my sewing solution.

I love to sew.

I love to sew fun stuff for my girls.

I like to surprise them, sometimes.

it helps to know measurements in order to keep certain projects a surprise.

it helps if one doesn’t lose those important measurements, so as not to spoil the surprise.

I thought I was a genius (!!!) to write down the girls measurements, updating from time to time, on a little post-it note pad that was supposed to stay near my sewing stuff.

not so.

there is a pile of post-its somewhere, that have measurements of my three girls jotted on them. 

somewhere.

but nowhere I can locate them.

so my solution:

make a cute book, sewing themed, to keep track of these and measurements that are surely to come, because despite my pleadings, threatenings, and crying, these kids are still growing.

enter cosmo cricket:

for this here little book, I used:

- 1 small black & white composition notebook (3 3/4 x 4 3/4 )

- papers from cosmo cricket “material girl”

- elements from cosmo cricket “material girl – candy, candy” and cosmo cricket “material girl – elements”

- paper for the spine from cosmo cricket “togetherness”

- glue

- a paper trimmer and score-er

- plain white cardstock

- bits of ribbon

- staples

- rub-ons

- corner rounder

 

first, I started by designing the way I wanted the front cover of my little book to look in photoshop, and printed it off on presentation paper.

I cut it to the size of my notebook, rounded the corners, and scored it to fit nicely over the binding.

I used my tombow mono glue, and glued the paper only to the patterned part of the black and white cover of the notebook.  leave the spine glueless. 

I distressed it with an emery board, cause I roll that way..

then I cut and scored a smaller piece of coordinating paper to help reinforce the spine, and to look cute too.

I used the white cardstock to reinforce my separator pages.  I cut them down, and rounded the corners, and glued them with the tombow as well.  (I divided my pages into three somewhat equal sections so there would be plenty of room for updates.  again, that growing factor..)

I took bits of ribbon, in my girls colors (because we have a color-coded system to life at our house..  trust me, it works.), folded them in half so each side of the ribbon straddles the page (so to speak) and stapled it to the page.

then I added rub-on letters for each of their names…

and then, I got to peyton and had a little bit of a problem..

merrill almost got himself punched in the throat for trying to give a suggestion and purposefully spelling her name “p-A-y-t-o-n”.

it is a long-standing disagreement between he an i.

he threatened to spell her name in her blessing, so it would be stuck with the A.

punk.

but I digress.

I love the way the book turned out.  hopefully I won’t be losing anyone’s measurements soon so the surprises can start to flow in their fabric-y abundance.

fun fact:

while measuring the girls, I discovered that lynn and ash have the same waist measurement, and that the distance from peyton’s waist to her ankle is the same distance from lynn’s waist to her knee.

*just a side note, as I wrote down my first entry for measurements on each girl, I wrote the season and the year at the top of the page, just to help me keep straight which is most current.**