Thursday, October 24, 2013

Snow White's Tutu: review & tutorial





When I had a daughter in 2010, I was excited for all things girly! Which is actually pretty shocking because I am so not girly, but imagining my daughter in hairbows and tutus was a dream!  Turns out she's a perfect mix of girly and rough and tumble. :)  I am not one to spend a ton of money on boutique clothes

I've always been one to buy at the end of a season for the next season when it comes to kids clothes in particular.  The same holds true for costumes.  So last year, I was on the hunt for costumes for a potential Halloween option this year as well as dress up clothes.

I was lucky enough to find a lot of princess dresses on clearance last year.  When it came time to choose a costume for this year, I wanted something that both {how crazy is that to say!} my daughters will be able to wear even though one of them will be a newborn.  The lucky thing is even if Lily chooses something different to go trick-or-treating in, we have other events to wear them to.

Here comes Snow White and her apple. 

Lily has been blessed with long legs, so I wanted to add a tutu to her existing costume to make it a little more unique and of course, longer. 

I do not sew. 

I'd love to learn, but I currently do not.

Making a no-sew tutu is easy peasy though, so I was excited to be able to do this courtesy of The HairBow Company

I don't enjoy complicated, so the easier the better. I hope you find my no-sew tutu instructions simple!

Materials:
  • ribbon  {for waist}
  • tulle {3 rolls if using rolls or roughly 4-6 yards off a bolt for toddler/preschooler}
  • scissors
  • tape measure/measuring stick
For this tutu I was using 3 colors and I wanted the tutu to be full and big!

~Measure your child's waist using the ribbon. I do this simply by wrapping the ribbon around her waist and marking where my fingers meet with a Sharpie.  Make sure to leave lots at the ends to tie around her waist~ you can shorten it later!
~Tie knots where the marks are.  The space between the knots will be where your tulle gets tied to create your tutu.


Although I used rolls of tulle for this tutu, I provided the instructions if you use a "sheet" of tulle, as well.

I measured out a yard {36 inches} in length of the tulle to start my tutu.  I guessed I'd need roughly 15 pieces of each of the 3 colors to fill the tutu for my daughter.  This also depends on how tight/close you place the tulle together between the knots.  I wanted the tutu to be really full, so ended up using the entire rolls of tulle.

After you have the individual pieces of tulle, fold them in half and loop around your ribbon between the knots.  I patterned yellow, blue, red.  Repeat folding the tulle in half, looping around the ribbon until you reach the other knot. 


 As I said, I like longer, fuller tutus which is why I used the full yard I'd cut.  If you like shorter, cut the tulle in half before then folding in half and looping. I've seen those too and they're really cute!

Continue your pattern, pulling the tulle tight around the ribbon until you reach the other knot.




She LOVES it!  And she's super excited for her new baby sister to be her apple complete with her very own red tutu.



Instructions are if you're using a large "sheet" of tulle fabric:
~Lay your tulle out in a single sheet--one yard increments--and begin folding the tulle up flat. Mine generally is about 3 inches wide, but I just eyeball it, not measure it.
~Next, cut off the ends of the "flat tube" of tulle to make it even.
~Measure about 3-4 inches in along the tube with your tape measure and cut.  Continue cutting in the same size increments until you have the "tube" all cut.
~Open the cut piece of tulle completely and fold it in half and then cut there.

The best part is, the measurements are not crucial. You can choose wider or not depending on how you want your tutu.  Once you commit to a size though, stick with it!

Thank you to The Hairbow Company for providing me with the materials for this tutu and the red hairbow for Snow White.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

40 weeks ~ baby i2



Date:  October 17, 2013~~ Yeah, my due date.  **This post was written after midnight on 10/17/13...little did I know how the day would turn out. :)

How far along:40 weeks. WHAT?!?!

Total Weight Gained:  No gain this week for total:  9lbs.

How big is baby? What the hell is a jackfruit?  Baby is the size of a baby! haha
"Your baby's the size of a jackfruit!
In month nine, the average fetus is about 6.2 to 9.2 pounds and measures about 18.9 to 20.19 inches (wow!)." 

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Simple Saturday

Well here we are 39weeks, 2 days pregnant...Yep. Still pregnant.

Fortunately, I'm not miserable.  Somewhere in the late 2nd and early 3rd trimester, I was pretty miserable physically.   Baby girl has been mostly kind these last few weeks, thank God.   I've had a handful {like 4 over 5 days} of contractions and nothing else really going on.  Each day I wake up and know this could be the last day home with just 2.

This morning I woke up at 6:00am due to the bear my husband's snoring next to me. I tried to go back to sleep, but after having him roll over and still snoring for 15 minutes, I was up.  Off to the couch I went, but there was no going back to sleep.  Lily was up around 7:00am and thus the day had begun. 

She decided she was hungry pretty early and asked for pancakes.  So pancakes it was going to be. I don't make box mix pancakes.  Never have. It's easy enough to make them from scratch and she was excited to help!

You know when you tell your kids, "This isn't a restaurant. You get what I fix." ?  Apparently, this IS, in fact, a restaurant when making pancakes.  Lily likes sprinkles in hers, Andrew likes chocolate chips, and George and I like blueberries.  I did make a few extras to freeze for Lily  since she's the only one who eats breakfast with me at home during the week.





 


 Breakfast was yummy and Lily was happy.  Made for a good morning with my girl. ♥

While Lily watched a little bit of tv, I worked on a print for the baby in her room and a little banner to hang on the bassinet at the hospital. Mind you, the guys were still asleep all this time. Must. be. nice.
 
I can't find my 2 inch circle punch to finish the banner, so that's driving me crazy. I used it for Lily's birthday party and I have no idea what I did with it.  Hopefully I'll be able to find it.  Ugh!
 
The kids and I are going for ice cream this evening since we have a rare evening home with nothing to do. Lily keeps asking Andrew and I  what kind we're going to get and making sure we're getting her daddy some too.  :)  I love that she's sweet and considerate.  I'm getting Snappy Turtle, by the way.
 
Saturdays will soon be filled with the early days of a newborn baby, so today I'm enjoying the peacefulness with my first two babies doing simple things that are happy things.