Average Jane Crafter’s mad-for-Legos son had a Lego-themed birthday party this weekend.  My kids and I wanted to do something special to wrap his presents.  I am never happy with the choices for buying wrapping paper at the store.  I prefer plain paper that I can decorate myself.  We used brown wrapping paper, Crayola poster paints, and Duplo Legos to make this printed paper.  In order to make the print, we first put paint on the top of the lego to make the circle print.  To make the block portion of the print, we flipped the Lego over and printed the outer square “on top” of the circles. 

Square Lego Print Side

Circle Lego Print Side

Lego-wrapped Legos!

My son made a short video how-to.

I can’t stop making skirts. I made this one a little shorter than the last.  I started sewing late and ended up with the kids asleep in their sleeping bags, not far from the machine.  I am a little bit in love with this mod, floral fabric from JoAnn’s.

When I looked at something with a bias tape edge, I assumed it would require a super human amount of dexterity and the ability to sew an exactly straight line.  Fortunately, neither of those were the case.  I made this fantastic wrap skirt in a  Stitch Lab class.  It reminds me a little of something, Kitty, the mom on That 70’s Show would wear.  The class was taught by Becky Joiner of bj and the neil. Becky is a great, natural teacher.  She explained things very clearly, and was very patient and encouraging.  I can’t wait to take another class from her.

I have finally taken enough sewing classes that I am feeling more confident with my sewing machine.  I love this simple pattern from Oliver + S.  The pattern, Lazy Days Skirt, is a freebie from their blog. I am going to make a bunch of these for the girls for summer and school in the fall, when it will still be so hot here. There is an awesome flickr group of pictures of pieces people have made with Oliver + S patterns.  The group is great to look through for inspiration.

On Tuesday we headed out to the release party for Rick Riordan’s final book in the Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian. H had a great time with his friends at the BookPeople event.  He climbed to the top of the climbing wall, posed in a chariot with a gold sword, and went into battle! Now we are looking forward to his session of Camp Half-Blood this summer.

Here it is!  I made this yesterday in my sewing class.  Melissa Morgan taught this class at the Stitch Lab.  The class format if very relaxed and easy.  Because there are only a few people in each class, every skill level can work at their own pace.  I really enjoyed having Melissa as a teacher.  She is also teaching some other great classes including, baby overalls, ring slings, pocket slings, and some great sewing classes for kids. Check out the schedule here.

(E’s awesome matching sandals are from Target.  She calls them her “rainbow sandals.”)