Hey Folks, how are we today? I hope all is going well for you. We are looking at fall and even winter weather here in Salt Lake this week so we will be more than ready for Halloween! I hope you are all ready for it!

This week we have been working on Halloween costumes! Brenda will have another post about that on Tuesday. I have been working on adding more and more things to our shop, there are several new items as well as some lower prices! Send your friends over to the shop from either the link above or here for some spooky signs and fun items.

Thank you to everyone who is signed up on our mailing list, there should be an email out tomorrow or the next day with a special discount in it.   If you haven’t signed up, please do so, there is a spot to sign up on the sidebar there.

If you just don’t want to sign up for the list but still want to buy items, you can use code “emaillist” (no quotes) at checkout to have and additional 10% off!

And remember, all shipping is $4.95 per order.  You can buy the whole shop out and I will ship it for $4.95!

That is about it for this week, we are going to start on Christmas items soon, if you have any requests please let us know in the comments below or via email.  There is a contact form in the sidebar —–> or you can mail justin@brendasquiltshop.com or brenda@brendasquiltshop.com with any ideas, questions, concerns, recipies, weather reports, insect counts, etc.

Have a great weekend, get out and do something fun for Halloween this week!

-Justin

Hello everyone,

For those of you who know me, you know that my family LOVES Halloween. We decorate our house as much for Halloween as we do for Christmas. I know it can get expensive to celebrate and decorate for the holidays, but there is affordable ways to celebrate every holiday. Around each holiday I will write a post and share with you my tips and tricks. So for this post, I thought I would start with some of my favorite affordable Halloween decoration ideas.

First it is never too early to prepare for Halloween. I start on November 1^st every year. For the next year. Before Halloween I pay attention
and keep a list of all of the new items that I liked and where I saw them. But I do not buy them at that time. I only get 1-2 new Halloween items each year, (which I pay full price for). The rest of my Halloween supply I get on November 1^st. I am a patient person, and money is tight for
me as well as a lot of people. I cannot justify spending full price on most items to decorate my house, so I will wait. Stores however are very
IMPATIENT! The day after Halloween, they want to get everything off the shelves so they can finish putting out the Christmas items. (I say finish, because most stores start putting up Christmas in September!) To clear out the holiday items FAST, they will sell the items for 50 %- 75% off the first day. 4 days after Halloween almost all the items will be 80%-90% off!!

This is a great deal. I love to decorate with the fine spun white spider web, but these sometime cost as much as $3.50 before Halloween. However after Halloween they are only .15-25 Cents! I will spend $1.00 and I can place spider webs all over my house the next year. Halloween decorations do not expire, most are good from one Halloween to another. I love the plastic spiders , Halloween pencils, Vampire teeth, Trick or Treat Pumpkins, wigs, Black lights, strobe lights, Fog juice, orange and purple string lights, Halloween glitter nail polish (Leatha uses these all year long), and a few non-candy items for next year Trick-or-Treaters that cannot eat candy. (I always have a Halloween
toy for those kids; everyone needs a treat they can enjoy).

Every year when I set up and decorate for Halloween I am surprised with what I have purchased on sale from the November before. It is always fun when I unwrap a cute new candle holder that I forgot I had purchased. You can get some wonderful items to help you decorate for next year.

For those of you, who want to do something this year and have very little money, look no further than your closest $1.00 store or two. I have found wonderful items for Halloween over the years from $1.00 stores. Some of my favorite items, I purchased last year, were three Halloween
menus; they are currently hanging up in my kitchen. (Aren’t they cute!) I have also four small ceramic hunted houses with ghosts that I also have from a $1.00 store.

My point is… do not discount (wink wink) getting Holiday Supplies from $1.00 stores, they have great items for any holiday. You can also get great Halloween signs for a great price here on the shop or through the “Items Currently For Sale” link above.

We have several items available, ranging from wall signs and table plaques, etched glass items, as well as my Halloween table runners. I am charging only $4.95 for the entire order to ship priority mail. So you will get your New Halloween items in 2-3 business days. You still have plenty of time to order before Halloween. I also offer local pick-up of any items for no shipping and handling charges. You can pay on the web or in person!  Check out this option during checkout in the Shop!

I have some great items that you will love, that will go with anyone’s decor. Most of the items that I make are for Classic Halloween.
I am not much into the bloody and gory decorations, so I do not make them. I like the cute Halloween figures and sayings.

My next tip for affordable Halloween decorations (Besides my wonderful stuff I have for sale) is the air-inflatable nylon characters. I love
these. They come in all sizes and all prices. They are also 75% off, on November 1^st. The best part about these inflatable decorations, are they are easy to store. I have a Frankenstein, 2 witches, a pirate Mickey Mouse, and a Skeleton all a cute cartoon inflatable character. They are only 4 feet tall, but they are colorful and fun to have in the house around the fireplace. When they are ready to be stored they collapse into near nothing, and are great to store in any plastic tote. My children love these and they have lasted 8 years and are still in perfect condition.
I also have a large 12 foot tall Grim Reaper outside that holds his arm and sickle up for those that are trick-or-treating to walk under. He is very large when blown up. He makes a great impression outside.

Here is Amelia standing outside in front of my Grim Reaper. She is not even up to his waist! This inflatable is also very easy and compact to store. All of my inflatables go inside one plastic tote with all of my outdoor lights and outdoor signs on top. These are great for those who want easy clean up and small storage with large fun Halloween decorations.

My last tip for this year is something my husband and I added to our outside decorations this year. It is a homemade large spider web made out of super cheap nylon rope. This rope is sold as clothesline and is only $2.88 for a 50 foot hunk at our local super department store.  We used about 175 feet to make this web.   and it took us 2 bunches to complete this design. So for less than $8.00, and a little time, you can create the same spider web outside your house. This will also be easy to store and re-use for next year.

We started by hooking the center rope to the top of the side of the house. Then we pulled it out, to where we wanted it to end and placed a tent spike in ¾ of the way into the ground. We then tied the center string onto the tent stake. We then did the same to the two outside ends of the web  and tied each of them onto the same tent stake. We then placed the two middle strings ½ way between the outside and the center strings and
tied them to the house then to the tent stake.

We then pounded the tent stake the rest of the way into the ground. This will hold the web in place. We then placed the strings that were going to form the horizontal parts of the web.

Each layer is tied on one of the outside edges then tied around each center string until the other side is reached. The rope is then cut. To keep the ends of the rope from fraying, melt the ends with a lighter. This will help ensure the web will last a few years. The center vertical strings are tight and the horizontal layers are loose as they go up the web. This allows some movement in the wind. Finish the web, by making layers all the way up to the top of the house. When you are done you will have a wonderful cheap large outside decoration.

To add excitement at night, place a small strobe light at the bottom of the web. This will highlight the web at night. You will have a wonderful decoration at night as well as during the day. Strobe lights are also very affordable on November 1^st. Grab one for next year. A regular garden spot light can also be used. My husband likes the strobe effect so we have a strobe light on top of the tent stake.

You can make a large spider out of black garbage bags with paper stuffed inside if you want to place a spider on your web. I love the web plain, with my children caught underneath.

(I also made the skirt Amelia is wearing and the dress Leatha is wearing. They love to pick out their own fabrics.)

For my next post I will write about how I am turing this Witches dress I made 2 years ago, into a Pirate costume for Leatha. Or as she calls it a
Vampirate costume! (She loves those books.)

This dress is way too short for her to wear again this year. And Witches are “So last year” if you ask Leatha. But the fabric is great. Plus, I will only spend $8.00 to make her into a Vampirate. You will love the transformation into a weathered pirate. Thank you for reading my blog. I hope that you learned something new. I look forward to your comments and responses. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks again,

Brenda

I have been doing several things as of late.  While my main focus has been on writing and then working on the sales site here at Brenda’s Quilt Shop, I have noticed that no matter what, I am always thinking of what I am going to do next.

Bloggers and internet people have been talking about this for a long time.  You have to create product.  Create, create, create.  While I haven’t done much as far as electronic creation and things to help people make money on the net, I have poured tons of time and energy into this site.  During the summer we have been creating and pushing halloween items.  I am already thinking about Christmas stuff though!

In order to reach our end goal of making a living on the internet, we have to create products that people will want to purchase.  And then create some more.  And some more.

Brenda has been getting restless lately because she has not been doing much since the new baby was born.  She is getting antsy and you can see the results on the last couple of posts as she is repurposing sweaters and scrub tops.  she has the drive to keep doing things and creating new things.

We can all have that drive.  Entrepreneurs have the drive like that.  New ideas will come and go but it is acting on them that can be hard.  I have a book full of ideas for things that are just starting or in a half done stage.  You have to complete what you create or it does no one any good.

I am going to give everyone who read this homework this week.  Think about something to create.  And then create it.  Do something if it is just  a quick one page summary of your goals, a letter to Santa, or founding a new business, Create something!  and then come back and tell us about it in the comments.

Brenda will be here tomorrow with a post that should help you think about your creation.

Thanks for reading!

And remember, Halloweenis just around the corner.  Table Runners, Signs, Candle holders and glasses are waiting for you in the “Currently For Sale” section above!  and don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list!

-Justin

Back on Tuesday,  Brenda had a great post on repurposing some sweaters and scrub tops.  At the end, she indicated some extra projects that she did.  Here it is!

One of the things that I hate most is when you have extra super cute material left. I love to use all of the cure material up. Otherwise I store whatever is left, so I can use it later.

I try to use everything the first time. There is not usually much material left when one repurposes a top to fit a child. Just some odds and ends are usually left. However when I took a 2X purple scrub top and turned it into a top for my 4 year old Amelia I had a bunch of great Purple Disney Halloween fabric left. So I just had to make something else. So I made Amelia a matching draw-string purse with ribbon and beads.

I took the longest and widest piece of fabric left, (which was the bottom back of the shirt that cut off at first) and I folded it in half and sewed the ends together. I then took some purple double fold bias tape, that I had sitting around and applied this to the top of the fabric. Single fold
bias tape would also have worked.  But this is all I had it the Purple color.  I love to use what I already have at home so I do not have to purchase
anything new.

Next I sewed a gathering stitch on the bottom of the fabric, so I would be able to adjust the fabric to fit on to the circle shaped bottom.

I wanted this new bag to be sturdy; my children are hard on things. So I all of the left over large pieces of fabric and stacked them together.
They were from the bottom from of the original scrub top and from the sides. I had 7 layers of the shirt stacked together. I then sewed through
all of the lawyers around the outside edges.  I then sewed a zigzag patters back and forth through all the layers to strengthen the bottom of the bag.

Once I had the bottom of my bag constructed I then folded it into quarters and then trimmed the edge.  When the bottom was unfolded I had a circle Pattern that was even.

The next step is to connect the bottom to the sides of the bag. This is when the gathering stitch comes in handy. I make sure I gather the sides evenly to fit the bottom of the bag.  I then pin the bottom in place every inch. 

***Make sure you pin the right sides of the bag and right side of the bottom together.

The bag will be inside out.  The pins should be on the outside of the bag, see the example next.

Sew carefully around the bottom of the bag, connecting the sides to the bottom. Go around the bag several times to reinforce the bag.  I
then threaded a purple ribbon through the purple bias tape on top. I left enough length so Amelia could have a shoulder strap. I used the purple
ribbon, instead of string to dress up the bag.  The ribbon works just as well as a heavy string would have. On the ends of the ribbon I placed some
plastic beads to make the bag fancier.

Tie the last bead on as shown so the other beads do not fall off. The beads also help to make sure Amelia does not pull the ribbon out of the purse.

The finished draw string purse looks great and Amelia loved it!!! She filled it right up with toys.

I also make this cute heart dress that Amelia is wearing, but that was from scratch.

Well that is what I have been up to this week. Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. I
love to hear from you and know what you want me to write about next.

Have a great week!!

****Just a quick update on the state of the shop this week, a few of our Halloween items are selling so if you are even remotely interested,
go check them out on the website!  If you are reading this, use the coupon code “podcast” (without quotes) at checkout for an additional 10% off of your order.  Shipping is $4.95 flat rate for all orders, not items, the full order!  These will be shipped USPS priority mail and should arrive in 2-3 business days.

Now is the time to add some homemade items to your Halloween collections. The shop in open via the “Items Currently For Sale” link above or here at http://BrendasQuiltShop.com/shop. Come and check out my one of a kind Holiday items!

Thank you again for reading

Brenda and Justin

Hello everyone!

I got such a great response from my last post on repurposing items that I decided to continue with that theme this week and do a few
more items for all three of my children!

To start here is a photo of my Leatha in that cute white sweater dress that I wrote about how to make in the last post.
She loves this dress. She even wore the dress for her school pictures last week.

My son Cameron wanted me to make him a new shirt. So I took one of my husband’s old, but very nice looking, sweaters and make Cameron a new Sweater, which is just his size. I followed the same pattern as I did on the last post.

I took the sweater and turned it inside out. Then I measured Cameron to see how long I needed the finished sweater to be.
I wanted to save the cute ribbing on the bottom so I cut out what length I needed and cut off the ribbing to be sewed back on the finished new sweater.

I then measured Cameron’s arms and cut each of the sleeves down to the new size. I kept the ribbing on the cuff of each sleeve.

****When cutting off the extra inches off the sides of the old sweater, make sure you cut a little indent in the top to be used as the
armhole and to connect the sleeves to. To help you do this at home. Take a shirt that currently fits your child and use it as a pattern on how
big of a indention is needed to connect the sleeve to. You can also use your child’s shirt as a pattern to make each of the sleeves. Do not
forget to add in the margins to sew on. Usually add ½ to 5/8^th of an inch. Just remember what you add, so you can sew the shirt back together correctly.

I then took and cut off 1 and ½ inches from the top of each shoulder to make the neck opening smaller so the new sweater would not be too
large for my son.

Last I re-attached the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater! Check out the before and after photos. There is a huge difference and the final product looks great on my son.

BEFORE

AFTER

The next thing I did this week was to take some of my old scrub tops and adjust them to fit my two daughters. My work does not let us wear the cute scrub tops anymore; we are required to wear plain blue tops. I have stored these wonderful Disney tops for 4 years now and I decided I was not going to store them anymore. I made them into shirts my daughters could wear. My youngest daughter Amelia, after all of her health problems, and being around doctors, she loves to play doctor and nurse. Leatha wore her scrub top to school today and said it was a huge hit with the 4^th graders and wants me to make her some more.  So I guess I will!

This first photograph shows Leatha one of the original scrub tops. You could fit two Leatha’s in this top with room to spare! It was so long
it was a dress on her. This Purple top I made into a shirt with a matching purse for my 4 year old Amelia.

If you read the last post you will notice that the repurposing of these two scrub tops is similar to what I did with the sweaters. I follow my same pattern of alterations.

***Note: This scrub material is not stretchy like sweaters fabric is. Leave plenty of room in the repurposed top, so children can get them on.
Do not use one of your child’s shirts that need to be stretched as they pull it on, like a T-shirt. Use one of your children’s shirts, as a guide that is not made from stretchy fabrics. This will help make sure the new shirt will fit after you are done sewing.

Both of my daughters wanted me to save the pockets on the front of the shirts and reapply them back on the new shirt. With this shirt I cut the
length of the shirt right above the bottom pockets and hemmed the shirt there. Then to make this HUGE shirt small enough to fit my 4 year old, I had to really cut off some fabric on the side. Make sure you leave enough room for the child to get the shirt on. You can always take more off later. I then had to cut almost 2 inches off the top shoulders, to make the neck hole smaller for my daughter.

***Note that is two inches when the fabric was folded at the shoulders. Total inches removed were almost 4 inches. I then sewed each of the shoulders and the sides of the shirt. I left a 4 inch slit in the side of each shirt like the original scrub top had. I then attached the smaller sleeves that I had cut. The pockets were added last. I added the pockets before I hemmed the bottom so the bottom of the pockets was folded over into the hem of the shirt. This makes the pockets stronger, so they put up with the wear and tear of children more.

Check out the finished shirt on my 4 year old Amelia!

(My
Cameron is so very silly!!! I love it!)

I next worked on this White scrub top for my Leatha. This shirt started out the same size as the purple scrub top that I just made for Amelia.

The first photo, is the original scrub top unaltered. The second photo you can see I follow my same pattern to cut down and alter this scrub top.
I needed to leave this top longer for my 10 year old. So I removed the pockets from the front of the top first. Then I cut the shirt to the
length that I needed to fit Leatha.

This next photo shows the sleeves as I cut them down to fit Leatha. I used one of her tank tops to help me make sure I left a large enough opening for her arms. The tank top also helped me to cut the tops of each sleeve. I made sure that I cut 1 and ½ inches from the top of each shoulder to
make the neck opening smaller.

After I had everything cut, I then sewed shoulders and the sides of the shirt. Again I left 4 inches on each side to make a slit, like the original scrub top had.

The sleeves were then added. The pockets I added last.  The bottom of the pockets lined up with the bottom of the shirt, this way when I
turned up the hem the bottom of the pockets would be part of the hem. This will strengthen the pockets so they will not rip out so easily when children overload the pockets. The final scrub top looks great on Leatha.

One of the things that I hate most is when you have extra super cute material left. I love to use all of the cure material up. Otherwise I
store whatever is left, so I can use it later.  I try to use everything the first time.  There is not usually much material left when one repurposes a top to fit a child. Just some odds and ends are usually left. However when I took a 2X purple scrub top and turned it into a top for my 4 year old Amelia I had a bunch of great Purple Disney Halloween fabric left. So I just had to make something else.

Tune in on Thursday to see what that is!

Well that is what I have been up to this week. Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. I love to hear from you and know what you want me to write about next.

Have a great week!!

Do not forget to decorate for Halloween. I have many items for Halloween in my store if you want something new this year.
The prices have just been reduced for the month and shipping is $4.95 per order! Your order will arrive in 2-3 business days!

Now is the time to buy and add some homemade items to your Halloween collections. The shop in open via the “Items Currently For Sale” link
above or here at http://BrendasQuiltShop.com/shop. Come and check out my one of a kind Holiday items!

Thank you again for reading

Brenda.

Hello Folks! This post is late. That is what happens. NO Excuses, I am here now to tell you about what has happened this week at Brenda’s Quilt Shop!

Tuesday saw the beginning of a new feature here, the Crafting Corner. Tuesday’s will be home to a post from Brenda about crafting on a budget, or with innovative ideas about how to make things that your family will enjoy. Look forward to the next installment on Tuesday!

As for the rest of the Shop, it has been very slow (read none) in the sales department. We have had a few more e-mail list subscribers but are still well short of our goal for the month. We have some new things that I am working on getting posted and they should be out this weekend.

I have been offering discounts and coupons all over the place and nothing has seemed to work so far. I do have a survey that I would be truly thankful if you took, or even if you take the time to comment below and tell me what you think of the site and the whole process of ordering from us. What are your concerns, what would keep you from pushing the “add to cart” button.

The Survey link is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QKYK2D8.

Thank you for being here and reading this post!  I do appreciate the fact that you have clicked in and perused.  I will be sending out more things to the email list this week so please sign up if you haven’t!  Also, if there is anyone you know who would be interested in anything we have to offer here at Brenda’s Quilt Shop, please let them know.

Retweet, comment, or email links are below and waiting for you!

Happy Halloween!

-Justin

**Hey folks, Justin here.  Today marks the beginning of an exciting new feature here at the quilt shop: Budget crafting tips!  Brenda has become quite adept at making things look like you spent a bundle on them when you really didn’t.  Some ingenuity and outside of the box thinking goes a long way.  This will be a regular Tuesday feature!  Please let us know what you think in the comments!  Now on to Brenda’s post…***

Hello everyone,

I have been working so hard on all of my Halloween crafts to sell this year, that I have finally completed them.  I have a huge assortment of Halloween items to purchase.  There is something for everyone.

So I with my Halloween items done for the year I got the chance to catch up on some sewing and crafty items that I needed to do around the house for the family.   Mostly I worked on sewing repairs and alterations for my Kiddies.  Amelia, my 4 year old daughter, wears a Princess dress almost every day.  I have had to re-sew these dresses many times.  This week I am adding a sheer fabric, as a top skirt or ruffle on several of her dresses.   I might take a little time to repair the dresses, but the bright smile on my daughter’s face, makes it all worth it.

Other then clothing repairs this week, I decided to take some of my older and larger sweaters (I have lost a bunch of weight) that are still in almost new condition and alter them for my 10 year old daughter.

I took four sweaters and made her four new items for her wardrobe.  With the first sweater I made a sweater skirt.   I turned the sweater inside out and cut off each of the arms plus 3-4 inches from each side.  I then cut the top of the sweater off so I had a nice straight line across the top.  After sewing the sides up, I made a casing for the elastic and sewed the elastic inside.  I did not have to do any hemming on the skirt, for the bottom of the sweater made it’s own hem.

Keep in mind if you attempt this at home to sew with a good stretch stitch so the thread does not break when the sweater item is worn.  Also use a zigzag stitch in the seam to keep the sweater from fraying.

The second sweater I made a sweater dress for my daughter.  I had white sweater that was long on me, that made a perfect sweater dress for Leatha.   I turned the sweater inside out, and laid it flat.  I then  cut up each side of the sweater so the new dress would be more my daughter’s size Because the neck opening was so large on my daughter I trimmed  2 inches off the top of each shoulder .

I then sewed the top of the dress, the new shoulders, and down each side of the dress leaving the area open to attach the sleeves.  Next I measured my daughters arm and decided that ¾ length sleeves would look best.

I then cut the sweater to that length plus one inch for the seam.   I tapered the sleeves so they fit nicely on my daughter.   The sleeves were then attached.  Again a hem was not needed for the bottom of the original sweater was intact.    With the scraps from the sweater I made a matching belt and added a buckle with her birth stones in it.  As requested from my daughter I sewed 4 white rose buttons on the top of the dress along the neck line.

For my third repurposed sweater I followed the same plan as with the sweater dress, but this time took some photos of my progress.  .   This sweater was turned into a cardigan.

First I cut up the middle of only the front part of the sweater, to create the cardigan opening.

Next, I folded of the right and left side of the new front sections to finish the front of the cardigan.  .

I cut a tapering cut up each side from the bottom to the shoulder of the sweater.   I then cut in a semi-circle indention on each side for the new sleeves to be placed.

I decided to use the entire length of the sweater sleeve on the new cartigan, so I just shaped and tapered each sleeve a little.

I then finished as I did the sweater dress, I cut off a little on the top of the shoulders to make the neck hole smaller, then I sewed up each side of the cardigan and the top of the sweater.  I then attached the new sleeves.    The new cardigan looks great on my daughter.

She worn each of the three new sweater items and decided that the fourth sweater, she wanted into another skirt.  So I made her another skirt in the same fashion as the first, but with this one I added some decorations on the bottom front to add a little flair.

Well that is what I did this week in my budget crafting corner.  I got to repourpose some nice sweaters I would not wear again, and my daughter got some wonderful new items in her closet.   Let me know what you think.  If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas.   I would love to help you work out some crafting problem or sewing problem you are having.

Email us, retweet or comment below!

Thanks for reading.

Brenda