Today I thought I’d take a little break from the heaviness of the Revelation judgments and give you a little update on our daily life, along with some sewing/crafting info – it’s been a long time since I did a post like this! ;)

I realized a few days ago that I never updated my blog readers on my bedrest situation. Thank you so much to those who have been praying for us – after two weeks on bedrest and no further problems, my doctor lifted all my restrictions and I haven’t had any problems since! Praise the Lord!

Since then, we’ve been in full baby-prep mode in the Stephens house (I can’t imagine how we would have been ready for #3 if I was on bedrest this whole time!). LB has moved into AG’s room and they are loving their new bunk beds. The crib and changing table have been cleaned up, organized, and prepared. Clothes have been pulled from storage, washed, folded, and put away. Bouncy seats, swings, car seats, bottle warmers, toys, the baby bathtub, and all manner of baby items have been located, washed, and de-funked from their stay in the attic. ;)

My sewing machine has been in high speed the last few days, finishing up some flannel pj’s for the big kids as well as polishing off two more items from my baby to-do list: making a slipcover for the boppy pillow and sewing some new burp cloths.

I’ve never loved our boppy pillow… but to be fair I bought it for $5 at a garage sale and it also came with some toy bars that clip onto it to make a little baby gym, so I can’t complain that I thought it was rather ugly!

After finding this great blog post with patterns and instructions for making a boppy slipcover, I found some flannel on sale for $2.99/yd and bought two yards. An hour or so of work later…

Ta-da! Much better!!

I had about a half a yard of flannel left over, so I decided to sew some much-needed burp cloths. My daughter was one of those babies who made me somewhat of an expert in burp cloths, if you know what I mean. ;) These are so EASY to make and can also be great gifts, so I thought I would give you a little tutorial.

Cut flannel pieces into rectangles – I like my burp cloths to be on the large side, so I cut them into approximately 16″x8″ pieces. [I have often used surplus receiving blankets to make these in the past... we seemed to have WAY more than we needed! They also seem to be easy to find in good condition at consignment stores, which is a cheaper way to get fabric than buying new off the bolt, usually! If you're making baby gifts, you can also purchase receiving blankets that match the bedding they registered for.]

Cut the corners to make them rounded.

I like to make these burp cloths with terry cloth on the back, which makes them both soft and extra absorbent. Again, instead of buying terry cloth off the bolt at the fabric store, I’ve found that the cheapest way to do it is to buy gently used baby towels at the consignment store – as an added plus, the terry on those towels is a finer weave and is nice and soft!

Lay your rectangle on the terry, right sides together, pin, and cut out a matching rectangle.

Sew around the two pieces with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving 4″ or so on one straight side open so you can turn it right side out.

Turn right-side out, fold unsewn edges in to be even with the remainder of the fabric, and top stitch all around about 1/4″ from the edge.

You’re done!

So, for about $6 of flannel, plus some terry cloth that I already had on hand, I ended up with a new boppy cover and 7 great burp cloths! Not too shabby!

But, the side effect of a day of sewing is that the house now looks like this…

Oh, well.

So, that’s what’s new with us… what’s new with you? :)

Last week was AG’s fourth birthday and I decided this year to make a doorway puppet theater for her!  We were limited on space, so a doorway version made sense… and I couldn’t exactly spend a fortune.

I love the way it turned out and the kids have gotten so much creative play time out of it in just the past week!  If you’d like to make one like mine, here’s how:

You will need: 1 1/2 yards of two complimentary fabrics (I loved these!),

…and a tension curtain rod that will fit your doorway, ribbon or trim if desired, 1/2″ dowel rod cut 1″ narrower than your doorway, 2″ of hook and loop tape, a button, and 1/4 yard of heat n’ bond.

To make the theater:

1. Our doorways are 30″ wide, so I cut the panel for the theater to 33″ wide.

2. Around the entire perimeter, fold over 1.5″ hem and press. 

Then fold the rough edge under to meet the fold, then iron and pin. Stitch around the entire perimeter.

3. Fold the top over your tension rod to make sure you leave the appropriate sized pocket at the top.  Pin it in place, iron, and stitch.

4. Now you’re ready to make the “stage” opening!  In order to size and mark where I wanted the opening for my stage, I taped two pieces of 8.5″x11″ paper together side-by-side and then moved it around until I liked where it was.

[The advantage of this type of theater is that as AG gets taller, I can just move the theater higher on the door frame so it is comfortable for her to use.]  My finished theater is 48″ tall, and I positioned the opening 9″ from the top and 28″ from the bottom.

5. After you are happy with the placement of the opening, mark around the outside of the paper using a straight edge on the wrong side of the fabric.  Then measure 2″ in from each side of the rectangle to make a smaller rectangle inside the marked opening.  Draw a straight line from each corner of the interior rectangle to the corresponding corner of the larger rectangle.

 

7. Apply heat n’ bond around the perimeter of the rectangle. [I was using scraps from a previous project... looks a little ragged in this pic!] :)

8. After ironing on the heat n’ bond, cut the lines you drew between the corners of the inside and outside rectangles.  Finish the edges of the fabric with a cast-over stitch, zigzag stitch, or use fray check.  [I used a tight zigzag stitch over all the rough edges and then used fraycheck on the corners after I folded the fabric in.]

9. Fold the “flaps” of fabric out and follow the heat n’ bond directions to affix.  I measured all around to be sure to use my two inch seam allowance evenly and keep the shape of the rectangle.

10.  To make the curtains, cut two panels measuring 11.5″ by 15.”  Around the perimeter of each panel, fold over 1.5″ hem and press.  Fold the rough edge under to meet the fold, then iron and pin. Stitch.

11.  Using a running stitch, gather the top edge of each curtain slightly until the appropriate size to cover half of the opening.  [Instructions for how to gather using a machine or hand stitch can be found here.]  Pin curtain panels to the right side of the fabric, stitch, and remove running stitches used for gathering with a seam ripper.

12.  To make the curtains easy to open, sew about 1″ of velcro on the inside corners of the curtains and on the side of the openings.  (Keep the hook and loop sides stuck together while you figure out where to place them.)

 13.  In order to make the bottom edge of the opening rigid, hot glue the dowel rod just below the opening on the wrong side of the fabric.

14.  Add trim if desired – I used fabric glue to glue on some grossgrain ribbon on the front of the fabric at the same height as the dowel rod.  I folded the extra ribbon around to the back and hot glued it to cover the rough ends of the dowel rod.

15.  Your theater is done!  To make it easy to store, you can easily sew together a storage case.  Cut a rectangle out of the contrasting fabric – mine was approximately 37″ by 7.5″.  Fold the top down 1.5″, iron.  Fold rough edge in to the fold; iron, pin, and stitch.

Fold in half lengthwise and stitch with 1″ seam along the side and bottom.  Press seams open.  Turn case right side out.

Add trim if desired.  Fold top over and add button for closure.

Amazon links are provided for your convenience. I am an amazon affiliate and would receive a small percentage of any sales resulting from these links.

Yesterday our big project was making our annual Christmas gingerbread house!  We have a cutter kit like this one, which works well for cutting out the basic pieces… but you could let your imagination run wild and build one without a kit!  You can also download a template to use for your pieces here.

Here are the recipes we use – I find that they work very well.

FYI… We also use this recipe to make gingerbread ornaments:

5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (I used butter this time because I was out of shortening… worked fine!)
1 cup molasses (I have also used 1/2 cup of light corn syrup and 1/2 cup molasses when I was low on molasses)

Melt shortening in saucepan. Add sugar and molasses and mix well. Cook until sugar is fully dissolved. Transfer into bowl of a stand mixer. [Obviously this is hot and not a job for kids!!]

Sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and ginger in mixing bowl.  Gradually stir dry ingredients into the shortening mixture.

Divide into three equal parts and place on three different ungreased baking sheets.  Roll into 1/4″ thick rectangles.  [This dough is almost like a candy because you cook the sugar/shortening mixture.  If you find that it has cooled and gotten too thick and hard to roll, just put it in your oven on "warm" and it will soften again.]

2 front/back pieces
2 ends
2 roof pieces
4 chimney pieces
Any trees/ gingerbread boys, etc that you want to use for decoration.

Peel away the excess dough and leave the cut pieces where they were on your baking sheet.

Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes until they are lightly browned. In the meantime, your kids can play with the extra dough which is the consistency of playdough.  Unfortunately, it will look like this on your kitchen counter:

Wow, does that look gross.

After you remove the pieces from the oven, it’s a good idea to take a ruler or other straightedge and trim up the bottoms and sides of your pieces to make sure they are square.  If they get misshapen at all it will make assembling your house a bit frustrating, to say the least!!

I usually end up making four separate batches of this icing. It gets hard rather quickly, so if you’re not using it right away put some plastic wrap right against the surface of the icing in your bowl.

1 large egg white
1 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Beat the egg white until foamy.  Gradually add in sugar and cream of tartar until smooth and stiff.  You want this icing to be very thick.

I usually put the icing in a quart size freezer bag and snip the corner to pipe.

For more Christmas inspiration, visit Simply Vintagegirl’s Homemade Christmas!

NP and I have had some tiny Christmas budgets in our 7 years together. TINY. Like, “he’s been in graduate school for 4 years and our only income is from me teaching in a Christian school” tiny.

It’s a good thing we’re decently creative.

Correction: NP is insanely creative, and I do what I can. :) [Ie: right now NP is sitting on the floor, ripping strips of wrapping paper and craft paper to wrap around Styrofoam wreaths... and they look awesome. He will be suspending these creations from the ceiling with fishing line over the armoir in our living room. When I show pictures of our Christmas decorations I'll give you a peek.]

If you’re looking for some frugal DIY gifts, here are some ideas that might spark your creativity, however buried it may be.

Framed Photo Collage Message

Now, technically this was a Valentine’s Day gift from NP before we were married. But I think it could be adapted to be a lovely Christmas gift to Grandma or another loved one!

He made large signs on foam board – “I” “Love” “You” and “Happy Valentines Day”. Then he coerced his roommate to go along with him to some scenic locations and take pictures of him holding the signs. Then he framed the pictures! Simple and so awesome! I can just picture this being the kidlets holding “We love you” signs for their grandma. :)

Framed Verse or Song Lyric

NP is very good at lettering – I love it when he makes me stuff. I could probably fill several posts with the awesome things he has made me. But that might turn into bragging about my man. ;)

One thing he has done for me and for my parents is write out favorite verses or song lyrics that we treasure, and then matting and framing them. He wrote out a part of this song from Fernando Ortega for me, which was sung in our wedding. He did this for my dad with Ephesians 4:13, which was an “emphasized” verse in our house growing up! They are treasured pieces.

If you’re not confident with lettering yourself, format them with a cool font on the computer and print them on beautiful scrapbook paper.

Rice Neck Wrap

If you have some basic sewing skills, you can sew a rice neck wrap fairly easily. These are wonderful – you fill them with uncooked rice, and when you heat it in the microwave for a minute or two they give off wonderful moist heat that is so soothing. Some people even add lavender or other herbs to make them smell wonderful! There are some ideas for how to do this here.  [I also love this tutorial - such cute fabrics!] Last Christmas I gave one of these wraps to my mother-in-law, who was sick with cancer. We gave it to her along with a gift box of herbal teas, and I think it was appreciated!

Circle Journal

One of the fabulous ideas I have seen in the past and have had filed away in my “mental file drawer” is a circle journal. Find a nice journal or high-quality spiral notebook with an attractive cover and give it to a family member or close friend who lives far from you. Write in the notebook a letter to that person – make sure you date it. Explain in the letter that this “circle journal” will be a written record of your friendship. Now it is her turn to write a letter back to you on the next page(s) and mail it back. Continue to mail it back and forth, filling up the notebook as you go with priceless memories in the form of letters and pictures.

Do you have any DIY frugal gift ideas that have worked for you in the past? If you’d like some more inspiration, click over to Works for Me Wednesday, the gift edition! :)