Easy DIY flower

Have you seen those pretty silk flowers that have popped up on shirts, jackets, pins, or hairclips? Well they are SUPER SUPER easy to make.

What you need-material of your choice, not cotton!I am using chiffon but you can use cheaper silk or tulle.

Scissors

Hot glue gun

New candle

Beads

thread and needle

hair clip, bobby pin, or pin back

Felt

First step is to cut your flowers. I like FULL flowers so I usually do 6-7 layers of varying sizes. I cut the material in squares and then fold them in half to make them easier to cut.
You want to cut out several sizes, including small and large just like real flower petals
Now you get to play with fire. I use new(er) candles for this so the flame is higher. You cant use a lighter because you need both hands. You are going to use the candle flame to shape the petals and make them curl up. You will also get that singed appearance around the edges. Now you do this by placing the material NEAR the flame, not directly on it. The heat will make the material curl up, you can also help it by shaping it with your fingers. This step may take some practice but it is not hard to master at all.

Now repeat with all the layers you cut and stack them.
You will stitch the stake together and add some beads. You can also use pretty buttons or stones. For beads and buttons I like to stitch them as opposed to hot gluing them.

Awww now isnt that pretty?!?
Now to attach it to a bobby pin. You will place a square of felt on the back your flower.
Now attach the bobby pin. You need to use a bobby pin that has a pad on it. You can find them at Joanns, hobby lobby, etc. Once you have the attached the bobby pin, with hot glue, place a 2nd piece of felt over it. You want to make sure you dont interfere with the part of the pin that goes in the hair.
Want to make a pin? attach the first piece of felt and then hot glue the pin back to the felt.
Open the pin and then place a 2nd piece of felt so you secure it.

and you are done!

remember you can also use a french barrette or alligator clip. Use the same method-square of felt on the back, secure the hardware, and then a 2nd piece of felt to give extra security.

Tutorial-A Valentine's day hanging banner

So I used my embroidery machine and made each of my girls a banner for valentines day. They love them and agreed that they are BOOTIFUL

On each heart there is stitching to resemble lace, so cute-

and friends really loved them but i know not everyone has access to an embroidery machine so i wanted to come up with something similar using VERY VERY VERY

basic sewing skills or none at all!

I need something for our door so I made this. It took me about 45 minutes. Cute, right?

Materials-

Sewing Machine

Felt in your choice of colors. Get it from the bolts at your local craft store. It is thicker and just a better quality than the precut squares.

Doilies. I used 8 inch ones from the dollar store. Yay dollar store!

Ribbon

Glue

Lighter

Now I suggested sewing this but you can also use glue. I dont like using glue and felt, it can get messy but if you dont have a machine or want to have your littl

e ones helps, then go for the glue.

Lets start.

Take a doily and trace out a felt heart that you will attach to the doily.

I made mine bigger than the doily.

You are then going to stitch the doily to the felt,

or glue it if that is the way you are going.

I used a simple straight stitch. I also used pins to attach the doily to the felt so it wouldnt shift around while stitching.

Just stitch around and now it is time to make the letters. Now I did them freehand, while my girls were screaming at me and trying to steal the felt. So please excuse the haphazard letters, especially the E. The E is really bad.

You can use wonder under if you want but I dont think it is necessary.

Now Felt is VERY forgiving so you can just do a straight stitch around. I did a satin stitch aka an applique stitch because I love me a good zigzag.

Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for all the letters you need.

I was spelling out love

Now you need to heat seal the edges. This is when you use the lighter. Just place the lighter close to the edge of the hearts NOT DIRECTLY TOUCHING. This helps cut down the fuzziness and gives a nice clean edge to the felt.

You now have to attach all the hearts together. I am making a vertical hanging blogger so I am going to basically use the ribbon to weave it in and out of the hearts.

Cut a small slit in the top of the first heart and then the bottom. Dont make it too big because it should snuggly hold the ribbon.

At the bottomof the last heart, you will need to glue the ribbon to the heart and make a loop so you can hang the banner.

If you want to make the banner hang horizontally, then cut small slits on the sides of the hearts and use ribbon to tie them together. That is what I did in the banners I made with my embroidery machine, so use that banner as a reference.

Hang and Enjoy!

If you find that the ribbon doesnt fit snuggly and the hearts shift around, just fix that with a bit of glue.

How to make a skirt!

((we will just ignore the fact that I havent posted in months, okay? Great now we can move on...)
This is an easy skirt to make, great project for new sewers. It is a cute full skirt that is perfect for spring and summer, if the little girl is a skipper, even better!

Items needed-
42-45 inch wide material, light weight cotton
¾ inch elastic NON ROLL
GOOD SCISSORS
Optional-
Ribbon, trim, or anything else to embellish the skirt.

You are using ONE PIECE of fabric for this skirt. The width off the bolt is the width you are using, from raw edge to raw edge. This is a great project to use remnants. I love me some remnants because they are cheap and great for baby/toddler sizes.

You may want to iron your fabric before starting. This usually makes cutting and pinning easier, but that’s up to you.

As for length, figure out the length you want and add 2 inches and then cut. My models are asleep at the current time so I measured a skirt and then went from there.


I like to mark my measurements off with tailor’s chalk but not necessary.
So cut your fabric to get your one long strip.

Now you are going to fold the fabric, right sides together*, and pin along the sides. I pin the long way as you can see but I remove the pins as I go. It is just a matter of preference. If you pin across, you aren’t suppose to sew over the pins, but people do it.
*that means the pretty proper sides face each other 




You are going to sew up this side with a ½ inch seam. Use the markers on your machine to guide ya, which is what they are there for. You are just going to use a plain ole straight stitch. Make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end which reinforces the stitches.
So now you basically have a tube of fabric. At this point, you can finish the seam allowances, aka the edges. You can do this for a more finished look plus it stops the fabric from fraying. If you do finish the allowances, you simply use a zig zag stitch right now the edge. If I was selling this skirt, I would finish them but I will leave them alone right now.

Now press open your seam allowance. You may ask why we do this, well I am glad you asked. You want to make sure they are nice and flat because we will be making a casing and hemming. Pressing them just makes it easier when folding and sewing the rest of the skirt.



Now turn down the top of the skirt ½” towards the wrong side. I usually pin and press, but that is just how I roll. I find that nice crisp pressing makes things easier.


Now you are going to take that new folded top and fold it down again, this time 1”. You are making a casing for the elastic. The first fold was to hide the raw edge and the second fold was to make the casing for the waist. Casing meaning the actual part that will hold the elastic.

You will be stitching the very bottom edge of this fold so place your pins accordingly.
Start on either side of the seam allowance and stitch all around BUT stop 2 inches before your starting point. Once again make sure you back stitch when you start and finish.

Now attach a safety pin to the elastic and fish it through the opening and all throughout the waistband casing.

Once it is all the way through, overlap the ends about an inch. You are going to join the two ends together by stitching a box. You can do this by hand or on the machine. Trim and tuck it back into the casing. Finish stitching the casing closed.

Now you are in the home stretch! Lets just hem the skirt and be done!
Turn the hem ½” to the wrong side and press.

Now turn it again, 1”, pin and press. You are going to be stitching along the bottom of the new hem so place pins accordingly.
Stitch all the way around, backstitching when needed, turn the skirt inside out and you are done!

You can always add ribbon, ruffles or trim.

This can also be sized for anyone, make some matching ones for mommy and daughter.