Lorax costume with Trufulla Tree candy bag!

Ha ha....my son is 7 and he is all about being funny ;). If it is goofy, whacky, silly....he's on board. Getting him to stay still so I could take a picture of him-----he wasn't on board with that!

 He was DYING to be the Lorax this year but it was so much harder to find good fur than I thought! He wanted to be a "neon" Lorax since he loves neon colors (if you know him- see his Nikes ;)). Thankfully I found this luxury orange fur off Fabric.com and the yellow fur off Amazon. Both are actually super soft and easy to slide into. Fur is tricky to sew though!

To make the eyes I wrapped fabric over Styrofoam balls and then painted the eyes. I sewed the eyelid and then glued it on and hand stitched the yellow fur for the eyebrow. I did the same thing for the nose (used a teeny weeny Styrofoam ball) and stitched the mustache onto elastic that he can pull over his head.

We thought it would be cool to do a Trufulla Tree candy  bag so I actually painted that onto canvas and then put the bag together.

He also has a book report/character development project due so he did it on the Lorax as well. Here is his stuffed Lorax animal that he made for it. First he made a drawing then I cut a pattern for him using the drawing. There were several parts where I had to take over the machine for him since the fur is so tough to sew but he did most of it on his own. Stuffing those teeny legs and arms was difficult but he figured it out eventually! It turned out so darn cute!!

Sewing pillows with 3 incredible girls!!

I had a great opportunity to teach a little sewing lesson to my daughter and two of her friends recently. Whenever I plan out an actual project for my own children it hits me how much time I spend teaching other kids and that I don't get enough time to teach my own ;). Thank heavens my kids go to the school that I teach at!

Both of the other girls had attended a sewing camp over the summer so I was thrilled to see how proficient they were with their machines!! It was awesome! Little "G" even taught me how a self threader works ;). I've been sewing with Laci since she was about 3 but even she surprised me with how well she was doing.

Per my daughters request we made angel pillows. First we looked at how artists have portrayed angels and then we talked a little bit about what angels are and do (such cute conversation!).

I had the girls draw an angel pattern on paper and then cut the pattern out so they would begin to understand how patterns work. They chose fabric, pinned and cut their pieces and then they zig zagged stitched them onto a backing. Pillows are great because they get to see how items get flipped inside out to hide the seams.

Just a little stuffing later and the pillows were formed! I really didn't do very much......I think I'm still amazed how much they did on their own!!

This was such a sweet afternoon! You girls are such sweethearts- love you!!!!

Mermaid party for my 5 year old

I just wanted to share some photos from her party last month. I kept it super small- the big gift was that my parents were in town from Kentucky ;). Because I wasn't crazy making hand made things for tons of little girls like I have been at prior parties- I was able to spend some time making her a little doll, a painting (well, more an illustration) and her and her two little friends mermaid skirts. I found these amazing charms on Etsy...we had mermaids, shells and seahorses, as well as skulls and octopuses for the boys....they were adorable! The kids made necklaces as we had our picnic.

It was such a sweet day....I loved not being hectic.....I loved my family there and friends who may as well be family ;). It was perfect, except for the part that my little girl is 5! Yikes! Time flies........

Making fabric out of your children's drawings-

I've been obsessed with Spoonflower (www.spoonflower.com) since Jen A. sent the link to me about a year ago. It's a site that allows you to upload your image and then they print it as fabric. They offer different ways to repeat the pattern on the fabric and you can play around and customize it from there. The instructions are amazingly detailed and well written and helpful- it's incredible. At $18 a year for cotton (they offer many fabric types) it's also quite a steal.

Since that first realization that I have the option of making my own fabric I've been working on sketches and ideas as often as time allows. But better yet, I realized that I can use my kids drawings as well and THEY can make their own fabric and that got my heart racing.

So after fiddling around with a line tracer program and my 4 year old and I laboring over colors-here is what she came up with! I'll post what we make for her out of it after it's completed. She is fascinated that it will come in the mail just like mommy's fabric does ;).

If I had the money I would do this with every student in my class!! If you are interested in making an item out of your own child's drawings (I thought backpacks would be super cool for boys!) then email me (lacijean@yahoo.com) and I'll tell you how to send me a drawing and I'll take it from there!