Dress to Shirt Refashion and an Itty Bitty Hem Tutorial

There are so many adorable dresses with great patterns lurking at Goodwill, but for me there is always one problem: too short.  Luckily I'm great at sewing a straight line so this too short dress was easily transformed into a just right top.

 

 
Itty Bitty Hem:

 

1.  Iron down your hem 1/4 inch.

2.  Sew right down the center of the folded fabric.  No need to pin because of all that careful ironing. 

3.  Fold over another 1/4 inch and iron.  This will tuck those raw edges and bring you one step closer to a neat, itty bitty hem.

 4.  Sew right down the middle of that folded over fabric again.  Don't worry if you don't follow the first stitch line perfectly the only thing visible from the front is this second line of stitching.

There you have it!  A nice, neat, itty bitty hem that will help you in your quest to turn all those too short dresses into just right tops!

Banana Muffins with Coconut Oil and Flaxseed

Today was one of those magical days in which I woke up before the darlings, I showered, I made my bed and I had time to make breakfast for Andrew before the bus came!  I had a couple sad bananas looking at me, begging to be turned into something.  I modified my favorite banana bread recipe (thank you Betty Crocker) to make these healthy, easy and delicious muffins.

Banana Muffins with Coconut Oil and Flaxseed

recipe adapted from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook 

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 large egg

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup milk (can use buttermilk, whole, etc...)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbs ground flaxseed

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray muffin tins with cooking spray (or use liners.)

2. Mix sugar and coconut oil until well blended.  Add bananas, milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

3. Mix together dry ingredients and slowly stir into the wet mixture.  Pour into muffin tins.

4.  Bake about 15 minutes (depended on your oven) or until toothpick comes out clean.

For a lighter version: use only 2 Tbs of oil and add 2 Tbs of unsweetened applesauce.

This can be doubled to make one large loaf of banana bread.

 

Geometric Heart

So I was scrolling through Pinterest and came upon this lovely wall display found here at Oleander and Palm.

I loved the simplicity and geometry of it.  I thought it would look great (in miniature form) on my mantle.  So this is how I recreated it.

It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish and I love how it turned out.  I used ten, 1 1/4 inch squares which I then cut into triangles to make a heart that fit perfectly in my 5X7 frame. 

No Sew (Almost) Pillow

I was wandering through Target one day and saw this lovely, cross stitched place mat.  I loved the colors, I loved the design, I loved that it was cross stitched!  So I bought it with plans to make it into a super easy pillow.

 

 

As you can see this is "almost" a no sew project.  I just needed my trusty sewing kit to sew up the opening for the stuffing.  The whole thing took 15 minutes! 

Baby Steps...

Well it's been 6 months since my last post. Since then we moved to a different state, had twins and survived the holidays.  Now that the Christmas festivities are over I feel I can breathe a little.  The fact that the twins are sleeping through the night a few nights a week also helps a bit!  I have yet to unpack my sewing machine, but am still trying to do a little sewing/creating.  Luckily I have my trusty little sewing kit a friend made for me years ago.  

Color Block Tee

I had this weird mustard/greenish colored shirt that I had a love/hate thing for.  I loved the strange color, but hated how it looked on me.  Solution: Color Block Tee!!!  Here are the pics I took during the process:

Now I get to wear this lovely weird color and not look like a washed-out zombie!

Why I haven't been sewing....

Let me introduce Thing 1 and Thing 2!  Turns out twins make you a whole lot more tired and pukey than just one baby.  So that is what I've been doing: sleeping and trying not to puke.  Luckily I'm now about 20 weeks and feeling much more like a human being and will get back on the sewing wagon!