Folding

Took a little break from blogging to... survive real life for a bit?
And taking a little break from our outdoor transformation to bring you this indoor tidbit.

I folded my clothes the way my mom taught me until I was in college. It was that standard way they fold t-shirts in the store... you know so they stack nicely, or fit nicely in a shirt box? Shirt box folding, that's how I folded my clothes. And it has worked for millions of people for centuries, and if that's your method and it thrills your soul or fits your style, please, carry on. But I got to college and suddenly had less drawer space, as well as less time for folding my laundry.
The beautiful shirt box folding I had been taught was no longer working for me. I didn't have enough room in my drawers for all my clothes, not to mention, pulling out the shirt that you want (inevitably the one at the bottom of the stack) messed up the entire stack, and then you either had to re-fold/re-stack, or take the more traditional college method, and just shove the wadded shirts back in the drawer and slam it closed.
I needed a better method.
So here's how I started folding my shirts:

1. Lay your t-shirt out flat, face up. Smooth wrinkles.
2. fold t-shirt in half lengthwise.
3. Fold sleeves back over to create a long skinny rectangle.
4. Fold in half, the collar down to the hem.
5. Fold in half again, top fold down to collar/hem

And that's it! You have a nice, compact little rectangle t-shirt. Continue with your pile of t-shirts, and stack them all with the fold on the same side.

Now, when you go to put them in your drawer, stack them with that fold side up... (almost like a file cabinet?) like so:

See how nicely they fit in there? And how many shirts you can fit in a drawer? There are twice as many t-shirts as would fit shirt-box fold style. Plus, having the t-shirts in the drawer 'file-drawer style' means you can easily access the ones at the front or back without messing up the rest of the folded shirts. And this is just my husband's white undershirt drawer (yes, he has an unnatural amount of white t-shirts) but when you have other shirts, colors, and designs it's easy to view which shirts are in your drawer with little digging/messing up already folded clothes!

And see how nice this looks? Simple and organized and plenty of room to hold all of them.
But this doesn't just work for t-shirts. I use the same folding and 'file-drawer style' for my shirts, camisoles, night gowns, baby clothes and onesies, and...

Yep, those are my husband's underpants. (A slight variation, rolling instead of folding, but same basic premise... and look how many you can fit in one drawer!) (Yes, my husband also has a CRAZY amount of underpants.) (No my husband doesn't read my blog, so will likely never know I put pictures of his underpants on here-- it's our little secret... shhhhhh...)
You can even fold shorts and pants to fit upright in your drawer in the same file drawer manner. You will be amazed at the amount of space you save, or the amount of clothes you can fit into one drawer now!

Some other thoughts on this method:
*It's very similar to how you may be instructed to pack, rolling clothes to get more things in a suitcase or small space. So if you do start folding your clothes in this manner on a regular basis, hey, you just cut out a step when you pack for a trip! Yay.
*If you smooth your wrinkles as you fold, I find that this method is just as effective as any for eliminating wrinkles in clothing as any other folding method
*This is not a great method for dress dress shirts, those still do best pressed and hung in the closet.

So there you have it! Maybe this is not anything life changing or new for you, but it changed my wardrobe, and eventually my mama caught onto my method as well... and it revolutionized her laundry, folding, and clothing storage methods. And... my mama is an organizational guru, so with her stamp of approval I plow onward. :)

What about you, what kind of laundry, folding, or clothes storage hacks have you adopted that changed your life???

Big Butt Baby Pants

In my last Favorite Things post I talked about Big Butt Baby Pants.
This pattern is designed specifically for cloth diapered babies... with an extra panel and plenty of room in tush and hips for their extra-fluffy bums. Which is actually amazing, because I am having the hardest time finding pants that fit the little man right now! If we can get them over his bum, they are huge around his waist... If they fit his waist, we can't put a cloth diaper on him. No good.
I mentioned to my mom just the other day how frustrating this was to me, and she suggested I make my own. I was all... sigh, yeah I guess I will have to. And then I remembered seeing this pattern a long time ago-- before I had ever thought about having my own babies, or cloth diapering them, or how annoying it would be to find pants for my child's giant bum-- and so I looked it up again. It was exactly what I needed.

 

The pattern can be purchased from the website at the link above. It's a downloadable PDF. (Pretty simple process, if you've never done it before.) The  pattern itself is ultra simple-- just 2 pieces. Easy instructions with pictures. I think it would be a simple first sewing project. It comes with suggestions/customizable options--cuffs, pockets, ruffles-- for boys or girls. Basically once you have the basic concept, the options are limitless. I took the pattern and fiddled with it a little to make a flat front version, and added some of my own details.

Actually... I did a couple cheater things with my pants to make them extra easy:

I started with a pair of maternity corduroys that I hated. That's right, I HATED these pants. I am not particularly sure why I had so much animosity toward only this pair of pants in my maternity wardrobe-- but they made me feel huge and frumpy and awful and I loathed them, especially because they were the only ones that remotely fit those last horrific weeks. Anyway, I kinda wanted to start a bonfire with them, but decided this would be a better use. I cut open the legs, centered the side seams in the middle of the pattern, and lined it up on the bottom, using the hem already there. 

So now I don't have to hem my baby pants! Lazy!

Or Brilliant!

One of the two.

Anyway... whats makes these pants work is the elastic waistband and butt panel that makes it nice and roomy in there, but still small enough around the waist to keep the pants up:

I made mine a little long because I have this suspicion that he's about to have a growth spurt.

I also fiddled with the pattern to make them flat front... and I added a little detail: A fake fly and button. I totally ripped the button off the hated maternity pants too... but I think it's adorable on baby pants, don't you?

And even though baby boy looks a little startled to be in this picture, I think he likes his new pants. 

They were quite simple and only took me about 30 mins to whip up. Would have been less if I hadn't been trying to change things! I definitely recommend this pattern...

Think I'll go make a few more pairs...

Drapey Cardigan

I've been meaning to post this for a while... oops.
A few months ago I made myself this sweater. My mom thought it was adorable and asked me to make her one as well. I debated... do I want matching sweaters with my mom? Well, her requests were persistant and Christmas was approaching so I bought some soft fuzzy knit material in a pretty green color...
I have seen these draped cardigans lots of places... and figured... um, I can so do that. I looked for a pattern or tutorial online... but all I could find was this which was actually helpful, but i wanted sleeves. Soooo... here is my tutorial for a draped cardigan. It's really pretty darn simple and requires minimal sewing skills. Yay.
Here we go.

You are going to need:
Approx a yard of knit fabric
A sweater that fits you well for a pattern
Measuring tape
Pins
Coordinating thread
And... a sewing machine

 Start by measuring the sweater that fits you... Measure your sweater between the arms, across  the back. Also measure the sleeve from the shoulder to the arm pit.

 My fabric was 60 inches wide. I folded the width in half (the upper edge in the picture is a fold) and then cut the length at 30 inches. My arm to arm measurement was 14 inches, so I measure 7 inches from the fold (center) of the fabric and cut a slit through both layers that was 8 inches long (which was the measurement of shoulder to pit on my other sweater) This slit is about 4 inches from the top (right edge in picture) of the garment.

 Next I used my other sweater as a pattern to cut our the sleeve shape. (the sleeve on this sweater has a bell sleeve... but my cardigan will not.) I did cut my sleeves to be 3/4 length, because I like that cut on me, measure your arm if you need to, and make sure to leave a seam allowance when you cut out your sleeve piece. (again in this picture the top edge of the fabric is a fold--don't cut that!) (please also note... you will need to cut two sleeves, and make sure they are opposite/mirrors of each other)

 You don't have to if you are working with a knit... but i decided to put a hem on the sleeves. I turned up an inch on the bottom of my sleeve, and... finally busted out the sewing machine and sewed a straight seam across the bottom to create that hem.

 Once the sleeve was hemmed I folded it in half (right sides together) and sew along the side seam. (see the diagonal part along the right side of the pic? Don't sew that yet... okay?)

 Nooooooww... take the top corner of the sleeve (the longest point on that diagonal) and pin that to the top of the slit you made in the other piece of the fabric. Pin all around the sleeve, pinning right sides together all the way around...

 Then sew all the way around the top of the sleeve to attach it to the garment.

 Repeat for the other sleeve... and you are done!
I really like this sweater because you can wear it in different ways... just as a hanging drapey cardigan.

Or pin it across as a wrap sweater.

 Or... my favorite-- pinned up on one shoulder... so chic. :)

So there you go-- super easy, right? My mom was pretty excited about hers. But I don't have any pictures of her modeling it. It really looks much nicer on a person rather than a dress form... but you get the idea. Cozy, comfy, warm, wrapable, drapey cardigan... go make one!