Christmas Ornament + Star - Tutorial

Love this so much. This would work on a full size christmas tree in addition to other ornaments, or a small stand alone tree... To see how to make the ornaments AND the star, click here.

Candy Cane Garland

I know I said I'm not a fan of felt, but this has actually been hanging out in my "I should do this..." project queue for a while. It would be really cute draped on a tree, around garland, or pretty much anywhere! Also, it looks REALLY easy... check it out here.

Speaking of trees... when I was a baby, I LOVED pulling ornaments off the tree. I'd imagine that's a situation a lot of new parents face. You can't really just have a naked tree, but at the same time you don't want broken ornaments and broken babies. My parents solved this problem by making a bunch of red bows and putting those on tree instead (and we still put some on their tree every year). I think that this is a great addition to that - a pretty felt garland with some bows. It'd make a really festive tree without anything fragile (also really, really low maintance... decorating and undecorating would take two minutes!).

Christmas Tree Tutorials - A complete set!

Yesterday I posted the felt ruffle tree tutorial by Mel over at Bliss Bloom. What I failed to notice was that she had tutorials for all of her beautiful trees. I can't wait to make the pearl one! Head over to her blog to find out how to make your own beautiful christmas tree collection.

Christmas Tree Tutorials - Felt!

I think felt always gets a bad rap in my mind. It reminds me of tacky kid crafts and tacky do it your self projects and ...well, tacky. However, I found some felt trees that definitely make the non-tacky felt argument!

By the way.. can you tell I love Christmas trees? Don't worry... I have some other Christmas things to post too.

I love these felt glitter trees from Lorajean, but even more I love her whole mantle!! How amazingly beautiful is that? But back to the trees - these look pretty quick, easy, and beautiful. I actually made some trees similar to this but used rose petals instead of felt - I'll be posting a tutorial of that soon!

This is a really awesome and unique idea... I almost made some of these, but honestly I HATE cutting out circles. Which is unfortunate, because there have been a lot of really cool circle-felt tutorials lately.

I really love the pointy texture to this one - I think it might look cute next to some of the more rounded ones for a little variety on a mantle. You could do this in any color too.. I really like the idea of doing a gradient in the color. Never would have thought of that!






And last but not least - the ruffle felt tree! I've seen these in previous yars and always liked them.. they're so cute and fluffy! As a bonus, looking at this tutorial will also teach you how to make a ruffly wreath.

Christmas Tree Tutorials - Ruffles!

Most fabric-based tutorials seem to be based on ruffles... what a perfect idea! Ruffle trees are quick, easy, and can be made with scraps you have lying around. Also, they're ruffles... so they are awesome. Here are two similar but slightly different ideas:

This one uses ribbon and chair railing (which is optional, for flat, un-topped tree). Check it out here.

And one that uses fabrics and odds and ends as bases here.

Christmas Tree Tutorials - Tissue Paper

I've been saving up ome ideas for post-Thanksgiving/beginning of Christmas, so I'm excited to finally post them. I am super into Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year, and I LOVE it. Especially Christmas decorations, which can unfortunately be expensive. Since this is our first year in our own place without roommates, I really wanted to go crazy decorating... but without spending a fortune. So, I turned to the internet in search of crafty Christmas tutorials.

And I sure wasn't disappointed... I found some awesome ideas that I'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks - including a couple of my own tutorials slipped in which my camera man cooperates (are you reading this? You need to take pictures for me!).

This tutorial is great, because it uses the cheapest thing ever - tissue paper! Tissue paper is awesome, because not only is it practically free (seriously, get it at the dollar tree), but it is fluffy and soft and can be used in all sorts of ways. This tutorial planted some tissue-paper tree ideas in my head... I might have to make a few of my own tutorials! Check out Halsey's tutorial on these trees here.

Annndddd... I'm back!

So... Once again, I've deserted you all. In six months I haven't posted, and I feel terrible about it. Gone, without a warning! What makes me feel really, REALLY terrible is seeing all your comments and questions that were unanswered. Let me catch you up briefly on where I've been... I've graduated from college (miraculously), am now working as a software engineer at a major company, and no longer have a gallbladder. Before I left for my surgery I set up a few autoposts, but after those ran out I just simply didn't have the energy for sewing- the rest of my life was just taking up too much of me.

I'm still not quite sure what the future of this blog holds; I haven't touched my sewing machine in months, but recently inherited a serger and am trying to get both that and my sewing machine back into workable condition. After that, I have a few projects in mind. In the mean time, I would really like to continue the collabarative environment I was trying to encourage earlier in the year. For readers who value this blog and would like to see it continue, please comment and tell me what you want to see from it. Do you enjoy viewing tutorials I've found elsewhere? What about guest posts - would you be interested in doing those? Out of almost 900 (OMG) followers, and I know many of you are talented and creative, surely some of you have tutorials or projects you'd like to share with us! Please please please, keep talking to me and sending me emails. I'm making my way through the ones that came in while I was gone, and have been encouraged reading your kind words!

Ruffle Cardigan Tutorial

Have an old boring sweater sitting around that could use some sprucing up? Check this out for a super quick and easy update that will make your cardigan look super sweet and feminine!

Bow Shoulder Shirt - T shirt remake tutorial!

I love love LOVE this, and can't wait to make one! I especially like the stripes - they set the bows off perfectly.

To see how to take a cheap long sleeve t-shirt and turn it in to this, look here.

Want to be featured on my blog? Round 2!

As you know, when I'm in school I don't have time to sew or post at all, which is sad and unfair! But, I really liked what I did in the past - featuring other bloggers in posts! So here's what we're going to do... I'll troll around and find tutorials that I like and repost them, AND post guest tutorials from my readers as they're submitted!


So, here's the deal. If you want to be featured on this blog, come up with a great tutorial and send it to me! It should be something new that hasn't already been on your blog, but if you want me to feature something you've already done send that too! Make sure you send it to the addresses listed under the 'about me' section.

New CSN project - customizing rugs!

Obviously I haven't been sewing much lately; school and health problems have taken over my time. However, I will be done with school in June and will be moving into a beautiful apartment then - and of course I already know what I want to do to decorate. I like cruising the CSN website for ideas - whether creative office desks for my boyfriend, and rugs!

I really like using rugs to make a space interesting, and I've been wanting a zebra rug for my entryway. However, I'm having trouble finding one I like, so I'm thinking about getting a zebra rug fron CSN and using paint or dye to personalize it! And, of course, teaching you all how to do it as well :)

What do you think? Has anyone else ever customized a rug?

Here are some of the ones I'm looking at!

I really don't like all the stuff going on in this rug, so I'd probably try to make the whole border black.

Same with this - I like the zebra print itself, but the pink would obviously have to go!

Giveaway from Jerusha Hawkins - French Film Purse!

[Unrelated to this post news: Guess who just had her gallbladder removed? That's right, that means I've lost 2 organs in less than a year. Gaggg....]

Jerusha from Jerusha Design emailed me a while ago wondering if I'd like to giveaway one of her creations, and I jumped at the chance! She makes some super interesting and creative purses out of old film, and will be giving away one featuring an eiffel tower to one of my readers!

(I had to have a black and white picture of this purse - the combination of film and paris just screamed old theatre to me. You can scroll down to see a color picture at the bottom!)

Here is what Jerusha has to say about herself:

Hello! my name is Jerusha Hawkins. I am a full time wife and full time mother of one beautiful 18 month old girl named Nazarie. When i was 16 i got my first job at a movie theater in my town and i fell in LOVE with cinema. Everything about it! It was an amazing first job. Well, when we would have old film they would just THROW IT AWAY!! And i remember thinking what a waste it was because to me it had some real beauty to it. I started taking the film home and for a little while it just sat under my bed. Finally i really decided i wanted to put it to use I started by making a film purse it took forever and and wasn't anything too special. Over the years, im now 23, i have come up with a design that I love and really excited about and i hope you are excited about it too!

Here are some other examples of her awesome work:

And here is another picture of the giveaway prize! You can also see more of her work in her etsy shop.

Also, a quick note: I LOVE hosting giveaways for other new bloggers. If you're interested in me hosting a giveaway to you, send me an email with your ideas!

Now, how to enter:

1) Follow my blog if you don't already

2) Follow Jerusha's blog (use the link at the top)

3) Leave a comment with your name and a way to contact you

Also, for one extra entry, visit Jerusha's etsy shop and leave a comment with your favorite item!