Saturday, February 11, 2012

Daddy Daughter Dance Corsage

I slaved away making this lovely corsage for the Daddy Daughter Dance in hot pink, black, and white, blinged out with gems to match the Hello Kitty party dress.  It is currently in the fridge because Grandpa (who is stepping in for daddy - who is at a funeral) bought one at the florist.  But, I wanted someone to see my creation. It was my first wrist corsage and actually they are really simple to make - no harder than a pin on corsage - if you just spend a couple of dollars on the wristlet piece.  It went together really quickly and it did match the outfit perfectly. 

Boutique Ruffle Pants Sewing Pattern

Our pattern of the day is Boutique Ruffle Pants.  This pattern is simple enough for a beginning sewer.  You will learn how to gather fabric.  This pattern is sewn with a simple machine - no need for a serger or other specialized equipment. 

Click here to get the pattern 50% off today.

National White T-Shirt Day Tutorial Round-up

In honor of the occasion, I thought it would be fun to put together a round-up of great things to do with t-shirts.

I Heart Jenny's Art has this great tutorial for making a jersey rose necklace.


Another project that I love and have made many of are shopping bags made from recycled t-shirts.  Here is a nice tutorial.  It only take about 20 minutes (or less) to make a bag and it is a fun way to save your favorite old shirts.
Annekata has a wonderful tutorial for how to jazz up old flip flops with t-shirts.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Valentine's Day Mini Top Hat Tutorial & Pattern

Everyone knows that I have an unhealthy love of mini hats.  I decided to throw together this super simple hot glue special for Kamille's Valentine's Day party at preschool. 

Here is the pattern, not that you actually need a pattern to cut out a heart, circle, and rectangle, but sometimes it is nice to have everything right there for you.


Click here to get the full sized version for printing.


I just used red felt I had in the studio, but stiffened or glitter felt works too. 

 I just glue along the rectangle and roll it up.  Since this is a mini hat, there really isn't any reason the stitch it together. 
You will end up with a roll that looks like this.

Then, glue on the top of the hat.  I just trim around it if there is any extra hanging over.


Glue both layers of the heart shape together.  Then, glue to top of the hat onto the heart.

Finally, you can embellish the hat.  I just used a tiny white feather (to cover up the seam), a fancy button, and some ribbon.  Finally, I glued it onto a clip.  You can put it onto a headband, comb, whatever you prefer.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Valentine's Day Treat Bags

Every year Kamille and I try to make our own Valentine's Day project and tiny gift to hand out to her friends instead of just sending the premade Valentine's Cards.  This year we are making White Chocolate Chex Mix and she is in love with Owls so I made owl themed treat bag labels.  I like to put candy into the pretzel bag sized bags, so these labels are designed for those bags. 

Click Here to Print and Download
I bought the little owl graphics from an etsy shop Printables By Rhonda.  Here is the shop.  Then, I just used my photo editor to design the little cards.  In preschool we don't write to on the cards because they are just too hard to pass out that way.  So, they only have a from line so that my daughter can practice her name.

For the white chocolate chex, the ingredients are really simple - chex and candy melts.  It takes about 6 cups of chex for 1 pound of candy melts.  I also added Valentine's Day sprinkles.

 Melt the chocolate according to the directions on the package.
 Stir in the chex until coated.  Spread on a greased cookie sheet or wax paper and add sprinkles.
Once it dried, I mixed in marshmallows and sweethearts.  I put everything into the pretzel bags.

Working with Cork Fabric

So, I am not an expert in this - based on using it for one project.  However, I did a lot of research before buying it and watched quite a f...