I can honestly say that today is the first day that I almost forgot my 365 DIY challenge. Lying in bed at 11:03, it hit me. Being the responsible individual that I am (some of you have coughed up a lung)….I immediately got out of bed and created the first thing that came to mind (AND that was super-speed-fast!)
The week ahead seems all business, so be prepared to see lots of curtains and dresses…unless I go off course, which is certainly feasible!
But for tonight – here is another little idea for a dish towel! None other than: A RUFFLE!
I just simply cut a strip of scrap fabric (yes, you’ve seen this fabric before!). Made a tube, turned it right side out, and made a ruffle. Then, I just sewed it right on top of the dish towel. Don’t forget to close the sides of ruffle!!!
Time: 11 minutes. (Don’t tell my students, but I did not even iron this project!)
Cost: $1.50…that’s the cost of the dish towel.
So what are you waiting for??? I dare you to turn off the TV and make one of these…just use on of your old towels because this ruffle can really add new life to dingy things!!!
Oh gosh, where to begin?!?! Today was a wonderful day as we celebrated Ellie Christine’s 3rd birthday. She began the weekend with lots of fever but she held on strong to have a truly wonderful party. I have honestly never seen her so thoroughly happy…I think she may a little bit of her mother’s Party-Love in her. Oh well, she’ll always manage to have a good time with a crowd, that’s for sure!
After a long day and a good hot bath, I sat down to make a fun headband for my jogging adventures this week. I like those elastic headbands that have the rubbery stuff on the back – they’re skinny and hold on tight. Problem is – they’re NOT CUTE! Not, that is, until you add….A COVERED BUTTON, OF COURSE. And they’re even cuter when you add THREE covered buttons!
Below, you’ll find a brief photo blog of how to assemble them….plus a few shots of today’s party – Memaw made the trip down from Dallas after spending a week in the hospital, so I wanted to show off a couple shots of her! Thanks, mom, for bringing her down! I had a great time with y’all!
Materials: elastic headband, buttons to cover, twine, scissors, scrap fabric
On the back piece of the button, pull out the metal loop with your scissors leaving 2 holes.
loop twine around the elastic headband and into the two holes
twist the twine - tightly encasing the headband and securing the button back. Trim the twine close with your scissors.
cover your button as usual...add as many as you want!
Time: about 6 minutes.
Cost: 7/8″ covered buttons are about $1.25 for 4. I used 3, so let’s round up to $1. I had all the other supplies on hand, so total for me $1. If you bought everything new, I’d guess this would cost you about $3..but you’ll have that twine roll around for a long time and you’ll usually get about 5 headbands in a pack, so you can make lots more of these with no extra cost! So get to it!
And now, for the shameless birthday photos…
Jonathan with the little "bakers"
Ellie (in the middle) with a glimps of Owen on the right.
Can you believe MeMaw is 93!?!? No way!!! I want proof!
a beautiful moment with two beautiful gals!
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My little baby girl Ellie Christine turned 3 years old today….Happy Birthday my little Lady Bug!
After celebrating over breakfast, I hurried upstairs to finish an Etsy order – a blue Team Spirit Dress for a lovely soon-to-be-mother-of-two.
Then I got busy cleaning my house to prepare for Ellie’s party tomorrow afternoon….and thus, appeared my latest DIY opportunity…something I must admit I had not “made” or, as some would say, “cleaned”….in THREE YEARS! Yes, that’s right, I have no shame, I have not cleaned my oven since we moved into the house in March 2007. We’ll be baking during Ellie’s party, so I figured NOW is the time. This isn’t my typical DIY project, but I think it is WAY exciting….and I’ll be happy to do it again in three years!!!
Today is the day that I demonstrate just how easy it is to make something QUICKLY!!
I just got home from a very fun Mary Kay party at the very fun Kelbi’s house. Thanks to all of you for a great night, and to you Jaclyn for being such a great consultant…and I hope that’s your name so that you know that I’m talking about YOU! Anyway, by the time I got the kids in the bed and my mother and grandmother situated (they’re visiting for Ellie’s birthday tomorrow), I looked at the clock which read “11:15″…OUCH, not good for a DIY’er yet to DIH (Do it Herself)!
So, I just ran upstairs, grabbed a blank ring and a blank covered button and some (you guessed it) scrap fabric. Combined the three with a dollup of hot glue, and TADAH, a ring in a matter of 3 minutes! While I sort of feel like George Kostansa as a hand model, I am happy to show the ring to you!
Time: again, 3 MINUTES!!!
Cost: FREE…but if I had to buy it today, it would still only cost about $0.75!
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I was actually finished with today’s DIY project before 9pm!!! But, of course, as my life goes, my internet was down until just now. Oh well!
So, I’ve been longing to have “things” in the kids’ rooms with their names on them…I just have this notion that nothing fits kids’ rooms more adequately than their names and photos smeared all over the place.
Tonight, I took one small step in making this a reality.
I took photo frames from Ikea ($5/each AND they come with the mat!) and added decorative scrapbook paper under the mat (4/$1 at Joanns). Then, I went to my newest addiction – Teacher Heaven – to purchase the cutouts. I was just about to buy a package of letters for $6.50, when the employee told me about DIE CUTS… OH MY GOODNESS!!! For about 2 cents per letter, you can make your own and it is sooooo cool. Pick out your construction paper color, cut it into 1/4ths, then cut the letters using their die cutter. (I have no idea how to spell die cutter, I hope this is right!)
So, finally, I came home and attached the letters with a piece or two of tape. I left Owen’s as-is so he doesn’t have a Mommy’s Boy Room but rather a Big Boy Room! For Ellie’s though, I took some scrapbooking flowers that already have adhesive on the back and attached them above the letters of her name. I had so many left over, that I also made her 2 bobbies.
Total Assembly Time: probably about 20 minutes – half hour.
Cost: Owen’s – $21.15, Ellie’s – $26.55….. more than my usual projects, but this is ART! And that’s a pretty good price for art. I’ll post pictures of these hanging on their walls once they wake up!!!
Today’s DIY project came about completely by accident. LITERALLY! At 10:00pm, I began working frantically to create a new dress for February’s birthstone – Amethyst. I am trying to create a new dress each month for my Etsy shop – using that month’s birthstone as the poster color. Well, I’ve been thinking all day about what I was going to do…simple neckline, slight a-line, fun, flirty ruffley thing on the bottom. Well….let’s just say things didn’t go as planned. And certainly, the dress looked WAY better in my head than in real life. I suppose that little “frantically” part might have played some role.
As I began sewing and serging, I just kept making error after error after error, until finally, there wasn’t even a hint of what the original neckline looked like. AAARGH. By then, it was 10:45pm – what’s a girl to do???
Make Pajamas!
So, I decided to turn the entire piece into a strategically haphazard night gown! I serged the edges of the neckline and armholes, and then I decreased the size of the ruffle at the bottom as I randomly placed the gathers around the bottom edge. Now, I completely admit that this is NEVER something I would sell or even discuss beyond tonight…but it has kept me on track with my DIY 365 challenge. I never said I was going to make something “fabulous” every day, I just said I was going to make something! Feel free to heckle….the best heckling comment by Saturday night, will win a set of napkins! Go ahead, I can take it!!!
Sunday morning I received a very fun email from Erin Tyrell (gosh, she’s the meaning in my life, she’s the inspiration)…she gave me a link to a blog that was explaining how to create a ruffled headband. Me, being the queen of ruffles, had, of course already made one of those HOWEVER I loved the reminder! Seeing as I have on hand about 32 headbands, and seeing as I have on hand a Mount Everest of scrap fabric…I went to work.
Today I created two new ruffled headbands. The orange one is made of Marimekko fabric purchased from Crate & Barrel Outlet. The green and blue one is made from Amy Butler’s Nicey Jane line – and I could have a WHOLE HOUSE decorated in this line, it’s fabulous!!!
Take a line of fabric, sew a tube wrongside out. Flip it to rightside out, close edges. Create a ruffle and hotglue right onto the headband. (For the green one, I added a covered button before I hotglued it onto the headband)
My camera needs recharging, so I’m stuck with just my iphone tonight…sorry for the lame pictures!
Time: about 10 minutes each
Cost: FREE * (since I used scraps and on-hand materials. If you made this “out of the blue”, it would probably cost about $1!)
Goodnight sleepy heads and headbands!
It just hit me that I haven’t scheduled any classes for February…send me an email if you’d like to learn this month…How about a sale??? All February classes $75 !!!
I have been thinking alot about how much I am influenced by the people around me … specifically, how my friends and family have such a wonderful impact on not only WHO I AM, but also WHAT I MAKE!
First and foremost, my inspiration for sewing is my beautiful Memaw (now 93 years old!). She has been sewing since she could hold a needle, and she has taught me that a sewing machine holds tremendous power for a woman, a wife, and certainly a mother. Thank you Memaw, I love you!
For today’s DIY ditty, I was inspired by several friends: 1. The beautiful new mommy Erin Tyrell. She has a self-proclaimed addiction to fabric napkins and china. 2. The gorgeous adoptive-mommy-to-be Jenny Rose Ford who taught me the joy of setting a table with fabric napkins. A mindset she learned from her dear mother. and 3. Lacey Prewitt – the darling mother of 2 who delivered a pound cake to my house this weekend….wouldn’t it have been fun to have had THESE on hand….
Oh Gosh by Gosh By Golly, the details on these are SO exciting…SO FAST and SO CHEAP!
I bought 2 “fat quarters” from Joann’s when they were on sale for $1/each. ( A fat quarter is a 1/4 yard of fabric, but it’s cut “fat” so that you get more usable space from the cut) I cute each fat quarter into 4 equal parts, leaving 8 squares total. Then, using a rolled edge, I serged each side. Done. 8 Napkins. Are you kidding me??? Awesome!
Time: 10 minutes
Cost: $2….are you reading this???? $2 for EIGHT NAPKINS!?!? I want a million of these! I think these are so fun to take as hostess gifts, wedding gifts, and just plain “i like you” gifts!
Now, these I left pretty plain because I had too many Etsy dresses to make today, but I have a suspicion another set will pop up soon…but next time, they’ll be embellished! I’m salivating. Someone get me a napkin….oh, wait…
This is MeMaw making Covered Button Bracelets with me and mom this Christmas! Sew Fun!
Hi friends and fellow obsessives and compelleds! When I first decided to go ahead with this crazy idea to make something every day, my main motivation was to finally finish up the millions of unfinished projects around my house (okay, in my life!). I am a visionary in the true sense of the word – I love coming up with ideas, figuring out what I’ll need to make it, how much it will cost, and then diving right in. The problem is that I loathe the finishing part….especially HEMS!
Many of you have been to my home and noticed this….somehow, I’ve ended up with such lovely houseguests that only a small fraction of you ever actually said anything….but there are about 8 pillows lying around my house that have 3 sides finished and one side pinned with straight pins. I don’t mean lying around in a dark corner somewhere, I mean PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED as if they are as they should be, straight pins and all. And this is just the pillows, I am not even going to mention the unhemmed curtains, the half-pinned slip cover pattern on display in my bedroom, and so forth. You don’t need to know about those right now, there’s plenty of time for that!
So, tonight’s project is intended to fulfill that first goal, and it is dedicated to all of you who have hung out in my gameroom and sat in the black rocking chair….only to have been met with a straight pin in a place that you never expected. There in the rocking chair, since last FEBRUARY, has set a lovely pillow made of beautiful Amy Butler fabric that I chose specifically for that pillow in that spot. I just never got around to finishing the pillow….UNTIL TONIGHT! Yay, Yay, YAY!!!
Time: One year! But tonight’s part, the hem, 5 minutes! (how absurd that it takes me that long!)
Cost: I used about a half yard of 2 scrap fabrics so $0 – but I think originally this fabric would total to about $7.
Okay y’all – go hem something in your house. AND, you might want to think twice the next time you want to ask me to hem your jeans! HA!
