Friday 23 March 2012

Frugal Family Fun Filled Friday

See what I did there :-D I LOVE alliterations *big cheesy grin*
It is time to plan your weekend, isn't it? As a stay at home mom who is trying to run a business from home I'm all about no or low cost fun...

To start this off, here is what we did last weekend.
Quick and easy picknick in the park:
I called up a friend with three kids (very sweet girls - it's them in the picture :-)) and we got together a spontaneous picknick. We went to a park that's not our usual fair with a really big playground, each of us grabbed some stuff from the fridge ( Anja made some sandwiches for the kids, I supplied waffles and sliced apple) and we had a fantastic afternoon.
DH and I even tossed a football around for a while and the afternoon ended with all of us watching a guy drive around his RC boat on the pond.

Idea: Picknick at the playground
cost: 0$
supplies: leftover food from the fridge, waterbottles, favourite outside toys
location: new playground

What are your plans? do you have an idea you want to share?

Vee

Monday 5 March 2012

To Infinity and Beyond - very easy Buzz Lightyear costume tutorial

Remember the Space Week(s) I did with my kids? In November? We didn't leave the topic yet. We visited the Planetarium and the observatory we crafted and studied and read and did science projects and we're only now moving on to our next topic... I'll post about it soon, promise :-)
Well, with all that space stuff going on, it was really easy to pick a costume for my son for the "fat tuesday" party in his kindergarden - ASTRONAUT! And it's a costume without weapons, so the teacher was happy, too...
It's not a complete Buzz replica, I wanted to make something he could wear on other occasions, too.
Here is what I did:

I used a sweat shirt fabric in white and bright green :-)






I folded a pair of Mr. Turtles pants and traced them onto the white fabric
I did the same thing with a long sleeved shirt - traced half the shirt front on the folded fabric, then the arms. The back is the same as the front, the neckline is a little higher.
I made the whole thing a little bigger to create that space suit look



I layed out all of my pieces to make sure I didn't forget anything and started on the green accents.





The front of the shirt gets two green "breastplates". I simply eyeballed the size and cut a nice curve - the only thing that matters at this point is that the middle part (= the curve) looks nice. It is totally fine if  the pieces are too big.
The front also gets a green border on the bottom.





The sleeves get a little accent at the ellbow (eyeballed it again) and also a green border.






pin everything in place - you could fuse them together, I simply had no mistyfuse or anything at home :-)








It probably looks something like that from the back now








Stitch everything in place with a zig-zag stitch




Fold the green borders in half and attach to sleeves and front/back.
I also attached the green borders to the legs at this point, I figured it made sense ;-)
I top stitched them, too - it looks neat.
Now I cut off the excess fabric from the green panels.



I closed one shoulder seam, folded the neck band in half and sewed it to the neckline. After that I closed the other shoulder seam and topstitched everything.



Pinned sleeves in place and sewed them in. Sleeves and body get stitched in one seam



The Pants are very straight forward - just simple pants with an elastic waistband.
Voilá - a little astronaut!


This was surprisingly easy and fast to make. I'll post how to make the jet pack at another time - Mr. Turtles made it almost by himself.

I am posting a link to the Project Run and Play website... they are doing auditions for the next season. I would love to be part of this and make some cool boy stuff, but i don't think I've got a shot, everything there is so amazing...







Keep sewing,
Vee







Monday Makers

  I would love to reinstitute the monday makers series and I'm looking for peaple to feature!
Ich möchte meine Montagsmacher Serie wieder neu starten, und ich suche nach Leuten, die ich herzeigen kann!




Who can get featured?  Wer kann mitmachen?
  • If you do anything that is related to dolls, this is for you :-) Wenn ihr etwas macht das mit Puooen zu tun hat, seid ihr hier richtig :-)
  • since I want to focus on Dolls right now, dollmakers, dressmakers and all dollrelated crafters/bloggers are on the top on my list. Ich möchte mich auf Puppensachen konzentrieren, also sind Puppen oder Puppenkleidermacheroder Blogs mit puppenbezug ganz oben auf meiner Liste.
  • Even if you don't sell anything - do you have a blog and something to say? Auch wenn ihr nichts verkauft - habt ihr ein Blog und etwas zu sagen?
  • Are you a promoting a great cause? I might feature you here, too :-)
Just let me know about it in a comment on this post, give me an e-mail adress that I can use to contact you and I'll get back to you. I reserve the right not to feature you if your product is in direct competition to mine and a lot cheaper - I don't mind featuring your waldorf dolls if they are in the same price range as mine.
 Lasst mich in einem Kommentar wissen, ob ihr interessiert seid - gebt mir eine e-mail adresse und ich melde mich. Ich behalte mir das Recht vor Personen, deren Produkte in direkter Konkurenz zu meinen stehen nicht zu featurn wenn sie viel billiger sind - Ich habe kein Problem das zu tun, wenn eure Waldorf Puppen das gleiche kosten wie meine!


Hope to hear from you!
Vee