I Made Matching Easter Outfits

I wanted to make Mackenzie a dress and the boys matching ties last year but I never did.  However, I did this year!  And I made Dave a tie and myself a matching skirt!

I think they turned out great!  Unfortunately it was drizzling so we couldn't go outside to get a better picture.  Oh well, we're still cute!  :)

Here is everything I made...

I made Mackenzie an easy peasant dress and I added some silk flowers I made, to fancy it up a bit.  Here is the link to the pattern for the dress that I used.

A friend of mine, Jessica, had made one and it was so cute, she gave me the pattern to make one for Mackenzie and I went from there.  I decided to make myself a skirt and the boys matching ties.

 Close up of the silk flowers I made.  All hand sewn together of course.  For a little girls dress or just for a little girl, I really don't trust it the flowers to be glues together.  One for when you wash the dress and two if the girl pulls on it or something.  It's just safer to be hand sewn.

 Here is the back.  I sewed the sash onto the front of the dress and left it hang at the side seams to be tied in the back. 

Here are the ties.  I sort of used a pattern for in.  Looking at the picture below the tie on the right hand side (-->) is the tie I used following this pattern.  Then Dave tied the knot and decided that it got fatter too soon and part of the fat part was in the knot.  And they have you putting the seam right in the knot as well, which doesn't really work out.  I also wanted to make it longer for Jayden.  I made Jayden's one long piece with no seam.  And I had the tie get skinner sooner.  Also, I kept it one width from that point on.  The pattern has it tapering again at the end.  But none of Dave's ties do that.  They are all the same width from that one point on.

So I printed this pattern for Daves tie, same site just the mens tie.  And the bottom part was as wide as the boys ties... that doesn't work!  So I drew up another one.  And I made Dave's tie much longer!  He needs a tall tie.  I measured one of his current ties to draw up another pattern.

Also with the ties I only folded the middle (in the back) part over once and I used pinking shears to cut it so it wouldn't fray.  I found if I doubled folded it it was too thick in the middle of the tie.  I couldn't find the interfacing they talked about.  However I fold a fleece interfacing that you could iron on.  I thought that worked real nice!

 Here is the back of the tie!  It looks like a real tie!  Unlike all the other tutorials I've seen that have you sew it and turn it inside out, leaving a seam right along the edge.  Some people may think hand sewing is more work, but that is how the ties are that you buy.  And I enjoy a little hand sewing!  And I love that it looks like a real tie!

One thing I forgot and I didn't realize till it was too late... I didn't put that tag on the back so they could tuck the back of the tie through it.  I meant to sew a little piece of ribbon there.  So I will have to go back and do it.

 Here is the skirt I made myself!  I even lined the skirt so I didn't have to wear a slip with it.

I read and read all these pins on making skirts.  Really, I spent so many hours reading all these different patterns!  And I finally just took my favorite skirt and traced it!  I guessed about how long I wanted the ruffle based how long I did it on the apron I made.  And I doubled the width of the skirt for the ruffle.  and I know how to sew an invisible zipper in.  I used a twin needle for the hem in the ruffle, top stitching down the ruffle at the top of it and at the top of the skirt to keep the lining down and stuff.  It gives it a nice detailed finish!  Sorry I didn't take a closer picture of the that!

Sorry I can't be more helpful with how to make a skirt.  If you know how to sew, you can trace a skirt and sew this one up in your size.  But if not, there are thousands of tutorials out there on to make a skirt!!!

Banana Swirl

On Sprout (a kids TV channel) they made Banana swirl and I've heard of doing it before, but this time Tanner watched them do it on TV.  The kids go through phases of eating bananas and we happened to have a lot of ripe bananas because they stopped eating them, so I froze them.  And while JJ was at a baseball clinic I made some banana swirl for Tanner.   He was so excited to try it!  But... he did not like it.  Oh well, it was still fun for him to make and try.

Oh, all you do is freeze ripe bananas and put them in a blender to make and ice cream constancy.  That's all!  So it's banana ice cream.

Nerf Gun Vest

My kids LOVE Nerf guns!  We (my husband and I, yes I like to get rough and play with the kids too) often run around our house with our 7 year old having Nerf guns battles.  I had seen on Pinterest someone made her son a Nerf Gun vest, but didn't have instructions, just pictures.  So I sat down and and studied the picture of the one you can buy and made one for my boys.  I plan on making a second one so they can each have one, but thought I'd just make one since I was figuring it all out.  And I have thought of something different to do when I make the next one. 

I did take pictures along the way, so I will remember how to do the next one so it will go quicker.  And so I can make a tutorial.  So eventually I will have a tutorial to post.

But for now here are the pictures of it...

Jayden, who the vest made for, was not feeling so good and so there are no pictures of his face, because he was not happy in the pictures.

But my younger son loved it and smiled cute... 

I still need to add a strap to put around the handle of the gun to hold it in place better.  The boys have 2 different guns that can fit here, so I will make the strap with snaps to fit the 2 different sized guns.  And I want to add a little clip thing so they can attach smaller hand guns if say the Easter bunny gives them one or something.  But all that I can do later.

A cargo pocket...

 Inside pockets... Yup I used some small scraps from cutting out the vest for the pockets.  It's inside, who cares and I don't like waste...

 Elastic to hold darts...

 And pockets in the side seam of the vest, you know like pockets in a coat...

Also later I want to add a sleeve in the back for a sword, like the real Nerf Gun vest has.