Super Quick and Simple Sewing Project

For Christmas, my husband gave me a sewing machine. That may seem like an odd present, but it was exactly what I wanted. Now, I had no idea how to use such a machine. I barely knew how to thread a needle! But I desperately wanted to learn how to sew. I got the notion when I was pregnant with LJ last year; I wanted to make clothes for my girls (matching, of course). That is still the goal, but I've come to accept that it won't happen quickly. I have so much to learn!

For the past few months, I've been tackling small projects to get a feel for different techniques and build up my confidence. I've made a stuffed cat (that looked nothing like a cat, lol), wallet, a clothespin bag, a ton of table runners out of burlap (for my sister-in-law's wedding), a bib for LJ, and some reversible fabric headbands for me and C. Oh! And a wool cover for LJ - its super ugly but very functional. Every project has taught me something, and so far I absolutely love learning to sew.

I know about 12 pregnant women right now. Almost every one of my closest friends is expecting sometime this year. How crazy is that!? Many of them are on their second child, so they don't need a lot of stuff. So I thought it would be neat to make them some baby gifts. Nothing too ambitious, but some useful and cute stuff. Some things I obviously  need a trial run on, just to make sure they turn out okay and I know what I'm doing. Today's project was a trial run, but it was also something I needed.

I've been needing a diaper changing mat for the diaper bag. For some reason, I've never had one. That was fine for C, but I guess I travel more with LJ, so I've been wanting a mat. The ones in stores have way too many bells and whistles for my taste, and they're so bulky. My diaper bag is pretty small, so I needed something compact. I didn't need pockets and extra compartments; just a flat, clean mat to lay the baby on so I could get her diaper changed. I looked up a few tutorials online and found one I really liked, but today I decided to just wing it and create my own. I'm happy with it, even though its not the most attractive thing in the world!

This was my first time working with vinyl, and I have to say, its not my favorite material. But obviously, a changing mat needs to be able to be wiped down easily, and I saw iron-on vinyl in Wal-Mart recently, so I decided to try that. Adhering it to my fabric was really simple and basically fool-proof. Keeping it aligned with my backing fabric while I sewed the two pieces together was a different story. I'm sure I just need more practice and experience. I used a ton of pins to keep it all in place, but the vinyl was so slippery the fabric didn't stay like I wanted. I made it work, but it wasn't easy and its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

The tutorial I found on another blog used bias binding and added a strap to the mat. I don't see the need for a strap, but I think my next one (that will be a gift for someone else) will have the binding, just to give it a cuter look.

Also, I decided not to use any "stuffing" in my mat. I don't think its necessary, really. Its not like the baby stays on the mat for more than a few minutes. I may add a really thin piece of foam or batting to the next mat, though, just to give it a little cushion and substance. My mat folds up super thin and is perfect for my diaper bag, though, so I'm happy with my decision.

Basically, all I did was cut out my fabric (I think my measurements were something like 13" x 25"), iron on the vinyl to the fabric I wanted to be on top (you could do vinyl on both sides but I thought that might be too slippery on public bathroom changing tables), then pin the fabrics right-sides together, sewed them, turned them right side out, and then added a top stitch. Oh, and I threw on some velcro, though I really should have done that before sewing the fabrics together. It was really super simple! I kind of wish I had put the velcro on the other side, though. That way, when the mat is folded up, the vinyl side is facing out. Which would put the cloth side (the side that comes into contact with the nasty public changing tables) is in the inside and won't touch anything else in the bag. The vinyl part will be wiped off if anything gets on it, so it'll be clean - at least a lot cleaner than the other side! So I may need to change that up. We'll see.

For now, I'm happy I've completed another sewing project! Even better, its something I'll get a lot of use out of. Next up, I'll be covering a travel wipes case with fabric and then making a small bag to hold a few diapers. I think that'll be a cute baby shower present!

Rainbow Tutu

Last night I finished C's birthday rainbow tutu! I'm pretty proud of it, although its not quite finished yet. I just need to try it on her and cut a bit of the length off. I made it extra long cause I wasn't sure how thick it would look once completed, and I didn't want too much of her thighs showing!

My tulle came in on Tuesday, and I was so excited that I started on the tutu that night. There will be no tutorial for a tutu here; there are so many on youtube that I felt it would be redundant for me to make one. I watched several tutorial videos last week until I felt comfortable tackling this project. But basically, your supplies needed are pretty simple:

~ tulle - obviously. I decided to do a rainbow, so I chose 7 colors (pink, coral/red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). I purchased spools that were 6" x 27 yards, and I have plenty of tulle leftover for other projects.

~ satin ribbon or elastic band for the waist of the tutu. I had exactly enough yellow satin ribbon on hand - score!

~ scissors to cut the tulle with

~ something to help you measure the tulle

And that's pretty much it. There are probably ways to do this using a needle and thread, but I don't sew, so I was relieved when this project required no sewing at all. Actually, if it had required sewing, I would have just purchased a tutu from a friend of mine. I'm very pro-DIY lately, though, so I'm tackling all sorts of projects!

In total, this project took me probably 2 hours to complete. I started on Tuesday night, and worked on it for maybe an hour or so. Last night I gave it another 45 minutes or so. It goes pretty fast once you get the hang of dealing with the tulle and tying the knots. Tulle is very sticky! And staticy. I'm trying to figure out a solution to that problem. Any advice, you million of readers? (haha)

The rainbow tutus I've seen online are very different from mine. Most people seem to do larger blocks of each color. But I kinda like how mine all sort of meld together. I did 2 pieces of each color. My concern with the tutu was that it would be thin and see-though so that C would have to wear leggings underneath or everyone would see her underwear and upper thighs. But I don't think that's gonna be a problem cause this bad boy is THICK! I was even wearin it around the house last night and I would feel comfortable not wearing pants under it. (Don't worry, I'm not gonna be wearing a huge, fluffy tutu any time soon, lol! Though I do kinda want one for myself now...if Sarah Jessica Parker can rock one, why can't I? hehe)

I made the tutu extra long cause I wasn't sure the length I wanted to be. The other tutus that C has are pretty short, and pretty much just cover her tushy. They're cute, but not what I wanted for her birthday. Tonight I'll try the tutu on her and probably cut a couple inches off the bottom. When I let her try it on yesterday, it was only half done, but I could tell it was dragging the floor.

But don't worry; I won't be wasting any tulle that I cut off! I already have a tutorial on how to make a tulle hair bow. That's my next project. ( :  Well, that and C's shirt that I'll be making. I went to Michael's today and picked up some supplies - iron-on decals, paint pens, and some jewels. Its gonna be pink and sparkly and adorable (I hope)!

Am I going overboard with C's birthday party and the rainbow theme? Probably. But oh well. I want this party to be epic, at least decorations-wise. Don't ask me why, its just an urge I have had for a few months now. And I'm havin fun! ( :

Stay tuned for my next rainbow-themed DIY project!

Rainbows On the Brain

Say what?? Its December. I should be thinking about Christmas decorations, right? Well, that's done. For the first time EVER, I completely decorated the house for Christmas by the first day of the month! I am a firm believer in not putting up any Christmas decor until after Thanksgiving, and usually I wait until December. My cousin and I have a tradition of putting up our grandma's tree every year on the day after Thanksgiving. So we did that (which was an adventure, let me tell you! Major tree issues - ugh), and I guess it inspired me to get going on my own decor. So on Saturday, I decorated in the house as much as I could.

 This year, DH bought me a new garland for the mantle. I love it! I'm kinda thinkin it needs lights though...hehe.

On Sunday, I convinced DH to go pick out our tree (we don't do artificial trees) and we put it up that afternoon. C had fun "helping" us, though she couldn't quite figure out how to actually hang ornaments.

I forgot to take pics of the other decorations we have, but we really don't have a lot. Just a wreath on the back of the front door (we keep it closed all the time to keep the cold out, so I enjoy it more when the wreath is facing into the living room), and one on the pantry door in the kitchen. All my artificial seasonal flowers came out, which will stay up until the end of winter (they're not sparkly and Christmas-y, just winter-y, in my opinion). A little tree in C's room, which she helped decorate, and my traditional Barbie mini tree. I have been collecting Barbie Hallmark ornaments since I was a kid, and a few years ago I decided to give them their own tree. I love it!

But enough about Christmas (for now!). What's really been on my mind lately is RAINBOWS! Why, you ask? Because I'm planning C's THIRD birthday party!

First of all, let me just say that it is extremely hard for me to believe that my baby girl is turning 3 in just 15 days. Just this morning I looked at her in her toddler bed and teared up because she almost takes up the whole thing now. (*:

Until C starts to express an interest in her actual birthday parties and has her own ideas, I've been choosing the themes. For her first birthday, we didn't do a theme per say. I just went to the Dollar Tree and picked out decorations that I liked. It ended up being pink and green and butterflies everywhere. It was pretty simple, though. Last year, I did a Minnie Mouse theme. That was super cute. I had little mouse ears for the kids to wear, and hot pink and neon green everywhere, and my friend made a gorgeous Minnie Mouse cake for us. It was still a pretty simple party, though.

This year, inspiration struck me a while back. I can't remember what the first thing I saw to inspire me was, but I must have seen a picture somewhere of a rainbow party, and knew that's what I wanted to do. December can be such a blah month to have a birthday in. Sure, everything's decorated in red and green and sparkles for Christmas, but everyone's so busy with Christmas and everything else, so its always a struggle with birthday parties. So this year I wanted something super colorful and cheery - and what says colorful and cheer better than rainbows?!

What sealed the deal for me was a picture of cupcakes I saw back in October.

Gorgeous, right?? Once I saw this picture, I knew C's birthday party would be rainbow-themed, and I knew I'd make these cupcakes. I ordered the rainbow candy earlier this week, and I'm crossing my fingers that it'll arrive before the party!

One night this week, C asked me if we could make rainbow cupcakes. I had already gotten her approval for the theme for the party, and she's seemed pretty excited about it. I knew I needed to practice these cupcakes before the big day. Cause not only would they have a rainbow on top, they would be rainbow on the inside, too!

So, me and C mixed up the cake mix (from a box) and I divided the batter into 6 bowls, then added food coloring to each bowl. It was a very time consuming process, but the results were well worth it! I didn't add frosting to these, but C didn't seem to mind.

I only got 12 cupcakes out of one box of cake mix, though. I need to make at least 4 dozen cupcakes, so that process will take me a while. I might end up making some cupcakes and then a rainbow cake. We'll see.

My husband and I must be out of our minds, cause we decided to have C's party at our house this year. We normally have it at my mother's church, since we have so many people. But its always hard to get a good date since the church has so many things going on this month. So I suggested to DH that we have it at our little house and he agreed. Yep, we're crazy. We're inviting over 40 people. If they all show up, my house will be super crowded. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and the kids can get outside a little to run around...

I'm going ALL OUT with the rainbow theme. I'm probably going overboard, actually. You should see my Pinterest board dedicated to rainbow stuff! I'm DIY-ing almost everything. It will look like a rainbow threw up in my house that day. My plan is to decorate the night before after C goes to sleep, so that when she wakes up the next morning she sees all the rainbow stuff (the party is on her actual birthday). I have a TON of ideas and I absolutely can't wait to start everything!!

Yesterday, I watched youtube tutorials on how to make tulle tutus, and I feel confident I can make one, so I ordered some different colored tulle. My plan is to create something to this effect:

Haven't decided about the shirt yet, but I love the idea of a "3" and C's name!

I'll be making tissue paper pom-poms to hang everywhere, kind of like this:

Youtube has great tutorials for those, too. (Gotta love youtube!)

And of course, there will be a plethora of multi-colored balloons and streams everywhere. I'll be posting lots of pictures, so stay tuned! ( :

DIY Autumn Wreath

I did it! I made my first wreath. I said the other day I was inspired by another blog's DIY tutorial for an autumn wreath that looked pretty simple, and I went that day and bought supplies to make my own. I started on Monday night, but didn't get very far since I didn't buy enough ribbon (more on that in a sec). I really wasn't expecting to finish the wreath last night, but I did! And I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out:

Not bad, eh? Naturally, there are a few little things I would do differently if I made another one, but I'm pretty proud of my first attempt! Right now, its hanging on the pantry door in the kitchen. I originally intended it to be hung on the front door in the living room, but I think its too small for that door. I may or may not make a bigger one. Actually, I have an idea for a different front door autumn decoration.... ( ;

Autumn is my absolute favorite season. I love the warm days and the cool nights, and the crispness in the air. And I love the fall colors. I'd decorate with fall colors year-round if I could. So this baby will be hanging around until the very end of November, when I'll bring out my Christmas decorations. Surprisingly, DH really liked my wreath, too. He's skeptical of DIY projects like this, and he watched me making this last night with a "look" on his face. But when I was done and held it up for him, he was impressed. He even wants me to make some to sell at our church's annual Harvest Sale (all items are donated and the money goes to the church, and people love to buy crafty stuff like this!).

So here's a quick tutorial of how I made this wreath. It couldn't be more simple.

I started out with a styrofoam wreath and some pretty ribbon from Michael's:

Then I just wrapped the ribbon tightly around the foam, using hot glue at the beginning and end of the roll to secure it. I only made it halfway through with one roll of ribbon:

So the project was put on hold until the next day. Yesterday, I bought two more rolls of the ribbon, just in case. And thank goodness I did, cause it took a whole second roll and just a bit of the third! Next time I'll choose wider ribbon and be more careful about the spacing - I think I overlapped this ribbon a bit too much. It has a sparkly edge, though, and for some reason that made it difficult for me to get the overlapping just right. Anyway, here's a shot of the whole wreath wrapped:

I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the process. It went pretty quickly, and I was so excited to finish, haha. But I had purchased several bunches of fall flowers from Michael's, and I used wire cutters to snip the flower heads off and try to get them as flat as possible on the back. Besides the flowers (mostly mums), I also bought some fake fall-colored leaves and some adorable miniature pumpkins. One of the bunches of flowers had some pretty sunflowers and some random fall-like details (not sure how to describe those, haha) like the feathers you see in my wreath.

Next, I laid the flowers in a circular pattern on my rug and played with them until I liked the arrangement. Then I just started hot gluing them onto the wreath. I found that its much easier to put the glue on the flower back and then press it into the wreath (I started out by putting the glue on the wreath first). The hot glue dries really quickly, so like I said, this was a quick project. I did go through about 4 tubes of the mini glue sticks, though! I ended up having to snip off more flower heads to fill up empty space, since I didn't account for the roundness of the wreath in my planning. No worries, though. Then I just kept adding extras, like green leaves, until I was satisfied with the wreath. And voila!

I originally thought I'd leave some open spaces so you can see the ribbon underneath, but I didn't like that. I liked it fuller! You can see the ribbon from both sides though:

You could fill in more flowers and stuff around the edges to hide the base, but I liked being able to see the pretty ribbon.

This wreath is so cheery in my kitchen! I don't decorate the kitchen much with the seasons, so I love the little pop of color in there. Now I'm itching to do more projects like this! ( :

Here's a couple of detail shots, just cause I like it so much.  ( :