TRIANGLE LEGGINGS tutorial

I was planning on posting a tutorial for all 3 pairs of leggings I stamped, but then when I wrote out the bow leggings tutorial I realized it was pretty much exactly the same as a tutorial for these triangle leggings would be, so I decided to leave these out. And then today I decided to go ahead and share in case anyone wants to know what method I used and missed the bow leggings tutorial. Did I mention I'm indecisive?

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

-Solid colored leggings
-Fabric paint or acrylic paint plus textile medium

-1 medium-sized potatoe

-A sharp knife

-Cardboard

-A small plate for your paint
-The 3rd installment of your favorite show

For these leggings I used a potato stamp to stamp the triangles and followed the same method as the bow leggings to a T.

The above photo shows an idea of what your potato stamp should look like. This is the only project I used actual fabric paint on rather than acrylic paints plus a textile medium. I used Lumiere fabric paint in Metallic Bronze and LOVED it. I highly recommend it and am definitely going to try other colors in the future. The color came out beautifully and it was more saturated upon first stamping than the other paint combinations I used. I didn't restamp at all because I liked the uneven look of the triangles with the black fabric showing through.

For those wondering why I'd go to the trouble of using acrylic paints plus a textile medium, it was mostly a cost issue for me. I already had a large collection of acrylic paints on hand and wanted to use what I had instead of buying 10 new fabric paint colors at $5 a pop. There is also more variety in acrylic paints colors than the fabric paint aisle at our local craft store. If you have the money to throw down on fabric paint and they carry the colors you like, I say go for it because the Lumiere fabric paint was lovely to work with. 

While I was at my stamping, I also used a 2 inch thick piece of thermal undershirt fabric I cut off of one of my shirts during my repurposing to make a little headband for the kook. It was already the perfect length to tie in a bow, so I just trimmed one of the hems off to tidy it up and used my pencil eraser and the bronze Lumiere fabric paint to stamp dots on the fabric. It was maybe a 5 minute project, if that, and I love the finished look of it. I will definitely be stamping more of my scrap fabric stash to make hair accessories for this gal. Apparently once you stamp, you just can't stop. 

THE KOOK TURNS TWO! (...6 months ago)

Adelaide turned 2! Well, 6 months ago. I asked my friend to take photos of the party because I'm such a frazzled host and after us both forgetting about the CDs any time we saw each other over these last 6 months, she handed them to me at her own daughter's 2nd birthday this past weekend. It was so fun looking at them and seeing how much the kook and our little man have grown and changed in the last 6 months.

After doing way too much for her 1st birthday party in the way of crafting decorations and favors, and baking a bunch of things, I decided I didn't want to bake or cook anything for this party. It was way too stressful last time and I also had a newborn this time around who was just recovering from a month of RSV (memories...). I bought junk food cereal, various milks (for the lactose tolerant and intolerant), tea, good coffee, and then the morning of hubby picked up a few dozen donuts (vegan and non). We had the party at 10 am and it was unusually gorgeous out for a morning in April. The sun was shining and it was nice and warm. It was the perfect day to have a little brunch with friends and family in our backyard. There's not much to tell you in the way of details, but what there is to tell, I'll share below.

INVITATIONS: designed by me
GARLAND: sewn by me- the fastest garland ever
2 POSTER: designed by hubby and printed at his work
PLATTERS: one was a gift from my cousin, a couple were cake platters, and I made the two tall skinny ones out of candlesticks and little plates
ANIMALS & PARTY HATS: the animals were from Michael's and I spent some time one evening making their little party hats
PLATES, TABLECLOTHES, PAPER LANTERNS: Target
FAVORS: mini cereal boxes and animal finger puppets from Target

P.S. Um... and don't mind our ghetto house. Yeah, I was a little embarrassed to put the table and decor in front of that wall that hasn't been painted over, but it was the best spot for everything. Remember how we live in a crooked shmooked house and remodeled the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad inside? Well, the outside is still that crooked shmooked house and hasn't been touched. Let's just say that I would be scared to walk up to our crazy little house. Luckily I live inside the house and rarely pay that much attention to how sad it looks on the outside. Maybe someday we'll do something to the outside? I don't know. We have so many other priorities. But all that to say, the outside of our house is not the beautiful backdrop for backyard parties that I want it to be, but we do live with a beautiful view of the country and friendly farm animals next door so I won't complain.

BOW LEGGINGS tutorial

For my second pair of hand-stamped leggings during KCWC, I chose to do a bow design. I've seen several bow print shirts, sweaters, and more and am all about bows and polka-dots for the gal right now. Okay, really any fun prints... And now that I've gotten into hand-stamping prints on fabric, I can make any printed clothes my print-loving heart desires. You can too! But let's start with these bow leggings.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
-Solid colored leggings

-Fabric paint or acrylic paint plus textile medium

-2 medium-sized potatoes

-A sharp knife

-Cardboard

-A small plate for your paint

-The next episode of your favorite show

1.) Cut your cardboard in the shape of your leggings and stick it inside.

2.) Take your knife and one potato, and cut a bow design into the potato about 1/2" deep. Then use your knife to cut around the design on the side, so that all you have left is bow potato stamp.

3.) Take your knife and the second potato, and cut a circle just big enough to be the center for your bow. Then use your knife to cut around the design but not into it, so that all you have left is a circle potato stamp.

 3.) If you are using acrylic paint plus textile medium, follow the directions on the back of your textile medium and mix the two together on your plate. If you are using fabric paint, just squirt some on the plate. I covered my dish with enough paint to be just a bit bigger than I wanted my bow. A thin pool of paint is better than thick.

 4.) Take your bow potato stamp and dip the very end of it into the paint. At this point, it is good to do a practice stamp or two on a piece of paper to make sure you are using the right amount of paint, not too much or too little, and the right amount of pressure.

 5.) Once you are confident in your stamping, you can start stamping bows on your leggings. Dip your potato in the paint in between each time you stamp. I didn't do very many bows on my leggings, but I think it would also look pretty awesome to have a ton of bows, so go crazy if your heart desires!

6.) Once you are done stamping bows, you can repeat the same process with your circle stamp and stamp circles into the middle of your bows.

7.) If the bow isn't as saturated with color as you would like, you can wait a little while and then carefully restamp them all until they are as saturated as you want.


8.) Once you are done painting, let the leggings dry for 24 hours and then set the paint with heat as directed on the back of your textile medium or fabric paint. Also note washing instructions on your paint, so you don't wash them sooner than needed.

9.) When you are done, and your paint is all dry and set, put the leggings on your toddler and take photos to share with all your blog and Facebook friends. You're so crafty!

KCWC DAY 6 & 7: upcycled thermal nightgown & thermal tee fail

For days 6 and 7 of KCWC, I got out my pile of old thermals. First I cut the sleeves off of my gray one and blue one to make pants for the little man (which I haven't gotten to yet). Then I was left with a sleeveless thermal. I looked at the length and thought it might be the perfect length for a nightgown for the kook. I tried it on her in it's huge state and after she took a nap in it and played for a while, I made her take it off so I could actually take it in to fit a toddler. The length ended up being so perfect that I didn't have to touch the original hem. All I did was trace a slightly loose tee she has to get an idea of where to sew the top, and then extended it to dress length. I left the sleeves raw and took in the neckline to fit her, and that was that. Very simple and practical nightgown. When I was done sewing, I pulled out my fabric paints and spent way too long painting a little kitty friend for the kook. We're both happy with how it turned out. Soon I get to repeat the process with the rest of the blue thermal I chopped the sleeves off of. If anyone is interested, I can attempt a tutorial for you.

My next thermal project was pretending that I know how to sew a long-sleeved tee and learning that I don't. Time to invest in the Flashback Skinny Tee pattern by Made by Rae. I'm going to keep this tee around for her to play in and it may make it out of the house under a sweatshirt, but I definitely didn't mean to do a boatneck and dropped sleeves and my waist hem and pocket are pretty sad. Oh well. That's what happens when an over-confident beginning seamstress tries to make something without a pattern at 1am.

All in all, I'm happy with the sewing I accomplished during KCWC. It was my first time sewing clothing since a couple times in elementary school and I was able to pull only from my stash of clothes to repurpose which meant that I only spent a little bit of money on fabric paint and elastic. My list of things to buy for the kids' fall/winter wardrobes got cut in half and spending a week sewing has convinced me that I can probably make most of the other items they need on the list. Thanks to Elsie for hosting KCWC. I can't wait for the Spring one!

CONFETTI LEGGINGS tutorial

I am always admiring the hand-printed leggings on etsy and floating around Pinterest kid's style boards. While I am definitely not able to drop $30 and $40 on a pair of leggings for my stylish little gal (although I wish I was!), I do have a steady hand and my craft store has plenty of fabric paint. After repurposing a few of my old solid-colored pairs of leggings into new pint-sized leggings for the gal, I knew there had to be something to do to jazz them up a bit. Three different patterns popped into my head and after going through my acrylic paint stash, picking up some fabric paint and textile medium, and staying up way later than I should, I now have 3 uber stylish pairs of toddler leggings.

For my first pair of leggings, I was envisioning a confetti effect, so I started with my berry colored leggings and chose party colors like aqua, neon pink, yellow, and tangerine. I think metallics would also look awesome for this confetti pattern. If you don't have any solid-colored leggings for your kiddo sitting around already and aren't up to sewing any, they are cheap enough to buy at Target or Walmart.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
-Solid colored leggings
-Fabric paint or textile medium and acrylic paints
-A pencil with an unused eraser
-Small dishes for your paint (bottle caps or baby food jar lids work great!)
-Paper towel or cloth
-Cardboard
-Your favorite movie, show, or audiobook to enjoy

1.) Cut your cardboard in the shape of the leggings and stick it inside to keep the front and back from sticking together as you paint.

2.) If you are using a textile medium and acrylic paints, follow the directions on the back of your textile medium and mix the two in your dishes. If you are using fabric paint, squirt a little in your dishes. You only need about a teaspoon.

3.) Get your pencil and dip the very end of the eraser into your first color of paint. If you are nervous about stamping. You can practice a couple times on a piece of paper to make sure you are applying enough even pressure.

4.) Stamp one dot, then dip again, and repeat. To achieve the confetti look, I picked 2 areas to make the dots more concentrated and then stamped less dots in other areas. I stamped each color 3 or 4 times in the concentrated areas and then 3 or 4 dots spaced out over the rest of the area.

5.) Once you are done with the first color, wipe off your eraser with the paper towel and repeat with your next color. Repeat the process again until you are done with each color. If the colors aren't as saturated as you would like, you can restamp them once the dots dry a little until they are the saturation you desire.

6.) Swat the fly swarming around your face. That's just me? Oh ok. Continue on then.

7.) At this point you will only be done with one side. If you aren't in a rush to finish, you can simply let that side dry for a day and stamp the other side the next day. If you are impatient to finish (like me) you can lightly blow-dry the dots until they feel like they won't smudge when you turn over the leggings. Make sure you have paper towels or something covering your table when you flip the leggings over in case any paint comes off.

8.) Once you are done painting, let the leggings dry for 24 hours before setting with heat. Your fabric paint or textile medium should have instructions on how to set the paint with heat. Also note the washing instructions on your paint, so you don't wash them too soon if they need a few days to set.

9.) Now put the leggings on your tot and admire your handiwork!

KCWC DAY 4 & 5: upcycled hand-printed leggings

The Kids Clothes Week Challenge is officially over, but I still have a few projects left to share with you, you lucky ducks.

A messy little toddler can never have too many leggings. When I was going through my closet to find clothes to upcycle for the kiddos, I found my collection of leggings from back when leggings were just coming in again. Three years ago I asked for 5 different colors of leggings for Christmas, and I got them all... and ended up wearing maybe 2 pairs. I was a little over-enthusiatic about the leggings trend. When I found them again, I immediately knew that #1- my leggings needed to go far away from my legs, and #2- where they needed to go was the kook's little legs. I used the same method as this tutorial to upcycle the leggings except I resized the legs to be thinner for little toddler legs by measuring against a pair of leggings that fit her well. Our legs aren't quite the same size. Oh, but I barely had to take the white pair of leggings in at all. And that was when I remembered I never wore them because they were so stinking tight. Toddler tight.

After I was done making the leggings, I decided they needed a little help and I got out the fabric paint and ended up with 3 funky hand-printed patterns on them that I love. I'll be sharing the tutorials with you this week.

Kook!