Boys Dress Up Clothes

I am thrilled to have my friend Sarah share a tutorial on how to make a kilt for little boy dress up. Great dress up clothes for boys are so hard to come by and when I saw a picture of this on Facebook I knew I wanted to add it to my boys assortment of manly men dress up clothes and asked her if she would mind guest posting and sharing it with everyone. She has provided clear, detailed instructions and great pictures to lead you through each step - and how gorgeous is her son Magnus?!

Be sure to stop by Sarah's etsy shop for an assortment of hand crafted goodies. Thank you so much Sarah for providing this wonderful tutorial!

Hello! I am so excited to be a guest blogger for Jessica and to show you how to make an easy, incredibly adjustable, truly manly dress-up, the kilt! My Magnus is 2 and has a 3year old sister, whose great delight is dressing up as a princess, a ballerina, or both at the same time. As my son loves to do whatever she does, we substitute "prince" or "knight" elements for his costumes, but he still gets to dance around, jump off couches and wave things around in his very special outfit, just like Susanna.

The kilt has up to 4 inches of adjustment in it so it will be good for years to come, and the sample ones I've made will fit 2-5 years. And there is no zipper! Although I am a generally proficient sewer, I'm afraid I have not mastered the zipper. It is basically a simple pleated wrap skirt and has very little in common with real kilt-craft, the art of which I could only admire from afar.
Cost: about $7

You will need:
*A length of cotton plaid. You need about 12 inches for the kilt (longer based on your child) and 3 inches for the waistband so I bought 15 inches. Seam allowances included.
    $3.99-$4.99 a yard at your local Joann's, it is washable and comes in many colors and is about 41 inches wide. Price $2.08, but print off one of their easily obtainable coupons for 40% off and it's $1.25!
*1-5/8" button, from the button box
*1-4-1/2in piece of 1/2" elastic, I have it on hand or it is about $2 a package
*1-4in piece of 5/8" sew-on velcro, also about $2 a package
*1 kilt pin- $1.79 for two available at your local craft store near the safety pins
a bit of felt, placed on the back side of kilt front, to keep the pin from tearing cloth

Wash and dry your fabric. There is no right or wrong side on this cotton plaid.

Cut a 3 inch strip off lengthwise for the waistband and trim it to one-and-a-half times your child's waist (M's waist is 20", the waistband is 30")
Use iron to press 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance down both long sides of waistband strip. Also press same seam allowance both ends. Fold waistband in half lengthwise and press.
Fold bottom of kilt cloth (12" by 41") over 1/4in twice for hem and pin.  Sew hem. Remove pins. This is the bottom of the kilt. The ends of your kilt cloth should be selvage, and should not need to be hemmed.

Place a marking pin the distance of half your child's waist (10" for me) from each end of the long kilt cloth. You need to pleat and pin the fabric between the pins, making the cloth shorter and shorter until it is the same length between pins as on the ends (10" for me).

So now the cloth is even thirds, for me 10"to first pin, 10" pleated fabric, 10" from last pin to end. Total length should now be equal to your pressed waistband length so make any adjustments now until they are equal. Sew straight line down pinned pleats 1/2" from the top of fabric to baste the pleats in place. Remove pins.

Fold the pressed waistband over the raw edge top of the kilt and pin. The two halves of the waistband sandwich the whole top edge and the basted pleats. The pressed seam allowances should be tucked under the back, front and both ends.

Sew through all layers end to end about 1/8" from bottom of waistband.
Iron your pleats from top to bottom.

Insert end of elastic 3/4" into right side of the waistband (the right side when looking at the inside of the kilt, when the folded hem is visible).
Stitch across waistband to anchor elastic in place.
Sew the free end of the the elastic to prevent fraying.
Snip 4 slits in elastic 3/8" long down it's length. These are the button holes and provide adjustment.
Test each hole to make sure button passes snugly.

Sew button on the inside of the waistband. As you try it on your child the pleats go in back, the elastic end of the kilt goes across tummy to button on their right side. Place the button where the waist size is comfortable when buttoned at the smallest size (using buttonhole closest to kilt). Thus there is room to grow as you use farther buttonholes!

Sew on velcro. Loop side will be on the inside of the waistband at the end, where the right side flap covers the left side flap on the front of your child. The hook side should be placed carefully on the front of the left side flap. Place it where it will still meet the loops even as your child grows and uses expanding buttonholes.
Attach your kilt pin, using scrap of cloth or felt behind the kilt cloth to prevent ripping. I don't pin the kilt layers together, it just makes it harder to put on and off.
Please Enjoy!

More about Sarah: I am a joyful wife of one and mother of two living outside DC. I get to stay home with my children and I get some kicks and a lot of identity moonlighting as an ED nurse. I love many things, some of which are; reading, road-tripping,  out-doorsing, stitching, giving good gifts, cloth and paper, library book sales, theology, candy, advocacy for choice in childbirth, housekeeping, corresponding, libertarian politics, and string lights.

See my shop at www.simplysarai.etsy.com. If you aren't up to making your own kilt I'm selling some there.
The pictured wooden sword can be found at  www.etsy.com/shop/SmileMoon and it's sheath is here: www.etsy.com/shop/birchleafdesigns

Thanks again Sarah! If you have any questions about the instructions feel free to ask in the comments and I will pass them on to Sarah. If you make one we'd love to know about it! 

Sharing on My Romantic Home and Shabby Nest 
 

Going on a Bear Hunt

Dramatic Black and White

Paul taught Wesley how to do perfect push ups. 

The top photograph is my submission for I Heart Faces, but I couldn't not post the series of pictures I took of Wesley getting his lesson.

One Year

One year ago today we moved into our house. 

It would have been fun to have celebrated that fact, but I only just remembered this evening.

And Paul is still working.

So I will silently celebrate a wonderful year in our house.

A house that has become our home. 

I remember when we were waiting for the paper work to be final on the house - there were several issues with minor details and it seemed to take FOREVER to go through. In reality it was only a matter of weeks from when we first saw the house to when it was actually ours but it felt like months upon months of waiting. And now that we are in it the past year has just flown by.

We are so thankful for the beautiful house God provided for us.

These are some of the beauties growing in our backyard right now:

 

Favorite Places

I stumbled upon The Gypsy Mama's blog today and love her most recent post of her favorite places in the world. Inspired to play along I spent the last hour happily looking through my digital library of pictures spanning the past 7 years and picked out some of my most favorite places.

 

 

Beach Blanket

With the weather warming up and dreams of picnics at the park and trips to the beach I was inspired to make the perfect beach blanket for us. 

Perfect being water proof, not perfectly constructed! 

Given my impatience and lack of sewing skills it isn't quite perfect but apart from not actually being a real shape, each corner looking different from the other, a tiny bit of puckering and the back lining showing up on the front side in a couple places it is perfect enough for its intended uses!

What I hate most about blankets is that if you (unknowingly) set them out on damp grass or sand  it soaks right through the blanket and what should have been a cozy, dry place to sit is now damp and uncomfortable. 

I think I have figured out a way around that.

I bought 4 large towels at the thrift store, washed them and then cut them up and patched them together.

I added a couple decorations to some of the squares, including our last name initial:

For the backing I bought the largest vinyl table cloth that the store had - I'm not sure what the inches were but it was to seat 8-10 people so it was quite large. I ended up losing about 2 feet of length from the tablecloth as I didn't have enough towels. I made sure to pick out a table cloth that coordinated with the towels I had bought.

The final step was to put the front side of the table cloth against the front side of the towels and sew around the edges, leaving a gap so I could turn it right side out and then sew the gap closed. 

It took me almost 2 weeks to finish sewing around the edges because I kept putting it off as it is somewhat of a nuisance to have that much fabric following you as you sew. But I finished it today and am thrilled with my imperfect beach blanket.

From what I have read online the vinyl tablecloths can be washed in cold water and dried on the cool setting. I plan on washing in cold water and line drying when it needs to be cleaned. 

Sharing on My Romantic Home and  The Shabby Nest

A Night of Judging

Last  evening I had the privilege of sitting in a classroom at a local high school and listen to 7 different seniors present their senior year projects to a panel of judges.

I was judge number 4. 

I spent almost three hours with a piece of paper and pencil in front of me judging the kids based on their appearance, the frequency of the words "um", "ah" and "like..." in their speech, the depth of the research presented, the clarity in ideas, their conclusion and their ability to answer all our questions - amongst several other requirements. It was so much fun! 

The variety of subjects covered was both interesting and enlightening. The students assigned to our room talked about Smokeless tobacco, Dress making, Pastel drawing, Fostering animals from a shelter, Ballroom dancing, Ophthalmology and Banking cord blood.When I was leaving I walked past a classroom where one guy was doing his presentation in a fireman uniform and another person waiting in the hallway was getting into a divers outfit. The diversity kept it fun!

It is hard to judge other people - I wanted so badly to give everyone perfect scores but not everyone deserved perfect scores and it was truly hard to dock points because they kept their eyes glued on the ceiling or because they couldn't intelligently answer questions related to their research. 

And when the nervous ones walked in the room I wanted to give them each a hug and tell them I understood, that it really wasn't as bad as it might seem.

All of the highschools in the county do these senior projects and presentations and they rely on a panel of judges made up from people in the community to judge the presentations - though from what I saw last evening it looked like it was mainly parents and teachers serving as judges.

I would highly recommend you looking into your local high school and see if they have a similar program set up and if so jump at the chance to sit and listen to these students - I learned a few new things, enjoyed watching the various abilities of public speaking the students displayed and was all around entertained for the evening while helping out my community.
I had such a fun time I am planning on doing both evenings next year and have asked Paul to come do it too.

Winner

The winner of the two books is Jessica - and since she lives right near me and I won't have to pay shipping I'll be hosting another giveaway soon :) Congrats Jess!

"Focusing on Angles"

From our recent trip to the zoo.

Ciabatta Bread

My sister has made quite the contribution to our waistlines meals and we have enjoyed almost all of her kitchen creations - the braised cucumber I could have lived without trying! But the rest have been great successes. By far my favorite of her recipes is this One Minute Bread. It is so easy and delicious! She has made it three times for us in the past week. Recipe taken from her blog.

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 1/4 tsp dry yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt

1. Mix the yeast and warm water in a medium sized bowl. I used a 12 cup bowl and it might have overflowed if I left it for the correct amount of time.
2. Add the flour and salt and mix with a spoon until well mixed.
3. Cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel and place somewhere safe for 8-12 hours. I left mine for 5 hours and it turned out nicely. 
4. Preheat the oven to 375. The original website says 400 but the bottom of my bread slightly overcooked and I don't think the inside was as cooked as it could have been.
5. Gently pour the dough onto a floured or greased cookie sheet and sprinkle the top with dried oregano, basil, and rosemary or any other herbs you think would taste good.
6. Bake for about 25 minutes. If you lower the heat you may have to bake longer, I did mine for 25 minutes on a floured cookie sheet and some of it stuck.

 She also made a delicious Olive Oil Dip for the bread too - it went so well with the bread I would recommend making it to go along with the bread!

 

Interested in GREEN SMOOTHIES? Check out my latest post on how we used them on our 4 day road trip for healthy, inexpensive meals and snacks.

Insecurities

I did something new, scary and thoroughly out of my element. 

I submitted some of my photography to a store to be sold.

The last few months I have discovered some interesting things about myself, top among them being insecurities about my photography. 

When I was in Charleston I spent an entire day taking pictures of things - the beach, the buildings - objects that were just there. I realized in taking all the pictures of things that I enjoyed it much more than I enjoy taking pictures of people because there was no risk of disappointing people with subpar photography.

I was pretty surprised to discover those hidden insecurities. But they are there. And they are real. 

Since realizing my insecurities I have decided to do something about them - and thus, in part, my search to find a store that would carry my photography. 

I feel very much out of my element - out of control. Vulnerable to other peoples criticism. Exposed. 

It's hard to acknowledge my insecurities. 

It is harder still to tackle them and decide to do something about it.

It feels - weird.

And I don't particularly like it.

And I hope the weird feeling passes quickly.

I shared that submitting my photography was in part to aid me in getting out of my comfort and "safe" zone - the other part of it is because Paul and I have started a year long challenge with each other. We've dubbed it "The $20 Bill Challenge" and I am so excited about it! I will share more in depth about it later this week.

But until then - I want to know:

How have you pushed yourself out of your "comfort zone"?

And did it feel weird?

A Giveaway - Books

I have been enjoying this book Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours so much I went back to the thrift store to look for another copy to giveaway on my blog - and sure enough there was a second copy there! I have a slightly newer book which I think he's added a bit to, but the copy pictured above is the one I have to giveaway. Just so you know - the person who owned this book before highlighted and underlined some portions of the book. It's interesting to look through it as  the person highlighted different portions of the book than I did! This is not a brand new copy of the book - I don't want anyone to be disappointed when they receive a well cared for second hand book! 

While looking through the books I also found this one called Wonder Play. I had never heard of it before but glanced through it and liked what I saw. I'll be looking through it more in depth this week, but I am going to include it with the first book mentioned too as it looks like a fun idea book for infant through preschool age kids - if you have no use for this second book but are interested in winning the first one would you kindly leave a note in your comment that you only want the first book? If your name is drawn I will send you the first book and draw a second winner for just Wonder Play.

As always - I will mail this set of books world wide. Just leave a comment letting me know you'd like to win. I'll leave this open for one week and will announce the winner next Tuesday.