Dabbled

Clothes Tutorials – recycle your wardrobe!

By Dot | Published February 25, 2010 | Posted in craft, inspirations | 2 Comments

At Dabbled we love to make something new out of something old.
It’s a great way to get new uses out of something that you don’t wear or is outgrown, and if you mess up, well, you’re not out expensive fabric, right? Plus, it’s fun to REFASHION!

Here’s a few tutorials to start you on your way!

Kids Refashioning Tutorials:

There are a ton of these out there, these were just a few I had saved in my ‘to write about’ file!

Or a girl’s dress from a fun T-shirt!
An oldie but goodie, with Easter around the corner: A bunny hat from a kid’s t-shirt! (via Craft)
T-shirts make great materials : Make Baby Sleep Sacks or Make a cute baby hat!(via Little Birdie Secrets)
Toddler Lounge Pants from old T’s – comfy and stylin’!

Toddler Ruffle Skirt from T-shirts a Sew Much Ado
Girl’s Jean skirt with flower trim made from (duh) old jeans.
Mom’s old skirt becomes a cute girls dress.

And some for the adults

(sorry guys, this are pretty much all for the girls — someone find me some good men’s refashioning and i’ll post it!)

fancified cardi at Angry Chicken
Cute belted skirt from a men’s dress shirt at CraftStylish.
Men’s Shirt to Dress at Clevergirl

And a few that were published right here on Dabbled!

Winter’s not over yet, has your little kitten lost his mittens? by Heather from Dollar Store Crafts
Turn two outgrown shirts into a new long sleeve Tshirt by Me!
Give old girls jeans way cute new life by Colleen from Some Art Fabric / Slothcraft.

(Got a cool refashioning project you’d like to see published on Dabbled? Email Us- dot[at]dabbled[dot]org!)

Featured here? Be sure to grab a Button!

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Another reader re-creation.. The Dragon Cake

By Dot | Published February 24, 2010 | Posted in food | Leave a comment

Yesterday I posted a reader version of the Perry the Platypus costume..

Then today I ran across this on my instructable on making the dragon cake:

Here’s mommy_in_a_meditative_midlife_crisis‘s version of the Dragon Cake, which she made for her son’s 6th birthday last year! “I just got finished making the cake for my son’s 6th birthday party today. Thanks so much for your easy to follow directions! It made the whole process quite enjoyable! Since I couldn’t get. A hold of Easter candy in September I just made fondant covered cake balls for the eggs and used fondant for the spikes.”

Great job, down to the personality in the eyelids! And great job at improvising on the candy corns and malted eggs, with more fondant.

The Original, for comparison

How to make a Dragon Cake

A few Good things…

By Dot | Published February 23, 2010 | Posted in food, inspirations | Leave a comment

Love This! It’s a great stop motion of “Adobe Photoshop Cook” making butter cookies! (via Swissmiss)

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Agent P (Perry) Costume

Reader Nina used the Perry the Platypus costume idea from October to create this fun Perry costume for her daughter. I love how she made the one piece Perry body (since she couldn’t find green sweats) using a sweatshirt and sweatpants of hers for the pattern. According to Nina: “We cut a line down the back so she could get in it, and used strips of matching fleece to make two ties to hold it closed. We followed your directions for the beak, feet, and tail, and it came out fabulously. She loves it and wears it as often as she can.” The Boy still wears his all the time too! All hail Phineas & Ferb!

Recent Recipes at Foodwhirl:

Have you checked out Foodwhirl yet? We’re getting quite a lot of great recipes and meal ideas, and it’s been a blast… So go drop in and say hi! And spread the word to all your food loving friends!

The Finger Puppet Bus

By Dot | Published February 22, 2010 | Posted in craft | 3 Comments

Does your child have finger puppets that get lost and scattered about? Or is your child really a little small for wearing them on their fingers, but still likes to play with them? This is actually a re-run from 2008 when the boy had just turned 3, and was not really dexterous enough to wear his finger puppets, but still wanted to play with them. I’m busy working on a new project today, and there might be a few of you who missed this tutorial back then, so I figured I’d share it with your today!

This is a very simple design, which could of course be expanded upon and be made even more creative. And wouldn’t something like this be a great accompaniment to a gift of homemade finger puppets?

I had the handy hubby write up detailed how to instructions, so if you’d like to make one yourself, go here!

Some other kid-related blasts from the past you might enjoy:

OK, back to work on my new top secret project! I’ll share it with you guys as soon as I can :)

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Cakes Galore!

By Dot | Published February 20, 2010 | Posted in food, inspirations | Leave a comment

On the Foodwhirl.com blog today I have a post up highlighting some interesting and fun cakes I found on flickr.. Go check it out!

And while you’re in the mood, here are some other great cake/sweets roundups from Dabbled’s past!

A plethora of Geeky Cakes!

My own robot cake from a few years back, and a roundup of other robot cake ideas!

Last year’s Dragon Cake!

Hungry yet?

Wow! Homemade Faux Fireplace Screen (with a how-to)

By Dot | Published February 19, 2010 | Posted in craft, inspirations | 4 Comments

I just ran across this at How to Do Something, and I was so impressed I figured I’d add it to today’s inspirations list! She made it out of wood, and screen, and cans, and twigs… Seriously, how cool is that?

Go over there and check it out – she shows a step by step on how she did it.

If you missed it, the rest of the inspiration links for friday are HERE

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Stuff I like today.

By Dot | Published February 19, 2010 | Posted in food, inspirations | 4 Comments

These fish by Mimi Kirchner are just fabulous

Buy them or the pattern to make them at her etsy shop

~OR~ How about a fancy looking dessert from very humble origins?

I adore this great idea from Dollar Store Crafts – Make these lovely little Twinkie Bon Bons from the tutorial Heather did at Odeedoh.

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I’ll Sail this Ship of Gnomes.

By Dot | Published February 17, 2010 | Posted in art, Illustration Friday, my art | 17 Comments

For my Illustration (not quite) Friday, this is my take on ‘adrift’..

I’ve always loved The Beautiful South (and the Housemartins before), but when we hear I’ll Sail this Ship Alone, my sweetie and I like to say “Sail this Ship of Gnomes”.. not quite sure how it started, but that’s why we have a lovely little sketch of a ship of gnomes for your perusal today.

I’ll Sail This Ship Alone (BBC Session – Mark Goodier 10/6/89) by The Beautiful South

Play song from Lala.com
The BBC Sessions – 2007 – 3:47

Oh, and go check out my latest food post at Foodwhirl.com: White Chocolate Granola Bars!

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How to Make White Chocolate Ginger Granola Bars

By Dot | Published February 17, 2010 | Posted in food, my food | 1 Comment

Today I’m over a Foodwhirl, posting my recipe for White Chocolate & Ginger granola bars.. Go check it out!

My husband and son eat a granola bar for breakfast almost daily, and while I’m always stocked on the store bought ones, sometimes I like to make them from scratch. It’s an easy process — very kid-helping-friendly, too. And it takes an hour at most from start to finish (including 25 minutes bake time)
The variations on these are endless. I actually made 3 different flavors in this batch, 1 Chocolate Chip, 1 White Chocolate, and 1 Ginger/White Chocolate, but the ones that really popped were the Ginger & White Chocolate variation. The spicy candied ginger is a wonderful contrast to the sweet white chocolate. Read the whole thing and get the recipe..

Granola loves snowy days!

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How to Make a Baby Sling

By Dot | Published February 16, 2010 | Posted in craft, featured, Guest, Tutorials/Tips | 16 Comments

My lovely neighbor Katie has made a ton of these slings, for both herself and for friends, and she’s graciously shared this tutorial. This makes a great baby gift for a friend, and even if you’re not overly sewing proficient, you can make one for yourself while the baby is napping! These work for small babies, up to toddlers…

Katie has given us a great step by step with pictures, but if you have any additional questions, just ask!

Making a Baby Sling

: Buy 2 yards of cotton fabric, the sort that feels like men’s dress shirt material, no stretch. You will also need a spool of coordinating thread. Wash Fabric to pre-shrink.

: Fold the fabric in half long ways, so that the “good sides” face each other.

: Sew a seam along the entire side, making a tube. Turn “right side” out.

: Organize the tube so that the seam is in the middle if you lay it flat. Fold in half, so that the seam you sewed is on the outside in the middle (“wrong side out”). Match up the sides well, so that they are aligned on either side.

: Measure 28.5 inches on one side and 23 inches on the other side. (These measurements seem to work well for regular weight people between 5’6 and 5’8”.

: Step 5, continued. If you are concerned that might not be big enough, make the measurements larger on each side by the same amount). You can always make the sling smaller, but not larger, so try bigger first.

: Step 6: Draw a straight line from the side where you measured 28.5 inches to about an inch before the middle of the fabric. Now make an almost flat arch from your straight line to where you measured 23 inches. See the ribbon in the picture for a general idea of how your line should look.

: Step 7: Pin the fabric together just above your line, but not were the pins will be in your way when you cut. Cut out the line through all 4 layers of fabric together.

: Step 8: Set your machine to the zig zag stitch. Sew a seam were you cut 4 times, using the zig zag stitch.

: Step 8: ..more

: Step 9: Turn Sling right side out.

: Step 10: Try on your sling. Always put the 28.5 inch seam toward your body, so the sling makes a deep pocket. For a small baby, fold sling in half before putting on. The baby should sit near your belly button when placed in the sling.

An older baby should sit comfortably on your hip. You only need to fold the sling in about ¼ of the way with an older baby, taking care to keep the 28.5 inch side closest to your body, so the sling makes a pocket.
If the sling is too big, you can easily shorten it by turning it inside out laying it flat and sewing a straight seem at the top to take it up. You can do this in ½ inch increments until you get to a size you like.
It can be helpful to leave the excess fabric when you take it up because it helps you find the top when you are trying to put it on. If you choose to cut it, you will need to sew the seam four times with a zig zag stitch to make sure it is sturdy.