Friday, November 20, 2015

A Few More Flower Girls

Something big just happened. Life-altering big.


I got married.



Of course there were lots of little projects that I did, but here's one of my favorites.

I have had the privilege of leading a girl's Bible study for my church for about six years now. If you know anything about teenagers, that's an eternity. It's bad middle school hair, winter formals, algebra, starting high school, sophomore year friend drama, and slumber parties with lots of food and laughter.

To honor that special place that these girls hold in my life, I made them all flower girls and my co-leader (with me through thick and thin) the ring bearer.






Yes. There are lots of them.

So, what do you do for so many flower girls? Tell them each to buy a white dress, let them wear whatever shoes they want, and make them all flower crowns.

For the crowns, I bought bunches of artificial baby's breath, pulled them apart, then wove the flowers around a wire loop.



Here's where things get personal. Regular cardboard boxes and wrapping paper won't do. The craft store had these wooden boxes were the perfect size for my simple little crowns.

I drew out a special version of their names on paper using a sharpie, then traced the marks that bled through the other side with chalk and transferred the marks to the tops of the boxes. My cat helped whenever she could.



After the designs were transferred, I got myself a wood burner and went to town. When they were all finished, I put a layer of clear, glossy polyurethane.

I will admit that I can be a bit impatient. I probably could have waited another day before closing the boxes and packing them away until the wedding day, but I had other things to do. Therefore, the boxes may have been a little difficult to open the first time. Some prying required. Totally worth it though.



I know this post has been a little photo heavy (Can you blame me though? So pretty...), and from here out it will only get worse. Here are all of my designs:














Sunday, November 15, 2015

Pleats for Days

I was altering a beautiful green polka-dot dress (post coming soon), that was 10 sizes too big. I decided the best way to use as much of the original fabric without bulking up the waist line would be to put in some accordion pleats.

Wrong kind of accordion.

That's more like it. 

Half-way through pinning and measuring the skirt, I realized the pins I had placed at the beginning were slipping out of my tediously measured, perfectly pinned pleats. Instant frustration.

One cup of coffee and 10 minutes of Googling later, I had a solution. A pleating board.

There are so many other blogs with how-tos for this particular item, that if you don't think that mine will work for you, keep searching. So many options. I looked at so many before starting my project, that I don't even know who deserves a little credit and extra web traffic.

Here's what I used:
You'll need some wet-seal packing tape, a damp sponge, scrap fabric, fusible webbing, ruler, pencil, and an iron.

Once I decided how big I wanted my pleats to be, I measured and marked where the folds should be on the packing tape just like I would if I were marking the fabric. Then I folded it, using the damp sponge to seal it together as I went. Next, I cut out fusible webbing and scrap fabric to match the size of the folded tape.


Here's the easiest part: make a sandwich and press it. Place the fusible webbing on the wrong side of the tape and place the fabric on top of that with the right side of the fabric facing you. Now, press it like a panini.

Enough sandwich analogies. 

That's it. You're done. Pleat board finished. I made two different sizes.


To use it, I pin the beginning of the fabric that I wish to pleat at the top of the board (pleats facing down). Next, tuck the fabric into flaps. I use my EZY-Hem to help slide it in there. Since it's metal, you can iron as you go without fear of melting anything.


When the fabric cools, you can remove it and do whatever it is you want with your perfectly measured and pressed, pleated fabric.

I promise to post the finished pictures of the green dress soon-ish. The only thing I have left to do with it is put in the zipper. So close....

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Thread

I am overrun. Thread is everywhere. The little plastic organizers that my mom bought for me when I first started sewing just don't cut it anymore.

After some thorough web browsing, here's what I did.

I searched the basement for a spare picture frame, dug through my dad's scrap wood pile, and grabbed some golf tees and spray paint from the store. 


I cut a piece of scrap wood to fit inside the picture frame that I found. Then I drew a lot of straight vertical and horizontal lines. I spaced them about 2 inches apart. I recommend using a lever for this part unless you want to display uneven, slanting lines of thread on your wall. 


I warmed up my hot glue gun next. Since I seem incapable of any kind of finesse or cleanliness when using the silly thing, I opted to take this particular step outside (positive note: I only burnt my fingers twice). I then glued the golf tees, upside down, where the lines intersect. 

At this point, my brother and his friend wanted to know what I was making. When I told them, they thought I said "bread poker." Why you would need to poke bread, I haven't the foggiest. 


Time for paint! I did a few thin layers of red spray paint. The golf tees make it a challenge to get all of the angles a uniform color, but it is not impossible. I only got a little bit of paint on my hand in the end. 


There's the finished project. It doesn't hold all of my thread, but it definitely cuts down on the clutter. I think it looks pretty cool too.

Friday, September 5, 2014

A Short Post About a Short Dress

I saw this dress on Pinterest and fell in love with it. Linen is great for hot Indiana summers, and the flowy cut makes it look so comfortable and relaxed.

I made a trip to the fabric store, but wasn't able to find what I wanted (Okay, I'll be honest. I couldn't find the price I wanted). Luckily, Goodwill is in the same parking lot, as is a Salvation Army Family Store. Very dangerous area. Here's the dress I found:



































It's several sizes larger than I wear which makes it perfect for altering. I also love the color and floral pattern. All I did was gather the neckline, add some pleats to the waistband in the front and the back, and gathered the dress a little bit before sewing on the black band on the bottom.



So there it is. A short post about a short dress.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Book Clutch

Have you seen these? Clutches made out of books. Awesome.

Here's how I made mine.

Step one: Find book

I couldn't stand the idea of chopping up a good book, but found a couple of Reader's Digest books that had great covers and terrible content (abridged versions of stories that were mediocre at best when they were released).



Step Two: Destroy Book

I had to break out the X-ACTO knife. It was easy enough to cut the endpaper right between the cover and the text. I'm sure I'll use the paper for something else later.



Step Three: Make Insert

I wanted lots of slots for cards (there's a membership card for everything), some space for cash, and slots for my dumb phone and IPod (put them together --> ta-da! Smartphone). I found a lacy zipper to keep it closed. Lots of math and one late night later, I had the insert finished.



Step Four: Put it all Together

I did a little research about what kind of glue would work best. I briefly considered hot glue, but didn't like the idea of lumpy, stringy glue all over my book. Don't even get me started about the burnt fingers. 

Clearly, I am not a hot glue master, so I decided to try using Mod Podge. I slathered it all over the endpaper on the cover and then (after quickly snapping a picture), put the insert on top. I did the same for the other side. To hold it together while drying, I borrowed some shims and clamps from my dad. The Mod Podge has held up pretty well so far, very sturdy stuff. 



Step Five: Flaunt

All done!



Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Tulle Attacks

It's been a busy couple of weeks around my house. My youngest brother got married.

It was a pretty big deal. 

My other brother was the best man, my mother took care of the flowers, my father did his best to keep the groomsmen in line, and I was a bridesmaid. Oh, and I made the flower girl dresses. All six of them. 

Yes, I am partially responsible for the small army of fluffy white dresses that bounced down the aisle, warming up the crowd for the grand entrance of the beautiful bride. 

There wasn't a pattern that matched the vision that the bride had for her herd of attendants, so I improvised. 

I started with this pattern from McCall's. Simple, fully lined, tank dress. All I needed to do was add a tulle skirt to match the bride's. Cutting out all of the satin and lining was a piece of cake. 

I quickly realized that I needed a way to keep track of which pieces belonged to which little girl. Paper grocery sacks did the trick.


I serged all of the pattern pieces individually before sewing them together. To get lovely finished arms and necklines without hand-stitching (who has time for that?!), I used this technique. It took a few tries to get it just right, but it was totally worth it. Since the dresses were so small (definitely not what I am used to), it took quite a bit of clipping around the seams in order for them to lay nicely.


Once the bodices were finished, I started working on the skirts. The pattern had a front piece and two back pieces. I cut them out separately for the skirt lining, sewed the front and backs together, and gathered it along the top to match up with the bottom seam of the bodice. I cut one layer of petticoat netting by lining up the pattern pieces into one continuous piece. I gathered it, then stitched the already gathered skirt lining.

I figured I needed at least three layers of tulle to achieve sufficient fluffiness, so I lined up the pattern pieces, marked one layer, moved the pattern pieces, marked the second layer, moved the pieces a third time, and cut. I gathered that giant, unwieldy piece to three times the length of the bodice, then sewed it to in one, continuous circle to the lining/netting. It looked like this:


I looked like I needed a Xanax by the time I was through with all six skirts.

I slit the tulle in the back so the girls could be zipped in and out of it, attached the giant, fluffy thing to the bodice, put in an overlapping zipper, sewed the back pieces of the skirt lining together, and stitched down the bodice lining.

I covered some buttons with scrap satin from the bodice and put them on the flap of fabric that covers the zipper to match the bride's dress. I made the hem on the lining much wider than normal, so no one would trip. The sash is a piece of chiffon that I cut into six pieces that matched the color of the bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

For the final touch, I embroidered the girls' names inside the dresses with blue thread.


That's it. A month's worth of work for one big, beautiful day.



This is one of my favorite pictures of the day so far. Beautiful work by CarisDesign 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Clock

I work at a daycare, and by the front desk, there is a wall decorated with several painted canvases. In the middle, there is a clock. The problem is that the clock is heavy and likes to fall unexpectedly.


Poor clock. Its numbers are askew from hitting the floor too many times. Time for a change.

First, I took the clock apart. The structure was easy enough to remove, but I had to consult with a higher authority (Google) to take apart the mechanism and found this helpful guide. Using a box knife, I slit a little X in the middle of one of the painted canvases, inserted the clock mechanism through the hole, then put the hour, minute, and second hands back where they belonged.


For the numbers, I used my Cricut and some scrap vinyl. Getting them evenly spaced around the clock face was a little rough, so the time displayed isn't exactly correct all the time, but it's close enough for our purposes.
 

Ta-da! No more falling clock.