Happy 4th of July- And Tutorial

4th of July is my favorite day of the year! Parades, sunshine, cookouts, family, and fireworks!

I like to make Lucy her outfits for special days but this year snuck up on me. 

This was at her 4th of July Parade at School! I made the top the night before

Here she is waiting on the BIG parade. I made the dress and shoes too.

As you can see I love the 4th, this year is no exception. I have been obsessed with outfits for a month now. Lucy really really loved the tutu skirt from Gymboree, so she will be wearing that.
I have made shoes and a bag for the big parade

Today, I'm going to show you how I made the bag.
You will need:
Canvas
Red and Blue Fabric
Sewing machine and thread

The first thing I did was cut mu fabric into strips
3 of each at 3 inches wide

Iron and sew each of the strips

Once all that is completed, cut the canvas for you bag
I chose 10x12
You can find the tutorial here for how to make a bag
But before assembling, go ahead and make your ruffles
I chose for this project to do the long and loose stitch method
I took a strip and did one long straight loose stitch down the middle
Pull the bottom stitch to make a ruffle

Assemble your strips onto the canvas, then straight stitch them on

Once that is complete you can begin to assemble your bag.
Here is the tutorial for that.

I have the perfect model and she just flat out refused! So here I am. And NOOOOO my mirror is not that dirty!!!! I think.....

This bag is perefect to hold the candy that will get thrown out, if I wasn't leaving soon I'd make me one too!

What do you think?

Beach Bag Tutorial

My friend Carrie spent Mothers Day at the Beach this year and fell in love with a beach bag she saw. The bag was made out of a beach towel! She couldn't resist trying to make one. So a few days ago she came with towels in hand.  Since we had no pattern to go by we made 2, the first one was ok. The second one turned out really cute! Silly me took NO pictures! I am officially the worst blogger EVER!

So since I have no pictures, and I also bought a cute little towel, I decided to make one for my cousin who will be here tomorrow.

Good thing I embroidered her name on it because I might have to keep it!

Items Needed:

Towel of choice

wash cloth

Webbing

1. Fold the towel in half, and cut the sides and top to the size you want. I used a bag that I had as a pattern

2. Fold the tops and hem

3. Once you have hemmed the top of the bag, take your webbing and lay it out on your bag to position how much you need

Then sew the 2 ends together

Then re-position with the sewn part of the webbing in the middle so that it will be at the bottom of the bag. Sew the webbing to the bag. I used 2 straight stitches on each side. If you want to cut time you can do one straight stitch down the middle

Now its time to work on the pocket. Pull out your wash cloth, fold in half and sew at the top wrong side out like a pillow. Turn right side out position to where you want it. With a zig zag stitch sew the bottom and sides

Once you have done that, fold your bag together wrong side out, and sew the sides

Take the bottom corners and make a triangle

The bottom is flat facing up

Sew a straight stitch for the bottom of triangle

Turn your bag right side out and you should have a beautiful bag!

I'll be linking to the parties on the right side of the page!

Dance bag Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!-CLOSED

 When Lucy started dance again back in the fall,

she needed new tap shoes, ballet shoes, tutus, tights, and of course leotards!

I couldn't believe that in one summer she outgrew everything!

With all this fancy schmancy dance attire, she had to have  could use a new bag, right?

I must warn you, if you were looking for a difficult dance bag tutorial, 

you are in the wrong place

I made 2 of these, 1 for Lucy, and of course one for Marin.

These girls get crazy compliments on these bags and have even sold a few

Supplies needed:
White tote bags (You can find a 3 pack at Hobby Lobby for $6.99)
Tulle of any color
Coordinating Ribbon
Hot Glue (and Gun :o))

I have an embroidery machine so I decided to embroider Lucy's name
If you decide to do the same, or have someone do it for you, Make sure this is your first step
You don't want the tulle to get tangled or malled
Step 1
Lay out your bag of choice and the tulle
Tulle is extremely difficult to work with 
I find that when it comes to tulle be as simple as possible
I folded over the tulle several times to make it fuller and the right size

Pin the tulle to the bag starting in the middle
I wanted a cleaner look for this bag so I pinned the tulle straight
If you want a "rufflier" bag, pleat every 2 inches
Is rufflier a word? It should be!

sew with a straight stitch
Don't worry about making it perfect, you'll cover with the ribbon 

It should look like this

Now that you have the tulle sewn, pull out your ribbon
You can sew this on or use your Hot Glue
I prefer to sew since it is being carried by kids

Sew a straight stitch on top, and on the bottom
Set the bag to the side
Take your ribbon and make a bow
You can find that tutorial here
Glue your bow to the center of the ribbon

Since I take the easy way out when working with tulle and fold it to make it fuller,
you will want to cut it to make it fluffy
You can see in the picture below where to cut

 Here you go! I love the leopard with the pink

This is fun for holidays too. 

Now for the GIVEAWAY!

Yay! My first one!
This bag can be yours!


Here are the rules:
1. Become a follower and leave a comment saying you are
(leave a comment if you always have been)
2.Blog about the giveaway and leave a comment letting me know

Butterfly Bow Tutorial

Hair bow tutorials seem to be so secretive on the internet

I guess thats because it is the most sold item at small town festivals

I know how to make them, and I still buy them!

I was making several for some of Lucy's new outfits and thought I would share with you

Items Needed:

Ribbon

Hair Clip (you can use alligator or clamp style)

No Fray

Thick thread

Hair Clip (they kind beauty salons use)

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

First, you want to measure your ribbon. I usually cut mine around 38 inches

Fold your ribbon as shown

Then, fold the other side. This is where you can eyeball it 

to make sure that the sides are even

Take the center of the right side of the ribbon and pull down to the middle

Do they same to the other side, and secure with the Hair Clip
You can see the Butterfly take shape here

Take your heavy thread and pull it through the hair clip as shown

Pull the thread tightly and slowly being sure not to snap it

And secure it with a knot

Now its time to start on the middle piece

Because I didn't have a smaller coordinating ribbon on hand I made my own

Take a small piece of ribbon and a thin line of hot glue

Fold 1/2 over, then repeat until you have a smaller ribbon

On the front of the bow add a small dot in the middle

and add the small piece of ribbon

Flip over and glue your choice of clip
I chose to use a barrette clip

Open the clip and remove the center so you can glue the other side of ribbon

Cut your ends.....

Add a little Fray block.....

And Voila!

Don't forget to come back on Monday to check out 
my Faux Health, Faux Real Series


I'll be linking here

Handmade Gifts (Part 3)

We are now in the final Day of out 3 part series

You have to get started on your gifts!

We are 1 week away!

This is another easy one

I know there are so many versions on Blogland so I wanted to share mine

You want to start with a nice frame

This particular one come from Michaels

at 50% off with an additional 25% coupon makes the final price $3.45---SCORE!

Grab your chalkboard paint

A lot of people prefer the spray paint form

I like this particular kind from AC Moore

It comes in a ton of colors, you'll see that soon

I then take the glass out and use it as a template to measure the foam board

Paint your foam board

Pop it back into the frame (without glass of course)

And there you have it!

I used Command Strips to hang it from my Refrigerator

I love how it looks on my Fridge, I hope the recipient does too!