Watercolour Dinosaur Skeleton

We are doing a dinosaur unit for science right now and of course the kids are loving it! 

I tried this dinosaur skeleton craft I found the idea for at The Do It Yourself Mom. Ahead of time, I used a white crayon and traced a skeleton from our dinosaur encyclopedia onto watercolour paper. The kids were so surprised when they started painting and discovered dinosaur bones on their paper!

Bean Bags

I made a set of bean bags with a matching appliquéd bag for a birthday party. It was such a big hit that one of the mom's asked me to make a set for her too. 

Men's T-shirt to Maternity Shirt

I found this tutorial for making men's t-shirts into maternity shirts (diy Maternity: The Room to Grow Top) and gave it a go with a couple of my husband's old t-shirts. I wasn't so sure about it, but they turned out so nice and are the most comfortable maternity shirts I own!

Making a Polyester Maxi Skirt

 I really enjoyed the outcome of this project and found it to be fairly quick to put together. I made the length a little long for me, but thought it might be nice if I left it long for pregnancy too, to wear above my belly.

Homemade Cloth Diaper Inserts

I recently acquired a serger and have been enjoying trying it out for the first time by sewing together some cloth diaper inserts.

Ruching a Maternity Shirt

I've been looking for some ideas for maternity shirts and found this site online for ruching a shirt to make it maternity: Ruch A Shirt

I was surprised at how much better it looked from before to after and so decided to try it on one of my plainer maternity shirts. These pictures are from when I was 9 months pregnant with my second- a couple months ago.

Baby Hat

There's a really great pattern for baby hats on zaaberry.blogspot.com that is really easy. I made the hat with the knot on top. 

Replacing Hook and Loop Velcro Tabs on Flip Diapers

I finished up the diapers and they work so well now again. I'm so glad I took the time to do it. And it only cost me less than $6 for the velcro.

Replacing Front Loop/Velcro on BumGenius: Part 2 of 2

Replacing Front Loop/Velcro on BumGenius: Part 1 of 2

This is the tutorial I used.



Replacing Front Loop/Velcro on BumGenius: Part 2 of 2

Replacing Front Loop Velcro on a Flip Diaper

When I bought these diapers, there was the option to get snaps instead of velcro, but I liked the velcro because I could put it on to an exact size and it was also much quicker than doing up snaps. I don't think I regret it, but I knew they would eventually wear out. I've had them for a year now and use them a lot and the velcro is so worn out that my son moving around in them causes them to come off. There is the option of replacing the velcro with snaps, but I couldn't find this type of snap in my area. I did find velcro though, so I'm just replacing the velcro. 

This is how the diaper was originally with the worn out velcro.

Prefold Cloth Diapers From Old T-shirts

I've been looking for ways to make my own cloth diapers and I found this video on youtube.



My husband had given me some of his old T-shirts I was thinking of using for rags so I decided to try it.

Infant Peasant Dress

I really enjoyed Sew Much Ado's Infant Peasant Dress Tutorial. The pattern was very simple and all the dresses I made turned out beautifully.

Shortening Men's Dress Shirt Sleeves Instructions

My husband asked me to make these long sleeve dress shirts into short sleeve dress shirts. I got them completed so I thought I'd share with you how I did it.

Here are my instructions for making a man's long sleeve dress shirt into a short sleeve dress shirt.

First, measure an existing short sleeve dress shirt to know how long to make the sleeves.

On mine, the top measured about 10.5".

 The bottom measured about 5.25".

For seam allowance, add 1.5". So on mine, I measured on the long sleeve shirt 12" at the top of the sleeve and 6.75" on the bottom of the sleeve. Draw a line across the sleeve.

 Cut along the line and removed the excess sleeve.

 Turn the shirt inside out and press up a hem of 1/2".

 Then, fold it up 1" and press again.

 Pin it in place.

 Sew along the hem.

Here's the finished sewing job still inside out.

And here's the finished sewing job right side out.

Repeat the process with the other sleeve.

With a couple of the shirts, I did struggle a bit where the sleeve width changed a lot just in that 1.5" of hem. The hem would bunch a bit near the seam, but I went ahead and sewed it and they turned out alright. Unless people look closely, I don't think they'll notice.

Baby Changing Mat

I've been in need of a travel change pad for a while now. I had a couple when my son was new, but they disappeared a while back. I had to change my son in a hospital bathroom once and there was not even a change table to do it on so I ended up changing him on the floor. I laid paper towels from the paper towel dispenser so at least his bare bottom did not have to touch the floor. Poor guy. And now since my next is on the way, I really feel that I should have one in the diaper bag. And now I've finally made one.