A Pinch of This: Weekend #2: Handmade Events

This past weekend was spent making my wee daughter, Emmaline's, first birthday a simple but memorable event. I LOVE to entertain large groups of people, but my budget does not support my favorite hobby. So, I try to find frugal ways to do it anyway! My decorations are always handmade and I find ways to reuse them every time. I made my sweet little Em a t-shirt with iron-on transfers that I made on my computer and a pair of ruffle-booty bloomers. The bloomers were super easy. I just found some fabric scarps, cut them to about 4" wide and about two times as long as the bloomers that I was sewing them onto. Fold them in half (into 2" strips or however wide you want your ruffles), sew a seam down the open side with wrong sides together and turn right-side out. From there, I hand-sewed a loose in/out stitch all the way across the strip, pulled the strip together to form a ruffle, then pinned and stitched it to the bloomers. I did 5 ruffles and it only took about an hour from start to finish.