Homemade Christmas

Finally getting my projects up that I did for Christmas. I really wanted to do a lot more, but of course didn't have the time. The four things I was able to get done were for my girls since they pretty much always come first. I 'm actually still trying to finish one project which is some sturdy dress ups for my princess's. I get so sick of cheap dress ups that come apart shortly after taking the tag off. My girls, especially the twins, love to dress up so really I just pieced together a couple of dresses, only one of which is finished.

Next from one of my most favorite craft blogs ever, I made some sleeping bags for my twins.





My sister introduced me to the most adorable fabric from this line. These were actually purchased quite some time ago with decorating the twins room in mind. I made these sweet dolls for all three girls and plan on making a quiet book with this set.

And finally, my favorite project this year, these adorable dress from Sugar City Patterns. It's called the village frock and I got so many compliments on it. Check out their flicker group for other pictures of this fantastic pattern. I for one can't wait to make more of these dresses.

Fall Leaf Garland

Here's a quick easy craft to do. The kiddies and I whipped these out yesterday in about an hour. Just cut out leaf's from felt and zigzag sew them all together for some cute festive garland. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Randi's Room: Flower lamp

I've still managed to find the time to do a craft here and there and yes I'm STILL working on Randi's room. I only need to do a few more things to call it complete.

My latest project was this cute little lamp and shade for her desk. I found the lamp at our local DI and spray painted it the color I wanted. As for the shade, I picked it up at Hobby Lobby. It's a sticky shade that you can cut out fabric for, but I had something else in mind. Some of you may be frequent visitors to pottery barn and have seen lamps similar to this. That's exactly where I derived my inspiration. Just get the silk flower of your choice, take each one apart discarding the plastic pieces. I kept the centers but trimmed the stem so I could lay the flower flat. Glue all the different layers together and then to the lamp in rows with a hot glue gun and voila! So simple, but so cute.

Totes for my tots

It's back to school for all three of my kiddos this year! To get them excited I made them each a school bag using a simple tote bag pattern with my own little additives per my kid's requests. Here is a link for this super easy bag, and one for these rolled roses you see poping up everywhere.

Fall ruffle dress tutorial

Hi there! I decided to take a break from Randi's Room posts and give you a tutorial. Before I start I have to put a disclaimer out there. I am NOT a professional! I don't know all the terms for sewing or all the correct techniques to use. I just experiment. I'm writing this tutorial with amateurs like me in mind. That being said, all you professionals out there that would like to give constructive criticism, go right ahead!



I started this dress originally wanting it to be ruffles from top to bottom, but ran out of material. I had two cotton baby doll style tank tops that coordinated with each other and just knew they'd be perfect for this little project.



Start by cutting off the tops of the tank off so only the dress part remains.



Then cut 2 or 2.5 inch strips all the way down. I used the the first strip as a guide for the rest.




I grabbed an a-line dress that fits my daughters now, turned it inside out and used it as pattern for the skirt part of the dress. Then using neutral toned stretchy material (preferably knit) I cut 3 slightly shorter(1.75" or 2.25") strips for my 4 patterned ruffles I planned for each dress. They need to be just a bit shorter so they don't show between each ruffle. I cut these using the a-line pattern of the pink dress pictured.



Your next step, if you have used two different materials, is to alternate the two patterns from shortest in length to longest. Notice that the two different shirts are different in lengths. Don't worry it won't be noticeable in the final product.



Then on a surger or sewing machine you'll need to finish the bottom edge of each top(patterned ruffle piece) strip. I did this with my cheap sewing machine with a zigzag stich, shortened in stitch length, to what I thought looked good. This is probably the most time consuming part of the project.



Now you have to gather each ruffle. Use a gathering stitch and make sure your patterned ruffle is not shorter then your neutral strip.



Start with your shortest nuetral fabric and shortest patterned ruffle. Sew the right side of the neutral fabric to the wrong side of the patterned ruffle. For those of who are not familiar with sewing terms, the "right" side is the one facing you when the clothing piece is worn. If you haven't already figured out, the "wrong" side is what would face you if you were to turn the piece inside out. Something I didn't do here that would've been better for this dress is to sew the two pieces together with a zigzag stitch so that there is give throughout the whole dress. Next time.



You'll notice when you're done sewing the ruffles to the neutral strips that you have an extra patterned ruffle. We'll deal with that in the next step. Once again you need to arrange the ruffles from the shortest to the longest so we don't mix them up in this step. Line the bottom right side edge of your shortest ruffle to the top right edge of the next shortest ruffle. Pin them together making sure your side seams are lined up. Now you can sew these pieces together using a zigzag stitch (again something I should've done that I didn't).




Now you have three ruffles sewn together top side and underside looking something like pictures above. Now just sew the top right edge of remaining ruffle to the bottom right edge of the dress, just like the last step.

For the top half of the dress all I did was take a cheap thermal top I bought at Walmart and with right sides together, sewed the dress to the shirt. This time I did do a zigzag stitch which makes all the difference.




To finish my masterpiece off(don't make fun, I told you I was an amateur), I twisted some of the scrap fabric up into flowers and just tacked them on to the collar area. So not professional, but it works for these girls.



So there you have it. A fairly simple dress that most anyone can make. Please let me know what you think and if you try it out send me your pics!

Rag rug for Randi

Yep, get used to posts with many weeks in between. I've come to the realization that I probably won't be good at this for awhile to come.

On to the post.

Another item for Randi's room makeover! I love the shabby chic look and if you were to buy one of these at, oh say Pottery Barn, it could cost you a good $200-$600 buckeroos! There a couple different styles, but I chose to crochet my rug since I already know how to crochet. For those of you who are interested in learning, there are several great free sites out there. A great one that has just about everything in step by step video tutorials is this one. The site I used to know how to make my rug is this one. Now for pictures!













So just with some old sheets of choice and a crochet hook you can make your own rug! Seriously it's that easy.

Another one for Randi's room

So I kinda have a bird theme going on in Randi's room. I came up with this project as a result of "things" I had. Here's how to do it.

You need:

-Canvas

-Fabric

-Mod Podge

-Brush

-Contact paper or vinyl

-exacto knife

-craft paint

I had these 6x6 canvas's as well as some bright colored fat quarters I bought at walmart. Just slather on the mod podge on all surfaces and place the fabric so that any patterns are straight. Then put a whole bunch more mod podge on top of the fabric. I put quite a bit on especially on the folded areas. To finish I just fold the edges like you would a present and then set my frame on a plastic cup to dry.

Like I said before we were going for a bird theme. One of THE biggest reasons I love the internet so much is my google search bar. I use it for everything. Just type in what you're looking for, add silhouette on the end of it and search in images. I used several key words like bird, swallow, birdcage, nest and came up with a lot of great options.

Next just print your image. tape your image on the top side of your contact or vinyl paper and cut out image with exacto knife. This is probably the most tedious part. Just remember that you'll be using the out line image and not the actual cutout. Unless you want a reverse applique look. Also keep in mind that any pieces inside the silhouette that need to be kept. For example, on mine I have a tiny space between the feet and branch I had to remember.

Now peel the paper off the sticky part and place on top of your dried canvas. Again, remember the small pieces inside the silhouette. Press firmly to insure that no paint seeps under the edges. I think that if I were to do this again I'd try vinyl instead of contact paper. It's a bit stickier. If you do use contact paper though, go along the all the edges with your fingers and press firmly. My others didn't seep under the edge as much as this one did because I made sure to press the edges down well.

This is the easy part. Just paint. I put a couple layers on so that no fabric would show through.

When your paint has dried you can take the contact paper off, touch up the edges and enjoy your work!

Can you believe it?!

I'm finally posting something! I have done quite a few craft projects, considering how busy I've been. I've just been too busy to post them. So I'll just jump in with the most recent accomplishment. Last year I moved my eldest daughter into her own room. It's a pretty small room and started out quite drab. I wanted to really make her room special for her since she has to share soooo much with her younger sisters.

I found this desk among the many treasures my mother in law has and asked if I could have it. It was painted a dark tan color and as I started sanding found 5 other colors it had been painted in the past. Beautiful colors that I wanted to come through and be shown in the finished product.


I decided to do an eye poping red and the hardware was so cute with the antiqued edges I decided to keep them.


My husband had the great idea to have her name on the top somewhere so before we painted I searched for the perfect font online and used vinyl to do a reverse stencil.


I absolutely love how it turned out. How about you?