I just upcycled!

So aparently making a dress for your little girl out of a horrible looking old shirt of your husbands is referred to as upcycling. I absolutely love how it turned out and I am so sad that I missed taking the before shot of the shirt. It was a horrible old shirt that my husband bought for a themed dance in high school. Obviously he bought it from a thrift store. So I bet this is one shirt that will live many long lifes. Long live reincarnation!!!

Sewing still can be cheap!!

I am so tired of hearing "It's too bad sewing isn't cheaper than buying clothes anymore". It actually makes me frustrated because it is simply not true. People have this idea in their heads that it is a fact that sewing things is more expensive than buying.

The truth is that if you buy things on clearance from a store they can get fairly cheap, but the things you would make anyway aren't the five dollar shirts and ten dollar jeans that go on clearance in stores. Dresses are the number one easy thing to make if you are into sewing. Dresses, when and if they go on clearance don't ever go below twenty dollars. I am talking for sizes like 3t-5t. For infants you may be able to find dresses for less than that but a well made pretty dress no matter the size is hardly ever below twenty.

So if you figure that you buy a yard and a half of fabric to make a dress and a pattern can be as cheap as $1.99 you can actually make a dress fairly cheap. If you buy full price patterns and full price fabrics I can see how people may have the misconception that making is more expensive. The facts are though that fabric stores always have incredible sales. There is always a 40%-50% off coupon for full priced fabrics and often the fabrics go on a sale that surpass even those percentages off. Then if you take into account clearance fashion fabrics you will find that sewing a skirt or dress for an adult can be dirt cheap.

It is just annoying to hear people write off sewing like it is a lost art or something nobody would want to do because it is an expensive hobby. For example there is a wedding coming up on my husbands side and they have asked if we would like to get dresses for our girls. The dresses are very cute and well made with nice fabric and run around $60 a dress. I can make the same or a similar dress for well under $20 a piece, and that's even with springing for the really nice fabric.

Sewing is not a lost art. People who bargain and buy clothes on clearance and thrift shop can get clothing very cheap, but when you think of the things that you would make instead of buy they are still cheaper. Doll clothes are also quite pricey. I buy remnants and make little clothes for my daughters dolls. Blankets and burp cloths can be more expensive than those in the stores, but if you compare quality the homemade ones will last twice as long and look twice as good as the bargains you'll find in the stores.

To sum up I love sewing and I think that you can save money by sewing some of your children's clothing and blankets. The pictures are of some aprons I made for my girls. They wear them when I am worried about getting their clothing dirty during projects or while eating. I even made a matching apron for my daughter's cabbage patch doll.

Don't give up on sewing just because some people are discouraging. Sewing is relevant today and always will be as long as there are expensive clothes out there. Just remember that quality counts.

Aren't they too young?

So I'm contemplating putting my eldest in Preschool next year. Actually doing a little more than contemplating, I have her slotted to be in a preschool that is just around the corner. She is so excited for school but is convinced she is going to elementary school...like tomorrow. Whenever she uses a pencil or pen on paper she calls it school. Anyway she is loving the idea of learning from someone other than me. The only problem is I can't get the budget to work.

My husband and I aren't poor, in fact we have exactly what we need and we manage quite well (when nothing else is added to our list). Lately I've been pushing my husband to agree to life insurance for me and him. It was a long fight because he really doesn't like spending money. But I explained that we aren't being responsible parents not providing for our children if a tragedy arose. Finally I convinced him, but fitting the expense into our budget makes it rather taut.

The extra expense of Preschool is starting to make me sweat. How do people do it? How can they afford everything else and paying for somewhat of a glorified playgroup for three days a week for a few hours. In Florida the state paid for preschool for parents (perhaps that is why they have a 2 mill dollar deficit and are threatening to close my friends elementary school they send their kids too). But aside from that I am a little sad thinking about how much this is going to cost and where in my husband's paycheck we're going to come up with the cash.

When I was little I never went to preschool. My mother taught me and my six brothers and sisters our abc's, numbers and (most importantly) how to tie our shoes. That was all I needed for Kindergarten because all we did was play and take naps. We didn't learn how to read until first grade. Now children have to be reading and writing in kindergarten. I think I could prepare my eldest for the academic load she will face in kindergarten (she had letter recognition from age two and is almost reading at three), but she would be behind socially. Everyone puts their kids into preschool so if someone doesn't their kid is behind in important social skills which in turn affects them academically.

I really want my eldest to soar in school. I don't need her to be the smartest or even the most well behaved I just want her to have a good experience. How come we put so much expectations on our children. It's like we are prepping them to stand out from the crowd at three. Now I'm not saying people who put their kids in preschool are crazy parents that are trying to get their kids a head start (after all next year I'll be one of them). I just think society has it all wrong. Shouldn't we just be happy if our kids can get through the school years with as little emotional damage as possible. After all they can always catch up to the curve academically in Junior High, get good grades in High school and go to a great college (or a good one in my case).

I don't know...my grandfather had ten kids and he always said. "As long as they aren't too smart or too dumb they'll do great in life". Average has lost the prominent place it deserves in our society. Why do we all need our kids to be the smartest, prettiest or even the best in a sport or musical instrument. If they are happy just being average (which most people are) then why can't we be happy for them.

I moved to the city when I was in Junior High and couldn't participate in music, drama, sports or almost anything else. Why, because everybody had been trained since they were five years old in sports and instruments and the level they were at was elevated. Participation should be something kids get to do in Junior High and High school not something they have to be groomed for from age five. Most of the people who made it into things didn't enjoy them anyway because their parents had picked that road for them when they were too little to make a real decision. I know we are all concerned as parents to have every door possible open to our kids, but if it were possible just to let them be kids I think they would appreciate it more.

I know it is society more than individuals, but we could change it...if we wanted to.

Little magnet board

So the big magnet board I made was a nightmare, see the post about it. But the little magnet board I made was somewhat easier and I like it alot more. I made it to match my littlest's room but since I didn't have really good photos to put on it for display I put my oldest's one year photos. We are getting photos of the girls in a week or so, since my youngest will be one next month.

Anyway I really enjoyed making this even though finding the sheet metal the right size was a headache. They don't sell that size 8x8 in the hardware stores and they don't cut the metal in those stores either. I had to call three metal fabrication companies in Ogden before I found one that would cut the galvanized sheet metal to the size I wanted. They are called "All Metals Fabrication" if anyone is interested in getting some metal for a magnet board.

I've decided that for big magnet boards the easiest way to go is getting the big metal sheets in the store and cutting the metal to the size of whatever frame you have. Making a custom frame for it is harder than it looks or anyone makes it sound. It's much easier to buy a big sheet of metal and cut it with tin snippers to the size you want. The reason you can't do that for the little magnet boards is that if you do it the way I did above you want clean cuts that are straight and even.

I'm thinking that I did the entire project for $10 since I already had the ribbon and bought the stamp and buttons I used for my scrapbooking supply.

Anyway I am very proud of the way it turned out.