Yard Sale Find: Post Office Sorter/Cubbies

I'm not a big yard sale shopper. I always think it would be a lot of fun to hunt for yard sale treasures, but it always seems like a lot of work. Last Sunday there was a series of events that led to us finding a really amazing item at a yard sale.

The whole thing started when we had to go to Walmart to find a sweatshirt for the Pillsbury Doughboy costume. I never go to Walmart because I love Target, and Walmart is in the opposite direction of Target. Going to Walmart led to us going grocery shopping at a store that we never grocery shop at. This, in turn, led us to drive home a way that we never do. So we ended up passing a house that we never drive by. They happened to be having a yard sale, and I happened to spot this out of the corner of my eye as we drove by...

How awesome is this?! It has a bunch of writing on the top, most of it is too faded to read, but what you can read says "U.S. Post Office, New Britain, Connecticut" and "1945". I immediately said, "Ooo, look at that!" This led to my husband actually turning the car around and going back, which also never happens. He immediately loved it, too, and it was ours. Well, first we had to go home and unload the groceries, the girls, and the carseats so my husband could go back and pick it up.

Please forgive the dust and dirt on it. We haven't cleaned it up yet. We were going to leave it in the garage until we had a chance to clean it up, but we were too excited to see what it would look like inside the house, so here it sits in its dirty, dusty glory.

The people we bought it from didn't know a whole lot about it. The guy used it to store spare parts in his shop. I love the little metal label holders under each cubby...

It's really heavy, and it sways a little, so we're going to add a board to the back to stabilize it. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it. Right now it's housing some Halloween blocks...

I'm thinking I'll just use it to display little items and change them up with the seasons. Any other ideas?

I've been giving my sewing machine a break for the past few days. She deserves it after all that fleece she powered though this week. I did, however, finally get to my cheesecloth ghost. I put an LED touch light under him so he glows at night.

Even my husband thought this one was cool!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a Happy Halloween! I suppose it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving projects...

Linking up here:

Pillsbury Doughboy Costume

My daughter is obsessed with the Pillsbury Doughboy. She has to visit his cardboard cutout in the grocery store every week. She can spot a tiny Doughboy logo on a box in the baking aisle from a mile away. So when my husband suggested that she should be Doughboy for Halloween, it was pretty much a done deal.

I wasn't sure how to make this costume happen. They haven't sold a Doughboy costume in years, and I wasn't able to find a Doughboy pattern. I had to put on my crafting cap and come up with something because I made the mistake of telling my daughter about the costume before making sure it was possible. This is what I came up with...

I went to Jo-Ann to see if I could find a pattern that I could modify or take pieces from in order to make the costume. I ended up buying this Simplicity pattern...

I figured I could make the jumpsuit and belly suit like the pumpkin and then make the head covering like the lamb, just without the ears. I eventually ended up scrapping the one piece jumpsuit idea because let's face it, she's three... she's going to have to pee. I decided to try to buy a white sweatshirt and sweatpants to use instead. I found a white sweatshirt at Walmart (the last one they had), but I could not find white sweatpants anywhere. I searched high and low. So I decided to just use the jumpsuit pattern and cut it off at the waistline to make pants. I also saved time by purchasing a fully adjustable kid's chef hat at Jo-Ann.

The pants, belly suit, head covering, and scarf are all made out of fleece. If I ever see white fleece again, it will be too soon. I had never sewn fleece before. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was pretty forgiving. Your stitches kind of disappear into it, and you can hardly see them. But I was sewing layers and layers together. At one point I was sewing 6 layers together at once. I went through 3 needles on this project!

Here's a rundown of each piece of the costume...

1.  I cut the jumpsuit pattern off at the waistline in order to make the pants. After I sewed the legs together, I folded the waist down about an inch and sewed around the bottom to create a sleeve so I could insert a piece of elastic into the waistband. The pattern also called for elastic at the ankles, but I left that out and just hemmed them so they would cover her shoes a little bit.

2.  The sweatshirt came from Walmart.

3.  For the belly suit I followed the pattern exactly as it was written. It is made with three layers of fleece. It has a 3/4" elastic band around the bottom to help it poof out, and it has Velcro at the shoulders. This was by far the most time-consuming piece to make. I probably could have gotten by with two layers of fleece. 

4.  For the head covering I followed the pattern exactly as it was written, but I left off the ears. It has Velcro under the chin to hold it on. This was the first time I ever sewed darts on a garment. This was probably the most satisfying piece to make because it looks complicated, but it really was pretty easy and quick to put together.

5.  For the scarf I cut a triangle out of fleece and tied a knot in the front. I didn't even hem it.

6.  The chef hat was purchased. I added the Pillsbury logo myself. I did a Google Images search for "Pillsbury logo", copied and pasted the image into a Word document, resized it, and printed a mirror image of it onto iron-on transfer ink jet paper. Then it was just as simple as cutting it out and ironing it onto the hat.

In an earlier post I told you that I had trouble getting psyched up for this project. Well, it was worth all the work, needles, and late nights... It was a pretty fantastic feeling to see this little face light up when she stepped in front of the full-length mirror in her costume.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hopefully this costume makes it through her Halloween shindig at preschool on Thursday (i.e. Please don't drop food or spill juice on it!!!) so she can wear it on Sunday without looking like a total mess!

Linking up here:

Land of Nod Wall Art Knockoff

Did you guys check out round one over at Sew Dang Cute's Crafting with the Stars competition? The voting is over, so I thought I'd share a knockoff I did a couple of years ago that's similar to the Fruit Wall Art Land Of Nod Knockoff submitted by Amanda from Crafts by Amanda and Amy from Mod Podge Rocks. Here's my version...

These are the originals from Land of Nod (with a pretty hefty price tag over $100 each, I might add!)...

image source  /  image source

I thought they were so cute, so I made my own version almost two years ago when my oldest got her little kitchen for Christmas.

They hang on the wall in the playroom over the kitchen set (which actually did come from Land of Nod). 

Sorry I don't have any process pictures, but I wasn't blogging back when I made these. Here's a quick rundown of how I made them. I bought three 12" square canvases and painted them each a different color. I then drew an apple and a pear, cut them into the different pieces that I wanted, and used those pieces as templates to trace and cut out the different scrapbook papers that I used. Then all you do is mod podge them onto the canvases... super simple!

I'm linking this up over at the Round 1 Brand Inspired/Knockoff Link-Up at Sew Dang Cute! Go get inspired by some of the other knock-offs!

Acorn Patch Pillow Giveaway Winner

Heather is the winner of the 100 Follower Acorn Patch Pillow giveaway!!! I've already heard from Heather, and she had this to say, "NO WAY!!!! Wow! I never win anything! Happy Dance!!!"

Congratulations, Heather! And a huge thank you to all of my followers, old and new. You guys keep me motivated and make this whole blogging experience worth it.

Sadie Shirt Progress: The Big Reveal

The Sadie Shirt Sew-Along over at Craftiness is not Optional ended on Friday, and I actually finished the shirt on time! I can't believe I didn't fall behind. You saw the progress I made on Days 1 and 2. Here's the final product...

I am in love with this shirt. And I am super proud of how well it turned out, being my first shirt and all. My daughter loves it, too.

She acts like such a little lady whenever she tries it on. She's already planning to wear it to preschool on Tuesday.

I didn't have any major issues on Days 3, 4 or 5. I had a little trouble with sewing the armpits of the sleeves closed, but I was able to work through it. I love sew-alongs now, too. It was great to just work a little bit each day and not feel pressured to push through and get it done as quickly as possible. Last week was a very relaxed sewing week for me (for a change), and I really enjoyed that.

I already have plans to start Sadie Shirt number two later this week (hopefully). I think my youngest needs one. I'm going to make one modification to the shirt that will change the look of it a bit. Hopefully it works out. I'll share that with you when it's done.

In the meantime, I've got a Halloween costume to finish by Thursday morning. I've also got an unbelievable yard sale find to show you later this week. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Get those costumes finished up!

I'm linking up here this week:

Polly Want a Crafter Monday Craft Linky Party