First off you should know I am a messy sewer. My grandmother is a professional seamstress and would shudder if she saw my sloppy seams etc. But since this was for my own use and just something I threw together in less than 30 minutes, I did not go to any great lengths to make it perfect.

Supplies Needed:
Beach Towel
Terry Cloth Material or a 2nd towel
Sewing machine
Items needed for the beach


First I started with one of the cute Target Dollar spot beach towels. The covers I had seen online used longer towels but I had these, they were cute and CHEAP so they were perfect for my needs. I had some cheap light pink terry cloth material on hand (I seem to have a hobby of collecting fabric!) but you could also use a 2nd towel for the back and pockets. If you were clever enough you could cut around and use all the seams the towel already has to prevent hemming or using the serger on the ends. A serger would have came in very handy for this product but I don't have one and did not want to drive 40 minutes to my grandmothers to use hers. I used a simple tight zig zag stitch on the raw edges of my pockets and back. You could fold it and hem it to make it look more professional.


I had not used my embroidery machine in almost a year so I needed to test it out, the back of the chair cover was the perfect way to do so. I embroidered an L on it just to make sure my machine was working. I cute the light pink terry cloth wider than my towel because A) it was a wider material and B) I wanted the cover to fit any beach chair and this was the easiest way to make sure it would work on wider chairs. Sew the back section onto the top part of the towel to make the part what will slide over the chair to keep the wind from blowing your towel away or slipping once you sit down.


Next I laid out all my "beach" items. A book, sunscreen, sunglasses, camera, cellphone etc. and cut the pocket sizes to make sure all my items would fit in the pockets. On the back part I made it longer so it could be folded down to "close" the pocket. You gotta love the Dollar Tree for Cheap Beach reads! Of course I will end up with more than this in the pockets but I used these items as a guideline when deciding on the sizes.
 
 



Sew the pockets up and then sew them onto the towel with a single straight stitch. TA DA... Your beach towel chair cover is ready for some fun the sun! These pictures aren't the greatest but they are the only ones I took before the rain moved in.



You can personalize them with coordinating colors, embroidered names/initials ( I did my initials on the top of the cover). Use a design stitch on the pockets, add velcro or buttons to keep your items secure in the pocket, sew in a built in cellphone pocket and so much more! You can make the back flap shorter, I was using a piece already cut and didn't know what to expect so I figured it was better to use too much than not enough. I have a few sections gathered at the seam to create a wider area to fit large wider chairs.


I am going to use another towel to make a large beach tote so my chair cover, beach towel and all other beach items will fit inside. I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial and are ready to make your own chair cover. Send me pictures! I would love to see your creations. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.


I love this and this is something even the newest of sewers could make.  We already had our girls beach trip but I know we will be making our way to the water many times this year to cool off.  This is Texas ya know.

Happy Thursday Ya'll.

Today I want to show you how to make this adorable ruffled flower collar which I added to Monkey's Easter Dress to jazz it up a bit.  I've gotten lots of emails requesting the how to so here you go!  Ask and you shall receive, my lovely readers!


You may have seen this already, I came across a picture of an A line dress with this type of collar and of course now can't find, story of my life.  I also can't find my uber cute sunglasses, my favorite flip flops, and my key card to get in my office after hours.  So please bear with my mommy brain for now.

I started out with a hand made A line dress, it came out cute but I wanted to do more to it.


Other Supplies Needed:
Scissors
Needle
Thread
Thimble
Material: For the material I'm using shot cotton in cream color (you want to use a light weight fabric)

Take your material and cut them in about strips.

Keeping the strips folded, cut half into 3 inch squares (you don't have to be exact with this) and the other half into 2 inch squares

Next trim the edges of your squares so that they are more rounded instead of pointed.

We are going to use a 2 inch square and a 3 inch square to make 1 flower.
So begin by taking your 2 inch square/circle and pinching it together at the bottom to form what looks like a flower.

Hold it in place with one hand and simply gather your 3 inch square around the one in your hand and pinch them together at the bottom and work with it until it forms a nice flower shape.
Stitch the 2 squares together to hold the flower in shape.
Continue this process until you have enough flowers for your project.  For this dress I used 20 flowers.

Now gather your dress or whatever you're attaching the flowers to and using your thread and needle and thimble start stitching them on in the pattern of choice.
Add some cute knickers to the dress and there you go!
Now put it on the nearest monkey and watch her be glamorized, messmorized, and accessorized!


These flowers would be cute added to just about anything, tank top, skirt, wreath, purse, shoes.  So have fun making you or your monkey these flowers to dress up with. 
And as always if you do this send me pics so I can showcase you.

Linking up to these Fun Link Parties

Some of you may have seen my Guest Post with Michelle at Someday Crafts.  I enjoyed so much guest blogging there and am so thankful to the new followers I gained from her.  For those whe didn't see it, I wanted to show you how to make these adorable TuTu Leggings, so here you go.

I know we've all seen the Baby Warmer Leggings, and the fun girl Tutus everywhere like my monkey has on here.
But what would be more fun than to have both of these all wrapped up into one adorable accessory, so began my Tutu Leggings.


This project is quite easy and I'd rate it on the beginners level.  You don't need a sewing machine for this so  in my book  that makes it a plus!
First thing is gather your supplies, you will need:
Women's Knee High Socks
Tulle in colors of your choice
Measuring Tape
Elastic (the thinnest you can find)
Scissors
Needle and Thread

Step 1

Step 12 Begin hand stitching the tutu to the legging all the way around and tie off the thread.


Repeat all the steps for your other legging and then step back and admire your adorable little monkey tutu legs.
Then put them on the nearest precious monkey you can find and watch her dance around in delight. 






Have fun and can't wait to see how you do yours.  That's it, easy peasy and oh so cute!  If you make some, please send me pics so I can showcase you, and if you use this tutorial, please link back to it.  Thanks so much.

This is where I'm linking up and partying.

Party Fun












Shayna

I'm one of those people that wants to do everything myself when it comes to party planning or holidays or events.  I don't want to hire someone, I certainly don't want to buy store bought, but I want it to look like I hired someone and not scream MOM MADE.  That's just who I am, Poppa has learned to love me inspite of me.  This little personality trait of mine can drive loved ones crazy.  I tend to be controlling and the finest detail has to carry through with whatever theme is set for the event.  So why am I revealing this not so loveable trait about myself?  Well one of the things that usually goes along with events and parties is cake.  And I prefer to make my own cakes rather than buy but I'm not a cake professional and getting a cake to not scream MOM MADE can be tricky without experience, lessons, or practice. 
Over the past 4 years I've made quite a few cakes for friends and family and I've learned a lot of cool tricks and tips and thought that maybe some of you might also want to make homemade cakes but have them look more professional.  And in my opinion nothing tastes better than my recipe that has taken years to perfect.  One bite and Poppa knows if it's mine or not.  (Toot Toot haha)

So today I wanted to show you some easy ways to decorate and dress up a cake, whether it's a cake disaster or lack of experience, anyone can pulls these off. 

Let's start with a few tips. 
To get even shapes without the middle dome, tap your pans filled with batter down on the counter gently before baking to release air bubbles and to help settle the batter.  Also don't over fill your pans, put the same amount of batter in each pan by using measuring cups.  If you do get the dome shape after baking, just trim and cut to make it even and smooth.

Although store bought frosting is quick and easy, it's not going to leave a professional look due to not being able to crust.  Your icing/frosting needs to crust over so that it can be smoothed out.  But this can be tricky and time consuming so here comes my easy decorating ideas that can look professional but allows you to use store bought icing.

Items You will Need for Decorating These Types of Cakes:
Icing/Frosting
Spatulas
Longer thin candies or cookies (ie: kit kats, twix, Wafer Roll cookies like Pirouette by Pepperidge Farm)
Toppings ie: strawberries, M&M's, jeally beans, etc.

If you're stacking your cakes and let's say it starts to crumble or fall apart, have faith in knowing that frosting acts like a glue and those pieces can be "glued" back together.  Take this cake for example.  My Nana over Easter weekend informed me she wanted me to decorate her a cake like some I had done in the past.  She'd already bought the decorations and would make the cake.  Now normally I'd prefer to make the cake myself and get the decorations I wanted but this is my Nana and it is still important to her to be able to do some things for herself so when she brought me the baked cake it was literally in 5 pieces.  But like I said, no biggie, just used frosting to piece it back together. 

Before we had Monkey we got a puppy, a beautiful Pomeranian puppy named General Maximus Decimus Merdius (yes Poppa named him) and he's called Maximus, well actually now he's called Mam Mam since that's what Monkey calls him.  He's not like any other dog I've ever come in contact with.  I swear he thinks he's human and turns his nose up to other dogs and gets disgusted with us when we treat him as such.
He's part of our family but let's face it, he's still a dog and because he's a dog, he's not allowed in the bedrooms so we keep the doors shut.  Well now that Monkey is older and capable of coming in and out of her room as she pleases, keeping her door closed restricts not only Mam Mam but Monkey as well.  So Poppa decided he'd build her a door to her room where she could come and go as she pleases but keep our beloved pup out. 

We went to Home Depot and bought MDF Board and cut it down to our measurements.  (Just measured from door frame end to the other and then meausred how tall we wanted it)  We also bought cabinet door hinges to install the door.