Cozy little cars!

I've been a slacking blogger...or is it a blogging slacker? It's not that I haven't been sewing, I've just been working on this same project and hadn't really completed anything in days and days, so I haven't posted.

My cousins and I got our crew of little boys (four of them! ages 2-4) together over the weekend and I wanted to whip something up for the gang to help keep them busy.

I decided on this car cozy from Homemade by Jill. I've seen many versions by other bloggers too, like Cottage Mama so I incorporated what I liked best from everyone. I thought the rick rack was a cute idea from the Crafting Chicks and it helped me a lot because even though I tried to cut and sew the dashes so straight, they still looked crooked, so I abandoned them for rick rack and all was well!

I worked on them a little each night, first cutting, then applique, then constructing, so all of them came together pretty easily over the course of about a week and I didn't feel overwhelmed like I did with my placemat project. Everything I used came from Jo-Ann. I used dark denim, soft red flannel with cars on it, black felt, and yellow rick rack.

They were fun to make and my hubby and I had a blast rediscovering Matchbox cars and choosing what we though were the coolest ones! Can you believe my 2 1/2 year old didn't have any yet? He's a big fan now, for sure!

Spring is in the air!

I know, spring doesn't officially start for 9 more days, but Jo-Ann is having a fabulous sale on their cotton quilting prints. I couldn't resist $2.50/yd. for these bright springy prints. I'm obsessed with hot pink right now. I really try to buy most of my fabric with a project in mind, but not these. I just had to have them!

 

I'm loving lime green right now too and I knew these would make a great choice for a Mother's Day project I'm working on.

Finally, I chose this turquoise and brown damask print. I think it will look really cool with that brown dot fabric that I used on my knitting pockets and quilted placemats. I still have tons left. Can you tell I love Damask prints? I have a feeling I'll be picking up a few more $2.50/yd. gems this weekend for sure!

Super easy dinner - Citrus Orange Roughy

I used to make Orange Roughy using orange juice years ago, but I couldn't remember the recipe, so I Googled it and grabbed this recipe from cdkitchen.com and modified it slightly to make it faster.

Ingredients (for two)
- 2 Orange Roughy Fillets
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

I'm so lucky to have Publix as my grocery store. They have the best selection of fresh frozen fish, I feel like they have every fish you could want to cook. We already had the Orange Roughy in the freezer and the rest of the ingredients were things we always keep on hand too. Perfect for a fast dinner!

So I thawed the two fillets of Orange Roughy, preheated my oven to 450 and grabbed butter, orange juice, lemon, garlic salt, and lemon pepper. I skipped the onion in the recipe linked above. I know I'm terrible, but we just don't eat onions in my house.

Also, since the key to any fast dinner is less dishes to wash, I prepped my cookie sheet by lining it with tin foil, folding the foil over to make walls so the juices would be contained.

I microwaved 2 tbsp. of butter for 20 seconds to melt it and then poured the butter, 1/2 cup of OJ and, squeezed half a lemon over over the fillets. I seasoned them with 1 tsp. garlic salt and 1 1/2 tsp.of lemon pepper seasoning. Put them in the oven for about 15 minutes until you can flake the fish lightly with a fork and...

Voila! Citrus Orange Roughy. I paired mine with yellow rice since that's all I had on hand, but I would recommend white or brown rice instead.

It was absolutely delicious!My husband absolutely loved it. The ingredients worked perfectly with this type of fish and it was just light, fluffy, and yummy.

Dad's flannel to toddler PJ pants

I am super excited about Celebrate the Boy month on MADE. We moms of boys are always looking for boy-specific ideas and both MADE and Made by Rae have tons!

I'd been planning to make some PJ pants so it was very timely that Dana from MADE is featuring kid's pants tutorials. Since this was my first foray into making pants, you know I didn't want to waste any precious fabric. So, I decided to re-purpose one of my hubby's old flannel shirts into some super-comfy toddler PJ pants. My favorite part? I was able to use the left breast pocket as the right rear pocket of the pants :)

 So, I followed the pants tutorial on MADE. I used a favorite pair of my son's sweats to make my pattern. (I like to use brown paper grocery bags for my patterns.)

 

Using a large men's flannel I had just the right amount of fabric to make pants for a fairly tall 2 1/2 year old. I used the front of the shirt to make the back of the pants, making sure to position the right rear over the left breast pocket. I kept the pants pretty roomy to accommodate a fluffy cloth diaper butt, but it would be easy enough to make these pants a little slimmer and longer when he grows and when the diapers are gone.

He loves them! And I can't wait to start making pants for the rest of the family! I'm glad I was able to upcycle an old shirt and now that I have a pattern, future pairs can be made super fast!

Knitting project pockets

I've been meaning to make something to hold my knitting projects to replace the lovely plastic grocery bags I've been carrying them around in. And now that I know how to make pretty buttonholes on my machine I was dying to put my new skill to work.

Reading about Kojo's Spring DeStash inspired me to use some of my stash to make room for some lovely new spring fabrics.




I had some hot pink cotton left in my stash that was the perfect size to cut in half to make two 12x17 pieces. I cut the same size from the brown and white polka dot fabric I had leftover from the placemat project, stitched them wrong sides together, turned right-side out, top stitched the edges in hot pink, stitched up the sides to make a pocket (leaving a few inches for a flap,) added hot pink button holes and buttons, and voila! They are the perfect width for a skein of yarn.

Sure beats plastic grocery bags and now I can toss my project in a purse or tote without it unraveling.I might make a few longer ones to accommodate longer knitting needles too.

Quilted placemats with matching napkin rings

 I have a habit of learning a new sewing skill right when I'm on a deadline to finish a gift for someone. I became obsessed with this Eiffel Tower fabric for my aunt when I first saw it and couldn't decide what to make. Cloth napkins? No, too straightforward. Simple flat placemats? Maybe...but what if they were quilted? Yeah! And I could make my own bias tape to trim them with! And then I saw this tutorial on Prudent Baby for making reversible napkin rings.

Of course I waited a little too long to start on these and had many sewing machine snafus along the way, but I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out and my aunt liked them a lot too when I delivered them to her at 9:30 p.m. on her birthday. Sewing right up until the last minute!

I love that they are reversible and I love all of the different options with the napkin rings. Prudent Baby's quilted table runner tutorial was a really good guide for making the placemats. I paired the Eiffel Tower fabric with some nursery print fabric from Jo-Ann's (brown with white dots) and I found the most beautiful sparkly pink buttons at Jo-Ann's during their BOGO button sale.

Another bonus? I learned how to make my own bias tape, use the one-step button hole function on my machine and do a little machine quilting, all in 3 days! The next set of placemats should be a breeze :)

So, I made my own bias tape...

It turned out pretty well. I used a combo of these great tutorials from MADE and Prudent Baby. I like the way Prudent Baby has you cut one continuous strip, but because I didn't measure and mark properly this may not be the best method for me, I cut a nice long continuous strip, but the width is inconsistent. MADE's method may take a little more time, sewing all of your shorter strips together, but for me and my lack of attention to detail with measuring and cutting, I think it will yield the best results. Yes, note to self...with sewing, measuring and cutting are rather important. 

I probably should've made my first attempt with practice fabric, but that's not my nature, so I made 10+ yards for a placemat project I'm working on. It was an enjoyable process and I can't wait to make more, I love bias tape and am so excited to be able to make my own!