A Fairy Garden

Hannah and I have been working on a little project.
We turned a regular old plant box into a…

I found the galvanized metal plant box at a local discount store for a few dollars and brought it home and transferred two little plants that I already had.
Let me back up.
It didn’t exactly go that way.
You see, I also needed to buy potting soil and everything in the gardening section was in German/Luxembourgish (I can’t always tell the difference) and I thought I was buying potting soil.  When I got home and opened the bag, it turned out to be plant fertilizer.
Oops. 
I’ve found that when you don’t speak the language, it’s usually safe to go with the picture on the packaging.  I guess this isn’t the case in the lawn and garden department.
But I got it right on the second try.

The little house was given to Hannah by my mom.  It’s really a dog house for a tiny dog but is also the perfect size for a fairy so we painted it green and glued on some leaves and moss.  Then we made a “welcome” sign out of two little sticks from our backyard.
We debated making our sign in English or French and settled on English. 
“I think fairies probably speak English better than they speak French.  Kind of like us,” Hannah told me.

At the time we started, Hannah didn’t actually have any fairy dolls, so we added Cinderella’s fairy godmother, mouse and birds.
We found tiny drink umbrellas at the dollar store and used a pink jingle bell for the doorbell.

I made some itty-bitty bunting with scrap fabric, twine from Shawn’s toolbox and two sticks.

And then!  A package arrived from the US!
Shawn’s mom and dad sent two fairies for the fairy garden.
(Thank you!)

Hannah was at school when I picked the package up from the post office, so I placed Tink and Fawn in the garden for her to find when she got home. 

She asked if the fairies had shown up on their own and I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her, but I couldn’t let the grandparents not get the credit, right? 

1 planter box, 2 little plants, 2 fairies, lots of accessories and a bit of imagination = hours of fun for a little girl and her mama.

At the Last Minute, A Furniture Makeover

About six years ago, my grandma gave me a set of dining room furniture.
It has a table, four chairs, a buffet, an armoire and three leaves to make the table really big.

For six years, Shawn and I have been saying that we were going to give it a makeover.
Well, we finally did.

Wanna know when?

FOUR DAYS before the movers were coming to load up our stuff to ship to Europe.
Nothing like adding a 30 hour project to the most hectic time of our lives, right?

I mean, really.  Who does stuff like this?

We hauled all the pieces out to the garage.
(We had some help.  Ok, lots of help.)
We sanded and painted.  Sanded and painted.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

Then I reupholstered the chairs.
It was way easier than I thought.
Good thing because it was a solo project.
I wasn’t sure about the fabric and to be honest, what I selected wasn’t my first choice.
But then I realized that if I selected a fabric with a pattern, I’d never get all the chairs to match and it would be impossible to properly line up the print.  And I’d never be able to enjoy a meal at a table if the pattern on each of the chairs was all wonky and misaligned. 
I’m kidding.  Kind of.
Then I started getting all dizzy and high maintenance because WE CAN’T MOVE TO EUROPE UNTIL THESE CHAIRS ARE REUPHOLSTERED.

So I went with a whimsy and nonspecific print. 
The fabric was on sale.
Which is good because I’m cheap.  And picky.  
 

 

 

I wish we had taken pictures of the process, but we were moving at such a FRANTIC PACE that there just wasn’t time.  The paint was barely dry on the day the movers loaded all of it up into the oversea container.  In fact, I wrapped every single piece in waxed paper so that the paint wouldn’t be damaged by the bubble wrap and cardboard.

And I may or may not have bolted upright in bed, awoken by a dream about the table floating in the middle of the Atlantic.
 
In the end, every piece made it unscathed, unscratched and unchipped.
And I’m digging my new dining room.

Fabric Flower Greeting Cards

I’m kind of a pack rat when it comes to fabric. 
I never throw any scraps away.  Ever.
Which is kind of funny if you know me in real life because I don’t like clutter and I regularly toss stuff that is not
in use or has no sentimental value.
Here’s a way to use up those very last pieces of fabric and turn them into something pretty.

You’ll need:
Scraps of fabric
Blank greeting cards
Metal brads (for scrapbooking)

Cut a lot of circles.
In a variety of sizes.
Cut a lot. A lot. A lot.
Don’t worry if they’re not perfect.

Stack them up in unassuming pattern combinations.  Fray the edges a little if you want.

Fold in half and snip a tiny hole with your scissors.

Place a brad through the center and attach to a card.
If you’re feeling fancy, you can use a jeweled brad.
I wasn’t, so I used a plain one.

Then make a few more because I know you’ve got lots of scraps.  And if you don’t?  Cut up some old flannel pajamas.  Because really, who wouldn’t want to get a card in the mail made from old flannel pajamas?

Write a sweet note on the inside, sign, seal and send it off to a lovely friend who appreciates pretty fabric. 
Or flannel pajamas. 
Whatever the case may be.

Top Projects of 2010

I started this blog in conjunction with my Etsy shop back in March.  After a few orders, I realized that I wanted to spend my time sewing for my daughter, family and friends. 
However, I really liked my little blog.  
It’s been fun sharing tutorials and documenting projects, along with tidbits about the everyday goings on of my family.

So, without further ado, here are my favorite projects of 2010:

This was my first attempt at shirring.  I love this dress that I made for Hannah in the spring.

Then I did this one.  I repurposed a shirt from my closet to make a toddler shirt.

It took me a while, but I finally finished this sleeping bag.

I had a ton of fun on the decorations and favors for Hannah’s Cowgirl Birthday Party.

I think that my favorite project that I did this year was surprising my husband with a bedroom mini makeover.  Besides fresh paint and a new ceiling fan, I repurposed a lot of things that we already had in our home. 

I’ve got a lot more projects on my list for 2011. 
Check out other bloggers and their favorite projects here.

Happy New Year, friends!

Shirr Madness

 

It’s the shabby chic shirred madness summer top!

Once I started shirring, I couldn’t stop.  It’s just so easy and turns out so stinkin’ cute! 
  

Here’s how I made a cute summer top for my daughter out of a shirt I had in my closet:

(Don’t be alarmed at the difference in colors of the shirts.  I did not dye anything.  I just worked on this a little bit at a time, and photos were taken at different times of day, when the lighting in my craft room was either great or nonexistent.)

Cut the top of the shirt off, right below the armscye (that’s a fancy schmancy word for arm hole.)

Set the top piece aside, as we will be working with the bottom so that we can use the existing hem.  I’m all about little shortcuts.

If you have a serger, serge away at the edge that you just cut.  If you don’t have a serger, you can fold the edge over and run a zigzag stitch around the entire length.

Now get your machine ready for shirring.  There are some great tutorials out there such as this.  You can also check out my other shirred project.

I did 12 rows of shirring and then my favorite part: blasting it with a steamy iron and watching the elastic crunch up tight.  Don’t worry - it will stretch nicely back into shape.

Now get the top portion of the shirt and cut off those armscyes.

Now we’re going to make the strap for the shirt.  I cut two strips that were each 2 inches wide.

So, now you have four strips of fabric (two from the front, two from the back of the shirt.)  Sew the right sides together to create one long strip.

Take the long strip of fabric, fold it in half longways and right sides together and sew.
Finish off one end of the strip and leave the other open so that you can turn it right side out.

You can use a dow rod or a safety pin to scoot the fabric around to turn the tube right side out.

I decided that I wanted my strap to be thinner, so I folded it in half and sewed again.  You can skip this step if you are happy with the width of your strap. Next find the center of your strap and create a loop that looks like an awareness ribbon.

Find the center of the front of the shirt and stitch it in to place.  I did this by hand because I didn’t want to change the thread in my sewing machine (lazy) but you could easily run a few forward and back stitches over this by machine. I decided that I wanted something shabby and chic for the front of the shirt so I made a fabric flower using the very few pieces that were left of the original shirt.

I cut out a variety of squares in all sizes.  I didn’t measure or cut straight lines – I just winged it!

   Fold each square into a triangle and then fold again to get the start of a flower form.

Stitch the point at the bottom with a needle and thread.

Place each piece onto the shirt, one by one, and stitch.  I was very random and haphazard about where I placed them.  I wasn’t looking for a pattern or specific flow…
I also did nothing to prevent fraying.  With washing, the flower should begin to fray, creating more of a shabby look.

I continued placing pieces until I ran out of fabric and was happy with the flower.

 

Tutorial: Anthropologie Inspired Necklace

I’ve been noticing all kinds of fabric flower beaded necklaces lately and I just love them!  So, using these as my inspiration:
 

I made this:


I found the beaded necklace at an antique shop for a couple of dollars.  I started out by cutting peanut shapes out of tulle.  I did not make a pattern, I just started cutting.  I didn’t care if they were messy or uneven.  It just adds to the charm. 
I cut out about 15 shapes and stacked them like so:
Then I sewed them all together in the center.  It’s difficult to see, but there is a stitch in the center. Next, I selected some scraps of white fabric that I had left over from another project that (I am totally excited about!) and will be sharing soon.  I did the same steps to make the flower petals.  I didn’t do anything to prevent fraying, hoping that the more I wear this necklace, the more shabby chic it will become.
 I stacked the fabric pieces on top of the tulle and folded the entire piece in half.  I stitched them together, then folded in half the opposite way and stitched again to give it more of a flower shaped form.

I added a few tiny beads to the center for some extra sparkle and attached the flower to the necklace.

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