Felt birthday crown

My baby is turning one in a couple of weeks and I have already started the preparations to organise the most beautiful first birthday ever. 

Browsing the web for DIY party decoration and food as well as birthday cake ideas I came across this great crown template fit for my prince and decided to make one of my own.

I just changed the number the a 1 and added some beads to the original design and of course chose colours to my own liking.Yellow and green seemed like such a good fit as the decorations will sport the same colours to the most part.

If you want to make a birthday crown for your angel all you will need is 

• two pieces of 0,5 m felt (2 different colours of course)
• a crown template that you can download from this wonderful blog
• elastic for the back of the crown to make it fit
• beads (optional)
• thread and a needle or sowing machine if you have it

The best thing to do is to pin the template to the felt so it won't move while you are cutting it out.

After cutting out the form in both colours, cut out the birthday number of your baby from the felt piece you will place above so that the one under it will show through.

Sew the two together by adding the beads (or not) and your birthday crown is ready. Have fun making your own!

DIY- Copper wire ring

 I know I have been away for some time now but as my son is growing and sleeping less and less during the day I find that my time to do things for myself is being cut shorter and shorter.
I'm not complaining though, he is a joy to be around and I do steal some time away as often as I can to focus on myself.
Yesterday was such a day and I ended up using my free time to make a a ring from some old beads I had laying around for a while now. Its very easy to do and takes less then 30 minutes. So here is the tutorial for you.

You will need:

• brown and green beads (or any other 2 colors you prefer and that merge in the bead you will use for the center)
• a larger bead as the center piece
• copper wire (about 50 cm)

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

 Step 4

and the finished ring is ready to wear

Have fun making your own!

More DIY- Blugirl inspired handbags

Happy holidays everyone!

They have been happy indeed, for me at least, this being the first holiday I spent with my little family, at it being my son's first Christmas. I especially enjoy giving presents and this year I ended up making some of them myself.

Remember the Blugirl inspired silk chiffon flower handbag I made based on a secretlifeofabionerd video which I shared with you? Well I ended up making two more as presents for my family.

If you like them and would like to make some yourself check out the tutorial.

Plaid jacket Tutorial

Do you like plaid? I'm usually all for monochromatic jackets but I found this great material that I just couldn't resist (especially at the bargain price of 3$) so I bought it, combined it with some red material I had fro some time and the result, well...I kinda love it

 I used a cardigan- that  has seen better days, and I was no longer wearing it but I love the silhouette- as a pattern- usually I use my old clothes as patterns.  This is the front of the jacket

 and the back

 I put the front and the back wrong sides facing and sewed them together with a running stitch

 I made a second jacket from the red material, which was going to be the lining. after the two jackets were done I put them over each other, wrongs sides facing, left an opening at the neckline and turned it inside out after having sewn them together.

the collar

again, wrong sides facing, the white lace that was going to show was sewn in between the two layers

 ...and for the closure of the jacket  I made a brooch from the same materials, using a safety pin to pin it in place. For a tutorial on how to make the flowers, you can check out this post

So long story short...this is my jacket. 

Do you like it?

Storage Baskets Tutorial

I've said this before, I love finding tutorials on the net and making things myself and I have become especially artsy-crafty since my son was born. The latest in a long line of things that I have made are some hanging storage baskets for his toys. I found a wonderful tutorial by the Mother Huddle based on which I made them.

If you are thinking of making them yourself I will walk you trough on how to make them.

First of all you will need the following materials:

•  three 20x 25.5 cm (8 x 10 inch) wooden panels (in the tutorial mentioned above you will find that Plexiglas sheets were used which you can also do, but wood was more accessible to me)
• three 47 x 72 cm (18½ x 28 inch) fabric pieces from you outer material and the same size three pieces from your lining material
• three 10 x 27 cm ( 4 x 10 ½ inch) pieces
• a curtain rod for hanging the baskets

First you will need to fold your large pieces in half with right side in, short ends together and them sew up the sides, leaving the top open. Like this:

do the same to your lining material as well

Next, take your fabric and fold your corners down like shown in the picture below. Measure 8.5 cm (3¾ inches) from the endpoint and pin across on both sides like so:

Then turn your fabric right side out, place in the wooden panel, then your lining material and pin the top by adding the smaller material (hem the sides of it before inserting) to what will be the backside of the basket.

 sew it up, insert the rod and you are done

For more on how to make these wonderful baskets visit the tutorial on: http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2010/07/creative-guest-hanging-storage-baskets.html

DIY- top refashion

I have a thing for flowers lately, and this top was looking kinda boring so...I gave it a touch of color by adding these red yo-yo's and a new red waistband

this was the original blouse and the skirt I cut up for the waistband and yo-yo' s (both thrift shop finds:) )

 the original blouse

 after I removed the black lace

I cut out the waistband (you can only see half of it here)

I folded it in half and added two yo-yo's to the side 

I pinned the waistband to the bottom of the blouse before sewing it on, in such a manner that no frayed edges were left

left an opening on the inside to introduce the elastic

then basically just made a bunch of yo-yo's - you can find a tutorial for making yo -yo's here

after having pinned on the first row of yo -yo's

and voila:  the finished blouse!

Love it? Hate it?

DIY- Blugirl inspired handbag

Remember one of my previous posts were I shared a secretlifeofabionerd video with you on how to make your own Blugirl inspired silk chiffon flower handbag? (you can see the Blugirl handbag on the left)

Well I have gone and made my own. My son's christening is coming up and I needed a little bag to match my dress and since I like this bag so much and the tutorial made it seem easy enough to do, I decided that I was going to make a handbag of my own in purple.

 The bag is 24cm x 13cm and it only took me six flowers to embellish it. The tutorial shows a bag with many smaller flowers but I found that this solutions was just as good and less time consuming. However if you make the handbag yourself you are free to choose whichever solution you like.

If you choose to make the bag, these are the materials you will need to do it:

• silk chiffon for the bag (2 pieces of 25cm x 14cm)
• lining material (same dimensions)
• one zipper
• leftover lining and silk chiffon material for the flowers, some lace if you have it in a similar shade
• rhinestones to embellish the flowers
• chain (length depends on how you want to wear your little bag) 
• ribbon to weave into the chain (length depends on the length of the chain)

here are some pictures of my work in progress:

 these are my 4 pieces of fabric, the outer part of the bag and the lining, as well as the zipper I used

the pieces sewn onto the zipper, before final assembly

after top-stitching

 the petals

 the finished flowers

the bag, the flowers, the chain and the ribbon before I weaved it into the chain

 and the finished bag

paired with the dress I am going to wear to the christening

Thoughts?