Fringe Scarf Tutorial

Since our family pictures last year when my daughter used this fringe scarf that our photographer Ashley Mae had,

I’ve been wanting to make me one similar and here’s what I came up with:

Supplies:
Several different skeins of fuzzy/furry yarn ( I used 6)
Scissors
Directions:
Step 1: Cut 4 strands at about 48 inches of each of your yarn.  Because I used 6 different types of yarn I had a total of 24 (48 inch) strands.
Step 2: Put all your strands together lining one end of each strand up and then tie it to something sturdy about 20 inches from the end ( I used my sliding glass door)

Step 3: Then divide your strands into 4 strand segments (mixing the different yarns together) putting a knot about 4 inches from the knot where you tied all your strands to the sturdy object.

You should now have as many segments of 4 strands as you had different types of yarn with each segment having a knot about 4 inches from the big knot.
Step 4: Do you remember making friendship bracelets?  The same technique used to make friendship bracelets is what we are going to use to form sections of your strands that are all connected together. 
Take and hold each strand separated by a finger in your non dominant hand except for the farthest left strand.

You’ll want to hold these strands tight. 
Step 5: Now take the farthest left strand and loop it around your thumb and then loop it under the next strand going down on the right side of the strand and coming back up on the left side and through the loop your thumb is helping to create.  

Here’s a little diagram that might help to demonstrate what I’m trying to say.  (You can see my talent doesn’t lie in drawing on the computer)

Pull the loop down until you reach the knot in each strand.  You want to do this looping stitch twice on each strand all the way across otherwise your scarf will start to twist. 
Do three rows (each time you start with a new strand on the left that’s the start of a new row).  This is what it should look like after your three rows:

Step 6: Then about 4 inches from your last row of stitches you want to do a knot again like we did in Step 3.  Then repeat Steps 4-6 until you reach about 20 inches from the end of your strands.  Now you can untie your scarf from the sturdy object.
Step 7:  (Optional) I then finished my scarf off by tying a knot about 4 inches from the very end of each of my four strand sections (at both the beginning and end of my scarf).

Now your finished!!!

I was roasting by the time I finally got this picture right, but then again what do you expect when it’s 80 degrees outside, your wearing a sweater,a scarf and your 7 months pregnant; LOL!!!
I would love to hear if you give this a try and as always if you have any questions just leave a comment or send me an e-mail!!!

Waldorf Style Doll

I think my daughter who will be turning 5 in 8 days would really like one of these:

However I can’t bring myself to pay $150. 

I’m trying to decide if I want to give it a whirl and try to make one in just one week.

Here’s a couple of tutorials that I have found for the Waldorf Style Doll here and here and for making the Hair here.

What do you think?

**I just found this great photo tutorial for making the doll and this photo tutorial for making the hair on flickr**

Upcycled/Recycled T-Shirt Dresses

I have been obsessed with making t-shirt dresses since the day I stumbled across Ashley’s blog Lil Blue Boo. 

Ari now has 4 dresses with this one being the most recent one in which I used the t-shirt I recently purchased for her and just added the layered skirt.  I also made the leggings (still trying to perfect my method) and have made long sleeves that I will attach once the cold weather comes.

 

Then I made this dress for our friends little girl who just turned 2. 

I’m loving the added rosette embellishments.

I used the flat lock stitch for some of the seams.

Last but not least I made this fun and colorful dress for my Etsy shop.

Zipper Rosettes finally available

My zipper Rosettes are finally in my etsy shop!!!

The blue one and the maroon one are on there now, the rest will be showing up throughout the next couple of days!

Oh, and if you don’t see one you like send me an e-mail and I’d be happy to do a custom one for you!

Kids Craft: Sea Shell Frames

We had the opportunity to visit the beach while on vacation to Pennsylvania.  We visited the Island Beach State Park in New Jersey.  After Grandpa brought them over some nice sea shells they started collecting any and every little piece of a shell they found around our beach blanket.

Then today while visiting my sister at her In-laws house my daughter pointed out to me a picture frame that had little turritella shells lined around it and so we decided to use their shells from our trip (plus the leftovers that I had from another project) to decorate old frames we found at the DI (local thrift store).  The purple one was $0.50 and the brown one was $0.75.

I armed my kiddos with paintbrushes and some cream acrylic paint.  TIP:  Dad’s old short sleeved dress shirts make for great painting aprons.

I helped some to make sure all the frame was covered.

Then we glued on the sea shells.  I had the kids arrange the larger shells where they wanted them and then I used the hot glue gun to attach them.  Then I spread Elmer's glue in the open places and the kids put the little one’s on wherever they wanted.

 (They really were enjoying themselves they just didn’t like the picture taking)

I then removed the inner picture and we covered a cardboard square with fabric using Mod Podge.  I let the kids spread the glue out and then we smoothed the fabric together.  After the mod podge dried I then ironed the appliqué starfish and ship using Wonder Under.

I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot to do the vinyl saying “Remember what you were born to become.”   This is located between the front door and living room window so as we leave the house we remember we were all born to become Kings or Queens and to act accordingly.

With the help of my kids I think this is our first decorating success, YEA!!!

Cupcake and Ice Cream Cone Onsies

I made these cute little appliquéd onsies for my friend’s little girl.

Here’s the pattern for the appliqués.    I included a little 1/2 inch square so you can check if it prints out at the same size as I used. Click on the picture to print a larger size.

  I used Wonder Under to iron the shapes down.  I started with the cup and cone first, ironed them on, and then stitched around the edge.  Then I proceeded to layer the rest on (ironing it, then stitching it, then putting the next layer on).  For the stem of the cherry I used green DMC floss and stitched it on by hand using a back stitch.

Ashley Mae Photography Giveaway

My all time favorite photographer Ashley Mae is doing a giveaway for a photo session with her.  She is an amazing photographer so head on over to her blog Ashley Mae Photography and enter to win a photo session with her.

These are some of the pics she did for us last year:

A little mending and a new purse!

It has been quite a while since I got a post done.  In between unpacking and vacation I have been working on a number of projects.  I have spent the last few weeks trying to crank out some of the little tasks I need to get done, but have been procrastinating.  I love to sew but I am not a huge fan of mending things.  In fact most of my Capris/Bermuda shorts are just old jeans that got holes in the knees so I chopped them up and never bothered to finish the seam again.

Some of my mending was for my husband.  He lost a button on his shorts, so I stole one from the back pocket and put it in the missing one’s place.  Then another pair of his shorts had really small front pockets so he wouldn’t wear them.  So I made an extension to the pocket and now he’s happy to have another pair of shorts to wear.

I’ve been wanting to make myself a new purse and just a couple of days after I packed my sewing machine up the idea came to me to use an old pair of pants that had these really cute zipper pockets in front and turn it into a purse.  Turns out my idea wasn’t so unique as I quickly found a plethora of blogs with tutorials.  So no tutorial on this but here’s how it turned out.

I added these cute little flowers and I got the D-rings from an old belt I never wear.