wool flowers: visual diy

diy: patchwork cloud {plus a giveaway}

I whipped up this patchwork cloud for the march bed in under an hour. It's really easy to do! The hardest part is choosing your fabrics. I went with vintage linen pieces, most of which were a gift from Tara and I left the quilting threads long to create a raincloud. They are not very easy to see here but they are there. This is a really loosey-goosey diy and can be adapted in any number of ways.

 

Think about where you are going to hang or display your cloud. Make sure your fabric choices will showcase nicely with your wall color. I went with white because the bedroom is really dark and the aqua colored walls make it seem even darker. I was hoping the white would show up better and brighten things all around. If you have any fat pieces of lace or trim around, add those as well. The contrast in textures is really nice to have. Along with my vintage linens I have some vintage floral seersucker. I love the texture of the seersucker!

I wanted my cloud to be a bit larger than the paper I had on hand so I taped two sheets of 11"X17" paper together with packing tape. I drew a cloud shape until I was happy with it then cut it out. Ta-da! A pattern!

Next up I cut my fabric pieces into smaller bits all about 3" tall/long and anywhere from 2" to 6" wide. I adhered my fabric bits to the pattern (beginning at the bottom) with my trusty craft glue stick. Just swipe it onto the paper and press your fabric on top. This is really just to hold it in place until you stitch it all together. You could pin it all in place if you prefer to do so. Once I had one row adhered to my pattern, I popped it into my sewing machine and did a quick zig-zag stitch (set at 4) across the whole thing. Repeat with the glue, add more fabric a few inches above the bottom row, stitch and repeat.

Once I had covered my whole pattern, I flipped the whole mess over and trimmed away excess fabric. Popped it back into my sewing machine upside down so I could see where to stitch and stitched all the way around with a running/straight stitch (also set at 4). When the cloud shape was too wide on the right to move nicely through the machine, I rolled it up and continued on.  After stitching around the entire cloud I flipped my cloud back over so that the right side faced up and "quilted" the top pieces by vertically stitching along the cloud at various intervals. This serves two purposes, one to anchor down edges of overlapping fabric scraps, and two to add a textural element to the piece. The quilting threads also made for happy "rain" along the bottom of my cloud.

 

Trim threads where you want them trimmed and hang in a happy place (I used washi tape looped onto the back along with a length of yarn clipped to a wire)! I love my cloud and will need to make more I think. If you would like a chance to win this bit of happy, leave me a happy comment below. You have until Earth Day to leave a comment!

diy: ten minute stocking

Hi there! Like I said in my last post I misplaced our stockings and decided to whip up some new ones until I could uncover the missing stockings. My plan was to use some of this awesome grey fabric I thrifted from an old sheet and decorate them with doilies and pom-poms. I did not account for my allergies or the fact that the awesome grey fabric is probably hiding out with the stockings.

After undoing all the nice box piling I had done last week in the scary pink room, I was at my wit's end and ready to bag the whole idea. It's Christmas eve, I have a lot of wrapping to do still, a pound cake to bake, a gas tank to fill up not to mention the exploding ginger ale incident. I was ready to walk out and use lunch sacks like Grandma used to use but then I spied a pile of linens my dear friend Amy passed along to me and in that lovely pile was a lovely lace-trimmed pillowcase. Instantly I could see it as a stocking. How easy and pretty it would be and I believe I have another pillowcase in the linen cabinet that would work as well. The hemmed edges of the pillowcases would make a great top part of a stocking. Luckily I had my template from last year's denim stocking and so without much thought to the eggs on the counter I grabbed my scissors and some pins and hopped to it!

 

 

 

Turn pillowcase inside out and position stocking template on top, utilizing as much of the print as you can. My template was shorter than  what would allow for the fun part of the fabric so I pinned it where I wanted it and envisioned the rest of the template to the top hemmed edge. Pin in place and cut excess pillowcase away. Note: Some people will cut out here stocking shape right then and there but I prefer to work from a rectangle, stitch, then cut. This allows for more wiggle room for less-seasoned sewers.

 

Bring to machine and position foot at top edged hem pointing down towards your template (unless you drew a longer stocking shape to fill up your pillowcase) and begin to sew using the needle-foot as a seam allowance guide. I eyeballed my template and attempted to stitch two-three inches away so that my stocking would be wider than what I had drawn out. Another tip is to use a darker bobbin thread so that you can easily see where to trim your fabric away. All white thread might make is more difficult for the myopically challenged like myself.  Don't forget to backstitch!

Trim around stitched edges and snip a few vertical slits into each curve if your template had curves. This will keep it from puckering when turned right-side out...though mine still seems to pucker...grab up a bit of scrap fabric about six inches long. Fold it into thirds width-wise. This will be your hanger. Use a zig-zag stitch to hold all layers together, fold in half and stitch to the top of your stocking along the back seam. To do this, you will need to remove the arm cover of your machine so that you can insert your stocking over the arm to stitch the hanger on without stitching through all sides of your stocking. You can also use ribbon for this part or you can hammer in a grommet or hand-stitch your hanger on.

Turn right-side out and Ta-Da! A nifty, pretty stocking in about ten minutes! Can you guess which one is mine? Merry Christmas!

christmas wrapping

 I have a thing for gift wrap. A major THING. But knowing that the pretty only lasts for a few moments and then it is tossed into the trash makes me feel all ickified inside. I have a few rolls I purchased moons ago that have carried me over for a while and other than that I stick to pattern tissue (thrifted), brown paper (from packing materials, etc.) and other bits of pieces that float about the casa. This year, I purchased two skeins of yarn and broke out some of my coffee filters as well...it's pretty nifty how pretty you can make gifts with a few snips here and a few snips there...

make a christmas garland

i'm revisiting the junk mail garland for this holiday season. this time i used newspaper with a couple of coats of white paint. i used a small circle punch after cutting scallops into the painted paper and used a ziz-zag on the machine to stitch all the happy to a long length of vintage trim. then, because i sometimes forget when to stop, i added a few more stitches to each flag.

i love the way it turned out and quite like painted newspaper. such a happy medium. stay tuned for a fun snowflake tutorial.

new craft project: felty fall headbands

upcyle yer old and/or thrifted sweaters into pretty headbands (and ear warmers) for fall! over at craftzine.

upcrafting at craftzine.com

this one is perfect for those of you who have just finished with summer...check it out at craftzine.com.

new tutorial for craftzine...

hop on over and check it out!