Sunshine Day Tunic and Clam Diggers – Tutorial

 

 

Well, the name is Sunshine Day BUT the pictures for this were taken on the COLDEST day we have had since moving here!!!!! LOL There was no way I was going to make Cailey stand outside in 40 degrees…..

 

For some reason this outfit (or maybe just the striped fabric) reminds me of…….

 

 

Y’all remember that, right??? LOL I loved watching Brady Bunch reruns after school when I was a kid.

 

 

ANYWAY…. Here is the tutorial.

 

 

What I used - 

3/4 yard of the stripes (very silky and flowy)

1/4 yard of the gold cotton for the yoke at the top

1 yard of heavier, stretchier cotton for the clam diggers

1″ elastic

 

 

 

 

I had this idea… I was going to make the front and back yoke one piece…. with lining….. Yeah… I even cut a muslin (above).

It took me a bit to figure out the problem. LOL

One I realized that I wouldn’t be able to turn it right side out after sewing the lining, I resigned myself to 4 pieces instead of 2.

 

 

So, then I made a pattern piece after much measuring and figuring. LOL

 

 

 

 

Pin the lining pieces to the main pieces and sew all around, leaving the bottom open.

 

 

 

Clip the corners, turn right side out and press.

 

 

 

Cut the pieces for the bottom of the tunic. I cut the top of it about a 1/4″ wider than the bottom of the yoke.

Make it as long as you like, widening as you go and curving the bottom.

 

 

 

Pin the bottom of the yoke to the top of the bottom piece, with right sides together. Sew then press your seams.

 

 

 

 

Now, pin the front to the back, with right sides together. Sew the shoulder and the sides.

 

Next, fold up and press 1/2″ on the bottom. Then fold up and press 3/4″. Sew the hem.

 

 

 

Remove the cat from your work space.

 

 

 

Grab a pair of your child’s pants to use as a cutting guide for the clam diggers. Turn up the leg bottoms to your desired length.

 

 

 

 

If you have a right side/wrong side fabric, you will want to flip the pants guide over to cut the second leg.

 

 

 

Sew up the inseam from the bottom to the start of the crotch curve.

(If your child is very small, you will want to hem them first.)

 

 

 

Turn one leg right side out and slide it into the other leg. Pin and sew.

 

 

 

Now for the elastic casing. Fold over 1/4″ and press. Fold over again by just over 1″, press and sew the casing, making sure to leave a section open to insert the elastic.

 

 

 

Pin the ends of the elastic and insert into the opening.

Then pull both ends out and secure with zigzag stitches.

Sew the opening closed.

 

 

 

Fold up and press the bottom of the legs by 1/2″. Fold up and press another 1/2″ and sew the hem!

 

 

Turn right side out and press!

 

YOU ARE DONE!!!!

 

 

As always, let me know if you have any questions. You can always use the Contact Me button at the top of the page.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

 

 

 

Orange Crush Dress

 

 

This is the Orange Crush Dress! It will be making its way to South Africa soon! But before that it will be my entry for Project Run & Play Week 2 Stripes and Polka Dots Challenge.  (To see all the upcoming challenges click HERE )

Thankfully it has been extremely warm here lately so Cailey didn’t have to freeze her tushy off for the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This dress has  A LOT of pleats!! The front and back sides are both pleated at the neck.

 

 

 

 

And then there are alllll the pleats at the bottom!

 

It was a super fun dress to make and I will be sharing the tutorial with you next week!

 

In the meantime, I will be linking up at Project Run & Play as soon as the Week 2 Challenge opens. LOL

 

OHH!! I will also be sharing a pattern test for SquigglyTwigs Designs sometime this week!!! YAY!!!!

After that I will be hard at work on my boy’s look for the Week 3 Challenge. I think I have my fabric choices pinned down but other than that I am SOOOOOOO not sure of what I’ll be doing! LOL Not good!! Not good at all!

 

 

Kid’s Craft Ideas

If your kids are like mine then they LOVE to create!! I used to have a hard time coming up with new and different things for them to try. Then along came Pinterest!! SHEW!!! Here are a few ideas that I found.

The ABCs of Crafting on a Budget from Housing a Forest.

I get a lot of our craft supplies from the Dollar Tree. They don’t have everything but they do have A LOT! I  miss having Michael’s and Ben Franklin’s close, though. WAH!!!!!

This list is from The Domestic Goddesque.  This list is extremely good if you are looking for alphabet activities!

I LOVE 3 Dinosaurs!! I use so many of the printables and arts and crafts idea!!!

It says for tots but I know older kids would have a BLAST with these ideas as well!!!  Click over to Inner Child Fun and check them out!

This list from TLC  just goes on FOREVER!!! You can even look up crafts based on what material you want to use.

This comes from Putti’s World. My kids are going to have a BLAST with this!!!! It’s creative and something they can show off and wear!

I <3 No Time for Flash Cards!!! It’s my go-to site for kid crafts. Sit back and grab some refreshments before you start exploring this site! LOL

This is very nice list from Red Ted Art’s Blog. Make sure to bookmark or Pin so you can keep going back to it over and over again as the list keeps getting updated!

This great list is from Little Family Fun.  Hopefully it will keep Colin occupied for a while…. LOL

DLTK’s Crafts for Kids is another of my favorite sites. I use it ALLLLL the time and not just for crafts. It’s a great resource for homeschooling younger kids.

This site is FULL of ideas!! I just found it but I think it will become another favorite! LOL

Oh, yeah, it’s called Spoonful! LOL

I hope this list helps you keep the kiddos occupied and having a ton of creative fun!!!

Fly on the Wall

Fly on the Wall

Have you ever thought about what people might think if they saw what goes on behind-the-scenes at your house? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to catch a glimpse of someone else’s daily life? Here’s your chance. Today 15 bloggers are inviting you into their homes to be a fly on the wall.

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In A Tornado                                                        The Mommy Chronicles

The Insomniac’s Dream                                                    DeBie Hive

Follow me home . . .                                                        My Brain on Kids

Stacy Sews and Schools                                                    Raising Reagan

Sorry kid, Your Mom Doesn’t Play Well With Others             Simply Chic for You

Just a Little Nutty                                                             Life on the SONny Side 

Frikken Duckie                                                                 Momaical

Sanity Waiting to Happen

A ginormous thank you to Baking In A Tornado for setting this up and great big I’M SORRY for being so late getting mine posted… I sort of forgot… I’m going to blame it on the concussion….

Soooo, if you were a fly on the wall in MY house here are a few things you might hear…..

Deanna- Mom, you’re out of Diet Pepsi and Dad is out of coffee and ice.

Me- Snot!

The Hubby- You need to go to the store and get coffee, ice and ….. snot???? Wait…. What?? Did one of you say you needed snot??

Me- Never mind…. LOL

Deanna – Hey! The cat’s tail is in the garbage disposal.

Me- NO!! You cannot turn it on!!!!!!

Deanna – Can I put tape on the cats’ ears?

Me- NO!!!!!!!!!! And not on ANY part of their bodies!!!!!

Colin to me – I was born to be awesome!

Me – Yes, you were, Buddy. LOL

We were sitting on the front porch the other day and Deanna gets up to walk off. Her sock snagged on a nail and she went flying. Then she gives me this look like WHY did I do that to her??? I said, “It wasn’t me!!!!” Then she realized it was a nail!

The best part was that she had been trying to walk off in a huff. Hee hee hee!!!

Here’s the basic routine of an average day in my house lately…..

5 am – The Hubby wakes me up. I stagger around for a few minutes and then he asks if I’m ready to take him to work. Ummmm…. NOOOO!!! But do I have a choice????

6 am – I am usually home by now and trying to decide if it would be worth it to go back to sleep. LOL

8 am –  Joshua wakes up by himself. This morning it scared the crud outta me! I had been hearing noises all morning and was trying to stealthily walk through the house brandishing a Swiffer as a weapon. You know, just in case some weirdo had gotten into the house somehow. I walk down the hall and look in the playroom, empty. Then I look in Joshua’s room, also empty. As I turn toward the girls’ room Joshua jumps out of it and screams BOO!!!! I then scream bloody murder. It was a wonder I didn’t wake the house!

9 am – Colin wakes up and screeches MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

10 am – I go in for about the 5th time to try to get the girls out of bed.

Lately we have been trying and trying and trying to get all unpacked and the house in order….. SIGH……

I heard myself utter these words the day before yesterday, “If I see another science book I am going to SCREAM to high heaven!” The kids, “OH MY GOSH!! Mom has lost it!!! Did you hear what she said about books????”

OH!!!! And while we are on the topic of books some of my friends had some witty remarks to make about my “Book Shelf Incident”.

My Cousin Peggy -”I guess those words really did hurt!”

My friend Wende – “That gives a whole new meaning to being buried in a book!”

Yeah, they are a real laugh riot… LOL

                                                                                                 

The Crazy Things My Kids Do

Ok…. So today we were driving back from picking up take-out, just Deanna, Joshua and me. Joshua starts throwing himself around in the front seat. For a moment I thought he might be having some sort of fit! I ask him, “What the heck are you doing???” This was his reply, “I wanted to know if there was a tractor-trailer that went sideways and was headed for us, would I be able to get my body under the height of the dashboard where I would be safer.” Ummm……. OK…… But he is 6″2″ and 240 lbs……. Yeah…..

That reminded me of some of the crazy and strange things my kids have said and done. And some of the crazy things that have come out of my mouth in reply to the crazy and strange things my kids have done.

For instance, I was chatting away with my cousin one day (Hi, Amy!!) while the older 2 boys were building a fire in our outdoor fireplace. I see Jacob heading toward it with a gas can. He has on ear buds, so I KNOW he can’t hear me. I start yelling to Joshua to tell his brother, “to NOT throw GAS on the fire!” Yeah…. Who would have thought that I would ever have to say that????

Here is a list of things that have come out of my mouth-

“Don’t set that on fire!”

“Don’t duct tape the cats ears!”

“No, cats do NOT like to swim in the toilet!”

“Do NOT glue your sister’s mouth shut!”

“Take that outside to shoot it!”

“Don’t melt that!”

“No, you can NOT shave the cats!”

“Untie your brother now!”

“Who threw your sister’s glasses out the window???” (This was as we were driving down the road!”

“Who cut off the monkey’s tail???” (It was a stuffed monkey, I swear!) (And I found out YEARS later that it was Joshua.)

“No, you can’t shoot your brother in the butt…Or anywhere else!!!!”

“Get that firecracker out of your nose!”

“No, you cannot ride the goat.”

“Guinea pigs do not like to wear clothes.”

“Do NOT grab the snapping turtle by the tail!”

Then there are the things that I cringe when hearing….. Any time a child is in the bathroom, flushes the toilet and says, “Uh, oh!”

Anytime anyone yells for a towel, QUICK!

I also know that if someone throws goop at the ceiling and you don’t get it down right away it will dry like CEMENT! Same goes for silly string. Also, if you spray silly sting in the shape of a smiley face on aluminum siding, the smiley face will stay there even if you wash the silly string off quickly…..

Jacob was 2 yrs old and climbed into the washing machine while it was filling up with water. He has soap suds all over him.

Another time, also when Jacob was 2, he climbed into the dryer and couldn’t get out. All I could hear were his muffled cries of help.

When Joshua was 3 he climbed on top of the washer and got a box of cakes out of the cabinet. He ate EVERY SINGLE ONE.

At Christmas time when the older three were small, I would have to sleep in front of the Christmas tree after we put their presents out to keep them from getting into them. One year when Deanna was 3, Joshua 4 and Jacob 6, it didn’t matter that I was asleep in front of the tree. The little boogers grabbed presents and sneaked out to the garage. Deanna woke me up to tell on them. I go out there and they had already opened several presents. I took the ones that were left in the packages BACK to the store. The other ones I took away and never let them have them back. Rotten, rotten, rotten.

Those are just a FEW of the crazy things my kids have said or done….

Now for some great pictures I have taken over the last few days.

The first few are Cailey and Colin dancing in the falling leaves.

And the next couple are of Cloud, the crazy cat…. LOL

Upcoming Posts

I have some great stuff coming up for y’all!! This week I’ll be posting a tutorial for my May Flowers Skirt and creating a list of my favorite homeschooling sites. I will be picking a great book from the library, “When Pigasso Met Mootisse”.

I’ll have to come up with some fun ideas for the kids to do.

I’ll be adding some more info to my About Me page so y’all can “get to know” me!

AND I’ll be adding some more of my finished projects.

Soooo, stick around! Sign up for the e-mail so you won’t miss anything!!

What I would LOOOOVE to do (if/when I get enough followers) is to have some contests and swaps. Pattern swaps, project swaps, etc.