Fabric Pumpkins & Faux Embroidery Floss Tutorial

I recently found a tutorial (that I can't for the life of me find again) to make these sweet pumpkins.  She has a pattern for a free download and you can print it in 5 different sizes!  I opted to just make these three since I was using scraps of fabric.  I LOVE how they turned out and how they look on our half wall between our dining room and family room!

The light big one is just some random fabric that I found in a remnants bin.  I've used it in all sorts of projects, from baby #5's quilt to a child's apron and I had just enough to make this cute little pumpkin for my patch.

The smallest pumpkin is left over scraps from the fabric I used to cover a lamp shade in my bedroom. It is one of my all time favorite fabrics (it better be at the price I paid for it!  Thank goodness for 40% off coupons!).

And the dark bigger one is actually a napkin I found at Pier 1 several years ago.  I love it!  And I think it makes the perfect fall (and even Halloween) decoration with the sparse trees and the birds!

Faux Embroidery Floss Tutorial
I embroidered the leaves with a light colored thread... I don't have DMC floss hanging around my house, so in an effort to mimic the effect I:

1. Cut a LONG piece of thread
2. Fold it in half
3. Put either the two ends or the folded end through my needle (I found with my small eyed needle it was easier to do the two ends)
4. Fold it in half again, so the two ends and the folded end are together
5. Make your knot and begin sewing!

I have a great, unique way of making a knot that almost always results in a perfect knot at the end of the thread with no leftovers hanging out... I'll do a tut for that soon.

Making the Pumpkins

I'm going to keep looking for the tutorial I followed so I can link it here and you can use her pattern... but until then if you just can't wait to make one yourself you basically just cut a leaf shape or a really narrow eye shape.  Think, an oval with points on either end.  

Layer your fabric as thick as your scissors will allow... you need 7 shapes cut out altogether.

Sew them together point to point, like your making a beach ball until they are all together being sure to leave a 1 1/2" opening in the last seam.

Fill the bottom portion of the pumpkin with rice and then stuff the remainder with polyester fiberfill (or stuffing of your choice).

Hand stitch the opening closed.

Using the Faux Embroidery floss technique above wrap the thread around the pumpkins natural indents to accent the pumpkin-y goodness.  This part of the her tutorial was a little difficult for me to understand, but what I did was tie a knot at the top and the bottom of the pumpkin and pulled somewhat tightly.

Add a small circle to the bottom of the pumpkin (two circles sewn together then turned right side out through a snip in the bottom of the two). She suggests hand stitching them, but I used fabric glue.

Then make the stem and the leaves.  Hand stitch them on.  Stand back and admire your handy work!

Ric-Rac Rosette Earrings

I've been wanting to try making these adorable little rosettes for awhile, and finally did it today!  I can't remember where I saw this idea, but I'm sure its all over the blogosphere.  Here is my take on making ric-rac rosettes and using them for earrings.

What you will need:

• About 20 minutes
• Some ric-rac (I think I had about 20 inches, so 10 inches per rosette)
• Quick drying fabric glue
• Earings (I am using an old pair of earrings that I haven't worn since high school!)
• E6000 glue (pictured further down the post)

The best part of this for me... I had it all on hand so this project was FREE!!!

Start out by putting some of the fabric glue across about 2 inches of the ric-rac.

Then start rolling.  Continue putting glue on the ric-rac and rolling...

When you get the rosette to the size you want, put some glue across the bottom of the rosette, then fold the ric-rac straight down and across the bottom.  You can see its folded/pinched a little under my finger, I put a small dab of glue there too, to hold it in place.

 Snip the ric-rac so its covering the bottom of the rosette, but not hanging out, you don't want to see it from the top side.  Then stick a pin through the whole thing to hold in place while the glue continues to dry.

No put a small dab of E6000 on your earring and smush it into the bottom of the rosette.

Let dry.  Remove the pin.

And enjoy your fun, new, fashionable earrings!

Linking up to....

Using the Silhouette on Contact Paper

I got a silhouette for my birthday this year and I was so super excited!  However, after playing with it a tiny bit I got kind of intimidated and discouraged.  I was unable to view the instructional video so I had to figure it out on my own.  

So, as time went by and I read little bits about tricks of the trade I decided to pull it out and try my hand at some cuts.  I did a card first (I'll share it later) and it boosted my confidence and excitement.  I was finally ready to try my hand at a project I'd been wanting to do since before I even got my Silhouette!

Now, first let me tell you that I don't have the Silhouette vinyl.  I wish I did, but I don't.  What I DO have is a big roll of white contact paper that I purchased by mistake (thinking it was clear... I'd never bought contact paper before, give me a break:)  I wanted to see if I could use contact paper to make my cuts.  I'll tell you how it went as I go along. 

The project: my bathroom wall.  We recently redid our bathroom, we have this ugly medicine cabinet built into the wall and it needed something to make it a feature rather than an eyesore.  I decided it would be cool to paint it the same color as the wall and have some design go from wall to cabinet door as one solid piece.  I think my vision was executed pretty well.  Every time I go in there, I smile at my lovely wall.

Now, if any of you are interested in knowing the nitty-gritty details of the process, read on.  

My Design Plan:  Using a single shape from the Silhouette I created this motif to run across my bathroom wall.  This picture shows that I cut the shape 5 times,  two of the cuts were larger than the others.  If its labeled with an "A" it was part of the "A" branch (how clever I was to come up with such a system!).  So, if you look closely, you can see that I ended up cutting and "pasting" (if you will) the branches into a design that fit the space and worked for me.  Specifically the "E" branch was divided into sections.

I was able to wrap the contact paper up over the edges of the cabinet and then to make it work over the door I simply snipped the paper with some scissors and attached it with almost seamless results!

Cutting Contact Paper with the Silhouette:  I should first say that I don't know if using contact paper is bad for the machine.  My gut tells me its fine, since it cuts vinyl and a wide variety of other materials.

I did use the backer board to run it through the Silhouette.  First run through, I used the lightly sticky backer, the machine totally ate up the contact paper.  Some areas it pulled the paper away from the backer, other areas didn't get cut through at all.  Second run through I used the heavier stickiness backer, it worked much, much  better.  Though it still didn't cut through every spot, I was able to salvage most of the cuts (with sharp scissors) to create the look I was going for.

Edited to add~ I first started writing this when I completed this project in August of 2011.  Now that its January 2012 I'm finally getting around to posting it and I've got some more to add.

I did not use any kind of transfer paper either.  Knowing better now, I don't know if I'll ever do it again!  That transfer paper is awesome!  But I was able to make it work and I'm all about saving money.

You may be wondering how the contact paper has held up over the 4+ months its been on the wall... it still looks great!  When I first put the motif on the wall I would go in and just admire my work, I'm not making special trips to go fawn over it now, but I do smile every time I look at it.

If you have a Silhouette and are nervous about trying it out... just start playing with it and trying new things.  You may not have perfection, but you'll gain confidence and learn to love that little machine and the many amazing things it can do! And be sure to check out the silhouette blog for some great tips and tutorials.

Multi-Season Wreath

My Christmas wreath made me so happy, every time I walked in the door I smiled. I wanted to do something for Valentine's Day too. Trouble was, we got snowed/iced in for a week and I couldn't get to the store to buy supplies for a new wreath. Soooo... what is a girl to do? Reduce, reuse, and recycle of course! Everything that I used here was something I had on hand and you probably do too!

I know Valentine's Day is past, but I made this wreath and took all these pictures and figured I'd post them anyway. And the best part about this wreath (to me, anyway) is that it can be used formore than one holiday. I don't know about you, but I don't have room to store a different wreath for every season/holiday. This one is whimsical and happy, very cutesy, but that's what Valentine's Day is all about, right?

What you'll need if you want to do it my way:

• A pair of old pantyhose
• A bunch of plastic bags from the grocery store
• A piece of cardboard, as big as you want your wreath to be
• Yarn
• Felt
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Bobby pins
• Ribbon, for hanging (if desired)

This is a great project for anyone! So simple and fast! Since I was just shooting from the hip, there are things I would have done differently. I'll add those in italic.

Step 1: Stuff your pantyhose with wadded up plastic bags. I ended up using both legs of my pantyhose so that the size was more uniform. I tried to stuff them in tight enough that it was solid, but not so tight that I couldn't move it a bit. Just keep stuffing them in until you get it the size you want. Tie off the ends. I think it would have been more uniform if I had used both legs to the same length, rather than one longer than the other.

Step 2: Cut a circle out of your cardboard about 1 1/2" wide the diameter of your desired wreath. I used a sturdy pair of kitchen shears, but whatever you feel comfortable with will be great. I even had a cut in my circle to get to the inner circle. Once its all wrapped up, it doesn't matter at all. I would have definitely used a guide for this, I just used my stuffed pantyhose as my guide, but a big bowl would have been better!
Step 3: Hot glue your stuffed pantyhose to the cardboard.
Step 4: Start wrapping your yarn around your wreath form. It might take a while. I did it in about 6-8 inch increments, not filling it all in the first time around. As I went around the entire wreath, I would go over the other areas surrounding it. Wrap and wrap and wrap. I found it to be helpful to make a ball of yarn, hold the wreath upright between my legs and pass the ball of yarn over and around the wreath over and over, then rotate to the next section. I kept going, overlapping in a fun layered way until I ended up with:
Step 5: Make your embellishments. I just cut out some hearts and letters with my felt. I layered two shapes together with hot glue. I attached the letters with hot glue as well. You could sew these to make them uber cute, but hot glue was fast and easy!
Step 6: Now this is the part I'm really proud of. I was just going to glue the hearts to the wreath, but again thought about the hassle of having too many wreaths and this is what I came up with.... put the embellishments on bobby pins with a small dab of hot glue! That way they can be removed and I make others for spring and Easter! Perfect! I'm not sure if it would be better, but placing the bobby pin further up on the embellishment might make it better. I think doing some of your embellishments this way, at least, would be nice. I do like having some of them stand up into the center of the wreath.
Step 7: Arrange your embellishments on your wreath. What's that you don't like the way it looks? Go ahead and try again! Its so forgiving, you can just keep moving, adding, subtracting, etc. until you get it right! Tie a ribbon and hang it on your door! So fun!
This doesn't have to be a RRR project either, you could definitely just head to the craft store for a foam wreath form and just wrap it up in yarn. I'm excited to decorate it in flowers for spring (yep, its spring already in Texas 80 degrees! Wahoo!)!

Ruffled Apron Tutorial

For Christmas we draw names with all the cousins on my hubby's side of the family, I was lucky enough to draw the names of all the 2-3 year old girl cousins this last year. I decided to make them each some felt food and an apron. They turned out great! I was so excited! After I made my first apron I decided that I'd do a tutorial since I got a lot of my information from several different sources to make this one pattern.

Some disclaimers:

1) I made 4 different aprons, each one a little different from the next. Some of the steps are done with fabric from one apron, other steps are with fabric from another, I hope its not too confusing.

2) My sewing machine was on the fritz, really making it difficult to make straight seams. I'm putting these pictures up anyway. Don't judge me, the 2 year old girls didn't care!

3) I'm not a professional anything... seamstress, pattern designer, photographer. The lighting at my sewing table is less than ideal, especially for photography. I hope you can get the information you need still. This was my first attempt (and a rushed one at that) with this design, so there are flaws that you and I could definitely improve upon. Like I said, I just thought it would be nice to have a one stop spot for this design rather than having to hunt all over the web for the snippets I used from others.

OK, now that you know where I'm coming from, let's get to where we're going! Onto the tutorial...

Supplies: You can make this general design any way you want. For a child or an adult, a girl or a boy each with minor adjustments. This tutorial will be for a little girl approximately size 3T. I used measurements based on the tutorial found at Skip to my Lou. You can download the template for the bottom of this apron at the link. You will need:

• Two pieces cut from the above template. One for the front, one for the back. I used a contrasting solid to line my apron.
• Two pieces cut for the top, front and back. I made a pattern piece by folding a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper in half lengthwise and drawing a rectangle with one rounded corner (with the fold being one side of the rectangle). I wanted it to be about 1 1/2-2 inches smaller across than the bottom piece.
• One strip of contrasting fabric cut 4 inches by 45 inches for the ruffle.
• One strip of same contrasting fabric cut 5 inches by 25 inches for waistband (from skip to my lou: Take waist measurement and add about 5 inches to determine length of fabric needed).
• Two strips of solid contrasting fabric cut 4 inches by 20 inches for neck ties (ribbon would also work well... and be easier).
• One contrasting fabric cut to size of pocket you want (not pictured).

The strips: The first thing you want to do is work with the strips for the ruffle, waistband, and neck straps. Each strip you want to fold in half lengthwise and press. Fold ruffle piece right sides together. Fold the others wrong sides together.

For the ruffle, you want to sew the short sides (I used my serger, use 1/4" seams if using sewing machine).

Turn the ruffle, right side out and press the corners nice and tidy. You'll have a really long skinny rectangle. One side will be the fold, the short sides will be your seams, and the other long side will be open at this point. Set aside for now.
For the waist band and the neck ties you've pressed them lengthwise, remember? Now open it up so you can see the line down the middle.
Next, fold each long side to that middle line and press flat. Fold short edges right sides together (like ruffle piece) and sew.
Turn those seams to the inside and fold in half along the pressed middle line again and press. So you'll have the two folded edges together.
For the neck straps topstitch along each side.
Placing neck straps: Take your main fabric top piece and lay the neck straps down where you want them to be. I placed mine right where the fabric came our of the curve, so they were attached at the straight edge of the top.

You want to put the straps going down, with about an inch above the top of the main fabric.
Then pin the lining fabric over the straps with ride sides of each top piece together.
Sew along the sides and top (but not the bottom) of the top pieces.
Turn right side out (see how the straps come out at the top?). Press. Top stitch.
The last thing I did was serge the bottom edge of the two top pieces together. This is one of the steps that could use some improvement, but when I make another one, I'll try to take pictures of what I'd do... I think it would just be confusing trying to describe what my plan is..

Voila, the top piece is finished!
The pocket: If you have a serger, finish each edge of your pocket.
Press the finished edge under on all four sides. If you don't have a serger, press each edge under 1/4", then 1/4" again so the raw edge isn't visible.
Sew and 1/8" seam along the top of the pocket.
Pin pocket in place on main fabric bottom piece.
Sew along the sides and bottom of the pocket with 1/8" topstitch.
And pocket is done!
Back to the ruffle: Remember that long, skinny strip that we made in the first step? OK, we're ready to move on with that one...

Increase your stitch length to as long as you can (mine is 6.0), sew along the entire length of the raw edge of the ruffle. Most gathering instructions will have you do two seams for gathering, I didn't do it because my machine was being so finicky. It would have been helpful, though. Skip to my Lou has an interesting way of gathering that I'd like to try when my machine works... be sure to check it out.

Fold the piece in half and mark with a pin.
Pull thread at either end and gather the ruffle until its the length you need to fit around the bottom of the apron.
Mark the bottom, middle of the bottom apron piece with a pin. Match up the pins marking the middle. Making sure not to twist the ruffle, attach it to the rest of the bottom of the apron. To allow for the ruffle to taper onto the apron, attach it as pictured below (or as described on Skip to my Lou).
See how you want to have the raw/gathered edge of the ruffle with the raw edge of the right side of the apron? Lots and lots of pins are very helpful here. :)
Lay the lining fabric on top of the ruffle and main fabric, right sides together. Pin in place.
Sew, with 5/8" seam allowance to make sure you get all of the ruffle attached. Again you'll leave the top edge open, so you're only sewing along the sides and bottom.
Turn right side out, press, and top stitch.

Attaching the Waistband: Take the waistband piece that you prepared earlier and place it over the top edge of the bottom of the apron.
You'll kind of sandwich the waistband around the apron. So each side of the waistband is the bread and the apron is the meat. One of the short sides of the waistband should be close to the side edge of the apron, the other short side will be long hanging off the apron to wrap around the waist.
You also want to put the top piece of the apron on at this point. Since its a totally finished piece I just placed it on the back of the waist band as pictured below.
Top stitch along all four sides of the waist band. I know, the seams here are embarrassing. I'm over it. The last thing you want to do is add a piece of velcro, so it stays on. Sew a piece that is 3 inches to the apron itself. Sew a 2 inch piece of the alternate side of velcro to the front of the long end of the waist band. This way it will wrap all the way around the waist and your child can attach it themselves! Perfect!
You ready for the finished product? Here are my four... I think it took longer to write up this blog post than to sew each one.
See my variations of pocket sizes and sides?


I'm going to make one for myself next, the steps will be basically the same, but I will make some changes to the attachment of the top... stay tuned. Until then, go ahead and make one for someone you love. My boys are begging me to make one for them now....

Linked up at sew-licious home decor