Pretty Little Thing

I was in Forever 21 this Summer, and I saw these necklaces that were so adorable, but the kind where you immediately say "I could make that". I have since seen them literally everywhere, and have been dying to make one. So I thought the perfect opportunity to make one would be for Christmas, as a gift for my sister! I was so in the zone of making it, that I decided just to keep on going and make myself one too! They're really simple, and I'm sure just by looking at it, that you could figure it out too, but just to be nice, I decided to post a tutorial.

You'll Need:

Pearl Beads (These can be as cheap as you like, you can't tell once it's all finished)

A Spool (you won't use it all) Satin Ribbon

(In a width that's fairly close to the width of the pearls)

Needle and Thread

Step one:

Thread your thread into the needle

Step two:

Leaving about 6-8 inches for a tail, place needle through the middle of the ribbon from bottom to top, not pulling the needle out.

Step three:

Put a pearl on your needle, then feed the needle and thread through. Then tie a knot with the ribbon and the thread, to keep the necklace secure.

Step four:

You may need to look at the picture to do this step, as it may be hard to fully explain. But you then fold the top of the ribbon back over the pearl (making a "c" with the ribbon), and push needle through in the middle of the ribbon where it hits the top of the pearl.

(Sorry, this was really hard to photograph one-handed, so it's not exactly how I explained, but hopefully you can look at it, and follow the thread to see what I'm talking about.)

Repeat these steps over and over and over until your necklace is the length you want.

Step five:

Tie off both ends of the necklace in a knot for safe keeping. Tie the two ends together in a bow, and your necklace is officially done!

P.S. I like to burn the ends of the ribbon to seal them so they don't fray, but you don't absolutely have to.

Painting Scalloped Trim in Sienna's Room

For awhile now, I've wanted to paint a scalloped trim on Sienna's walls. But when I'm painting at least, I don't have the most steady or consistent hand, so I often would get scared, thinking it would look horrible, even if I tried to draw on the wall first as a guide. And since painters tape wouldn't exactly work for the small curves of scallops, I came up with a new idea for creating scallops on a wall using a homemade stencil!

What you need:

Paint in desired color

Paint Brush

Freezer Paper

Something circular to trace (plate, bowl, large can, etc.)

Pencil

Scissors

Iron

Directions:

Step 1:

Measure the length of each wall you are painting.

Step 2:

Cut a sheet of freezer paper the length of each wall you are painting. You should have a seperate piece of freezer paper for your two biggest walls. One sheet makes two stencils, so if you need to, then cut it down for a shorter wall.

Step 3:

Measure and draw a straight line (use some sort of straight edge, or make a fold down the middle instead) down the middle of each sheet of freezer paper.

Step 4:

Trace circular object onto freezer paper side-by-side until it reaches the end of the sheet. Make sure that your line or fold cuts each circle exactly in half. Do this for all

sheets of freezer paper that you have.

Step 5:

Now with your scissors, cut along the middle line so you have 2 separate pieces per sheet. Then cut out around the circles halves, all the way down the sheet. This will give you your even scalloped edge. Repeat until finished with all sheets.

Step 6:

Now, bring each sheet of freezer paper to it's corresponding wall, meanwhile, heating your iron up. It's easiest if you have someone help you with this part, though it's not totally necessary.

If someone is helping you, have the oth

er person grab one end of the sheet, and hold it at the corner of the wall, while you hold yours at the other end. (Making sure the side that is shiny is facing toward the wall)

If you don't have someone helping you, just tape it in place temporarily at both ends, making sure it's straight and taut.

Step 7:

Now with your heated iron (you may need an extension cord depending on how high up you want your scallops) iron the freezer paper to the wall. Make sure you pay close attention to the scalloped edges, that they're sticking well to the wall, as these are your stencil. (You may need to hold the iron down awhile to get a good stick)

Step 8:

With your stencil in place, you are free to paint, and reveal those beautiful scallops! Once the paint is dry, remove the stencil (it will come right off), and admire your work!

Good luck!

$2 Dollar Book Wreath

I found this fabulous idea over at "Living With Lindsay" and just had to make it. Many of you have probably already seen this done, because it's gotten pretty famous on the web. Not only is it a super-cute idea, but it's 2 dollars to make!!!! Well, here is my version of it. You can click here to get the full tutorial on it.

By the way, With this post I'm taking a poll. I decided to try this wreath with a ribbon, but I'm not sure if I like it. I think the ribbon might be a little dressy, while the wreath is a bit industrial, but my husband likes it with the ribbon. So let me know what you think,

with the ribbon, or without?

Josten's Christmas Gift #2

Here's the 2nd of Josten's handmade Christmas gifts. I made him a camo scripture case to take with him when he goes to trainings. I kept it simple so it's "approved" to take with him, and so it blends with the rest of his gear.

Sienna's Christmas Present #2

Here's the 2nd of Sienna's homemade gifts... her very own purse! It's even reversible!

Breck's Gift #1

Josten's Gift #1

This was the first of two gifts for Josten. I know it seems like a cop-out to make a hat, but he really wanted this, I promise! He specifically asked me for it! Anyway, here it is!

Sorry It's not a better picture, I haven't taken a better one yet.

Christmas Cards!

Finally got Christmas cards done!!! What took so long this year was the fact that Josten was at school for about 19 hours everyday for the last 2 weeks, and we didn't have time to get our Christmas pictures taken! Well, we finally did them yesterday, and I finished them up this morning! Here they are!

Sienna's Christmas Present #1

This is my first finished Christmas gift, more to come very soon!

Sienna's little caplet:

Sienna's Christmas Dress

I tossed around the idea for awhile of making Sienna a Christmas dress, but never really made a sure plan to get things under way because I was a little intimidated about it for one, and for another, I didn't know if I'd have time. So I got her a little Christmas dress on clearance, and she wore it last Sunday, and I figured that was that. Well...no it wasn't. I figured I still had a good week before Christmas Sunday, and though her other dress is very cute, I still wanted to see if I could pull off the design I had in my head.

Part of what made me so intimidated was the fact that I have never actually sewn a real dress before, unless you count the little smocked dresses I made this summer, but that's totally not the same as a real, fancy, church dress.

The second thing that made me intimidated, is that I didn't have a pattern, because I of course had a specific design in mind... so I pretty much winged the whole thing.

In the end, I was pleased with how it turned out. It fits her well, though I probably won't post a picture of her in it until Sunday. I also learned a lot about sewing apparel, especially without a pattern, which will come in handy.

So here it is, the first (of many I'm sure) handmade Christmas Dress!



Oh, and another interesting tidbit about this dress - This was our Christmas table cloth from last year! It was in perfect condition except for a big stain on one end of it, and I loved it so much I didn't want it to go to waste...And it didn't! Don't worry, I used the non-stained end of it!

Hats for the Holidays

Oh boy has this holiday craft show made me busy! I wanted to be over-prepared for this show, so I could have optimum opportunity at having multiple styles and sizes on hand, so people could actually buy the ones they wanted. I ended up making 35 beanies in the end!!! I decided to do a line of holiday hats, which actually ended up only being 3 different hats (multiple sizes though), since I kind of ran out of time to amke any other sets. I've still got some fun holiday ideas for next year, which I may end up doing for market next year in the fall. I also re-stocked on some of my original ones from the market. The show went reall well for the first week, I sold quite a few which was nice, and got some special orders. The next week of the show is on saturday, which they said is usually the more busy show, so we'll see how that goes! Anyway, the top few are just some new designs I tried, very similar to my others, with a little variance here and there. The last group are my holiday hats, some are actually the holiday line, and some are just fun holiday colors.




Here are the holiday ones, the ones with the tags are the actual holiday line, and you can read their names :)




This one was fun, I tried a new stitch pattern, and thought it was cute:

More Kitchen Goodness for the Bride-To-Be

Here are the next parts of my gift for the bridal shower I mentioned earlier in the apron post. They're all part of the same gift, so they coordinate.

The first are hot pads, pretty simple to figure out; 2 pieces of fabric with batting and binding, then a simple quilting over top.



Next are dishwashing gloves. I have also wanted to do these for a very long time, and I found the perfect excuse with the shower once again! I got the tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets.

The Apron

Some of you may have noticed that I've had an apron on the to-do list at the top of my blog for quite some time now. It was never really a priority, so it just kept getting pushed aside for the last year and some. This is the apron I wanted to re-create. I saw it and LOVED it:



Well, I was recently given the perfect excuse to re-create this apron when one of my closest friends from highschool sent the invitation for her bridal shower. I'll probably eventually make one for myself too, but it's just not at the top of my to-do list right now.

Anyway, I didn't take as many pictures for this as I had first intended to do, but hopefully I can make it straight-forward enough to help you out, if you decide you want to make this.

First, you need to take maesurments. Take measurments from where you want the top to hit, to where you want it to hit near your knee. You'll also need a measurement of how wide you want it, which I got by measuring from just behind my left hip to just behind my right hip. This will be your widest measurement.

Once you have those 2 measurements, cut a rectangle of the 2 measurements (example, if the hieght measurement was 30 and the hip-to-hip measurement was 28, you'll cut out a rectangle that is 30"X28")

Once you've got your rectangle, you need to fold it in half length-wise and shape it like an apron. I don't have any exact formula for you for this part, but if you just look at the picture, I'm sure you can make it work.



So now you open it up, and you've got your apron shape. Now you need to hem the edges.

Next, you're going to cut another rectangle, but a much smaller one for the front pocket. This is just whatever your preference is. I made mine larger, and sewed down the middle to make 2 compartments. I ironed the edges in, and only sewed the hem on the top SEPERATELY, then I put it on the apron and sewed the other sides to the apron (the sewing to the apron becomes the sewing for the hem too.)



The next part is the neck strap. These are pretty easy and straight-forward. you just sew 2 strips about 2 inches thick, and attach them to the top corners of the apron. They only need to be long enough to tie a bow in the back.

Next was the trim for the bottom. The one in the picture uses pleats, but I decided to do a basic ruffle. For that, I measured twice the length of the curved bottom part of the apron, and cut a 3 1/2 to 4 inch thick strip that was the measured length. I hemmed it all up, then along the top, I adjust my sewing machiene to the highest tension and the highest stitch length, and sewed a straight line right through to the end, and came out with a ruffle.

I then sewed the ruffle to the bottom.

Next are the ties for the back. I originally wanted to do them longer, like the orignal picture, but I ran out of that material, so I had to make due with what I had. The ties that I did are both 45" long, and about 3 1/2 inches thick. You sew them up (which I did by just measuring 7 inches thick, and folding it in half then sewing one side, and turning it inside out and ironing flat), then sew them to the top of the bottom portion of the apron.

Now just cut all your threads and you're ready to get cookin' you cute little homemaker, you!

Super-Easy J. Crew Re-fashion

I was looking around on J. Crew, which, if I had to pick a store that I think defines my taste in clothes perfectly, it would be that one. Anyway, I was looking around and found this beautiful shirt:



I really liked it, among others on the site, but I decided I wanted to re-create, with a few differences. I wanted to combine this with another idea I have seen around that I love. I love when clothes have an artsy feel, and I LOVE shirts that are painted, or look like they are! So for this shirt, I decided to use the same concept and design, except I wanted to have the stems painted.

I used acryllic paint for the stems, and if you do this, make sure you put cardboard or something in between the front and back of the shirt, to prevent bleeding through on the otherr side. You have to let it dry a couple of hours, just to make sure it is set. I free-handed it so it looked sloppy and hand painted.

Once the paint was dry, I cut two 24X1 inch strips of satin, and two 5X1.5 inch strips as well. I pleated the shorter strips with an iron, and evened out the edges, then sewed down the middle. The longer strips become the petals, and the pleated sqaure becomes the center.

I hand-stitched the petals on the shirt by just folding the strip back and forth over itself in a circle pattern. I stitched it on the shirt in the middle, then stitched the pleated center on.
(Sorry I don't have pictures of the process, I couldn't find the camera until after I finished.)

And there you have it!!!


And here is a close-up of the flowers with the pleats.

Craft Gossip Feature!!!

Wow! What a week! The How-To Gal e-mailed me tonight, and let me know that the tutorial I wrote up for her blog ended up getting featured on Craft Gossip as well! Thanks Craft Gossip, and thank you How-To Gal for making it all happen!

Here's the Link to the feature:

Craft Gossip

P.S. Hopefully I'll get some more stuff up this week, I've had a lot of projects I've been working on lately, just none of them are done!

Featured on The How-To Gal!!!

Big thanks to The How-To Gal for featuring my shirt refashion! Check it out here, and be sure to check out all the cool projects she's done!

Halloween Costumes

Sorry I posted this so late, but it's been crazy with projects lately, and I have just been so busy that I didn't find time to post these as soon as I wanted. I suppose you can remember this post for next year's Halloween though!

Anyway, Breck went this year as the Mad Hatter. It was a fun costume to put together. Here's what I did:

What I used:

Foam hat from JoAnn's, Michael's has them too
Feather Boa
1 yard Crazy fabric
Boy's White Shirt
Boy's Vest
Boy's Pants
Boy's Wing-tip shoes
One of my old button-down shirts
3x5 card

For the hat, I made a band to go around it, using the fabric. I hemmed the edges, then pleated it, and hot-glued it to the hat. I took the feather boa and hot-glued it to the end of the hat leaving a little space in the front open. On the back of a 3x5 card, I wrote 10/6 which is what the Mad Hatter has on his hat. It's an old-fashioned price tag.

I made the bow tie by cutting two 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 rectangles and sewing them together, wrong sides out, but leaving a little space so that I could turn it right side out. Stitch up the hole once this is done. I ironed it flat, then sewed a little band around it to gather it in the middle. I then sewed a longer band, and attached it to the bow tie. Then you put velcro on the tips of the band.

The Jacket was an old shirt of mine, that I took in the sides, and cut up the length in front to look like a "tailed" jacket. It was of course, complete with tails in the back. I trimmed the edge of the collar, to give it a more jacket look than a shirt, and ironed it down, to give the jacket collar effect as well. I put a faux pucket and kerchiff on the front too.

The rest of it was just his normal dress clothes, though I put the shirt collar up, and ironed the tips down to look more like a mid-1800's collar.

Sienna's costume was fun.

Here's what I used:

1/2 yard white fabric
Blue Dollar Store onesy
Blue Tulle
Elastic
White Stockings
Black Mary Janes
Black ribbon

The Apron was the main thing that I made for this. I didn't use a pattern, I just looked at the picture of Alice from the Disney movie. I couldn't find an apron for a little girl like that, so I just took measurements of Sienna and where I wanted everything to hit, and it was actually pretty easy!

The skirt was a tutu, so check out my tutu post from last Christmas to see how to make those. I'm pretty sure most people know how to make those by now though, so you probably don't even need to get instructions.

Then I put black ribbon in her hair, put on her stockins, onesy and shoes, and she was ready to go!






*Note* 2-year-olds may not like a big hat with feathers...

Shout Out to Other Bloggin' Gals

This is just kind of my "Thank You" note to all those bloggin' gals who have been so sweet in the last month or so.

First of all, Thank you to Mique form 30 Handmade Days for the Shabby Apple Dress giveaway! I got it in the mail a couple of weeks ago and LOVE it!

Second, Thank you Kelsee from Pumpkin Pie Crafts for your Apron giveaway! She made this beautiful apron (pictured below), and I won it! She also made the flower pin, but I decided to stick it on my necklace for the picture! If you haven't been to her blog, stop by and wish her a happy belated birthday, she just had one! Plus, she makes really cool things, while being a wife, and mom of two!


(Sorry this picture is kind of funny, sometimes I get awkward when I'm the only one being photographed...hence the funky right foot)

Third, Thank you Disney at Ruffles and Stuff for featuring my Anthropologie inspired dress! It was such a pleasant surprise! She has an amazing blog as well, so be sure to check it out!

And Last but certainly not least, thank you to all you of who found my blog through Ruffles and Stuff (or anywhere else) and left such nice comments and became followers! You guys are great, and I was so touched to recieve such support!

You guys are the BEST!