Cinderella Alterations - Sleeve

Many years ago, our family was in the play "Into the Woods." The girl playing Cinderella in the play needed a blue dress. 
 
I had purchased some heavy blue curtains to make one of my girls a dress at some point. They needed a dress for the play so I gave them the blue fabric to make her a dress. 
 
I am not sure who they had make the dress but it wasn't made very well and they didn't like how it looked so they ended up using a different dress. Since the fabric was mine, they gave me the dress. 
 
Princess Five is going to do "On the Steps of the Palace" for musical theater this year. She needed a costume for the song. I pulled out that blue dress and asked Princess if she thought we could use it.  


She said she wanted more "Puffy" sleeves and also, the skirt was WAY to thick and heavy. I told Princess that I would do some alterations and if she didn't like it, we could find some other dress to use. 
 
I pulled the skirt off and took out one of the skirt panels to make the front of the skirt thinner and left the back thicker. 

I then cut that panel of the skirt to make new sleeves and shoulders. I zig-zagged over fish line on the top edge and used the fish line to gather the top of the shoulder. 
 
I couldn't actually take the see through shoulders off as I didn't want to make a new shoulder. The shoulders that I put on are more poofy and would fall off the shoulder if we didn't have the one that is there. I had to hand stitch the new one over the other as you can see in the more close up picture here. 

You can see how it is sewn over the other one. I hand stitched the top of the sleeve that was gathered over the existing see through sleeve. I just folded over the gathering to the underside of the sleeve and then pinned it until I stitched it. 
 
Once the sleeves were on, I hemmed the bottoms evenly. 

After they were hemmed, I wanted to make them "puffy." I thought about gathering the entire thing but that would make them poofy on the bottom and not on the top. I also thought of sewing a piece of elastic just on the top bottom edge but I really wanted it to be more just on the top and puffy on the top.
 
I accordion folded the top center with about three pleats and hand stitched them and then stitched the pleats toward the back so the openings faced the front.    

To make the sleeve more "puffy" I took some tulle and and folded it in the center and the center again and put it in the shoulder area over the satin/see through they had and the new shoulder I put on. I hand sewed it in and it did make the shoulders look higher and more "poofy."
 
In my next post, I will share how I added sashes, bows, frilly neck and what I used to do that. 

This project would have been easier starting from scratch but I was glad that we were able to use somethings we had already to make the dress and it didn't cost much. 

The Daughters of Triplets

We had a cousins party this past weekend after my aunts funeral. About 2/3rds of my 40 cousins were there.

 
It was a sad weekend as we lost the first member of the family in my dad's generation but the fact that my dad as a triplet group all made it to 80 years old is something. 

I am guessing that there aren't many groups of triplets that make it to 80 and all three reached that birthday milestone. 

My dad is an identical twin and a fraternal twin. 

My cousin in the top photo has fraternal twins and her dad is the other boy twin. My sister in the middle top of our family picture on the stairs has identical twins and she is the other male twins daughter. 
 
My aunt that died and is the fraternal twin of the triplets had twins that died. I don't know if they were fraternal or identical. 

So, twins run in the family. I think that the type of triplets my dads grouping is, was fairly rare as having identical and fraternal in the same birth can't be typical. 

While we were at the party, my aunt wanted to get family group pictures. My dad came to bring a car as my sisters truck broke down. He was in a hurry as he hadn't planned on coming to the party.

We sat on the stairs and were trying to get a good picture with him but my camera flash wasn't working. It turned out that the dial had gotten moved. So, my dad gets up to leave and my brother jokes that we should get his twin to sit and smile in the picture and nobody would know the difference. 

My uncle sat down and smiled for the camera and we all laughed and laughed at that and then we tried to get one with my dad alone with the flash as well and my uncle kept "photo bombing" the picture so we never did get a picture of just our family with the flash. 

It was so funny that we all got a good laugh out of it including my dad, uncle and his wife. As you can see, we all were laughing quite hard in the pictures.  

It was so good to see my cousins again and we always get a picture of the three of us that were about the same age and are all children of one of the different triplets. We "hung out" together. The last time we got together and took a picture was at this reunion I put on a few years back. Here is the post about that.

It turned out to be a great weekend with some ups and downs but I was grateful to be able to go and see everyone and honor my aunt. When I called my father to give condolences about his sisters death, he said, "It is the end of an era, the triplet era." It made me sad but as I shared at the beginning of this post, the fact that they were all in great health on their 80th birthday this past summer is a wonderful blessing and I am grateful that we have had them in our lives and doing well for so many years. I pray I last that long and am in as good of shape as my dad at that age.

Sharpie Christmas

You may think this is the lamest post ever but I have to share it as it is such a thing in our family. 

Today I have had the worst headache I have had in almost a year. I couldn't move for fear of losing my cookies. I fought it most of the day after having it most of the night. I was out of town for a funeral until late last night and was fine when I went to bed. 

I could barely get up. I took something and drank some Coke and went back to bed. Not feeling much better, I showered and climbed back into bed listening to a movie with my eyes closed hoping it would distract me from the pain. Every time I moved, I felt like I was going to be sick. 


You have to know how sick I was for the fact that Princess One was going to stop at my house on her way through the state for a vacation with Prince One's family. 

I was SO sick that I called her and told her not to come!!!! You all KNOW how much I love being a grandma and how I adore Grand-Princess One. I live for the moments I get to spend with her. For me to have them not come shows just how horrible I feel. I was in bed today until just before 7 p.m. when the pain lifted some and I got up to eat and drive Princess Five to a meeting and pick up some groceries. When she needed a ride home from school, I had her beg for a ride from someone else as there was no way I could get her.


My brother called at some point in there asking to stay the night at my house as he was headed to another state and wanted to rest half way to his destination. 

I washed the sheets, straightened up from my trip, took more drugs for my headache that never fully subsided and left me lightheaded and somewhat dizzy all day.  

I've continued to take something throughout the day and will take something before going to bed tonight praying I wake feeling better in the morning. 

I hope Princess One will stop over on their way home so I can visit with them and lets pray my headache doesn't come back anytime soon.

Anyway, back to the Sharpie story. Many years ago, it was my birthday. My spouse hadn't gotten me anything and we were shopping at Kmart. He asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said I wanted a package of "Sharpie" markers. I joked that "All I need is this package of Sharpies to be happy." 

Then, as we went through the store, I picked up something else, and said, "All I need is this package of Sharpies, and this item." (can't remember what it was.) We got to the checkout and I saw a candy bar I liked and picked it up and said, "The only things I need is this package of Sharpies, this item and this candy bar to be happy." 
 
So, over the years it has become a running joke for our family. If you search my blog posts for "Sharpie" or "Sharpies" you will see that MANY of my posts have them. I use Sharpie for anything and everything. 

For Christmas, Princess Four gave me the 80's galm pack. She didn't know that I had purchased that pack last summer for Girls Camp when we did our "Snow White" theme. 

Princess Five went through all my markers recently and got all the doubles and gave them to sisters to use and we ended up returning the new pack and going to lunch together instead. 

You can see though that I do LOVE Sharpie and all of their colors. I am a little light on the tan/brown colors as I think I put them in a bag to use on the trailer sides and lost them. Here is a post about that. Here is a link to a post where I lightly mention my Sharpie joke - obsession.

Seriously, I think Sharpie should pay me for all the ways I suggest you use them on my post. I wish I were better about the advertising thing, I could probably be making a living off of Sharpie advertisement and trailer repair items.  

Here is to hoping tomorrow is a better day! 

Pop or Soda Can Tab Purse

Since I am out of town for the funeral, I wanted to post this as it is something once again that I haven't made but saw and thought was VERY creative. 

I sometimes wonder how people come up with these things. How do they create the patterns and figure out which recyclable material to use. 


I also wonder sometimes at their reasoning. This purse obviously took a long time to make. The stitches are small and mostly tightly together. The pop can tabs are hand stitched in. 

I think to myself on something like this that the time it takes to make the product and calculate in the cost of the cotton or nylon yarn or sting verses the functionality or style of the purse and is it really worth making.

I do think these recycled things are cute but after the initial first time of wearing them, I have never seen anyone wear them again. 

I have posted about making pop can tab jewelry. Click here for that post. I have posted about making belts, Click here for that post. Here is a post about the first time Princess Five made some pop tab jewelry. 

Tractor Swing Out of a Tire

I saw this really cute swing made out of a tire. I thought it would be very fun to make at some point in the future. I think that we fill our landfills with tires and it is a shame we can't do more with them. 

This by far is the most amazing thing I have seen made out of a tire. 

I haven't made one and I was going to take some time and try to figure out the pattern and describe it but my fathers is a triplet and one of them passed away. The graveside service is today so I will be out of town so I am posting this in place of writing a post. 


I hope you can get enough information from my post to get an idea of how it is made. It didn't look like it needed a ton of work and my guess is that the hardest part is cutting the tire. 


I used a drill to punch holes through the tire when I make my tire swings so I know power tools can make the job easier when dealing with tires. 


Here is a link to my post about making the tire swing.

I think any little farmer would be thrilled to have this hanging in their yard! 

Salvaging Glass Items

A few years ago, I bought a set of hand-blown amber goblet stemware.

I have always loved the look of hand-blown glass. I love that every piece is unique and different. I guess I find it like people, no two pieces are alike. 

One day, the base of one of the goblets broke. I hated to throw out the entire piece. I had this wire holder that had a glass oil candle in it and it broke leaving this cool wire holder. 

I thought that perhaps, I could take the goblet to the local glass store and see if they could grind it down like they do the edges of larger glass table tops. 

I took it in and they were able to grind it down as you can see in the picture so it went from the goblet base you see to the candle holder.
 
This past week, I was rearranging some of my hand blown glass items and one of my very favorite pieces wasn't setting quite right on the shelf and when I walked away, it fell and shattered the base. 

It was a thin green pitcher with a clear glass handle. The bottom was ruined but the neck and handle section was still intact. 

I thought to myself, "I wonder if the grinder on my Dremel would be able to grind it down so the edges aren't sharp and make it level so that I could use it for a holder for a hand blown glass bulb?" 

I pulled out my dremel and put the grinder on it and made SURE to wear eye protection and put the piece inside a bag so that any little pieces wouldn't go anywhere in the kitchen but into the bag. 

I ground it down as flat as I could get it and it wasn't sharp at all. It looks white in the picture as the dust is still on it so you can see the edges but when I washed it, the white came off. 
 
As you can see in the top picture, grinding it down, making it level worked as it is a cute holder for the glass ornament I have. Something new for the day and I was glad my experiment worked. 

I had a pyrex lab beaker the I broke the top corner off that I wanted to have ground down and took it to the glass shop and they lost it. Now, if anything breaks, I can just grind it down myself. Nice to know something new. 

I just wish I could learn to blow glass myself. I think it is an amazing art. 

Butterfly - Weaving Vlinderloom

My friend Julie, that I mentioned in the post a few days ago, showed me something new. I had never seen it before but it is a "Butterfly Loom"  or a Vlinderloom.

I assume it gets its name because it folds down the middle and the sides go back like the wings of a butterfly.

She said it is very easy to use, it is easy to remove the projects because the sides fold back which loosens the project to come off quickly. 


She purchased it online and there are two sizes. She made these loopy decorative scarves on the loom and said they worked up very quickly. 


She said if you are looking to make something for charity donations, they are quick and don't take as much yarn or time but give a pretty decorative scarf. 

She also worked up some hot pads and used multiple colors.

I wanted to share the pictures and the loom as I had never heard of it before or even seen what it could do. She purchased them online if you are interested, you can watch "how to" videos" on youtube.

Valentine Tradition, New Location

This year, we weren't all together for Valentines day. We were in five different cities across the state. 

If you have read this blog for long, you will know that we have an annual Valentines Day Scavenger hunt. 

Princess One invited us to her house last week and I secretly packed a few treats so we could celebrate with the three girls that were going to be visiting. 
 
Here is a link to our hunt in 2013.

Here is a link to our hunt in 2012. 
 
Here is a link to our hunt in 2011.

I guess I didn't post one last year with the baby being born.


Princess Two and Princess Five were able to go and we had an early Valentines day.

It was Grand Princess One's first Valentines hunt. Not that she had any idea what was going on but she was happy with her "Dorthy" doll as her mom collects "The Wizard of Oz" and at some point, they want to do her room in that.

Princes number one loves Disney and book they are two of his favorite things. I found a Disney "Magic Eye" book. It is one of those books that when you stare at the page, it becomes 3-D.

I thought the pictures was funny as his eyes are going crossed. :-)


My niece and her husband and kids were there and I gave them Snickers bars and some other treats.

On Valentines Day, the only person I had home was Princess Four. She was home for the long weekend and Princess Five was at a retreat weekend. I did a trail of candy and a card and sweater for Princess Four.


It was fun getting to see most of the kids in the last week and I got to speak to Princess Three for several hours as well. It was a great Valentines Day and I had some wonderful reminders that my Heavenly Father loves me. I hope your Valentines Day was wonderful as well.