Playing Catch-up!

It's been a busy winter, and I'm just now getting back to the blog. In the spirit of spring cleaning, I thought I'd post a series of images of some of the projects I've completed since last summer. They are particularly timely, given that it's "Earth Month", since many of the projects involved repurposing an unused item into something we really needed. If nothing else, it serves as a record of what I've managed to accomplish over the winter!

Craft Center
First, I'm going to show off our new craft center. The kids' quickly outgrew the little cabinet we used to store their craft supplies, and it took forever to track down all the materials we needed to do simple projects. Plus, the lack of space and organization meant that the kids couldn't easily put things away when they were done. Since we couldn't afford to buy a new, but much needed, hutch to store the many craft supplies taking over the house, we decided to build one using materials we already owned. We ended up stacking an old kitchen wall cabinet we'd pulled out during the remodel on top of a beautiful hand-built bookcase we'd inherited with the house but had never found a use for.

We added some crown moulding to the top, painted the whole thing creamy white (B. Moore Linen White), added a pair of cabinet pulls that were leftover from the kitchen remodel, and a pair of new curtains to the bottom in the same fabric I've used for other projects around the first floor. The finished piece was so nice looking that we happily moved it into the dining room, where it stores all of the kids' craft supplies, plus many of mine. And the best part is that it didn't cost us anything other than a little time and work!



More Organizing:
With the new craft cabinet in place, I was feeling super crafty and ready to organize other areas of the house. In particular, I wanted to tackle the piles of papers and mementos the kids had stacked in their rooms. I decided to make them both French memo boards to display the more meaningful pieces, while the rest of the papers were sorted into "keep" and "recycle" piles. The keep papers went into 3-ring binders and one small plastic tub each. For each memo board, I used a 20x24 piece of thick foam core for the base, and wrapped it in fabric, which I hot glued to the back. I wrapped coordinating ribbons in a diagonal "woven" pattern, and hot glued the ends to the back of the board. I also hot glued the central ribbons to each other on the front to increase the stability. I think they came out pretty good, and they are definitely well-used!




Fun Accessories:
I spent much of the Fall making a series of pearl and silk thread necklaces and bracelets for Christmas gifts. They turned out really nice, although hand-knotting all those pearls and crystals got to be a bit tedious.

I also made a whole slew of new hair bows and flower barrettes for Sophie - she can go a month without wearing the same bow twice, although she definitely has her favorites!






Spring Sewing:
Here are some of the fun bags and purses I made in anticipation of spring. The striped clutch was actually super easy to make and used a clutch frame and pattern from Upstyle design on Etsy.

 And of course I needed to work on expanding Sophie's spring wardrobe. Rather than starting from scratch or buying new, I decided to repurpose some of the things I already had. First, I made her a double tiered skirt out of her old crib skirt - the fabric was so pretty that I couldn't let it go to waste!

Then, I made her another skirt using one of my old tank tops. It has a yoga-style waist band, which you can't see in this picture, but it means that the entire skirt was fashioned from a single adult tank top - waste not want not!

Finally, I took one of her plain white long-sleeve shirts that still fit on top but had gotten too short and turned it into a really cute empire-waist dress using a slightly altered version of the tutorial found here. I need to finish off the shortened sleeves, and I'm thinking of adding a wide purple ribbon waistband, but otherwise it's good to go!