Colorful Burp Cloths

When I had my first child a few years ago, my cousin sent me some cute burp cloths that my aunt made.  They looked easy enough so I decided to make some myself.  Well, ever since, I have made them and given them away as gifts at baby showers and whatnot.

You can get several out of just one fat quarter.  Above you can see a selection of boy/gender neutrals that I have made.  I like bright colors, can you tell?

Materials:

1 package of ric-rac

1 fat quarter

burp cloth (old school cloth diapers)

coordinating thread

How to:

Step 1: Measure your burp cloth.  I usually cover the thick part in the middle with the fabric.  I cut mine

1/2-1 longer and wider than the area I need to cover to allow for folding underneath.  Fold under and iron.

Step 2: Pin the cloth and ric-rac to the burp cloth.  See how I have the ric-rac half underneath the cloth?  

Step 3: Sew along the edges as close to the edge of the fabric as possible.

Cute, huh?  Now I just need a friend, or family member (Hint, Hint:  I wouldn't mind being an aunt again) to have a little linebacker for me to send this one to.

PS - You can also use ribbon instead of ric-rac...in this case I don't iron under and simply pin the ribbon to the top of the cloth.  I do sew around the cloth twice though, once on each side of the ribbon as close as I can get to the edge.

I've Been Sick

Sorry about the lack of crafts this past week.  I have been sick, and amazingly, not feeling crafty as a result.  I have spent the last week surviving and in dead time reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...I know, I know, I'm a dork.  I am planning on making some super cute cupcakes from the Feb issue of Martha Stewart Living for a church brunch at my house tomorrow.  I'll have to let you know how they go!

Pattern Cutting

Yet again I went to the fabric store the other day and forgot to buy pattern paper.  I have actually never bought any ever.  I am loving making these shirts though and don't want to remake patterns every time so I wanted to draw some up.  I was wandering around the dollar store the other day for some reason, I'm not really sure why, and I got one of these to use as pattern paper.

It worked GREAT!!!  I liked that it already had folds in it for cutting on the fold.

PS - I also tried using wrapping paper because I had it around, but it just rolled up on me, even after I attempted to iron it.

Carter's Shirt

I had so much fun making Avery's shirt from Dana's MADE tutorial that I made one for Carter too!

Go here for the 90-minute shirt tutorial.

Isn't he so handsome?  I plan on having him wear this shirt for the family pictures we plan on taking sometime when it at least isn't freezing outside eventhough the snow will probably still be around.

Yes, that is Carter trying to get his thumb in his mouth.  Despite all of my efforts he is a thumb sucker.

Here is the argyle detailing.  I sewed around each diamond as close to the edge as I could.  I applied a piece of fusible interfacing to the back before I hand stitched the lines.  I used black DMC floss for the lines.  I LOVE how this shirt turned out!

And a few more pictures just because he's so darn cute.

Carter doing the robot...or maybe falling.

Tissue Paper Covered Vases

I am in the process of redecorating our bedroom.  I am tired of it feeling like a college dorm room now that we have been in our apartment for 7 months.  Problem?  We are low budge people due to graduate school.  I had dreams of making one of those fabric covered headboards set in a wooden casing with bookshelves on the sides that I saw in an issue of Martha Stewart Living, but sadly THAT will have to wait.  

So, I settled with some shelves that I bought at the thrift store.  Jason spray painted them brown for me.  I will have him mount them above our bed....hopefully, it will look as good as it does in my head.  I have been acquiring and making things to go on the shelves.

Today I was walking around the dollar store and I found these glass vases.  I remembered back to a church girls' camp project from, literally, half my lifetime ago and decided to do this.

Materials:

Mod Podge

sponge brush

glass vase

tissue paper

How to:

(Make sure the glass is clean before starting.)

Step 1: Cut your tissue paper pieces to the desired shapes and sizes.

Step 2: Apply a thin, but complete, layer of Mod Podge to a portion of the glass.

Step 3: Stretch out the tissue paper over the portion of the vase with Mod Podge on it...smooth out the paper as much as you can. (My gold pieces I let wrinkle a bit because I liked the wrinkled gold look.)

Step 4: Continue, overlapping each piece a little bit so that you don't get blank spots.  Don't forget to apply a little Mod Podge to the portion of paper you will be overlapping.

Step 5: Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the top of the whole thing after you finish covering the vase with the tissue paper.

I'll post before and after pictures of the bedroom after I finish all of the projects, but that might be a while....

Avery's New Shirt

I saw a this great tutorial on MADE (another crafty site (www.dana-made-it.com)) for a toddler sized t-shirt.  Well, I fell in love with Dana's versions of the shirt and decided to do one of my own for Avery.

I love the envelope neck because my children have big heads.

She's such a little model.  Of all the pictures, the poses she did herself were the ones that looked the best.

There are a few things that I did different than Dana's tutorial:

*I sewed the front and back pieces together before attaching the sleeve.  This takes a little bit of math to do correctly.  You have to measure the length of your sleeve arcs on your front and back pieces.  Now add those two numbers together (x).  Measure the sleeve arc on the actual sleeve (y).  Subtract the second number from the first number (x-y=z).  z is the amount of overlap that you need measuring from the rib knit tip down the arc between the front and back pieces.

(I know that sounds complicated, but it really isn't too bad.  It mostly sounds complicated because I am not good at writing directions.)

*After attaches the front and back at my overlap spots I attached the open sleeve and then I sewed the front to the back down the sides and sleeves.  

I just had to throw this one in because I thought it was funny.  You can't really see the shirt good here, but she is on day 4 of potty training 

Flower Headband for adults or children

My friend Cassie had a headband kinda like this that I saw her wearing over the holidays. I LOVED hers, but it was definitely out of my budget range. (What can I say; her husband is a Marine pilot and mine is still in school...) I decided to try and make one. I made this beauty for under $2!

Materials:

one headband (choose one WITHOUT those gripping teeth)

1 1/2" satin ribbon in any color (this will be the flowers) [ 1 1/2 yards]

1/4" coordinating satin ribbon (this will cover the headband) [2 yards]

matching thread

needle

hot glue gun
felt or wool pieces in a coordinating color

Step 1: Wrap the headband with the 1/4" ribbon.  I needed roughly 2 yards to cover an adult sized headband.  Of course, this will vary depending on the size of your headband and the width of your ribbon.  I wrap mine pretty tightly and close because that is the way I like it.  I stop every 5-10 wraps and apply a dab of hot glue to the top of the headband to secure the ribbon.  Be careful not to use too much or it will squish out from underneath the ribbon.

Step 2: Make the rosettes.  For a tutorial on how to do this see my apron string rosettes tutorial.  This time, however, cut the ribbon to lengths of 18".  Also, I used 1 1/2" ribbon so I could fold the ribbon in half and have a softer edge to the ribbon.  (DO NOT IRON AFTER FOLDING IF YOU WANT A SOFT EDGE!) When you do the stitching make sure you stitch through BOTH layers.  This is not hard to do.
Step 3: Place rosettes where you want them on the headband and apply with generous, but not too generous, amounts of hot glue.  It is okay for some hot glue to show here because it will get covered up.
Step 4: Cut 3 circles out of your felt or wool.  I used felt because I already had some.  I used a bubble lid as my stencil and cut it a little smaller.  This worked out perfectly.  I applied the felt pieces to the bottom of the rosettes so that the headband is actually between the rosette and the felt.  The felt pieces serve two purposes. One, they cover up the bottom of the rosettes and give it a more finished look.  Two, since the headband has no gripping teeth the felt helps the headband grip to your head a little better.
Step 5: Admire your work.  Pat yourself on the back, and ROCK the headband wherever you go.  Heck, tell people it only costs you $2 if you want, or you can just nod and say, "Thank You."  

Glass Etch Pyrex

My husband's grandmother had her Pyrex professionally etched; I loved the idea, but since we are poor graduate students I decided to learn how to do it myself.

Materials:

Contact Paper

Painter's Tape

Spoon

Glass Etching Cream (I used Armour Etch)

X-acto Knife

*Read the directions on the Glass Etching Cream bottle*

Step 1: Clean Glass with Windex

Step 2: Cover bottom outside surface with contact paper. (Make sure you smooth out all bubbles.)

Step 3: Use Painter's Tape to attach your printed design to the top of the contact paper. Make sure you flip the dish right side up before etching to double check it reads in the right direction. I printed my name off regular and worked through the backside of the paper as you can see.

Step 4: Use X-acto knife to cut out design, making sure you use enough pressure to also cut through the contact paper. As long as your blade is sharp it shouldn't take much pressure.

Step 5: Remove pattern and tape. If your contact paper margins are close to the edge of your design it doesn't hurt to apply an outside layer of painter's tape to prevent etching cream from getting on the rest of the dish. I had ample room so I chose not to this time.

Step 6: Apply etching cream with spoon. Spread back and forth and up and down. Allow to sit for about 15 min. The bottle says only 5 or so but I have found better, more even results from waiting the extra 10 min.

Step 7: Admire your work. Give yourself a pat on the back...and DARE anyone to take your dish by accident at the next church dinner. Now, whenever you take someone a meal they won't have to remember what dish was yours and what belonged to someone else!