Labor Day & an Easy T-Shirt Re-Style

For our family Labor Day is more than just a day off of work or a chance to hit up a few sales.  For us it's a chance to celebrate Husby's hard work as a member of the United Association, the social change that the organization stands for, and the history of worker's rights that organized labor has achieved.




 At the Parade



We call Labor Day 'Daddy's Holiday' and he gets to choose whatever meals he wants for the whole weekend.  In addition to all of that yummy (non heart healthy!) food, we also go to the Labor Day parade and picnic.

This year Husby planned to walk in the parade with his UA brothers and sisters.  The kids couldn't decide whether they wanted to walk with Daddy or 'watch' the parade (AKA collect candy).  So Husby suggested that we watch the parade not far from the picnic site, and then join the parade when he came by.  This was the perfect solution as it allowed the kids to both participate and watch. 

Husby also thought it would be nice if we came wearing UA t-shirts.  I liked the idea, but I knew that the t-shirts available would all be really big and we would drown in them.  Then I got an idea, why not just re-style them into something that works?!

A Large T-Shirt

For the upcoming presidential election, the UA has endorsed Hillary Clinton, and the UA Political Task Force distributed these shirts to the locals.  The shirts feature the Hillary H on the front and the UA symbol on the back.

Keep reading to see how I re-fashioned this oversized t-shirt into an adorable tank top:

Supplies

To get started with my t-shirt, I grabbed  a pair of sewing sheers, a chalk pencil and a large platter from the kitchen.   What the what?! A platter?!  Yes!

Perfect Symmetry

I wanted my shirt to have a larger neckline, (almost a boat neck) so that when worn it would look very casual and layer over a tank nicely.  In order to do this I needed to remove the original collar and used one of my large kitchen platters to create a template.  In the past I have used dinner plates, bowls, you name it!  Just make your choice depending on the shape you are going for.

Tip:  Is there a design on the back of your shirt as well?  Make sure to take that into consideration before cutting!

Chalk Lines

Here you can see the line that I traced with the chalk pencil.

Cut-Out Collar

Carefully cut the fabric following your chalk line.  Make sure to keep the fabric flat and even, to avoid bunching.

Good-Bye Sleeves!

Since I was transforming this tee into a tank, off came the sleeves as well.  This was easy to do, I simply cut along the seams that were already in place.  After removing the sleeves, I also took in the side seams by about three inches on each side.

Fronts & Backs

Here you can see my finished tank (left) along with the shirts I re-styled for the Little Man and Baby Girl.

Middle:  For the Little Man I also went with a tank style.  His shirt was slightly more difficult to style because in order to take a man's XL down to a 4T I had to completely take apart the shirt.  Once the shirt was apart in two pieces (front and back) I used one of the Little Man's existing tank tops to trace the outline that I wanted.  I placed his tank on top of the design and traced a little larger in order to have plenty of room for a seam allowance and potential mistakes.  Then I sandwiched the pieces together (inside out so that the images were touching) and ran them through the sewing machine.  I had a little bit of trouble with the shoulders of his shirt and ended up stitching those by hand.

*Wouldn't it have been easier to make the Little Man's shirt from the large and use the XL for myself?  Uh, yeah, absolutely...but I didn't realize that they were different sizes until I was already almost finished!  :D :D :D 

Right:  For my Baby Girl I left the original collar and used a bowl to trace out the markings for new sleeves.  After cutting the sleeves, I took the seams in straight down from where the sleeves ended (I also used one of her currently fitting shirts as a guide).  With so much fabric removed, there was plenty left over to cut out a few 'ribbons'.  Each ribbon was about a foot in length and a quarter inch in width.  I used the ribbons to tie a bow at each shoulder, and another one to make a matching bow around her pony tail.

Side Note:  I didn't put in any new hems, but left the fabric unfinished instead.  I am by no means a seamstress, just a designer who likes to get creative!

All Done:  Front & Back

I was very pleased with how our shirts turned out, but also very nervous.  Luckily, everyone seemed to really like them.  One lady even left her post in the parade to come and ask where we got them!  Whew!

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2016

Easy (No-Sew) DIY Curtains

I love curtains.  Not only is privacy a must in most spaces, but curtains also add to the decor of your home.  Sure you could get by with just blinds to meet your privacy needs, but curtains add so much more cozy.  Know what I'm saying?

But, curtains can get pretty expensive, especially if you have several large windows (like we do).  And if you are like me, you want to be able to take down your curtains frequently for cleaning.

Somebody missed the trash can and food splattered all over the kitchen curtains?  No problem!
Somebody (I'm talking to you here, Little Man) finished their dinner and headed to the dining room curtains to wipe his little face?  No problem!  Don't want to deal with the hassle and expense of dry cleaning (like me)?  No problem!

So what do you do?   Make your own curtains out of sheets!  Yep that's right, I made my curtains myself.  Out of sheets.

Now how did this even come about?

-I wanted a lot of fabric on the windows because it looks more luxurious.
-I wanted to be able to throw my curtains in the washer frequently.
 -I didn't want to spend a lot of money (do I ever???)

I was trying to figure out how to accomplish all of this when I remembered a conversation with my Granny a long time ago:  

Granny was great at the sewing machine and used to take things like bedspreads and turn them into Halloween costumes (helloooo upcycle!).  We were talking about it one day and she pointed out that sheets were a great source of fabric at a great price (compared to buying fabric at the sewing/ craft store).  I remember we were sitting in her van on the way to a garage sale and she said, "You can do a lot with sheets Jennifer"  It's funny what sticks in your mind after someone has passed!

So anyway, I decided that sheets were the answer.  I went to Wal-Mart and purchased twin sized flat sheets for $5 each.  I used two per window and when you add in the pre-made sheers (also purchased at Wal-Mart) you end up with a cost of only $20 per window.  $20!!!!! That's insane!  And you can wash them so easily!  Love!

Side Note:  You don't have to limit yourself to the inexpensive cotton sheets like I did.  There are all kinds of fabrics and patterns out there, just waiting for that crafty someone to give them new life.  Go crazy!  

Sheets!

Top Left:  My kitchen window has just a sheer to keep things bright.

Top Right:  The master window has queen sized sheets.  I liked the way this size created more fabric volume and will be switching to larger sized sheets for all windows next time.  Also of note, these sheets are layered on top of black-out curtains.  Husby needs to be able to nap comfortably any time of day without being disturbed by all that bright light.  By hanging a set of blackout curtains (found treasure hunting) behind the sheet curtains, we were able to combine the look I wanted with the darkening ability he likes.

Bottom:  Patio door in the kitchen.

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So how do you turn a sheet into a curtain without sewing a thing?  Keep scrolling!

Making Curtains

All you have to do is this:  Flip over the flat sheet and find the hem.  The hem should be at one end of the sheet (would be the head of the bed) and will consist of a folded over section that is stitched in place.  Simply use a pair of sharp scissors to create a small opening in the backside of the hem at each end of the sheet.  Now you are left with a nice and tidy spot to slip your curtain rod through.

You could certainly get a bit more detailed and cut/ sew nice openings, ad trims, vary the lengths, the options are endless.  But for me I like simplicity, and left them as pictured.  And I can attest to the fact that they have remained quite nice with repeated washing and plenty of wear and tear ;)

So there it is;  an easy way to create inexpensive window coverings that stand up to a family of four, without ever having to touch a sewing machine.  Love it!

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2016

What's Happening: Crafty Fun!

Spring is here and it's been busy!
Here is a little of what I've been up to lately:

Camo Hearts

A few weeks ago I was adding patches to my valentine quilt and realized that the Little Man is underrepresented.  For some reason, he is lacking in pink and red sparkly clothing :D

Since it was time to go through his clothing again anyway (the kid is growing like a weed) I decided to take one of his camouflage shirts and make a few valentin-ey patches out of it.  By flipping the fabric over and using a heart shaped ornament, it was easy to trace and cut out a few heart patches.

I stashed the patches away with the valentine quilt until next year when I work on that sort of thing again.

(You can click here to see the valentine quilt)

Holiday Paper

I was browsing through the craft section of Wal-Mart when I found a package of holiday themed scrapbooking paper.  I have been wanting to purchase this pack for awhile now, but just never did.  Since it had been marked down to $2.50 and was the last one in stock, I snapped it up!  

Some of the paper I will use for actual scrapbooking, but the rest (pictured here) I plan on using as part of my holiday decor.  Many of the sheets I will probably cut into various sizes and frame on their own while others will make a nice background sheet for family photos (I like to switch out framed family photos with my holiday decor).  Time will tell, and I'll keep you posted!

Birdhouses

In keeping with one of our spring traditions, the kids painted new birdhouses.
The Little Man's is on the left and Baby Girl's rainbow house is on the right.  I love the way she did this one!

(You can click  to see last year's birdhouses)

What else has been going on?  Lots of fun faux cake making, prepping for the re-launch of my Etsy shop and the upcoming Easter holiday, and planning for a couple of wedding sets involving orchids and succulents...whew!

I'll keep you posted on everything as it comes.  But for now, I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2016

Valentine Quilt (2016)

As you might know, I like to recycle my kid's outgrown clothes into holiday themed quilts.  I keep these quilts in storage with the rest of my holiday decor and pull out a new one with each season change.  It's a great way to preserve memories :)

Today I'm sharing my Valentine quilt, take a look:

(You can click here to read an older post where I describe these quilts in greater detail)

Getting Started

This photo shows where my Valentine quilt is so far.  

I have a lot of patches that I will be adding this year!

Patches

Here you can see a close-up of the patches.
I don't stick to strictly Valentine themed clothing, but will use anything that has hearts or a lovey theme.




Little Hands

Here is what happens when I try to take photographs, I have to work fast around here!




Table-Top Tip

The easiest way I have found to work on these quilts is by spreading them out on the dining room table (I was using the living room floor before).  That way I can see most of the quilt at once, and little people aren't running across them!

I hope you enjoyed this quilting post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2016

Baby Girl's Memory Quilt

It has occurred to me that while I have shared numerous posts mentioning my holiday memory quilts, I've never shared the one I made for Baby Girl!

These 'cheat quilts' are something that I found on Pinterest when I was looking for a way to re-purpose a pile of Baby Girl's blankets and clothing.  Basically all you do is take an existing comforter and sew your patches right on top.  You can hem your patches first to keep them smooth and straight, or leave them raw to fray over time.

I'm still in the process of gathering outgrown clothing for the Little Man's memory quilt but today you can take a look at Baby Girl's.  Enjoy!

If you look closely you can see that bibs, blankets, jammies and even her newborn hat made it onto the quilt.  I tried to keep buttons and pockets intact whenever possible, and placed smaller patched onto larger sections to create more visual interest.

How did I choose what items to include?  I went through all of her clothing/ bedding and if there was any item that made me go, "Awwwwwww" and had a specific memory attached, it went on the quilt!

Lesson Learned:  This particular comforter is a queen size, so once everything was added it became very heavy!  While it's certainly able to be washed and folded, it's can be quite the task.  Because of this I have scaled the Little Man's down to a twin size.  Remember you can still add just as many different fabrics this way,  just in smaller sections.,

Scroll on for more photos of this quilt!

*And please excuse the wrinkles, not only did I pull the quilt out of storage for the pictures, but a couple of somebodies ran across it a few times as I was working! ;)

Want to see more of my memory quilts?
You can click here to see my Halloween quilt.
You can click here to see my 4th of July quilt.

(My Christmas quilt is still in patches, but pics of my Valentine quilt will be up in February!)

I hope you enjoyed these photos of Baby Girl's memory quilt, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Floral Headbands (Spring 2015)

It's time to welcome spring with a wearable flowers!

I decided to pull a few flowers from my supply closet and make up some headbands check them out:

 Pictured here are five of the flowers I used for this project: hot pink peonies, orange zinnias, yellow cosmos, purple daisies and white zinnias.  

(I also used a simple blue fabric cut-out flower shape that you will see in a bit)

 Headbands

I chose these ready-made stretchy head bands as the base for my floral embellishment.  I wanted something soft and stretchy, these were perfect!

 Making the flowers 'workable'

As with most faux florals, these had hard plastic centers.  The hard bits of plastic make the flowers look bulky and unnatural, so off they went.
 
After removing the plastic centers of the flowers I used my sewing machine to stitch the layers together.  This held the floral layers together while I attached it to the headband.

 Attaching the head bands.

I used my sewing machine to quickly attach the fabric flower to the headband.  This was  a lot faster and stronger than stitching by hand.

After everything was stitched in place, I used glue to attach various beads to the flower centers.  Not only is the beading pretty, but it also covers the machine stitching.

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I had a lovely little model help me with take photos of the finished headbands, take a look:

Yellow Cosmos accented with yellow beading on a yellow satin band.
White Zinnia accented with clear beading on a green satin band.

Blue tropical flower accented with navy/black beading on blue satin band.
Orange Zinnia accented with orange beading on an orange satin band.

Purple daisy accented with pearl beading on purple satin band.
Pink Peony accented with pearl beading on pink satin band.

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Like what you see?
These headbands are available now in the Jennifer Adams Flowers Etsy shop.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

My Life in Pictures (October 2014)

It may be a few days into November, but today I'm sharing my 'Week in Pictures' for the last week of October.  It was a busy week, but a lot of fun!  

Take a look:

 I found the time to sew on this years Halloween quilt patches.  

I made the time actually.  I was gathering all of the Halloween decor to pack away when I realized that I forgot to update the Halloween quilt...oops!  :D

 We carved pumpkins.

The pumpkin on the left belongs to the Little Man, the one on the Right is Baby Girl's.  She designed it herself with the nose on the side of the face.  I think it's important to honor the creativity of the artist, so there you have it; a very 'Picasso' like Jack-O-Lantern!  :D

 I made up a little bag of 'ice cubes' to go with Baby Girl's Elsa costume.

The faux ice cubes are acrylic table decorations made by Wilton, and I found three containers of these for $3 the last time I went treasure hunting.  Since Baby Girl wants a Frozen themed birthday party next year, I bought them and stashed them away.  Then I realized I could use some for the Elsa Halloween costume!

I layered a couple squares of tulle on the counter top, added a handful of 'ice' and tied with blue ribbon.  I made the ribbon in a long loop so Baby Girl could carry it on her wrist.  She loved it!

 Halloween Surprises

The Great Pumpkin left a couple of treats for the kiddos in our house on Halloween morning!  Little Man got a shirt and pants set and Baby Girl got a new Berenstain Bears book.  They each also got a few of M&Ms.

 Snowy Hair Clips

My two little Elsa girls (Baby Girl and my niece) enjoyed their custom made hair accessories.  My niece was able to come down from Chicago for Halloween, they loved Trick-Or-Treating together!

Lots of candy was collected!

And, we even squeezed in an anniversary celebration!

In honor of my anniversary I'll be posting soon with pictures of my wedding flowers.  Since they were made with artificial flowers (of course), I still have them ;)

Also coming this month: Thanksgiving Decor and Celebration

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Quilt 2014

As you may know by now, I have a really hard time letting go of my kiddo's outgrown clothing.

First I created a box for each child filled with special items from their first year (the Little Man's isn't finished yet).

 Then I went through all of the baby clothing and blankets to make a keepsake quilt for each child (Little Man's is still in progress).

Baby Girl went through what was left of her baby clothes and chose items for her dolls.  Now many of the things she plays with were once her or her Brother's.  Clothing...bibs...newborn bottles...:)

Little items like hats, mittens, tiny swimsuits, sunhats, snow boots and rain boots end up as part of my seasonal decor.  Hats and mittens I hang up during the winter, baby snow boots sit on the window sill.  The swimsuits and sunhats come out in the summer and as soon as spring hits, the rain boots replace the snow boots at the window.  Even Baby Girl's tiny sparkling party shoes are still hanging from ribbons in my closet :)

Of course I have a box containing each and every one of Baby Girl's fancy dresses.

And I can't let go of Halloween costumes or special 'dress-ups'!

Now don't get me wrong, I let go of a lot of stuff, but if any item makes me go 'awwww' and fills my heart with memories, it stays.  Trouble is, the kids keep growing, keep getting stuff and I keep getting attached!

I had to figure out what to do with these things, and started making seasonal keepsake quilts as well.

So far I have one for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day and the 4th of July.  You can read more about how I make my keepsake quilts (and why they are called 'cheat' quilts from this 4th of July post)

Here is the Halloween quilt so far.  

It's a bit wrinkled as I just pulled it out of storage, annnnd because a certain Little Man would race back and forth crawling at full speed each time I straightened it out.  He doesn't yet share my appreciation for quality photography :D

A close-up of the patches.

Currently, all of these patches were from Baby Girl's Halloween outfits.  This year will be Little Man's first Halloween, so I'll be sewing his on in a few weeks. 

Right now the quilt is folded up on the back of the couch in the living room.  Walk into the dining room and you will see framed holiday photos, many where these adorable outfits are being worn.  That is what I call 'design flow'.  It all makes sense, it all goes together and it tells a story about the happy times we have had as a family.  We are living in the present, remembering the past and looking forward to the future.  That is good design!

Hope you enjoyed my Halloween quilt, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

4th of July: Weekend Wrap-Up

What is a holiday weekend without good food, fireworks and a little crafting?

We had a great time celebrating, and I had fun making sure it was all pretty.

 A festive strawberry shortcake dessert to take to Mamaw & Papaw's on Friday.  

I added blueberries just for the blue color and cut star shapes from the shortcake.

 Red, white & blue smoothies for our Sunday brunch.

 I found these star-shaped ice cube trays at Dollar Tree for $1.  

Using food coloring I made a few red and blue stars for our dinner drinks and brunch smoothies.

 I loved opening the fridge and seeing lots of yummy snacks, all in the appropriate colors;

Cherries, blueberries, golden honeydew and watermelon!

 Baby Girl and I made this cute little cake on Saturday.  

We used a French vanilla mix and paired it with cotton candy flavored icing (that also created the lovely shade of blue).  We used red food coloring for the cake batter and star shapes.

 Yay! With everything going on I still found the time to sew on this year's quilt patches!

Now I can pack it away with my 4th of July decor and not worry about it again until next year.  I love efficiency!

(You can see the quilt before this year's patches were added here)

Baby Girl and the fireworks. 

I love photography and this one will make a great decor item once framed.

That was our weekend, hope you had a nice one as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014