Retro Headband

My daughters got invited to a Birthday party for a friend over the summer. We went shopping for her present from the girls but I just had to make her something a little more personal and from the heart. It took me a while to figure out what it was that I wanted to do. Either something crocheted or something sewn. Around that same time, I got a newsletter from Create Kids Couture with a cute little free pattern in it…. a Retro Headband! I knew that it would be the perfect little thing for her!

After getting some color preferences from her Mom, I decided to make it double sided so that it would be a little more versatile. I also wanted to make two bows to go with it so that there would even more ways to wear it!

This pattern was the first one that I have ever done in this style. I am used to doing the Tissue Paper patterns that I was taught on. To be honest I was a little worried about it since you have to print it out with your printer. But as long as  you make sure that you print the file at 100% and not fitted to the page you are fine. That’s the way that I always print anyways so I didn’t really have anything to worry about.

Once I had all the pieces cut the assembly was really easy. CKC writes out their patterns perfectly and in great detail.

Needless to say it was a big hit and she looked adorable in her new headband! I can’t wait to make more and it totally got me hooked on Create Kids Couture patterns! I have a few things waiting in the works as we speak. So, be sure to come back and check for more items sewn using their patterns!

Here are a few pictures of my finished piece!

 

 

 

Make sure you check out their website as well as their facebook! They have some great patterns for all sizes and genders!

Website: http://www.createkidscouture.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/createkidscouture

 

October Guest Blogger – Shannon Mulligan-Mayernik

This months Guest Blogger has been my friend for many years. We have crafted, scrapbooked and had a community fair table together! I have always admired her amateur photos of the landscapes that she saw and events that she went to. She decided to take those photography skills to the professional level almost two years ago. She puts together the cutest mini sessions using all sorts of things including things that she has handmade! Today she is sharing one of those things with us! With that I would like to introduce you all to Shannon of Shannon Mulligan Photography!

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As a photographer, I get to be creative in many ways. Not only does my creative eye show while I’m creating amazing memories for my clients but I also get to be creative when it comes time to make homemade props, that will be one-of-a-kind for each individual session. I like to offer my clients this specialized service so they know that their pictures will be like no others. Whenever I know a prop will be involved, or a backdrop is needed, I set out to design and create something so my clients vision becomes a reality.

For my fall mini sessions this year, which were just held a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to make a bunting banner for one set up. My first step is to always write out exactly how I want the scenes to look to I don’t get overwhelmed; or purchase products I won’t need. I am going to share with you exactly what I used to make the fall themed bunting banner along with the steps I took to create it.

Tools:

1/4 yard of each fabric choice (I choose 4 patterns and still had plenty left over with each pattern)

Pinking Fabric Scissors (http://www2.fiskars.com/Sewing-Quilting/Products/Scissors-and-Sharpeners/Pinking-Shears-9#.VD_f9vldWQM)

Bunting Template (you can make this any size, and as you can see in the pictures below, I make mine out of cardboard)

Straight Pins

Double Fold Bias Tape Quilt Binding; 3 yards (color of your choice) (http://www.joann.com/wrights-double-fold-quilt-binding-7-8inw-x-3yds/prd34298.html#start=2)

Frixion Ball Erasable Pen (http://www.staples.com/Pilot-FriXion-Erasable-Gel-Ink-Pens-Fine-Point-Assorted-3-Pack/product_722395)

Measuring Tape

Sewing Machine

Instructions:

1. Lay our fabric on flat, large surface. With template, I start to trace my template onto the back side of the fabric with my erasable pen.

2. Once I have all my triangles traced onto my fabric, I use my pinking scissors to cut them out.

3. Now that the triangles are all cut out, I lay them down against my measuring tape I have lying on the floor. (the sizing per banner will vary-for this one I wanted a 9 foot banner so I made sure I had 18 triangles that are 6 inches across)

4. Once they are all laid out and I know I have enough, I open the Bias Tape and fit the fabric into the fold. I straight pin them so they all stay together before I bring it over to the sewing machine.

5. Last step is to sew the fabric and bias tape together. Make sure nothing is loose because you do not want the fabric to tear away from bias tape.

Once all the sewing is done, your banner is complete. How easy was that?! You can now use it as a back drop, homemade prop, holiday decoration, or home decor. Now that I have made this fall banner for my mini session, I plan on selling it so it’s never used again. All banners I make will never be used for another session. By doing this, I know that none of my sessions will ever be the same. This also helps me keep my creative juices flowing because I know I can’t just use an old banner/bunting.

Here is another little set up I did for my fall mini. Super simple! I had everything for this set up at home. The only thing I purchased were 3 pounds of apples to fill the baskets with. Being creative with DIY Props and things you already have around your house is the best way to go.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. And a huge THANK YOU to Robin for asking me to guest blog on your site! I love how much activity and engagement you have created on your page! And may I say (even though it’s still a little early…) I wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

Tutorial – Decorative Letter Plaque

So, my dear friend Loren over at Pandora’s Craft Box just recently had a birthday. So, of course I had to make something crafty for her. It took awhile to decide what exactly I was going to make her… I was thinking a crochet project… No, I’ve been doing too many crochet gifts lately. Hmm what should I make her, something a little out of my normal box of tricks. As I was going through my supplies I thought of making something personal for her, a decorative letter plaque!

I decided to take this fun new creative trip with you, my readers, with a wonderful new tutorial! Lets start working up our project!

Supplies you will need:
1. Wooden Embroidery Hoop (I used an 8inch round hoop but you can choose whatever size you want)
2. Fabric in your color choice (I picked a nice deep purple, her favorite color)
3. Lace for the trim
4. Hot Glue Gun to put everything together
5. Coordinating Thread and Needle
6. Felt or other decorative elements that you want to use.

Now that we have all of our stuff together, lets get down to business!

Step One:
The first thing that you want to do is iron your fabric that you will be putting in your embroidery hoop. Yes, the hoop will tighten and pull the fabric when you put it in but you still might see fold lines if there are any real solid creases in the fabric. Once you got it nice and flat you can place it over the inside hoop and place the outer hoop over it. I would suggest having at least one inch of fabric sticking out of all sides of the hoop. This will allow you to glue the fabric to the underneath to keep the tightness. You might need to pull on the fabric a little while you tighten tho screw on the top of the hoop, you want it nice a snug to support the decorations that you will be putting on it.

Step Two:
Now that you have your fabric pulled nice and tight you want to start gluing the fabric to the hoop. So, turn your hoop over and put a 1 – 1 1/2 inch line of glue on the edge of the hoop and pull the fabric tightly over it. Then move onto the next section. I say to do it in a small increment like that because you don’t want the glue drying before you can get the fabric on it. Once you get all the way around I would suggest gluing the fabric to the inside edge of the hoop as well. This will just add some more strength to it. After you get your fabric all glued to your hoop you are ready to trim the access fabric off of your project.

Now that the fabric is all trimmed you can glue (using the same method as gluing the fabric) the lace to the hoop. I would suggest starting behind the screw part of the hoop so that the seam is behind it. That way it wont be as noticeable when it’s hanging up.

Step Three:
Since I made this for Loren cutting out the L in felt was pretty easy. I would suggest drawing out a more complex letter and using it for a pattern. Since Loren loves the color purple I grabbed a lighter purple then the fabric that I just glued onto the embroidery hoop. After you have your letter all cut out, pin it onto your fabric to make sure that it stays nice and straight when you hang it up on the wall. You can also glue it onto the fabric if you are not comfortable with hand sewing it onto the fabric. I choose to use a gray color to contrast it a little because I wanted the stitches to be noticeable on the felt.

Step Four:
Now you can choose to leave it that way or you can decorate it some more! Of course that is what I decided to do! Hehehe I sat there just looking at it for awhile, trying to figure out just what to add to it. That is when I decided to make a felt flower (in a darker purple then the fabric) with gray leaves (with dark purple stitching) and pearls on the inside of the flower. Just the right amount of decoration to compliment the first letter of her name.

This project is so simple, fun and creative that you can choose to decorate it anyway that you want! Maybe with buttons, other fabric elements, stitching just about anything that you can think of! So, go out there and get yourself an embroidery hoop and get your crafting on! Don’t forget to share your projects with me!

 

 

 

Pattern Test for Sew Much Love Patterns – 04

This pattern is a little different then the usual patterns that I test because it was a sewing pattern! 🙂 Yes, Sew Much Love Patterns has broadened her pattern making into the wonderful world of sewing! I was very excited when I saw that she wanted testers for her first sewing pattern so, of course I volunteered! 🙂 I love her crochet patterns and just knew that I would love her sewing pattern as well. So, I am very happy to share this test with you all!

First things first… picking out the fabric. I decided to make something for my Mushy this time, since I usually make stuff for my Peanut. I took both of them to the fabric store but let the little one pick out her fabric. She immediately picked a pink butterfly sparkley fabric (I wasn’t really surprised by that) then I picked the dark pink color to be the accent fabric.

After I got home with the fabric I opened the PDF file for the pattern (this was my first PDF pattern that I have ever worked on). The instructions were very easy to follow for the measurements so I was able to cut my fabric.

After I got my four pieces cut to the correct measurements, it was time to move on to the assembling. This part of the pattern was so well written that I was able to whip up this dress in under an hour! From measuring to cutting to assembling! I almost wish that everything was this easy to work up! 🙂 She gives you instructions on how to do things for both sewing machine users and serger users (I don’t have a serger yet, but I hope to get one in the near future!).

My little Mushy just doesn’t like to model for me so, I had to settle with a hanger shot of the finished dress. I was able to trick her into letting me take some photos of her walking around though. Shhh don’t tell her! :p

Her older sister liked the dress so much that I am now making her one as well! This one is in the same butterfly fabric but with a purple background and she wanted yellow to be her accent color. I of course would have picked a dark purple and I suggested it. But she was very sure that she wanted it to be yellow. Guess it’s a good thing that my 3.5 year old sticks to her guns, but it didn’t hurt to try to get the dark purple. :p  I will be sure to share a picture of her dress all finished!

You can find the links to her first (of hopefully many) sewing patterns below.

Girls Dress Pattern – Simple Pillowcase Dress – Available sizes: 6 months – 8 years

Etsy: Girls Dress Pattern, Pillowcase Dress Pattern, Easy Sewing PDF Patterns, Sewing Pattersn, Baby Dress Sewing Pattern size 6 months to 8 years

Craftsy: Simple Pillowcase Dress Pattern

 

Make sure you check back because I have another pattern test coming up from a different designer. This one is more of a tutorial on how to create something using any kind of yarn and with any hook, and have it turn out right!

 

Mock Smock Dress Tutorial

My daughter Peanut just loves My Little Ponies right now so she was SUPER excited to see that they had MLP Mock Smock fabric at Joann’s . She loved the last dress that I made for her out of this type of material (so much that she wanted to wear it three days in a row). So, what better reason then to do a tutorial post about it up on the blog right! 🙂 This will be my first tutorial that I have ever put on there for a sewing project. These types of dresses are pretty easy to make so lets dive in!

First thing first… buying the fabric. With this kind of fabric you get a lot of stretch due to the built in elastic at the top of the fabric. What I like to do is measure my daughter around the chest then buy it at that length. When sewing the fabric together you will loose half an inch because of the seam. If you want it to be more snug then you could take  1/2 an inch off of the person’s chest measurement. But remember you don’t want to make it too snug so I wouldn’t go more then 1/2 an inch.

Once you have your fabric in front of you, you want to seam it together. Fold the fabric in half (right-side in) and match the edges up. Now you just have to pin the two sides together so that the fabric doesn’t shift when you are sewing it. How many pins you use or if you put them in vertically or horizontally is strictly your preference. I choose to put my vertical when doing something like a seam, but when I do something like the straps I put them horizontal. I find it easier for me to pull them out that way in a smaller area.

Once you have your seam all pinned up you just sew a simple 1/4 inch seam from top to bottom of the fabric. Now you will have a dress for a special little girl!

But if that little girl is anything like my little girl, she will need some straps added to her dress! Peanut runs around and climbs on everything so a strapless dress just wont do at all. I went out and got some matching 7/8 in ribbon to use for the straps, of course Peanut picked pink. hehehe I wasn’t surprised by that at all! Her current favorite colors are Pink and Green. You can choose a different kind of ribbon if you want to. That choice is totally up to you.

Now that you have your ribbon You have to see how long to cut it. What I do is have your little one put it on and directly measure it that way. I had peanut put the dress on inside out and then I took the ribbon and pinned it where I wanted it in the front and put it over her shoulder to the back of the dress. This will show you how long to make both sides. I like to have a good 1-1 1/2 inch over lap with my ribbon straps. Because like I said my girls are rough and tumble even though they love the girlie stuff too. Now that the ribbon is cut you don’t want it to fray over time. So, take a lighter and just run it along the cut edge of the ribbon. This will singe the edges making it so that it doesn’t fray. Once you have them singed and pinned to the wrong side of the fabric you are ready to sew them on.

As you can see I sew my straps on with a nice box and X pattern. I find that this is super strong and really holds up. I could have used a darker pink color for the stitching but I wanted to make sure that you could all see the final sewing design that I use.

This is what you get! One happy little girl! It’s only 66 degrees here in beautiful Southern California but she insists on wearing it! I think this was a job well done.

Please share with me your Mock Smock dress after you make it!