Keeping Hearth and Home

My eldest won't stop growing!!  We recently had to buy him new jeans, money we are willing to pay for extra durability because this boy is ROUGH on his clothes (I highly recommend Wranglers, they have worn better than any other brand we have tried, and you can get them at a deep discount from  VF Outlet , especially on clearance).  While we were shopping to for jeans I looked at pajamas as well because they were also getting short on him.  OUCH!! I forget how expensive PJs can be every time until I go looking.  Sometimes we get a good deal at Costco, but they have already stocked their spring/summer wear and the nights are still cold here, so that was a no go. I was considering just letting him wear PJ pants a few inches short (nobody will ever know.....) until the weather warmed up.  But then I saw them: two perfectly good long-sleeve shirts that my husband had put in the donation pile, one was even made of thermal fabric.  "Light Bulb!" So out of...

Two of my nieces (sisters) decided that they wanted to be mermaids for Halloween and that their baby sister needed to be one as well just to round things out.  So I got to come up with and make 3 mermaid costumes this year. One for an infant, one for a pre-teen, and one in the middle.  I thought, why not turn this into my first ever sewing tutorial?  So, I give you "How to Make a Baby Mermaid Costume Bunting," with additional instructions coming later for turning the baby costume into a skirt/fin for a girl of any size: What you'll need: Shiny fabric in 2 coordinating colors Thread to match 3/4" Elastic Elastic bobbin thread The fabric that we chose to use for the main body of the costume was a tissue lame, and we used a shiny polyester fabric for the fin.  To determine how much fabric you'll need to buy, take bust, waist, and hip measurements, and a measurement from the center back between the shoulder blades down to heels.  If your fabri...