Easy musical instrument

For 6th grade science, my daughter needed to make an instrument that she could perform a song on that changed pitch and amplitude. She found instructions online to make a pan flute. We used PVC piping that she cut with a hand saw, then covered in cute paper, hot glued together, and then decorated with a cute tie! It only cost us about $1.15 for the long PVC pipe and we used paper we had laying around. Fun and easy project, just the way we like them!

PE Bag

Kara started sixth grade this year. With the beginning of needing PE clothes I decided she needed a PE bag (she needs all the help she can get to keep herself organized and her things together). I didn't want to make a plain PE bag, so I added a few embellishments to make it a little cuter!

The stuff to organize:















The finished bag:















Close-up of the flower detail on the front of the bag:














The braided drawstring handle:















All we did was cut strips of fabric and braided them... fast, easy, and cute!:

Baby Shower gift

I knitted this soft little sweater and matching hat for my friend's baby shower... thought it turned out really well! :)

t-shirt redesign, part 2, steps 4-7

blogger wouldn't let me add any more photos on the last post, so here is post #2 with the rest of the steps! And my camera died halfway through this, so forgive the lack of photo of the final project...

Pin facing to front of shirt (facing is another piece of fabric that will end up on the inside of the garment to stablize and help keep shaping) - This facing came from another white t-shirt that was stained so I didn't mind cutting it all up:















Draw in shaping with water erasable marking pen (I wanted my shirt to have kind of a keyhole v-neck, but you could do a boat-neck, scoop-neck, true v-neck, or whatever you would like), then stitch about 1/4" to 1/2" away from edging and shaping drawing:















After stitched, clip and trip away excess fabric:















Turn facing to the inside, pin again and stitch about 1/4" away from finished edge to hold in place. I added some decorate ruffles around the edges, but it looks good plain too.

T-shirt Redesign part 1, steps 1-3

One cute and easy way to remake a t-shirt is to redo the neckline! I bought a cheap t-shirt from Walmart for $3 in the men's section and changed the neckline. Below are the steps to complete this transformation:

Before:
















Cut off the ribbing at the neckline:
















Pull the existing stabilizer strip over the raw edge of the back of the neckline and pin:















Stitch the back of the neckline down:

Sewing Fashion Show

During the summer I took a sewing class at school. At the end of the semester, one of our final assignments was to participate in a fashion show. Below are pictures of a couple of the items I made:

Brooke modeling the plaid shirt-dress:





























Brooke modeling her purple circle skirt:

retro apron & matching oven mitt

For my niece's upcoming bridal shower I made her a retro-style apron in her favorite colors with a matching oven mitt. The blue fabric features owls (which she loves). She loves to bake and so I hope she gets a lot of use out of these!