Spring with summer like temps...

What a beautiful day! Nice and warm with a light breeze... with these wonderfully sunny days comes the need for sunscreen and sunhats and water to keep young bodies hydrated.

I made this sunhat for my Hammy-girl the other night, the beauty of it is that it's reversible...



I was inspired by this tutorial; but ended up modifying the pattern after reading the comments. The size I ended up with for my 16 month old cutie-pie will fit her for a couple of months... my pattern needs some tweaking; but, all-in-all I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

On another subject... I received my giveaway prize from My Little Hen... MAKE by Cath Kidston, it's such a cute book with lots of great project ideas... I've been inspired and have a newly revised crafty to-do list that is now twice as long as it was before... Thanks again Rae, for hosting such a great giveaway!

Happy Bunny Day everyone... enjoy this beautiful weather ;)

Re-con mission...

I bought a sweater a while back at a Superstore... for those of you not familiar with this place; it's a grocery/pharmacy/organic foods/clothing/toys all wrapped into one giant building... LOVE IT! The clothing department, Joe Fresh, carries great, simple, yet trendy fashions that are very easy on your wallet.

Anyway, the sweater... a nice, light, 100% cotton, cream knit sweater... $4 and change... a steal. Of course I was sucked in by the price mainly, and the softness of the knit, so therefore, failed to actually try it on. Got it home, tried it on and hated the fit. I deserved that for not trying it on in the store. It has sat in my dresser drawer since last fall. I originally wanted to cut it up and make a nice light scarf out of it... that never happened, and I can only assume that I never really, truly wanted a scarf made out of it.

I had a light bulb moment the other day... spring is finally here and time to pull out the lighter clothes... that sweater, looming in my drawer all nice and soft and airy, would make a pretty spring knit.

Last night after the kids were in bed, and daddy had been long gone for work, I decided it was time to pull out the Singer and see what I could do with this sweater...



First, I cut off half of the sleeves and the bottom band of the sweater...



Then, I removed the wrist cuffs from the parts of the sleeves that I cut off...



I took the sleeve parts, now without the cuffs, and cut along the seam to open up the sleeve and laid it flat, like this...



Next, I cut the sleeves into equal width strips, sewed them end to end with right sides out, zig-zagged all around the whole strip to finish the edges, then ruffled the strip making it long enough to go around the neckline and angle across the front of the sweater to create a faux wrap-look... sorry, I forgot to snap a photo of the ruffle being made, oops...



Finally, I attached the ruffle to the sweater and zig-zagged the sleeves and bottom edge...



Re-con (re-construct) mission, COMPLETE... I hope you get some inspiration for something you have that you love but never wear... I think I'm addicted to re-cons, they're sooo much fun. Try it, you'll love it too!



Tomorrow... sunhat weather is upon us... I have something special for my Hammy-girl to show you... have a great day ;)

Lucky Monday....

I opened my e-mail this morning and found a message from My Little Hen's blog author, Rae... I entered this giveaway.... and I won!!!!! I'm soooo excited. I NEVER win anything! What a wonderful beginning to the week!

Thanks so much Rae at My Little Hen for hosting such a fantastic giveaway!

Take a peek at everything My Little Hen has to offer... you'll find wonderful creative inspiration over there!

I can't wait to get a closer look at my prize and try some of the great projects myself.... yay for me!

Pour moi... easy, peasy, weezy!

Recently, I purchased a top from American Eagle... I love AE! The best part is, the shirt only set me back $5.99 plus tax... SCORE! I don't often indulge in anything for myself, and I don't call $5.99 an indulgence by any means... what I'm saying is that I don't mind spending money on good quality, well fitting clothes. For instance, AE denim fits me well and generally costs anywhere from $19.99 (on sale) to $80.00... as any woman knows, finding a great pair of jeans is almost futile! AE denim fits me well and looks great, I highly recommend giving them a try... but, not to get too sidetracked, this isn't about jeans at all...

Sooo, anyway... I loved the top so much that I decided to try to recreate it myself. It turns out that the construction of it is very simple... hardly worth the original price of $34.99.... The original was made of a featherweight printed jersey knit, and consisted of only three separate pattern pieces... no sleeves to contend with, nice! I picked up a lightweight jersey at my favourite local fabric store for $4.00/metre... $4.00! Yeah, that's what I said!

Here's the AE shirt...



and the discount jersey fabric I purchased, which by the way, is so much cuter in real life...



Essentially what I did was fold the original top in half lengthwise; fold my jersey so that it was four layers thick; place the folded edge of the original on the folded edge of the new fabric and trace adding 1/4"-1/2" for seem allowance; cut out the new pieces, separate them and refold one piece to cut out the front neckline; place right sides together and sew... that's basically it! I finished the neckline and armhole edges; but in truth, jersey doesn't fray so it's not totally necessary to do this step. I added some finishing touches to make it look a little less blah... a frill around front neckline and a fixed high-waisted sash... voila!



A nice, new, lightweight top for spring... and it's for me...

Hiatus of sorts....

So I've been away for a little while... not by choice really, rather by necessity... I've been feeling a little under-the-weather for just over two weeks but am very happy to report that I finally came to my senses and sought professional intervention. With antibiotics in me, my healing process has begun and I no longer feel like I have a throat full of glass, knives or shrapnel whenever I try to swallow. Strep is a terrible thing... and definitely something that should be taken care of as quickly as possible... couple that with sinusitis and it's a recipe for a very unhappy, unhealthy, very emotional and tearful Mommy...

That aside... I need to take this moment to thank all of my well-wishers... you know who you are... Thank you all so much for your concern while I wasn't feeling the greatest...

A special thank-you to Tash... you are always there for me when I need you the most... thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. Leaving my most precious gems in your loving hands just made my Sunday morning visit to urgent care so much more bearable... where would I be if you and I had never started small-talk at skating??? I can't imagine not ever knowing you... there are genuinely caring and selfless people in this world, and I am happy to say that I have one that I can call friend... big hugs to you, you are a one-of-a-kind find ;)

And to my wonderful husband... what a great job you did taking over for me and putting up with my whining, crying, sniffling, writhing.... and everything else... I am so lucky to have you. I love you so much and thank you so much for being the great man, husband, father, partner-in-crime (muuuuuhahhahhahhhaaa!) that you are. Where would I be without you, I cannot bear the thought. With everything that's going on in the news recently, I can't help but hug you tighter and kiss you longer when you leave for work. Stay safe... twenty years is just a drop in the bucket, we have so much more to accomplish in this life together. I love you... a & f....

So, enough of the emotional stuff... I am looking forward to getting back to the blog... now, if I could just find something to talk about......