Upcycle Boys Pants Into Girls Pants

 

So I had a boy first.  I couldn't stand getting rid of everything of his, so I kept some of it in hopes of upcycling it into something girly.  

Addie was wearing these today and it hit me like a ton of bricks what I wanted to do.  At lunch, I told hubs that I was going to add hot pink ruffles to the bottom and a pink heart on the bum.  

He looked at me like I was crazy, which he often does, but even he couldn't help but notice how ridiculously cute these were on our little sweet pea when all was said and done.  So...let's make some for your gal, shall we?

 

 

Just to clarify, I had about 10" in width of this fabric when I started, which I knew would be way more than enough for both legs.  You can only do the fold-in-half trick if you have enough for both legs after cutting in half.  Since I lopped off about 1.5" of the pants and I knew they were about an inch too short on Adalyn to begin with, I assumed making a 2.5" ruffle was going to work out best, and that's exactly what ended up fitting her perfectly.  So if I were doing it "correcly" and hemming up the pants and doing correct measurements, it would have looked like this: 2 strips of 3" x 18" fabric.  (I got 3 inches by adding a .5" inseam.  If you truly hem the bottom, you have to add that, too, which would be another .5" at least, making the strips 3.5" x 18").  Does that make sense? 

 

At this point, I just moved right along to adding the heart on the bum and decided to wait for baby girl to wake up to "hem" (AKA, cut) these.  

Tip Tuesday: Quick & Easy Iced Coffee

I'm sure this is already some bloggy thing I don't know about so I won't pretend like Tip Tuesday is my idea.  But I will try my hardest to keep it up every Tuesday!  

Some Tuesdays I may be flat lazy but I will at least link to other cool things I find in bloggy land.

I really extra special love iced coffee.  My great pal just hooked me up with a Starbucks gift card which is one of the best presents a tired mama can get because I can't justify making Starbucks a normal part of my life right now, financially.  

Some days I don't even have the time to get out of my PJs, much less drive to the closest Starbucks (which is too far away, thankyouverymuch) to use my gift card.

So I have started making my own iced coffee.  I played around with several variations, but usually it was just:

1.  Brew really strong coffee

2.  Add ice to a cup

3.  Add hot coffee to the ice unless I was smart enough to think about it beforehand and have cooled down coffee which happens exactly never.

4.  Top off with sugar and half & half

5. Be sad with the watered-down results

The following method isn't original to me.  It's courtesy of my brilliant sis-in-law, whom I had the pleasure of spending a week with last week at a cabin in Minnesota where we somehow got to discussing coffee.  I don't think she's a big coffee drinker (Christina?), but when I mentioned getting frustrated with my watered-down coffee, she was like, "Why don't you make coffee ice cubes?

Wow.  Coffee ice cubes.  How did I not think of that?  How have I never heard of that until now?  I'm sure many other people use this method, but since it's never come across my radar I thought it was share-worthy.  

This is the lazy girl's guide to iced coffee.  If you want an awesome but a little more involved recipe, you can't beat P-Dubs here.  But if you are short on time like I always am and don't think ahead enough to accomplish her version, here you are:

Brew coffee.  Make it really strong.  I took this picture as though you would have any idea what this even means.  All it does is prove that I'm a lazy coffee pot cleaner.  But whatever, pretend with me.  That's a lot of coffee to 4 cups of water.  Maybe 2.5 times the amount of grounds I'd typically use for 4 cups and as it is, I make my coffee strong on a daily basis.  

 

Pour some coffee in ice cube trays.  Freeze.  

I know.  I'm blowing your mind, right?

When those are done, pop a few into a glass.  Two or three if your coffee is room temperature, more if you forget this step like I always do and have scalding hot coffee.

Add your coffee.

 

I fill my glass about this full but that's just me.  If you like a really strong coffee flavor, fill it fuller.  If you like a creamier, richer iced coffee, add less.  

Add your half & half.  

Also, WE HAVE TRADER JOE'S NOW!  I wanted to break out in an all-caps celebration really quickly because this has been something I've dreamt about forever and a day.

 

Then add sugar.  Or Truvia in my case because I'm working with some baby fat still.  

As much or little as you want.  I definitely never claimed this was rocket science.  

Stir.  Take a drink.  Enjoy.  When your cubes melt, your coffee will just get yummier!

For a mocha-like treat, add a little chocolate syrup.  Mmmmmmm.

Ah, see?  I knew I wasn't the resident blog smartie who developed Tip Tuesday.  Enter Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday.  LOVE that blog!

TUTORIAL: The...something flower.

Here, you can go ahead and name it.  I don't know what to call this one.  The Big, Puffy Flower?  The Flower My Husband Thinks is Obnoxious?  The Large One?  Hey, whoever comes up with the most clever name by 6:00 p.m. August 20th wins a small assortment*!  Cool?

I have seen so many variations of this type of flower floating all over the place, so forgive me if you've seen this before and you're bored.  Go eat some cake or something and come back for the next tutorial soon.

This flower really isn't difficult AT ALL.  It's done in a jiffy and you'll want to make 8000 of them to give to everyone you know.  If you knew 8000 people, that is.  And yes I said jiffy.  Didn't I say something else weird last week? 

Grab those annoying leftover fabric strips you always end up with.  They won't be annoying after you learn this!  You also need some sewing scissors, some felt, a hot glue gun, a fabric marker and some circular objects to use as a tracer (or a compass if you're a Bomb Mom like that).

 

Now find something to trace with.  You'll want your circle to be about the size you want the finished flower.  I just grabbed my pen holder and that did the trick.  Trace circles onto your fabric strip.

You want seven of them.

Here's the part where I decide to go ahead and cut out my small felt circles that I'll use to attach The Crazy Large Obnoxious But Insanely Cute Flower to.  I usually cut out a couple of felt circles so that I can use another to attach the CLOBICflower to a clip or pin or headband.

Do you see why I need naming help?  I am no good at these things.  No good.

I am clever at drawing circles, though.  I rustled through my sewing shelves, pulled out this bottle of fabric glue and it ended up working out to be the perfect size.   

 

Okay, now grab one of your circles and fold it in half like so:

Then comes the REALLY TRICKY PART so pay very, very close attention.

You're going to fold it in half...again.

And then grab it like I did above so you're holding the little pointy end. Do that for all your pieces.  Then chop all your pointy ends off.  That part is kinda fun.  

 

Now grab one of your little felt circles, smother some hot glue on it (can you "smother" hot glue?) and attach your first four pieces down like this:

This is the part where you pretend not to notice my ugly hands.  Sorry, they're vital to this project or I would omit them for your sake.

Take your remaining three pieces and smoosh 'em together like this:

 

 Then "smother" some more hot glue on the ends of these three pieces (What a sophisticated and brilliant writer this woman is, you must be thinking) and if you're feeling extra cautious, in the little hole where you'll be putting them (see below), then hold them in place like this:

I let it dry for a little bit and then, voila:

 

Oh, I kid, sillies.  I'm not that style-challenged.  We're not done.

Now you need to spread out those middle three pieces like this:

 

Oooh...ahhh...pretty.

 Then you can sew it/pin it/velcro it/snap it on a dress like this:

 Or turn it into a ginormously adorable headband for your baby girl like I did.  Just don't expect your husband to come home that night and say, "Why, darling, what a beautiful bow you've crafted our daughter!  I just love it!"  Instead he'll snarl or snort or roll his eyes.

Check back soon for the tutorial on this fabric flower:

*I hereby reserve all rights to choose the cleverist name because, well, I can?  I can also make up words like cleverist.