~Birthday Week~ Birthday Shirt

     Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone is staying warm, especially if you are being hit by these mini blizzards! In a week my son will be turning 2 =( I cannot believe it, time has gone by quickly with my daughter but with him it seems like it has been put into super speed! Moving has still been put on hold because this week will be very busy for me as I do everything for my children's parties, so I thought that this would be a great time to do a weeks worth of planning a birthday party on a budget but making it look like you spent a TON of money on it. I always get compliments from people at the parties and showers I do, asking me how much things cost, and how I did it.

     Today we will start off with one of the most important things your birthday boy/girl needs, and that is a birthday outfit! Now you can always go online and get something and pay a ton of money for it, or you could do it yourself and get exactly what you want! There is several ways you can make a birthday outfit, you can go to Walmart or and craft store and get iron on printer paper make an image on your computer and then iron it on to your shirt OR you can do appliques. There is a lot of custom made shirts on Etsy and they of course usually cost an arm and a leg so here is a simple way you can make yours.

Supplies and Tutorial 

• Felt
• t-shirt
• scissors
• sewing machine
• coordinating thread

1. Find an image of your birthday theme, my son is having a hulk party, I found a picture on google and I free handed it on paper, you can also print out the image if you feel you lack artistic skills. I think took another paper and make a pattern by only copying certain parts like the head without the hair, pants, etc. 
2. Cut out your pattern and pin it to your felt then cut. 
3. Place your felt pieces together like you want them on the shirt, you will most likely have to cut and make adjustments to certain pieces so they will go together properly.
4. Pin your item to your shirt and then sew together. When you come to the edge of your felt and need to tun place your needle down, left your foot up, turn your shirt in the direction you need to sew, and then place the foot back down and continue sewing. 
   
5. Continue doing this on all pieces until you have finished. Certain parts were harder than others to sew around the edges sew I sew straight across, and the eyes I hand stitched. 
   
6. Take your shirt and put it in the washing machine to get all the felt fuzzies off and then you are ready to wear! 
   

     For boys I say pair this with a plain pair of pants and girls can have a cute tutu, skirt, or pants. 

Cost

Felt = .92c 

Shirt = $2 (garanimals at walmart)

I already had thread at home but if you need to buy some it cost $2-$3

Total w/thread $6 Total wo/thread $3

Compared to $20+

Easy Peasy Rag Quilt

    Well the 1st Week of January is over and I cannot believe it! We plan on being out of this house and into our old apartment by the end of this month, it might sound like a good bit of time but with all we are needing to do I can foresee it being here before I know it! If you read my last blogpost  http://momvenger.blogspot.com/2013_12_31_archive.html you will know that my kids will be sharing a room when we move. So this means that I needed to find something neutral that I thought was cute, and something that they would both like as well. I browsed Pinterest and all I saw was a bunch of generic rooms with no real theme, just girl/boy colors. I had all but lost hope until I saw some Mustache fabric at Hobby Lobby! I knew right then and there I could have a neutral black & white room, with pops of pink and turquoise! 

Of course you cannot go to a store and buy blankets and such in this theme so that means I needed to make it. I posted a picture of the finished product and I got a ton of messages on it, so guess what? Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to a couple of tutorials showing the making of the essentials for the bedroom, and then you can use it to customize your little superhero's room! 

Today we will start with a very important part of any bedroom, the comforter or quilt! 

I really love the rag quilts and they are so easy to do so this is what we went with! 

So this is a great quilt for any beginning person who wants to learn how to sew, or is new to sewing. You will be making these for everyone in your family and every room in your house! 

Supplies

7 yards of fabric (I used 45')

Quilt batting 

sharp scissors

coordinating thread

Sewing machine 

   1.  Get your fabric and cut it into 10 inch squares (they should measure 10in on all sides)

    2. Cut your batting an inch smaller, the square shape does not have to be as nice looking as the fabric 

   3.  Make a "sandwich" take a piece of fabric lay it right side down then add a piece of batting then add another piece of fabric with right side facing upward. Take your fabric sandwich and sew an X across it making sure to back-stitch to keep it from unraveling 

   4.  Next make a plan on how you want your quilt to look, do you want it to have a pattern, or do like me and make it a little crazy? You can do this 2 ways, by laying out your quilt squares together on the table or making a chart on a piece of paper. Once you are ready put your squares together and sew up the sides, I used 3/4in.

   5. Sew 4 of your squares together and this will be a row, then repeat. (I made a twin size quilt and it has 7 rows of 4 squares) Once you are done sewing 7 rows take them and put right sides together and sew 3/4in just like you did with the individual squares.

   6. All that is left is to take some sharp scissors and make little cuts on the fabric sicking up, then pop it in the washer and dryer. This will make the frays nice and soft and your whole quilt cuddly! Now put it on your bed and cuddle up with a good book! 

Kickin Off Christmas! Felt Garland tutorial!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you went Black Friday shopping I hope all went well and no injuries were had! Today I woke up and was still on a black Friday Adrenaline High so I decided to get all of my decorations, lights, etc. up & I succeeded!  I also had time to "hack" or make my daughters new Elf on the Shelf Snowflake bendable, AND make a tutorial to kick your Christmas decorating off right! Everyone say whoo hoo!

Easy Felt Garland

See how pretty my tree is? It really brightens up my room and window but to me it felt like there was still something missing. I remember when I was a little girl we would make garland out of anything and everything, I really didn't have money to buy pretty garland from my husbands layoff, and I'm not a fan of the tinsel garland so I thought "Hey why not felt?" Its so cheap and you can get it in all colors & prints! 

Supplies

Scissors

Pen, Marking Chalk, Marker, whatever works for you

Felt (I got 4 sheets)

Sewing machine

Something round, size of your choice

I used an old top from my old soda stream bottle to trace my circles its about 1.5inches, I know you can buy a gadget that cuts paper in a circle but I wasn't sure if it cut felt so I didn't bother to look for it or buy it, but if you do let me know if it works. 

1. Trace your circles onto the felt don't worry about the color coming through, I cut on the inside of my traced circle and you could never tell I traced with a black marker. 

2. Cut your felt out

3. Arrange them the way you want it to be seen in the garland, my garland had no rhyme or reason I just put it in a pile mixed it up and whatever piece I picked up was next in line ;)

4. Start sewing your circles back stitch on the first to make sure its secure, then slowly add circles and start making a chain 

5. Sew all the circles you have then when you get to the last one backstitch and your done! 

Much prettier I think! It will look so much more "Christmas-y" when I get my snow added, but that is another post ;) So let me break down the size for you, I bought 6 pieces of felt from Hobby Lobby, the brown was 25c a piece and the white and green was 50c a piece because of the glitter. So $2.50 plus I used a 40% off coupon, so I paid about $2 for all of it. It made a 17 foot long strand of garland! I cut a small piece of the end of mine which is how I got it to swag the way it is. This is a great project for kids just learning how to sew because all they need to do is sew a straight line, the cutting and tracing is also really easy I say this is a 6 year old and up project with adult supervision. Its fun, cheap, super pretty, and versatile! I wish I had waited to decorate my tree because I would have loved to wrap it around my tree! If you have any questions let me know! If you make one I would love to see pictures!