Baby Candy Corn Costume

About a month ago I realized that, now that I have a little girl, I'm feeling the pressure to have a really cute little costume for her for Halloween. This is particularly true since it's her first Halloween, she's still pretty tiny, and obviously has no say in the matter so it is completely momma's pick.

I had planned to purchase Hannah's costume as to alleviate something from my to do list, but I wasn't overly inspired by my choices. So I decided to take a cue from my contributors (Have you seen Tiffany's Tiny Dancer, Patrice's Cupcake or Very Hungry Caterpillar costumes?), and make her something myself.

I had to look no further than my favorite Halloween treat.

source

This was pretty darn easy, folks. It took me about 2 1/2 hours total, which included all ironing, measuring, cutting, and sewing. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures along the way because I was camera-less when I was making it. But it was easy and I'll walk you through.

I started off with a plain white onesie that fit my daughter, and one of her dresses to use as a guide for the costume. I decided that the skirt should be about 10" long so I pulled out my fabric.

Measure & Cut Fabric

I purchased a half yard of this orange fabric from JoAnns and decided to use some leftover yellow fabric from my stash.

I cut my orange fabric into a long rectangle, 24" x 8". I didn't have a long enough strip of yellow, so I just cut two 15" x 4" strips and stitched them together to make one long 30" x 4" strip.

Hem and Ruffle Yellow Trim

I folded the bottom of the yellow fabric over about 1/8", ironed it down, folded and ironed it a second time, and sewed it down to finish off the bottom hem of the skirt. Then I set my sewing machine to it's longest stitch, tightened the tension and sewed down the length of the fabric, ruffling it slightly.

Attach Yellow to Orange

I laid my yellow tier down next to my orange tier and adjusted the ruffling until they were the same length. Then I pinned the pieces together with the right sides in and sewed them together with a 1/2" inseam.

Ruffle Orange

Next I sewed a running stitch down the other side of the orange fabric, setting my tension as tight as it would go so that the orange fabric was very ruffled. I adjusted the ruffled fabric so that it was twice the length of my onesie, folded it in half with the right sides of the fabric facing in, and sewed the ends together.

Attach Skirt to Onesie

For the next part I followed the instructions for the 10 Minute Dress Tutorial. This is my second onesie dress using this method and I have still not managed to do it in anywhere close to 10 minutes, but I'm pretty sure it's a user-error. I still consider myself new to sewing, especially when it comes to sewing with knits. :) I took my time and that seemed to give me more control.

My only modification to this tutorial, is that I wanted the "skirt" part of my dress to start at the bust line instead of the waist line as they show. But once you have your "skirt" you can play around with it on the onesie and see what you'd prefer before you attach it.

You're Finished! or Embellish!

As soon as the skirt was attached I just loved this little dress. I squealed, waved it in front of my husband to admire, and texted a picture to my mom and sister. And the next day I embellished it a little. (Sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone!)

I thought the "onesie part" seemed a bit plain compared to the "skirt part." So I pulled out my Ultra Hold Heat N Bond and used it to attach a 1" grosgrain ribbon around the waist. I left the ends unattached in the back for a big floppy bow and hit the ends of the ribbon with a fabric no fray. I also made a tiny bow with orange ribbon and hand stitched it under the collar. Perfect.

I used the same yellow and white polka dotted fabric and this tutorial to make these bloomers for Hannah when I was about 6 months pregnant. I was so excited to discover that they still fit! So her costume is set.

Now I just need to make the perfect headband. :)

I'll be linking to some great parties this week, feel free to stop by to say hi!

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Evolution of a Dresser Top

Dresser tops around our home are ever changing.  So many possibilities and so much fun.

 

1.) You saw my girl's room in this post and it showed the dresser topped like this...

2.) This is what happened to the dresser when baby girl was a few weeks old...

3.) And just yesterday, I changed the dresser to look like this...

I just had to use some scrabble tiles.  I am sure the word will be changed frequently but for now "sisters" seemed perfect.  I could change it weekly with the current sight word my daughter is learning at school.  Hmmm...just thinking out loud.

I used a couple of the little birdies from one of my very first Lemon Tree projects you saw here.

My sister gave me this cool mirrored tray awhile back.  I finally got around to painting it white and it now holds my five-year-old's favorite pieces of jewelry and a fresh flower in a tiny vase.

I love it.  But I gotta be honest, my favorite was #2 (the one with the changing pad) because that represents a baby and I love me some babies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Tuesday!

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Elk Dresses Giveaway!!!

Yes, it is a good week here at Lemon Tree Creations...2 giveaways for our dear readers!  I am so excited about this giveaway because I was lucky enough to win an Elk Dress from a blog awhile back.  It was the best thing I have ever won!  Cutest dress in my baby girl's closet.  Seriously.   

Doesn't that picture make you want one already?

I hope you have already heard of Elk Dresses but if not, I am thrilled to be the one to introduce you.

Everything in the shop is absolutely fabulous!  You will find handmade 100% knit t-shirt cotton dresses, leggings, skirts, hair accessories for girls sizes 3 months to 8.  It is a must see.

If you want to win an item from Elk Dresses, please click HERE to find out more.

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Flower Pot Ribbon Tree

The project I have to share with you today is very quick and easy. Recently, while I was at a friend's baby shower they had the cutest table centerpieces. They told me that they had seen them in this cute boutique with a hefty price tag, so they had decided to tackle making them on their own.  It turned out to be such a great idea, I just had to share it with you!

 

This project is so simple I will let the pictures do most of the talking!

Maybe you can use this great idea for your own sweet girl, a gift opportunity, or an upcoming shower!

Happy Wednesday,

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Silhouette Project - Ballerina Shirt

My daughter had a plain white shirt that was older and mainly used to wear under sweaters so I thought it would be fun to spruce it up.  

I started playing around in the Silhouette Studio and found a ballerina silhouette image that I loved.  I had pink heat transfer from Silhouette in the closet waiting to be used for something.

The image came out perfectly even with those little dainty ballerina hands.  I peeled away the extra pink leaving only my image and then ironed it in place on the white shirt.

Next I cut out a rough shape of the skirt from cardstock to use as a pattern.

I used the pattern to cut out several layers of pink tulle that I had in my scrap basket.

I cut a piece of pink ribbon just the size to fit the top of the tulle layers.  I put craft glue on the ribbon and placed my tulle pieces on one by one.

After I layered the tulle pieces, I folded the ribbon over and held it down for a minute.  Now I had a little tutu for the ballerina.  I trimmed up the sides and roughly scalloped the edges of the tutu to give it more life and make it fit better.

To attach the tutu on the shirt, I used three small buttons and pink thread.

Now the ballerina has a "real" tutu.

I wanted the tutu silhouette to still show on the sides a little.  I was so excited about the results!

A plain white tee transformed into a fun pink ballerina shirt...

Can't wait to surprise my daughter with her new ballerina shirt when she gets home from school.  I just know she will love it!  

I'll be partying at these blogs this week.  Won't you join me?

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Fun & Simple Photo Card

I love how inspiration is at our fingertips constantly and left for us to interpret however we please.  It is an amazing thing how one idea can take off in twenty different directions.  Love it.  

I have a friend named Jody.  She blogs at Clean and Simple.  She is awesome.  She recently threw a party for her oldest daughter who turned 18.  The party was held outdoors and on their garage door she created a huge # 18 formed by 100 black & white photos of her daughter.  Genius, right?    

She shared the original photo that inspired this special feature at her daughter's party.  It came from Martha Stewart.  

I fell in love.  My niece was also turning 18 and I thought this idea could be used on a much smaller scale to create a birthday card for her.

I found a photo of her as a baby and a current photo.  I copied and pasted the photos into a word document on my computer, shrunk the pics to tiny, and printed off several rows of both pics.

I then cut out each tiny pic and glued them onto a folded piece of cardstock in my niece's favorite color in the shape of #18.

Super fun, simple, and completely personalized for the birthday girl!

Thanks, Jody { & Martha} for inspiring me! 

Check out these blog parties for a crazy amount of inspiration!

Happy Tuesday!

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Subway Art for the Nursery

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I wanted to show you one last project for my daughter's nursery before I show you the room as a whole, which I'll be doing next week. Here's a little peek.

After the sonogram where I found out that I was having a girl, I found myself humming a little song by the Temptations quite often. Can guess which one it is? It became one of the main songs that I sang to my little bump as she grew, and I still sing it to her now. I knew I'd like a little piece of this to make it's way into her nursery, as it expresses how we all feel about her addition to our family and our lives. So this is what I came up with. Do you like it?! Want the details? Read on.

I started this project by rummaging through my small stash of wood, where I found a piece of old weathered barn wood that I thought would be perfect. I measured the width and length so that I could see roughly how large the letters needed to be and then turned to my Silhouette.

I browsed the wide selection of fonts available, tried a few of the lyrics in the different fonts until I found a few that I liked, and printed them in black and white on regular printer paper.

I laid the words out on the wood, picked the fonts that I liked best, went back to the Silhouette and played around with the sizes a bit until everything fit just the way I wanted it to.

I got some sturdy card stock and cut out each of the words using my Silhouette SD Cutter. I laid them out on the board just to make sure that I had everything exactly where I wanted it to be, and then took a picture that I could reference once I started my stenciling.

I pulled out my DecoArt paint in Daffodil Yellow and White, a few of the same colors that I used for the damask stencil on my nursery walls, in addition to Americana Paint in Grey Sky.

I used the cut out portion of the card stock as a stencil for this project. I laid it out one line at a time on the board, using my photo as a reference for spacing and centering.

I used this little sponge stencil brush, loaded it with paint, blotted off the excess, and lightly dabbed on the paint.

I wanted a light coverage, so I purposefully didn't work the paint into all of the cracks and crevices of the wood. I removed the stencil and gave the paint about 5 minutes to dry, which was all that it needed. I worked my way down the board, doing one line at a time and was finished in a flash.

There were a few places where the paint coverage was too thick for my liking, so I got a coarse sanding block and lightly sanded in small circles until I got the aged look that I was going for.

I then used my wire brush to scrape some lines into the paint and give it a further distressed appearance.

I sprayed the finished board with a light coat of polyurethane, added hanging wire to the back, and popped it up in the nursery.

I love love love it! It is impossible to rock Hannah in her room and not sing this song, and it brings a smile to my face every time I see it. It is one of those rare projects that turned out exactly the way I had pictured it in my head and I'm so happy with it!

I love the contrast of the coarse rugged wood and the crisp gray paint on the walls. It is a lovely addition to the nursery and I had the hardest time deciding where to hang it. I'm looking forward to showing it to you next week along with the rest of the nursery. Please stop back and let me know what you think!

I'll be linking to these amazing parties this week, and thanks to all of the wonderful hosts!

Have a great week!

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