Magical Crown Tutorial

 

Kyra & Ava have a special friend at school who just LOVES The Princess & The Frog (TP&TF) and I thought it would be cool to make her a special birthday crown for her with that in mind.  I found a bunch of cool things in the dollar bin at Target, one of them being this TP&TF Play Pack with crayons & stuff inside.  I used the image on the front for inspiration!  =) 

I cut a strip of heavy interfacing for the band & simply sandwiched it between a strip of green fabric & sewed it together.  I wanted to have a raw edgy look, so I didn't finish the edges or do anything fancy...just some free motion zig-zag stitching along all four sides.

Then I cut out some leaf shapes with the interfacing...some big, some small.  I wanted the stitching on the leaves to really show, so I cut additional interfacing that was thick & would add more loft.  I sandwiched the leaves with my dreamy Heather Bailey green print that I love and free motion sewed each leaf individually.

After all the leaves were sewn, I cut them out & pinned them in place on the band.  

Starting with the leaves farthest from the middle, I sewed them into place working my way to the last one, front & center.

 

I attached a wide strip of elastic to each side of  the band so it will fit snug & comfortably, but you can use elastic or some other type of closure if you like.  

All done with the leaves....

but I wanted to add some hand stitching, beads and a purple feather to top it off!

This is a quick & simple project that you can definitely customize and make your own.  

Add fabric flowers, ribbon, beads...whatever you dream up.

Let me know if you have any questions about this tutorial & let me know if you make one of your own! 

Get Crafty!

Revamped T-shirt Tutorial

Well, I sure had a lot of fun with this next project.  I was trying to get my sewing mojo back...seemed to have hit a creative block.  I have read a few books about upcycling old t-shirts into cool tops, skirts & other things and decided it was time to just GO FOR IT!

 What you need:
t-shirt (s)
scissors
needle & thread

Makes life easier to have:
rotary cutter
ruler or straight edge
sewing machine
dress form (I made mine!)

I got this green shirt from CALDA, California Lyme Disease Association, and thought it would be great to revamp it into an attention getting outfit.  

• I started by cutting off the sleeves with my ruler & rotary cutter (the thing that looks like a pizza slicer).  If you don't have one of these, just use a pair of scissors to do the job.  Having the rotary cutter will give you a nice even edge to work with, making it easier to match up when you're sewing.

• I carefully cut out all the portions of the shirt with writing on it & set it aside.

• I cut the sleeves open (just follow along the seams) & trimmed it to make green strips.

• Then, I did the same thing to 2 black t-shirts of mine.

• Next, I pieced the shirts together in a crazy quilt type fashion...there are NO rules when you are the designer!  =)  I like that a lot. In fact, I didn't use a pattern or anything, just cut, pin, sew & go.  I also wanted my stitching to show, so I sewed them together with wrong sides together, alternating from a straight stitch to a big zig zag stitch on my seams.

• I created a long chunk of fabric that was pieced together & fit it to my dress form...I did have to fit it on myself when I got to the bottom of the dress since my dress form doesn't have a booty!  Just pin to a comfortable fit and sew this bad boy up!

• I used a scrap of pieced fabric for the strap...sew it in half lengthwise & zig zag stitch the ends to the dress.  I wanted mine to be a halter but you can criss cross them in the back or do it however you want.

• Lastly, I stitched the CALDA logo with the tick onto the front lower part of the dress & added some additional lines of stitiching for a bullseye effect.

That's it!  I now have a funky fresh attention getting lyme awareness outfit...and I have to say, I feel pretty darn good in it AND it's super comfy too!  Definitely think it's LymeSexy...what do you think?