"Summer Social" Guest Project -- The Surfer's Poncho {tutorial}

Woohoo!!!
I can't believe I'm here guesting for Jen on Tatertots & Jello! 

My name is Kyla and I'm visiting you from Funky PolkaDot Giraffe!

I feel like the kid from the Willy Wonka movie
who yells - "Look at me! I'm on TV!"
That's seriously how awesome this is for me.
I adore Jen and hope to meet her in real ASAP!

I've lived all over the country.
Born in Las Vegas, jr. high and high school in Iowa,
a summer in Kentucky, college years in Utah and now I'm settled
in fabulous Orange County, California.
I'm married to my college sweetheart and we have two crazy munchkins.
I'm a second grade teacher, turned creative blogging enthusiast, and I tend to the
obsessive - just ask my husband :)
I have an Etsy shop, do day care full time, and love blogging on my crafty blog. 

Today I'm sharing a fun summer project that
I've been wanting to make for a long time. 

I found the towels over a year ago at a Black Friday sale
and I just knew they'd come in handy one day.

It's the Surfer's Poncho -
or a new spin on the classic and much loved, hooded towel.

We have swimming lessons starting in a week
and one thing that drives me crazy is
the dragging of the towels across the parking lot or
the crying 2 year old because she can't keep her towel
on and she's "freezing".
The insanity!!!!

So I was brainstorming with my husband about
the problem - he's a good sounding board -
and he said, "You should make a surfer's towel."
And I was like, huh?
He explained that surfers cut holes in the top
of a towel so they have a makeshift changing room on the beach.
The towels don't fall off - because they are poncho style.
So I changed the plans a little bit and this is what I came up with.

Surfer Poncho Tutorial:

What you'll need: 

1 large towel 

1 hand towel 

thread 

sewing machine

 

• STEP ONE:  Fold your hand towel in half.
  You can use the decorative edge or a finished edge of the
  towel to save you the time of having to "hem" the outside edge.
  Lay your pattern down and pin.
  I used a hood from a hooded towel we already had
  to make my pattern.
  

 

• STEP TWO: 
  Cut your hood pieces out, cutting a little extra for seam allowance
  if you didn't already allow for that in the sizing.
  I added extra, because the pattern was actually for my
  daughter's towel and my son has a BIG-ger head :)

 

• STEP THREE:
  Sew around the outside edge where the arrows outline.
  I sewed a 1/4" seam allowance with a zig zag stitch
  and then went over the seam again with a straight stitch. 

• STEP FOUR: 
  Fold your towel in half lengthwise to form the poncho.
  Then, find the center of the folded edge.
  You could measure and be exact, but I folded it in half again
  and marked with a pin. 

• STEP FIVE: 
  Use the neck hole of a shirt and make a pattern
  piece for the neck opening.
  You can also estimate and eye it if you're comfortable with that.
  
  
  
  
   

• STEP SIX: 
  Open up your neck opening and pin down the front
  half of the ellipse.
  Then sew a 1/4" seam around the pinned edge -
  again I did a zig zag and then a straight stitch. 

 

• STEP SEVEN: 
  Find the center of the back part of the ellipse and mark with a pin.
  Then match the center of the hood to the center of the ellipse
  and pin the hood to the poncho right sides together. 

• STEP EIGHT: 
  Sew the hood to the poncho with a 1/4" seam.
  I did a zig zag and went back over with a straight stitch.
  Woohoo! Now you have a Surfer Poncho!
  

• STEP NINE: 
  Time to add the pocket.
  I grabbed my son's sweatshirt and took a pattern from the pocket.
  
  
  
   

• STEP TEN: 
  Cut a little extra for seam allowances, then fold the edges
  under where the arrows are and sew down the raw edge
  so you have a finished edge.
  

• STEP ELEVEN: 
  Position in the pocket where you'd like it to lay.
  Then, holding the top edge of the pocket in place,
  flip the pocket up toward the hood,
  so that with right sides are together now.
  Sew with a 1/4" seam along the top seam -
  that looks like the bottom seam of the pocket right now. 

• STEP TWELVE: 
  After you've sewn the top seam,
  flip it back down and sew the bottom portion down,
  leave the holes open for the pocket.

And there you have it - The Surfer's Poncho!
 

And just in case you have a Surfette :) 

Thank you so much for having me, Jen!

I hope you'll all come visit me at Funky PolkaDot Giraffe sometime.

Thanks Kyla!!! 

Those Surfer Hoodie Towels are just adorable!!

Kyla is one of my favorite bloggers and twitter friends!! 

It is incredible to me how much she gets done!! 

Here are some of my favorite Kyla ideas:

{Interchangeable Ruffled headbands}

{And, if you don't want to make one, Kyla sells them in her cute etsy shop}

{Check out her Rainbow Jello - so colorful and fun!}

{And Kyla makes the cutest Korker Hair Korkers - find out how to make them!}

Be sure to stop by Funky Polka Dot Giraffe - you will be glad you did!!

And, be sure to check back for more 

Summer Social Ideas --

ALL Summer long!!

It's going to be SO fun!!! 

xoxoxo

Guest Project -- Make Miniature Dollhouse Drapes!

Greetings, TT&J readers!

I'm honored to be posting here on Jen's great blog today!

My name is Rhonda, aka Mrs. Greene, which is also the name of my blog.

  I live in a wee little town in Michigan with my awesome husband and our two kitties, Merlin and Abracadabra.

I dabble in all kinds of craft disciplines, including making dollhouse miniatures. Today I am going to share with you how to make some very quick and convincingly realistic lace curtains to dress up your dollhouse windows!

You will need:

• Lace yardage (old lace curtains or a tablecloth will work well and can be found cheaply at thrift stores)


• Lace trim


• Bamboo skewer


• 4 pony beads


• Straight pins


• Needle & thread


• Glue


• Ribbon


• Scissors

Start by cutting two curtain panels to fit your window. They should each measure about 2 inches longer than you want the finished curtains to hang and at least as wide as the width of the window.

Place the panels so that they overlap slightly along the sides and place the bamboo skewer across the top.

Fold the top edge of the lace over the skewer and pin it into place.

Cut a piece of lace trim the same width as the pair of panels.

Flip the panels over so that the pinned edge is facing down. Lay the lace trim across the top of the panels and pin it into place. Carefully hand-sew along the line of pins through all three layers of lace.

To make a mounting bracket for your curtain rod, stack and glue two pony beads together as shown, with one on its side resting in the hole of the other. Repeat with a second pair of beads.

Glue the ends of the curtain rod (with the curtain on it) into the bead brackets. Be careful to make sure both brackets are glued to the rod at the same angle and make sure that the rod is trimmed to slightly wider than the window before gluing.

To hang the curtains, glue the brackets to the dollhouse wall just above the window. If desired, tie back the curtains with short lengths of ribbon. Your window is now dressed and ready to compliment the rest of your tiny decor!

 Wow Rhonda - that is so cool! 

Whenever I think of dollhouses it reminds me of this Sesame Street segment:

I was obsessed with those teeny tiny spoons!! LOL. 

Rhonda has a really fun blog with cool projects like:

{Rubber Dish Glove Vase}

{Random Letter Subway Art}

{And if you love dollhouses, Rhonda has great tutorials on making realistic model miniatures like this Cotton Candy Stand}

 Be sure to head over to Mrs. Greene for some great ideas and visit Rhonda over at Dollar Store Crafts where she helps out as well!

xoxo

PS -- It's Friday!! Time for some Crafty Inspiration. Come link up YOUR ideas at the Weekend Wrap Up Party tonight at 6 pm {MST}. It's my favorite day of the week because I get to see YOUR ideas!!!

xoxo

This post sponsored by

Guest Project -- "Rock of Love" Valentine Play Party!!

Hello~ We are Amy and Bri, of The Savvy Moms Guide. 

{Two average moms who enjoy making the EveryDay SAVVY}



We have found that Spray Paint, Scrapbook Paper and Fabric can give anything a face lift. The Dollar Bin at Target is better than a Sale Rack at Nordstrom's (well maybe not, but that is what we tell our husbands). Pictures of family are Priceless compared to Framed Art (and cheaper). And nothing is better than Starbucks......but you can live without it, as long as you have a good Coffee Creamer.

 We Love Play Dates and Parties, Decor and Design, and creating Perfection for Pennies.
But Play Dates are kind of our 'thing'.

Webster defines a play date as~an arranged appointment for children to get together for a few hours to play. While this is true, we wanted more.

And so began our Savvy Play Parties...the Ultimate play date!!!

A Savvy Moms play party is one that is creative, interactive, educational, fun, healthy and delicious, all at the same time. And every month we host one! We always want our followers to feel like they can create the parties we share. Our Play Parties are filled with Penny Projects, EveryDay Finds and DIY creations.



With that we present to you our  

"Rock of Love" Play Party. 

A day filled with Savvy Stylings that we hope 'Makes your heart Sing'.

For this Play Party we wanted to take the traditional Valentine's colors and theme and incorporate a bit of edgy rock. We were able to use records that we had from home and accent with leopard scrapbook paper to create that Rock of Love look we were going for.

We have been seeing glass bottles used in many photo shoots, parties and dessert tables lately. We love the look. So we had no problem buying a case of Starbucks Frappucinos and using the re-purposed bottles for the kids Strawberry milk. We added some leopard scrapbook paper from Jo-Anns and glitter heart stickers from the Target Dollar bins to create a sweet treat for the kids to enjoy. And the best part is we will use these bottles again and again!

 

We like to always include some sort of healthy snack for the kids that is fun and compliments the theme. So we cut up fruit and used a heart shape cookie cutter and placed them in fun plastic cups we found at the Dollar Tree and accented with leopard ribbon.

Another Signature 'Savvy Moms' idea are Place mats.

We think it is a great way for the kids to get excited about what they are doing if they have something in front of them that is personalized and themed. To create these place mats, and usually all of our Play Party place mats, we use 12x12 sheets of scrapbook paper, usually found in the Target Dollar bins or what we may have laying around. We used our Silhouette to cut out each kiddos initials, place onto a doilie and covered with contact paper.

We found these Valentine Trees at Jo-Anns and used them as our Rock Candy Tree, hanging Ring Pops off of them.

Our cupcake topper printables were created for us by our talented photographer Donella, of Ella B Photography. These were a 'rockin' touch to our yummy cupcakes made by our good friend Jamie of Kolby Kakes.

Kolby Kakes also made 'Rock Of Love Records' or Ding Dongs and fun and funky hot pink microphone cookies that the kids really enjoyed.

The cupcake stand was also a DIY idea inspired by Skip to My Lou. 

We followed the tutorial on how to make a cupcake stand, replaced the plates with records and added a touch of leopard and glitter heart stickers from the target Dollar bins creating one Savvy cupcake stand.  



We also used records and turned them into serving trays for the cookies, clever and creative!

The kids craft for the day were these adorable wooden guitars and hearts also found at Jo-Anns in the Dollar Bins.

No Valentine's Celebration is complete without a Valentine exchange.

When we saw these Adorable Heart Pockets on One Charming Party we knew they were perfect. Savvy and Simple just the way we like it!

Happy Valentine's Day......'I pick you'.

 

Each of our Play Parties also includes a coordinating story. So we read 'The Night Before Valentine's Day' while they ate their Valentine treats.

We found a great recipe over at Parenting.com for Cupcake Microphones that fit the theme perfectly!! Some serious faces, but they truly made their 'Hearts Sing'!

The kids got to rock out with their Conversation Heart microphones that were also a great DIY idea we shared as a sneak peek earlier in the month.  

These microphones can also be turned into Valentine topiaries. Just get yourself a metal bucket (found in Target Dollar bins most of the time) or a planters pot and stick into foam, rocks or sand and use for decor for your home or next party.

Rock On Friends........

And keep Making the EveryDay Savvy!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

What a sweet party.

Thanks girls for such a great Kids' Valentine Party Idea!!

The Savvy Moms Guide is a blog with all sorts of fantastic party inspiration like:

 {Savvy Valentine Mobile}





{Gingerbread Holiday Party}






{Sour Cream Apple Pie}

 

{Whoot of Thanks Party}

Be sure to check out Amy and Bri at The Savvy Moms Guide!!



xoxo







PS -- Be sure to head over to Sew Dang Cute for this week's

Crafting With The Stars voting.

Awesome projects!!