I do crafts!

It's been quite a while since I have attempted to do any more crafting.  The main reason being a rough pregnancy and other pressing matters.  I did work on decorating Zoe's room and the baby's room so that's something, right?  Well, now the baby is here and so is summer.  What that means is that I am spending a lot of time at home and needing something to do so I don't lose my ever loving mind. 

My wonderful mother-in-law gave me a new sewing machine for Christmas.  I was super excited to get it home and try it out.  Unfortunately I had no space to set it up and attempt some projects.  Now that school is out Zach has been spending more time at home and he cleared a space for me in the garage, set up a table, and set up my sewing machine.  What a good husband.  Late night feedings have meant that I have been perusing Pinterest A LOT and I have many projects that I'm just itching to try my hand out. 

The first use of my pretty sewing machine (which I love by the way) was to make the baby a headband.  I found the tutorial here.  I was drawn to the tutorial because I could use up more of my old t-shirt scraps from when I made these.  It was the perfect craft to try out my new machine.  I just made one so far but will soon be making some for the older daughter.

This little project just got me in the mood to do more so the next project on my mind was to try these cute little circle skirts, again for the baby.  I started with these because I had all the materials on hand and because it only uses a fat quarter of fabric.  I didn't want to risk messing up any more fabric than that.  The template can be printed off on a regular sheet of paper and the instructions were super easy to understand.  One thing quickly became evident though during this project: I can not sew a straight line, at all.  I'm hoping that more practice will help that.

I had some scraps left over from this skirt so I decided to make a hair clip.  After looking for a bit and still not finding a tutorial for one that met my fancy I decided to just do a rosette style, twisting and gluing on a scrap of felt.  Another thing I learned: I can't use hot glue without burning at least one appendage.

So, these three projects pair nicely together.  The little clip I made easily attaches to the head band but is also something that can be worn directly in the hair.  I'm pretty pleased with how they all turned out and will be making more of these in the near future (hopefully with straighter lines and no injuries).

My little model.

Learning to sew...

There's nothing like realizing the summer is almost over to motivate you to finish some craft projects.  I have been working on a dress for little miss for months now and I finally finished it! (pause for applause)  Let me tell you, it was no easy feat and my sewing machine and I are not on friendly terms.  In fact, most of my sewing on this project was done by hand. 

The tutorial for my project can be found here.  It's something I found on Pinterest.  First thing I had to do was find a shirt to turn into a dress for Zoe.  Zach was gone on a trip so naturally I chose one of his that he had been unwilling to get rid of but also unwilling to actually wear.

I don't think he'll miss it.

The first part of the project was easy enough.  It wasn't until I attempted gathering the skirt that I had problems.  I followed the advice of my friend Brittney ( you can follow her blog here) and did the gathering by hand.  I tried to do it by machine, setting the tension on high and all that, but it wasn't very pretty.  However, the hand sewing worked good enough.

The next problem I encountered was the straps.  The original tutorial didn't have any way to buckle the straps so that they could be removed to put the dress on.  When I tried to put the dress on Zoe with the straps attached it turned into an acrobatic exercise that she did not appreciate.  On my last entry I reached out for suggestions and got one that was great.  I attached hook and eye fasteners (or trouser hooks) to the straps.  Then I sewed buttons on the straps to give the allusion of button holes without trying to attempt them.

The finished product:

I didn't attempt the pockets from the tutorial because, well, I think that pockets are far beyond my skill level, or at least the skill level of my machine (let's blame it on the machine). 

Anyway, sewing project number 3 is in the books.  Now all I need is some fabric to crank out one of the other ones I have pinned on my Pinterest wall...

Happy crafting my friends!!



It's beginning to look a lot like...

Crafting has had to take a back seat lately due to the holidays and all the commitments that go with it.  However, I have had it in the back of my mind to make a holiday outfit for Z to wear to multiple Christmas events.  On cyber Monday I cruised on over to hobbylobby.com and found some super cute fabric that was just perfect.  So, I got on the web and visited multiple sites and how-to's to see how I can best put this fabric to use.  I decided on a pillow-case dress because it best seemed to fit my skill level.  I never could find a tutorial that I liked online so I just kind of winged it.  It was, in a word, aggravating.  I am still getting to know my machine and we had many "come to Jesus" moments this week as I worked on the dress.  We had to have it tonight for a school Christmas program and I was literally sewing ribbon on minutes before walking out the door.  Here's my little model, not the best pictures but you get the drift.

She loves her new dress and it looks great with the Christmas Tree bow I made.  It's plenty big so hopefully, after all the blood, sweat and tears, I poured into this dress, she can wear for a couple more years.

I have other crafts that I am going to be tackling, but, they are gifts so the blogging on those will happen after the holidays.

Enjoy the season!!

Where there's a will...

I have come to the belief that some people are born with the ability to "craft." I have also come to the belief that I was not born with said ability.  My mother was also not blessed with the crafting gene.  Birthdays are usually celebrated with a store bought cake and gift bags.  We were the kids on the block with the plastic Halloween costumes that you bought at the drug store.  You know the kind.  We never once won a costume contest at school...

I remember once as a teenager going to my grandmother (who somehow got the crafty gene) and asking her to teach me to sew.  We started simple, I wanted to make a plain a-line skirt.  After about an hour or three of  trying to get one seam sewn my grandmother deemed me unable to sew and finished the skirt for me.  

Surely though certain levels of craftiness can be learned, right???  That's what I aim to find out.  I have already tried my hand at a couple of crafts.  After the birth of my first child I wanted to have a scrapbook of her first year.  My sister volunteered to do it for me but I wanted it to have my own touch so I tried scrapbooking, and lo and behold I actually enjoyed it.  I'm not going to say I am particularly great at it...yet.  I will post some pictures of my efforts at another time.  I've also tried my hand at making a couple of hair bows.  They aren't totally disastrous but I don't think anyone would shell out any dough for them.

So, here's my list of things I am going to give an earnest attempt:

Sewing, cake decorating, bow making, photography, flower arrangements and anything else that comes to mind or is suggested to me.  I will keep you all posted...wish me luck!