Showing posts sorted by date for query soccer mom. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query soccer mom. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Soccer Mom: Super Easy Sleeve Tie Tutorial
I Am A Soccer Mom : Soccer/Camping Chair Cover Tutorial
Hi friends! I'm back today with another sewing tutorial for the Soccer Mom Series. Everyone uses camping chairs to sit on the sidelines at soccer. The chair covers are always poor quality and rip out before the chair dies, leaving you with a perfectly good chair but no easy way to carry it.
Soccer Mom Series: 5 Tips to Get You out the Door On Time
Soccer Mom: Drawstring Backpack Tutorial
Today I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make an easy to sew drawstring backpack. We need a few of these over here to pack shoes, shin guards and a change of clothes for the days we go straight from school to soccer.
I am a Soccer Mom Series Recap
Thank you so much for reading along with my I Am A Soccer Mom series. It has been especially fun for me to host it. I got so much accomplished that I've been wanting to make. Here is a little recap of all of the fun...
Soccer Mom Series: Waterproof Blanket Tutorial
Hi everyone! Have you ever sat down on grass that you thought was dry only to feel water seeping through your pants after you've sat there for a minute? No fun! Well today I'm sharing a little blanket you can make to sit on so that will never happen again!
Play Ball!!! A Team Banner Tutorial
In my neck of the woods 'tis the season for Spring Baseball. Though my boys aren't playing ball this season, I was asked to make a team banner just like the one I made for Jack's T-ball team last year. Come learn how to make one just like this!
Scrappy Pillows for my Bed
While I was in the middle of hosting my Soccer Mom series I needed a mindless project one Sunday afternoon so I dumped out all of my scraps triangles that were cut off from my Herringbone quilt blocks and stitched them up into pillows.
The pretty pillow my sister made me y goes perfectly with them.
What happened to the quilt? you might be thinking. Well, it's not quilted yet. I tend to have machine quilting problems and I just couldn't quite face it, so it is sitting in my unfinished projects box. 
And then I got to thinking all those bright colors just might be a little too crazy for my bed. I was walking through Target and spotted this lovely soft muted purple quilt for just $35 and I knew this would work better. Don't worry I will still be finishing and using that beautiful Herringbone.
The pillow top is quilted along the seam lines and I tried out a button closure on the back. It's not perfect but it works and I am happy my buttonholes turned out.
I have a couple of more pillow ideas floating around in my head. Here's to hoping to get to them soon!
Giveaway winners!
Happy Friday! Are you ready to find out who won the Soccer Mom/Sew Sweetness Giveaway?
A big thank you to all for entering! The three winners are #111 Rachel Newson, #12 Caroline Critchfield, and #49 Tina McDonald. I promise this was random! Please check your emails for more details on how to claim your prizes. You ladies have a lot of fun sewing ahead of you! For those who didn't win, head on over to Sara's Pattern shop to see all the great handbag patterns she has to offer.
You might want to add one to your weekend sewing plans!
Over and out!
A Bag for Sis, a Dress For Me!!!
My sister came to town last week to surprise me for my birthday. It was pretty much the best surprise EVER!
The day before she left we spent all our free time sewing. Her goal was to leave with a finished project...and she did! We made her a bag out of some awesome Tula Pink laminate fabric.
We used an I Thnk Sew Pattern for this one and customized the pockets a bit. Laminate fabric on a bag is lovely. I think I want one too!
After the bag was done she made me cut out a dress. She is such a slave driver! :) Well I'm thankful for my slave driving sister because now I have something new and cute to wear!!! This is a momentous occasion. I think the last time I made a dress for myself was before I got married, more than 15 years ago. Could that be right? Anyway, here it is.
I used The Shift Dress pattern by Favorite Things. I love it! It is so comfortable and pretty simple to make.
I followed SewCaroline's lead and cinched the elastic on the backing a bit more than is suggested to give it more of a waist.
It is meant to be finished a little bit looser.
Here are a few more views. Please excuse my un-posed faces. Dear Caroline, thank you for taking my pictures. Next time I promise to stop talking during the shoot. :)
The day before she left we spent all our free time sewing. Her goal was to leave with a finished project...and she did! We made her a bag out of some awesome Tula Pink laminate fabric.
After the bag was done she made me cut out a dress. She is such a slave driver! :) Well I'm thankful for my slave driving sister because now I have something new and cute to wear!!! This is a momentous occasion. I think the last time I made a dress for myself was before I got married, more than 15 years ago. Could that be right? Anyway, here it is.
I used The Shift Dress pattern by Favorite Things. I love it! It is so comfortable and pretty simple to make.
I followed SewCaroline's lead and cinched the elastic on the backing a bit more than is suggested to give it more of a waist.
It is meant to be finished a little bit looser.
Here are a few more views. Please excuse my un-posed faces. Dear Caroline, thank you for taking my pictures. Next time I promise to stop talking during the shoot. :)
I really like the sleeves and neckline. I thought the sleeves would be a little too poofy for me but I don't mind them. They are very loose and comfortable.
It is so comfortable, in fact that I think I'll make another one.
I think this would look great with a belt as well, and a beautiful colorful necklace. I guess it's time to go shopping. :)
Hopefully I can finish the next one before another 15 years passes!
Oh and don't forget to enter the Soccer Mom/Sew Sweetness Giveaway! There are just a couple of days left.
Confessions of a Soccer Mom: 4 tips to Survive the Season
Since I love to read about how other people manage all they do with a bunch of kids, today I'm writing about just that. Well, as far as Soccer is concerned at least. I confess, I was a bit leery of putting all 4 kids in Soccer this season. I was afraid of getting stretched in too many directions and we don't have family around to help. Watching 4 soccer games each Saturday didn't sound like what I wanted to do with my time. But I am here to say the way it has worked out has been totally doable. My younger three play in the Rec league and my oldest plays Competitive. Thankfully her team does not usually travel too far. Because games somewhat overlap, most of the time my husband and I each end up watching 2 or 3 games a Saturday. Most Saturdays we are home by 2 and sometimes wear are done by 11 am.
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Here are a few things we've done to help the season run more smoothly.
1. Step up and coach!
This season I am coaching my littlest son's team and my husband coaches my oldest boy's team. When you are the coach you get to pick the practice schedules. When everyone's practices are on the same nights it makes our lives a whole lot easier. We just contacted my middle son's coach and made our practices around the same times. I have no soccer experience, which is totally fine for the younger age groups. The league gives us suggested practice plans and there are a lot of online resources as well. I love it because a get to play with my son and get a little exercise too. You can do it too!
2. Make Friends!
Make friends with the parents of other kids on your team. Most of the time I just like to keep to myself but getting to know other families with multiple kids in soccer has saved my life. When games overlap or I have to be two places at one time I know them well enough to trust them with my kids and help me out. Chances are they'll need my help another week and it all works out.
3. Carpool!
Any mom of more than 2 kids knows that carpools can be a life saver. My daughter has practice from 6:30-8:00 two times a week at a different field than the rest of us. We take her and a friend to the practices and the friend's mom pick up. It is great because we are in the middle of getting the rest to bed at pick up time.
4. Ice Cream!
I have another confession to make, we bribe our kids with Ice Cream. If anyone scores a goal in a game they earn Ice Cream for the family that day. We started this little tradition to add a little motivation to my timid kids and make the games a little more exciting. Of course this mainly just works for the younger ones. The older ones don't always have an opportunity to score goals depending on the position they play. Sometimes hard work and excellent playing earns ice cream too. With 4 kids playing we celebrate with ice cream every week. One crazy day my youngest scored 7. He was so excited and proud to earn his family ice cream.
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That's all for today! I am not going to lie and say it isn't all a little crazy. We do get the fields late sometimes and lose the occasional shin guard along the way. I even forgot about make up pictures for my son this week and he had to squeeze into the littlest's uniform for the picture, which was less conspicuous than the tie dye shirt he was wearing. But we are doing it. My kids love it and because they do, I do to.
Looking for more Soccer Mom tips and tutorials?
Here are rest of the posts in this Series
Birthday Fabric
I'm interrupting my Soccer Mom post schedule to show you some beautiful fabric. It was my birthday on Friday and my Mom and Sister sent me some fabric.
Two beautiful stacks! Some "helper" fabrics that I can use for handbag linings and crayon rolls. I'm so glad for these, I usually don't think about buying small scale fabrics and then I never have them on hand for a project.
And a stack of floral prints. Most of theme are by Kaffe Fassat. I love these Mom! I've got all types of projects rolling around in my head for them. I think I'll start with a pillow.
The best part of it all was that I got to open these up with my sister watching. She flew into town and surprised me last week for my birthday. She Skyped me from the airport and asked me if I recognized where she was.
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I screamed, cried, and drove to pick her up. It was pretty much the best surprise ever. We have been having a great weekend and now we're off to do a little sewing before she flies away tomorrow and I go back to reality.
Soccer Mom Meal Prep with Clean Eating Mom
Today we have a guest joining us for our Soccer Mom series! Clean Eating Mom is giving us her best meal planning tips and a recipe for delicious bean and rice burritos.
I Am a Soccer Mom: Sideline Survival Activities
One thing I love about having my kids in soccer is that it is outside. They get to get out and breathe the fresh air and run around. During weekday practices my kids who aren't practicing run around and play with other kids, but on game days they don't always have the luxury of running around freely with games going on all around us. My kids get bored sitting and watching a game, especially if there are a couple to watch in a row, so we always try to bring a few sideline activities to keep them occupied. It is easy to just let them play the iPad or Kindle, and sometimes we do that too, but I always like it more if they are doing something imaginative. So today, as part of the Soccer Mom series, I've put together a few ideas of how we spend our time on the sidelines. We usually switch up the things we pack so they don't get old.
Magna Doodle Tracing Cards
First up, here's a fun idea for using a travel sized Magna-doodle. My sister in law made us a bunch of cards with simple drawings on them that fit perfectly inside the drawing surface. You can trace the lines of the drawing and then lift up the card and see your masterpiece. It really works. It is so fun for kids of all ages and has provided hours of sideline distraction. We also have my littlest practice his letters this way by tracing ABC flashcards.
You can easily make this by tracing simple pictures from coloring books onto manila folders and cutting them to the right size. Or if you are a talented artist like my, SIL Becky, you can draw your own.
Portable Sandbox
One year we brought a portable sandbox to the fields each week. We found a plastic bin with a handle and filled it with about 3 inches of sand and toys to play with. We were the most popular family on the sideline. It was especially good for little ones that usually like to run into the field. If a little sand spills, no big deal, its outside. If your kid is likely to dump a lot of sand just put the sandbox in the middle of a blanket and you can dump the sand in the box when they are done. It was a hit!
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| Photo from Amazon |
Books
I also sometimes bring books for my readers, and a crayon roll and a notebook for my artists. My older readers especially love to lay on a blanket and read endlessly.
Cars
I have to say that Cars and are still my kids' absolute favorite things to play with at the fields. They love to bring their monster trucks and drive them over the little mounds in the grass. I have a friend that fills a duffle bag full of big cars and boats for her little one to play with at the fields. If you make the Waterproof Blanket you can easily draw a car town on the vinyl side of it for added fun. I had grand intentions of making this cool version from Family Fun that I Pinned a couple of years ago.
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| Family Fun May 2011 |
It took me forever to find a green vinyl tablecloth, but I couldn't find the black contact paper, so instead I just drew a simple one on with Sharpie. I figure I'll let my kids draw buildings or ponds if they want.
Bouncy Ball
My last idea is to keep it simple. Sometimes I bring interesting things to play with and I find that all my kids really needed to have fun was a bouncy ball and the bleachers. :)
I hope these ideas come in handy sometime. What sideline activities keep your little ones occupied?
Are you a Soccer Mom?
Hi friends! Is it Soccer season in your neck of the woods? We are mid-way through Spring Soccer here in Florida and I have come to a realization, I am a Soccer Mom! I drive a minivan and I have 4 children in soccer this season, so I guess that makes it official. I am a soccer mom in the most literal sense of the word. I'm even coaching this year! Yep, that's me getting ready to coach my littlest son's game.
Yes, I would rather not have everyone playing soccer, but they all love it so and I have a hard time making the young ones sit on the sidelines and just be spectators. And so this is our first season with everyone on their own team. We have pulled off 3 kids in soccer for a while so that makes me an expert on how to make it all happen right? Getting out the door on time, dinner, keeping track of the uniforms. Ha! Not really an expert, but I think I've figured out a few things that make it all run more smoothly and I want to share them. Starting Monday, for the rest of the month of April I will be running a little Soccer Mom series over here on Blue Susan Makes.
At the end of my Soccer Mom series Sara is letting me giveaway a pack of patterns to 3 lucky readers.
Get excited, I know I am!
See all of the posts in this Series
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