Funky Polkadot Giraffe: July 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

Funky Friday Feature: Hoot Designs

Hi, My name is Chrissy and I blog over at Hoot Designs. You can also find me on Twitter.
I'm excited to be guest posting a fun tutorial for you today!

This jean purse is so super easy to make for yourself or for your daughter and her friends!!
I sewed 10 bags so forgive the jean brand changes through the post!!

I'm going to write the step by step directions for you between the photos!!

Start with a pair of jeans, any size will do.

Next you will cut off the legs which will become the straps for the purse

Here you will cut the crotch open (across) under the bulky seam

The crotch area will need to be folded over, both the front of the jeans and the back of the jeans, as seen on the photo.

So now turn inside out and fold over left or right, it will depend on your jeans and which way they fold best

Here you can see the bottom folded to the right and the top folded to the left. How you will measure across as far down as you can to have the deepest purse you can get from your jeans.

Now you will stitch across this line twice to be sure it's secure. Turn to the right side and you have a "purse" with no straps.

Here are the jean legs that were cut off. Choose the best seam,

I like the double needle stitched seam.

Now you will cut about 2 inches on either side all the way down the leg

You will need to cut off the bulky strip of the hem on your leg strip (to thick to sew through)

Now fold the sides under to make a long strip and sew down the middle or on either side of the double needle hem. The bag strap is somewhat unfinished, but that's the shabby nature of the bag. The one or two stitches down the length is to secure it as a strip.

Now you are ready to sew the front strap to the bag

Now you will stitch across the waist band edge on the top and on the bottom right over the mustard colored jean thread. Now I also stitched down the sides creating a "box" like you might see on a tote bag.

You can see in this photo how I made the square when securing the strap to the waist of the jeans. You will do this 4 times securing the front and back strap. When securing the second strap be sure its not longer then the other, or they won't rest on your shoulder correctly.

I had my daughters Girl Scout troop each bring in a pair of jeans that no longer fit and I sewed them into purses for each of them and then I brought one pair of jeans in to show how it's done from beginning to the end! Then they decorated them with buttons and ribbons! I sewed 10 bags for the troop! The girls loved them.

And now you have a Jean Purse!!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tutorial Thursday: Hooded Surfer's Poncho

Just in case you missed my guest post over at Tatertots & Jello
I'm sharing it here today!
It's not too late to make one and save the swimming lessons day!

It's the Surfer's Poncho -
or a new spin on the classic and much loved, hooded towel.

We have swimming lessons again next week
and one thing that drives me crazy is
the dragging of the towels across the parking lot or
the crying 2 year old because she can't keep her towel
on and she's "freezing".
The insanity!!!!

So I was brainstorming with my husband about
the problem - he's a good sounding board -
and he said, "You should make a surfer's towel."
And I was like, huh?
He explained that surfers cut holes in the top
of a towel so they have a makeshift changing room on the beach.
The towels don't fall off - because they are poncho style.
So I changed the plans a little bit and this is what I came up with.

What you'll need:
1 large towel
1 hand towel
thread
sewing machine

STEP ONE

Fold your hand towel in half.
You can use the decorative edge or a finished edge of the
towel to save you the time of having to "hem" the outside edge.
Lay your pattern down and pin.
I used a hood from a hooded towel we already had
to make my pattern.

STEP TWO
Cut your hood pieces out, cutting a little extra for seam allowance
if you didn't already allow for that in the sizing.
I added extra, because the pattern was actually for my
daughter's towel and my son has a BIG-ger head :)

STEP THREE
Sew around the outside edge where the arrows outline.
I sewed a 1/4" seam allowance with a zig zag stitch
and then went over the seam again with a straight stitch.

STEP FOUR
Fold your towel in half to form the poncho.
Then, find the center of the folded edge.
You could measure and be exact, but I folded it in half again
and marked with a pin.

STEP FIVE
Use the neck hole of a shirt and make a pattern
piece for the neck opening.
You can also estimate and eye it if you're comfortable with that.

STEP SIX
Open up your neck opening and pin down the front
half of the ellipse.
Then sew a 1/4" seam around the pinned edge -
again I did a zig zag and then a straight stitch.

STEP SEVEN
Find the center of the back part of the ellipse and mark with a pin.
Then match the center of the hood to the center of the ellipse
and pin the hood to the poncho right sides together.

STEP EIGHT
Sew the hood to the poncho with a 1/4" seam.
I did a zig zag and went back over with a straight stitch.
Woohoo! Now you have a Surfer Poncho!

STEP NINE
Time to add the pocket.
I grabbed my son's sweatshirt and took a pattern from the pocket.

STEP TEN
Cut a little extra for seam allowances, then fold the edges
under where the arrows are and sew down the raw edge
so you have a finished edge.

STEP ELEVEN
Position in the pocket where you'd like it to lay.
Then, holding the top edge of the pocket in place,
flip the pocket up toward the hood,
so that with right sides are together now.
Sew with a 1/4" seam along the top seam -
that looks like the bottom seam of the pocket right now.

STEP TWELVE
After you've sewn the top seam,
flip it back down and sew the bottom portion down,
leave the holes open for the pocket.

And there you have it - The Surfer's Poncho!

And just in case you have a Surfette :)

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Nutrisystem: WEEK SIX & SEVEN

It was so awesome to be with my family.

We had so much fun!
I did not exercise.
And I did have a little "give" when it came to my eating.
However, I feel good about it.
I was on vacation.
I ate some fun food.
But I didn't go crazy like I have in the past.
If the family had s'mores - I had "a" s'more and not five :)
I felt in control and happy.
It was awesome.
I also love that I had ordered yummy Nutrisystem bars.
They have them for breakfast & lunch and they
make travel a lot easier to stay on track.

My super rad sister, recently shared some fabulous
just being healthy tips with me and I wanted to
share them with you.

Hello! Here are some veggie or otherwise yummy recipes. One thing that has helped me in my quest to eat healthier are the throw away aluminum 8X8 cake pans. I hate cleaning up the mess of making a big healthy dinner and those help out. It's horrible for the environment and more expensive than using your Pyrex, but it helps me get over the hump of grabbing something easy because I don't want to clean up the mess. Also, kosher sea salt makes any veggie yummy - and so does minced garlic.

1. This is a spinach Korean dish, it's super fast. We call spinach and broccoli giraffe food, and then our kids love it more. Make sure you use sesame oil and no other kind for this dish - sesame oil is so delicious, I'd recommend you try it anyway and use it in other dishes. I eat this over Korean rice and a white fish like tilapia.

2. Wheat bread (or Naan bread, you can find it at Whole Foods and Super Target) - it's kind of like pita bread, it's unleavened so it doesn't have sugar in it. So, stack wheat bread (or Naan), avocado slices, spinach, Swiss cheese a slice of tomato and sprinkle with garlic salt then stick it under the broiler.

3. Chop up a zucchini and a squash into squares (I like to peel off a bit of the skin) stick them in a tin cake pan. Mix in about 1 T of minced garlic (or more, I like tons). Then cut up some butter into thin slices and place on top, like 9 pieces. Bake at 350 for like 10 minutes, depending on how mushy you like them and then sprinkle on some kosher sea salt.

4. Have you discovered Greek yogurt? It's my new favorite thing, it's so high in protein and low in calories. I get fat free Chobani Greek yogurt, the big tubs. You can also get the little cups at Costco - my kids are yogurt fiends, and it's way better for them than the sugary ones. SO - cut up some berries, put them in a bowl. Sprinkle with Splenda. I like mine kind of warm, so you can nuke them for 15 seconds if you want. Then, dollop some yogurt on there and sprinkle on GROUND flax seed and grape nuts (I like the crunchiness, so I put on a lot). Your body doesn't digest flax seeds - so you've gotta grind them up before you eat them, but they go rancid fast after you do that. So I buy a little bag at super target and then grind up a 1/2 c or so at a time in the food processor and keep them in a little Tupperware and sprinkle them on everything.

5. You can make your own fat free ranch dressing with Greek yogurt instead of mayo and a packet of ranch dressing and then add as much milk as you want to make it thick or thin.

6. Greek yogurt is also good to make any kind of smoothie. We make monkey smoothies. Greek yogurt, 2 T peanut butter and a frozen banana - I also throw in some flax seeds and the kids don't notice.

7. slice up some cucumbers and sprinkle on a packet of ranch dressing mix. It's delicious and fat free.

8. For the pool and beach I like to slice up strawberries and then sprinkle a packet or two of Splenda and put them in a zip lock bag. They warm up and get all syrupy and delicious. And it's ok if you're all sticky, because you just rinse off in the water.

9. For breakfast I like quinoa with some unsweetened almond milk on top. Add some Splenda or Truvia.

10. Also, I like to have oatmeal for breakfast. Just get a bag of frozen blueberries (the wild ones are smaller). Then sprinkle those on top of a steaming bowl, the oatmeal thaws the berries and the berries cool down the oatmeal. Then, you don't have to worry about your fruit going bad before you can eat it.

Well, there are some starters. One tip I loved that I got recently, was to think about healthy things to ADD to your diet instead of things that are being taken away. I don't like things taken away from me. Even if someone was like, you can never eat lima beans ever again (which I hate), I'd go to the store and walk by them and think, "I REALLY want to try lima beans..." :) Then your diet will be full of healthy things you've added and the unhealthy stuff will have been crowded out.

May the force be with you.

Aren't those fabulous tips?
I found them very helpful and encouraging.
I agree with her - if you think about ADDING to your diet
instead of SUBTRACTING things,
you'll feel more successful and less deprived.

CURRENT STATS:
Week One: -6 lbs
Week Two: -3 lbs
Week Three: -.5
Week Four: -2
Week Five: -0
Week Six: -1
Week Seven: -1

TOTAL: 13.5

Thanks so much for all the tips about exercise.
It looks like a majority of you exercise first thing in the morning.
I agree with you.
When I've been successful, it's because I do it first thing.

Things I need help with this week:

What do you do to stay on track during vacation and traveling?

Nutrisystem is providing their food and program to me free of charge in exchange for blogging about my experience as part of the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Program. The opinions above are my own.

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling tel:1-888-853-4689 or by visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

TOO Cute Tuesday: Linky Par-Tay! #41

What a wonderful week we had with my parents, siblings,
and nieces and nephew.
It was a non-stop family party.
We missed having my husband there,
but we were only gone for a week this time,
so I think we all survived :)

My awesome "little" (he's like 6'4") brother built this
fire pit area in my parent's backyard.
We spent 3 of the 5 nights we were there enjoying it.

We made Reese's Peanut Butter Cup S'mores.
BEST. S'MORES. EVER.

And my Dad & brother made a YUMMY
Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler.

2 cans peach pie filling
1 yellow cake mix
12 oz Sprite
stick of butter

Pour peach pie filling intof in Dutch oven.
Layer the cake mix on top.
Pour Sprite on top of cake mix making sure that the cake mix.
Slice up a stick of butter and place evenly over the top.
Place 12 briquettes under and 12 on top of oven and cook for 45 minutes.

Now onto TOO Cute Tuesday!

What did you make this week that is TOO Cute??

Come link up!

Rules:

Must be made by you.
Link up to the specific post - not your main blog.
No Etsy shops or giveaways please :)
Please post the button or link back here so more people can join in the fun.
Visit some of the other participants and leave them some LOVE!

TOO Cute Tuesday will be open Tuesday-Friday.
On Saturday I'll highlight some of my favorites
and then we'll start over on Tuesday!

I changed the linky party so that the most recently uploaded project will show up as number one. This way everyone gets a chance on top. So, look in the first spot for your project, not at the end. Thanks!!!