Felt Crown Tutorial

Today I am going to teach you to make a Felt Crown. They are super easy and so so cute. They are perfect for birthdays, Christmas or just for dress-ups!

Now I can't take the credit from this. I got the idea from Melissa Wood, who then emailed me instructions on how to put it together. But the embellishments are totally me :)

These crowns are great because they can look like how you want it!

Materials:

-8 1/2 x 11 Felt rectangles: 2 sheets for base, 1 sheet for 2nd smaller layer and/or additional sheets for embellishments. (You can have more layers or less, it's up to you and the look you want)

-Sewing machine - if you don't have a machine, I would imagine a hot glue gun would work for this.

-Matching Thread for machine

-Scissors

-Pencil

-Decorate cutting scissors, like scalloped or wavy (optional)

-Head-bonded Velcro

-2 small pieces of iron-safe fabric

Decide on colors you want for the crown. I got my felt from Michaels but I know they are at Hobby Lobby.

-Take your 2 base sheets and put them together so they match up.

-Sew up one of the short edges (8 1/2 side) and open it up.

-Fold it hot dog style so it creates a long piece of felt.

-Cut you crown how you want it to go. (I did 3 spikes and left the back flat because I later put on some velcro to adjust it and didn't want back spikes to not match up and look weird...but again, up to you.)

-Sew close all edges.

-Take a second layer sheet, fold it hot dog style and cut it in half.

-Then take one of those pieces, fold it Hamburger style and cut it in half again.

-Take those 2 pieces and put them on top of the other intact piece, line them up and sew both short edges together.

-Open up both sides so now you have a long, narrow piece of felt. If you are wondering why we didn't do the same thing as the base layer, it is because I didn't want the middle sewing line in the middle of the crown on both layers. This way, it's a smooth look.

-Lay that on your base crown piece, take a pencil and draw how you want the 2nd layer to line up. If you want the base layer to still be seen, you want to have it shorter.

-Once you have the pencil lines drawn, get your scissors and cut it out. ( I had a decorative roller cutter so I just cut it out with that, hence the wavy cut)

Once it's cut, pin it on the base crown and sew it on.

-If you want another layer, now is the time to do it. But I didn't.

**If the above paragraph is confusing, look at this picture and it'll make sense, like the cutting of the 2nd layer piece etc.**

-So now onto the embellish part of the crown. This is where you can be creative. I've see lots of things. Head on over to Etsy and see what people have done. I've see polka dots or a white circle with a sewn letter in it. There are so many options. You can also sewn on ribbons. Cute ideas!

So whatever you decide, just pin it on and sew it on. That's what I did with both the "K" and the swirlies. I hand drew the swirlies and then sewed them on the crown.

-When you are done with the embellishments, then add your velcro to the back. There are many different types of velcro and how to attach it. That's up to you! I sewed mine on.

And There you go! An adorable crown :)

Feeling Nestish & a Great find!

I admit it, I am definitely nesting right now. I know what's to come so i'm doing as much as I can before #3 gets here. So the other night, I made some of these. The black one was made from a tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets. The other two, I just cut out circles and pinned them together with a brad then hot glued them to a snap clip. Real easy!

Made another onesie. I am obsessed. I love looking at Etsy for ideas. And I have so many extra squares from my quilt that they are perfect to these.

And this is my Fabulous Find. Got this at the Las Vegas .99 cent store! Yep, this little package was a dollar! I love the style! So it wasn't exactly from a thrift store but I count dollar stores as such!

I linked this to Homebody: Thrifty Thursday!

Baby Boy Quilt

I was going to attempt to write a tutorial on this but there is just no way....I am no skilled Quilter and my mom helped me and gave me a ton of pointers...too many to even organize in my head!

But I just wanted to show off a bit....

lol I am so proud...maybe a bit too much....

But hey, this is a rare occasion to have made a quilt!

Anyways, this is for the much anticipated birth of our first boy in the family, after having 2 girls...we needed a change!

It took me probably a total of 4 days to do.

The hardest part was the binding with hand stitching it all the way around.

I got all but one piece of fabric at Just Sew in Highland, UT. Great staff! They pretty much were my slaves for 1/2 while I figured out what I wanted! The one fabric that I didn't get there, I got at The Stitching Corner...the green with brown polka dots.

I chose 8 different pieces of fabric that I would be cutting into 3 1/2 inch squares. Some of the fabrics, I got more for the borders. I think I got a quarter yard of each for the squares fabric and then added more for the border fabric. I wish I could tell you exact measurements but it was all calculated at that store. I was serious when it was a big deal to make a quilt! I had no idea how to start!

ANyways, after all the squares were cut, then I laid them out of the floor to made the design of the quilt. I made sure to take a picture of the order of the squares incase I had to put them up...Ok, so that's as far as I can go...

Pretty much sew the squares together, then sew on the borders around that, place quilt top, batting and backing together with safety pins, cut them together and then sew on the binding...

I did get some pointers at Old Red Barn Co so you should check out that site.

But I loved how it turned out and can't wait to put the little guy on it!

I linked this to Twice Remembered Make your Monday! Check it out!

How to get Circut mats sticky again

A few months ago when I bought my Cricut I realized that the mat does not stay sticky forever... so instead of buying a new one I wanted to figure out how to make it sticky again . So I went online and did a little research and I found a great link on how to do it. I've done it a couple of times on my old mat and it's worked wonders for me.

A few pointers:

you do want to try and get everything off the mat before you apply ZIG to it.

I used GOO GONE and it worked perfect! Just spray it all over on the mat let it sit for a couple of min. and then scrape it off with a sponge.

Once you get the glue on do let is sit and dry for a few hours before you get paper back on it again. I made the mistake of only letting it dry for 20 min. and the paper got stuck! had to do the process all over again after that.

I bought the ZIG 2 way glue at Michael's Craft store and used their 50% off coupon ...yay!

It has saved me some money so far! I hope it works for you!

Onesies and other stuff

I made my first onesie back in March for a baby shower. It was just too simple! I would have made more but had to get everything ready for the move. But I have been collecting onesies to do for baby #3. Here's a few I did last night. Again, so simple. I just followed the instructions on the Heat n' Bond that I bought at Hancocks. You can buy that stuff at any craft store.

Then a few simple things i've done around the house. I got this at Hobby Lobby for like $2. It was originally black but I repainted it then sanded it down. I like the antique look!

And this guy, I originally bought it for THIS. But forgot to bring a magnet at the store so when I got home, I found it wasn't magnetic. So instead, I made it into a display platter. It was just an old silver tray.

Looks great in the kitchen. I lightly spray painted it to keep it still looking old. Then I put vinyl on it. The tray was, I think, 50 cents at DI...not to bad!

Crafty GIveaways!

The Dress-up Drawer is hosting loads of Crafty Giveaways, including this:

Isn't this adorable?! Click on the Giveaway button above to go enter!

Ribbon Holder tutorial

I am amazed at what you can create when you have no or hardly any money. I love going to DI or Goodwill these days because I'm learning to see past what things are to what they could become.

Such is the case with my Ribbon Holder. This is what I found at DI for $2:

(Does anyone know what this is?!)

After some TLC, it now looks like this:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

And it was really simple to transform it. I'll break it down for you!

Step 1: Using my trusty Tomboy Tools, Trim the wood with a hack saw so that a dowel can slide in and out of the hooks.

Step 2: Sand them down a bit using a sanding block or paper.

Step 3: Take out frame piece to decorate later.

Step 4: If you are pregnant, nag and nag and nag your husband to spray paint it. If not, then you can do it (so jealous because it took my husband a week to finally do this step and I was dying!...something about fumes and the baby..I have no idea....)

Step 4: Decorate frame piece and place back in Holder.

I just traced the shape on scrapbook paper and used a glue runner to hold in place. Then I took black stickers and made the label.

Step 5: Hang on wall, making sure to use a level to they hand straight! Something that helps with this is called a Picture Perfect Level, you must check this out!

Step 6: Place ribbon on dowels and place on your holder.

Step 7: Stand back and look at what you've accomplished!

boy, what a feeling!

I first linked this to DIY Day over at A Soft Place to Land!

And at It's So Very Cheri's Knock off Knock Out Party

And at 2nd Time around at A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

And also Transformation Thursday over at Shabby Chic Cottage

And I linked this to Thriftstore Thursday over at Homebody Holly. Check her out!

Pink Little Ladies Giveaway

Cairen at Pink Little Ladies is doing a giveaway for this:

You can find her on the side...been monitoring her for quite sometime...but also HERE

And everyone keep crafting!

Inspiration..

Someone please tell me how you go from this:

To this?:

Found this at Sutton Grace, where she has a step-by-step tutorial. A part of me wants to tackle this and make one too for my girls. But at the same time, it's definitely not a "one night" project...more like a few weeks project. But totally worth it!

Nursing Cover Tutorial...redone.

There are a million Nursing Cover tutorials out there. They are all great. Frankly, nursing covers are not hard. You could figure it out.

I really like this one from Little Birdie Secrets

They do a great job on step by step's and lots of pictures. I recommend doing that one.

Now don't get me wrong. I love boning and what it does for the nursing cover, but it still bothered me how thin it was and that it would still flop over.

So I got to thinking...

About a year ago, when I started my nursing cover venture, a friend of mine let me borrow one of her nursing covers to use as a guide. See, the one she let me borrow didn't use boning, but used interfacing on the fabric, really wide interfacing. I was a little intimidated by boning so I wanted to try interfacing. The only problem was wearing out and being folded in half for storage, it was getting a permanent crease in it.

So I made a few with interfacing but was expecting for it to not hold it's shape. But things got crazy busy for me so I haven't done anything since. But I did buy some boning.

So flash forward to now, being 7 months pregnant with a different gendered baby. I want a new "boy" nursing cover so I have put the 2 ways of making the nursing covers into one.

Cool huh?

So if you look at my nursing covers closely, you will see that there's about 3 1/2 inches of stiff fabric, with boning at the bottom, so that it doesn't flop over but stays stiff so that I can see my beautiful baby boy and only I will see him ;)

So how did I do that? It's kind of complicated but I hope I can explain it.

-Cut out a 7 x 14 inch rectangle of interfacing.

-Take 1 yard of fabric

-whichever way measures longer, cut off 4 inches from that and that will be your neck tie pieces.

-I placed Terry cloth in the bottom corners of the nursing covers, which you can follow instructions in the above tutorial link.

-From there, hem three sides, 2 side edges and bottom edge, of the fabric. I usually fold a small piece and then larger and hem.

-Leave top unhemmed.

-Take top and measure 3 1/2 inches from top and fold over and iron.

-unfold and place the interfacing rectangle, hamburger style, right at that crease and center it on the fabric.

-Iron it on, following interfacing directions.

-Once cool, fold the fabric over again on the interfacing.

-Now you are going to sew a straight line, about an inch wide from the fold all the way across. ---Next you will sew the bottom edge of the piece so that the boning can slide in .

-sew from one end to the opposite end of the interfacing rectangle instead of the whole piece of fabric so it'll be easier to slide the boning in.

-Take your boning and cut it 14 inches long.

-Slide it in the space and position it over the interfacing. (Make sure the bend of the boning is opposite as how you usually need it for a nursing cover because you'll flip it over)

-Finish sewing the rest of the fabric across then sew fabric shut so boning doesn't slide.

-Then Fold over the fabric about 3 1/2 inches, or half of the interfacing so now the whole interfacing is covered by fabric.

-Sew it closed, about 1/4 to 1/8 inch space from edge because you'll be sewing down boning and you want to make sure you don't hit the actual plastic.

-Then sew shut edges of the interfacing and then around the boning.

-Then Follow directions for the neckties from link above and you should be done!

I keep forgetting to take pics on all these steps so they are all words. Let me know if you have questions but I think this is much better than just boning!

Pillowcase Dresses

Celeste found an easy tutorial for pillowcase dresses. We tried it out and they are super cute and fun to make. You can find the tutorial here: http://www.graceviolet.com/2008/05/how-to-make-pillowcase-dress.html

I also found a tutorial on how to make fabric flowers for hair clips and I sewed one on to Bailey's dress as well http://solovelycreations.blogspot.com/2009/07/flower-clip-tutorial-and-party.html