My first quilt

This is kind of embarrassing. Remember my first quilt? My only quilt thus far? It's this one. Be sure to check the date on that post. Yeah. Over 3 years ago is when I finished the quilt top. It was a present for my friend's daughter, who is now 3 and has a little sister. Sooooo...yeah. I finally got it done. Hooray!

This is the back- it's the only picture I took. There's a patchwork strip with a border and an applique in the bottom corner. I actually like the back better than the front, which helped me realize I really love more modern quilt designs. The traditional ones are beautiful and I still love them, but there's something about the modern ones that just makes me want to make one. So I am. So expect another post like this in about 3 years. 

Best aunt ever, part 2

I decided that I want mailing cool stuff to be my "thing." I now have a sister and a sister-in-law in Texas. Not to mention some very close friends here and there around the country. So when I saw THIS blog (via Pinterest, of course) I was really excited. I had no idea the kinds of things you could send through the mail! Pretty much anything can go, with regular ol' stamps, as long as it's 13 ounces or less. And when you think about it, 13 ounces is almost a pound, and there are lots of cools things that weigh less than that.

So, my first awesome thing I sent was a ball. I wrote my nephew's address right on it, Mim helped me decorate it with stickers, and off to the post office we went (we had to take it inside, since there was no way it was going to fit into a mailbox). I didn't get any pictures, though. There's one HERE on the Giver's Log, though. Imagine the same sort of thing, but with one of the even bigger balls (the 16" diameter kind).

That kicked off a whole little mailing spree. I sent a few things to my sis-in-law who just had a baby, a birthday present to my sister, and a belated birthday/kindergarten graduation gift to my niece (which I blogged about HERE). I packaged them all the same way, though, with vinyl.

{I sent my sister some flip flops one at a time, too, but didn't take any pictures. Hers are the blue and red ones, I made them the same way I made THESE.}

 With the flip flops I was originally going to just write the address right on the sole, but I got too worried about sending them through the mail unprotected, since they were embellished. If I had just sent them plain, I probably wouldn't have put them in vinyl.

Anyway, if it's hard to tell, I just took two pieces of vinyl and used my largest zig zag to sew them together. I used a Sharpie to write the addresses on and put one "forever" stamp for every ounce the package weighed (I used my kitchen scale). I have some more mailing ideas- now I just need to get things done and send them off!

I could just dye

Oh, puns. Remember THESE? You might, since I just mentioned them in my last post. Anyway, I sent a link to Rit Dye about them and they ended up posting a picture and a link on their blog, which I thought was pretty awesome. About a week or two after that, I got an email from one of the blog's editors asking if I wanted some free dye. Ummmmmmmm... YES!

So a few weeks ago, I got a pretty heavy box. I opened it up...

 It's possible that me and my big girl spent around 40 minutes arranging and rearranging them. That's 15 bottles.

Anyway, I'm so excited to get going with some of the things I have planned for these. I have something dyed, I just need to finish sewing it before I put it up here.

So, the moral of this post- if you do something cool with a specific product, it can never hurt to let the makers of the product know. They might send you $50 worth of awesome FREE stuff. 

By the way, Rit didn't ask me to post about them. The editor, in the note, said she'd love to see what I did with it, but that's it. I thought it was totally awesome of them.

Appliqué pillow covers

So this is beautiful, right?

It's Anthropologie's Orimono pillow. I've loved it for awhile; it reminds me of THIS pillow I made, probably my favorite one ever.

Anyway, I finally gave it a try, so here's my version:

 I love it pretty hard. I originally wanted to have a lot of different fabrics on it (like the inspiration), but I looked at my fabric stash and I just didn't have what I wanted. I also didn't want to buy any fabric for it. So I used my current favorite fabric (from a set of bed skirts found at a thrift store for a few bucks).
For the design- I drew it all on the paper side of some Heat N Bond, cut out the flower as a whole, ironed it to the cloth, and then proceeded cutting a piece out one bit at a time and placing it on my cut out pillow front. It took some time. After I removed that paper bits and ironed it to the pillow, I did a zig zag around each little petal:

{That also took some time.}

So, like I said, I love it pretty hard. If I ever find the blue pom pom trim I bought to got around the edges of the pillow, I'll probably unpick the whole thing and add it in. Then I'll love it even more. Even more than a fat kid loves cake. But that's only if I ever find that trim.

After the red one, I made a few more. I'll probably sell them in my Etsy shop, but we'll see. They might end up as gifts.

{I would keep this one, too, but the greens look really gross with my wall color.}

I'm not exactly sure what I was going for with this last one. Maybe a wonky chevron/modern interpretation of waves? I still like it, regardless.

So, any opinions out there on what I should do with them? Or how much I should sell them for?

Easy zippered bags

These have been on my to-do list for awhile. I first decided to make some for my daughter's Polly Pocket things (so so tiny) and then I was like, hey, it'd be nice to have one for her crayons, too. And then I was like, hey, I want one for my make up. And then I told my friend I'd do a boutique with her, so I was finally motivated (a deadline!) and I made a bunch. Nothing sold (ahwell) and so now I have a bunch of pouches (over 20). I have several in use around the house and they're handy little things for sure.

So here's what I did:

First, cutting fabric. Most of what I used was quilting cotton, but I also used other materials I had on hand, like some vintage sheets and scraps left over from other stuff.

I made 2 sizes, a 5x9 and a 7x9. I cut everything an inch larger in each direction to give me plenty of room for seam allowances. For each pouch you need 4 rectangles, two for the lining and two for the outside.

After cutting, add whatever embellishments to the front. Some I sewed stuff to, some I freezer paper stenciled.

Then you make your first zipper sandwich- the front piece right side up, the zipper upside down, then a lining piece face down. Sew them all together along the top, staying right next to the zipper (use a zipper foot).

After that, do the same with your other lining and outside fabric pieces (you'll have to fold the first two out of the way in order to make the same sandwich).

Then you can open it up and make sure the zipper is in the right place and everything.

Then fold the front pieces right side together and the lining pieces right side together.

IMPORTANT: unzip your zipper at least half way. If you don't, it will make trouble when you try to turn the bag right side out. Sew almost all the way around that rectangle. Leave a gap of about 3-4" in the long side of the lining pieces. Clip your corners.

 Turn everything right side out through the gap

 Take the gap....

 

And sew it closed.

{Sorry to switch bags on you again.}

Stuff the lining back into the bag and TA-DA!

 Very easy. It gets even easier after you make about 25 of them:

{I had kind of a really fun time matching linings to outside fabrics. Like, it's kind of weird how much fun it was for me.}

Some freezer paper stenciled (tutorial from HERE).

{My favorite one is the alligator. Makes me smile every time.}

 Some I sewed embellishments to:

Here's most of what I did:

 

Anybody need a zippered pouch? If you need one (and even if you don't) and you're related to me/good friends with me, guess what you get for your next birthday. Go ahead, guess.

I hope you guessed zippered pouch, because really.

Even if you didn't...you will still get one anyway.

3-tier aqua maxi skirt

So, my little Pinspired project is still in the works- it's taking a bit longer than I thought. I think I'll just count this skirt, since there are a few different maxi dress/skirt tutorials on my board here. I didn't really follow a tutorial for my skirt, since none of them were quite what I had in mind. So I came up with a little something on my own:

{In somewhat related news, Picasa has a new filter called 1960's.}

I love this skirt so much already. It's soft and comfy, doesn't restrict movement, and doesn't wrinkle in the wash. That last one's a big deal for me. I don't even know how many shirts and skirts I just love but hardly wear because they're always waiting to be ironed (I really almost never iron). It's a plain cotton knit, but if I make another one (I probably will) I think I'll use a knit blend that has a little more bounce back stretch to it.

If you want to make a skirt like this, you need 2 measurements- your waist or hips (wherever you want the waistband to be) and then down from where you want the top of the skirt to be to the top of your feet. Easy. After you know that, it's easy to figure out your skirt pieces. Depending on your measurements, it will take between 2 and 2-1/2 yards of knit fabric, give or take.

So, for the actual skirt pieces, decide how tall you want your waistband to be (mine was 4 inches). Then subtract that from your total vertical measurement. Then divide what's left of your vertical measurement by 3. Those will be the heights of your tiers.

This skirt is basically 4 rectangles, like so:

The waist band is 8 1/2" high because it will be doubled over, plus seam allowances.

My vertical measurement was 30" after subtracting waist band height, so my 11" tiers include 2 half inch seam allowances, since I only really needed the tiers to be 10" high. As the rectangles get longer and longer, you'll need to connect 2 or maybe even three shorter rectangles because the fabric won't be wide enough for one continuous strip.

After all your pieces are cut, use a simple basting stitch to gather the top of your 3 tiers. I learned how from my mother-in-law, but there's a great tutorial HERE at Make it and Love it.

Here's another excellent diagram (because, as always, I am terrible at taking pictures of my actual process):

There's 2 ways I've seen tiers on similar knit skirts sewn together. The first is right sides together, so the seam is completely hidden on the inside. The second (and the one I prefer) is to lay the right side of the
upper layer beneath the layer below, so it's right side to wrong side. Like this:

{I used a double needle and a straight stitch- whatever you use, make sure there's some stretch to it, since you're working with a knit.}

A tip for gathering- after you add the basting stitch but before you pull any threads, mark (with pins or a fabric marker) the quarters and halves of both of the pieces you'll be attaching. Then, as you start gathering, you can line up the marks on your gathered piece with the marks on the flat edge of the piece above it to help keep things even.
 
After all your pieces are sewed together, you can just do one seam up the back to connect things (this one you'll want to do right sides together) and that's it. It only took me a few hours to get the entire skirt done, tops. And that's including all the distractions a 3 year old and an eight month old provide. 

And voila! The 3-tier aqua maxi skirt!

By the way, I think it's pretty funny that right after I posted about having a regular post each week HERE, I totally didn't post for 3 weeks, and I still haven't finished the project I started on. (In my defense, we have been working our butts off in the yard, getting some big landscaping things done.)

Revamped revamped lawn chairs

There's no typo in the post title. This is my second go-round with these chairs. Here's the first.

Here's what they looked like a few weeks ago:

 I was never a big fan of the fabric I ended up picking, and as it turns out, the light green was not outdoor fabric like I thought, so it turned kind of a neon yellow green since I put it on 2 years ago. Yikes.

This winter it occurred to me that just plain clear vinyl would be awesome. I waited for the weather to lighten up and last month I did this:

 It's pretty cool. I used the thickest vinyl they had and just wove it like I had done with the fabric strips.

 The vinyl for outdoor/indoor use, so we'll see how well it holds up. And because vinyl doesn't fray like the fabric I had on the chair before, there was no need to finish the edges with a zig zag or anything. Hooray!

I kind of wish I hadn't spray painted the chairs at all now, and just had the silver with the clear.

It's kind of freaky sitting in them. I suppose the clearness makes it looks like it won't hold you up, but it's really pretty strong. It held up my husband and he's a pretty big dude.

So here's the entire progression, from when I first found them in the creepy shed (which is still creepy, by the way) to now.

What do you think?

Some good pictures

No, I still don't have a camera, but I went to a place that had a really nice one. My lovely cousin works at a photo studio and we went there earlier this week, kind of last minute. Because it was so last minute, I didn't do a lot of outfit planning or accessory making like I did here, here, and here. I decided to just let my girls wear their everyday stuff. I actually kind of like how my almost-3-year-old dresses herself- it's always so bright and colorful and pretty funny sometimes. Anyway, as it turns out, I couldn't completely leave well enough alone and I made my little one a last minute headband.

 Just some concentric wool felt circles and a button. I sewed it to some fold over elastic that I had. Then, later that night, I ended up making a bunch. They're so easy and there's so many possibilities, it was actually kind of hard to stop.

Here's a little set I made for my newest niece:

Besides those, I made 4 more headbands for my little one and 4 or 5 more flowers attached to little clips that my oldest can wear.

After making that many, I kind of have a system down. I freehand cut out the smallest circle, place it on my next bit of felt, and then cut out the next biggest one around it.  And so on. Here, I made you guys a pattern!

TA-DA!

 

My materials: The thicker headbands are fold over elastic.You can usually get black and white at any fabric store (mine is from JoAnn's), but the colored stuff there sold in the little packages is super overpriced. I'm placing an order from this little Etsy shop for some different colors for a much more reasonable price. She has a TON of colors to choose from, too.

The elastic lace is also from JoAnn's, I imagine you could find a greater variety on Etsy, though. I might try dyeing a few bits; I'll let you know how it goes if I do.
The skinny little headbands (which are probably my favorite) are just normal elastic. I think it's quarter inch stuff. I might try dyeing some of that, too.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with these. Super cute and super easy- WIN!