Hemming Yoga Pants

I don't know about you, but I am too tall for the shorter hems and not tall enough for the taller hems.  I am often folding up my favorite pants so that they don't drag, but that doesn't work so well with yoga pants.

Well, Gap had a sale on their sale items and I got 2 pairs of really nice (as in they fit my fabulous rump and feel good) yoga pants for $15.  When does that happen?

Body Pillow Cover Tutorial from a Bed Sheet

I have shared my bed with a body pillow since I was in high school.  Since that time I have tried my hand several times at making a body pillow cover for my favorite bed partner.  (Don't worry hubby, if I had to choose I would choose you.)  All my covers did the job, more or less (sometimes less), but this one was surprisingly more perfect than all the rest.

Now, I based it on a store bought one that I had purchased when I originally purchased my body pillows many years ago.  It's dimensions are 19" wide x 51" long.  This body pillow cover had a zipper, but I had no intention of putting zippers on mine.  Instead, I planned on adding an inner flap that I have seen on IKEA, Pottery Barn and European pillow cases.  Now, I had done this once before, but not well, so learn from my mistakes.

Dish Towel Modification

Have I mentioned we have a small house?  Well, we do, which includes having a small kitchen.  While our kitchen reno (still a bit in progress - haha) added some space, as in we tore down the wall between the small kitchen and small dining room.  With the reno we also managed to fit in a dishwasher - hallelujah!  The only issue was that the hooks my mom had attached to the their old frig, which we were incredibly lucky to inherit, were just a bit too low for our dish towels, causing them to catch in the dishwasher door.  If you hang them from the tag that is, and if you try to hang them via the halfway point, they always fall off.  Boo.

Well, this past weekend, I was suddenly struck with an easy, quick solution.

I should use some kind of ribbon at the halfway point on the long side to make a permanent hanging loop, from which the dish towel can hang.  No more falling off and ending up on the floor OR getting caught in the dishwasher.  YAY!

Star Wars Scarf

It's sad, but I had one of those weekends where I did tons but didn't feel like I got anything done.  Ever had one of those?

Well, one of the things I wanted to get done and did get done was a scarf for my oldest son.  He informed me last week that he wanted one, so I broke out my stash of fabric, looking for things I thought he would like and that were long enough (2 yards).

I found I had 2 yards of this fabulous Star Wars fabric.  My son agreed that the fabric was awesome!

To make it nice and warm, I decided to use the same anti-pill black fleece that I used on my nephew's Borussia Dortmund (soccer) scarf, but unlike that scarf, I wanted it to be an infinity scarf like the one I made for my niece so that it couldn't fall off accidentally.

Knit Hat Fix

Like most things, my kids can find a way to break it.  My oldest has this store-bought knit hat, and one day, I saw it sitting in his coat rack cubbie by the door looking a bit unraveled.  I have no idea how he managed it, but he did.  It was, however, not completely dead, so I thought I would try to resuscitate it.

I had some lovely non-pill black fleece from another project that just happened to match the black and gray color scheme of the hat.  I decided I would use it as a lining for the original. 

Necessary fabric.  Check.

DIY Kids Tool Belt

The inspiration for this came this past Saturday night.  My parents kindly took the boys for the afternoon.  Our usual pattern when this happens is to eat dinner with my parents in the evening.  When we arrived, my mom told me how my oldest son had worn this toy tool belt all afternoon, putting different things in as his tools.

The second piece to this puzzle starts with the dollar sale at our local secondhand shop.  I picked up several pairs of 2T jeans.  Well, I checked the snaps, but somehow forgot to check the zippers.  Whoops!  So, of the 4 pair I bought one had a broken zipper, but I figure for a buck, I can suck it up, and into the upcycling pile it went.

Now, put these 2 things together, and you get a very easy DIY kids tool belt!

Fix a Small Hole in Knit Fabric

My kids are lively, crazy, sweet, dirty, fun trouble makers, who can put holes in anything, especially their clothes.  This post is just part of my journey to save and reuse.  Recently, my oldest put a hole in one of the sleeves of one of his favorite long-sleeve tees.  I know how this hole came to be.  When he is upset he pulls the ends of his sleeves over his fists and bites at the fabric.  The result over time was a hole, which I am pretty sure he helped along by poking his finger through the hole when it appeared and before I noticed it.

Next on the list of repair is another pair of pajama pants, which have a similar hole, but it is definitely not as a result of biting, because if it were, my son should be performing for Circ du Soleil.  Because the hole is located in an area at the top of the pajama pants in a non-stress location, I believe that the fabric was just weaker there for some reason and finally came apart.  Naturally, I could be wrong.  It is just a theory.