K's new "In the Garden" dress

I came across this blog (From and Igloo) the other day, and I knew I had to make that dress for K. Luckily I had also found some fabric that I loved. Here is my end result.

Here is a picture of the back. You can see that the dress ties through a button hole in the back of the dress, so easy and so cute. The back is also made using a technique called shirring. There are lots of tutorials on shirring but this one is the one I initially used. It is just basically using elastic thread in the bobbin of your machine and sewing. It is sooo cool. The fabric just gathers as you sew. (As a side note check out this blog if you have a Brother machine and have struggled shirring, this saved me from throwing my machine out the window.)

Here is the front of the dress. Christine at From and Igloo did a great job with the instructions, it is basically a formula you plug your own measurements into. K is insanely skinny, and tall, so I could make this dress long and slender just for her. The straps are also adjustable in length so she should be able to wear it for awhile. (It would have been better to have my little model wear the dress, but you get what you can get)
The dress was really easy to make, I did it all in one evening. You do need some basic sewing skills, but her instructions are pretty good. My only change is I used a serger for the inside hems, but that is it.

Have fun!

Pumped Up

Those of you who have been in my home know it is definitely NOT fancy. Old, would be putting it mildly. Because of that, there are times I feel like a shinny new something looks out of place.

I wanted to get new soap dispensers (when I say "new" I mean not the plastic bottle it comes in), but they all looked to fancy for my little old house. This was my solution.

I decided to use an old canning jar and just attach a pump to the top. This was a super easy project, and as usual FREE.

Supplies:

canning jar and lid (whatever size you want)

old plastic soap pump container

drill and 1" spade bit

spray paint

liquid soap

a handy husband helps too :)

Here we go. First you need to cut a hole in the top of the lid. (This is where my handy husband was awesome) Kent used a 1" spade bit to cut a hole in the lid. This was the most difficult part of the project because the lid wanted to spin while being drilled. Kent clamped the lid on a scrap piece of wood. After it is drilled make sure the lid will fit over the INSIDE ring on the soap dispenser. Spray paint it any color you want.

Now you need to cut up your soap dispenser. I had an old face soap container that was easy to cut up. Carefully cut the container apart. You want to make sure you cut the inside ring out with a little around it. (See the photo below) This is how you attach the pump to the jar.

Now just assemble it together again. Put the inside ring through the hole in the lid, screw on the pump, fill the jar with soap, put the lid on the jar and screw the ring on. Ta Da! You could embellish the jar with ribbon or something cute like that, but at my house I think any extras might get pretty grimy.

Have fun.

Shrinking Silhouettes

I've noticed that those cute silhouettes we made in grade school seem to be everywhere in home decor. Cute little cut out heads on walls, pillows and all kids of stuff. I love the idea and was trying to come up with a fun way to wear my favorite little silhouettes. Here is what I came up with. Cute right? Want one? They are super easy and extra cheap. Mine was made from things I had laying around the house.

Supplies:

plastic container with recycle #6 on it

sharpie or other permanent marker

nail file (or fine sand paper)

picture to trace

9 or so jump rings

beads and head-pins (I used broken or mismatched earrings, already done so no extra work)

necklace or cord (Oooo ribbon would be pretty too)

That's right folks, it's a pre-made pie crust. You get to eat the pie you make, just save that plastic lid. You can use any plastic contaner you find as long as it has the recycle #6 stamp on it (you know the little triangle arrows with a 6 in the middle). So, this part of the project is FREE! Just use something that was going in the garbage.
Next I took pictures of my kids profiles and printed it out a contact sheet so they were nice and small. I then cut my pie lid up into square that would fit the pictures. My squares were about 1 1/2". File the surface a bit to give it "tooth", it will help the ink stick better. Next trace the sweet little silhouettes with a permanent marker, then completely fill in the head space. Then punch a hole in the top with a standard hole punch (So make sure you leave enough room at the top). I rounded the corners on mine too, just to get rid of anything sharp that might be by Bubby's face.
Pretty easy right? I actually redid D's picture, the lips turned out funky the first time. The awesome thing is there was more plastic to use so no big deal. Now the super cool part. Put the cut plastic on a foil lined baking sheet (shinny side up) and bake it at 350 for 3-4 min. Don't panic when you peek in and the plastic is all curled up and distorted, it will flatten out. In fact, that is how you know it is done, take it out when all the pieces are nice and flat. Let it cool for a second, and you have cute little charms.

Now you can assemble the necklace. I put a jump ring through each charm. Then I used old broken earrings (Never throw out your broken or incomplete jewlery sets. I find so many uses for one old earring), and other random beads to make some pretty danglies. To construct the necklace I used 8 jump rings. One on each, charm, one on each danglie. I then connected all the charms and danglies together using the remaining jump rings. I tried to form a small chain with mine so the charms would hand down.
Now put it on a chain (you know you have some unused necklaces hanging out in your jewelry box just needing to be used). Put on a cute t-shirt and admire your handy work.

(I think it it funny that Bubby has an Alfred Hitchcock profile, and K's little pony tail is so sweet.)

Spooky Spiders

Okay, I am going to try this blogged tutorial thing.  Here is how I make my spooky spider hair clips

First you have to make the curly ribbon.  (I already used up all my black, so I had to use blue).  To make the ribbon you cut a small dowel rod to the width of your oven.  Clip the end of the ribbon (must be 100% polyester, I just used the cheap spools) with a small clothes pin. Just wrap the ribbon around the dowel.  The closer the wrap, the tighter the coil.  Cut to length and clip the other end with a clothes pin.  

Bake the wrapped rods in the oven at 275 for 20-25 min.  (I lined my oven rack with foil just because it was a little dirty).  Take them out, make sure the coil took (unwrap a little, if the coil doesn't hold put it back in the oven for a few min) and let them cool a few min.  

  
When you are ready to use them, take them off the dowel and you will have this.
I made 2 spiders out of each 20" korker (as they are called).  I cut it in half, then each half in half until I had 8 pieces.
Line 4 up and tie the middle together.  This just helps hold them together while you are gluing.  
The body of the spider is just a knot.  I used the flat, squarish side of the ribbon, it was easier to work with.  
Just glue the korkers to the back of the knot.  Put a bit more hot glue and fold one of the ends over.  I like to "Fray Check" the ends (with "Fray Check", clear fingernail polish, or heat seal the ends).  Then cut the other side to length and fold over to glue.  
I then glued the whole thing onto a little snap clip.  You could use another type of clip, these just stay in K's piggies better.  

Don't forget the googly eyes, and you are done.  
This is a picture of the blue set I made for K.  They were made with 8, 3" korkers and a pink button with ribbon tied through.  

I found most of my info from this website.  The instructions are at the bottom of the page.