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Memorial Day!

For some reason, huge sales are always on Memorial Day Weekend.
I am very grateful to those who have served! I don't know anyone personally. Except for my grandfathers. 

So to those of you that have, Thank you!

As for the rest of my weekend, I'll be shopping at Joanns! 

These sales are a Not Miss!

Toddler Chest Strap "Harness"

If you have a toddler (or are like me and have a child the size of a toddler but isn't) you know that it is darn near impossible to find a little backpack for them that fits right! We bike, and instead of trying to figure out how to bring along the diaper bag. I decided my daughter could have a backpack! 

Well I spent a long time looking, and all I could find that wasn't a huge pack was "Hello Kitty!" and then one of those Color-your-own small back packs for pre-teens. Well the HK one was $13 and the color your own was $7. And that is why I don't pay for labels! No brainer right?

Well, after spending an hour coloring it (more fun than it should have been) I was very excited to see how excited she was to see that her baby could fit in it! She wore it everywhere. Baby in tow. Yet it always slipped off even with the straps as tight as they would go.

Then we went for a bike ride. Diapers, wipes, couple cups of water and baby in the bag. I had to take off her shoes and tie the straps together on the back of the seat with her shoe lace.

No matter how much I loved it, it just wasn't working out. Until, after looking at her "doggy pack" (one of those leash packs) I realized it had a harness type thing. So! I decided to make one! 

And it is really Simple! 

Great use for scraps! All together took about 30 minutes. But my bobbin got jammed in the making.

What you need:

  • piece of scrap fabric. (Varies by need but my size is listed below)
  • Velcro, the width of your fabric
  • Scissors
  • sewing machine, I'm sure you can do this by hand but I didn't.

Step 1:

Cut your fabric to your desired length. Mine was 11"x7"

Step 2. Create clean edges!

If your lucky and have a fabric that doesn't fray then I guess you can skip this, or if you use that fray check stuff. If not then you need to make about 1/4 inch edges on all 4 sides. 

I am showing pictures of the stitch because I don't know the "technical" name for sure. I call this the straight stitch.



Step 3. 

Fold the longer edges towards the middle so that there is about a 1/4 inch overlap in the middle. Stitch with the straight stitch again.


Step 5.  Cut the Velcro

Since I lost about a 1/2 inch on the edges I cut my Velcro out to a total length of 10". I then cut that into 2 sections of 5" sections. After that I cut the firmer, plastic-ier side into two 2.5" pieces. 

Notice that the bottom piece is  softer side of Velcro.

Step 6. Attach middle "Soft" pieces.

I believe it is called the hook side. But it is the softer side of a Velcro. Put it in the direct middle.

Step 7. Sew them on!

Sew all 4 sides of the piece!

Again, I don't know "technical" terms. I call this Zig-Zag stitch.

Attach the smaller pieces on the opposite sides. If you notice they are not straight on, but if it bothers you I guess do it. :] 


And sew once more! 

Step 8. Done!

You are now finished! Fold the edges in! Put behind the shoulder straps, with the fabric touching your child's chest. Fold the edges in and secure the Velcro! My Velcro sticks to the straps of her backpack! 



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On an unrelated note, I use to have a pretty decent collection of antique cameras. In a move they accidentally got ruined. Well on a wonderful b/s/t site in my area I found these beautiful things and got them all for only $55! They all have their original cases! Straps are still attached and I'm in love <3! 

Hoping I can find out how to see if they operate still! Any suggestions? 






A Short Break

Taking a brief break. . .

from the "Flower Power" Mayhem, I needed to broadcast this. 

I have never made clothing and a friend asked me if I could try making a dress for her daughter. It is made from that fabric that you can buy at the stores that has the elastic in the top half. I figured it would be real easy, sew a seam, add some ribbon to make straps and then some bows.

This is the finished product:



You can't see the bottom it is a Hello Kitty! thing. She is walking across the bottom, but that is not where my work went into.


I am very proud of myself, it turned out well. I made the bows, and straps, attached and made a seam. Probably about 30-40 minute project, that cost $10.

Well less than ten because we got alligator clips and extra ribbon to make hair bows. <3


Flower Power

April showers bring May flowers.

Except that for some reason it rains more in May here than April. Plus it is still thawing from winter. So the flowers are a slowly coming. Except we have dandelions! 

So in the mean time, I decided to bring myself flowers.

I have quite a few flower related projects going right now. So for now I'll just show you one that I have finished.

First off, these are paper daisies. I would like you to know that I did not figure out how to make these on my own. I got the idea, and step-by-step instructions from (>^-^)> Here. But I did modify it.

I have made these daisies exactly as instructed for a center piece display, garland for Easter and decorations for my door. (I live in apartments, the door leading to my apartment is inside.)

Anyway! These are super cute, and very easy. Their plan was to make them "assembly line like". Which is very easy to do. But they don't work as well when they are put on paper, or a wall.

So, my modification was to make them look cute, more full and work better on paper any flat object. Instead of freestanding like his.

On to the tutorial!

You will need:

  • Paper! My preference when working with paper for crafts is card stock (scrap booking) but I have used construction paper on these.
  • Scissors
  • Glue, both hot glue and stick or liquid glue. 
  • Buttons
  • Embroidery thread
  • Embroidery Needle
  • A circle template This could be a cup, a cardboard ribbon thing (what they come on when you buy them at the store) or if your like me and actually have a template.
  • X-Acto knife, not necessarily needed. Everything you do can be done with scissors. I checked. But the knife makes it easier.

Step 1. Draw your circles.

This is a great project to use your scraps of paper. (Because a true crafter never throws away anything!) I choose to use 2 different papers of the same color family. Plus mine have prints on them. It adds a bit of texture and "craftiness" to them. In my humble opinion. 

Step 2. Cut your circles out.

I think that one is pretty self explanatory. Scissors work best here.

 Step 3. Cut out the "petals".

Cut 8 lines as demonstrated in this picture. Depending on your size they should at least be 1 inch long. Do this to both circles.

Step 4. Cut out...triangles?

This is where I begin to differ from the original tutorial. For it to work on paper it needs a bit more flexibility. So cut small triangles out of the center end of each line you cut. As shown by the colored in triangles below. Do this to both circles. I suggest using the X-Acto knife at this stage, it can be done with the scissors but the knife makes it easier. Also! Make sure you have a sharp blade. A dull blade (I found out) causes "paper wrinkle" which is a term I just made up. But it is when you drag your knife across paper and it more or less tears. Instead of cutting and just wrinkles the paper behind the blade. Also a dull blade scores more than cuts as well.
Makes a pretty sun-like thing, huh? :D

Step 5. Create your petals.

Fold a crease in the middle of each "petal. Fold toward the back (whatever you decide is the back of your flower, the side not being seen in the finished product). These do not need to be scored, do not need to be measured and you do not need to draw them out like I did below. You want to aim for making them where the lines fall on my example. But their imperfection is their perfection. Remember the original creator of these wanted them to be fast and simple. Just like the last 2 steps do this to both circles.

They will look like this on the front side after completion.

Step 6. Glue your 2 circles together to create your flower.

I do not suggest using hot glue here. You will need to pierce the middle with a needle and it will probably be a struggle with hot glue in the center. I used my glue stick. They didn't stick together real well until they were finished, but you just want some friction for not to prevent them from sliding when your doing the needle work in the next step.

Step 7. Get your needle ready!

Grab your thread, an embroidery needle and your button! Double-knot the end of your thread. The thread will pop through your whole with out a double knot!

Step 8. Stitch in your button.

Piercing your hole first is the easiest with paper. Pierce from the back, to the front for your first hole in the bottom. Thread it through and slide the button on. Use your preference in how you stitch in. I prefer the cross stitch on buttons and with this craft I think it looks cuter. Thread each cross section at least twice to keep it secure. Tie off the back of your thread! Otherwise your button with slide off.
Note that it is not exact center. As I said before their imperfection is part of their perfection.

Step 9. Attach to your paper.

This is where you use that fancy glue gun that you have been wondering where it was going to come into play! Put a nice size glob on the back of your flower, over the button thread and then press firmly to your paper. (OR whatever)
And now you are done! The possibilities are endless!

Now if you take a look at these two pictures:


The top one is my modifications. The bottom is the original template, sort of. They don't have it glued like this, they have a 360 view kind of thing. But if you look you can see that the modded one is fuller looking and you can see more petals than on the bottom.

Enjoy! There are more flowers to come!

Felty Felty Flowers

I am a little irritated.


Okay - rephrase. Rather greatly irritated. 


I have a whole bunch of felt left over so I have been scouring the internet for other craft blogs with things to do with these. Or at least inspiration to do something.


Well I have decided and come upon several flower ideas. Ya know, who doesn't love flowers in their hair? And my daughter actually lets me put these and leaves them in her hair! 


Well, anyway the reason I am irritated you ask? Well good Sir, this tutorial (right here) just is not descriptive enough for me. I have made 3 different attempts at this, not a single one looks like that. I shall show you 2 shots of the same attempt (attempt 3). I took two because I use a glass sheet to do my hot gluing on, and felt with flash on plus glass beneath it kinda makes it difficult. But without the flash its awfully dark. (Reminder cell phone camera images here)



With the flash
With out flash, obviously.

Anywho! If you look at the link, it ... /sorta/ looks like hers, but it really doesn't.

Any suggestions I'm stumped? If and when I can figure this out there will be an actual tutorial update.