Halloween Hair Bows ~Tutorial(s)

We live in a tall building in the city, so that means a) no front porch to decorate and b) not much storage space. (SIGH) So when it comes to the holidays, we are very limited with what we can do to decorate. (Our condo building prohibits any sort of decoration on our patio and on our door that leads to the hallway, for example.) So we buy pumpkins to carve because you can't have Halloween without a Jack-o-lantern, but that's about it. 

Except I CAN decorate my children. My daughter is quite amenable to receiving and wearing holiday hair bows. I can get my decorating fix, and she can look cute wearing my efforts. :)

Of course in this shots, she has just played on the playground and her hair is not so smooth and shiny, but I'm basically happy enough for getting her hair in two pony tails for dance class. And, of course, for inserting my new Fabric Halloween Hair bows.

Mini-tutorial:

Cut several squares of orange-yellow-white fabric with pinking shears. Cut various sizes.

Start with the biggest and fold like an accordion.

Stack fabric squares/accordions on top of each other to form Xs until all the gaps are covered.

Use thread to secure the fabric pieces together.

Hot glue a pom-pom to the center.

Hot glue an alligator clip or barrette to the bottom.

Trim any extra-long edges.

Stick them in your girl's hair and admire.

And now for some other ideas for hair bows. I put together the next several hair clips all this past weekend and had a blast coming up with different styles.

Love this one.

Start with a rectangle of fabric (mine is jersey hounds tooth). Hand sew the center with two stitches. Hot glue the tall feathers to the back, then the bow into place. Finish by gluing on a pearl. Elegant!

Start again with a rectangle of fabric and sew the center accordion style with a couple stitches. For this one, I cut up a feather and glued one half on the top, and the other half on the bottom like a tail. Then I tied a knot in some ribbon and hot glued it into place. Funky-elegant!

Ah, tulle. I folded a strip of black tulle in half then crunched it up accordion style and stitched it together with a fabric hounds tooth bow. Then I made an orange ribbon bow and used ribbon to wrap all the way around the three layers, securing at each step with a drop of hot glue.

Here's a look at a couple of the backs. For some, I lined alligator clips and hot-glued them on. For others, I sewed barrettes into place, then secured them with hot glue on each end. I like both styles for different reasons. (You can get both clips and barrettes on etsy.)

Thanks for visiting! Are you going to give these hair bows a try? I promise they do not take long at all. Warm up that glue gun and get going. (And a bit of advice: keep a small bowl of cold water nearby for your fingers...just in case you singe one of them. Not that that ever happen to me...) I'd love to see what you make - feel free to leave me a link in the comments below and I'll be sure to check out your creations!

Have a wonderful week!

I'll be linking up with some of these fine parties too.

Baby Shirt Necklace Tutorial

 I am probably one of the most sentimental people you'd ever meet. I have a hard time deleting sweet emails from my hubby; I have made several baby photo albums (out of the 1,000s of pics I've taken); and I can't bare to part with many of my kids' baby clothes. 'Cuz they just hold so many memories! I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

So, just because I couldn't throw away a sweet shirt of my daughter's (even though it had some terrible, yucky stains on the chest), I decided to make it into The Baby Shirt Necklace!

 I loved the pretty embroidery and knew it had potential. 

Look, it's so easy. 

Snip, snip. Dab some glue on the pendant backing, adjust the fabric, assemble the frame. Add a necklace. Simple.

Now go enjoy your pretty piece of new jewelry!

Linking up here:
Somewhat Simple
Tatertots & Jello 
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night
Sugar Bee Crafts 

TUTORIAL ~ A Lil' Scarf for You!

Ah, I do love this time of year when scarves start making their appearance again. And they certainly are all over blogland! 

I'm the type of person who needs to wear a scarf as soon as the northern winds start rustling the leaves. But when I pulled out my winter wraps the other day, nothing, especially not my lovely, chunky knit scarf was appropriate. Too much, you know? So, inspired by some fun knit fabric, I made a lil' scarf to do the trick of keeping me warm enough. And stylish too. 

Here it is!

 It's the right amount of wrap with the right amount of style. Perfect for autumn walks and trips about town.

 There are two ways to wear it and both have their advantages. The top way keeps me a little bit warmer, but the second way, below, has a little bit of sass. Which every mama needs now and then.

 Want to make one?? Since I didn't take pictures as I made it, I drew up some stand-in pieces to illustrate the process.
Ready? Let's go.

Cut two pieces of fabric 23" by 4.5". You will use 1/4" seems so the finished product is about 22.5"x4".  In case you're wondering, my pointy part was about 7" in the end, so roughly 1/3 of the cravat. I used a very stretchy and soft knit fabric that I found in the clearance section of Joann's. Imagine! It's so pretty, I should have bought a lot more.

 Next, place the two pieces, right sides together, and sew around the edges leaving about 4" at the end for turning.  When finished, clip corners and trim seams to a scant 1/8".

 Turn the pieces right side out and finger-press the edges flat. Pin them down so they won't shift as you do a topstitch all the way around, catching the opening and sewing it closed at the end. Back stitch a little to lock the stitches.

 Finally, sew a button at the flat end of the cravat about 3.5" from the edge. Then make a button hole at the pointy end, also about 3.5" from the tip.

 Now go outside and flaunt your good work!
If you end up making one of these Lil' Scarves please upload yours to my Flickr group. Thanks! :)

Linking up here:

Our Creative Spaces
Tatertots and Jello
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night
Sugar Bee Crafts
Tea Rose Home

Little Rosette Earrings ~ Tutorial

I have been into rosettes lately and thought, if they look good on hair clips and necklaces, why not earrings?

  So here is my little tutorial on making little rosettes for the ears.

If you like bigger-sized earrings, go with 1" strips of fabric and knot them at the top.

 Or if you liked small, daintier earrings, go with .25" strips and knot them (I did both to compare.)

Pinch the knot (with the very end face-down) and wrap a full circle around before starting to turn to make "petals." Make sure the fabric is folded in half (you can glue the fabric in half before starting if it'd make it easier for you. But don't overdue it or the rosette will end up stiff and too thick.) Below is a picture of my first turn. I turn outward--top to bottom--to make a flatter rosette.

 I suggest putting a dab of hot glue on the rosette right before and after every turn. Just a tiny bit.

 Depending on what you like, you can make 2 turns per round, 4 turns, or a continuous set of turns. I did about 4 per round. When your rosette gets big enough, you might find it easier to move your finger and thumb to the top and bottom of the rosette to make it easier to hold, and help keep the rosette flat. See below. (If the rosette gets too thick, it'll dangle off your ear and won't look so good.)

 I used about 9" of fabric, but go with what you like. At the end, do one final turn-down and glue the edge on the bottom of the rosette. Snip off any extra fabric.

 Here are my finished rosettes from the 1"-wide fabric. I added a felt circle to the bottom, but decided not to do that with the .25" fabric because it made the earring thicker than I wanted.

 Here's another shot of the 1"-wide fabric earring.

 Immediately after finishing these, I started the smaller set with my strips of fabric that were .25" wide.

 See how much smaller these earrings turned out?

 I like the littler ones better. I think they're more subtle and less of a "statement." Which is what I prefer. Do you have a preference?

 Easy and fun to do. And who doesn't love saying, "I made them!" when someone gives you a compliment? Enjoy! :)

**If you make one of these projects, please be sure to link up your pics in my FLICKR Group! Thanks!**

Linking up here today:

Our Creative Spaces

Game Bag Tutorial

Thank you, Ann, for featuring this tutorial on A Girl in Paradise last Thursday!

Who doesn't need another bag? Especially one that could store lots of small pieces?

I happened to have made this game bag out of necessity - the box fell apart! And now I have a great little bag to keep all the pieces for this game in one spot. It was quick and easy. And I think it looks just right.

Let me walk you through the steps in case you want to give this easy-peasy bag a try.

 Gather your supplies. This is what you need (the picture below does not cover everything):

1. Your game

2. Some sturdy fabric (I used this great Lotta Jansdotter linen - thanks Alison!)

3. Plastic for the window

4. Cotton webbing for handle

5. Rotary Cutter or Scissors (I ended up preferring my scissors)

6. Snaps

7. Button(s)

First, cut one long rectangular strip of fabric that will be wide enough and long enough to fold up at the bottom to be your bag. (Mine was 12" wide and about 48" long.)

Second, cut a square hole on the fabric where you'd like the window to be. I suggest using a pencil and ruler to center your window.

Below is how it should look. (My window was about 4x4".)

 Next, snip a little bit into each corner so that you can fold back the fabric about a half inch on the inside.

 Flip the fabric over and finger-press the sides open (you could also iron the edges flat).

 Then, cut a square of plastic that is bigger than the hole you cut out of fabric (mine was about 6"x6"). Pin the plastic over the wrong side of the hole, catching the flaps with your pins. Then move to your sewing machine. FIRST, sew a line around the hole that is about 3/8" in from the edge, catching the flaps (this is the outer line). You should be able to remove most (if not all of) the pins after this step.

Then, flip over the fabric and sew another box around the window inside the previous box (this is the inner line). See below.

Next, turn the bag inside out with the wrong side together. Sew the sides of the bag.  When you're done, this is how it should look. (I did an extra zig-zag stitch on my sides to make the bag sturdier.)

Fold down the bag to the desired length (I ended up cutting a few inches off the top before folding). You should fold once, then a second time to hide the raw edges. Press the fold.

Stitch the flap on the inside of the bag, about 1/4" from the bottom fold (see below).

Turn the bag right side out and stitch about 1/4" from the top.

Voila! You are almost done!

To add snaps, I bought a nifty little gadget that helps secure the snaps in place and allows me to pound really hard on the snaps to secure them. (Pound REALLY hard to make them stay!)

All right! Looking good!

Next, cut a piece of webbing to the length desired for a handle.

Sew a few times back and forth to secure the handle on both ends.

Finish by sewing a pretty button to the outside to hide any fraying from the webbing. I also sewed a button to the inside for the same reason.

While my son napped, my daughter played with his game and new game bag. Shhhh! Don't tell!

If you make this bag, please be sure to link up your pics in my FLICKR Group! Thanks!