5 maternity outfits for $20

I can think of no other time in my life when I A) Desperately want to save money and B) Need a completely new and temporary wardrobe. And this amazing time is PREGNANCY.

I hope this post is an encouragement to any fellow penny pinches because I just got five entire maternity outfits for (about) $20! I happen to think these are pretty cute but you can be the judge.

1) Gap flowy shirt 2.99 and Old Navy jeans $0.69

2) Old Navy tee $0.69 and Gap jeans in LONG $6.99
(Thank you body twin for donating these, you made my pregnancy)

3) Gap top $2.24 and Liz Lange skinny jeans $0.69

4) Old Navy tee $0.69 and Old Navy shorts $0.69

5) Old Navy dress $4.99

For a grand total of $20.66 (pre-tax)!!! I feel like I should take a bow. Someone else thinks this is cool right?! Some frugal thrifter out on the interwebs?

Here's how I do what I do: I went to my neighborhood Salvation Army two Saturdays in a row. And any thrifter knows on Saturday you get the $0.69 deal. Depending on what color the "tag of the week" is, you can literally buy anything with that color of tag for almost seventy cents! And there is always a second color tag that is 25% off, which is still pretty nice. Just for a little perspective of just how much moola I kept, that one pair of Gap jeans would have cost me $74.95 and they look like they've never been worn. To whomever donated a pair of Gap pants in 4 LONG...thank you!!!

I also work as a nurse and needed a "new" complete set of nursing scrubs. I'm already a difficult size to fit because of my height but I really really didn't want to spend money on scrubs. Scrubs are thee least fun thing to spend money on. I checked e-bay on a biweekly basis as soon as I found out I was pregnant and was able to spot both pants and tops within 10 weeks for about half the price of brand new.

Completed Felt Quiet Book

 

I had the privilege of making the daughter, of one of my best friends, a felt book for her fourth birthday. It could not have made me happier watching her open it and seeing her play with each page over and over again!

I chose this cover because the birthday girl loves Lady Bug Girl.

I designed and created these first pages. Each word has a little pocket behind it that holds the pieces to decorate the tree according to the season. I used my Big Shot die cutting machine to cut out the letters and the leaf shapes.

This next page is one of my favorites. I got the pattern for this page from this blog. If you like felt books or quiet books at all you can spend a few hours getting lost in that blog AND the creator often has free patterns.

The little bucket holds the sand castle pieces which can be arranged in lots of different ways.

The particular four year old who got this book is crazy smart and loves Dumbo so I designed this page to be a bit of a learning page for her. I printed out a google image search of Dumbo and did the ol' trace and iron on freezer paper technique found here. I ended up tracing him in puff paint because I didn't think my hand stitching would be detailed enough.

This is the most fun way I could think of starting to learn fractions.

I chose a mail box for the last page because the lil girl who got this gift is my neighbor and loves to come over and check my mail box. I got the mail box pattern from my felt making idol, of course! I used Kam snaps to keep the birthday cake puzzle I created in place.

I'm working on a much simpler felt book for my baby on the way. I envision any of my future children having an overwhelming amount of handmade felt toys.

New Year New Resolution

At the beginning of 2016 I had the ambitious goal of making or altering all of my clothes, with the exception of socks and undies because...really. It's crazy how close I came to this goal. I gained oodles of valuable sewing skills and (hopefully) learned from lots of mistakes. I came "close" to this goal because I got pregnant and frankly could not sew fast enough to keep up with my changing body. This is mainly due to A) all my energy going towards growing a human and B) constant vomiting. (I have thrifted almost all my preggo gear which I'm sure you will see in future posts.)

First off, the good! I'd say the best part of this year is having some awesome clothes that fit better than anything store bought. Here are my favorite items from the year. The clothes I wore time and time again. They are ALL Jalie patterns. Because their patterns were doable and wearable, they have a brand loyal customer for life.

Also, pattern testing!!! I had the opportunity to pattern test FOUR patterns this year. Pattern testing was great because I got a peak "behind the curtain" into the world of designing patterns AND got four free patterns just by doing what I love.

Secondly, the bad. I have one big regret in my sewing extravaganza and that being buying clearance fabric. I kept thinking, "I'm new, I should't spend very much money on fabric. I could just mess it up." But truly, I found that using cheap and wonky fabrics messed things up more than I did. Often times I'd order the fabric online and never even use it. I paid much more care and attention when I was working with a quality fabric that I was actually excited about.

Lastly, the NEW. This year my goal is to master the art of royal icing and cookie decorating. I see it as a way to continue to fuel my creativity and learn something new. Days before the new year I attempted to make royal icing for the very first time. I made all the mistakes so I'd say I have a fun and hopefully tasty year ahead.

If you recognized these cookies as the dice you would use to play Dungeons and Dragons, congratulations! You are huge nerd and we would probably be great friends 😉