Upcycle: Dance Costumes into Princess Dresses

Now that this gift has been delivered, opened and enjoyed, I can tell you about this little project without spoiling a surprise! My niece LOVES to dress up. The problem is that she has outgrown the princess dresses sold in stores. Those dresses are made to fit 4 and 5 year olds, so what happens when your daughter (or niece!) still loves to play make believe and beautify herself in flowing gowns at the old ages of 6, 7, 8, and 9???

I believe in encouraging imaginative play well into the elementary years, because that is what develops our children's creativity and dreams. Why does this world want our kids to grow up so fast? Well, never fear! There are several ways to make princess gowns for older girls using prom/bridesmaid dresses and dance costumes from re-sale shops. 

The first dress I altered for my niece was this beaded, soft pink bridesmaid dress I found at Goodwill. It must have been a jr. bridesmaid dress because it was quite small already. Since my niece lives out of state, I had to make my eight year old brother Clayton try it on for me as I made the alteration marks. He wasn't too pleased! (And he wouldn't let me take a picture... sorry!) All I ended up doing was shortening the straps an inch or two. Easy, huh?

For the rest of this project I used three dance costumes given to me by a friend at church. They worked perfectly. This red fancy dress, perfect for twirling, just needed to be taken in at the sides. 

The other two dance costumes looked pretty horrid. I admit, I stared at them for a long time trying to think of how to salvage them. What kept coming to mind was "Snow White." Do you see it? 

 

The first thing I did was to detach the skirt and bodice pieces from both dresses. I saved this blue circle of fabric -- maybe for a winter cape to be made later??? 

  

Using the blue bodice for my new dress, I removed the gold lace. For the skirt, I cut plain white cotton the same length and width as the see-through yellow fabric, and sandwiched some yellow tulle in between for poof. 

I gathered the three fabrics the size of the blue bodice and then sewed it all together. With elastic thread, I gathered up three sections of the yellow material, so the white underskirt could peek out, and attached them to the dress with pretty blue bows. I also hemmed and edged the white cotton with navy blue ribbon.

Brooklyn was happy to model the dress for me, though it was quite large on her!

For the finishing touch, I cut up the yellow bodice to make four fabric flowers to decorate the neckline -- three in front and one in the back.

Ta-da! One glamorous snow white dress made from combining two "not-so-pretty" dance costumes!

Front

Back

 I was so excited to mail this package to my niece, imagining her surprise and delight! I addressed the card to "Princess Lorelei" and told her this gift was a new wardrobe for "Her Highness" because a princess can never have too many dresses! :)

 

So there you have it! Girls can still be princesses past the age of 5 years old.  

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Teacher Gift Ideas - with Free Printables!

As the end of the school year approaches, you may be looking for a little gift to give your child's teacher to say "thanks" for all their awesome work with your child. Here are a few ideas I put together for Brooklyn's teacher a few weeks ago for Teacher Appreciation Week that might work for you! I also included FREE printables that you can download and use as gift tags if you would like.

First, we gave Brooklyn's teacher a pack of Sharpie Pens, with a gift tag that read, "You are a SHARPIE! Thanks for teaching me new things every day!" Who wouldn't want these fine point pens in fun colors?

To download the "Sharpie" tag in a pdf file, CLICK HERE.

The next idea I got from Homespun Threads Blog. I loved her saying, "Because of you, I am BURSTING with knowledge!" I decided to make my own tag that looked like a kernel of popcorn, and we taped it to a box of caramel popcorn. Have you ever had this kind of microwave popcorn? I didn't even know it existed until I ran into it at Target. Looks fascinating!

To download the popcorn tag pdf, CLICK HERE.

The next two gifts were combined. First, I made a simple "Star Teacher" tag and attached it to Starburst candy. Then I made a tag that said "Thanks for going the EXTRA mile," to go with a package of Extra Gum.

For the Star and Extra printables, CLICK HERE.

Our last gift for Brooklyn's teacher was a plant. For this one, I used a printable from Skip to My Lou Blog. (Why reinvent the wheel, right? Her tag is super cute!!!) It says, "Thanks for helping ________ Bloom!" When you download her printable, you can type in your child's name before printing. How cute!

 

So there you have it... five fun ideas for end-of-the-school-year gifts for your child's teacher! 

On a side note, my husband is a teacher, and he very rarely gets gifts from his students. I think that is partially because he is a high school teacher... things change after elementary school! But for Teacher Appreciation Week, he actually was given something this year! Sorry the picture quality is bad, but he sent this picture to me via a text message... It's a rose made out of strawberries and grapes! LOL

Quite creative I must say!  

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Cubbies Graduation

Awana Club has concluded for the year, and Brooklyn and her friend Josiah have graduated from their second year of Cubbies.

They enjoyed standing on stage to receive their certificates...

 ... and impress their parents with how well they could sing the the Cubbies Theme song. 

After the ceremony the kids got to meet and hug Cub E. Bear, and eat cookies. What a fun night! They can't wait to join Sparks next year! But the scripture memory is going to get a lot more intense... and be a lot more work for Mom and Dad! But it is worth it. :)

such a fake smile... just like her dad!

And these two friends Cassie and Jack can't wait until the fall when they get to start Awana Cubbies! 

Do you think the Cubbie Teacher's are ready for "Double Trouble????" ;-)

Selah - 11 Months

We are nearing the big O-N-E!!! Can't believe our little baby is almost a year old. Here are her "rocking chair pictures" at 11 months old:

She is learning so many new things every day. She has an awesome spirit of curiosity and adventure! The biggest feat she has accomplished at 11 months is the ability to walk. :) Right as she turned 11 months, she was walking fairly well between Scott and I, and within the last two weeks she has accomplished walking without the Frankenstein-arms-stretched-out, turning around without falling, standing up without grabbing on to anything, and now she's attempting to run! If only adults could learn amazing skills like this so quickly!

Daddy starts her off...

made it to mom!

Here is a video of her when she was first figuring out how to walk between Scott and I. We had to bribe her with her pacifier to get this video. (Don't mind the pile of laundry in the background!) :)

The older girls go back and forth between getting annoyed that Selah gets into their stuff, to wanting to play "house" with her and make her their "baby." Usually, they do a great job including Selah in their play. Amazingly, one afternoon they got her to actually fall asleep in the living room chair while they were playing house! Brooklyn and Cassidy were so thrilled with their accomplishment! 

 

 

I also want this to be known, in reference to The Great Pea War, I have officially been declared the winner. :) Selah has decided she likes.... er, at least tolerates that small, round vegetable!

 She also has started to enjoy meats and pasta!

Selah gibbers and gabbers all day, making conversation with anyone who will listen. She loves to mimic my voice and sternly scold her sisters when she can see I'm upset! She usually cracks us all up in her attempts to add in her two cents! ;)

This stage is so fun! We are loving this final part of her first year, and starting to think about how to celebrate the big O-N-E birthday coming up in a few weeks.

Love you, Selah-girl!!!

Our Young Artist

Watching Brooklyn this year develop skills and learn so many new things in school has been a delight. She surprises us constantly with the things she learns! (Though, if you saw my facebook status last week, she also surprises us in other ways -- like when I caught her twisting a crayon in Selah's ear and peeling an entire hardboiled egg ON THE LIVING ROOM CARPET!)

Anyway... I've been snapping pictures like this one lately. She has discovered to how to put letters together and sound out words. The world of reading is opening up to her, and she is fascinated. I love it! 

reminds me of myself as a child -- always had my nose in a book!

Finding this arrangement of magnet letters she put together all by herself was so special!

She also has been developing her love of drawing. She colors new pictures every day, and was especially proud of this drawing she made on her magna doodle board -- she tried to copy the cow and farm scene that frames the board. :) Then she had a melt down when it needed to be erased... thus the picture to preserve it!

We were excited to find out that a drawing she had made in school was chosen to be displayed in the local library for the month of March! Out of each class, the artwork of one or two children was chosen, and Brooklyn's illustration from the book, "The Mitten" was picked by the judges. Brooklyn often tells us that when she grows up she wants to be an artist (along with a ballet dancer, a teacher, a doctor, a cashier, and a mom). It was neat to show her that she already IS an artist! She met that goal before growing up! ;)

We took a family trip to the library one day that Scott had off work, found her drawing and took some pictures! The artwork of many of the older students was fascinating to look at, as well. We also found the painting my brother Evrett made of himself. Isn't that interesting that both Brooklyn and Evrett were chosen for their classrooms? He did a good job painting facial shadows!

It's great watching our kids develop their talents and learning how to encourage their strengths and interests! We enjoyed celebrating this special honor with Brooklyn. :)

dirty knees from crawling around the library!

library train table

Up-cycle: Onesie to Shirt

I have a quick and easy project today that will help extend your child's wardrobe another season! Because Selah was born in the spring, and my other two daughters were born in the fall, sizing is a bit off as I try to pass down the older girls' clothing to Selah. As soon as she reaches 2T, we'll be fine as we have everything in both seasons by that point. However, right now we are a bit stuck as we try to work with 12 month winter clothes while the weather keeps getting warmer!

A few of her onesies that were 3-6 months still fit in the chest and arms, but she was too long for the buttons to snap. Since jersey knit doesn't fray, I decided to cut the snap part off, and make the shirts into t-shirts she can wear this spring/summer!

These three onesies were perfect for this project because they were pretty baggy on Selah as an infant, but now the waist part fits perfectly. Aren't they fun? They were given to me as a baby gift from my friend Heather when Selah was born -- they are nice and soft baby GAP shirts! :)

Taking my rotary cuter and ruler, I sliced off the bottom as close as I could get to the leg holes. I wanted the shirts to end up as long as possible!

Like I said before, knit doesn't fray, so you could leave the shirt just like this! Or you could fold and stitch the bottom under to make a tiny hem (but be careful to keep as much length as possible). A serger could also be used to make a finished edge, or if your baby is a girl, you could do what I did -- zig-zag stitch over the edge of the bottom, making the fabric ruffle up a bit. Ruffles are always nice! 

So there you have it! An easy way to up-cycle clothing to stretch your baby's wardrobe! And you don't even need to sew! -- just use a scissors and cut a straight line. ;o) 

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