What Are You Doin' New Years?

who knew joseph gordon-levitt had such a lovely voice?

have a safe and happy new year!!!

Merry Christmas!

happy holidays to all!

from, us :)

Barbie's New Threads

my aunt has two granddaughters who love barbies and a daughter-in-law who was frustrated with how cheaply made the barbie clothes you buy in stores are.  after seeing a picture of some dresses i made for my daughter's barbies she commissioned me to make her some clothes as well.  i was excited at the idea and and jumped at the opportunity.  she hoped for 5 outfits for each granddaughter.  here's what i came up with using scrap fabric i had lying around and some online tutorials.

(note: i don't have a serger sewing machine, though i sure wish i did, but i made sure to zig-zag stitch all my raw edges so they wouldn't fray over time.  some of the tutorials didn't add it in their steps, some did.)

outfit #1 - barbies in jeans, blouses and jackets:

barbie fashion jeans or slacks: click here for link

this tutorial suggested sewing the seams with yellow thread, like real jeans have, and i skipped this step but i wish i hadn't.  i also wish i'd used a darker-wash jean fabric that wasn't so stiff, it would have made them more updated instead of looking like 90's mom jeans...

barbie jackets: click here for link

i skipped the collar on this one, i like how they turned out.

barbie cap-sleeve shirt: click here for link

this was my favourite of all the items i made.  they were pretty simple (the straps required a little bit of patience to sew on) and they turned out so well.  very modern, yet modest.

outfit #2 - barbies in blouses and skirts with back-packs:

easy barbie skirt (pictured on the right): click here for link

these little elastic waisted barbie skirts are easy once you get the hang of it.  they were so quick that i made a bunch extra for my little girl's barbies.

the skirt on the left was inspired by one i saw on the same site but there was no tutorial, i kind of made it up as i went along.

barbie peasant top: click here for link
the tutorial used a knit fabric but i have a heckuva time sewing with those so i chose the given cotton option instead, it was great.

i wanted all of my outfits to have 3 pieces, and since this was just a top and skirt i made up these little backpacks to go along with it (so there's no tutorial for this one, sorry!) and threw in some little laminated cardboard magazines and fashion books, too, which i had a lot of fun making.

outfit #3 - barbies in dresses with purses:

okay, so this outfit only had two items but i couldn't think of a third.  they're cute enough to get away with it ;)

easy barbie dresses: click here for link

these are the dresses that started this whole thing, they're so easy and quick to make and there's an option to keep them strapless or add little straps with ribbon or cotton if you want them a little bit more modest.  you could even add the little cap sleeves from the first outfit's blouse.  super simple.

pretty woman bag: click here for link
i didn't follow this tutorial exactly (or at all, really) but it was my inspiration.  i made mine more square-shaped.  they have a useable pocket inside with little snap closure, and i made a little barbie license and visa card to go along with it, just for fun.

they'll have so much fun shopping at the mall and they'll look good, too.

outfit #4 - sporty beach barbies:

barbie tank top: click here for link

these silly tank tops were a total struggle.  i decided to make them with two layers to make them less flimsy, and close the back in too so they could be pulled over barbie's head instead of velcro up the back.   i dislike sewing with knits so much, it got really frustrating when my machine would try to eat it.  i ended up sewing it over a piece of paper and then gently ripping the paper away but it was such a problem.  they both worked out in the end.  i printed the little hearts onto iron-on transfer paper and sewed them on the front for decoration.

for the shorts i used the same tutorial as i did for the jeans in the first outfit, only short.  i'm very happy with the way they turned out, they fit barbie amazingly!

barbie cap: click here for link

my other favourite item.  i didn't expect these to turn out, so i held my breath and went for it!  they were much easier than i'd anticipated.  my only beef is that the tutorial didn't include exactly what size circle should be cut out for the hat, so i made it up and it happened to be right.  yay me!  the circle i used was 4.5cm (1 3/4") in diameter, and i used about a 6cm (1/4") seam allowance.  barbie has such thick hair if it's in a low pony or a braid this hat won't fit, haha.

outfit #4 - fancy barbies:

i really wanted to make a wedding gown but i also wanted to make an evening gown, so i compromised and made one of each!

for the wedding gown i used the same pattern as the easy barbie dress (click here for link) only i made the bottom half longer so the dress would be floor-length.
i also invented a train for her head.  it didn't look as much like a wedding gown without it.
this fabric i found was perfect for this job.  my mom gave it to me a couple years ago, it was scraps from an advent table display from church one year.  until now i had nothing to use it for.  yay scraps!

i also used the same easy barbie dress tutorial for this dress (click here for link), and made it floor length again, but instead of cutting the bottom half as wide as called for and gathering it in i made it just a little wider than the top piece (to give her hips some room) and added darts to fit her waist.  then sewed the top and bottom together the same as the original tutorial.

and there they are, 5 outfits for each granddaughter, my aunt was very pleased with the clothes and i hope her granddaughters will be as well!

and a special thank-you to all those ladies who shared your wonderful barbie clothes tutorials with the world!  they were certainly very helpful to me!

The Great Room Amalgamation

so we've moved our kids into the same bedroom.  if you want to catch up, all the reasons behind the change is in the last post.

it started out a little rocky, i'm not gonna lie.  there were evenings that colin and i looked at eachother, grinned, and said, "this was a terrible idea."

the process was difficult, in the first place, because of elliott's ikea kura loft bed.  it's been taken apart and put back together 3 times or so now and the screws get a little more stripped every time.  it had to be fully taken apart this time as well just to move it 15 feet away.  i'll sugar coat it and say that this was a challenge for colin.  after some sweat, a couple glasses of cold water, a large beer (and maybe some swearing under his breath) elliott's bed was set up in molly's room.  i was so happy with the look of it, the window isn't centered to the room but when both beds are tucked in opposite corners the window is centered to the beds.  their dressers both fit at the feet of their beds, and molly's table and chairs fit nicely in between with their book shelf.  it all felt really meant-to-be so we were pleased.

then came the problem: miss molly went from being the easiest to put to bed to the most difficult to go to sleep.  i think she was so excited to have an overnight visitor in her room that she was too interested to sleep.  she'd yell, elliott wouldn't be able to go to sleep and he'd come out complaining, one of us would go in and tuck elliott back in bed, meanwhile molly was yelling so we'd go over to tuck her back in, meanwhile elliott would call us back over to his bed where we'd whisper hushes to him, and once again molly would yell... and on it went.  for a week or so.

the good news was if molly woke up during the night elliott would sleep right through it all.  the bad news was that if elliott woke up during the night molly would too.  they both went back to sleep easily though.  another challenge was with elliott waking up in the morning.  he has a clock and knows he can't come out of his room until the time starts with a 7.  so he'd come out, but not quietly.  then she'd wake up, which was a negative because we were used to her sleeping until 8:30 and if colin's already gone to work she won't let me shower.  and i need my shower to feel happy.

anyway, it's been about a month now, maybe, and it's going well again.  they've both gotten back into their routine sleep patterns, we've been putting her to bed a solid 20 minutes before him and she's in a deep sleep by the time he comes to bed, so she doesn't yell and he stays very quiet.  they're both sleeping through the night again, thank goodness!  he's also learned to sneak out very quietly in the morning so she can sleep until her usual 8:30.  it's sane again in our home.

elliott's old bedroom is now a playroom/home office, which is kinda nice.  the upside is our computer is now out of our living room and it feels more spacious in there now.  the downsides are that elliott won't play in the now playroom because he's still afraid of the silly noisy furnace fan.  he won't play quietly with lego on the stair-landing during molly's nap any more (his favourite thing to do before the "fire") and he won't play his pbskids.org games on the computer either (his other favourite past time, and mine if i want to watch a show he can't watch with me).  we've come up with other quiet-time activities for him, but it's sad that he's so afraid.

we've followed all the supportive suggestions we've found online and all that's left is time, i guess, for him to get over the trauma.  sigh.

my parents turned on their fireplace the other night and elliott said to my mom, "um, i'm kinda sensitive to fires now..."  he's so cute.

i'd love to decorate the office now but i need better storage in here first, can't afford paint yet, and haven't found many inspiring playroom/home office ideas yet.  it's been a busy month!

anyway, that's the update, as promised.  sorry it was so wordy, i tend to ramble!  but that's what blogs are for, right?