Art Nest Pincushion RingGIVEAWAY!!!!

Art Nest Pincushion RingGIVEAWAY!!!!

Greetings from VA

We are currently in Virginia now for some wedding festivities. I am a matron of honor in my brother's upcoming wedding, so I came up to do his fiances bridal shower and bachelorette party. Things are super busy, but I will have a ton to share once I get back to Florida. Here is my daughter modeling a cape and mask for a cousin of hers that just turned five this week. I finished it just in time.

Picnic Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

As usual, head on over to Grosgrain for the Picnic Frock Giveaway

More Pictures of Ballerina Skirts....

I love pictures of my daughter so much and want to share more, but I didn't want to take up a ton of room in the tutorial post for the skirt. So, here are some more of my favorites :)

Two Tier Ballerina Skirt Tutorial

These were so much fun to make! And super easy as well. I was inspired by a doll my daughter has and started to just do this in the sheer material, but then I wanted to see what it looked like in cotton fabric. I like it too! Plus, this is great for those times you want to sew and happen to have no elastic but you have velcro! Enjoy and be creative.
++++See More Pictures Here++++

PS: I actually left out the 1/2 waist part of the measurement for the yellow skirt and it turned out fine.

Two Tier Ballerina Skirt

Materials
-A yard of fabric
-Velcro (no bigger than the ribbon you choose for the waste band
-Ribbon for the waistband (no bigger than 1.5”, but you also don’t want it really small either)

Measurements:
-For ribbon: Waist measurement + 3 inches; heat seal the ends or dab in glue to keep from fraying
-For Velcro: 2 inches
-For Fabric: Piece one is a rectangle that is
Waist measurement + (1/2 Waist) + 12 inches by Length desired – 2 inches
Piece two is a rectangle that is
Waist measurement + (1/2 Waist) + 12 inches by Length desired

***These measurements do not include seam allowance, so add for how much you desire. If you are using a fabric that doesn’t fray, you can just finish the edge or leave it. I added ¼ inch for my seam allowance. ****


1. Hem the bottom and side seams of the two pieces of fabric

2. Place shorter piece of fabric right side up on longer piece of fabric that should also be right side up. Pin together

3. Baste across the top of the two pieces

4. Pull the thread and gather the material until it is evenly ruffled the length of the piece of ribbon you have cut

5. Pin the ribbon, right side up, onto the top of the fabrics. With the size ribbon I used, I liked it best with the fabric pinned a little bit past the middle of the ribbon.

Back View

6. Sew the three layers together. I did one line down the middle, but the ribbon can flip up. You could also sew across the top and bottom of the ribbon.
Front
Back
7. Finish off any fabric left at the top with a zig zag stitch.

8. Sew on the Velcro right at the ends of the two sides. Make sure one piece is on the right side of the fabric and the other is on the wrong side of the fabric.

The Back Views

Outfit Alone

Daffodils and Dandelions

First and foremost I have to say that I had such a successful outing with my little one today! She is one that hates strollers, carts, etc. She wants to run around, so it's usually tough taking her out and about, especially by myself. But we went to JoAnn's today and she was an angel (until she saw a little boy eating a pretzel and she wanted it, but I quickly calmed her down). I picked up all this fabric there for so cheap! The sale is called the Daffodil Dash. If you are on their email list, you also receive a 50% off coupon for this week and another for the weekend.

If you need fabric now is the time to go! All red tag is an extra 50% off and so are all the remnant pieces. I suggest looking at the remnants first and this is why. I picked up this sparkle fabric for a project for my daughter and while waiting in line to get everything cut, I noticed the same fabric in the remnant bin. It was a yard and the price on it was the sale price on the same fabric that was on the bolt, but there was an extra 50% the remnants, so I put the bolt back and got the yard I wanted for half of what I was going to pay. The fabrics may not look like much, but I have some fun projects in store for them.
We also spent a lot of time outside today and I made the princess a crown of dandelions. She melts my heart.

What does your garden grow?

I mentioned in a previous post about the contest going on at Sew Mama Sew. I finally finished what I am going to enter. I had seen a picture of some flat shoes with ballerina straps and a flower on the foot and it had stuck with me. I wanted to recreate my own version, so I made a pair of shoes for myself and my daughter with a flower made out of a ribbon. I wanted a "poofy" flower look, like a zinnia, so I came up with this. *****Tutorial at end of this post*****


I used this tutorial from Burda Style (the Dorothy Ballerina Slippers free pattern) to create my shoes. I just added a loop to the inside back to thread the ribbon used to wrap around the ankles.



I used this tutorial from Star Dust Shoes to create my daughters. They are for a smaller size, so I just enlarged it for her.


I also made the headband she's wearing. I took one of hers that was a color I didn't like, wrapped it in ribbon, and then glued on a bow. Her dress is from one of her great aunts, and it came from TJ Maxx.


For my outfit, the dress is from Old Navy. The earrings are from Forever 21. I made the apron from an old vintage curtain panel and a vintage napkin. To make the tulle underneath, I just sewed and bunched a long strip and pinned it to another skirt I had. I didn't have time to make another skirt just for the tulle. Plus, I can just take it off and reuse it now.



Zinnia Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Supplies:
-For a child's shoe flower: 25 inch and 10 inch long piece of ribbon
-For an adult's shoe flower: 35 inch and 20 inch long piece of ribbon
-Thread
-Needle
-Glue ( I used fabric glue)

1. Take one of the ribbons and fold it in half. Then fold that half in half. Fold in half again if possible to cut through all the layers, if not, don't fold again.

2. Cut in a half cirle pattern all across one of the long sides.

3. Starting on a side at the top where you just cut, begin basting the ribbon. Turn once at the bottom and sew straight stitches all the way across. At the end, sew straight up the second side.

4. Scrunch up the ribbon (by pulling the thread tight) to the desired tension and sew the ends together.


5. Do the same for the second piece of ribbon.
6. Glue the smaller one on top of the larger one.
I glued mine straight onto the shoes, but you could glue it onto a clip or tack it on a shoe (or whatever) if possible.

Simple Skirts GIVEAWAY!!!!

Simple Skirts GIVEAWAY!!!!

Anthropologiefied Flower Necklace in 2 ways

I saw this necklace at Anthropologie and knew I could make one myself. I love their stuff! So, I first looked around and tried to come up with an easy inexpensive way to do this. The first thing that came to me was to use this lei that I had (see tutorial below).

Then, after I made that, I came across the contest at Sew Mama Sew blog. You make a flower and put it on something. They gave some tutorials to use if you want, and when I saw this one by Brittany from Cottage Road Designs, I knew I had to make another necklace. I did this one a little differently though.

I didn’t glue them on the necklace. I put them on pins, so I could use them for other things too. Like this shirt:

So to make it this way, Brittany's tute. I did the biggest middle flower with a 4.5” square. The next two with 4” squares, the next two with 3.5” ones, and the last two with 3” squares. Then I added the pin back like she does. Then follow the steps 7-9 to make the ribbon necklace.

Lei Anthropologiefied Necklace Tutorial

Supplies:
1 flower lei
7 beads to coordinate
30 inch length matching ribbon
Necklace clasp
Felt
Thread and Needle
Glue Gun

1. Cute lei and separate flowers

2. Fold the flower in halp, then fold that in half. Glue or sew this fold in place.
Do this for 6 petals to create one flower. You will need one that is unfolded for the top.

3. Glue 6 petals together to make the full flower. Start with two right across from each other.

Then glue two inbetween space on top, then the last two in the bottom space.
Glue the last full petal to the middle

4. Glue a small piece of felt to the back

5. Glue a bead on in the middle. I also glued some petals to the bead to make it look fuller.

6. Make six more flowers this way, but trim the petals a little smaller for the next two, even more for the next two, and even more for the final two. The lei I used actually had two types of flowers, so I used the tiny ones on the last four.
7. Take the 30 inch long piece of ribbon and fold in half. Then lay the middle flat and put the ends of the ribbon up to create a square with the top open.

8. Add the necklace clasp on according to its instructions. You could also just fold the ends of the ribbon nicely and glue them together if you would like.
9. Glue or pin on the flowers. Place the biggest in the bottom middle. Then the next 2 biggest on either side of it. Then the next 2 biggest next to those, and finish with the smallest ones.

Silver

I have been admiring some stamped silver jewelry making lately and really want to buy a piece. I found these on Etsy:

Vintage Pearl

Cinnamon Sticks

MagpieDesignz

Not only do I want to buy (or hint hint hubby if you are reading this, mother's day gift maybe?;), but I would love to learn how to do it myself. Not to sell, but just to know how to do it. I feel as I'm on an endless quest to learn something about everything out there in the craft world. I have this long long list of things I would love to learn how to do some day. And speaking of silver, I also received this email recently. It really struck a cord with me at this moment in my life.

Malachi 3:3 says:

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:
"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered,

"Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.