Busy Busy Busy

I haven't written in a bit of a while, but don't think it's because I have nothing to write about; I think we can all agree I rarely run out of things to say. It's just that I've been doing, going, making so much lately I haven't found the time to tell you all about it. Here's the summary (mostly) in photographs.

My friend, Jim, graduated from college earlier this month.

Guess which one is Jim.

Jim is something of a teddy bear wrapped in a bad ass, tattooed, bald-and-I-own-it shell. In honor of that I accompanied Emily to a nearby ceramics studio and painted Jim a pretty pot.

It's impossible to tell, but I wrote "Ashes of Passed Exams" atop my painted flames. I have no idea what will actually go in his jar,but he seemed pleased with it.

I actually missed the giving of Jim's gift (his wife kindly delivered it) because I was in San Antonio at Hava's baby shower! And oh what a shower.  I wish I'd taken photos, but, alas, I'll have to wait for them to appear on Facebook. In any case, Hava and Ryan have chosen to do Baby Caleb's room in a Dr. Seuss theme and the shower took that idea to highest possible level.  I did my part via my gift: a tummy time swanky blankie.

I suspected I wouldn't have time to photograph the finished product so I took some snaps midway through the making. Babies learn so much about the world through touch so I chose a variety of fabrics and embellishments, each with a different texture and all in a common Seuss color.

On the flip side I went with a black and white color scheme. For the first few months babies are unable to see colors, but I wanted Baby Caleb to start enjoying tummy time to the fullest right from the start; well, as much as any baby ever enjoys tummy time.

Speaking of black and white...

Okay, black and white and pink. Those are the favorite colors of my favorite high school graduate, a darling girl called Courtney. She just got her dorm room assignment and I cannot wait to show her the memo board I put together. You might recognize the fabric... Since the wall was getting some jewelry I didn't want the bed to feel left out so I made a little something for that too.

Hopefully, she's as keen on monograms as I am.

I've got a few other things in the works: a shirt for Ben (because I like to punish myself) and some placements for a neighbor. I may even do a tutorial for the mats. Ooooo. Aaaaah.

Scrappy Hangers

I don't know about you, but I tend to bungle at least one part of every project I take on. I know - big surprise.

Click on the image to see it on obstacol.

At least I've learned from these mistakes:

Always. Buy. Extra.

Of course, I don't always need all the extra I've bought, and when it comes to sewing that can leave me with a lot of leftover scrap fabric. But - another shocker, I'm sure - I have an incredibly hard time throwing away scraps.  What if something needs to be patched? Or I need to stuff a pouf? Or intergalactic war is imminent unless we can offer a patchwork quilt several acres square? What if?

Never have I claimed to be logical.

On the other hand, scraps piled up in my studio are pretty much going to waste, which is also unacceptable. Use them I must. I don't quilt (yet) so that's out. Nor do I make rag rugs (yet). I do, however, pin, and I just happened to have the perfect pinspiration for scrap-busting:

mondocherry via Pinterest. Click on image for details.

Except...I have no bangles to cover. Oh I know! I'll cover hangers!

Clare's tutorial pretty much tells the whole story, but for giggles, I'll walk you through my bangle-wrap-to-hanger-wrap process.

Begin with a big o' pile of fabric (or ribbon) scraps. I used a single fabric, but I think it'd be equally cute if you want to combine snippets from coordinating fabrics or even go wild with any and every scrap type you have on hand.

I'd recommend pressing your scrap fabric, but I doubt skipping the iron would kill the final product. After pressing (or not) cut your fabric into strips. I started with a width of 2.5 inches, but decided I liked the final look of using 1.5 inch wide strips.

Next, I combined all my strips into one really long strip. When making bias tape, binding, or anything else that requires a long, thin piece of fabric, I use the method Ashley talks about on Make It and Love It. To summarize:

Place

Sew

 Unfold

Voila

 I repeated the place, sew, unfold process until I had seven yards of 1.5-inch fabric.

Then, I introduced - cue the music - the hanger. I chose one of those thick plastic jobbies because that's what was on hand Clare's tutorial used a wide bangle so I had an idea of how the knotted fabric would loo in the end. If you use a wire hanger feel free to let me know how it turned out.

Step One: tie a know at the base of the hook leaving a tail at least 12 inches long.

12 inches of fabric to the left of the know, 6.66 yards to the right of the knot.

The 12-inch tail will allow you to tie the finishing bow.

Step Two: Actually, step two is probably best told in photos.

Take the long end behind the hanger.

Pass it through the center of the hanger and under the fabric loop.

Pull the long end until you have a knot.

Repeat all the way around the hanger making sure to keep the row of knots on the outside.

 
Step Three: When you get back to your original knot you should have enough fabric left to tie both tails into a sweet little bow around the base of the hook.

Confession: When I was done I had enough fabric leftover to wrap the hook as well.  I secured one end to the hanger with hot glue, then simply wrapped the fabric strip around the hook and secured the second end with more hot glue.

Thanks to bad lighting, I can't show you what they look like hanging in a row in Emily's closet.  You'll just have to trust me when I say they look just adorable.

Is it just me or would these make the perfect gift for just about anyone?

Yeah, I thought you'd agree.

Pinned it and Did it

If you've been following along lately you may have noticed words such as "blah" and "funk" sprinkled liberally throughout my rather sparse blog posts. So pathetic.

via FunnyCakes

I think one of the major funk contributors is my growing list of possible projects and my stagnant repertoire of completed crafts. That sort of thing leaves a person feeling unaccomplished and bad at time management.

Sewing PhD poster via Cafe Press

Luckily, my sweet Sarah girl came for a visit, and do you know what Sarah loves to do? Crafts! So instead of dragging my happy butt to the zoo trying to entertain a guest by looking at hot animals in the hot sun, I got to knock some stuff off my to do list with my best friend and my best daughter. Awesome sauce!

While it might look like terror on her face, she's actually screaming in excitement.

In honor of fall (and my enormous collection of fabric scraps) we started with some scrap-busting homemade pumpkins. I had seen something similar a while back, but I forget where. Luckily, the internet is equipped with Pinterest so I can find a similar source of inspiration to share.

via Small Fry and Co.

Cute, right?  We had so much fun going through all my autumn-toned fabrics. And by the time Sarah had to leave we had...

Can you guess which one belongs to who? I'll give you a hint: the littlest lady did not make the littlest pumpkin.

Just before we started our puffy gourds we went shirt shopping. Why? So we could make these!

Pinned here but originally seen here.

Until I saw those sweet tank tops I had no idea how much I needed to have tie dye in my wardrobe. Luckily, Sarah and Emily were totally game. Word to the wise, though: this is not a project for over-thinkers. The perfection lies in the imperfections. Unfortunately some members of our group have a hard time with that concept (I'm looking at you, Sarah). Personally, I love how they came out.

Alas, we never got a group shot of us in our matching tees. I did manage to snap Sarah and Em while they were busy getting their toes done (although, sadly, not tie-dyed) at D Retro.

If I were you, I'd be totally jealous.

And even though we had to send Sarah back to her home far too soon her visit did banish a good bit of my funk. Thanks, girl!

And you my darlings? What to-do have you done to lift your mood lately?

The Hot Days of Homemade

I know on Tuesday I promised you more fashion advice for summer and I'll definitely get to that.  Later. Right now, I have a crazy summer plan I'm dying to share with you. I'm calling it...

wait for it...

Hot Days of Homemade!

Dragon Dress tutorial via Craftster

Okay, you probably guessed that from the title.

Here's the deal. I seem to always want more; more clothes (for both Emily and me), more shoes, more accessories, more stuff to decorate my home. I also have a really long list of projects I'd like to tackle. Plus, I'm big on upcycling, recycling, and DIY. Finally, I want to increase my sewing skills. So I put all these things together and issued myself a challenge.

No New, Store-bought Stuff For Three Months!

From UPPERCASE Magazine via Pinterest

  

This means I make my clothes if I want new clothes, I make curtains if I want curtains, I gift handmade gifts, etc. For things I cannot make, I will buy secondhand. Do I seem completely crazy? If I do that probably isn't anything new to you guys.

What do you think?  Could you, would you spend your hot summer days joining me in this sort of challenge?

Craft-along: Putting it all together

To see the craft-along from beginning to end please click here.

Oh I wish you could all come over and see my pretty front door! Since it is a long drive for most of you a photo will have to do.

Are you ready to wrap up your wreath?  Well, go fire up your glue gun!

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to find a cheap picture frame. Weird, right? Finally I came across this framed print at JoAnn's for $4.99.  Still a bit steep, but I was getting sort of desperate.

The back was papered, but nothing a craft knife couldn't handle. I cut/peeled off the backing and popped the print out. Thus ends our frame prep.

At this point I realized I didn't have nearly enough flowers. Whoops. FYI, if you are making flowers with a three inch circumference you will need about 38 to cover a 16 by 20 inch frame.

I laid my frame flat and arranged my flowers around the outside edge so I could get a feel for the layout. Mostly, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't have to [put two of the same flower right next to each other.

Starting in the bottom right corner glue a leaf and a flower.  I like to put the leaves in conjunction with their respective bloom. It just helps me make sure all the glued ends are completely covered and the leaf cups the flower just right. At the very end I did end up adding a leaf here and there to fill in some areas that looked a bit naked.

I found it best to apply the glue to the flower and then press it onto the frame. Do this all the way around your frame.

And voila!

Now you are the envy of the neighborhood.  I cannot wait to see how your frames turned out. Be sure to send me photos at neveraplainjane@gmail.com.

Happy crafting!

Craft-along: Leaves

Hello, darlings!  Ready to get back to our craft-along?  I am! My front door looks so sadly naked. If you are just joining us and want to see the previous tutorials you can do so here.

Today's "tutorial" is easy peasy. I wanted to make my wreath entirely out of scraps, but, alas, I felt this little touch needed to be felt.  I shelled a whole $0.80 for two sheets of green felt because I honestly don't know any other fabric that will work.

And what are we making with this felt?  Leaves!

Step 1:

Cut out a leaf shape roughly three inches by one and a half inch.  Mine is pretty much a pointy-ended oval.

Step 2: 

Cut a slit from one point roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the way into the leaf.* Also, consider a quick manicure before posting close-up photos of your hand.

 Step 3:

Place a dot of fabric glue or hot glue on one side of your split.  Place the non-glued side on top of the glue - bottom side to top side.

Now you have a sweet little cup in your leaf so it has a bit of dimension. *Note, the longer you make your cut the more your leaf will cup.

Easy, right?

How is your wreath coming along? Are you just about ready to put it all together?

Craft-along: Flower tutorial 4

For other blossom tutorials and the more info about this craft-along please click here.

I'm sure this will come as a huge shocker, but sometimes I start making something and it ends up being something else entirely. That's what happened with today's flower.  I set out making a flat-ish bloom and ended up with a fabulously frilly carnationesque number.  And I love it!

I like it so much, in fact, that I'm changing my whole flower wreath blossom scheme. Do you want a ruffly carnation for your wreath? Well let's go, then!

Craft-along flower 3: Marigold (not actually gold)

For other blossom tutorials and the more info about this craft-along please click here.

I think today's flower looks like a marigold.

via

Except that it's navy.

And if I can make a navy marigold, you can make an any-color-you-want marigold. Ready?

Craft-Along: Rolled Rose Tutorial

Miss the first flower tutorial?  Check it out here.

This might shock some of you, but not everyone enjoys doing projects that require a needle and thread.  And sometimes a girl just wants to play with molten glue.  Totally understandable.

 As promised, today's tutorial involves two things - fabric and a hot glue gun. Arm yourselves, darlings, and let's get started!