Easter 2014

Easter was forever ago, I realize that, but I did a lot of sewing for it and thought I would write a blog post about all the outfits!

First is an idea I saw on pinterest! It was a baby girl outfit there, but I decided it was definitely able to be made into a boy version as well, so I went for it! Owen was not in the mood for taking pictures, so this is the best I got. I love how it turned out though!! 

One of my very best friends is also super crafty (see her blog here) and we decided to make shirts for each other's little guys. I used felt and puffy paint for mine and she used vinyl for hers! Looks professional right? Owen sure liked it! 

For Easter Sunday, I knew I wanted to have matching outfits for the three of us. I decided to make myself a skirt first. I didn't have any fabric I liked, so using plain white and a white and light pink plaid, I crafted some chevron fabric to use. I then used this tutorial to make my skirt. I don't have a picture of just my skirt, but it turned out cute. I loved having pockets!! If you want to know how to make the chevron, let me know and I will do a post about that. 

For Owen's outfit, I made a cute little vest with a matching bowtie. He looked adorable of course. For the vest, I drafted a pattern from a vest that he currently fit and it worked like a charm. I then added 3 buttons with button holes. 

Nathan already had a pink tie to match us, so he wore that. I loved having matching outfits! A friend of ours took some quick pictures for us and they turned out perfect. 

Happy Easter!! 

~K.A.N.

Baby Shoes!

I do love baby shoes. 

A while back, I was looking through some blogs and came across this post. I love all of her projects, and the idea to make baby shoes from old purses, well it is genius! 

I don't have any little ones yet, but thank goodness I have family that does. I collected a few purses from a thrift store in my hometown so that I could make them into some little shoes...and I have finally done it; at least with one of them.

I decided to pick colors that would match several things. I got a red purse, a black purse, and was very excited to find a white purse. All three purses have enough fabric to make at least one little pair of shoes. 

For this pair of shoes, I used the white purse. I got the measurements for my niece's feet and drew the pattern out with a sole piece and a top piece. I then cut out four of each piece, two using the vinyl fabric from the purse and two using a softer fabric for the inside of the shoe (I used white flannel).

I then assembled all pieces together to make some little shoes! I used white elastic to help the shoes stay on. I used more white vinyl to make little bows, which I hand-stitched onto the elastic. And that is it!

New white baby shoes. I can't wait to see them on her!

~K.A.N.

Old Windows

I love old windows and I believe with an idea and a little bit of work they can be made into something great. 

For example, for Christmas a couple of years ago, my mom made an old window into a message board for Nathan and I. We love it! We use it for making lists, for writing notes, and of course, for messages. 

The house I grew up in was built in 1914. That is pretty old. A lot of updating was needed when my family moved into it and one of those updates was windows. My first old window project is a window from that house, so I love it even more. 

The window has nine panes. I finally came up with an idea that I loved...a menu board. One pane to say Menu, one for each day of the week, and one for a grocery list! Perfect.

The window was old with paint wearing off and some of the glass broken. I was planning on just replacing those panes that were broken but the grout holding the glass in was very old and was doing its job well. I ended up breaking even more of the glass panes, so I decided I would just replace all of the glass. Nathan broke the glass for me and we took all of it out of the window. Now, it was just the frame.

On the left is the front of the window and on the right is the back.

After the glass was out, I hoped it would be easier to get rid of the grout, but just continued to break things I didn't want to...like the wood that was there to help hold the glass in. I decided it would be easiest to replace that too! After taking that wood off, I filled the holes I had made and sanded the front of the window.

I then stripped the paint off and sanded the whole frame again. After that, I took the frame to my Grandpa's shop where my husband and grandpa were very helpful with the next few steps: replacing the wood to help hold the glass in and cutting the glass. The wood was cut to size and put in place using a nail gun. I used glass from frames bought at a thrift store for between 15 and 75 cents each. Those glass pieces were cut down to the right size and set in the frame to make sure they fit.

Good as gold! I took the glass out and spray painted the frame black. I then used glazier points and hot glue to secure the glass in place in the frame. 

I asked a family friend for help with the vinyl cutting and she did an excellent job. I used painter's tape to make sure the words would go on straight. 

Then, very carefully, the vinyl was attached to the glass, the hangers put on the back and the new menu board was hung up! I just use a dry erase marker to write and it comes off perfectly. It is definitely one of my favorite projects yet.

~K.A.N.