summer projects

On Mondays we make things, and call it "Make-it Monday".  We always cook a lot because the kids all wanted to learn to cook better this summer.  The little boys learn to make things like hard boiled eggs and ramen noodles and pudding.  The little girls make desserts and dinners.  We do projects. Like these placemats:

That you make by cutting shapes into yucky potatoes for stamps:

I remember my mom doing this with us when I was little and we stamped them all over butcher paper:) It was so fun then, that I wanted to do it with my kids now!

Last week we moved on to sewing.  And it was so much fun, that we kind-of went on a HUGE sewing spree! (And we are only half-way through our projects!) Isabelle wanted to sew an "animal head" for Pace. She came up with this "sheep head":

...which we decided was just the perfect animal because he is always making a sound just like a sheep bleating:)  She keeps it in his crib and he loves to wake up and play with it!

Maddie sewed this bag that has come in handy every time she has gone babysitting this week:

She is also almost finished with a skirt.  (I'll add a picture of that on as soon as she finishes it - probably tomorrow)

Kami sewed a maxi skirt, (that I failed to take a picture of) and this super cute dress:

...which I got to turn the right direction before I put it on here, so why has it gone back to side-ways? rrrggg.

Isabelle informs me that dresses that are longer in the back are called "shark-bite" dresses.  How does my almost nine year old know more about fashion that I do?  And why don't they refer to them as "mullet" dresses as a lady in my ward calls them? Funny.

Anyways, her dress turned out PERFECTLY - which was very encouraging to her and she is on to sewing another skirt and then another dress!

I sewed this dress:

...which I not-so-fondly refer to as my "pellon" dress because that is the kind of interfacing I used for it.  Not the best idea.  It made it hang  funny around the top front.  But I wanted to work on it while Pace was sleeping, dang it!  Not spend his nap running to the store to get interfacing!! Short-cuts never pay. (sigh)

And these hats are what I had the pellon on hand for:

Aren't they cute?  I want to make a whole bunch more for new neighbor babies and my crazy- haired little fellow.  I did finally manage to cut the very back of his hair, but nothing on top he is so squirmy. And I'm not so sure what to do with the top, because at the back of his head he has a cow-lick that throws his hair one direction, and in the front he has one that throws it the other.  I will have to think on this one for awhile, and meanwhile, this style suits him:)