A little from column A and a little from column B | Week 8 | #52wonderfilledweeks

It's Sunday morning and as usual I am starting my timer for my blog writing.  I've been trying to limit myself to one hour for writing.  If I don't I'll just blather on and keep editing things...however since last night was MISERABLE (sleep training and sickness) in our house I might just give myself an extra 30 minutes.

PROJECT #1 | Mama Claire pattern hack to deep "V" neck

I told you last week that I made a new shirt late Sunday night.  It was a hack I had been thinking about since Week 4.  I love Made for Mermaids', Mama Claire, but still haven't decided if the cross front makes the most sense for me...but other than that feature it's a great fit. So I got to work hacking it into a deep v neck shirt. Altering the pattern was so simple....ready? Fold the front pattern piece in half.  That's it! Since it is a cross top the sides are meant to match/meet up so instead of cutting two mirror images of the front piece and then matching the side seams for the cross front, I folded the one piece in half and cut the front bodice on the fold.  Perfect.  The hard part as it turned out was creating a "V"neck, neck binding.  I have never done a  "V" neck binding so I did some research before I started and watched Alex's tutorial on the Pattern for Pirates web page (Pirates and Mermaids are literally sister companies, the founders are in fact, sisters!).  I thought, okay this seems simple.  Until it came time to cut the neck binding piece...I some how got stuck on how to cut the "V" in the binding piece.  So I was measuring angles, using special rulers, and made a beautiful "V" in my binding piece but when I sewed it to my shirt it just didn't fit right.  I think I made the angle to severe and the shirt bodice was bunching funny...so out came the seam ripper...after my week of failures last week I was over it. But I took a step back and redirected my efforts, and more importantly, reached out for help.  I love the M4M and P4P communities because you can ask almost any question on their Facebook Group pages and a LARGE, SUPPORTIVE community of people will come right back and try to help.  Sure enough another poster came to my rescue when I asked for help determining the correct angle on a neck binding piece.  Her recommendation, per another pattern she had used, was to cut the binding strip, let's say 30" long by 3" wide, find the middle distance on the short side of the binding strip (in my example that would be 1.5" and mark back one inch from there.  This will be your "meeting point" of the "V".  Then with right sides together match the short ends and sew from one corner to the point you made, pivot and sew back out to the other corner.  Since Alex has a couple GREAT videos on the tutorial I mentioned above I won't go into any more detail but these directions on how to sew the correct angle did the trick. I was able to get my binding piece angle just right and for my first attempt at a "V" neck I am pretty proud of myself.  Other changes included cutting the sleeves on the 3/4 length, which is allllllmost full length for me so I re-purposed my original neck binding as narrow cuffs and I love the look.  I hemmed the bottom (I'm not always a fan of a band on my body type) but I do wish I had added an inch or two to the length...next time.  Overall I REALLY like this pattern now and I think I may try making my recital top next week with this hacked version.  It's comfortable and flattering. I'd call that a win!

The fabric I used is a double brushed poly (also known as the same fabric blend Lularoe uses for their 'butter' leggings) from Knitpop.  I highly recommend checking out their shop.  Great prices and fast delivery times.


PROJECT #2 | IKEA hack for an organized "creation station"

If you've been following me on Facebook you've seen that my oldest, P, loves to create.  She's big on painting and that area is downstairs in our play room, but upstairs she has a desk, paper, and all sorts of crayons, markers, colored pencils...you name it we have it.  I keep most of it up high and out of reach because if left to her own devices she'd use everything on one project and we'd be out of materials but we do keep all her coloring accessories within reach...but it's a constant battle to keep everything organized and her table cleared so she can use it.

This is the battle I fight over P's creation station. (Ignore the January calendar...we're still working on how that all works!)

"But Mama I can't find that paper!"

This week I finally put into place something I had been mulling over for a few weeks. It required the KVISSLE magazine rack from Ikea and some 3M Command Strips. The magazine rack is great for a few reasons. For $15 you get 5 steel magazine pockets. While they are meant to nest together you can put them up individually if you use the command strips. We love using these for things around our house since we live in a historic Chicago Bungalow. It keeps our 1920's plaster in one piece but lets us use our home as well. We got this great set of Command Strips at Costco.

I cleaned the wall and the steel magazine pocket with alcohol as the instructions indicated and I placed two command strips on the pocket on the outside.  I may actually go back and put some on the bottom tabs (see above picture) only to keep paper from sliding thru) but the two strips alone hold the weight just fine. Then I added some cute vinyl cut on my Silhouette Cameo to dress up the front, in P's favorite color of course.

I have plans to decorate the other pocket but haven't quite decided what to write, and more importantly in what color. We use this great little carrier for her markers and pencils, I feel like that was also an Ikea or Dollar Store find a few years ago.  It makes it super easy for her to grab her colors and a book and come into the dining room to color when she wants to.

Now I get to see this when I walk thru the kitchen *happy sigh* and while taking pictures I was inspired to change the calendar, HA! P's been doing great with putting her papers and coloring books in the pockets and so the table is always cleared for her to color at without her little brother being able to bother her like at the dining room table.

I also tied up some loose ends at the beginning of the week.  I talked about UFO's in Week 3 and when I went to the craft studio to work last Monday my table was full of little things that needed attention.  So I sat down and forced my self to finally sew Madeleine's head back on, glue P's pink hair clip back together and redo the elastic on a pair of PJ pants I made last Christmas when I was pregnant... feels so good to be able to fix these things and get them out of my space!

Sometime there's nothing a little hot glue can't fix.

This one had a hole in her neck for about a year... yes a YEAR! P is so happy to be able to toss her around again!

I have several BIG projects on my agenda but have to decide how to tackle them as I don't think they are "one week to complete" type things...but for now it's time for a second cup of coffee and to enjoy the beautiful weather we have here today.

Did you create anything this week? Share it on my Facebook Page!