Another Valentine Party!

Posted on February 8, 2014 by city-made_admin

We can’t believe another Valentine party is here! Our friend Michele has an annual Valentine’s party and it is always a wonderful time; good food, great conversation and a cozy fire.

And every year we try to make something  for the girls to wear for this special party. Last year we posted all the dresses and skirts on our blog. This year we kicked it up a notch and not only made something for the girlies, but for us as well.

We took an ordinary men’s t-shirt that we bought for $5.00.

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We cut it here, added some elastic there and painted a heart on it.

DSCN5735( . . . and yes, Melany is wearing a coat to paint the hearts. It is really cold in the citymade workshop!)

The results were, as usual, adorable!

DSCN5745We also arm-weaved some matching scarves.

Melany and the girls looking lovely!

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Carol and Ava looking cute!

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And more girlies, smiling and ready to go to the party!

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And you can bet, we made you-know-whats of our selves at the party! Thanks Michele:)

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A Basket Divided

Posted on August 13, 2013 by city-made_admin

Well, summer is almost done. The kids start school, Melany and I go back to our perspective jobs. However, we had one more giant burst of creative energy so we decided to make baskets.

Bunches of baskets.

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With cool dividers.

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We have made them before. But this time we used a pattern. (Which is a huge step for us). We found a pattern we liked here.

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And then we started to sew.

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It didn’t take long before we filled a basket up.

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We did it!

Posted on June 3, 2013 by city-made_admin

Well…after 9 long months of planning, hard work and a long day of labor we are happy to announce…

there are curtains up in the Spiehs’ living room

We started with a geometric pattern that I saw online.  I took this pattern and created a large stencil with stencil paper.

I bought four plain white curtain panels from Target.  I did this because I wanted the grommets already in the fabric.  Grommets are a pain to install and I figured that this project was already going to be hard enough.

Next I picked my paint color.  I used a flat latex paint.

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Using a spray adhesive, we positioned the stencil on the curtain and rolled on the paint with a foam roller.

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And we did this over and over and over and….

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about four hours and four blisters later we had covered four panels of curtains!

This was a pretty gutsy project but we did it.  Key word there WE.  This is definitely a two-man job.

I am so happy with how they turned out.  My living room finally looks like a living room…well worth the wait.

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We did it!

 

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Get ready, get set! It's Farmer's Market Time!

Posted on May 6, 2013 by city-made_admin

Spring seems to finally be here (although there were temp’s in the 40’s this week, yikes!). Here at city made, spring means Farmer’s Market.

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The Saturday downtown FM is one of our favorite events to do. We meet so many great people, have a lot of friends stop by, and get some great feedback on our products.

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The market started this weekend, but city made will be there Memorial weekend, Saturday, May 25th.  

 

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Baby Shower gift set

Posted on April 15, 2013 by city-made_admin

(Carol here) O.k. So I have been obsessed with divided baskets. Making them, not buying them. I was determined to figure out how to make one. I managed to muddle my way through.

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Here is my first attempt. Not too shabby. . .

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(Pay no attention to what appears to be some kind of card game in the background!)

Being pleased with the results, I made one for a friend for her baby shower. Along with a few other items.

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Here is the basket loaded with baby things.

I made some burp clothes to match.

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A couple of these adorable bibs.

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I also included a t-shirt form Big Bridge Studios. (I love to give my expecting friends t-shirts designed by my friend Kendra.)

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I hope my friend liked her gift. I really enjoyed making it and I can’t wait to keep making divided baskets.

 

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Sam-e-o's upcycled bibs

Posted on April 8, 2013 by city-made_admin

A new member of the family joined us in January. Samuel Henry. He’s adorable, of course. He also inspired us to make some bibs.

We had plenty of shirts from when the boys were little. We decided to use them to create the bib front. Then we used a towel for the back.

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This one is an old button down shirt. (I still remember Colin wearing it.)

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This one was a brown t-shirt. I added the pocket from the button down in order for them to coordinate. I did sew up the pocket all around so there would be no food dropped in it.

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Hopefully Sam-e-o will love them as much as we love him!

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Spring Cleaning-Closet totes

Posted on April 1, 2013 by city-made_admin

Spring is coming…at least we hope.  We have definitely been getting the itch to clean and organize.  The Spiehs house recently had an “operation closet redo”.  I really wanted to utilize the doors in our coat closet and hung a towel bar for scarves and hooks for wall totes.  I found a use for some of my beautiful IKEA fabric.  I used the totes for all of the girls hats and mittens.  Now each girl has their own easily accessible tote.

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Valentine's Day- an up cycle tradition

Posted on March 25, 2013 by city-made_admin

Each year, for the past four years, we have made the girls Valentine outfits for our annual,  “Cookies and Cocoa” party that our wonderful friend Michele hosts.

In 2010 we made “cupcake” skirts.

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This was back when we were just learning how to use the new Serger.

In 2011 we made sweetheart skirts with cute little pockets.  We also tried our hand at fabric printing and made matching t-shirts.

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2012 was the year of the ruffled petite coat skirts…cringe.  These were a little harder than we expected, but we did it!

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We also added another little girl that year so we had to make 4!

This year we decided to change it up and make the girls dresses.  We had some more sewing experience under our belts and were up for the challenge.  These dresses are our favorite…so far.

The dresses were repurposed (yes, back to our roots) from denim shirts we found on clearance at Target!  We found the pattern on one of the sewing websites we like to frequent.

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Who know what we will come up with next year…maybe the girls will be sewing their own dresses by then.

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Handmade Christmas-Part four: Bean Bag Chairs

Posted on January 16, 2013 by city-made_admin

The Spiehs’ girls have always wanted bean bag chairs.  Well, “always for a long time,” as Ava puts it.  To be honest I dreaded this project because I thought it would be hard, tedious and boring.  However, it was just the opposite.  It was pretty fast and easy and very rewarding.

I found three adorable coordinating fabrics to use.  Good fabric always makes a project more fun!

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We have cute little reading nook at the top of upstairs that became the new home for these bean bag chairs.

Here is our usual model on the bean bag chairs.  (All of the other models are in school all day long so it’s up to Caroline…at least she is cute).

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She just so happens to be holding the purse that I made her for Christmas as well…good girl.

 

 

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Handmade Christmas-Part Three: Peace Sign Baskets and Pj's

Posted on January 14, 2013 by city-made_admin

Carol and I really enjoy making gifts for each other’s kiddos.  The girls, and sometimes boys, are very interested in what projects we are working on and love it when we make something for them.

For Christmas this year, Carol made Anna and Lauren this awesome basket organizer.  It has inside and outside pockets and came complete with some of their favorite things: pencils, erasers, stickers and tape!  The girls love their baskets and always have them loaded up with supplies on their desks.

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Carol knows that Caroline loves baby dolls right now so a matching Caroline-Baby doll pj set was a perfect gift.  You can tell Caroline is special because Carol even used bias tape on the pajamas….we hate bias tape!

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Adorable!

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