Using Your Sewing Machine on Paper

I LOVE using my sewing machine to make cards or to package things. It's so cute, versatile, and unique, and not hard at all! Just make sure you use a separate needle than you sew with, because sewing on paper can really dull your needle.

You can't really tell, but I sewed around the outside of these pillowcase invitations to create a little pocket that the pillow invite could go in. And a package I wrapped using my machine! So easy and not the usual bag with tissue! I am a huge believer in wrapping gifts old-school style with paper instead of bags. So much more fun to decorate and open. You can't lose. * I got the idea for this from a random picture I found online, but I lost the picture and can't remember where it came from.

A New Rag Quilt!

I have been working on this rag quilt for some time now, and I'm glad it's finally finished! It wouldn't have taken so long, but it got put on the back burner for a long time. I am so happy with how it turned out, and I can't wait to enjoy this cuddly quilt!
It was made with all flannel material and one layer of Warm and Natural batting in between. I love the colors and the cute (but not obvious) Christmas theme. It can be used all year round!
You'll notice that the pattern on this quilt is different, using large and small squares. I wish I could take credit for this design, but I actually found a pattern for this from Quilt Country Patterns. You can buy it here, here, or here. Or if you are ambitious, you could figure it out on your own :)

Snowmen in Arizona? A girl can dream...Click here for my Easy Rag Quilt Tutorial!

Flower Brooches

Okay, well I'm a little embarrassed. My sewing machine is in fine working order, with the exception of a broken light bulb. I feel so dumb! Dumb, but grateful my machine isn't broken! Thank you, Tori, for your comment.

While my machine was "broken," I felt a little stir-crazy. I wanted to make something, but I couldn't sew. I had found this tutorial on Make It Do for peony brooches. By the way, I LOVE Make It Do. It's a fabulous blog with lots of great ideas. I have wanted to make some large flower brooches for a while, and this tutorial was perfect! I only needed ribbon, needle, thread, felt, and a pin. I had all the stuff!

Calli made her flowers a little tighter than I did. I didn't gather the ribbon quite as much. I made two of my flowers (teal and coral) using 2 yards of wired ribbon and one flower(pink) using 1.5 yards. They turned out pretty big, just like I wanted, almost 4.5 inches in diameter. The ribbon is gorgeous! I don't know if you can tell, but the pink ribbon has a gold sheen to it. I got the ribbon from Hobby Lobby in the by-the-yard section. There. The perfect accessory!

Temple Blocks

When I saw this idea on Lil' Luna through Cookie Nut Creations, I just had to make these for my Mia Maids. It was such an easy and cheap project too, it didn't stress me out too much! Go to this post on Lil' Luna's blog and download an antiqued picture of your favorite temple, resize and print it. I bought a 2 x 8 at Lowes for $4 and had them cut it for me (for free) into 5.5 inch sections. Then I sanded and painted the blocks, Mod Podged the pictures on (no coat on top) and decorated with embellishments. I have to thank my adviser for her help there- she is a master when it comes to embellishing! We had so much fun making these and I'm glad my Mia Maids will have their own picture of the temple for their rooms. Sorry about the blurry pictures!

Easy-Peasy Personalized Pillowcases Tutorial

I made these for my kids for Christmas and they loved them! These would also make cute personalized birthday presents. They are so simple and fun to make, you might get addicted like I have!

You should already have most of the stuff. Here's what you will need for one standard size pillowcase:
1/4 yard white fabric- I prefer 65 poly/35 cotton blend. It's really cheap and holds up well.
up to 1 and 1/4 yard patterned fabric- So far I have chosen licensed prints for my kids, but anything will do. Read my note* before buying your fabric.
small piece of freezer paper- you can buy a roll at Wal-mart in the foil and baggie section.fabric paint- I like Tulip brand. It goes on nice and thick and I rarely need more than one coat.
X-acto knife
piece of leftover cardboard
paintbrush
cutting mat and rotary cutter
sewing machine
thread
iron/ironing board

your computer and printer

*A note about buying fabric

One thing to note is that you want the pattern on the fabric to appear horizontal after the pillowcase is sewn. The last thing you want is your Care Bears looking sideways. How much fabric you will need will depend on how the pattern comes off the bolt. For example, if the pattern comes this way, you will need 1 and 1/4 of a yard.You will need 3/4 of a yard if the fabric comes off the bolt like this...
The reason for this is that we are going to cut one large piece that will be folded at the top. Once folded, we will have the horizontal patterned piece of the pillowcase. We want it to look like this:

NOT THIS:

So keep that in mind while buying and cutting your fabric. If the fabric you have chosen can face either way or doesn't have a distinct horizontal pattern to it, you can just buy 3/4 of a yard.

That's it! Let's start. Set up your ironing board and plug in your iron. We will be using a 1/4 inch seam allowance for the whole project.

Cut a 26.5 x 38.5 piece from your patterned fabric. Set that aside.
Cut an 8.5 x 38.5 piece from your white fabric.

Fold the white piece in half longways and press; then fold it in half the other way and press. Now you know where the center is.

Get on your computer and find a cute font to print out your kid's name with. If you don't have any fonts you like on your computer, go to Kevin and Amanda's free fonts site and you're sure to find something cute. Open up a word document and enlarge your name so that it's no taller than 4 inches. That includes tall letters like lower-case d, h and l. Go to format in the menu bar and then choose character and chose the outline feature. That way when you print out the name, you won't use up your whole ink cartridge; it will just print a nice outline for you. Like so:
Trace the name onto a piece of freezer paper with the shiny side down. Using your X-acto knife and cutting mat, cut out the letters on the paper. Try not to make any extra slices because the fabric paint will end up seeping out of the stencil. Don't forget to keep any inside pieces like the loops in the letters e, p and d. You will need them! For really great and thorough instructions for freezer paper stenciling, check out Dana's tutorial at Made.
Center the stencil onto one side of the white fabric and then iron it on. Note: If you want the name to appear on a certain side of the finished pillowcase (right or left) you will need to put the small fold up and the long fold at the bottom of the name. For example, for the name to be on the left side of the pillowcase, you will place the name here:
The fold of the fabric should always be underneath the name. There will be no seam allowance on the fold, so you can place your name as close to the fold as you like. I like to keep in about 1/4 of an inch or more from the fold. If you want it centered from top to bottom, just remember that there will be 1/4-inch seam allowance on the top.

Place the cardboard under the fabric so that paint won't seep onto the rest of the fabric. Paint on a nice layer of fabric paint and let it dry for 3-4 hours. If you think it needs another layer of paint, go ahead and do that and let it dry again.

When the paint is dry, peel off the freezer paper. Doesn't it look pretty? Cover it with scrap fabric and press for a few minutes. Make sure to fold the white fabric lengthwise again if you unfolded it during the painting process. Now put the white and patterned pieces together (the matching 38.5 length sides), right sides together, (raw side of the white) and pin well. The name will be hidden as you sew. Sew the 38.5 inch length (remember all seam allowances will be 1/4 inch). Zig zag over the seam allowance. Now iron that seam up towards the colored fabric.
We're going to topstitch on the colored fabric just above the seam line, a little less than 1/4 inch so as to catch seam allowance underneath that we just ironed up. Not perfect, but it's okay!
Almost done! Can you believe how easy these are? Now fold the pillowcase in half, right sides together, pin it well and sew it closed. I start sewing where the white fabric is to keep it even. Zig zag your seam allowance. Inside it out and press. And you're done!

Easy, Beautiful Diaper Cake Tutorial

Hey there! This is my tutorial for making a diaper cake. If you have never seen one, you might think that it's a weird idea (my husband does). But these make such cute centerpieces for any baby shower! It's a great alternative to giving someone a boring box of diapers. Why not dress it up a little?

There are a few ways to make diaper cakes. A lot of people like to throw tons of baby items onto the cake (binkies, burp cloths, onesies) which is fine, but I like to keep mine more simple and classy-looking with flowers and maybe one stuffed animal or a pair of baby shoes on top. You can make them two or three-tiered, but I always go with three. Whatever you decide to do is fine and will be cute!

To make a three-tiered diaper cake, you will need:

Around 80 diapers in size 1 (I get size 1 because babies grow out of newborn diapers quickly, plus the mom won't have to take the cake apart right away. I usually ask the mother-to-be what brand of diapers she prefers- my kids had picky bottoms- but if there isn't a preference, buy whatever brand doesn't have lots of pictures all over the diapers. Plain white looks better. Pampers Swaddlers are a good choice, but can be pricey.)
1 tall baby bottle, any brand
string or yarn
ribbon, 1.5 inches wide or bigger (You can use more than one color.)
fake flowers
a little stuffed animal, baby booties, or some other small item to put on top of the cake
florist pins (optional)
either a plastic platter or a platter from your cupboard to transport the cake

So here's what you do:

1. Take about half of the diapers and place them around the bottle like the picture below. (The recipient of this diaper cake preferred Huggies diapers, which had colors all over them, but what can you do?☺)2. Cut a piece of yarn and cinch it around the diapers. Pull tightly and tie in a knot. Don't worry if the diapers are unevenly placed; you will be able to adjust them after you tie the knot. Pull or push the diapers whichever way you need so that it looks pretty uniform throughout.

3. To make the middle layer, take about 2/3 of the remaining diapers and make another circle of diapers in the same fashion, around the bottle on top of the first layer. Adjust your diapers as needed.

4. Make the top layer by taking a single diaper and rolling it up. Grab a second diaper and roll that around the first one. Keep repeating this until you create the same layered look as the other two layers. If you don't use all of the diapers up in the final layer, you can always stuff a few diapers into the other layers. You don't want your top layer to be too big.To attach the top layer to the bottom two, I use the stems from the flowers, which also double as decorations for the cake. Place your top tier on top of the cake, and stick the flowers in between the diapers to secure it to the bottom two layers. I usually use quite a bit of flowers. The more you use, the more secure it will be. You can do this after you add the ribbon if you want.5. Decorate your cake. I usually start with the ribbon. Measure and cut your ribbon to fit around each layer of the cake. You can either tie it in a bow or pin it securely with florist pins (used for corsages). Both of these looks are shown below. (Click on the pictures.)

Once your ribbon is secured around the layers, take some scissors and snip the yarn tied around each layer and remove it. Place your decorations on top of the cake and stick the flowers into the diapers to hold everything on. Make a cute little tag, and you're done!

Just Wanted to Share...

...some recent findings.

These cute printable lists from Vale Design are too cute to pass up. Check out her other free printables, such as recipe cards and greeting cards.

And these printable journal pages from Becky Higgins would make a great gift for a teen or friend. I made a cover for mine that looks like this:

Feel free to use it if you'd like! Just click on it and copy.

Hairclip Holder/Message Board

I actually made this during that month-long hiatus from blogging a while back, when my sister was in town visiting me. This is the easiest project ever. I got a canvas from Michael's (using my 40% off coupon) and basically stapled fabric onto it with a staple gun. Then I stapled the ribbon on in the criss-cross pattern. To secure it at the intersections, I sewed buttons right onto the fabric-covered canvas. Done! Now with all of my daughter's hair bows and flowers attached, you can barely see the board!

Hooded Bath Towels

First off, for this project, I prefer to buy my towels at Wal-mart because they have a brand called Mainstays True Colors which are cheap and come in a variety of colors. But most importantly to me, they lack the ribbing that is found on most towels. I think the finished product looks better without a big stripe of ribbing going around the hood and down the sides. My opinion. The bath towels are $4, the hand towels are $3.50, and the washcloths are $2.50.

I have two versions of hooded bath towels to post. One is a very simple and easy version, and the other is even easier. Let's start with the even easier one.

First Version:

You'll need a bath towel and a washcloth of the same color. Fold the bath towel in half, right sides together, so you can find the center. Then place a corner of the washcloth at the center point and pin the side down onto the bath towel (right sides together if there are "sides"). Do both sides until it looks like this:
Now sew down the whole line, making sure that your seam allowance is as big as the binding on the side of the towel and washcloth. And you're done!
Second Version:

You will need a bath towel and a hand towel of the same color. You can follow this great tutorial at Skip To My Lou for this version.

There are a few things that I would adjust. When I made mine, I did not fold over the finished edge as shown in the second picture on Skip To My Lou. Also, depending on how tall you want the hood to be, you don't have to trim the hand towel to 10.5 inches. Leaving some length will give you a taller hood. This towel pictured was trimmed to 10.5 inches, and I probably would have left some length on it.

I added some large rickrack to the hood, and also down the sides. You can also add ribbon or embroider a monogram or name onto the towel.
This makes a fun, personal, cheap and easy gift! Give it a try!

Birthday or Dress-Up Crown

I made this crown for my daughter's birthday party. There are lots of cute ideas out there for crown color themes and design, but I went with the strawberry theme simply because I didn't have any other colors!

All I did was measure my daughter's head, and cut a crown shape out of white wool felt. This is not to be confused with the craft sheets of felt. Wool felt is purchased on the bolt at JoAnn's or any fabric store.

I made a stencil for the monogram using my word processor. I just picked a font I liked and printed out a stencil. I cut out the strawberries and butterflies and then sewed them onto the white piece by hand. If you are good with a machine, you can do it that way too, but I didn't trust myself at the time! I added the yellow french knots on the strawberries and the buttons on the butterflies.

When the white piece was done, I attached it to the red by sewing the rickrack on. I made a casing for a piece of elastic for the back, then attached it by zig zagging it onto both sides of the back, and I was done!

It was a very fun project and I highly recommend it! It was fun and fast and I am very happy with the result!