mama smiles

Repurposing clothing without sewing: shirt to leggings

Take an old shirt:

Chop off the arms:

 

Relive late 80s/early 90s fashion by letting your child wear them as leggings.

Fashion Bear

The current rage in felt dress-up bear fashions, as determined by Emma.

I made this felt dress-up bear for Emma well over a year ago, and it’s one of the most popular toys in the house. Well worth the two or three dollars I’ve spent on felt for the bear, clothing, and [...]

Repurposing cast-off jeans part two: From pants to handbag

Emma came up with this idea after watching me make my denim door draft stopper.

MATERIALS:

cast-off jeans
scissors
thread
sewing machine

STEPS:

1) Cut off part of the pant leg – long enough to create the depth of the handbag you want plus seam allowances on either end. Choose which end of [...]

Repurposing cast-off jeans part one: Door draft blocker

I decided we needed something a little heavier duty than my oven draft solution for the front door. I’m pleased with the end result: the legs of one pair of old jeans sewn together and stuffed loosely with other cast-off clothing. It keeps the cold air out, stays in place, and doesn’t show dirt.

Come [...]

Energy-saving hack: cold drafts

Every winter, a cold breeze emerges from underneath our stove. This year I got smart and decided to block it off.

First, I cut the legs off of a pair of old pants:

That was wider than I needed, so I cut it in half and trimmed off the [...]

Soft lounge pants for little girls

 

I found this Debbie Mumm fleece remnant at my local fabric store and turned it into warm pants for my little girls using some existing pants as patterns:

 

I cut Emma’s out on the fold so that I had one less seam to sew (the outer leg seam) and to keep more [...]

10-minute skirt

Sewing doesn’t have to take a lot of time. I made this skirt yesterday morning in under ten minutes – with all three children awake.

MATERIALS:

fleece
elastic (for waist band) – we used 1/2”. Run it around your child’s waist to measure the length.
sewing machine
scissors
thread

 

The steps are very simple:

Cut [...]

Non-permanent wall decorations

Looking for a creative way to decorate your child’s bedroom walls in a non-permanent way? Emma and I created these decorations for her and Johnny’s room during a recent mother-daughter date. We used contact paper and Sharpie pens (my most recent craft splurge). I got the idea after researching vinyl wall stickies and [...]

Toy Storage Solution

 

 

I’ve been looking for a good toy storage solution for a while, but everything was either too expensive or looked like the sort of decor our kids would outgrow within a few years. We found these nice shoe racks at Costco for $19.99 and I knew we had a winner. The bins are the [...]

Bicycle Mud Guards (and giveaway winner)

Eleven years ago today, Mike and I met for the first time on our way to freshman orientation. We went on a long walk that night, and two years’ worth of walks later were engaged and then married a year after that. According to Mike, we never dated, but for our one-month “we’re not dating” [...]