Nothing Beats A Little Pizzazz

We hit the sales rack looking for some good little canvas sneaks for Doodlebug to play in. We found this not so attractive pair of red canvas sneakers that really wouldn’t go with much of Doodlebug’s clothing. Red really isn’t Doodlebug’s color unless it is Christmas time, which then she wants everything red. We found them in her current size as well as her next size up and even though they were not her colors, we bought both pair for $3.00 each. Who can pass up a deal like that? We sure couldn’t.

We always love embellishing add personal touches to things so, we tried our hand at adding some pizzazz and made these awesome graffiti sneakers. Doodlebug painted one pair and I helped with the bigger size.

The materials we used were a basic fabric medium, Gesso, Tulip fabric markers and a few bottles of squirt fabric paint and scotch tape.


The very first thing we did was to put tape along the rubber soles to cover them so we wouldn’t get any paint on that part of the shoe. Next we added a little of the fabric medium to the gesso, stirred well and thinned it down some. Then covered the shoes completely using a brush and left them for a couple of hours to dry.

After the long awaited two hours were up, we really started to have fun. Using the fabric markers, we just added all sorts of squiggle lines, over lapped colors and just went nuts. There are no rules here, our favorite type of craft. I loved Doodlebug’s X’s and O’s idea. When the fabric markers were dry, which didn’t take very long at all, we used the squirt bottles of fabric paint and added little designs, symbols, words and more squiggles. It was really hard to stop, as you can tell.
The second pair that we painted. I got to help, it was so much fun.


Doodlebug couldn’t wait to try on her recreated sneakers and show them off. I think she did an awesome job.



This was a very fun and simple project and kids really love getting involved in creating their own style. Speaking of personal style, Doodlebug’s new favorite, all time television shows to watch are all the old Punky Bruster episodes. We all know Punky was all about adding pizzazz. Papaw happened to find one of the Punky Bruster seasons on DVD in a bargain bin at Books A Million and she loves them!!!







Blessings To You All!

DoodleBug Makes Her First Skirt

Wow, OK before I start let me say, I am getting behind here since I bought my serger. My blog is not the only thing that has gotten behind since the serger came home, laundry, sweeping, mowing...OK, I must stop or I will be on a huge guilt trip and I really don't want to go there. Pleasure trips are more my cup of tea.

Well, Doodles finally got a chance to make a skirt for Fluffy and try out her machine. She is counting down the days of her last couple of weeks at school. She has big plans to spend a lot of time with Mamaw doing a bit of sewing this summer. I think that sounds like a fun way to me to spend some of those hot summer days, inside sewing with my best friend.

Well, here are a few photos of her process with her little sewing machine.


She first took a few measurments of Fluffy.


She cut a strip of fabric allowing a bit for gathering around the top of the skirt.


We were very careful with her using the iron. I wanted to teach her how much better her sewing would look if she got into learning to press her fabric and even showed her to fold under her hem and casing and pressed before we went to the machine. She needs a small iron of her own. I do wished I could find her Papaw's travel iron. That one would be perfect for her.

She did really well for her first sewing project. She has been drawing and painting since she was very small and I think because of that fact, she has very good fine motor skills for her age.











She did well making her seams and it was a simple little plan of sewing a casing and a hem then closing the back seam, adding ribbon through the top casing and wah la! Fluffy has a new skirt. She wants to make a purse next. This should be fun.