:: a happy nest ::

felt & tulle princess hat tutorial.

This weekend, we attended a little friend's birthday party. It was a "sprinkles & sparkles" party - a very pink, very girly, very sparkly affair! Thea and I decided that a pricess hat would make a fun gift. The hat you see above is what I came up with.

{on a side note, I am the mother of a {suprisingly} very girly-girl, and I have very reluctantly entered the sparkly, pink, flowery world of princesses and twirly skirts and all other such fancy things. since this seems to be all that my wee girl thinks about these days, I'm just going with it, trying to also emphasize the importance of independence, smarts, strength, and  a good old-fashioned mess. while it's far from my everyday, fancy is quite fun! so I'm letting my sweet one guide me on this sparkly adventure.}

Here's how to make it:

 

materials

large piece of paper to make pattern

pencil

piece of string at least 18 inches long

1/3 yard wool-blend felt

medium or heavy-weight fusible interfacing

1/4 yard of tulle or other material (for the top of the hat)

sewing machine (or you could also hand-stitch)

handsewing needle & coordinating thread

felt scraps, buttons, trim, etc. for embellishment

{And just a note, I often buy my wool-blend felt locally at Quilting Adventures, but I also frequently buy online from Erica's, especially when I need yardage of felt. They have a wonderful selection of colors at different price points and very reasonable shipping.}

 

the process

First, make your pattern.

Use your pencil and string to make a quarter-circle. I was going for a hat to fit the 20-inch head of a three-year-old, and my radius for the quarter-circle was 14 inches. You may need to make your radius larger or smaller, depending on the size hat you need.

To do this, I tied the string to the pencil, then measured 14 inches and held the string at this spot while I traced the arc of the circle. I then used a ruler to make the lines for the straight edges.

Cut out your pattern.

Place your interfacing on top of your felt.

(I only had light to medium weight interfacing on hand, but a heavier weight interfacing is really better for this project, as it will give you a much sturdier hat).

Pin the pattern to the felt and interfacing & cut around your pattern.

Following the directions on the packaging of the interfacing, iron the interfacing to the felt.

Trim any uneven edges.

If you have any trim to sew on, do it now, so that the ends of the trim will be sewn inside seam of the hat.

Cut your strips of tulle. I cut the following widths: 1 1/2 inches, 2 inches, and 3 inches. Then I cut the three long strips into shorter pieces of various lengths.

Layer your tulle into a stack.

Put your felt interfacing side down and then lay your tulle on top of the felt, with the ends of the tulle close to the top of the hat.

With right sides together, pin together the straigt edges of the hat.

Make sure you catch the tulle as you pin.

Sew the straight edges together. You can trim off any extra tulle if you like.

Turn your hat right side out. You may need to use something to poke out the tip of your hat (I used a large knitting needle).

Now for the really fun part - embellishing your hat! I'll show you how I made the flowers you see on this hat, but of course, there are endless options.

To make the flowers you see above, I used this template from the craftside blog. You could of course freehand your flowers or google images for "felt flower pattern".

Use a chalk pencil to trace your pattern onto your felt. For each of my flowers, I used one small and one large(r) flower in different color felts.

Use a running stitch to sew a circle around the center of your flower.

Pull on the long end of your thread, which will cause your flower to bunch up a bit.

Tie a knot to secure.

Once your knot is tied and the gathering is secured, you can spread out the flower petals if you like.

Do this for as many flowers as you would like to embellish your hat.

Now you're ready to sew them on! I layered a large flower, a small flower, and a flower button. I didn't take photos of this step, but I did sew the flowers & button together before stitching it to the hat.

And that's that! I hope your little girl loves this as much as mine does.

de-pilling vintage sheets.

So, I have a thing for vintage sheets.

Sometimes, the ones I come across are lovely except for some minor imperfections. A while back, I shared a trick I learned to remove stains.

Pilling is something else I often find on otherwise perfectly pretty vintage sheets.

 Did you know you can use a fabric shaver to clean up your sheets, just like you do with your favorite sweaters?

I just iron mine and lay them on a flat surface, and then let the fabric shaver do the work! It works well on mildly pilled sheets, and I have had good luck even with moderately pilled sheets. Sometimes, however, there is just too much wear on that pretty old fabric, and I just have to resign myself to letting it go.

Now I'm off to the studio to straighten up after the holiday madness. Happy Thursday to you!

her favorite pillow.

I made this pillow as a sitting cushion for Thea's play tent, but it's turned into a "carry everywhere I go pillow." Either way, I love that she loves it so much.

(our sweet girl recovering from her latest winter illness)

I used this tutorial from cluck cluck sew, only making one modification: instead of sewing a button in the middle of the pillow, at the last minute, I decided to just sew on a felt circle instead. I thought that would be more comfortable for sitting, and I'm glad that I ended up going this route. The pattern was super-easy, and overall, it was a pretty quick project.

I wanted to make this pillow playful and full of color, so I used a variety of polka-dot prints from my stash. Of course, I included plenty of orange.

This came together so nicely that I'm sure a few more will be in my future. Can you have too many pillows?

in progress: thea's new room

For the past couple weeks, I've been working hard on transforming Thea's room into a sweet space for our curious and playful three (and a half!) year-old.

Here's a little peek at what I've been up to:

deciding

 

painting

stitching

crafting

and some new {old} furniture too.

There's still a lot to do, but I'm excited about how it is coming along. I'll be sharing more details soon!

 

a new tutu.

As I mentioned before, I've been working on a new style of tutu that will hold up a bit better to the tough love of a three-year-old. The one pictured above is what I came up with. It was fairly simple to make, and I'm working on a tutorial so you can make one of your own! Stay tuned. :)

Happy Wednesday!

65 roses project : update

My brother's big hike is THIS weekend. Sadly, I'm much further behind on the project than I had hoped. Thea and I have both been sick, and with her on spring break last week, I didn't have much time to focus on much but being a mama.

The good news is that fundraising for the hike stays open until May. I'm planning on finishing photographing everything next week, and I hope to have all of the items up on etsy by Friday.

I've been having a lot of fun sewing up these sweet shirts for little girls. One of the fun things about having a collection of vintage sheets is that so many of them have pretty roses as a part of their design.

I picked my favorites, and have been sewing them on as appliques.

I've also been making a few different styles of earrings and bobby pins.

At this point, I actually have well over 65 different things to list. I am going to offer them all up and sell as much as I can.

As I mentioned before, 100% of sales will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

It is so important for the CFF to receive donations because the CFF receives no federal dollars for research or development of a cure. Your dollars are highly utilized to develop therapies that help manage CF and hopefully will one day cure CF entirely. As I mentioned before, $.90 of every dollar donated to the CFF goes to RESEARCH to FIND a CURE for CF.

Here is a video that my sister-in-law's friend and fellow CF mom Rebecca Fish made to raise awareness:

 

Again, you have my deepest gratitude for your support of this project.

celebrating.

Yesterday, our sweet little girl turned THREE!

Last week, we had lots of fun getting ready to celebrate.

I made her a birthday shirt.

And a special birthday crown.

We made cupcakes, and used this fun teplate to make happy flags to top our sweet treats.

And we made our own crayons to give to Thea's friends from her preschool class.

I think I had as much fun (or more) as she did!

What are your favorite ways to celebrate your little ones?

 

the 65 roses project : take 2.

As many of you know, in October 2009, my niece Caroline was born with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic disease that primarily impacts the lungs and pancreas - leading to severe lung infections and reduced ability to absorb fats (and more importantly fat soluble vitamins) that, taken together, substantially reduce life expectancy.

Caroline has the Delta F508 gene mutation. This mutation is considered the most severe CF mutation because it affects BOTH the respiratory and digestive systems. We are so grateful that at 18 months, Caroline has remained incredibly healthy, and is a thriving little girl.

Last year, to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, my brother and his friend Matt hiked 30+ miles through the mountains of North Carolina. In support of his fundraising efforts, I made and sold 65 fabric roses - raising $1000. Last year, my brother and Matt raised over $30,000 for the the CFF.

When my brother told me the significance of the phrase "65 roses," I knew that this would be the theme of my fundraising efforts. "Sixty-five roses" is what some children with CF call their disease, because those words are easier for them to pronounce. You can read the story about how this phrase was adopted by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation here.

This year, my brother is a hike leader and the group of participants has grown from 30 last year to over 80 this year. Last year, the group raised $160,000. This year, they're almost at $300,000!

 

I was so happy to learn that $.90 of every dollar donated to the CFF goes to RESEARCH to FIND a CURE for CF.

 

This year, in support of my brother's fundraising efforts, I am making several types of roses - sewn fabric roses (two styles in various colors), earrings, hair clips, and sewn t-shirts. Those pictured in this post are a few examples of what I will be offering for sale.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing more about Caroline's daily life as a kid with cystic fibrosis, as well as a bit about the good that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is doing  - including how they recently advocated for my brother's family when Caroline lost coverage for her care at UNC.

 

 

I hope you will check back for updates. Thanks in advance for your support of my family, and of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

starburst shirt.

A sweet, dear friend recently had a birthday, and I wanted to make something extra special to let her know how much she is loved. Lately, I've been experimenting with the reverse applique technique. When I put together this stencil and these knit fabrics, they reminded me so much of her, and I knew what my gift would be.

I used a store-bought shirt and another thrifted knit material for the contrast. The stencil is from a template in Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.

I'm really in love with this technique. I'm using it for another very special project that I will be sharing with you soon. The hand stitching is so calming - it's good medicine for the soul.

I hope your week is off to a good start!

my happy place: studio tour

 

Over the past few months, I've been working really hard on my studio. It had become really cluttered and pretty much unfuctional. When I walked in, I felt frustrated and overwhelmed. It was time for a change.

Up until the new year, this room was still set up as it had been in my days of making jewelry. The room was crammed with all of my jewelry supplies and tools, and my growing collection of fabric and linens were scattered about, piled in bins, and without a proper home. As I was putting this post together, I couldn't find a before photo, but I will add it when I do - so you can see just how unsightly it was.

The progress was slow going, and it often felt like I would never finish. But now it is pretty much complete - or at least close enough to share. I love this space so much. It has been amazing to feel my creative energy flowing again, just by creating order in this space. When I walk in, I feel peaceful and settled, yet inspired. Everything has a home. I've been working really hard to keep it nice and neat, and to put things away when I am finished working with them (this is really hard for me!).

I am so incredibly grateful to have this space. This room used to be the garage, but when our house was renovated in 2002 (before we bought it), this room was made part of the house's living space. I think it was designed to be the master bedroom - it has a full bath and two great closets, along with a window seat and cedar chest - but we couldn't make that work with our furniture and how we were using the rest of the space in the house. It has been an office, my jewelry studio, and now it is my sewing studio and fabric shop.

So, let me show you around. I'll give you the quick tour and then share some details.

This is the view when you walk into the room. Straight ahead is my sewing table with my regular sewing machine and serger. To the left is the printer, sitting on a set of drawers that holds paper and other office type supplies. And you can see a little bit of the corner where all of my thread, ribbons, rulers, and a set of drawers with most of my sewing tools. That big basket holds all of my vintage linen scraps.

This view shows my cutting table and the bathroom.

This dresser sits on the wall opposite my sewing table, and holds all of my packaging supplies and non-sewing craft and art supplies.

This metal bookcase is right between the dresser and the bathroom door. It holds my sewing books, my vintage pillowcases, and a few more packaging supplies.

Opposite my cutting table are the closets and window seat, which looks out into our front yard.

And a quick peek into the bathroom.

And now I'll share some of the details.

Above my sewing table are embroidery hoops with some of my favorite vintage fabrics.

This is one of my favorites.

Behind my sewing machine sit large jars of fabric scraps, sorted by color.

Next to the window, I hung little metal bins, which hold my ribbon. I picked up these little bins from Target's dollar section.

I punched two holes in the bins and used little "L" hooks to hang them on the walls.

This is another view of the wall beside the cutting table. I'm not crazy about the lamp, but I haven't found another affordable one that provides enough light.

Lots and lots of thread.

This is another view of the cutting table. It is from Ikea, and it is just the right height. Inside, the shelves hold more fabric - thrifted sheets, burlap, batting, as well as my patterns and other larger items.

The shelves above the cutting table hold jars of buttons and vintage tins with vintage sewing notions. The bar is from Ikea, and is home to my scissors and rotary cutters.

Buttons, sorted by color.

This frame is above the three-drawer dresser. I thrifted the frame for a couple of dollars, painted it white, and then sanded it to create a distressed look. I used colored twine to create a place for hanging bits of inspiration and other pretty things I want to have in sight.

A closer look at the frame.

I took some sweet little flower cabachons and glued them to mini-clothespins for hanging my bits of inspiration.

Another shot of the flower clips.

This is the closet on the right, which is home to most of my vintage linens. As part of the studio makeover, I built and painted these shelves in the closets.

To keep the fabric nice and tidy, I cut foam boards sized to fit my shelves and then organized the sheets by color.

This is the closet on the left, which is home to all of my other fabric.

To organize this fabric, I wrapped the fabric around comic book boards and sorted it by color. I had several of these metal bins on hand, and they were the perfect fit for the size of the fabric "bolts" and for my closet space. Once I realized how perfect they were, I went back to Target to look for a few more, and snagged them on clearance. Lucky me!

This paper star was a gift from a dear friend several years ago. I love it so much. It hangs from the ceiling above the window seat.

This window seat is one part of the room that I haven't finished yet. I am planning to make a cushion - I just can't decide on a fabric. Thea doesn't mind though - it's one of her favorite spots in the house.

So there you have it - a peek into my creative space.

Have a lovely weekend, friends!