Being Genevieve

My Blog Has Moved

2013-10-08T15:05:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

I have made the big move to my own URL and a blog layout that is a lot easier to navigate. Please update your links and come visit me over at:

BeingGenevieve.com

I'll see you over there,

- Genevieve Hill

Diaper Bouquet

2013-03-28T14:43:00.000-06:00

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So I was looking on Pinterest for a gift idea for my little sister's baby shower.

I stumbled across this picture and was thrilled! My little sister is expecting a girl and naming her Rose.

What could be more perfect than a diaper bouquet of "roses" for a little baby named Rose?!?

The only problem was that there wasn't a tutorial on how to put it together.

Here is the link if you are interested.

Here is what I did to re-create the diaper bouquet . . .

What you will need:

-About 75 newborn diapers (or any size, but you will need a bigger vase to make it look proportional)

-About 38 wood dowels

-About 75 little clear elastics

-About 16-1/2 yards of Ribbon (I only used 10 yards and just put it on some of the diapers)

-Foam Ball (mine was 6", but it all depends on what size will fit on top of the vase without falling in the vase)

-Vase

-Vase Stuffers (I used baby lotion, baby wash, baby powder, butt paste)

-Decorative Ribbon

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What to do:

Cut all the dowels in half.

Grab 1 diaper, dowel, and elastic for each rose.

Open the diaper and place dowel as I have in the picture below.

Close the diaper and begin rolling the diaper around the dowel.

Hold the diaper with one hand as you open the elastic.

Place elastic around the diaper about 2/3 the way down.

This is the top view of the rolled diaper.

Cut a piece of ribbon and tie around where the elastic is.

I think I cut my ribbon 8"

As mentioned above, I only tied ribbon around about 1/2 of the diapers because I didn't buy enough ribbon at the time. So if you are short ribbon don't worry it will look great and no one will notice!

After all the diapers are rolled you can begin sticking them in the foam ball.

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Place the foam ball on the top of the vase.

Stick in 4 roses so that the foam ball won't move around while on the vase.

Now begin filling in, as I have done, around the top of the vase.

After the top of the vase is filled in, to secure the foam ball from moving, stick a rose in the top of the foam ball. Begin filling in around it and work down the foam ball.

(Try to only stick the rose in when you are sure on the location or else your foam ball will end up with too many holes and the roses won't stay in the foam very well.)

Once you have filled all empty spaces it will look like this.

Lift up the foam ball carefully and place in the vase stuffers. Place foam ball back on the vase.

Tie a decorative ribbon around the vase.

Now you are ready to wow everyone at the baby shower with your diaper bouquet!

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Cupcake Onesies

2013-03-28T14:33:00.001-06:00

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For my little sister's baby shower I helped my mom put together these adorable cupcake onesies.

This is the tutorial on how to make them.

Very Simple and Cute!!!

Rollie Pollie Bean Bag Chairs

2013-03-27T15:42:00.002-06:00

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I made these wonderful bean bag chairs for my kids! (With some changes that are listed below.)

Check out the Rollie Pollie pattern here.

I made the large size of Rollie Pollie for both bean bags.

My changes were . . .

1. I pieced several different fabrics together and then cut out the pattern pieces from what I had pieced.

I used scraps I had from reupholstering a couple of chairs and then did a few accent fabrics with it.

2. I only could find a 26" zipper. I'm not sure where she found her 30" zippers at.

3. I filled my bean bags with bean bag beads and then 1 large bag of regular stuffing (all mixed together). I added the bag of stuffing because I had it laying around the house and it kind of broke up the feel of laying on just bean bag beads. It made it feel more like a pillow, but not really enough to worry about it. This was a MUCH cheaper option! I think it only cost me about $16-$20 to fill each one, instead of the $45 she recommends.

These bean bag chairs were worth every penny! My kids love them and drag them from room to room.

FYI: The handles she recommends putting on are a must! Without them my kids (ages 3 and 18 months) would have a very difficult time moving them very far.

Cell phone picture, very poor quality. Sorry!

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Car Seat Canopy

2013-03-20T16:31:00.004-06:00

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Here is how to make one of those cute car seat canopies to keep your little one protected from the weather and unwelcome germs.

What you need:

1-1/2 yards of cotton or flannel fabric for BACK

1-1/3 yards of cotton or flannel for TOP

4-1/4 yards of RIBBON

5-1/2 yards RICK-RACK

Buttons or Flowers for Straps

Sew-On Velcro

Fabric Marking Pen

Cutting fabric:

(Pre-wash, dry and iron all fabric!!!)

Top and Back. . .

Cut 35" wide x 34" long out of your TOP fabric. Then cut 2 strips 4-1/2" x 35" from the BACK fabric. Cut 35" wide x 42" long out of your BACK fabric.

If not piecing the top. . .

Cut the TOP and BACK 35'' wide x 42" long.

If fabric has a directional pattern, make sure to cut it so it goes in the right direction (you may need extra fabric). If you are piecing the top, like mine make sure the finished dimensions of the top are still 35" x 42".

Straps. . .

Cut 2 pieces 6-1/2" x 9-1/2" out of the TOP fabric.

Cut 2 pieces 2-1/2" x 9-1/2" out of the BACK fabric.

If not piecing straps. . .

Cut 2 pieces 4-1/2" x 9-1/2" out of BACK and then cut 2 of the same size out of TOP.

Putting it together:

***All seams are 1/2 inch.***

Straps:

Place right-sides together and sew. Then do the other side. Repeat for both straps.

Flip right-side out and iron.

Fold ends in 1/2 inch and iron a crease. Do for both sides. Repeat for the other strap.

DO NOT SEW THIS CLOSED YET

Cut 4 pieces of ribbon each measuring 9-1/2 inches long. Place ribbon on the seams.

Pin in place. Tuck in the ends of the ribbon and pin.

(This is why you havent sewn the ends closed yet.)

Sew the ribbon on by going down BOTH SIDES of the ribbon as I have done here.

Please take your time on this, it moves/bunches easily!!!

Sew down both pieces of ribbon, on both sides of the ribbon. Repeat for the other strap.

Now do some topstitching on the sides of the straps (just for looks).

I like the double seam look so I do a 1/4 inch seam and then go back and do an 1/8 inch seam, to give it a double needle look. Or you can just use a double needle.

Now pin and sew the ends of the straps closed. Repeat for both straps.

Time for the velcro.

I cut mine to be the same length as my button so the stitching could easily be hidden under the button.

The first velcro to attach is where the button will be sewn on.

I placed mine 1/2 inch from the end of the strap. Repeat for other strap.

The next velcro is up to you.

I wrapped mine on the car seat and placed a pin where the top over lapped the other end.

Measured down 1/2 inch from the pin (that is how far in the velcro on the other end is sewn) and pin the velcro in place.

(Mine was placed 3/4 inch from the end of the strap.)

Now sew the buttons on top, to hide the stitching from the velcro.

Straps are done!

Main Body:

Place the 2 long strips on the top and bottom of the TOP fabric (right-sides together), pin and sew.

Iron seams open.

Cut 2 pieces of ribbon both measuring 35 inches. Place, pin, and sew on the top and bottom seams.

*Topstitch on both sides of the ribbon just as you did for the straps.*

I now place the TOP fabric and the BOTTOM fabric right-sides together.

Grab a big bowl and trace with marking pen a rounded corner on all 4 corners.

(You may notice I have an extra seam toward the end on the polka-dot fabric, that will mostly be cut off with the rounded corner. I cut my fabric incorrectly and had to piece this together. Yours should not have this.)

Now cut all the corners following your markings.

Fold the TOP fabric together to find center and iron a crease (crease should go from front to back).

Then cut up the crease 19-1/2 inches to make front slit.

Front slit is optional. You can just skip this step if you don't want a slit.

Place TOP and BACK fabrics right-sides together and cut the slit up the BACK fabric so that the top and back fabrics both have an identical slit.

Pin together.

Begin placing the rick-rack in the slit.

(I had my rick-rack poke 1/4 inch out of the seam, just like you see below.)

When you come to the corner on the bottom of the slit, turn rick-rack like so and pin in place.

Continue pinning all the way around until you reach where you began, the other side of the slit.

I measured as I went to make sure all my rick-rack was poking out 1/4 inch.

Cut 4 pieces of ribbon each measuring 10 inches long. Burn or seal the ends of all 4 ribbon pieces.

*This ribbon is for tying the slit closed.*

Now you need to pin the ribbon in place.

I measured up 6 inches from the bottom of the slit and fed the ribbon in between both fabrics, next to the rick-rack, until the ribbon was lined up exactly with the raw edges of the 2 fabrics.

I then repeated for the other side of the slit so that these 2 ribbon pieces would be at the exact same height to tie the slit closed.

Now measure down 6 inches from the top of the slit, on both sides, and do the same thing.

(I should have taken more pictures for this step ... below is what the finished product will look like. Look at the white ribbon.)

Now sew a 1/2 inch seam around the whole thing.

(At the top of the slit, sew it rounded 1/2 inch. See pic below.)

Leave about 10 inches un-sewn so you can flip it right side out.

Before flipping inside out . . .

Cut corners off.

Clip little slits 1 inch apart into rounded corners.

Clip slits into the top of the slit (in picture above.)

This will help it lay better when you flip it right-side out.

Now flip right-side out.

Pin opening closed and topstitch just as you did for the straps.

(Topstitch 1/4 inch and then go back and do 1/8 inch topstitch.)

The main body is done!

Strap Placement:

The straps will be . . .

14-1/4 inches from the top,

10-1/2 inches from the side,

and 19 inches from the bottom.

The straps should be 5-3/4 inches apart.

Place pins 4 inches down from the top of the strap and 2-1/2 inches up from the bottom of the strap.

(This will cause the pins to be at the 4 inch and 5-1/2 inch lines of the 8 inch strap.)

Draw lines with your marking pen so you know where to sew.

I stitched it twice to reinforce the handles.

This is how my finished handles look.

Now you are all done!!!

Notice that the corners on the front are off the ground and don't drag.

This is very important or they get very dirty!!!

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Pretzel Toffee

2012-12-22T15:07:00.003-07:00

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My sister had Pretzel Toffee at an office party and said how delicious it was.

So I had to try to make it.

After making a first batch that was not right I had to make my own recipe.

Here is my recipe for what to do . . .

(No one has an exact recipe for this; everything is written as "half a bag" or "just combine" so I have taken it upon myself to measure everything and make a recipe.)

Ingredient:

5-1/2 Cups of mini pretzels

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

Begin by measuring out your pretzels.

Break them into large pieces and place them on an 11x17 cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (foil doesn't work as well).

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

STOP stirring and boil for 3 minutes without stirring!

Then pour on top of pretzels.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes.

(The caramel will spread out a little more when in the oven.)

Pull out of oven and pour 2 cups or a 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips onto the pretzels.

Return to the oven and bake for 2 more minutes.

Pull out and spread/smooth chocolate with a rubber spatula.

Cool slightly on counter.

Then place in the freezer so it is easier to break it into pieces.

Store in the fridge.

It makes it much more delicious! Enjoy!!!

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Hair Accessory Organizer

2012-07-16T15:19:00.000-06:00

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Does your bathroom counter/drawer look like this?

Hair Accessory Organizer: a fast craft to help organize your bathroom!

Begin by collecting the following materials:

A Quaker Oats or Formula Container, Emptied
Mod Podge, matte finish
2 (12x12) Scrapbook Papers, of choice
Paint Brush
Large Metal Book Ring, for hair elastic (optional)
Gerber Food Container, emptied, for bobby pins, etc.

Now, Mod Podge your scrapbook paper (it takes 1-1/2 papers) to the tall empty formula container.

I begin by doing a thin layer of mod podge on the container and then sticking the paper where I want it. Rub on top of the paper FIRMLY to remove all air bubbles.

After two minutes, I then apply a thin layer of Mod Podge on the top of the scrapbook paper, cover all edges well.

(in the picture you will notice that you can see the edges of where I applied the second paper, to avoid this you could do a scrappy patchwork kind of paper application, which would be very cute. I just figured I have so many headbands I wouldn't be able to see much of the paper.)

It would look really cute to add ribbon or rick-rack around the container as well.

I decided to just do fast and simple.

While you wait for it to dry, organizing all your hair accessories into Gerber containers.

I put all my hair elastics on a metal book ring (not a key ring).

I put all my ribbons, bobby pins, running elastic headbands, and clips into separate Gerber containers.

Once everything is organized place it neatly in the container and place the lid on.

Once everything is dry, place headbands around the outside of the container. Ta-Da!

Simple, fast, and easy to accomplish! Now all your hair accessories are in one container instead of thrown on the counter or in the drawer.

You can decorate the lid or cover in with paper as well, but I actually chose a scrapbook paper to match the lid so I didn't need to do this.

ENJOY!

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Mini Meatball Stew

2012-03-06T21:36:00.001-07:00

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One afternoon I watched a little snippet of Giada on the Food Network and saw her making this Hearty Meatball Stew.

I decided to give it a try and it was super delicious!!!

I changed a few things that Giada did.

Here is what I did . . .

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1 slice white sandwich bread, torn into small pieces
1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Stew:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
One 8 to 10-ounce russet potato, peeled, halved lengthwise and halved lengthwise again, sliced into 1/3-inch slices
1 can green beans, drained
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds
Two 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup tomato juice (I saved what I drained from the diced tomatoes)
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated + a little for garnish

Meatballs: Place the bread and 3 tablespoons water into a medium bowl. Mash bread very finely. Add the beef, egg, parsley, salt and pepper. Blend the mixture thoroughly with your hands or a fork. Form the mixture into mini meatballs (I made about 35-40 with 1 pound of beef). Arrange the meatballs on a greased baking sheet and cook in a 400 degree oven until the doneness that you like (anywhere from 8-18 minutes).

Stew: Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions, peppers, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Cook until soft, 4 minutes.

Push the pepper and onions to the outside and place potatoes in the center of the bottom.

Place the carrots, beans, and tomatoes on top of potatoes. Add the red pepper flakes, chicken broth, and the tomato juice. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the cooked meatballs.

Make a roux with the butter and flour and drop in the soup in little pieces. (This way you won't have clumping of flour in the stew, when the butter melts the flour also melts into the stew and helps thicken the broth.)

Cover the pan with the lid and simmer until the potatoes and carrots are tender, about 30 minutes.

Now sprinkle in a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. When cheese has melted in, mix and serve.

Garnish the top of each bowl with a little grated parmesan cheese.

If you want a perfect meal, make a little french bread to go along with your delicious stew!

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Jean Pencil Skirt

2012-03-02T22:06:00.001-07:00

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I have been looking, for a couple of years, to find a modest jean pencil skirt. Whenever I find one I like it is too expense. I just found one online by JCrew for $98. WOW!

I have decided that I can just make my own with an old pair of jeans I have!
(This would be perfect for those jeans that you love that have shrunk in the length or that have frayed hems where they drag slightly on the ground.)

After

Before

Here's what you need...

- 1 Pair of Jeans

- Top Stitching Thread

- Jean Needle (for your sewing machine)

- Seam Ripper

- Scissors

-Pins

Begin by cutting 12'' off the length of your jeans.
This gave me several inches to work with when it came to hemming the bottom.

Now this next part doesn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Unpick the seams on the inside of both legs, starting where the crotch of the pants comes together.

Please be very careful! I began to get a little to confident in myself and ripped a hole in the fabric with the seam ripper. (Luckily it was a part that wasn't going to show in the end.)

After the inside of the legs are all finished, unpick the front where the bottom of the zipper is to where the crotch came together.

Unpick the back where... um... where I am pointing (not sure what this location would be called) to where the crotch used to come together.

Now this part can be a little tricky and you may need to have a little extra patience.

Lay the front of one of the legs over the other leg until you have a nice straight line all the way down.

Pin very well!!!

Pin the back so that you have a straight seam that will go all the way down.

I left open the bottom from about the top of the back of my knee. This is to add a little extra piece of fabric so that you will be able to walk in the skirt.

(Ignore my pins at the very top because I also took the waist in on the pants.)

Cut a rectangle of fabric out of one of the legs you cut off earlier.

Place the piece in teh back of the skirt where you want it to go.

VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the grain of the fabric (in the added piece) is going the same way as the rest of the skirt.

When pinning this piece into place, make sure to fold all your raw edges in.

Make sure the back of the skirt is pinned very well.

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Just an FYI: I tried on my skirt at this point, VERY CAREFULLY, to make sure it was going to fit correctly. It is much easier to move pins, than it is to unpick the entire thing again.

Time to begin sewing the front and back.

**Don't forget to put the jean needle on, the top stitching thread in place of normal thread, and changing the tension of both the bobbin case and the top needle tension!**

I tried to duplicate what the stitching used to look like before I unpicked it.

(My jean had a slightly darker color where the stitching used to be. You can kind of see it in this picture. I just used those existing marks when I did my sewing.)

Front Stitching

Back Stitching

Once you have sewn it into place try it on. If it is how you want it, cut out the extra fabric leaving about 1/2'' seams (you are welcome to finish the seams, but I just left mine raw).

Now have someone help you measure where you want the hem to be.

I measured the hem up 1/2'' and rolled it up another 3/4'', pinned it into place, and sewed it with a 5/8'' seam.

If you need to know how to iron and roll up a hem to prepare it please go here to see how I prepared the hem for my seven dollar dress, but don't do the blind hem stitch.

You did it! You just made a modest jean pencil skirt out of an old pair of jeans.

Front View

Back View

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Bonnie's Banana Bread

2012-03-01T14:39:00.002-07:00

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My sister's mother-in-law, Bonnie, has a wonderful banana bread recipe that I LOVE!

We love to make it into bread and/or muffins.

This week I changed it up a bit by adding mini cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips.

It was wish-ious (delicious), in the words of my 2-year-old!

Ingredients:

1/2 C - Butter
1 C - Sugar
2 Eggs
4 Lg. Bananas, very ripe
1 & 3/4 C - Flour
1 tsp - Baking Soda
1/2 tsp - Salt
1 C - Chocolate Chips (I used Cinnamon Chips instead)

Put first four ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat. Add the remaining ingredients and mix.

**If you don't have beaters or a kitchen mixer you can purchase a King Arthur Dough Whisk to make all your breads, works wonderful. **

Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Muffins cook 15-20 minutes, makes 24 muffins.)
Use toothpick to test.

(Can't find my picture of the finished bread, sorry.)

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Gone Fishin'

2012-03-01T14:08:00.001-07:00

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Cabin fever is hitting our house even more than usual, since there is no snow on the ground. It looks nice and wonderful outside, but is freezing cold!

My two-year-old just can't figure out why we can't go play at the park.

Here is a fast, no-sewing craft that your toddler will love to help with and play with.

Here is what you need:

-Girl Ankle Socks (from the Dollar Store)

-Dowel (from Wal-mart 5/16'' (57 cents))

-Batting

-Embroidery String

-Hot Glue Gun

-Buttons

-Doughnut Magnet

-Power Magnets (the button magnets shown above didn't work well)

(Power Magnets are found at Hobby Lobby (strength is 9 out of 10).

I chose the smallest size they had, smaller than a pea, it had 12 magnets in it.)

Use a TINY amount of hot glue to attach the magnet to the inside of the sock at the toe.


Do not use the button magnets I used! Use the power magnets as mentioned above.

Put some batting in the sock.

Tie the sock shut just as you would a balloon.

Hot Glue buttons on to look like eyes.

Take embroidery string and cut to desired length x 2.

(I folded mine in half so that I could attach the doughnut magnet.)

Pull the string back through the loop to attach the magnet.

Wrap the end of the string around the dowel 3 times and tie a square knot.

Seal the knot and string on the dowel with a little hot glue around the entire knot.

All done! Look how simple that was!

Now let your kids have a blast fishing for those cute sock fish!

If you have girls, you may consider making this cuter version. I have boys and the bows would be ripped off as soon as I attached them on.

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Visiting Teaching (Oatmeal Chocolate Chip) Cookies

2012-02-21T20:38:00.001-07:00

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When Kevin and I were first married I had a wonderful visiting teacher for only 1 month. Her name was Emily and was very sweet. She brought these cookies to me; Kevin and I instantly feel in love with these and she willingly passed on the recipe. Now I am passing it on to you.

Ingredients:

1 C - Butter

1 C - Sugar

1 C - Brown Sugar

1 tsp - Vanilla

2 Eggs

1 tsp - Baking Powder

1 tsp - Baking Soda

1/2 tsp - Salt

3.5 C - Old Fashioned Oats

2 C - Flour

1 C - Milk Chocolate Chips

1 C - Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Cream butter and sugars. Then add eggs and the vanilla; mix well. Put baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the batter and mix. Add the oats; mix. Put the flour and chocolate chips in last.

Fill your cookie scoop so it is heaping slightly.

Place on parchment paper, silicone mat, or a greased cookie sheet.

Use your two fingers and push down the top of the cookies ever so slightly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes (my oven is exactly 12 minutes). It took me a little practice on what to look for to know if they were done. You can't go off of color or else they are way over done.

I pull mine out when they are a little undercooked in the center and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes.

Then place them on a cooling rack.

Makes about 5 dozen

We only cook about 12-24 cookies and then I make cookie dough logs out of the rest. Wrap the logs in saran wrap and put in the fridge or freezer. They freeze PERFECTLY!

When you want more cookies just pull out of the fridge/freezer and cut off about 1/3 of an inch. No need to defrost them at all. Just throw them in the oven and enjoy!

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Bath & Body Works Foaming Soap

2012-02-20T09:27:00.002-07:00

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I just love my Bath and Body Works foaming antibacterial hand soap, but I don't love the price.

Want to know how to re-create this soap for less than 50 cents?

Begin by collecting all your empty bath and body works foam containers. Then buying some Softsoap soap at Wal-mart for 98 cents. There are alot of scents so have fun with it.

Pour about 1 inch of soap into your foaming container and fill up the rest of the container with warm water (leave about 1 and 1/2 inches at the top so the lid will go on with out over flowing).

Put the lid on and GENTLY tilt the container back and forth so the soap incorporates with the water.

Do not shake or you will have a foaming nightmare.

Now you have wonderful Bath and Body Works, look a like, soap for a fraction of the cost!

Your guests will never even guess that you only spent about 30 cents on your container of soap.

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Seven Dollar Dress

2012-02-15T22:54:00.002-07:00

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With those Joann's coupons anything is possible. I made a new church dress for only seven dollars!

Old shirt from the closet

+1 yard of fabric ($4)

+1 yard 2'' belt elastic ($3)

$7.00

It looks just like a shirt tucked in a skirt, but the best part of this is no more running into the restroom to tuck in your shirt every time you bend over.

No I didn't come up with this myself (I would love to claim it though). This is where the idea originated (Elle Apparel), but this is the place I first stumbled across it (Mommy by day... Crafter by night).

I did notice that neither tutorial tells you the proper way to hem a dress/skirt.

In this tutorial, I will just pick up on where they left off.

Follow Elle Apparel's and Mommy by day's tutorials on how to put together the dress.

I will just be showing how to hem.

Begin by trying on your dress/skirt and mark with a pin where you want the final length to be.
Take off dress and lay it on the ironing board.

I measure the distance from the pin to the bottom of the skirt with my seam gauge.
I then mark a line with my Mark-B-Gone pen at that location and work my way around the entire skirt (about 1 inch apart from each other).

Now measure 1.25 inches down from the line that you just made. (This will be where you will be cutting off.) Do this around the entire skirt just as you did in the step above.

Begin cutting along the line that you just made.

Iron the bottom of the skirt up 1/4'' all the way around.

Now iron the bottom up 1'' or to the first line that you marked on the skirt.

Find on your sewing machine the hem stitch that looks like mine (#7).

Fold back the fabric like I did and begin stitching with your hem stitch.

Align your presser foot so that the fabric, to the left of the fold, barely gets caught by the needle.

This is how the stitch should look when finished.
You can see that the zig-zag just barely caught the fabric.

The front of the skirt will look like this.

You can see the stitching close up, but when it is on you can't see it.

This hidden hem helps the bottom of a skirt/dress lay and hang very nicely.

Mist the bottom of the skirt where all the little blue marks are and they will magically disappear.

You are ready to begin enjoying your seven dollar skirt/dress.

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French Bread

2012-02-14T14:01:00.001-07:00

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I have a new favorite thing to take to friends around the neighborhood; Homemade French Bread! The recipe makes 2 loaves so you can have one to share and one for your family.

All you do is make the bread and take out some homemade freezer jam from the freezer and presto you now have a new friend.

It may look and sound intimidating, but it is one of the easiest things you can make.

Ingredients:

3 C - Hot Tap Water

2 T - Instant Dry Yeast

2 T - Oil

2 T - Sugar

1 T - Salt

8 C - Flour

Throw all the ingredients, all at once, in a mixer and mix until just combined.

*This recipe does very well halved; all the pictures are with a half-recipe. A full-recipe would just make bigger loaves.

Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes in a mixer or by hand.

Split the dough in half and put one half aside.

Roll the dough out in a rectangle, about the length of a cookie sheet. Then, roll up the dough just as you would cinnamon rolls. This helps get all the bubbles out of the dough.

Pinch the dough at the seams.

Lift the ends and pinch it together, bringing it to the underside of the dough.

Place the loaf on a silicone mat, parchment paper, or just a greased cookie sheet with the seam side down. Take the other half of the dough and do the same as the first. (Roll out, roll up, and pinch together.)

Cover the pan with a towel.

Perfect Rising Environment: Pre-heat over to 400 degrees for ONLY 2 MINUTES. Then turn off the oven.

Put the pan in the warmed oven and have it rise for 45 minutes.

Take pan out after 45 minutes and then pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Score the bread with a sharp knife. (Score whatever pattern you like.)

Cook bread (15-20 minutes for half recipe; 20-25 minutes full recipe).

When you have 7 minutes left on your timer, take out bread and brush with salted butter.

(Olive oil doesn't work as well as the butter.)

I use 1 tablespoon of melted butter for a half-recipe and 1.5 tablespoons for a full-recipe.

Place back in the oven and cook the remaining 7 minutes.

When the loaves are done I immediately place them on a cooling rack.

Time to wrap one loaf up in a towel and run it next door. Enjoy!

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Dust-Collecting Shirt

2012-02-07T15:36:00.002-07:00

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So if you are anything like me you have several shirts in the closet, that were super cheap, that you thought weren't that bad when you bought them, but after one wearing you realized you were wrong. Now, they are just collecting dust.

Before

After

Here is a frumpy, low-cut shirt I bought at Old Navy several years ago that was like $5, but I wore once and realized it wasn't right for me.

Here's what to do . . .

(this is my first tutorial so I forgot to take pictures of all the steps, sorry)

I began by putting my shirt on inside out and pinning the shoulders up to where I wanted it; to get rid of the low-cut neckline. I also placed a pin on the arm where I wanted the sleeve length to end up.

Take off the shirt carefully and fix the pins so they are equal distances down from the original shoulder seam on both sides on the shoulders.

Take a mark-be-gone pen and draw a line tapering down to where your finished sleeve will be. Sew directly on that line.

Put your shirt back on and make sure the shoulders and neckline ended up where you wanted them.

Also, pull the sides and pin to how snugly you want the shirt to fit (forgot to take picture).

Pin the sides of your shirt (equally brought in on both sides), mark and sew just as you did for the shoulders.

Remember to try the shirt on again to make sure the shirt fits correctly.

Now cut all your seams (shoulders/sleeves and sides) to 1/4'' and serger or zig-zag seams.

Take your shirt mark where you want your finished sleeve to fit and then mark 3'' below that. Now cut along both lines. Don't worry about leaving length for sleeve allowances because you will be adding a band.

Don't look at my lines, I kept changing where I wanted it and how much of a band I wanted.

Now take the sleeve finished length divided by 2 and cut a piece of very skinny elastic. (My sleeve was 8'' so I cut a piece of elastic at 4'').

Now sew the elastic to the sleeve, starting at the top of the sleeve and ended at the very bottom of the sleeve. Stretch/pull the elastic as you sew; don't stretch the sleeve fabric at all.

Try the shirt on and draw a line so you know how much to bring the under part of the sleeve up. Take off and cut. Doesn't need to be perfect, you are adding a band to it.

Now for the sleeve band . . .

This is probably going to be a little confusing without pictures, but I will try my best.

Take that 3'' tube like piece you cut from the sleeve and fold it in half with wrong-sides together (or seams on the inside). Now you have a much thinner tube piece.

Pin and sew it to the sleeve with a 1/4'' seam. Serger or zig-zag seams to finish them so they won't fray.

Now top stitch on the sleeve just above the seam where the band and sleeve come together.

Now shake/wash off all the remaining closet dust and put on your fabulously new re-fashioned shirt.

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Simple Mini Corn Dogs

2012-02-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

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I did it! I made my first fried food ever. I am not much of a fried food eater, but after seeing how simple they were on Paula Deen, I just had to try. Not to mention that my son LOVES corn dogs!

I fourth-ed the batter recipe and only used 2 healthy (well as healthy as a hot dog can be) Nathan hot dogs to only make 6 mini corn dogs. The cornmeal batter made them crunchy and delicious!

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Homemade Sand

2012-01-31T22:50:00.002-07:00

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My little 2 year old boy is getting tired of being stuck inside all day everyday because of winter weather. So, I saw this on pinterest and tried it (with slight alterations).

Homemade Sand = Flour and Oil

This is the tutorial I used, but changed the baby oil to olive oil. (I don't have baby oil in my house.)

I also changed the proportions. I did 5 cups flour to 1/2 cup oil.

After mixing by hand a little bit I pushed it through a sifter.

FYI: The more you play with it, the better it gets incorporated and holds its shape better. We played for about 10 minutes before it was a perfect homemade sand.

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Marble Counters

2012-01-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

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My husband and I are trying to lose weight. I saw this idea online, but modified it slightly. I wanted to keep all our marbles in the same jar to eliminate clutter, but then needed two different colors of marbles so that we could easily see where we were individually. Being the cheap, picky person I am I decided I would just dye some marbles myself. This way I saved money and I could do a color that matched our bathroom color scheme. Here is a tutorial that I used.

One Pound = One Marble

What I used:

2 Jars

Glass flat marbles

Stickers/Vinyl

Mod Podge

Purple Food Coloring

Water

I began by taking my clear glass marbles and dipping then in the "dye" solution mentioned in the tutorial above. (Remember to wear plastic gloves or you will have dyed fingers for a day like I did.)

I placed wet marbles on some plastic so they wouldn't stick to anything as they

dried.

It took about 20 minutes to dry, then I flipped then over and gave them another 10 minutes.

Marbles looked periwinkle when wet, but dried a beautiful amethyst color.

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Past Projects

2012-01-31T21:59:00.001-07:00

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Little boy tie, here is where I got the pattern.

Here are a few projects I found, when walking around the house, that I have done in the past. If you would like to know how to do them please just post a comment requesting.

My favorite bag. I have many sashes all different colors.

Sign is fabric mod podged on a board.

Tree skirt with appliqued holly leaves and buttons for berries.

Here is the pattern I used as a guide.

Height board less than $12 to make

Quilt I made with my Cricut for my nephew.

Headbands with scraps of fabric. Here is how.

Calendar that can get changed as often as you want.


Fabric balls that are easy to make.

Board holds all your coupons and reminders on your fridge?

Car Seat Canopy made a few years ago. Now they do big cute buttons and large rick rack around the edges. Tutorials are all over online.

Really cheap letters I found at Hobby Lobby. Paint and finish as you please and then screw hooks in to hang keys f

Vinyl clock, just buy hands online and cut vinyl yourself

Use dry erase maker ($1) on tile ($.98) cut and place vinyl

Made my Croc sandals into changeable flops. Here is how. I didn't use ribbon. I used vinyl home decor fabric I found at Joann's for like $2/yard.