packaging material

a couple of months ago i got a package from super blogger girl (aka jen). she had decided to craft me up a little something-something on a whim. when it arrived, what i found was a box full of awesomeness, not to mention the box itself. a fully crafted exterior with lots of sweet miniatures inside. (i can't get enough little food minis.)

she also included some little toys her company makes, japanese lipgloss, a few crafting supplies and a fertility charm. (hopefully said charm will come in handy in the upcoming weeks!) i was going to post my score when i received it but decided to wait til i was completely done crafting with the material she packaged the crafted box in. old t-shirts.

yesterday i mailed off what i made. she sent 5 old tees and i was able to repurpose four of them for baby diego.

i actually did redo all five, but decided the shorts i made would be way too small for the little guy. (now bosco is sporting a pair of black undies.) i think everything is pretty self explanatory. onesie, bib, hat and blankie. i was quite surprised at how well everything turned out. my only complaint that made reconstructing difficult: the weights of some of the tees. a few were made of that paper-thin t-shirt material that is extremely hard to work with. i was able to pull it off and am pretty happy with the results. now we'll see if they're actually viable clothing when diego models them in a few months!

misfit child

i did a little more t-shirt surgery this week. this time an xl misfits tee and an xl southern illinois tee. one converted to child size and one to semi-adult sized. i only took a before shot of the misfits tee. as you can see it was extremely large. the southern tee was quite similar but with short sleeves.

before:

after:

the sharpies in there for scale. i used a pattern i purchased at walmart for the hoodie with a few modifications. it called for pockets on the front but i opted out and made it more simple. i've got one more skull left from the original sleeve that i'll put on the front as a patch. i was quite proud of the zipper installation, i think i'm getting the hang of the zipper foot. but i screwed up and ironed over it causing a little meltage on the shirt. not sure if there's a remedy for that or not. other than that, i'm quite satisfied with the end result.

this one i finally used one of the tuts from the generation t book i got last year. quick and simple and no sewing involved. just a lot of cutting and stabbing holes. i didn't realize how simple it was gonna be, otherwise i would have been doing this a long time ago. i found the southern tee here in boone at the local goodwill. thought it was a sign that it had to be bought. and what's really funny after starting the misfits hoodie i headed up to the thrift store for more shirts. low and behold, i now have a misfits tee to replace the one i just chopped up. this one is short sleeve but i'll find something to do with it.

off to find something green.

dropkicking

i did finish my t-shirt reconstruction monday. i actually had it done sunday but wasn't too happy with it so i went back and revamped it.

originally i used just the dropkick shirt with some plaid fabric i had in my stash. i know, irish and plaid is a no-no but i liked the combo so i went with it. i modified a dress pattern i also had. thought it would be best to use a pattern since i have no child to make sure everything fits correctly. what you see to the left is the original dress. it just looked too unfinished to me.

i ripped the top portion off and took one of my tops that was too small and went to work. i should have taken before photos of each. the top originally had four buttons on it. i cut it down, added the black binding around the collar and finally added the sleeves. i have a feeling the sleeves are gonna be too tight on a real child. but i'm satisfied with my first attempt at t-shirt surgery. at least it looks wearable.

when i first brought it down aaron thought it was for me. i may be little but definitely not that little. i can understand why he thought that. i've been wearing a lot of babydoll looking tops and i'm sure if the arm holes were bigger i could probably sport it. next t-shirt to go under the knife: a misfits long sleeve. it'll have to wait til we get back from san antonio.

i've been meaning to post this and just now got around to taking some photos. a few weeks ago i received a surprise package from angela. she did another altoid tin for me.

this one is holiday themed and it has a mini album inside. i haven't gotten around to putting pictures in it yet. luckily i have a ton of photos to choose from this year. it's adorable and i'm super impressed with her scrapbooking skills. thanks again, angela!! maybe we need to move on to bigger things to swap/trade?!?

we leave for san antonio tomorrow. not sure what type of internet access i'll have so there might a slight lag in posts. i'm super excited to see everybody from the patch, especially jamie and adrian. i miss my mom group, okay, one mom, one dad and me! i also get to see jennaya tomorrow! we're flying out of greensboro, so we're gonna stop by and see her and the fam. double yay! yeah, i'm giddy with excitement!

a rockin dress

after seeing this tutorial on craftster a few months ago, i've had it in the back of my brain slowly eating away, telling me i need to make one or two or three. aaron has a plethora of old band tees he no longer wears. so this is going to be my weekend project. i got some plaid fabric and the first sacrifice will be a dropkick murphys t-shirt. hopefully i'll having something to show afterwards. let's cross our fingers.

garage sale freak

friday and saturday we bucked up and participated in our neigborhood garage sale. got rid of a lot of unecessary things we didn't want to haul to boone. all told we made about $400 between four fams. the stealeys made out like bandits almost taking in half. anyways, when you're manning one of these sales you get to see some wiry characters. people who just laugh uncontrollably at nothing, people who want to divulge their life stories in 2 minutes, and the classic cubs jerk.

this guy comes up wearing a wrigley field shirt and immediately says to aaron, "i hate your hat." then proceeds to browse through some cds. we all look at each other. wtf?? aaron being the nice guy he is says, "i'm not a cubs fan but i like wrigley field." to which jerk replies, "i fucking hate cardinal fans." and walks away. whoa...seriously...wtf? sorry the cubs haven't won since 1908 but is it really something to get your panties in a wad about!

i really wished i had been wearing my new tee. this is my latest project. i wanted an old school looking cardinals tee. i'm still reconstructing the front, but this is what i have on the back. i'm probably gonna make one for aaron too with a thrift store find. it's all stretched out so i'm going to have to do some sewing on it to make it a little more form fitting.