Simple Decorative Table Covering for Any Season

Look at me!  I actually did a craft!  This project is SEW simple to make with a machine, and would even work up quickly by hand if that's your style.  All you need is a yard of woven cotton fabric in any color or design you like and at least 1/2 yard of any coordinating fabric.

Square up your cuts of fabric.  I do it by pulling a thread, but maybe you know of a different way.

Cut the larger piece of fabric in as big a square as you can.  Because of crooked bolting and uneven cutting, it will almost certainly be less than a 36-inch square.  Fold and press edges in 1/4-inch, then fold them over another 1/4-inch and press again.  Then top stitch all the way around.

Do the same thing with the smaller fabric, making a square as close to 18 inches as possible, and hem it all the way around as well.

Depending on your table, you may want to adjust these sizes.

Place larger cloth on table with points toward table ends and sides.  Place smaller cloth on top at a 45° angle (with points toward table corners).  Place centerpiece as desired.  Or, you know, you can put it on the table any way you like.

These are simple and inexpensive to make, so why not have some for every holiday or season?  I find that in our house, a full table cloth is likely to shift or get pulled on by our unruly cats, but these smaller table toppers work great.  When the table is pretty, we're much less likely to use it as catch all surface, too.

Kat's Harley Quinn (or Harlequin Jester) Costume

Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know who Harley Quinn was.  If you don't know, either, she is a super-villian character in the Batman series.  She's who Kat has decided to be at our friends super-hero themed Halloween party.  Because of a scheduling snafu, we weren't able to go, but Kat was able to wear her costume for her school's Trunk or Treat last Friday and will wear it again Halloween night.

There are many renderings of Harley Quinn online; here's one to give you an idea what she looks like:

It's a little precocious for a 9-year-old, don't you think?  And this is actually one of the more understated images.  But I was pretty sure with my lack of fine sewing skills, I could come up with a less revealing costume.  This costume would never win any sewing ribbons, but it will work just fine for the two or three times Kat will wear it.

To do this on the cheap, I started with two pairs of stretch pants, one red and one black, and two stretch tops, one black and one red.  While I was there, I just got lucky by finding the tiny little strapless dress in black and red harlequin print.  I grabbed it, too, because I was sure it would come in handy.

After spending some time cutting things apart and sewing them back together, and adding a few embellishments, I came up with this.

 Voila!  Harley Quinn!  

It won't win any awards, but it will do.  Total cost <$15.  Total time (not counting thrift store shopping), 7-8 hours at a leisurely pace. 

Can I Be Frank With You?

Let's see if I can "Frankenstein" $10 worth of thrift store clothes into a big freakin' mess Halloween costume for Kat. 

Into the lah-bor-ah-tory I go...

A Quick Sewing Project: Doll Dress From a Baby Onesie

Here is the quick craft project I promised last Friday.  Better late than never, I guess.  When I made Kat's new dress last week, it was quite a bit longer than it needed to be, so I cut a few inches off the bottom before hemming it.

With that extra strip of fabric, I decided to make a coordinating dress for Kat's American Girl doll (whose name I can't tell you, as it changes almost weekly).

I'm not really skilled enough to try to duplicate the jumper-type dress I made for Kat.  Maybe with enough time I could, but I wanted this done in time for the big Easter celebration with her step-dad's family this weekend.  So instead of a jumper, I used the leftover fabric to make a skirted t-shirt.

I scouted around a little, but couldn't find a plain white t-shirt -- or a colored one, for that matter -- that would fit an 18-inch doll unless I ordered something online.  Instead, I used a newborn onesie.  If you can find a premie-sized onesie, it might fit even better. 

The fabric I cut off Kat's dress was too long; had I gathered that much fabric, it would have fanned out like a square dance dress.  Nothing wrong with that, but not the look I was going for.  Because I wanted the underside of the skirt to be "pretty", too, I cut two strips of fabric that were the same size and that wrapped around the doll approximately 1-1/2 times. 

With right sides together, I sewed them together along the bottom edge.  I turned them right-side out and pressed.  This created a self-hemmed, self-lined ruffle. 

I sewed the ends together and formed a ring.

I machine basted the top edge and gathered it to fit the cut-off onesie.   I thought about keeping the snap part of the onesie, but it was just too long for the doll (onesie on the ground, onesie on the ground, lookin' like a fool with your onesie on the ground...) so I cut off that part.

With the right sides of both the onesie and the ruffle together, I sewed the ruffle to the onesie.  Once attached, I flipped the skirt into place, folded and hand-tacked the seam in the back so it didn't show as much, and pressed the entire dress.  Because the skirt is doesn't stretch, the dress has to be put on the doll from the feet up.

And...that's it.  Simple as can be.  Assuming you have a scrap of fabric and some thread on hand, the total cost was $2 (for the onesie that came in a 4-pack for $8).  It took an hour to assemble. 

Here's the doll modeling her new dress.

BTW, the doll got purple-framed glasses this school year because Kat got purple-framed glasses this school year.  The doll was a gift from her grandma and great-grandma on her step-dad's side of the family.   They buy an American Girl (or Boy) doll for each grandchild that is their "mini me".  I think this is such a wonderful idea that I thought I'd share it in case anyone wants to start a new tradition in their family.

Weekend Randomness

• To further our adventures in healthy, cultured foods, we picked up some water kefir grains from a local craigslister who was giving them away.  I'll be posting about water kefir and the other cultured foods we've been making sometime soon.
  
• If you have noticed (or notice soon) one fewer follower on your Google Friends Connect counter, that's probably me.  Don't worry!  I'm still using Google Reader to follow you, but just not with GFC.  Not all blogs can be followed with GFC, so I'm just trying to get all my subscriptions to work the same way.  You know, to make my life a little less complicated.
  
• There was much excitement at my daughter's house on Thursday of last week.  My son-in-law was in the attic for some reason on Thursday morning, stepped off the wood planks up there, and dropped in on their roommate by falling through the ceiling.  He's bruised about the ribs, but otherwise fine (paramedics were called and checked him out).  Shane went yesterday to help my daughter and SIL repair the ceiling so the roomie can move back in.
  
• I spent some time over the weekend herding cats.  Yep, it's about as much fun as you think it would be. One of our cats (we think it was Siesta) managed to release the screen on our new back door and then Tuxie and Swiper got out. You'd think as much as that thing cost, it would be cat-escape-proof.   I managed to get them in, but the next day, Siesta and Tuxie managed to escape into the garage and were heading down the stairs to the basement.  I guess cats get cabin fever, too, but this nonsense has got to stop!
  
• Our garden is coming along nicely; we've been eating asparagus almost daily for a week or more, and soon lettuce and radishes will be ready for salad.  I plan to go out later today to do some thinning and to get some photos for tomorrow's garden post.
  
• I mentioned on Friday that I was going to work on a little crafty something to go with Kat's new dress, but I didn't get to that over the weekend.  I'll post it as soon as I get it done; either this afternoon or tomorrow.
  
• I left the windows down in the van yesterday afternoon, thinking I'd be running another errand.  When that didn't happen, I forgot to go out and roll the windows up until the wee hours of the morning.  It was still 70° at 3:30 a.m., on April 2, in Missouri.  That's crazy warm for this early in the year!
  
• I didn't just wake up and remember the van windows were down.  I didn't rest much at all last night, and it was just one of many odd things that came to mind as I was trying to get to sleep.  I feel -- and no doubt, look -- like (insert uncomplimentary/unpleasant descriptive phrase of choice) this morning, so I'm off to try to get a nap.  Probably won't happen with all I should be doing instead, but I'll be in much better shape if I can. 

What's new in your world?

January Sewing/Crafting: Just Under The Wire

Remember when I said I wanted to complete a crafty project a month this year?  And that the first thing I wanted (needed) to complete was cutting and hemming some drapes?  And that it wasn't exactly what I would call a fun craft?
 
Well, as expected -- by me, anyway -- I put it off and put it off until January was almost in the books.  I finally got the job done yesterday, just in the nick of time.  Thank you, dear blog readers!  If I didn't have you to be accountable to, all eight panels (our bedroom and Kat's) would still be dragging the floor.

I promise to be more punctual with my next project.  I'll succeed by default since there are only 29 days this month!