Browsing the 'crafty' category.
crafty … heart patches
I have a sweet sparkly pink girl who …
- can make an entire kitchen a disaster area with a few goldfish.
- is in a constant state of dirty.
- loves to slide on her knees.
The latter has been doing some major damage to her legging stash! Given she has some super cute leggings, I came up with a easy hole fix that makes her leggings even cuter!
The offenders …
Somehow in one day, she managed to get a hole in a knee and the hiney. It must have been a great day!
To fix this, you will need …
- fusible webbing
- sewing machine
- iron
- scrap fabric
- scissors
- thread
To make the patches, I used some scrap knit fabric that was left over from a screen printing project. You can use any fabric that is machine washable … and comfortable. To start, iron the fusible webbing to the backside of the scrap fabric. Once ironed, cut the patch into the heart shape in the size you need. My patches are about 2.5 inches wide. You can make them any size as long as it covers the entire hole with at least 1/2 inch extra around the hole. Here are my patches …
Now you are ready to iron your patch. It is as simple as ironing a tee. Peel the paper backing from the fusible webbing and place the patch over the hole. Place your heated iron on the patch according to the instructions on the fusible webbing packaging. For me, it took about 25 seconds.
The knee patch …
The hiney patch …
After ironing, sew a simple straight stitch around the edge of the patch and you are done! Look how cute …
The leggings last longer and they still look cute … It’s a win – win!
linking to …
Posted in crafty | 10 Comments »
crafty … corkboard wall update
It takes me a while to decorate. I am not one of those super talented people that can shop for 2 days and …. ta da … new room! It takes me months. I shop everything from antique sales, garage sales, discount stores and more. Sometimes I am not actually looking for something to buy but for inspiration. The good news for my family is that the inspiration finally hit me a couple nights ago … and I finished my corkboard wall … mostly. I am sure I will add something in a couple months but for now … it is done!
Have a great Wednesday!
Posted in crafty, home decor | 1 Comment »
crafty … stitched valentines
These are actually the valentine’s that Ava Kate did last year. They are easy and fun … and can be made with items you likely already have!
You will need …
- card stock …. any color
- scrap fabric
- fabric stiffener or spray starch
- sewing machine & thread
- printer
- circle cutter and/or scissors
Using fabric stiffener, I treated my scrap fabric. You could use spray starch and iron the fabric as well. I used a shabby floral and a pink polka dot for my fabrics. The amount of fabric you need depends on the number of valentines you are making … but about the size of an 8.5 x 11″ piece of paper should be enough fabric.
After treating my fabric, I created a simple “Happy Valentine’s Day” word document. I used a labels template that was already on my computer and then printed it on card stock. Each “Happy Valentine’s Day” is spaced perfectly and makes cutting your paper easy.
I used a circle cutter to cut my circles out of the fabric. The circle cutter will only work with fabric that has been stiffened. If you don’t have a circle cutter, you can always cut circles the old fashioned way:) Find a couple jars around the house to trace the circles. A spice jar or sprinkles lid are perfect for this. You will want 2 different sizes.
My circle sizes were 1.5″ and 1″ … and work perfectly for layering! I cut the valentines to size and had Ava sign her name to all of them. Here is what they look like with the fabric circles layered over each other.
A simple straight stitch on the sewing machine completes them …
I love the how the fabric circles give the valentine a little dimension. You can fold them forward a bit to make them stick out even more …
Attach these to your little one’s favorite candy and you are done!
Posted in crafty, the holidays | 6 Comments »
crafty: french inspired striped table runner
I have thought about buying vintage striped linen fabric many times … probably more than I should. I tend to obsess over stuff and that stuff is often out of my price range. My obsessing often turns into me trying to figure out how to make … without it being too much work! I was still in the obsessing stage when I came across some linen blend fabric in the perfect color at Ikea. It was already cut to be a runner which is what I wanted. In addition to being cut to runner width, it was also hemmed on opposite sides… Huge Time Saver!
It was $3.99 per yard … DONE! After buying my fabric, I dug around in my craft supplies for what I would need…
- 1″ blue painter’s tape or masking tape
- runner fabric
- fabric paint … I used black fabric screen printing ink by Speedball
- dense short paintbrush for dabbing (not sure if this is a word, but more on that later)
- sewing machine & white thread
The first step is to measure the length needed for your runner. Once you have measured and cut your runner to your desired length, you will need to iron your hem on both of the unfinished edges …
Once ironed, sew each unfinished edge to create a runner that has 4 hemmed edges.
Next, tape off your fabric. I used 1 inch painter’s tape. Lining the tape up with the hemmed edge, I ran tape along the length of the runner. Allowing for a 1/2 inch separation, I ran another length of tape parallel to the first. I repeated this step again so that I had 3 strips of tape running parallel with a 1/2 inch separation between each. Your taped runner should look like this …
After taping, it will be time to dab. I am not sure what the actual definition of dab is … for me it is an up and down blotting motion. You shouldn’t be using a brushing stroke to apply the paint. Get a little paint on your brush. Have a papertowel or rag handy and dab your first couple times on that. You don’t want too much paint to end up on your fabric or you will have a sold black line … instead of the faded, antique look.
I hope you can see in the pictures that my black lines aren’t solid and are definitely not even. The uneven look gives them a more vintage feel. This is the longest part of the entire project. It’s a lot of dabbing … blotting … whatever you want to call it!
Now for the most satisfying part of the project … pulling off the tape. You can wait until the paint is dry to pull it off which is probably better. If you are impatient like me, you can pull the tape off when it is still wet. Be sure to not smear the paint when removing the tape if it is still wet.
And you are DONE! I love the way my runner turned out …
I had a little bit of runner fabric left over so I decided to make some placemats …
Happy Crafting!
Posted in crafty | 24 Comments »
handmade ornaments …
With some lovely inspiration from Dear Lillie and ARMommy, I decided to make a few handmade ornaments. I only used items I had around the house … hoping to avoid any store trips with my ear infection infested 5 year old.
All you need is…
- card stock in a light/white color … I used a white linen card stock
- printer
- darker color card stock for the backer
- twine
- scrap fabric
- hot glue gun
- scissors
- hole punch
After printing my images on card stock, I made a couple fabric embelishments to add to the ornaments.
The fabric tassel idea came from ARMommy … so easy and fun! I used a green jingle bell on my son’s ornament … so it wasn’t “too girly” per his suggestion.
How are you spreading Christmas cheer?
Posted in crafty, the holidays | 1 Comment »
crafty: fall floral wreath
Over the past couple weeks, I have seen lots of amazing DIY wreath on different blogs and on Pinterest. With all that inspiration, I decided to make my own. I found a fabulous felt flower tutorial over at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. These are fun and easy to make. 30 minutes and 12 flowers later …
Now for the wreath…
I bought a couple wreath forms, white yarn and some twine. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a white wreath or a twine wreath … so I made both! I started with the white yarn. Wrapping the wreath is simple…a little hot glue to start and you are good to go. You will need to wrap the entire wreath 2 times. The second time goes faster as you are mostly covering up spots that you missed. After wrapping for what seemed to be years, I was done. Every 5 minutes I would put another spot of hot glue. Wrapping while you are watching TV is a good idea … it is time consuming. Do your hot glue spots during commercial breaks:)
The twine goes faster … as long as you buy the thick bulky twine. I started with a thin twine and then switched. See below for the difference. Thin twine on the left … thick twine on the right.
With the thicker twine, I wrapped the wreath in about 25 minutes…much faster!
I played around with the flowers using a stick pin to hold the flower in place. You could also hot glue the flower in place, but I plan on changing out the flowers with the seasons. Stick pins work great for this!
Here are a few photos of my twine wreath…