Paige's Polka Dot Party!

So Paige's 10th Birthday (Wow!) is coming up soon and I've been working out the details.

She couldn't really come up with a 'theme' but knew she wanted to invite a few friends (and include her brothers and male cousins) to our local community pool for a Pool Party! We won't have exclusive use, but we can bring in whatever food we want so it should still be fun! She then wanted a few of her besties to come spend the night - SLUMBER PARTY!

Without a real 'theme', I wasn't sure what to do for invitations, but she knew she wanted the 'colors' to be turquoise and lime green. Fun! So just playing around with invitation ideas, I came up with this:


It's bright and colorful and FUN and, best of all, Paige liked it! So I printed and we delivered about 14 of these. The few invited to the slumber party afterward received a small, separate invitation to that as well.

There's not a whole lot of decorating to do at the pool. I picked up some dollar store sand pails that I'll serve some food in (just finger food only - triangle sandwiches, fruit kabobs, chips, drinks and cupcakes) and then we'll have some pool games. I'm hoping to do Pool Noodle Relay Races, Water Tag (tag people with water shooter), and Frozen Shirt contests.

For the Slumber Party afterward, I wanted to do a few decorations at home. My plan is to confine the slumber party to our den. It extends from the kitchen, so they'll have access to more snackage for the evening, but keeps them away from sleeping babies upstairs. It will also prevent any prank-pulling on Blake (I speak from experience).

So I'm planning to make a bunch of these to hang around the ceiling. I already found aqua and lime green tissue paper... I just have to do the legwork.


For the back wall of the den, I'd also like to make a quick paper banner to hang. Something like this, but in Paige's colors:

If I have time and I'm motivated, I may pull out some Christmas lights to hang around the room as well, but we'll see. I'll post more pictures next week of the decorations and the party!

Messenger Bag from a pair of Cargo Pants

Paige carried a Messenger Bag to school last year and really liked it - preferred it over a backpack. But the adjustable strap would never stay where we put it, so the bag usually ended up down near her knees and I hated that! So in my blog-surfing, I had stumbled upon a couple of different tutorials and patterns:

Inspiration for using cargo pants at Noddlehead here, but I wanted a horizontal vs. vertical configuration and wanted it a little bit bigger than this one.

A few more tutorials here and here I read. I wasn't sure about boxed corners at the bottom vs. a gusset but more reading indicated adding gussets will give it a little more structure.

So Saturday I made a stop at Goodwill for some cargo pants and found a cute pair of ladies Aeropostale pants. The were a little smaller than I was hoping (less fabric) but I just didn't see what I wanted in any mens pants and these had such cute pockets!

Here's the front of the bag. The flap was made from one of the leg side pockets and I ended up having to piece it. There's a part from the lower leg pieced right above the pocket because the side leg pocket was too close to the upper leg pocket to use that piece whole. I used more of that cute owl fabric I made her pencil case out of for the binding, lining and underside of the strap. There are two pockets here - one button pocket and then a zipper pocket right above it.



The other leg of the pants had two button pockets lined up, so I used that section as the back of the bag.


Here's a picture with the front flap opened up. I actually used the 'rear' of the pants to make the front inside pocket. There's one roomy pocket (top edge is the waistband) plus, of course, the additional two button pockets.

And last, here's a peek at the inside. It's fully lined with no exposed seams, topstiched everywhere in pink thread, and I even tried to put a water bottle holder on the inside (in green fabric) but the fit is a little snug after stitching it in, so I need to rework it somehow... or make it just a pen/pencil divider :-)

The gussets and strap were pieced from one lower leg and upper front sections. There was actually very little left over, so it worked out great.

I really enjoyed sewing this and might just have to make me one someday. If you missed it, check out the pencil case I made her last week here - it's out of the same owl fabric and is really cute! I need to rework the inside pocket and re-sew one side of the strap and then I'll try to get a picture with Paige wearing it.

I'm linking this post to the crafty linky parties below. Click through to get lost in blogland looking at all of the cool projects.

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri
Make It for Monday @ Cottage Instincts
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
I Made the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter

Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Made By You Monday @ Skip to My Lou

Pencil Case and RED MONKEY BUTT!

I wanted to make some special for Paige for starting school. It's not that I don't sew for the other kids, but she's always so excited about the projects and really wants to sew more and learn more herself.

I really like the design of this Gathered Clutch over at Noodlehead. Thanks Anna for the inspiration and the wonderful tutorial. This process for doing the zipper was super easy! I needed it a little longer, though, to fit pencils and markers, and didn't need the internal pockets. So I just pretty much winged it from memory. I put my gathers at the top and bottom because I hadn't printed out the tutorial, but through the center (under the band) would have been easier.

Here's the front:




Paige really was excited about it... she loved the gathers. Heya Momma - I know Shel likes owls too - think she'd like one as a "Back to School" surprise in the mail? If I sent her one, would her sis like one too, but maybe in a black and white fabric with a bold color band? Let me know!

Here's the back - just plain:


And it is fully lined, but no internal pockets or anything.

Paige also discovered months ago a pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks that my Mom sent me (probably) years ago that I'd never done anything with. Once she found them, she just HAD to have a sock monkey. She's been asking me for a while, so this week we finally got around to it. She helped a lot with the stuffing and sewing the buttons for eyes on.

She's named her Lacey, has slept with her every night this week, and is now asking for some clothes for her. She was also surprised to see her butt looks just like her face:

All in all, already a pretty producting week. Maybe THIS weekend I'll get that second bench made... I'd also like to start working on some clothing refashions. I'll keep ya posted!