How to Make a Fabric Princess (or Prince) Crown

My niece is going to turn two years old soon and we are planning a pink and gold party.  I thought she'd need a pink and gold crown to wear at her party.  I had made a couple blue and gold crowns for my sons when they were younger, so I used the same technique here.

The first step is to make a pattern.  I had a foam crown from Oriental Trading that fit my boys' heads and I traced it on to tracing paper to make a pattern.

Cut one each of gold and pink fabric.  To make sure my crown ended up looking symmetric, I folded my pattern in half and I folded my fabric in half.  Then I pinned the pattern to both pieces of fabric at once with the fold of the pattern on the fold of the fabric.  Both of my fabrics were thin so cutting through four layers at once wasn't a problem.  (I got my fabric from the remnant bin at JoAnn Fabrics because you need less than 1/2 yard of each color.)

Lay both pieces of the fabric crown, right side down, on a hard surface.  Fold up the bottom edge of both pieces a 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch and iron it so it stays put.

Pin the right sides together and sew around the whole crown except for the bottom edge.  Leave the bottom edge (where you ironed the hem) completely open.  After sewing, trim the tips off of the crown points close to your seam.  Then turn the crown right side out.

Stuff the crown lightly, using a pencil to push the stuffing up into the points.

Pin bottom sides together.  Topstitch along that bottom edge sealing up the crown.

Sew strips of velcro on the ends of the crown to hold the crown closed. (If you want a neater crown you should sew the velcro on the pink and gold pieces of fabric before you sew the crown together.)

And you're done!

I can't wait to see my niece with this crown perched on her blond curls!

Make Your Own Hunger Games T-shirt

I had this t-shirt from Old Navy and I decided to give it a little Hunger Games makeover.  The shirt already said "LOVE" but I wanted it to say "LOVE changed the game" with a mockingjay.

I ran a piece of dark t-shirt transfer paper through my cricut machine and cut out all the letters I needed. When you iron the letters on the shirt, they just remain white.  If you wanted a different color letters (or if you don't have a cricut) you could use your computer to print the letters onto the transfer paper and cut them out with a scissors.

For the mockingjay, I found the image online and printed it on regular paper first.  Then I taped a strip of dark t-shirt transfer paper over the printed picture and ran it through the printer again.  That way, I didn't have to mess up a whole sheet of transfer paper for my little one-inch image.

Once you get everything cut out, you just line it up where you want it on the shirt, and follow the directions for your t-shirt transfers to iron it on.

Then you can wear your new t-shirt!

Who's excited for the Catching Fire movie coming out this fall? This girl!

DIY Wizard101 Wraith Halloween Costume

My Spencer, the same kid who wanted a Wizard101-themed birthday party this past summer (see post here), wanted to be a Wraith for Halloween.  He likes to stretch my creativity.

The robe is pretty straight-forward.  I used the Simplicity 5512 Costumes for Kids pattern and some black fleece.  (This pattern is awesome, by the way.  I've used it for a number of costumes for my kids over the years!)

 

The staff was also fairly easy.  I already had a wooden dowel from Home Depot leftover from something.  I cut a crescent moon shape out of cardboard and taped it to the top of the dowel.  My husband reinforced it, and made it look cooler, with silver duct tape.  We didn't have time to paint the dowel black, but it worked.

 

The wings were the biggest challenge.  I'll try to explain how they came together the best I can! 

The Wraith in Wizard101 seems to have wings made out of feathers.  Well, feathers are expensive.  So I used some creepy-looking fabric that I had snapped up as a remnant.  The fabric came with "holes" in it already.  (In retrospect, I thought that a black garbage bag would have worked, too.  You could really shred it and it might look more like feathers than the fabric did.  And it would be waterproof!)

 

For each wing, I took a strip of the fabric and sewed it on three sides like a pillowcase.  I just stitched on the top of the fabric -- I wasn't going for neatness here.  Then I snipped the edges with pinking shears.  I draped the "pillowcase" over a black hanger with the open side at the bottom.  I had left a  gap in one side seam for the hanger hook to stick out.

 

My husband figured out how to attach the hangers to something Spencer could actually wear.  He took an old backpack that we had gotten free from somewhere and cut off the backpack part leaving just the black straps and black back.  He pierced a hole in the strap fabric to insert the hanger hook (which he had straightened) and held it there with a zip tie.  (See photo below.)  He also attached the hanger to the back of the backpack with another zip tie at the bottom of the wing.

 

To keep the wing tops separate, he stuck a wire between them. The wire was taped to the hangers and poked through the fabric.  You can see the wire in the photo below, but it wasn't noticeable when Spencer wore the costume.

 

 

Once the wings were all attached to the backpack, I went after them with the scissors and made the fabric into more of a wing shape and I cut strips in the fabric to better resemble feathers.

 

Here's another look at the wings and the robe hanging on a hanger.

 

At trick-or-treat time, with the skull-like face paint, Spencer looked downright terrifying!

 

{Pinterest Success} Mockingjay T-shirt with Freezer Paper Stencil and Bleach Pen

I've seen quite a few cool Hunger Games t-shirt ideas popping up on Pinterest and I've been wanting to make one for a while.  One of the ideas involved using a freezer paper stencil and a bleach pen. That's the one I tried today.

Seriously, the hardest part of this project was finding freezer paper!  No luck at Walmart, Kmart or Target in my town.  Finally found some at my local grocery store and I bought a giant roll.  (I keep seeing cool projects involving freezer paper stencils so I figured I'd better buy a lot of it!)

I followed the directions found here on the Average Jane Crafter blog.  Her tutorial was perfect with great photos and easy-to-follow instructions.

I unearthed a too-small navy t-shirt from the bottom of the drawer and used it as my test subject.  Here's what it looked like with the stencil on it just before I bleached it.

I was afraid that, when I rinsed the shirt, I'd end up with bleach spots all over the place.  And I worried that, when I chucked the shirt in the wash, I'd inadvertently bleach stuff that I didn't want bleached.  But none of that happened.  It turned out cool!  I like the gritty imperfectness of the image.

 

Now I'll have to try again with a t-shirt that actually fits me....

Patriotic Banner From Old Jeans

We recently went on a family road trip that involved 8 hours of driving each way.  I am unable to read in the car without getting sick, but I've discovered that I can sew!  I made a couple little craft kits to take with me to pass the time more quickly.

This little project took up much of the drive home.  It's a patriotic pennant banner made from old jeans and felt.

Of course, because I made this craft in the car, I didn't photograph any of the steps.  But I don't think it's too hard to figure out how I made this.

My kit consisted of

• a couple of legs cut from old pairs of jeans, both dark and light wash
• red felt
• red and white embroidery floss
• patterns for the pennants, the stars, and the letters (I cut those shapes out of cardstock using my Cricut and used the cardstock shapes as patterns when cutting the fabric.)
• scissors, pins and a needle

Step 1: Cut everything out using the patterns. (5 pennants from the darker wash jean, 5 of the bigger size star from the lighter wash jean, 2 smaller size stars and the USA letters from red felt)

Step 2: Fray the edges of the pennants by pulling out some threads.

Step 3: Attach the light denim stars to the pennants with a straight stitch using 3 strands white embroidery floss.

Step 4: Blanket stitch the red felt letters and stars onto the denim stars using 3 strands of red embroidery floss.

When I got home, I stitched the pennants to a red and blue ribbon using my sewing machine.  Now my mantle is all ready for the 4th of July.  And maybe even the olympics!



Altered Tank Top for Summer!

I am continually frustrated when shopping for shirts these days.  The shirt is either too low-cut so that I have to wear a tank top for modesty on top, OR, it's not long enough and I have to wear a tank top for modesty on bottom!  And summer is just too hot to be wearing multiple layers of clothing.

A few years ago, I saw some cute altered tank tops at a craft fair and thought I should try making one.  If I made my own shirt, I could make sure it covered everything! 

I went through a few trial-and-error phases where I got very aquainted with my seam ripper but, in the end, I got it to work and I produced a shirt that I could actually wear in public. I'd never had a sewing lesson in my life, so if I could do this, so can you!  Here's a tutorial so you can give it a try.

Step 1: Go buy a tank top and two chunks of coordinating material. I went to Walmart where I got the tank on clearance for $4 and 1/2 yard of two kinds of clearance material for $1 each. Plus thread. (Total of $6 + the thread which I still have bunches of for another use.)

 

 

Step 2: Cut the tank top into strips. I put my tank on, and used a disappearing ink fabric marker to mark where I wanted to make my first cut. Then I cut the middle part of the tank into two rings that are 3 inches high. I was totally making this up as I went, by the way.

 

 

Step 3: Cut your fabrics to size. You'll need a front and a back panel of the same size. (I used the floral print for this part, but you could mix it up with multiple patterns if you want.) The panels ended up being 18 inches long (because I bought 1/2 yard of fabric) and slightly less wide than my tank top. Then you'll need two side panels of the other fabric. (I used the pink circle print for this but, again, you could go crazy with additional patterns here.) These you cut into a trapezoid shape that is 18" long. Mine were 3" wide at the top and 11" wide at the bottom. I made these measurements up. The top measurement was enough to make sure that, once I had sewn all 4 panels together, it would be the same size around as the tank top. The bottom measurement was a lot wider because I have big hips and this shirt has to fit over them.

 

 

Step 4: Sew the 4 panels together. Basic stuff - right sides together, straight seams. You end up with a long strip of fabric.

Step 5: Deal with the ruffle. I found working with the tank top material to be quite challenging because it was stretchy. But I took my two rings cut from the original tank top, cut one seam off from each and then sewed it all together to make one big long skinny strip of material. Then I hemmed one side up to make the finished bottom edge of the ruffle. (This was a major pain because of the stretchiness.) Once you get your long strip with a finished edge, you attach it to that strip of panels that you made in Step 4. Because the ruffle strip is longer than the middle-of-the-shirt part, you make little gathers in the ruffle strip as you pin it on, right sides together. Then sew it on. Sorry I forgot to take a picture at this point, because my instructions are probably not making sense.

Step 6: Take your middle panels with the ruffle sewed on, fold it in half with right sides together, and sew that seam. Now it looks like a skirt with no waistband.

 

Step 7: Attach this to the tank top. It took me a while to figure out how to put the right sides together to be able to do this part, so that the seam would end up inside the shirt. Hopefully the picture will be explanatory. Also, take care that you don't sew the thing closed at this point.

 

Step 8: Put on your new shirt!

Making a Kindle Clutch

My mom got a Kindle for Christmas, so I decided to try to make her a clutch case for Mother's Day.

Here's how I did it:

1.  Make a pattern.  I placed my Kindle (which is the same as my mom's) on some tracing paper over my cutting board.  I cut the tracing paper to be about one inch bigger than my Kindle on all sides.  The pattern turned out to be about 7 inches tall and 10 inches wide.  Then I cut another piece of tracing paper that was 7x10.  I folded that one in half (the hamburger way - not the hot dog way) and cut it at an angle to make sort of a triangle.  This will be the pattern for the flap.

2.  Cut your fabric.  I used burgundy corduroy for the main fabric, green cotton for the lining, and a patterned corduroy for the flap.  Using the 7x10 pattern, cut 2 each of the main fabric, the lining fabric, and some cotton batting.  Using the triangle pattern, cut 2 of the flap fabric and one of the cotton batting.

3.  Attach batting to main fabric.  Layer the cotton batting to the wrong side of each piece of main fabric and sew a few lines across the fabric to quilt them together.  (I'm not very fancy, so I used straight lines perpendicular to the corduroy.)

4.  Make the flap.  Layer the 2 pieces for the flap, right sides together, with the cotton batting on top.  Stitch around 3 sides of the flap.  (You won't stitch on the "bottom" of the triangle -- this unfinished edge will be where you join the flap to the clutch.) Turn right side out, and topstitch around the 3 sides.


5.  Sew the front & back together.  Layer the two main fabric pieces right sides together.   Sew around 3 sides of these pieces.  The side that you don't sew will eventually be the opening of the case.  (I didn't take a picture of this step until I had turned the main fabric right side out again.)

Sew the front & back of the lining together. Layer the two lining pieces right sides together.  Sew around the 3 sides, but leave an opening for turning later.

6. Get ready to sew the whole case together.  Turn the main fabric right side out.  Pin (or baste) the flap onto the main fabric, lining up the unfinished edges.  (Just don't pin or baste the case opening closed!)

Insert the main fabric into the lining fabric (which is still inside out) so that the right side of the main fabric is together with the right side of the lining.  The top flap piece will be sandwiched between the main fabric and the lining piece.  Line up all your unfinished edges as best you can.

Now. This is important.  Don't sew your clutch closed!  Open up the clutch and insert your sewing machine in between the two layers of cotton batting that are sewn to the main fabric. Then sew all around what will be the opening of the case.

7.  Flip right side out using the opening you left in the lining.  Then stuff the lining down inside the main fabric and there you have it.  A Kindle clutch. 

8.  Finish as desired.  I left mine like this, but you could top stitch around all the outside edges.  And you can add something to keep the flap closed like a button or snap or Velcro or whatever.  My mom has arthritis in her hands, so I didn't add any closures.

I hope this tutorial was clear and easy and it inspires you to create something!

{Pinterest Success} Fabric Peony Flowers

My grandmother has hedge of peonies that surround her garage.  Every spring, the plants are bursting with giant pink and fuchsia blooms.  She cuts a few to put on the table and the whole house benefits from their fragrance.

So when I saw this peony craft on Pinterest, I had to give it a try.

To read the instructions and view the original post, visit the Creature Comforts Blog by clicking here.

I dug through my stash of fabric scraps and also the remnant bin at JoAnn Fabrics, and found two different fabrics to use for this craft.  One of them worked better than the other.

The flower on the left was made with plain fabric, and the flower on the right was made with fabric that had little circles of bling on it.  You can't really see the bling in the picture.  But the blingy fabric was thinner and the flame seemed to eat it right up.  The plain fabric was a little bit thicker and held up better.  But I don't think either of my fabrics curled up as much as the ones in the tutorial.  Mine seemed to shrink instead.

But I think they both turned out kinda cute!  The tutorial was easy to follow with well-written directions, and there was even a video.

Now what to do with these beauties?  I think the bigger one will end up as part of Grandma's Mother's Day gift. (Good thing she doesn't read my blog!)  And the smaller, bling one will most likely end up as some sort of hair accessory for me.  Fun!

Now it's your turn to try something you've pinned to Pinterest!

Today's Project: Felt Bird Brooch

I made this pin out of felt, ribbon, embroidery floss, and seed beads today.

For a cardstock pattern, I cut out the bird, the wing, and the circle shapes from my Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge.  Then I taped the cardstock shapes to the felt and cut them out.  (Cut two of the circles.)  I sewed a 1-inch bar pin to one of the circles, and set the other circle aside.

Next, I sewed the wing onto the bird while attaching the seed beads.  This part took a while, and you could just sew on a plain felt wing, but I'm partial to beads.  I also sewed on a single bead for the eye.

I cut 2 lengths of ribbon, made them into loops, and secured them to the circle that I had set aside earlier.  Then I lined up my felt bird so that the ribbons would become his tail, and sewed the bird to the circle.

Finally, I blanket-stitched the two circles together and my brooch was complete!

{Pinterest Success} Braided Headband from a T-Shirt

Have you heard of Pinterest?  It's a wonderful website that helps you visually organize all of the web pages you want to bookmark onto a virtual pin board.  It has a social component as you can follow friends' "boards" and see their "pins".  There's also a search function if you're looking for something specific.

Most people I know on Pinterest have collected pages and pages of inspiration but have not yet had a chance to actually do anything with the inspiration.  Well.  Today I actually did a project I found on Pinterest and I liked how it turned out!

Here is the pin that caught my eye today.

Today was one of those days when I just didn't seem to have the time to wash my hair in the morning.  It's getting quite long and I really wanted a headband to keep it out of my face.  But, the majority of my headbands don't actually work.  Does anyone else have a collection of useless headbands?

I thought about how my favorite headbands are the fabric ones with a little bit of stretch, like a favorite t-shirt.  And the light bulb went off!  I hopped on Pinterest and searched "headband t-shirt" and several options popped up. I chose to follow the tutorial from the Make It & Love It blog that several people had pinned.

Luckily, I just happen to have several old t-shirts that are too short for my tastes.  I chose to use the red one with the white stripes.

Collection of too-small t-shirts to repurpose

I didn't take any pictures of the process because I was busy watching Downtown Abbey on Netflix while I happily braided my headband.  But here is the finished product!

My new headband that used to be a t-shirt!

The tutorial was well written and easy to follow.  I enjoyed learning the 5-strand braiding technique and will probably make more of these.  My only complaint is that the headband turned out a bit bulky at the base of my head where it was all joined together.  But that probably has more to do with my clumsy sewing technique than the tutorial itself.

So what have you made from Pinterest lately?