Baby Sushi bodysuit!

When I saw this Sushi Baby Costume  on Martha Stewart's website, which was made by Carolynn Caffelle I could not resist making one for my niece/nephew-to be for Christmas a couple years ago.

 

 

 

There are templates to make either tuna or shrimp (<-- the one I chose).

 

It was a lot of fun to make, and got quite a few smiles when it was done :)

 

My brother & sister-in-law took some adorable pictures of my niece wearing this, where they had chopsticks in the forefront of the picture and it looked like they were "picking up the sushi" hahaha.

 



Doily garland!

Last winter, I helped make decorations for my friends baby shower :)  Her nursery colors were blue & orange, and let me tell you, I found it pretty tricky to get orange decorations at the store.  So, I bought some white paper doilies and some orange Rit dye and made my own.  I poured enough of the dye in the bottom of my pot (that I use only for craft projects) and added water to it, so it was probably about a 50:50 solution.

 

Mixed that all together, then added each doily individually into the mixture, making sure they were covered with the dye on both sides, and were not touching each other.  (I could dye about 3 at a time in my container) 

 

GLOVES came in handy :)  Though I do believe I still had an orange finger in the end.

 

Each doily was probably only in the dye about 5-10 seconds, then I took them out and set them on a stack of old rags so they could air dry.

 

Once they were dry, I cut a long piece of kite string and strung the doilies onto it.  After the spacing looked OK, I added scotch tape to the back of the doily (over the string) to keep it all in place.

 

DIY Orange doily garland!

 

It was so much fun to make :)

 

Didn't get a picture of them hanging on the wall though, oh well.

Crazy excited!

The arrival of my sweet little neice or nephew is expected in a little over a month.  Lets just say, I am one crazy excited Aunt :)  I can't wait to meet the little peanut.

 

My Mom & I threw a baby shower for the lovely Mommy-to-be and baby last week, so now it is safe to start posting some pictures of what I've been up to in the craft/sewing room lately.

 

 

Puffy painted onesie

 

 

DIY pom pom luggage id

We're heading on a trip soon, and I have been procrastinating on packing, big time.  I haven't put much inside the bag, but I have been making pom poms to identify my luggage from the outside!   (the muted toned yarn I have on the suitcase handles needed an upgrade)

Here's a simple DIY tutorial for making luggage pom poms

Supplies:  scissors, thin ribbon, fabric (I used stretchy scraps from a swimsuit I made in the past)



1) Cut long strips of fabric (about 1/2" wide)

2)  Decide how long you want the pom pom strings to be on one side.  Double that width.  Find something of that width to wrap your long strips of fabric around, over and over (see below)

3) Tie a ribbon tightly into a knot around the center of your fabric bundle (in my pic above, the knot went between my ring and middle fingers.  *Leave a long tail of the ribbon so it can later be attached to your bag*

4) Cut the loops (see below)

5) For extra security that the strips of fabric won't loosen and fall out, take 1 strand from each side of the ribbon knot and tie them together.  *Repeat* with all strands, this secures the ball, and fluffs it out better.

3 step Christmas centerpiece

Here's a quick, easy and cheap Christmas centerpiece idea.  Chances are you already have everything you need to make this!

Supplies:
Candle (in a jar) - Mine is evergreen scented
Flat bottomed tray (or bowl with a large flat portion in the center)
Christmas ornaments
Gift wrapping ribbon

I ended up buying a new black tray for my centerpiece.  It was only a few bucks at Hobby Lobby, in the party section.


Directions:

1) Set your candle jar on the center of the tray and make sure it is stable.

 2) Add a few ornaments around the base of the candle jar (I used a package of 6 red glitter ornaments from my collection)

3) Cut long strips of wrapping paper ribbon and drape them over the ornaments.  I didn't curl the ribbons, they had a natural "large curl" just from coming off of the roll.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - bouquet

Another accessory I decided to make for our Royal Wedding Halloween costumes was a bridal bouquet.

Although I was hoping to find silk flowers of the actual types used in Kate Middleton's bouquet (sweet William, lily-of-the-valley, myrtle & hyacinth) I had no such luck. So, I just bought some silk leaves and little white flowers and went with it. I adore how much meaning went into every detail of William and Kate's actual wedding though *sigh*, how perfect.

Anyways, I ended up with 2 stems each of 2 different white flowers and one stem of leaves. I already had some floral wire and tape on hand (though I didn't end up using the wire).





I cut the flower stems apart and started bundling them (not knowing how large I'd be making this bouquet) and taping them together.



Then I added some leaves, then more flowers and went back and forth arranging the stems while taping more into the bouquet.


About 10 minutes later, this is what I ended up with, which for costume purposes works just fine:

Here's the side view:

I bent a couple of the long stems around to make a handle for the bouquet and wrapped them in floral tape.

To see more posts on the making of our William and Kate Halloween costumes, click on the "William and Kate" label on the side of my blog. There are quite a few instructions (especially for making the wedding gown) and they're fun DIY costumes.

For a link to other essential accessories for the wedding day "Princess Kate" costume, check out this post

Halloween 2011 - Kate Middleton costume accessories

Accessories are a must when it comes to being Kate Middleton for Halloween.

The most important accessory: the engagement ring. As long as you have long brown hair (or a long brown wig) and are wearing a replica of that ring for Halloween, most people will know who you are no matter what clothes you're wearing.

If you're going for the wedding day look of Kate Middleton, than a tiara is a must.
(they have replicas of what she wore available, but I picked out an inexpensive substitute)


This should also be paired with a bridal veil. (I'll be using the veil I wore at my bachelorette party)

Another well known accessory that Kate wore were her custom made earrings. I found replicas of these earrings on-line, although they aren't a crucial part of the look.

I purchased all of these accessories on amazon.com. Although, they could all be home made or substituted with another item (ie wear any set of dangly earrings) for costume purposes.

Check out the start of how I made my halloween costume as the Duchess of Cambridge
here. Or, click on the label "William and Kate" on the side of my blog.

If you're going as "Princess Kate" for Halloween too, don't forget your bridal bouquet!

Tie Dye!

Hubs and I are on vacation, so I thought I'd share some pictures from when my Little (big brothers big sisters) and I tie dyed shirts:

Here's my Little's shirt all full of dye:

Here's my shirt all full of dye:


The instructions on the tie dye package said to wrap the shirts in saran wrap to keep the dye moist... we tried that, but decided it was better to put them in plastic ziploc bags.



8-9 hours later, I rinsed our shirts out and put them through the laundry.

Here's how my Little's shirt turned out:

Here's how my shirt turned out:



I didn't think to look at the fabric contents before we dyed the shirts because the shirt I bought for her was from a stack right next to the tie dye kits. I used an old white shirt of Hubby's that had a stain on it fo myself.

I knew that dye works much better on cotton fabrics and looking at the shirts now it is very apparent.

My old stained shirt was 100% cotton and her new shirt (bought right by the dye) was 50% polyester and 50% cotton. Bummer. Her shirt still turned out really cute, but I would have searched for a 100% cotton shirt for her to use too... guess I shouldn't just assume the craft aisle has the best options in line.

Flip Flop Failure

You know those flip flops with extra wide straps meant for decorating? Well, my little and I (big brothers big sisters) decided it would be a fun project for a rainy day to decorate some summery sandals.

We went to the store, picked out our flip flops and some "bling" aka strips of adhesive rhinestones specifically meant to decorate these flip flops.

It was simple to apply/decorate the sandals.... but after about 1 hour of wearing them (and trying to fix them over and over), here is what mine looked like:



Major bummer. I wonder how my Little's held up... probably about the same.

So, I'm thinking I have 3 options for these lovely flip flops
1) remove the rhinestones & decorate them with something else
2) remove the rhinestones & leave the flip flops plain
3) try gluing the rhinestones back on with another type of glue

I have quite a few plain flip flops so I'll probably try option 1 or 3 some time. (We had a box of "dancing shoes" aka flip flops at my wedding for people with sore feet... so there was no excuse not to dance! Apparently I over bought though, as there were lots of extras lol)

Button hair clip

Here's another super simple, ultra fast hair accessory that you can make with things you already have in under a minute.

Supplies:
Buttons
Felt
Hair clip
Tacky glue



1. Cut felt piece large enough to cover the hair clip, and hold whatever you will be gluing onto it.
2. Glue the felt onto the hair clip
3. Glue the buttons on
4. Let it dry, and it's ready to go!

Tutorial : Quick & easy hair accessory

This week is "accessory week" on my blog. I bought a bag of hair clips to decorate, and busted out some scrap fabric to make a really simple hair accessory. This is a NO-Sew hair clip. It's the perfect project for this busy holiday season!

Here is how it was made : (it only takes a minute or two)

1. Grab a scrap of fabric from your stash, and a hair clip.

2. Cut the fabric into the shape below (cut it larger or smaller based on how big you want your bow. My fabric was roughly 3 times the length of the hair clip to start)

3) Use fray check around the perimeter of the fabric you just cut to prevent it from fraying too much. (though it is not supposed to look too finished either)

4) Tie a knot, it will now look like the picture below.

5) Slip the hair clip through the knot you just tied, but on the backside of the bow.

6) That's all! The best part is that you could easily tie several different bows, and change them out on the same hair clip, depending on which accessory you wanted that day.

* you could also tie this bow onto a headband or hair tie for a slightly different look*