Hand towels

What is so fabulous about this dish towel? Well, it certainly isn't the print. Not one of my favorites. For the last few months we've been having problems with our dish towels staying put. Hand towels in the bathroom also. It got to the point that we would get out four or five new towels a day because the others each went missing due to one of the many children here at our house.

So, here's the fabulous part. Snaps. That's right. Snaps on each end so the kids can't take off with the towel. It's worked like a charm. That towel stayed put until it was actually dirty and
I took it off. It's the little things in life that bring happiness!

I'm putting them on the kids bathroom hand towels also. I probably cut out an entire load of laundry just by putting snaps on the towels. Seriously. I actually caught my four year old in the kitchen trying to pull it off the first day I had it on. He looked up and said, "Mama, it won't come off!" All with that whine in his voice. Yes, son, that's right...it's not going anywhere.

Mirrors for the kids' room

I got this fun idea from a friend to put up in the kids' bedroom. I put it over the changing table. It turned out well, and the kids already love making faces in the mirrors.

Easter outfits

I've finally gotten going on the girls Easter outfits. This year instead of fancy dresses I am making skirts with appliqued shirts. I found the cutest skirt pattern at Made. That is such a great blog with lots of cute crafts to do. I bought the pattern from her ordered the fabric and here is Lizzie-lou-who's Easter outfit. I still have to do the other girls. Sariah is asking where her's is already and she just got up. I still need to go pick up elastic since I'm out of wide elastic, but I love the skirt already. Can't wait to see it on her!

Picture frame for the kids

I've discovered glass etching lately and I have ton's of projects in mind for it. This is the project I finished over the weekend. So much fun! It looks way better in person. This was the only angle that didn't leave a flash on the picture.
Jacob is so proud of himself. He picked out the font himself for their names.

Basic Snap Closure Bib

Here is an easy bib to make. It's an under 1/2 hour project. I like to use snaps because they are hard for my kids to get off. Velcro is too easy to rip apart even when they are little, and the little metal snaps are almost as easy for them also. I use plastic snaps. They are easy to attach and hard for little hands to undo from behind their necks.

The supplies you will need for this are: two pieces of fabric cut into style of bib you like, snap pliers/press, 4 caps, 3 sockets, and 1 stud, an awl, and a pencil/pen.

With right sides of fabric together sew around bib using a 1/4" seam allowance. Be sure to leave a gap of a few inches for turning.

I like to leave the gap at the bottom of the bib, but that is my preference. Any straight side will work well.

Trim seams around the tighter curves and be sure to clip around the neck hole. Be careful not to cut into the seam. If you do you will need to restitch over top of it.

Turn and pin hole closed. If you feel like you need to iron it now you can, but I tend to skip this step and pull the seam flat as I top stitch.

Now you need to top stitch around the entire bib. I like to start where my opening is pinned. Sew close to the edge of the fabric, and make sure you have the seam pulled out nice and flat if you haven't ironed it. I use the inside of my presser foot as the guide for the edge and move the needle over one spot to the right.

Fold the wings of the neck in half and iron or finger press. With the pencil make a mark at 1/2", 1 1/4", and 2" along the crease. Make another mark on the other wing at 1/2" Using the awl, poke a hole through each of the marks on both sides of the neck. (4 holes in all)

Insert three caps on the underside of the wing with three holes. Then place the sockets on the top side. Line the pliers up around the entire snap set and fabric and squeeze. Finish the other two and then go to the other side. The cap will go on the top of the other side with the stud facing downward. Once again, center pliers around snap set and squeeze tightly.

Finished snaps

Two-size conversion of bumGenius

I have two dozen bumGenius diapers in size medium that I can't use because no one is currently in that size. I finally decided to convert them all to snap closures and make them into two-size diapers (small and med.). To do it you will need some type of ruler, snap pliers/press, awl, scrap of PUL or other waterproof material, pencil, 6 caps 3 studs, and 3 sockets. I buy all my snap supplies from kamsnaps.com.

I previously had done the conversion to snap closures, so I'll go over that in another tutorial. To do the small size you will need to find the center of the diaper and mark it with a pin or a dot. Measure down 2 1/2" from the top of the diaper and make a mark in the center of the diaper. Make one additional dot 2 3/8" to each side. Make a second set of marks one inch lower on the diaper. The second set of marks can be further away to make the small a smaller size, but one inch makes it the same size as the small on bumgenius onesize diapers.

With your awl poke holes through each mark. Insert your hand if you need to to make sure you are only going through the PUL and not through all the layers.

Now, with your scrap you are going to make six dots that coincide with the dots on the cover. Mark one in the center a little way down and then one to each side at the same width you did on the cover. Use the awl and poke the holes in the scrap. I use a scrap of PUL to reinforce the snaps so they don't rip the fabric, and it also gives it a better thickness to set the snaps.

Insert the caps into the scrap and then put the scrap into the diaper and line the prongs up with the dots on the diaper and push them through.

The PUL should hold the caps in place, but if they don't go ahead and put the studs on the top line and sockets on the bottom and push them down firmly. They should stay put then. I put the caps on the scrap seperate from the diaper because it is too hard to line up the scrap if the holes are poked through both the diaper and scrap at the same time.

Once all the caps, studs and sockets are in place use the snap pliers and from the outside go around all layers of fabric and center it on the snap set. Squeeze firmly and that's it! Set the other five snap sets and you're done.

What the finished diaper looks like:

Here it is next to a bumGenius onesize diaper set on the smallest setting. Same size!

Glass etching

So there was a disagreement at church after a potluck lunch over what lid belonged to who. Since I have a crock pot that is fairly common I decided to etch the lid with our initial so I don't ever have to deal with that. You can get the glass etching cream at Michael's or other similar craft stores. It's pretty simple.