Extend the life of children's clothing with iron-on patches

We are super fortunate to have a source of adorable and gently-used children's clothing.  Once her girls have outgrown items and toys, they get passed on to us!  Most look like they've been worn only a few times, some have stains (which I've gotten pretty good at removing), but there are a few pieces that were obviously very loved!

When items are stained beyond my capabilities, they join the "spaghetti shirt" stockpile.  Spaghetti shirts function as full-body bibs when we have meals or art projects that I know will stain good clothes.

But sometimes I can rescue a stained or worn item just by adding a little flair.  The floral pants below were in good shape and part of the regular rotation, but got stained while crawling on the ground at Luray Caverns (which is totally worth visiting!).  Around the same time, we were given a pair of pants that were looking worn at the knees.  I wanted to save them both!

I dug around in my fabric stash and found a red and pink striped knit.  I attached fusible web to the striped fabric first.  Then I traced heart shapes onto the paper and cut out the hearts.  I "dry fit" them over the stains/worn places, then ironed them on!  Easy peasy.

I thought my project was complete at this step, but my daughter ripped the hearts off after wearing the pants for less than an hour.  Soooo, I ironed on new patches, then sewed them down by hand with large stitches along the edge.  This took about 5 minutes per patch.

Now these pants have new life, and might even be cuter than the original!  Fancy companies put contrasting patches on their clothing and charge big bucks...I put these on hand-me-downs for free and in less than 30 minutes.  Score!  I did this to extend the life of these pants...but now I'm also thinking this would be a great way to knockoff the fancy children's brands!

The hearts were a cute shape for girls pants, but I think circles, squares, triangles, and hexagons would look great on clothing for both girls and boys. Do you have any clothing items that could be revived with a quick craft?

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Baby Octopus Costume
Toddler Octopus Costume
Light-Up Trick-or-Treat Bag

Bonnie Projects

Wine cork fire starters

This the gift was the quickest and most budget-friendly yet!

Every time we drink a bottle of wine, I toss the wine cork into a bowl, promising Tommy that one day I'll find something to do with them.  Now I finally did!  My grandmother was doing this at Thanksgiving, not sure where she got the idea from, sorry!

All you do is stuff a container with wine corks (I used a mason jar for added cuteness), and top it off with rubbing alcohol.  My one-quart mason jar, stuffed with corks, used about 16 oz. of alcohol.

To make it pretty, I tied a ribbon and label to the top of the jar.

aren't the corks pretty in there?

I gifted this to my in-laws, who have a wood-burning fireplace.  All they have to do is light one or two below their fire, and it should start right up!

It took me about five minutes to make this, and most of that was getting the bow pretty enough to photograph.  The only thing I bought was the alcohol for $2, and I only used half of it.  Cute gift for $1 and five minutes of time?  Awesome!!!  And the in-laws liked it, too!

**Be sure to practice fire safety and keep this away from the fire!


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Ticket stub collection frame
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Upcycled sweater pillow

Bonnie Projects

Liquid Hand Soap

The DIY liquid hand soap I made a few years ago has been one of my most-visited posts.  I recently made it again, but changed up the recipe a little, so I'll share what I did differently!

What I loved about the first one was:

• It made over a gallon of hand soap
• It was free from hazardous crap like triclosan (in antibacterial soap; read more about it from the FDA, wikipedia, beyond pesticides, EPA, but essentially it can bioaccumulate, it's a hormone disruptor, and it isn't proven to be better than regular soap)
• It was cheap

What I didn't love:

• It kind of felt like snot
• It didn't get sudsy enough for our tastes
• My husband hated it

So I fixed all that!  This recipe still makes cheap, healthy handsoap, but doesn't feel like snot and gets plenty sudsy.  My husband had no idea it was homemade.

I picked up this yummy little soap at Homegoods for $3.  I simply went through them all and picked the one with the best scent that didn't have nasty chemicals in it.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 c grated soap
• 2 T vegetable glycerin
• 8 c water
• It's the ratio that's important here.  If you grate your soap and get 3 cups, just double everything!

Method:

• Grate the bar soap using one of the finest grating on your cheese grater
• Add all ingredients to a large kitchen pot (it's OK to use a good one - it's just soap!)
• Heat and stir until the soap is dissolved (I like to use a whisk)
• Let cool completely to room temperature, so you know for sure you're not ending up with a brick of soap sponge (like the first time I ever tried this)
• Fill up your containers!

The only bummer about using more soap in the recipe is that now it doesn't make as much.  Still, 2/3 of a gallon of hand soap for $3 is pretty darn good!  It also made less than the first time because the bar of soap was a good bit smaller.

Some hints:

• If it turns into a spongey mess once it cools, just heat it back up and add more water
• If it's too liquidy, first make sure it actually cooled all the way, then add more soap, reheat, etc.
• I got my Glycerin at Whole Foods, but my readers say it's also available in pharmacies.  I paid about $6, but haven't even used half of it yet.
• Avoid using soap with "stuff" in it, like tea leaves or exfoliating beads - they clog up your soap dispensers.

Bonnie Projects

Refinished Porch Light

Now that the yard is pretty and the front door is all spiffed up, the porch light is looking a little sad in comparison.

Nope, it's not dirty or faded, it's actually painted to look like this.

My first thought was to just replace it.  I collected up a number of pretty sconces on a pinterest board, but at $30 - $300, I wasn't chomping at the bit to just order one.

The current fixture happens to have this cool feature where it only comes on in the dark, so I can turn it on when I leave for work, and it'll welcome me home if I come home after dark 12 hours later, without wasting electricity all day.  Only the fancy models have this feature, so then we'd be in the $150 - $300 range.  Yikes.

I figured if we were going to replace it anyways, it might be OK to try refinishing it, with the potential of ruining it.

Tommy flipped the breaker and removed the fixture from the house.  I taped over all the electric parts, like the wires and the daylight sensor.

I bought this cool spray paint from the hardware store (Rustoleum Hammered Paint and Primer) - they do something fancy to it where it creates a hammered texture.  Not only does this forgive any dents or wear and tear on the item (that high gloss paint would highlight), but it looks pretty cool, too.  It was $8, so on the high end for spray paint, but cheap-o for a new light fixture.

I didn't have to, but I primed the fixture first.  (Before buying the spray paint - I didn't realize I wouldn't need it)

Then I sprayed three coats of the hammered finish spray paint, which ended up being the entire can.

 

I let it dry for a while, then discovered the underside needed a few extra spritzes.  I had to wait 48 hours from the first spray session, so this added days to the project.  (If you spray a second coat between 1 and 48 hours after the first coat, it can cause wrinkles in the paint)

It came out SO WELL!  The black makes the fixture contrast well with the brick on the house, and ties it in with the handrail.

 

 

 

Eight bucks for a brand new looking fixture sure beats $30 - $300!  Plus, the whole project took about 20 minutes of hands-on time.  Drying time added more hours, but that's OK with me.

Bonnie Projects

Wedding Wednesday: Pennants

When dreaming about my wedding (pre-engagement), I imaged a rustic affair, maybe even set on our farm in Alabama.  For a whole variety of reasons, that never came to be, but I made sure I still got some of the touches!  Like pennants!

I've said it once and I'll say it again - I didn't want to be throwing away a bunch of stuff after the wedding.  I wanted to make choices in a way that things could be reused afterwards.

Pennants are so whimsical and fun, I just love them.  Better yet, my Mom thought they were cool too, and offered to make them!  I'm guessing she never realized she would make 400 feet of them...

She was super nice and took great photos along the way so I'd be able to share a wedding pennants tutorial with you :)

Together we collected a ton of different coral fabrics - all cottons.  Keeping them cotton meant that we could eventually take them apart and make them into something cute, like a quilt.  I think we had 35 fabrics altogether.  She also saved remnants from the cloth napkins to use.

Mom pressed all the fabrics to make them easy to work with. 

Check out her crazy iron with pop-out feet!

She started by cutting strips of fabric 8" wide, with smooth edges.

Then, from those strips, she cut the triangles using a rotary cutter with a wavy blade.  You can't use it with a ruler like you normally would, so she had to measure the cuts and do her best to keep them straight.  For the double-sided pennants, she laid fabrics back to back and cut them together so the scallops would match up.  Wavy edges prevent fraying, so she didn't have to hem all those edges.

The triangles measured 8" tall by 6" wide.  

She tucked the top of each triangle between the folds of extra-wide double-fold bias tape and stitched the layers together.  She didn't leave any space between the triangles.  She used white tape for most of the pennants, but used a coral pink for the ones destined for the cake table and seating card table - guests would be up close and personal with them so we wanted them as pretty as possible.

To avoid ironing them on wedding day, she carefully folded the pennant chains so the triangles all stacked up.  She sandwiched them between two pieces of cardboard cut into triangles, and wrapped the whole bunch in cling wrap, making sure to label the length.  To the front, I attached a diagram of where they were supposed to be hung at the reception.

I had given her specific measurements for all the lengths we required, and whether they should be one or two sided.  She added an extra 10% of length to allow them to hang down in pretty swoops.  Then she added another few feet just in case.  Because they're made of fabric, any extra length could just be snipped off and tossed aside if need be.

They came out PERFECT!  They were exactly how I had imagined them, and gave the plain white space a really fun and festive feel.  The venue was pretty plain, so we used them everywhere - cake table, escort card table, bar, dock, rafters, photo booth - you name it!

Pennants made a cute photo booth backdrop

The day after the wedding, my Mom, bridesmaids, and aunts (thanks guys!) helped me straighten them all out and fold them up nice.

Don't forget to fold them up nice after the wedding!

I have plans to hang some in my craft room, keep a few for a little girls room one day, make some into a quilt, and who knows what else! 

I sent a strand to some of my best friends for their little girls room.  And I just lent the rest of the collection to a friend to use in her wedding!  Needless to say, I'm definitely making good on that re-use idea.

Reuse wedding pennants in a little girls room

Bonnie Projects

Wedding Wednesday: Cloth Napkin Wedding Favors

I’ve been using cloth napkins for years.  I love that they’re beautiful, do a better job than paper, and best of all, don’t create waste (I top off any load of laundry with a few used napkins).

I wanted to share this lifestyle choice with our wedding guests.  I was averse to the idea of creating a mountain of trash from our wedding.  I was also averse to the idea of renting napkins for $1.00 each!  Thus was born the idea of making our own cloth napkins, and giving them to guests as a favor.  I was also pretty excited about how they’d jazz up our tables.

My Mom and I collected a variety of cotton fabrics in my coral color scheme, including some beautiful batiks.  She got about four napkins per yard of fabric, leaving an 11" remnant to play with later.

We used the remnants for pennants or saved them for future quilts.  I'm really excited about repurposing fabric and ribbon from the wedding into quilts, crafts, cards, etc.  Reuseability was a big motivator as I was choosing decor and stuff for the wedding.

Mom cut 17" squares with a square ruler and rotary cutter and sewed a rolled hem with the serger along each side to give them a professional finish. By starting with a neat edge, she didn't have to cut away fabric with the serger and didn't waste any inches.  Using the same thread on all the napkins helped make them cohesive.

I washed the napkins to remove any sizing or residual manufacturing chemicals, and meticulously ironed them.  My fabulous maid of honor painstakingly folded them to fit around our menus.

So that guests would know to keep them as a wedding favor, I wrote a short poem for the top of the menu:

Use this napkin for cake or for tears,
then take it home and reuse it for years.
Over dinner with loved ones, remember this night,
And say a sweet blessing for this husband and wife.

The set-up folks put the menu in upside down (the poem was designed the show at the top, not the menu, but oh well!)

cloth napkins as wedding favors

I truly hope that people took them home and that they do reuse them (and think of us!) for years.  There were several dozen leftovers and extras.  My thoughtful aunt had the brilliant idea of washing them all the day after the wedding.  She definitely saved us from finding a box of moldy and ruined napkins months afterwards.

And hey, these are so pretty that I don't mind having lots of wedding favors hanging around!