Quick Fix: Hemming Dilemma

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I have to say, Pinterest has brought me the most incredible ideas. This week it gave me the inspiration necessary to fix a pair of beautiful, comfy pants I've loved but haven't been able to wear.

These pants are super cute on, and the perfect color and fit. Except for one thing: they're made for Amazon women. 

You can see in the picture below on my right leg how drastically long they are. A few years ago my husband and I ran across this matching set (it comes with a zip up jacket) at a decor store (of all places!) for $12. Now I know why they were so cheap...no one is tall enough to wear these pants!

But armed with a tutorial from Pinterest (find it here), I took them on. I added an extra seam to my version so they looked more like a cuff. Admittedly, it wasn't on purpose, but I like the end result just the same.

Once I got started on these, I was on a sewing roll and fixed everything in my mending pile. I even performed stuffed animal surgery on a toy my son adores. It's such a relief to add those clothes (minus their tears, rips and too-long hems) back into our daily rotation.

What's holding you back from attacking your to-do pile today?

Garage Sale Score

I happened upon a garage sale late in the afternoon on Saturday and the owner was itching to get rid of everything in sight. After asking her three different times if she was sure it was OK, I went home with a box full of vintage sewing items, including unopened rolls of lace and tulle, and these lovely ladies for...

ONE DOLLAR!

I'm already brainstorming sewing ideas just so I can use that bright lemon "magic zipper." Is it garage sale season where you live yet?

Tiered Tote Bag with Rosette Embellishment

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I've made this year is the Tiered Tote Bag. It turned out so stinkin' cute that I had a moment of weakness when I almost considered keeping it for myself. Alas, I love the aunt I created it for, so off it went. At least I'll get to visit it every year. :) To make one for yourself (and I highly recommend you do!), you'll need:

1 canvas tote bag - I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $1.99
fabric for ruffles - 5 strips, cut to 5 1/2" wide, and bolt length (no trimming needed)
contrasting fabric for rosette
clasp/pin to attach rosette to bag
hot glue

First, you'll need to serge all the edges of the 5 strips. If you don't have a serger, don't despair. Simply fold under all the edges 1/4", twice, and sew a straight stitch, locking your threads by backstitching when you start and stop. If you've used a serger, now take one strip and fold under both long sides 1/4" once and sew a straight stich, backstitching at beginning and end to lock threads (If you didn't use a serger, you've already done this! woo hoo!). Now take the remaining four strips and repeat, but only on one long side of each strip.

Now you've got 5 strips, all with serged (or folded under seams) edges. Four of the strips have one long side folded under and one long serged edge. One of the strips has two long sides folded under. Got it? K. Now we ruffle.

There are a lot of ways to do this. Some prefer gathering the fabric by sewing two wide running stitches and pulling one of the threads. It's a lot better way to create ruffles because you can control and adjust the length of your fabric and density of the ruffles...but I personally despise that method. It takes up too much of my time and the thread inevitably breaks. I dream of owning a ruffle foot attachment for my sewing machine, but until then, I just ruffle the wrong way. It drives my mother crazy because she's a real seamstress. The kind that does it all correctly and measures it all out. She's also the one that gets me out of the sewing jams I inevitably get into because of my aforementioned lack of measuring and doing things the wrong way. (Love you, Mom!)

If you're lazy like me, gather your fabric underneath your presser foot and sew on top of the gathers, very slowly. You'll do this along the serged edge of four of the strips of fabric, and one of the folded under edges of the remaining strip.

The strip with both long edges folded under will be your top tier. Line this strip up with the opening of the bag and pin in place. Sew a seam 1/4" from the opening of the bag, backstitching at beginning and end to lock threads. Be sure to line up the ends of your fabric at one of the bag's side seams. It will help create a more professional look.

Where your fabric ends meet, tuck under the edge of one end. You'll sew these two ends together and it will help hide the seam.

You can do this step now, or wait to do all five layers at one time. See where my finger is separating the fabric? That's the two ends that make up the side seam in the picture above. Pull the fabric away from the tote bag and sew the ends together to make one continuous ruffle. Backstitch!

Now you move on to the next tier. Pin it in place so that its top serged edge will be covered by the first tier. You should measure. I did not. You'll see how that worked out for me in a minute.

Be careful not to catch other parts of the tote bag in this seam. This gets a little trickier with each subsequent tier.

Repeat until all five tiers are sewn in place and your side seams are sewn together so that you've got five separate continuous ruffles.

This is my bag, flipped inside out. See how my seams look so pretty when I'm close up?

But here's the ugly truth... Like I said, measure! The beauty of this bag though, is that even sloppy imperfections (as illustrated below) aren't visible. My kind of project!

The bag is super cute by this point, but it could really use a little pop! I've made rosettes before, but I wanted something a little different, something a little fuller than the typical rosette. Emily has a template on her blog for this rosette that you can print out and use as a pattern for your "petals." Trace the template onto your fabric (I used cotton) and cut out a zillion of them. Fold each one in half once, then again so that each petal is in fourths. Hot glue each petal onto a circle of coordinating fabric. The back of your flower will look like this:

Now hot glue a clasp or pin to that circle backing.

And now you've got one of my favorite rosette styles ever!

Since it's pinned to the tote bag, it can be removed for washing, or stolen to accesorize an outfit when you just need a little something extra.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please let me know if you make one for yourself! I'd love to see!

Linking to:

CSI Project ... Tatertots & Jello - Holly Bloggy Christmas Party ... Skip to My Lou ... Creative Itch ... Vintage Pollyanna ... Sumo's Sweet Stuff ... Sew Chatty ... The Girl Creative ... Sugar Bee ... Today's Creative Blog ... Hope Studios ... New Nostalgia ... Tip Junkie ... Beyond the Picket Fence ...

Rosettes Galore...I'm Back!

My wonderful husband fixed my trusty old desktop computer today since the old hard drive went kaput. Thankfully, we didn't lose much information, but my beloved Adobe Suite is gone, as are my fonts and (gasp!!) my 100+ bookmarks to sites with projects on my to-do list. I'm still adjusting to editing photos without Photoshop. Can you recommend a great (free) photo editing software? What do you use?

Even though my blog has been a little vacant over the last few days, my project list has been full! I've sewn tiered tote bags, made personalized photo necklaces, thrown a surprise baby shower for a friend and made a million of the wonderful little rosettes pictured above. They've been my go-to for decorating gift wrap (see first picture), as a whimsy addition to presents and as general decor for parties.

They are simple to make, albeit a little time consuming, and very versatile. Today I'll share a tutorial for my version of a basic rosette, and end with a rosette garland how-to. Enjoy!

Choose your fabric. Knits work great, because they seem to give the flowers some bounce. I used plain, cheap cotton for these rosettes. Find a template for your circle. I wanted small, dainty rosettes so I used a thread spool as a guide. I've also made very large ones for other projects so any size will work.

Trace and cut out. I used fabric pencil here so it would easily rub off if I missed a spot. Pen works great as well, just be sure to cut off all the markings. They'll be readily visible with this project.

Now you've got circles. Cut out a ton. I'm serious. You'll be surprised how many you'll go through.

Take one circle and fold it in half once.

One more time. Now it's in fourths.

This is the part that's a personal opinion. I use needle and thread. I like it better. I think it offers a more secure hold. However, I know some crafters are all about the hot glue. If that's easier for you, it should work just fine, you'll just need to add another step.

If you're using needle and thread, knot one end and do a simple stitch, pushing the needle through all four layers (at the base of the fold, or the point of the folded circle) and back a few times. I found it easiest to not cut my threads after one layer. Instead, I would stitch one circle, then push my needle through all four layers of the next folded circle, slide that circle into position next to the first folded circle, and repeat the stitching process. After the last circle is secured, I knotted off my thread and cut the excess.

To create this layered look, I used four circles each, sewing the first two folded circles side by side, so that the long folds were butting up to each other. (Not making sense? OK, put your hands out in front of you, palms up. Imagine each hand is a folded circle. Your fingertips are the ruffly part, your wrist is the point of the fold. Place your hands together so that only your pinkies and wrists are touching, but your hands aren't overlapping. K. Did that make better sense?) For the last two circles, I sandwiched the first two, and aligned all four points of the fabric. So now you've got two "petals" side by side, a third centered in the front, and a fourth centered in the back. Now click on my contact button at the top to send me hate mail about how confusing those directions were.

If you're hot gluing, you'll need to cut out circles so that you can glue all of your "petals" in place. Keep in mind that more than four petals makes for a fluffier, fuller rosette. Add as many as you want until it looks like what you had envisioned.

Since I was hosting a red, yellow and brown themed baby shower last week, I took these rosettes and turned them into a garland.

To create a rosette garland, cut out squares from any fabric. I chose flannel because it was sturdier than cotton, and I had some on hand.

Hot glue the flannel square to the back of each rosette.

Then hot glue the rosettes to a coordinating ribbon at measured intervals. I chose 5" spacing and 3/8" ribbon.

And a rosette garland you'll have...

The mommy-to-be can use it as nursery decor, and we used this as a table rubber around the cake and buffet plates at the shower.

I'm so glad to be back! Thanks for sticking around. Watch for more tutorials coming up!

So, any *free* photo editing software you recommend?


Linking to:

Skip to My Lou ... The Girl Creative ... Sumo's Sweet Stuff ... Sew Chatty ... Sew Can Do ... Sugar Bee ... DIY Show Off ... Miss Crafty Pants ... Heather Lynn ... Hope Studios ... Today's Creative Blog ... Vintage Pollyanna ... New Nostalgia ... The Creative Itch ... My Delicious Ambiguity ... Blue Cricket Design ... Sew Much Ado ... From the Heart ... The Thrifty Home ... My Backyard Eden ... Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom ... Momnivore's Dilemma ... Fireflies and Jelly Beans ... Shabby Chic Cottage ... Somewhat Simple ...

Candy Corn Ruffle Bottoms

Halloween is over! I mean, ahem, Awww, man! Halloween is over already? Bummer.

I didn't hide my excitement very well, did I? I've already admitted that I'm not a Halloween fan. There is one giant redeeming factor about the holiday, however. Candy corn. Candy corn. Candy corn! I may have eaten a bag of it by myself in the last week or two. But my favorite kind of candy corn is this little number...

Candy Corn Ruffle Bottoms...

I took the fastest, sloppiest pictures ever for these. I had a lunch date with a precious little one month old Haper Jane who was receiving these little candy corn ruffle bottoms as a gift. And I was late! Imagine that...

To make the bloomers, I used Dana's diaper cover pattern found here and added ruffles to the backside. Her pattern was easy to follow and her sizing was spot-on. I used the 0-3 month pattern and it fit perfectly. The top cream ruffle was leftover from this project. The orange and yellow ruffles I made by pleating the fabric underneath my presser foot as I sewed. I hemmed the edges by folding under 1/4", twice.

Not wanting to sew your own? Ivy&Mae sells a similar version here.

OK, I'm not a 100% Halloween hater. I love the community that develops because of all the trick-or-treating. Texas is so wonderful. Even on Halloween the weather was warm enough that we could all sit out in our driveways, wear shorts and t-shirts, and enjoy chatting with each other while we greeted the costumed kiddos.

I was glad I had read this post before the doorbell started ringing, though. It was a good reminder of what an opportunity Halloween is to be a blessing, instead of my first thought which was to turn the porch light off and watch the Rangers! (Texas in the World Series??! Yes, please!)

And just for kicks (and to further prove I'm not a Halloween hater). Here's some fun spooky decor we've enjoyed recently.

I hope everyone's November is off to a great start!

Why it was worth it...

I received a precious gift today...

Remember when I made this banner for my friend Chris and the preschool that he's running in Nicaragua? He sent me this picture today. I can't believe he took the time to do that...but I really can't believe he got all of those beautiful smiling faces to look at the camera and be still!

I keep searching these precious faces through tears. Smiles where there were none. Bellies that don't ache. Minds that are learning.

Great is His faithfulness.

Singed Flower Tutorial

I'm in love with my golden flower brooch. The possibilities are endless. I've worn them on my shoes (see above), my jacket... My belt... (this skirt was one of my very first sewing projects a few years ago...*sweet memories*)

Made them into hair accessories...

What is my obsession with red shoes??

I even made a precious little girl's headband using leftover fabric from this project.

I've made them in varying sizes.

I just can't get enough of them.

To make your own you'll need:

polysatin fabric

tulle

coordinating thread

needle

scissors

votive candle

coordinating beads

clasp for securing (jewelry pin, bobby pin, elastic)
sewing pin(s)

foil

big ol' cup of water

Create your work space by lining the area with foil. This safeguards against any mishaps. Also keep a large container of water within arm's reach. I used this several times (not to put out any fires, but to toss my burning matches in). Can I just say pretty, pretty, pretty please be careful. Don't do this when kids are around. Don't do this if you can't chew gum and walk at the same time. Don't do this if you at all think you might burn your fingers off. For goodness sake, please be careful! {And don't say I didn't warn ya, if you do burn your fingers off! (But please, don't burn your fingers off...)}

To start with, cut imperfect circles in varying sizes. I started with my pin holder as a guide. For reference, the largest petal on my largest flower brooch is bigger than this:

Using a votive candle, oh-so-carefully singe the edges. You'll see the tiny loose threads disappear and melt, and the edges will curl.

You'll need to turn your fabric over to get the desired curl. After my edges were singed, I turned my fabric over and put the flame about 1/4 inch in. This helped make a more petal-like curl.

Don't try this at home...

Do this with varying sizes of fabric and layer about 10-15 pieces on top of each other. Then cut out 3-4 pieces of tulle to match the varying sizes of your petals. I like to put one in front of the largest petal, one in the middle, and one on the very top. It softens up the look and adds more texture. {Don't singe tulle!}

Then, to secure it all together, use a sewing pin and catch all layers, including your tulle. It will look like this:

Thread your needle, knot one end, and start from the bottom. Go all the way through the layers, pulling taught, then back through near where your needle's entry point was. Do this 3 or 4 times before you take out the pin.

Secure underneath the bottom layer with a knot for extra stability. Without cutting your thread, make one more pass, through all the layers, to the top again. This time, thread your needle through a bead or decorative item of your choice, and pass the needle back through all layers until the needle and thread are taught under bottom layer. Knot. Repeat if desired with additional beads.

For my large and medium sized flowers, I like the look of three beads best. For my smallest ones, I use only one.

To add a clasp or elastic or bobby pin, pass your needle through only the bottom layer of fabric. Secure the clasp.

See how I didn't take the needle and thread to the top while adding the clasp? Only the last layer is necessary, and it allows all of those wide stitches to remain hidden.

Follow the same pattern for almost all clasps. The key to stability is lots of stitches.

You made it to the end of this tutorial?! Wow, you deserve an extra reward. Here's a sneak peek at one of my very favorite uses of the singed flower, that I'll be highlighting later this week...

I helped decorate at a Ladies' Brunch and I've got table decorating ideas (with pictures!) like you wouldn't believe! Come back soon!

Linking to these lovely ladies:
Today's Creative Blog .. It's a Blog Party .. Topsy Turvy .. The Creative Itch .. Skip to My Lou...Kojo Designs...Tatertots & Jello...