Make a Clipboard Wall Display

 Hello Readers. Our modern world seems so digital and screen based but there are still papers all over my house. There are drawings, mail, junk mail, bills and random school papers. I wanted to give my kiddo a place to store, enjoy and show off his own drawings and papers. I made it using clipboards.

This is a kid friendly, adjustable storage and display area that doesn't need thumbtacks that will wind up stepped on on the floor. (*Ouch!)

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while. I had a few clipboards and planned to buy more clipboards eventually. I wanted a whole collection for this project. 

I found 6 more at a thrift store recently. They were 25 cents each (!!) so I bought them all. My youngest helped carry them at the store without even knowing what they were for. He said they were difficult to hold.

I wanted to create a layout before I started putting nails in the wall. I had 9 clipboards so I set them in this checkerboard pattern. One clipboard is really looking rough but its OK because I will hang something on it, the damage won't even show. You could do a totally different layout depending on the wall space you have and the number and color of clipboards you have.

I had a section of wall to hang up these clipboards for my display. I measured to make sure I put everything an equal distance from the others. I made a small mark with a pencil in the spots that I wanted put in the nails. 

I used one nail for each clipboard. The clipboards won't be holding anything but paper so they will not be heavy, a small nail will hold them up on the wall fine.

 

 There was a hole in the back of the metal clip that was perfect for hanging on a nail.

*Watch your fingers while using the hammer. 

Once the nails were in the wall, it was easy to hang each clipboard. 

 

When they were all on the wall it was very clean and organized looking. But it will soon be covered with papers and such.
 

We were able to hang up many pictures and special items. Each clipboard can hold many papers at once, the storage for our many drawings and pictures is going to be amazing. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update***- There are about 2637 papers on these clipboards now. This was a great idea for my house.

 

 

The Tablecloth Vest

 Hello Readers. I found this table cloth at a thrift store a while back and I thought the embroidery was just so pretty. I did put it on a table but I kept thinking it would be really pretty to wear. But what should I make?

Tablecloth to vest.

It's a great table cloth! Or it was...

I cut out the pieces for a vest using Simplicity 8632. I tried to make sure I placed the embroidery in the front panels nicely.

I really didn't have enough fabric to make anything else.

I used my buttonholer to make the button holes on the front of my vest. 

 

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I wanted it roomy, not fitted or tight. 

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- I have worn this several times but it seemed like it was summery so I put it away for winter.

The Crayon Dress

 Hello Readers. How are things going with you? I am still trying to hype up my homeschool Kindergartener. This simple navy blue dress was the perfect canvas for some school themed trimmings.

 This dress fit well but the arm holes were too low. It made half my bra hang out. There was a lot of side meat showing. I needed to raise the dress up a couple inches.

The low armholes were easy to fix. I just made the straps shorter. I do this often with tank tops and camis because they can be too low cut on me. I must have short shoulders or something. 

I added the ribbon at the shoulders and the crayon buttons just to make the dress more fun and add a little color.

I added some ribbon at the hem just for fun. It had little crayons of all different colors. The added color brightened up the dress. My 5 year old noticed the crayons and thought this was really cool.

 This dress is like a Tshirt and will be comfy to hang out in. It will be perfect for hot days. Fall is on it's way but right now it is still really hot where I live.

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

The Super Easy Tablecloth Dress

 Hello Readers. This is a super easy project for any beginning sewist. You just need a t-shirt and a tablecloth. I found this tablecloth a thrift store but you might have one at home you can use. And I know you must have a t-shirt at home you can grab for this project.

This tablecloth became a fun casual dress. 

I wanted to make my shirt and my tablecloth coordinate well so I matched the color of the t-shirt to one of the colors in the tablecloth.

The shirt fit well, it wasn't too tight or too loose. I cut the shirt in half. I wanted the shirt and skirt to meet under the bust line.

The tablecloth was a rectangular shape. It was bigger than I needed. If I used the whole table cloth it would have been a floor length dress. I cut my table cloth in half horizontally.

I cut the hemmed edge off the short edges of the table cloth. They were thick and would have been bulky in the dress.

I connected the short side of my tablecloth to make a tube. That will be my skirt.

I sewed the skirt to the cut off shirt.

The dress was a little shapeless (A LOT shapeless!) so I added some narrow elastic to the inside of the dress at the waist seam. It really helped the shape. 

I really liked this casual dress and it is perfect for lounging.Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- I love this dress. It is the perfect casual dress.

Hang Up the Stuffed Animals

 Hello Readers. If you have children in your house then you probably have stuffed animals. And there is never just 1 or 2, they seem to multiply. There are so many. They are everywhere and don't look neat or tidy at all. We can't get rid of them so let's find a way to store and display them neatly.

Let's hang up and store the stuffed animals in a neat way. 

All of our stuffed animals lived in a pile on this chair. They also lived on the floor because they didn't stay on the chair. We love them so they had to stay close by but this mess looked bad and made the chair useless for humans. We could do better than this. 

We needed some cord or string or even thin rope. I chose this because it was in my sewing stash but it was also a little bumpy. I don't think smooth cording or satin ribbon would work well for this project. It would be too slippery.

You can use something simple like this jute cord. It is very inexpensive too. 

I put the cording across the top of the bookcase. You could also use a dresser for this project but the taller the piece of furniture, the more stuffed animals you an hang up.

 

 I wanted the cording to go over the top of the bookcase and hang all the way down off the bookcase on both sides.

The next thing you need is a few dozen clips of some kind. These cheap clothes pins would be great. 

 

You could also use something more fun and colorful if you want.

 

I clipped one end of the cording to a soft container. This was going to anchor the cord on this side of the bookcase. 

 

This is a good place for the stuffies that are heavy, large or favorites that will be played with or slept with often. 

 

The other end of the cord needed something to anchor it too. On this side I used a large bear. He is heavy enough to hold the cord. I clipped the cord to his ear. 

 

I made sure to get the cording and part of the stuffed animal in the clip. The clip really needs to hold on to both.

 

I started clipping all our stuffed friends to the corThe. 

 

 I clipped the stuffed animals on both sides of the bookcase. I liked this storage method because the stuffed friends are visible and unharmed in this clips. The bookcase or dresser you use will be unharmed too. 

 

My child liked this set up. They could see the stuffed animals but the stuffies were not in a mess on the floor anymore. My youngest child is 10 so I don't need to worry about him hurting himself with the cord or the clips. (*This is not a good storage idea if you have an active baby or toddler that will hurt them selves with string or cord or might climb tall bookcases or dressers. You know your child, as always use your best judgement and caution.) Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- These stuffed animals are still in a semi orderly arrangement thanks to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Shoes & Double Waistbands

Hello Readers. I have back to school excitement to spare. I used that energy to make some fun shoes for school. I wanted them to look like notebook paper. These were easy to make, you can do it too.

 

 These tan shoes were fine. They were boring imitation leather, but fine. Do we have to settle for boring? Can we make things a little more fun here? I think we can.

 I started by filling these shoes with things to hold them open while I paint them. I used a variety of random plastic items. These shoes has elastic on the sides. You might not need to do this with your shoes.

I used basic acrylic paint to paint the shoes white. I let this dry.

 When I made these lines I used a permanent marker to mark where I wanted the lines. I painted over the marks with acrylic paint to make the lines more visible.

 These shoes are a perfect match for the shirt I made last September.

 What should I wear with this shirt and shoes? Let's refashion some jeans to go with them.These jeans were low-waist/ed. My mom tummy doesn't do well with low rise jeans. The pudge just comes out over the top shows it. How could I raise the waistband?

 I could add a second waistband above the original. That would raise the waist up a little. I cut the waistband off another pair of jeans. I tried to pick a similar shade of denim so they would match well.

 I pinned them together. Pin. Pin. Pin.

 I sewed them together. Sew. Sew. Sew. Be careful of the rivets. They will break your needle.

I removed the belt loops from the lower waistband. They were distracting, there were too many loops. My belt didn't need double loops. 

 

 My new paper shoes, my old paper shirt and my higher waisted jeans were ready for school.

Thanks for reading along, best wishes to everyone trying to start the school year in these crazy times.