Um...yes, it's been Summer for over six weeks now. Better late than never, right? My four kids and I have been having fun swimming, picnicking, visiting the park, beach and museums, swimming, having play dates and swimming some more. My sanity saver this Summer was to keep my freezer stocked with meat, vegetables and popsicles so I wouldn't have to run to the grocery store as often with four kids in tow.
After a few weeks of my kids reminding me, "It's not Spring anymore, Mom, it's Summer!", I found the motivation to change out the seasonal banner we hang on our mantle. The design changed a lot from the original plan I had for it, but such is life. This was cut from cardstock on my Silhouette and the letters were attached with adhesive foam dots.
I also found a bit of time to make some little girl gifts. I saw a super cute dress-shaped hair bow holder in a catalog and thought I could make my own personalized version. I used scrap fabric with interfacing to attach it to stiff felt and another piece of regular felt for the back. For the skirt I glued tulle and ribbon between the felt with Aleene's tacky glue and then stitched it all in place. The name was cut from my Silhouette and ironed on after the sewing.
The first one came out nice, but I thought it needed sleeves. So I added puffy sleeves made from tulle for the next one. Much better! The whole project took less than 2 hours. Not too bad for a simple and useful gift.
Although I feel very busy with all the kids home 24-7, I will miss them when they go back to school. I will not miss their fighting and little spats. I will miss their peaceful playtime babble and unstructured days of fun. And my two little ones at home will still be around to keep me company. Time for focused learning, time for my own Bible study group to start again, time to pray for my kids at school.
"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens"
Ecclesiastes 3:1
I love hearing your heart on your blog :)
ReplyDeleteYou are super talented with all your crafting and I pinned the mantel banner. Beautiful!
Janiene
Thanks so much, Janiene. God uses you so often to encourage me and many others. Praying you all feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteWow I love the bow holder...would you be willing to give me step by step instructions.
ReplyDeleteThis would be so nice for little girls.
Thank you, Renita. I don't have step by step photos because the original items have been given away. Basically, I drew a bodice shape on paper and cut it out to use as my pattern. I pinned it to cotton fabric and cut it out, leaving 1/4" around it to fold under. Next, I pinned the bodice pattern to stiff felt and cut out 2 pieces to match the pattern. I glued the cotton bodice to one of the felt bodices, turned the 1/4"edge around the felft and dabbed a bit of glue under the cotton edges to hold it in place before sewing. Then I prepared tulle for the "skirt", "sleeves" and ribbon, pinning them to one of the felt bodices. Next, I pinned the other felt bodice on top, sandwiching the tulle and ribbon. Then I sewed around the bodice to hold everything in place. I also singed the bottom ends of the ribbons so they wouldn't fray. I hope this helps!
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