Fun Girly Gifts

So you know I have little boys.  As much as I love my boys, it is not acceptable that I dress them up like little girls.  I know this because in making fun girly things and trying them on my boys, my husband has scolded me.  When they were little, it wasn't a big deal, but now that they can ask to keep the stuff on, it is an issue.  (issue in the sense I don't want them messing up the things I've made)  When I asked my cousin what her little girl wanted for her birthday, she said something that made me very excited "she likes to play dress up"!!!  No guidelines, no restrictions, just dress up.  I could make all the things I wanted for a little girl. This was going to be fun!

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think dress up?  Tutu!!!  Wait, is that not what you were thinking?  Of course it was.  What's more girly than a tutu?  I had no idea how to make a tutu but I was going to make one.  What else is girly for dressing up?  A purse!  As a kid and definitely as an adult, I love purses.  She was absolutely getting a purse.  Turns out, while at the store I got another idea.  As kids, my sister and I loved playing dress up at my Aunt Lynn's.  We play in her jewelry, shoes and purses.  I needed to make her some jewelry too.  So a little bit each night throughout last week, I got down to business.  I didn't take any during pictures, but can give you a brief description of each.

Love how this purse turned out.  I followed the same basic steps for my Kindle Clutch, I just added two straps. You place the straps between your outer piece and zipper when sewing.  

I'm sure there are more detailed and better looking tutus out there.  For me, I wanted something simple and easy.  If a three year old was going to be handling it, I didn't want something delicate.  I took the zebra print ribbon and measured around my boys to get the length I wanted.  I marked where I wanted the tulle to start and end and still have a tail on each end for tying.  I had 2 yards of tulle that were still folded over from how they were on the bolt at the fabric store.  I just cut strips as close to even as I could.  I held the ends together forming a loop.  I bent my loop over the ribbon and pulled the ends of the tulle through the top loop.  Looked like a slip knot when I was finished.  I just alternated hot pink for soft pink until I reached my end mark.  Simple as that!

I took plastic pearls I got in the kids craft section and some stretchy string to make little bracelets and a necklace.  I measured my boys' wrists for the bracelets and eyeballed the necklace.  Easy peasy!

For the skirts, I took the left over fabric from the purse, folded it over and stitched up the side.  I cut off some of the length then folded the bottom over twice and hemmed it.  I folded the top over twice, but it was a bigger fold.  I stitched around leaving about an 1.5" opening to add elastic.  Once I finished the elastic, I closed up the opening and viola!

Here's the whole collection.  I hope she enjoys playing with it all as much as I loved making them all :)