I go to buy fabric I have to wait to get it cut. Of course they strategically set it up so that where we have to wait is right by some really not cute Disney Princess fabric that my little girl is obsessed with.

I just have to add a little side note that I personally am not a fan of clothes with characters on it. Maybe I am depriving my child of some wonderful childhood experience but I just think its not cute. I have given in and let her now wear princess, dora, and tinkerbell pajamas, so see I'm a good mom :)

Our last trip out, we couldn't avoid the princess fabric any longer, plus it was 40% off and I love me a good deal. I had an idea of making her a little apron. This was the easiest project to do. Honestly it took me about 20 minutes to make and it has been a hit. In fact the first day she wore it literally all day. Good thing I made 2!

Here is how I did it.

I first got 3/4 yard of the fabric, this will be enough for 2.

This fabric has gathering on the top so that is why it is perfect for something like this. I did all my measuring based on the gathered party at the top.

I cut the fabric in half so I had 2 pieces about 13 inches long.

The next thing I did was measure and cut in 3 inches on each side.

Then I did what every good seamstress would do...(haha I'm totally not what you would call a seamstress) I tucked, folded, and ironed all the edges in to give me a good clean edge to hem around.

At this point I also got my ribbon ready for the ties and neck strap.

For the waist ties I made them about 12 inches each. I would make them longer than you think because you can always trim them down. I burned the edges so the ribbon won't fray and then ironed about a half inch over that I would tuck and pin into the edge when I sewed.

For the neck I gave myself about 22 inches to work with. I only sewed one side at first so I could measure it on my daughter to make sure it was the right fit.

Once I was all pinned and ironed, I was ready to sew.

I did a stronger stitch on the neck strap because I figured it would get tugged on more. It doesn't look great from the back but you can't even see it in the front.

Voila! You're done in no time and you will be super Mom for letting your child have some more princess attire.

Now all this little apron needed was a little girl to wear it.

I left the neck a little longer so that it would fit bigger kids with bigger noggins, so I do a little extra tying when she wears it. To solve this you could attach the neck with velcro so it doesn't have to fit over a head, whatever works best for you.

So here's the little Miss, in her cinderella dress up, a princess apron, and her tinkerbell dolls. I'd say I have quite the girly girl on my hands.

Wide Striped Curtains

I don't know about you, but I am loving wide striped curtains right now. When I was looking for things for the baby nursery I knew I had to have some, so I started looking. I looked and looked and every time I searched them on the internet I only found ones that people had made. Wait, I did see that you could by them on Etsy for $115 per panel, no thank you. Many people painted the stripes themselves but said the paint was not forgiving if you mess up. I decided I would sew my stripes on for 3 reasons; 1- the chances of me messing up, I'd say very possible. If I'm going to do it I want it to look right. 2-I was worried the paint would change how the fabric lays. 3- 50% off coupon at Joann's.

Here's how I made them.

I wanted them to be long and go from ceiling to floor. I picked up some curtains at Ikea, the 118" length. These curtains were longer and wider than I needed so the first thing I did was size the curtains to what I wanted. This was easy. Measure your window, I added a few inches on each side that way the curtains would gather a little. As I mentioned earlier I wanted mine to hang from ceiling to floor, that was about 96".

Measure, cut, iron, sew.

Easy Peasy.

The next step is to get your stripes ready. I wanted each stripe to be 12" obviously alternating white and (I picked) brown. This part will test your math skills, pull out your phone calculators ladies :) I knew that I had 96" to cover and I wanted 12" stripes so 96 divided by 12, leaves me with 8 sections. I want 4 white and 4 brown.

Once you know how many of your colored stripes that you need get 'ta cuttin'! Obviously cut a few inches wider and longer than your panel so that you give yourself enough to hem. The measuring tape is your friend on this project. I went ahead and folded over all my edges, measured and ironed so they were the size I wanted. If you are doing this for 2 panels you will be doing this process 8 times, 4 for each panel. This is not the quickest project but it is totally worth it.

Once you've got all the stripes ironed and ready to go get out your handy measuring tape, measure every 12 " and pin accordingly. Once you are all pinned you are good to sew.

Sew all those stripes on and then just admire your handy work. All in all this project cost me a whopping $37.00. I don't know about you but I'd say that is a great deal!

Burp Rags

I ordered some burp rags on zulily for our new addition and of course when they came the first thing I thought was I could easily make these...so I did! This project went faster then I was expecting so that is always a plus!

I think they turned out great and honestly they are exactly like the ones I bought. It is nice to put a little of your time and effort into something for your baby. Serving them gives you a chance to think more about them and draws you closer together even if they won't be making an appearance for a few more weeks (less than 5 to be exact!)

Here is how I made them...

First thing is first, watch for your 50% off coupon at Joann's, if we are going to do this lets be thrifty :) My experience with burp rags is the more absorbent the material the better. Keeping this in mind I went for a towel like material for the outside, for the cute outside I just picked out a few cotton fat quarters that are pre-cut and the size was perfect! Each fat quarter will make 2 burp rags.

Cut the fat quarters in half, which left me with 2 long strips. Now here is what you can learn from my experience, after I cut my fabric in half I cut my towel like material to match the cotton fabric. I wouldn't cut the towel material to match because I ended up cutting it all again anyway so just a time saver there.

Once you have all the cotton fabric ready, fold over the edges and iron about 1 inch then fold the unfinished edge under again leaving you with about a half inch top. Do this around all the edges.

Now is when I would cut the towel material. Place your newly sized cotton on top and then cut the towel to size to match. Place the towel inside the cotton so the half inch edging is on top.

Now you are ready to sew and this goes quick. Just sew around all the edges. I tucked in the corners and double stitched them. I thought this looked nicer and really didn't add too much time to the project.

That's it! You're done. Good luck!

Makin it Simple

Hi! My name is Breanne. I love a good DIY project but being a mother of 2 means I need my projects to be simple to do. I don't know about you but I love a project that can be done during nap time!

I am not one to use patterns, measure precisely, I just like to get going. I am usually one to make a mistake or two so I hope you can learn from me (even if its what not to do!)

Enjoy!