Save money: make your own Barbie clothes

My 4 year old received her first Barbie two years ago for Christmas. At first it never really got played with but now that is almost all she plays with. Her 2 year old sister is starting to love Barbies too. The clothes the dolls came with don't look so good. Some are just plain falling apart. The Barbie clothes are so expensive and many outfits, I don't feel, are appropriate for my little ones, so I thought about getting a few patterns to make some myself.

One day, while searching Pintrest, I came across a pin about how to make Barbie clothes on craftinessisnotoptional.com. After checking it out I thought it was great, so I dug out scrapes and decided to try it. The tutorials were so incredibly easy to follow and the clothes came out looking great. I made some dresses to match the girls' Easter dresses and they went in their Easter baskets. Then I made several dresses, a couple skirts, and a shirt.

The clothes are small so they aren't the easiest to sew. Barbie clothes aren't for beginners but if you've sewed clothes for yourself or kids before, these will be extremely easy to do. 

My daughters love the new Barbie clothes and can put them themselves. My oldest keeps asking for more clothes for her Barbies. She loves to change them into new clothes frequently.

 My 4 year old and 2 year old were very excited when I asked them to take some pictures of their Barbies and all their new clothes. The pictures are all linked up to the tutorial for those clothes.

Cap sleeve shirt and skirt

Formal/Ball Gown Dress

Shortened Formal/Ball Gown

Dress

Dress

Weekly Goals

Week of April 15-21

I am finding it more and more important to have written goals. They give you something to work towards and feel like you are accomplishing something. More important, it keeps you accountable to yourself and others. This is my goals for the week.

• 30 Day House Cleaning Challenge
• Put at least one thing on Craigslist
• Spend at least one night playing games as a family
• Memorize  Proverbs 31:10
• Get the two year old on the potty 3 times a day, everyday
• Work out everyday this week (Mon-Fri)
• Finish and list one item on Etsy 

What are your weekly goals?

30 Day House Cleaning Challenge: Day 15

Today's Task . . . Living room and Kitchen/Dinning Room

The days I have to clean the living room and kitchen tend to be the longest. There is a lot of little things that usually need to be done. We are horrible at keeping clutter off our island. Slowly I feel we are taking control of it. If I can clean things off every day it stays under control. 

One thing that is really starting to help keep on top of dishes, is letting my 4 year old wash the supper dishes every night. We are running the dishwasher less. She is learning how to wash dishes and continues to get better at it. After dishes, she wipes down the table. This has helped keep things much cleaner and I'm not doing everything myself. 

The living room took a few minutes to pick up toys, books, and vacuum.

Getting the girls out of the living room was another chore today.

Then it was on to the Kitchen . . .

First I started by putting the last few clean dishes away, decluttering the island, and then wiping down the dinning room table.

The stove top was a mess so I threw some baking soda on it and then wet soapy towels. I let it sit for about 15 minutes before wiping it off. 

 

Then I did the dishes . . . 

 

Wiped down the counters, started some bread in the crockpot, and put the clean dishes away. 

I didn't get everything done I wanted to but Mondays are busy afternoons for us. Any cleaning I get done I can be proud of.

30 Day House Cleaning Challenge: Day 12

Today's Challenge . . . My bedroom closet

This is a task I have been wanting to take care of for a very long time. A few weeks ago a tackled the pantry closet and I was going to work my way around the house and get the closets cleaned out. Well now I finally got to my bedroom closet. I have to say it wasn't pretty. 

Disaster right? For the first year and a half we've lived here, we had a little one sleeping in our closet. Because of that, it was pretty clean. Once no little one needed that space for naps, it started getting a little disorganized. 

Since our closet is so large, it has become the linen closet for extra bedding, filing storage for preschool and homeschool curriculum, gift storage, and other larger things including the pack and play and suitcases. 

I started with putting the bedding under our bed since I have a wonderful brother who made us a new bedframe for Christmas which has a lot of storage underneath. 

Wiped down the shelves and reorganized them. 

Then I went through the clothes and added to my garage sale box.  

I went through the three boxes that still weren't unpacked from moving two years ago. I threw a lot away.

I put my shoes on the shelf.

Done! I looks and feels so good to have it clean. My husband was pleasantly surprised when he came home and opened the closet.

 
 Join the challenge on moneysavingmom.com

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30 Day Cleaning Challenge Day 11

Today's task . . . Bathrooms

Today's task was quick and easy. I did a major scrub down of everything last time and I usually do that only about once a month. All I needed to do is wipe down the counters and sinks, scrub the toilet bowl, and wipe down the toilet. Next time I clean the bathroom I will have to clean out the closets as well.

That was enough for me. It has been a though couple of days and it doesn't help that we had a snow storm, keeping us stuck in the house.

DIY Easter or Spring Dress for Girls

I love making my daughters dresses. My four year old is in major need of some new ones including more dressy "Church dresses", which she likes to call them. So for Easter, I found a wonderful online tutorial for a cute but simple dress. 

We went to the fabric store, where she picked out the flowers herself rather quickly. We then found the pink polka dots right above that and she was happy and ready to go. It was fun shopping with her since she really knows what she wants now. 

The tutorial was very easy to follow and took me about an hour and a half. There were a couple things I did a little differently. I used a bodice pattern I already had to create the new bodice pattern instead of making my own from scratch. I also made the skirt flare out slightly so it wasn't quite so snug but still looks a-line. 

For tutorial click here

30 Day House Cleaning Challenge: Day 9

Today's Task . . . Bedrooms

Today's task took a little time to complete. I cleaned all three bedrooms. The youngest has very little in her room so it only took me a few minutes to straighten up.

Diapers to fold

Done

 Next was on to my room. I didn't have too much to do in there either. I just needed to change the sheets, make my bed, fold and hang up the clothes, and put a few things away.

The last room to tackle was my 4 and 2 year olds room. They love to make a mess and do it in a very short amount of time. 

They love books and love to get them all off the bookshelf. We keep trying to enforce the you get four books, read them, and put them away but of course that lasts a very short time.

The books took awhile but they are put away here

Then they made beds

  A few hours later . . . 

Oh well. At least I tried. I did get it vacuumed before the tornado hit.