Acorn Necklace

The little one likes acorns, so when I saw this tutorial I knew I had to make her an acorn holder necklace.

Glitter Clutch Tutorial

Love these clutches at J.Crew? I do! So, why not make our own then? Here is how I did it:
Transform old ones with some glue and glitter! They make great little gifts or add an extra touch of sparkle to your holiday outfit.

Materials:
-Glue (I used fabric glue)
-Paint Brush
-Finishing Glaze (I used DecoArt Triple Thick Brilliant Gloss Glaze Spray from Michaels)
-Glitter
-Old Clutch (I had these vintage ones I found at a yard sale. I thought about reusing the frame since the fabric was all messed up and cracked, but they were perfect for this project!)

How To:

1. Place a piece of paper down with your purse on top. Paint the glue onto one side.

2. Cover in glitter. Let it dry before dumping excess glitter off.

3. Dump the extra glitter off onto the paper. Then, save that extra by folding the paper in half to create a funnel to get the glitter back into the container.

4. Repeat those steps on the back.

5. Repeat those steps on the 2 sides.

**Note: You might have to do a second layer of glue and glitter if the clutch has a fabric that soaks up the glue. I had to with the clutch in black glitter.**

6. Spray the glitter covered parts of the purse with a sealant. I used DecoArt Triple Thick Brilliant Gloss Glaze from Michaels. It keeps the glitter in place. Maybe Mod Podge would work as well.

Peppermint Stick Holiday Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Peppermint Stick Holiday Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

It's a super cute one!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all as well :)

A Semi-Formal Event

I probably shouldn't even be doing this, but I had to get out of bed for a minute :) My little one had a stomach bug on Sunday and I was the recipient of it last night. All night long. My wonderful hubby stayed home to watch the little one for me. I haven't thrown up since I was pregnant and I hate it. Not fun.

Onto what this post is really about. Last Friday night, I attended a semi-formal Coast Guard dinner/event with my husband. My husband was a new chief's sea lawyer for the the Chief's initiation (it's a lot like college stuff in my opinion, lol). So we attended the last and final event which was honoring about 10 new Coast Guard Chiefs.

I found a dress I loved, but it needed some work. I made a belt for it using this tutorial. The only thing I did different was I sewed them onto the end of the ribbon and just safety pinned it together. I didn't want the ribbon hanging. I dyed a sweater I had so I wouldn't have to go out and buy a new one (it was very dull looking).

Then I hand sewed some ruffles to the neckline for some modesty. I absolutely adore how it came out.

And I leave you with this candid shot. The background was falling and my daughter was eating dirt. Oh the joys of it all :)

Week 4 at S.Y.T.Y.C.

Week 4 is on now at the So You Think You're Crafty competition. I made it through to this week :). The voting is open until Friday and then there will be a one week break before the next voting begins. Vote for you favorite today.

Here was my entry for last weeks competition. It's a little blanket to keep us warm this winter.

eMompreneurs Give Away

Hi everyone :) Hope your weekend has been great! I want to share a give away sponsored by eMompreneurs today.

eMompreneurs is a new site started by Ashley Radar of Moments of Elegance and Ashley Coombe of The Shopping Boutique. Their goal is to offer information to moms who want to start a home business or be more successful with the one they have. Here is a little something they say about it:
"Between the two of us, our different strategies have taken each of our business to new levels. We have been part of high end internet marketing strategy groups, and tried all of the programs out there that are generally regarded as the best. As our own businesses grew, we realized that we had strategies and ideas that were unique to the existing information, as well as unique advice for moms who are trying to start their own business while raising children."
They provide internet marketing coaching for moms. You pay a monthly fee, but receive a lot of information.

They are offering a ONE MONTH FREE GOLD MEMBERSHIP to their site to the winner and a 25% coupon for everyone (using this code: 4F7E74408C).

To enter, just leave a comment of what your dream job from home would be or if you have an existing business, write where you would like it to be in a year. Winner will be selected at random. The contest is open until Friday 11/28/09.

Recycled Sweater Boots Tutorial

Here it is...the one you have been waiting for :) Please forgive the mishmash of photos for this though. I was trying to get them done during the very short naps (on the days my daughter would stay down) and just snapped when I remembered, "Oh yeah, I should have pictures for a tutorial." LOL. Without further ado, I leave you with the tutorial now.

My daughter's boots

My boots

What you need:
-Old shoes (I used summer ones-flip flops and sandals)
-Sweater
-Hot glue gun and glue
-Scissors
-Possible accessories (buttons, felt leaves, etc)
-Elastic thread (if shirring; read further for this option)

1. First, prepare a template. Place the shoe you are using sideways on a piece of paper and create a boot like outline. I made mine go out at the top, but you could just make it straight up if you like. Also, it doesn't need to be perfect. Sweaters are stretchy, so there is room for some error.

2. Place the boot pattern on your sweater. The picture here is actually on a t-shirt because I made two layers for my daughters. The sweater was "holey" and I wanted the added layer of protection. So that is an option if your sweater chosen is like that too. Make sure each toe is pointing in a different direction and that the top of the boot lines up with the bottom of the sweater. Cut out. You will have four pieces.

3. If just using the sweater, place right sides together and pin. If using the extra layer like I did for my daughters, place them together like this:

Wrong side up of 1st t-shirt piece

Right side up of 1st sweater piece

Wrong side up of 2nd sweater piece.

Right side up of 2nd t-shirt piece

Pin

4. Sew around the sides only. Leave the top and bottom open. If you like, you can finish the seams.

5. Turn right side out to make sure everything was sewn together. Also, trim any seam ends that are poking out. If you desire to shirr the top of the boot like the ones I made for me, I would do this now. Put it over your leg to see where you would like to shirr it and then go at it. I recommend this for very light sweater materials that do not stay up on their own.

6. Turn wrong side out and have your glue gun read. You are going to begin gluing the sweater onto the shoe. Start by gluing the back of the sweater boot middle to the back middle of the shoe.

Then glue the front middle of the sweater boot to the front middle of the shoe.

Finish gluing on the sides.

Turn right side out.

***If using flip flops, you can add a little heel with a rectangular piece of felt to help fill out the back. Just glue the felt on the inside.

7. Add on any decorations you like.

Bright and Shiny Just Like New Doll Chair

First off, let me say I will have the boot tutorial up tomorrow :) I haven't been feeling so great lately and with other deadlines I've had, I just haven't been able to sit down and get the pictures and directions straight. But, after tonight's dinner event we must attend, I will have a bit more time on my hands.

Before and After
This is a little chair I had found at a thrift store. I wanted to make it better, so I painted it and added a cute cushion. For the paint, I just added some regular acrylic paint to water in a little spray bottle and had at it. Then I did a coat of Mod Podge on top to make it shiny. The pillow is just two circles with a long rectangular strip connecting them. I sewed a button on to pull it down in the middle.

Now, once my daughter actually gets into dolls (if she ever does), they will have a super cute chair! I also made the American Girl doll's dress. It's actually my doll from when I was little. I figured I will pass it down to my girl when she wants it.

S.Y.T.Y.C. Week 3: Green

Whoo-hoo! Week 3 is on at S.Y.T.Y.C. everyone! The theme is Green. We were allowed to interpret this in any way we wanted, and boy are there a ton of cool projects to choose from! Vote for your favorite as always.

For the past week, my project was the upcycled sweater boots. I will post a tutorial on how to make these :)

Gingerbread and Ruffles

Our latest addition to her food collection are these felt gingerbread cookies, and the shirt is the latest addition to her wardrobe.

The cookies were super simple. I used cookie cutters to trace them. I traced two for each cookie. On one piece, I embroidered eyes and a mouth. Then I placed it on top of another piece and stitched them together. Lastly, I cut really small circles and glued them on with fabric glue.

The shirt is adorable on her! I did it with my own spur of the moment dimensions, but this is a good tutorial to help you understand the basics of making a peasant shirt. I've used it before for other shirts. I used some fabric my mom had given me a while back and added three ruffles to the front. Can you tell I have Christmas on the brain?? lol.

The Prettiest Octopus

I'm so happy with this little girl! I think she's the prettiest octopus I have made by far!

I was contacted last week by a woman who lives here in Jacksonville. She was interested in having a stuffed animal made for her soon to be born niece. She found my site and liked the octopus. What makes it really special is that it is made from her bridesmaid dress which she wore in her brother's wedding (the one having the baby girl)! How sweet is that? Even the ribbon I used came from ribbon that was on her bouquet. I also used the ribbon and some of the petticoat to create the ruffly collar (which is removable; I sewed on a loop of elastic to go around the button to hold it on). I ended up embroidering the eyes too because they want it to be infant friendly. So, I found out you can use fancy material to make this octopus. It won't turn out as round as the fleece ones, but it is doable.

Week 2 at SYTYC: Leaves

It's already time to vote again ladies (and gentlemen, if any of you read this blog :) ! It's week 2 at So You Think You're Crafty and the theme is leaves! There are so many awesome ideas! Seriously! Go check it out. I barely made it into this round, so hopefully I will do better this go around :)

Also check out the amazing tutorials by Dana, last week's winner. She's one creative lady!

Something for the Big and Little Guy's (Tutorial)

So, I've always wanted to do a refashion for my hubby, but nothing really came to me until now. Here I took a simple hooded sweatshirt and transformed it into this:

Not much different, but a change none the less. Good news??? My husband loves it! I was a bit taken aback by how much he liked it. He was happy I finally did something for him, lol. Now, if only I had a little boy to make a matching one for....

Before:

What you need:
-A hooded sweatshirt
-2 to 3 buttons
-Elastic (think broken hair elastics, elastic that holds new shoes together, sewing elastic, etc).
-Seam ripper
-Scissors
-Measuring Tape

How to do it:

1. Grab your seam ripper and take off the hood. (It's really not that time consuming).

2. Take your measuring tape and measure around the neck to determine a rough estimate. Go higher than lower in the measurement to be on the safe side.

3. Take the hood and cut a piece from it that will become the new collar part. I just made mine 2 or 3 inches longer than the measurement around the neck opening. For the height, double the height that you desire. My piece totaled 26" x 5".

4. Fold the piece in half long ways, right sides facing, and cut at an angle on one end. You want the cut angling in towards the side that is open. My picture shows if the fabric was facing wrong sides together.

5. To make the other side even, fold in half and match up ends to cut at the same angle.

6. Sew the side angles together and turn right side out.

7. Next, cut a square/rectangle piece. This is the part that will make it look like there's a flap. I cut mine to be 5.5"x 5".

8. Pin three sides down and sew. Leave the top unsewn because the collar will cover that up.

9. Pin the square/rectangle piece onto the middle top of the shirt and sew on. Just sew right over the sewing you just did to hold the sides down.

10. Now, pin on the collar, with the top facing down. You want it to overlap a little. If you don't like how it overlaps, take off and cut some off or recut a piece if not long enough.

11. Sew the collar and shirt together.

12. Flip the collar up and push the seam down. Sew around the neckline to sew down the seam.

13. Cut 2 to 3 small squares (depending on how many buttons you want to add. I did two) and cut 2-3 small pieces of elastic (mine were 3 inches long each). You will just have to play with the length of the elastic. I just placed my buttons where I wanted them and figured how much I would need to stretch from the square to the button for it to work.

14. Place the square on the side of the square/rectangle with the elastic underneath and pin.

15. Sew around the small squares (I went over the elastic side a few times to make sure it would hold good) and then sew an x in the middle of the small squares if desired. I like doing it for looks and for the extra hold.

16. Determine where you want the buttons and hand sew them on. Put the elastic around them once on and you are all done!