back to the future, school edition

well, better late than never right?

little man found a backpack at jcpenneys back when school stuff was first starting to come out--you know, in june :o)
he loved it. A LOT.

link

it was $39.99. there is NO WAY this momma is spending $40 on a school bag! but it was early, so we waited, assuming it would come down in price.

come august and school shopping time...it hadn't. and he still loved it.

so i looked at it a bit and realized it's just a sling style backpack with a couple patches sewn on. srsly? $40?

oh yeah, we can totally reproduce that for much less.
we found this backpack on amazon for $12.99:

link

the red was his choice (they did have it in black too)
then we headed over to ebay for some patches.

here's where things started to get a little...haywire.

we ended up ordering two patches, both his choice.

the first one came--an old-school style "P". uh, apparently momma forgot to double check sizes on the patch. it was a bit...large.

so we waited for the 2nd patch...and waited...and waited...
never came. they never answered my emails. so after going through the whole process of getting our money back from ebay, we reordered with another seller.

and we finally got our 2nd patch this week. yay!

after some creative figuring and manuvering, this is what we came up with:

big 'p', right?

he loves it. i ended up taking the pocket off of the front of the bag. it was only held on by one row of stitching. it did leave small holes, but they're barely noticable. i sewed the two patches on the front of the bag, then reattached the pocket on the back of the bag:

i told him it was his "secret" pocket. now he loves it even more :o)

easy as pie. and it only cost about $20--still more than i normally spend on their backpacks...but sometimes a momma's gotta make her little man happy.

ruffled tank, part deux

can i just say how much i loved that ruffled tank i did last week? and i guess others did too--it got featured on...


and at childmade!

thanks so much guys!

so you know i headed back up to old navy and bought myself some more tanks.
no real tutorial on this one, but pretty basic stuff--
i just cut strips (vertically this time--not on the bias) i ruffled them up, then played around until i got a design i liked and stitched it all down!

but in case you're curious, here's a bit more detail...

once i laid (layed?) out a basic shape i liked, i started sewing from either end of the neckline and stopped at  the point where i made the bunch of ruffles.

then i took all the remaining ruffle and arranged it how i liked it.

clearly a more patient more precise more caring better sewer i would have then pinned and sewn down the entire thing from one end to the other. however, since i'm the world's laziest crafter, i just started sewing across the whole thing willy-nilly. yup, willy-nilly.

(imagine those thick black lines as stitch lines)

this is what it looks like from the inside:

(kind of like a scar, i think)

but you know what? it worked, i like it, and it only took me about 15 minutes--tops.

another $2 tank--woo-hoo!! (mom is soooo jealous...haha mom!)

linking up at some of these fine parties!

ruffled tank tutorial

our local old navy store is having it's half-off clearance sale! YAY! which means you can score things like this:

for half off this:

 woo-hoo--less than $1 for a cute tank!

so i bought two of them. hmm...what to do, what to do??? i love the stripes, but let's face it. i don't know about you girls, but horizontal stripes and i aren't exactly friends--if ya know what i'm sayin'. momma needs something that's a little more, shall we say, slimming?


so here's what i did:


i cut off the neckline of my 2nd tank, and cut the rest in wide bias strips.

once i opened the stripey strips out this is what they looked like:

i ruffled the top edge of all (most) of them. then i found the center point of my tank.

 and began attaching my ruffled strips--i started with the longest strip around the neckline, and centered the point.

channel your inner dory..."just keep sewing, just keep sewing, just keep sewing sewing sewing", starting with the biggest strip and working your way down to your smallest, centering the point of each one on the center of your tank. (i didn't use ALL the strips--i just kept adding until i was happy)


eventually you have this:

i love how it looks. and i especially love the price! but i am apparently unable to take a decent picture of myself wearing my new shirt! :o( trust me, this was the best of about 30 tries, inside, outside, flash, no flash, in the mirror, self-timer....gah!

so you'll just have to imagine:

shoot, i look guuuud. ;o)

linking up at these fine parties head over and check them out for some more great ideas!

enclosed seam tutorial

if you're like me, you break your serger on a regular basis.

um, no...let's try that again.

if you're like me, you realize that the difference (sometimes) between something that looks professional and something that screams "homemade" can be in how your seams are finished.

a serger is wonderful for this--professional-looking insides in a flash--sewn, bound, trimmed, done.


however, not all of us have sergers. and some of us routinely break sergers. {sheepish grin}


you can do a tight zig-zag stitch on all your seams, but i'm honestly not a huge fan of those. so i generally use an enclosed seam.
it's quick and easy, and only takes an extra minute or two. you do need a little bit of a larger seam allowance, or you need to be very careful inside your standard seam allowance. i find that many commercial patterns run big, so the little bit of extra i take in doing this only helps.

ready? here we go:


S.O.P. is to sew your pattern pieces RIGHT sides together. the first thing you do for an enclosed seam is to take your pattern pieces and sew them WRONG sides together with a narrow 1/4" seam. you are now halfway done. :o)

(told ya this was easy)






press your seam, and then look it over. any thready/hairy bits should be trimmed, as should any areas you went a bit wonky and maybe sewed a bit bigger than 1/4" (not that i would ever do that)


you're looking for a nice crisp edge.


now fold your fabric over RIGHT sides together, enclosing the seam you just sewed (thereby making the--TA-DA--enclosed seam!)

stitch this with about 1/2" seam allowance.





press this out and you're done!








a lovely enclosed seam. from the inside or outside of your garment there are no exposed raw edges.


this works wonderfully if you're making a reversable outfit. or, as another option, go back and top stitch your little flap down and you have a FRENCH seam. that adds a nice detail to clothing (or pillows, or sofas...)


in the example photos i was sewing a solid color band on the bottom of a skirt. this type of seam is stronger and gives it a little weight to help it lay nicely.


have fun!

please mr. postman

hi, my name is googiemomma, and i am post office impaired. there. so glad to get that off my chest.

i admit it. i'm confused...baffled...frustrated...SCARED by the post office.

express mail? priority mail? first class mail? delivery confirmation? insurance? my skin breaks out in hives and my heart begins beating quickly. nevermind the fact that it's so vaguely "governmental" in there. in the back of my head is the thought that if i really screw this up it's going to be a federal offense of some sort. there's so many regulations and laws regarding postal service...have i unknowingly violated one? probably.

my usual m.o.: avoid the post office at ALL COSTS. i'm not exaggerating.

a couple of years ago we got our taxes done at the beginning of february--well before the april 15th deadline. it was a good year--we were getting a fairly substantial tax return. guess when i finally made myself take it to the post office to mail? yup, april 15th. i can't be forced into going--not even {literally} for a couple thousand dollars.

when i finally absolutely must go, i hand whatever it is to the postal worker behind the counter.

"i need to send this book/purse/bag of money/flammable item to arkansas/canada/timbuktu." {insert much eyelash batting and sheepish pleading look here}

generally it works. how much of that is due to my eyelashes and facial expressions, and how much is due to it simply being their job to help me, i'm not sure. i'll choose to believe it's the former.

today was the perfect example. i needed to send out the leather clutch i made for my contest winner. i can do this. i'm brave. i'm smart. i'm 30 years old and i can mail something without needing a surrogate mommy to guide me through it.

i headed in and grabbed an envelope. clutch fits inside, check. next, a label. oh good, here's one. domestic and international, check (i'm mailing to canada). filled in the address, headed up to the counter.

and that's where it all started going downhill.
"did you fill out a customs form?"
uh...no.
"take this {long} form, fill it out, come back"
i can do this.
check.
okay, customs form done. address done. back to the counter.
"that will be $20"
me: gaaaahhhh...whaaaa??? errrrr......
WHY?
"well, you have a priority mail label on here."
oh.
huh.
"you want first class? go back, fill out the little customs form, buy a different label, fill out the label, come back. it'll be $2.85"
yes, please.

meanwhile...did you know they sell greeting cards at the post office now? well, apparently they do. and while i'm marching back and forth filling out form after form, little bear picked up a card.
and drew all over it.

forms filled out: 5
forms actually needed: 2
total time spent: 25 minutes
total cost of postage: $2.85
total amount spent (in postage, labels, and one pre-decorated "i'm always there for you" card): almost $8

batting eyelashes and just letting them tell you what to do the first time? priceless.

wordless wednesday~gone pickin'

final tally: 25 lbs of apples, 18 lbs of peaches; which became 2 apple pies, 6 qts of apple pie filling, 3 pints of applesauce, 6 pints of blueberry-peach jam, 4 quart canned peaches, and 3 half-pints of peach honey. pheww.

**the majority of these photos were taken by girlfriend girl, a budding photog!**

window box house number tutorial!

my super MIL gave me two plastic planter boxes that she wasn't using anymore.

so i took one and sprayed it black.

then put on a 'no. 27' in cream vinyl that i ordered from my new bff--shelley at wonderfully wordy. {if i don't get my own vinyl cutter at some point than i'm probably going to be paying for her kids' college educations.}

wouldn't it have been nice if i actually got three mums for the planter to actually fill it up? and maybe even some that were in bloom, so there was maybe some flowers?

hold on...let me exercise my mad photo shop skillzzzzzz...


ahh, much better.

the vinyl was a little tough to get on real well because of the nubby texture of the plastic, but i just kept pushing it down and going over it. once i got it one there pretty well, i gave it a coat of clear sealer.

i can't guarantee this will last forever, but it's under the covered porch--so not directly exposed to the elements. and it only cost me the price of the vinyl--which is SUPER reasonable!

what i love about this is that i am really diggin' the "no. xx" in vinyl people put on their front doors. but my front door is glass (see it there in the background?) so it's not really an option for me. 

i will NOT show you the rest of the porch. we'll just leave it here. you can imagine the rest of my front porch as completely clean, web-free, color coordinated and adorable.

i absolutely DO NOT have beach chairs & an umbrella from the last time we went to the beach (beginning of august), various camping supplies (from the camping trip last month), random bits of broken sidewalk chalk, someone's sweater, a bag of clothing to be donated, and tons of dead leaves all over the porch. nope. no way.

winner winner chicken dinner

i took the easy way out. no cute shots of my googies picking a number out of a bowl. that involved more prep work and photo editing than i'm capable of at the moment.


{allergies hit me hard at this time of the year...and i COMPLETELY DETEST AND LOATHE allergy medication. so i don't ever ever take it unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. believe me when i say: today it was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. however, it now seems as if my head is floating about 10-12 inches above the rest of my body. cool, huh?}

anyway, i was gonna go ahead and use one of those random number picker sites to pick a number. and then, even that seemed beyond me. (did you know they exist? they do! there's even a virtual magic 8 ball site...weird, huh?)

so i thought, hey, you know who NEVER wins? #1. they're always #1, but they never win. and you know what else? this is my blog, so i get to decide the winner is #1 if i want. pffftttttthhhh. (please don't leave my blog because i'm being so cranky...i swear, it's the medicine talking)


so here's to YOU, #1~~
and that is:
ana @ imadeitso who said:

"the term 'follower' makes me think of zombies with a side of "take me to your leader"...

sorry, but you asked :)

congrats on 101! i can't believe you're one whole post ahead of me. i am such a slacker ;)

very cool about the 101 post/101 followers thing. the other day on twitter, i had 107 followers, i was following 107 people, and i was listed 7 times. it was all very zen... til some spammer decided to follow me. boooo."

yes i did. i asked. and i agree--zombies. and aliens. and cult leaders. i am all of the above. yay for you ana! by virtue of my laziness, with a dash of  antihistamine and just a smattering of pms, (did i just say that on the internet?) you have won yourself a new leather clutch!

please send me an email with your mailing address and color choice! (yellow, black or brown leather, or gray suede)

and thank you again to everyone who commented and entered!

beeeeee our guest be our guest put our service to the test!

oops! {is it just me, or does anyone else consistently type 'opps' first and have to fix it? anyone? anyone? bueller?}

okay, so i posted all about the teeny tiny party, but then someone commented and asked about the invitations!

duh! i mean, they weren't the end-all be-all of party invites, but i thought they were pretty stinkin' cute.

so here they are:

they ended up small card sized. in retrospect i wish i made them even smaller. but i think they came out cute and got the point across.

i worked out the wording/spacing/font on Word. after printing, i simply cut them out and glue the white paper onto a larger rectangle of patterned paper.

easy peasy. i made them up while sitting and chatting with a friend while our girls played. (hi friend!)

i'm linking up to some of these fine partys!