Remake Boy's Pants into Girl's Pants

When my son grew out of his comfy pants I just couldn't let them go; I thought there had to be a way that my daughter could wear them too!  

I'm sure you could go from girl to boy too if the pants were "boy colors"; you could make patches that looked like animals, sport related things, vehicles or monsters of some sort!  

So, for my boy to girl pants conversion this is what I came up with...

Materials:

-comfy pants {I had 3 pair from my son}

-sewing machine 

-knit fabric scraps

-coordinating thread

-sewing pins

-scissors

-iron

Process:

1. To make the ruffles on the bottom of the pant legs, cut long strip {about 20-24 inches by about 3-4 inches}.

2. Fold the strip in half "hotdog-style" and iron.

3. Fold the ironed strip in half lengthwise and cut at the center.

4. Sew the ends of the strips together to form a circle.

5. Pin the circles to the inside of each pant leg, gathering evenly to create the ruffled look.

6. Sew, using a straight stitch around the outside of the pant legs.  {I sewed right over the pins and removed the pins after sewing the ruffle in place.}

7. At this point I choose a decorative stitch to sew over the straight stitch to reinforce the stitch and add a decorative touch.

8. Next, I needed to cover up/change the print on the front of the pants.  I thought the best way to do this would be to make a patch.  {You could probably paint over it with fabric paint too, but I thought a patch would be cuter.}  

Measure or eyeball the size of patch you will need.

9. Sew a patch by layering a few cute fabrics cut into the shape and size that will cover up the print on the pants.

10. Now all you need to do is sew the patch over the printed area and your done!

Extra touches:
Remove the old tie and replace it with a pretty coordinating ribbon.

Sew some small scrap to the ends of the ties to make them more girly!

Enjoy and have fun with this idea!  I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but I am very happy with the outcome!

Lemon Butter Fish Fillets

This is a super tasty and very easy recipe that can be used for any kind of fish fillet!  I adapted this recipe on AllRecipes.

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup butter

-1 lemon, juiced

-1 tsp salt

-1 tsp pepper

-1/2 tsp dried parsley

-3 cloves garlic, minced

-5 to 6 fillets fish {here I used pollock}

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place fish fillets in greased baking pans.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

4. Mix in lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsley and garlic.

5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cook and stir for about 10 minutes; until thickened.  Allow to cool slightly.

6. Pour or brush lemon butter over fish.

7. Bake fish 20-25 minutes, until fish becomes flaky.

8. Enjoy!

Homemade Magnetic Pin Bowl

This is a super clever idea!  Magnetic Pin Bowl!

{Picture from original link.}

Chocolate Date Cake

This is a great recipe!  I have made it a couple of times in the last week and since it can make an 8-10 inch cake its small enough that it doesn't last long with my family of four.

The dates are great because they help make this cake very moist, but yet they are completely undetectable in the finished cake.  My kids love this recipe; and my husband loves it too, but the hubby would probably not like it as much if I told him there where dates in it! :D

{Sorry, I'm not sure where I found this original recipe.}

I didn't want to make a pot of coffee,
so I just measured my hot water in my measuring cup
and stirred the coffee grounds into it;
let it sit for about 5 minutes and
then poured the coffee through a small sieve
over the chopped dates.

Ingredients:

-2 cups pitted dates, halved or chopped

-1 1/4 cup hot coffee

-2/3 cup butter, melted

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-2 eggs

-1 cup flour

-1/2 cup cocoa powder

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray an 8, 9 or 10 inch baking pan with cooking spray, set aside.

3. Place chopped dates in a bowl.

4. Pour hot coffee over dates and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, cream together butter and sugars.

6. Beat in eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla.

7. Add flour and cocoa powder, beat until well blended.

8. Pour date and coffee mixture into a blender or food processor or use an immersion blender to puree the mixture completely.
9. Add the pureed mixture to the cake mixture.

10. Blend well.

11. Pour the cake batter into prepared baking dish.

12. Scatter the top of the cake batter with chocolate chips.

13. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

14. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.  When cooled, you can remove cake from baking dish if desired.  {This is also delicious while still warm!}

15. Enjoy with ice cream, fresh berries or just by itself!

Handmade Braided Rug

I always thought it would be cool to make a braided rug; so I tried it!  It was a lot of work, but I think it turned out super awesome!  Worth the effort!

I made several piles of the cut fabric
and separated the patterns and textures among the piles
so that I wouldn't end up with all the
same fabric near each other.

Materials:

-fabric scraps cut into about 6-7 inch squares/rectangles {I used old shirts, sheets, sweatpants, quilting fabric, jeans, my son's old pants, the old cover from my ironing board, fleece; you can use almost anything!}

-large needle {I used a large plastic needle}

-yarn {I used a varied brown and blue polyester yarn}

-sewing machine

-sewing thread, any color, you won't really see the color {I had several spools of lavender thread, so I used all of that and some small spools that didn't have enough to do much with}

-scissors

Optional Materials:

-hook on a solid surface {I just screwed a hook into my studio table}

-basket for braid to "fall" into

-hair claw clip, very useful for holding the braid when not working on it!

Process:

1. Sew several long strips of fabric, by sewing pieces together with right sides together.  {make them long, but not to long so that they get tangled while braiding; I think mine were about 6 feet on average}

2. Pile up the ends of three strips and sew the ends together to being your braid.  Begin braiding.  {don't braid it too tight or your braids will be too stiff to curl around to make the rug}

3. If using a hook, hook a strip of the fabric braid into the hook to allow you to braid easier; like this...

As you braid move the hooked strip to make the length comfortable to braid.

4. If you are letting the braid "fall" into a basket its easier to store and move around when you're not working on it.

5. Continue sewing and braiding until you have sewn and braided all of your scrap strips.  Sew across the end at an angle to stop the braid from coming undone.

6. Cut a long strand of yarn and thread it onto the needle.

7. Thread the needle through one end of the braid.

8. Tie a double knot to hold the yarn in place.

9. Curl the braid around and thread the yarn through one strip of the braid, like this...

10. Continue doing this as you curl the braid around itself to form a flat circle.  This is how I threaded the braid together as I went around and around; I went about every other braid "bump".

11. Keep going around and around.

12. When you need to add more yarn, just tie a knot and continue.

13. Keep going!

14. When you are finished and you've secured all of your braid, tie the end of the braid to the braid next to it; make sure you double, triple knot it; you don't want it to come undone!

15. Enjoy!  You've now made a great handmade rug for your home!

My braided rug ended up being just over 3 feet across.

This rug is super cushiony and feels great to stand on!

My kids love to lay on the rug.

And the stuffed animals like to take "naps" on it!  :D

Enjoy, let me know if you have any questions or comments!  Thanks!