Stroller Refashion

And I'm back!! Who missed me?! 

I wish I could say I took a bit of time off from blogging to spend time with my 

family and just relax, but that would be a lie. I did spend lots of time with 

my family but not much relaxing was done... I had a million gifts to make, 

and buy, and wrap. 6 Christmas' to attend. Ya know, the usual.

But I'm back and should be back to regular blogging now!  

What was my first project after the holidays? A stroller refashion!

I was hoping to get this done for Gianna before Christmas but

that didn't happen. Oh well, Gianna didn't know the difference.
She's just happy she has a stroller that her babies don't fall out of!

Back to the stroller refashion....

A favorite blogger of mine, Sewing in No Man's Land, did a 

'pimp my stroller' post a while ago. 

Since then I've been wanting

to fix Gianna's stroller cover. We bought the stroller from Goodwill

and a few days later the cover started falling apart, of course!

But, for a few bucks, I couldn't complain. 

I grabbed some bias tape and scrap fabric from my stash

and set to work! The great thing about the 'pimp

my stroller' tutorial is that she even includes a free pattern!

It's a really easy tutorial to follow, even for the beginner sewer.

Plus, kiddos don't usually care if there are a few mistakes,

which makes this a great learning experience! 

Mine turned out ok...not as good as I expected.

But I did have a 18 month old trying to help, so I guess 

I can blame her for my mistakes ;-)

DIY Cast for Doctor's Kit

Awhile ago, I made Gianna a Doctor's coat to go with her 

Doctor's kit I bought her for Christmas. 

And then this weekend my mom had this genius idea, to add her kit...

a DIY play cast!!

She bought some Go-Go boot covers on clearance after

Halloween.  First they were just going to be thrown in Gianna's

dress up bin, but they she mentioned I should just make them into a cast

for her doctor's kit! Can you say, genius?!

Mine were similiar to this, only it already had the elastic around the bottom.

I added elastic to the top, to keep it up the teeny tiny kiddo thighs. 

And ta da! Cheap, easy DIY Cast. The kids are going to love playing with this!

Dress Up Bin

One of Gianna's big Christmas presents was a 

DIY Dress Up Bin. I love.love.love how it turned out.

My wonderful husband build, with a little help from Ana-White!

You can find the plans, building material list, approx. 

cost of materials, etc on Ana-White.com. Just search

'dress up'. 

I painted mine with left over paint from Gianna's Birthday Kitchen

and used my Cricut to cut out the letters. 

I also added two hooks, to keep hats, jewerly and other accessories!

The fun part was finding odds & ends to put in the dress up bin!

The 'bin' part is perfect to hold all those extra stuff you can't hang up!

I bought a few things from The Dollar Tree; a tutu, princess slippers,

crown, a clown tie (to dress up as a business man), and jewelry. 

I found a few good things (old costumes, mostly) at Goodwill, Craigslist and

 Garage Sales. It's a bit late now, but I picked out a few old costumes from

the clearance section at Walmart and Target. You can't beat $2 for a pretty

princess dress! 

Of course, I had to make a few things too! An apron/chef hat and, my 

favorite, the doctor coat! This week Walgreen's has BOGO Free

on some toys, including a great doctor's set! Talk about a cheap gift :-)

When Gianna's a bit older, and can really appreciate it, I'll make her

some beautiful princess gowns to add to her dress up bin! 

Photo courtesy of HomadebyJill

I can't wait to see her playing with all her new dress up clothes and 

accessories. I'm positive she'll love it!!

Chef Apron & Hat

Since Gianna has this adorable kitchen we made her for her birthday this year, 

I thought she needed a chef apron & hat to go with it!

A perfect addition to her Dress Up Bin she's getting for Christmas!

I found two incredibly easy tutorials online. 

One being from a crafty blog I follow and another from a blog I found 

on Pinterest. 

Both tutorials were incredibly simple. Best part was that I finished

both the hat and apron in about an hour! A quick nap time project!

I chose to do a simple apron (simply because I didn't have enough fabric

to make the ruffles!). The tutorial (from Babblings & More) is a super cute ruffle apron;

 and it's the perfect size for a 2 yr old! 

The Chef Hat, from Sewing in No Man's Land, was another simple tutorial.

 The only changes I made was adding a longer piece of velcro to make sure it 

fit Gianna's tiny head. It would even be cute (and easier for little ones to put on) 

with elastic inside the band. 

I really like how they turned out!! The best part

was that this project was free!! A friend of mine

gave me the fabric and ribbon! Score!! 

Pretend Play Doctor's Coat

Gianna's getting a dress up bin for Christmas and I wanted to make a few

things to go in it. Originally I really wanted to do princess dresses, but I think I will

save those for her birthday in May. She'll really love them then!

Instead I decided to do a few simple things. One being a 

doctor coat!

A friend of mine had some plain, white button up shirts that she no longer needed

and handed them down to me. I think cut along the sides and sleeves to make

it fit Gianna a bit better. The shirts were a Boys 2XL so they didn't really need 

to be taken in much. I drew on my picture of where I cut. Cutting some off the sleeves and

sides. Them shortening the sleeves and hem. Super simple!

Picture is after I hemmed the shirt.

Then for some added detail I did a little embroidery work. This is only my 

second embroidery project so it's still quite rough! However, Gianna will love

it (when's she older and can read! haha). 

All in all, an incredibly simple, but cute doctor's coat!