Sparkling jewels

My jewelry was starting to look a little lack-luster, so I decided to clean it while I got ready for work. It's quite easy. You probably have the "cleaner" already in your medicine cabinet. The results are quite spectacular (in sparkles and residual gunk).

Pour in just enough peroxide to cover the jewels.

Wait a few minutes.

Voila!

No elbow grease involved...

Winging it...

Here I go again....trying to sew without a pattern.

A few days ago, I picked up some remnant fabric at the "hoity toity" fabric shop ($3 for a smidgeon of fabric). I thought I'd just make DieselBaby some shorts - he can always use more shorts. Problem was that this fabric was a little too dressy for school shorts.

DieselDaddy started showing me shirts he thought would look good made out of the fabric -picture kaftan or something like this tunic this from Made By Rae. Little did DieselDaddy know, I'd been Celebrating the Boy and planned on making DieselBaby some new clothes.

So I got it in my little brain to make a shirt instead of shorts. No pattern... no problem. (See, I'm to cheap to actually buy a pattern, b/c what if it's too hard, or I don't like it, or...or...I'm a cheapskate.)

I found a button down shirt of DieselBaby's (that might actually fit. Who knows...he never wears it.). Traced that shape and then started splicing in my "ideas".

Voila!

I used every last bit of that fabric. The contrasting inner is actually b/c I didn't have enough of the plain navy. I think the contrast gives it that added "pop".

And since DieselBaby isn't around to try it on, you get Oatmeal (the bear) wearing the shirt.

Linked in at:

Sleepy sheep

As I was browsing the fabric store this morning, I came across the cutest fabric. It was so soft. Just begging to be taken home and made into jammies. Unfortunately, it was too pricey for me to make jammies for myself. But I know a little guy who is in desperate need for more jammie pants.


Of course, it wouldn't be "Sewing with DieselMonkey" without some "oops!" moments. I have a pattern that I've drafted, but I keep forgetting which is the body and which is the legs. I, once again, drafted upside-down. This made the body part very short.

So I dug thru my scraps bag and came up with some blue ribbing that matched the sheepies. Oh, I also neglected to pick up more elastic when I was at the store (oops!). So I decided to stretch the ribbing to make the top of the pants.

Turned out well despite the Oops! I'm glad DieselBaby won't be wearing these outside though...they are a little wonky.

Stenciling DieselMonkey style...

What do you do when you have a white t-shirt with a stain,

a big wall sticker, and some paint?

A cute little shirt for DieselBaby!

The elephant sticker outline was used with a circle placed for the eye. The "E" was made by putting a sticker on the shirt and putting a square around it with cellotape. I cut up a kitchen sponge and applied a mixture of grey and silver paint. Once the paint was dry, I used black to detail the ear, legs, and tail.

Linked in at:

Shirt facelift

I don't know about you, but I have a few shirts in my closet that I don't wear b/c they are not flattering. Boxy. Drab.

I decided to give some a facelift...









Voila....shirt that fits and makes me feel feminine.

I was able to give 3 shirts a facelife during one episode of "What Not to Wear". Appropriate, no?

from scraps to...

Pretties....

I made 2 slits on the bottom fabric to slip the barrette thru.

easy peasy gift...

I think I'll do this again next year. It will be interesting to see how DieselBaby's hand grows through the years.

Office supplies + too much time =

Look familiar?

Interesting comparison

In their defense...my recycling is a "community" recycling bin for my cubicle mates b/c the office recycling is too far away....

laundry...

...always an area of discussion at our house. I do all the diaper laundry. DieselDaddy does the other laundry (supposedly).

We definitely have different theories on laundry.... I do all the laundry. It might not get folded or put in the proper drawer, but it's all clean. DieselDaddy waits until he's almost out of 'roos and then does just what he needs ('roos, socks, etc). He actually went out and bought me more underwear b/c I kept asking him to do laundry b/c I was almost out of 'roos. He will always fold it, but never put it away. It annoys me immensely. I need my work clothes cleaned every week. Not when there is a big pile. 1) i don't have that many work outfits. 2) doing that much laundry is such an overwhelming task.

When I started using cloth diapers, I became more conscious about what I was washing with. A lot of conventional detergents contain "extra" ingredients (brighteners, enzymes, fragrance). I also switched to using plant-based surfactants vs petroleum based products.

I realized that you do not need a ton of suds to actually get things clean (this took a while for me to grasp...i love suds). I recently read an article about how much laundry detergent we actually waste... Is this a conspiracy from the manufacturers? why do they have 3 marking levels on the cup when they say level 1 will get your clothes clean? why is the top mark not at the top of the cup? why are the markings so difficult to read unless you tilt the cup while holding it up to the light? they know people mindlessly fill those cups. we are filling our cups waaay above the mark that will actually get our clothes clean. washing away our money as we do. Our clothes are not getting as clean if we have tons of suds that just re-settle on our clothes along with the dirt. No wonder we need "brighteners" in our detergent.

I will admit that I still glance in the washer and look for suds. I often get the urge to pour in an extra bit of detergent just to get the bubbles.