{DIY American Girl Tutu}

Have you priced ballet sets for American Girl? Yikes! We have tons of clothes for our American Girl dolls, and only a few are 'original' AG purchases. The rest are homemade, or purchased from other handmade sellers who are more proficient than I. :) I do like to get free patterns from Liberty Jane, and we've made 4-5 pieces using them. I am not so great at sewing clothes, however, so I look for other sources pretty frequently. We have a favorite Ebay store that I highly recommend for American Girl doll clothes. Email me if you would like the info and I'm happy to share!

Sp in lieu of a purchased ballet set, and since her lessons are, in fact, FREE...we improvised and made our own ballet tutu.

Today's project is what I like to call "on-the-fly"...meaning I had a random thought to make it, then sat down and fifteen minutes later it was done. Not a lot of thought, which can sometimes be the projects that are the most fun.

SUPER easy to make for the 18" doll in your life.

Here's what you need:

scrap tulle

ponytail band,in pink or a neutral color

scissors

I started by measuring the doll from the waist down to where I wanted the tutu to fall on her legs. My tulle strips were cut (and not precisely) to about 5" long. I had lots leftover from my Fancy Bird Nest, so I just started cutting on that. It takes lots of strips, so just keep cutting. :) 

After you cut your strips, you are basically just going to start tying knots on the ponytail band, all the way around. I thought it was easiest to tie the knots on while the ponytail band was actually around the doll's waist. Slide a strip through...

...and tie it in a tight knot.

Slide each knot very close to each other, and the tutu will be fuller. 

Just keep doing this all the way around, knotting, tightening, and sliding the knots close together. It's that simple!

I left lots of extra at the top of the tutu to start with, so that I could cut it to size and not worry about mistakes. Once I got 4-5 strips knotted, I went back and trimmed the top pieces sticking up to about where I wanted them to stick up above the waist.

See how much extra I gave myself? Once you have it all trimmed, it looks like this:

So easy, and you now have a tutu for cheap! :)

We could have purchased the whole ballet outfit for $40-$50, and I know it would have been lovely and quality. (I've been happy with ALL of our American Girl purchases.) BUT...my kiddo doesn't play ballet with her dolls every day, and for that price, I would want her to. It doesn't seem right to MAKE her play ballet everyday (wink), so we went with a modified ballet outfit for only a dollar or two and I don't care what she does with it. (Last time I saw this it was stuffed in a dresser drawer.)  :) That's the beauty of kid-projects on-the-cheap, no?

Make one of these for the doll in your life...or show your daughters how and enjoy a project together. Afterward you can meet up at the 'studio' for a lesson and some ice cream afterward. :)

Have a great day,

{A Little Inspiration}

The New Year is upon us! Where did the time go? I'm not one for making resolutions, but I do like to have inspiration around. I'm a lover of quotes, and I tend to collect them. Anybody else do the same thing? I actually started saving them on my computer a few years ago, and whenever I find a new one that inspires me I just add it on. I like to go back to it occasionally, and when I do I always find at least one that is a good reminder or food-for-thought for that particular day.

So...as the New Year approaches...I thought maybe I could collect these wonderful bits of wisdom into one little custom book just for me. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and it was so simple to put together. You can make this mostly with things you probably already have lying around.

Here's what you need:

scrapbook paper

paper cutter

adhesive/glue stick

cardstock

hemp cord, jute, twine, ribbon-your choice for the binding

cereal boxes from your recycling bin

scrap ribbon or buttons for embellishments (as you see fit!)

I started by using my trusty 'quotes' file from my computer. I tweaked my fonts a little bit, then oriented them a little differently into a Word document. I printed them on cardstock, cut them out, and distressed the edges with brown ink.

Next, I cut my cereal boxes down to pages that are 5x7. I then went through my scrapbook paper and cut several pages to 5x7 as well. Since this isn't a keepsake project with photos, I simply used glue stick to adhere the 5x7 scrapbook paper to the 5x7 cereal box pages. I used a small sanding block to smooth out all 4 edges of each page. This distresses the edges a little bit and also makes it look very even and neat. (You can use a nail file for this as well.) Here are the finished pages:

 The next step is optional, but since I have an addiction to distressing, I also inked all the edges of each page to give it an antiqued look.

Once you have your pages the way you want them, just start adding your quote blocks any way you like. I also glued these down with glue stick instead of adhesive. 

When I rearranged my quotes in Word, I tried to make them various sizes to add interest to my pages.

Next, I used my crop-a-dile to punch 2 holes along the left side of each page for binding with the jute twine later.

 I used scrap pieces of ribbon and buttons for a few extra embellishments. It's a good idea to punch holes before adding embellishments. Don't ask me how I know this. ;)

I used jute twine to bind my book. I love jute because it looks rustic and is sturdy. Get your pages in order, lace the holes, and knot. The pages turn really easily and I can lay it flat.

I printed out a title on cardstock as well, and then adhered it to the front. It now has a happy place directly in front of me at my craft table. :)

I can see making a smaller version of this for a purse or school bag, can't you? Like a little pocket full of thoughts to ponder.

I'd love to hear what you think!

Have a great week!

I'm linking up over at:

Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime

What I Whipped Up Wednesday @ Sugar & Dots

{Candy Corn Softies}

Again with the candy corn! :)

I told you I love to look at it, which is a good thing because if I ate this much it would not be good.

I'm  not quite sure what to call these, since they aren't really pillows...so I'm going with softies!
I had a few leftover candy corn pennants that didn't make the cut for my bunting , so I turned them into these:

I only had 3, so they are perfect to place in a little basket on the bathroom sink, or on a side table.
I started with 3 of these...

...and stuffed them.

Then I folded under the top opening, pinned it, and topstitched it with the machine.

I love primitives, so these were just a little too bright for me. I grabbed my Distress Ink and just roughed them up a bit...real randomly.

I love having leftovers...you never know what you might come up with.  :)

Thanks for stopping by my little corner!

I'm linking up to these parties:

 Making the World Cuter Monday





http://www.iheartnaptime.net/ “>

{Twine Candy Corn Pennant Wreath}

That seems like a lot of buzz words in the title, no?! LOL

We put up our Halloween decorations over the weekend and I've been adding to them like crazy. Did I mention this is my VERY favorite time of year??!! I'm so nuts about Halloween!

I made a few simple twine wreaths last year, and didn't add any embellishment except a ribbon for hanging.

I don't have a before pic of them, but I found the tutorial over at Brown Paper Packages.

After making some Candy Corn Bunting , I saw my scraps lying on the sewing table and the empty twine wreath and I knew I needed to do something else 'candy corn' with them!

I think it turned out cute and was no-sew, too!

If you want to make the wreath, you need a foam circle and I used jute twine. You can see the easy tutorial over at Brown Paper Packages. Once you've made your wreath, you're ready to go!

I started with this:

Some strips of leftovers and an empty wreath.

First I sewed my strips together in a candy corn pattern, just like with the candy corn bunting, only much smaller.

Then I made myself a small penant template out of old file folder, traced it onto my candy corn fabric, and cut out a few.

They are tiny!  :) Too tiny to sew, and I wanted this to look a bit 'rough', so it works out perfectly.

Next I used Liquid Stitch to adhere my candy corn pennants to a length of hemp cord.

My wreath is a smaller one, so 3 pennants was plenty.

Then I wrapped the ends of the hemp cord around my wreath, and secured them with Liquid Stitch. I angled the whole cord a bit. I added a last strip of leftover fabric (already cut to size as is) to use as my hanging ribbon. Again with the rough edges that I love. :)

And there you have it. It looks great hanging inside my front door, and I got to use scraps! Score!

Funny thing is that I don't even really like to eat candy corn...I just like looking at it. ;)

Have a wonderful day!

 

Making the World Cuter Monday

{Coaster Tutorial}

My Mom really needs a tutorial for the Halloween Coasters I made last week, so I thought I would post it here. These are super simple, and a good project for a sewing machine beginner (like my Mom, whose been faking it all these years, as I learned this week!) But that's okay...she's learning! :)

So maybe someone else can benefit from this, too.

These are made with Halloween fabric, but obviously you can use whatever you want.

My pictures are of ONE coaster, but I actually made a set of 5 all together. 

Here you go, Mom!

Halloween Coasters

1. Cut the following for a set of 5 coasters: 

(5) front fabric pieces, 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

(5) back fabric pieces, 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

(10) pieces of fusible fleece (2 for each coaster), about 4 3/4" x 4 3/4"each

(as long as they are SMALLER than your fabric all the way around, it really doesn't have to be exact)

This photo shows only enough for ONE coaster.

 2. Iron the fusible fleece to the wrong side of your front fabric and your back fabric. Put the glue side of the fleece to the wrong side of the fabric, then turn it over and iron from the RIGHT side. It will look like this when you're done:

3. Now pin the two pieces of your coaster, RIGHT sides together, on 3 sides.

4. Sew on 3 sides.

5. Turn right side out, pushing out the corners with a pencil. It will look like this:

6. Turn under the open edge, line it up, and pin it together.

7. Topstitch the open end together, then continue all the way around the coaster. You will topstitch in a little way from the edge.

Your finished border of topstitching will look like this:

I like to add another row of topstitching just for interest. If you do that, just use your first topstitch line as your guide and go around again. If you do 2 rows, it will look like this:

 Voila! Mom...you just made a coaster! Now repeat with your remaining pieces to make a whole set.

Hopefully they all turn out like these...

Thanks for stopping by!