Sequin Shirt

"So, I saw these shoes..."

Those are 5 little words that my husband hopes to hear as little as possible yet rarely does. I am usually a very practical person, however, when I saw the shoes pictured below it was love at first sight.
Now comes the sad part, 4 months later, I still haven't worn them. Why not? First of all, the college life is full of backpacks and trekking across campus through the rain, not exactly conducive to 3-inch heels. Second, I can't find a fancy-schmancy ruffle shirt to wear with them. So, I attempted to make one.
The picture above is the finished product. I was originally not going to add the sequins at the bottom (pictured below) and just let it be ruffly but I preferred the extra sparkle.
I used this old tank from The Limited.And cut 15 pieces of red fabric to fill the middle section of the tank.
Next, I folded each of the red pieces in half, lined them up side by side, and sewed across the top. Then I stitched the bottom edge. After the scraps were secured, I pinned the sequin strip over the stitching and sewed over the top.
Yay! A sparkly shirt to go with my fancy shoes.

Dressing up a shirt is simple. If you don't feel comfortable messing with both fabric and sequins, try sewing just one strip of sequins across a neckline or add a few simple, straight, sequin stripes across an old T-shirt.

So, pull out your favorite pair of impractical shoes, throw on your newly bedazzled shirt, and have fun!

Potpourri Frames

While there are many aspects of our little apartment that we love, one downside to apartment-living is the "no painting" rule. A consequence of having no color on the walls, I am forced to craft more in order to brighten up the place. Oh shucks.

I was going through a junk box last year and came across a package of potpourri. At first I thought I would be typical and arrange the potpourri in a vase with a candle, always a nice touch. Instead, I came up with this potpourri art.
Our couch is dark green so the limey-green fabric in these frames contrasts well and helps the walls pop with color. Potpourri tends to be muted colors so I definitely suggest picking a bright and bold color for the backdrop.
Materials:

3-8x10 frames
6-5x6 pieces of fabric
1-package of potpourri
Tape or Hot glue

Instructions:

Overlap the frame backing with two pieces of fabric making the frayed edge visible (this adds dimension). Pull the fabric tight and tape or glue the fabric around the edge of the backing.

Next, scatter various pieces of potpourri over the fabric. I found that randomly dropping the pieces worked out much better than planned disarray.
Carefully place the glass and frame over the top of your potpourri. If you are very particular about your placing, you can always use hot glue to make sure the potpourri stays in place as you attach the frame.
Voila! You now have a unique piece of colorful art for your walls. There are lots of other materials you can use for a project like this so, as always, BE CREATIVE!

Still-Life Chalk Art

Have you ever wandered down the art aisle of your favorite home decorating store and thought the images were overpriced and somewhat amateur? You think, a 6-year-old can paint a red circle in the center of a white canvas, right? I have spent many hours in these stores thinking I can paint this myself, and finally one day, I did.

Painting does not have to be a difficult or expensive endeavor. I firmly believe that almost anyone has the ability to make beautiful art for their home. The most difficult part of painting is learning to work with the paints. However, if the task of painting still seems daunting to you, I have another suggestion. Pastel Chalks.

Pastels are some of the first art forms I attempted when I was younger and I have recently come back around to using them.For Christmas last year, I decided to craft some made-to-order art pieces for the women in our family. The picture above was made using a canvas, pastel chalks, and my fingers for blending.

This "painting" was created for Momma Mary (Jack's mom). She has a shabby-chic look in her home and I thought the simplicity of the piece and the colors would match well.

I am fully convinced that anyone can make this still-life piece. The fruit shape can be accomplished free-hand style or by printing out a clip art fruit of choice. Simply print, trace, and fill in the shapes with your favorite color. Be sure to have a wet rag on hand to clean your fingers from time to time.

The pictures were very well received and are a great idea if you need an inexpensive yet thoughtful gift idea. Trust me, you can do this!

Edible Books Festival

In order to celebrate the nourishment that books bring to our lives, Milligan College library staff threw the college's first ever Edible Books Festival at the P.H. Welshimer library. The event was a hit! It looks like next year the staff will throw a full-out competition due to all of the positive feedback.

Neither of my entries were as elaborate as I had hoped (this week was abnormally hectic). Jack asked me to make his entry since he works late Thursday evenings. I immediately said, “of course!” Unfortunately, I underestimated the precision required to make caramel apples. It will be a long time before I attempt those by myself again. Timing is key and between keeping caramel melted, crushing candy bars, and dipping apples, I did not have good timing. Oh well, I've learned my lesson.Anyways, my “Green Eggs” entry wasn’t anything special so I am not even going to bother giving you the recipe. The icing was the same powdered sugar frosting from my previous Rummy Shortbread Cookies post, minus the rum.

Here are the other entries...

Jack’s, oh so clever, “Candide” apples. He’s so witty.
And a few other entries that were both creative and clever...

Kirstin Blackburn: "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"
Meredith Sommers: "The Illiad" (aka Book-la-vah)John Jackson: "The Invisible Man" (we gave him a hard time but it's pretty clever)
Mary and Grace Jackson: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
Melissa Nipper: "The Giving Tree"

June Leonard: "The Lion and the Mouse"

And there you have it, a few highlights from the first ever Milligan College Edible Book Festival. I am also including a little background information on the event for those of you who might be curious...

Judith A. Hoffberg originally came up with the International Edible Book Festival idea in 1999. Beatrice Coron created the Books2Eat website for participants worldwide to enjoy each others edible creations. The first Edible Books event took place in 2000 and has since taken off as an annual sensation.

Edible Book festivals take place on or near April 1 in honor of the French gastronome, Jeane-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's (1755-1826) birthday. He is famous for his book, "Physiologie du gout," a witty mediation on food.

Baby Skirt

Seeing as it is my spring break, I have decided to celebrate this week by working on all the fun little projects I have been dying to try for my new niece. Today's project, skirts!

Unfortunately, I have no babies or dolls to get a good picture of the skirt, but trust me it's adorable and the pictures don't do it justice.
This skirt took me about 30 minutes to complete. All I did was cut two 11x16 pieces of one fabric (the pink) and two 11x16 pieces of cream for the lining. Start by sewing the two pink pieces together (along the 11in sides), right sides facing each other. Same with the inner lining. Then, with the two sets still inside out, slip the lining around the outside of the outside piece and line up your seams.

Next, grab both layers and fold over 1/2 in. at the top of the skirt and sew along the cut edge leaving a pocket to slip elastic through later on. The hem the two layers separately. I suggest hemming the lining at 1/2 inch and the outer layer at 1/4 in.

Last of all, cut a small slit through the top folded edge (be sure to go through both layers on the inside but not to cut all the way through the front of the skirt). Next, attach a 1/8 in. elastic strip to the end of a pencil (I used a pin) and slide it through the hole and all the way around the skirt. Once you have two ends of the elastic pull so it is snug and sew over the two pieces to secure.

Very very simple to make. I'm sure you could all figure these out on your own but hopefully, this will help get your creative juices flowing. I have 4 more fabrics that I am using to make these this week so I'm sure you'll be seeing more pictures very soon. Happy sewing!

Baby Shoes

I had an itch to sew today and decided to give these baby shoes a try. The pattern is simple to follow and can be found here.

I had a few issues getting equal tension on each foot, but I am pretty pleased at my first attempt. Looking forward to trying some different patterns. Baby Avynlea will have the coolest shoes on the block!

Spring Petal Mosaic

I am one of those individuals who collects pretty much everything I have ever received. You might say I am overly-sentimental. I like to think I simply have incredible insight to possible future uses of said gifts. I mean, you never know when a ceramic lime green elephant will come in handy.

One of the items I have acquired many of over the years are roses. I have dried roses from high school plays, Valentine's days, and birthdays in jars all around my home. Well, last March, spring cleaning got the best of me and I decided to get rid of the clutter of jars. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to throw away the entire collection of dried petals so I came up with a way to display the flowers in a more condensed manner.

I took a canvas and painted the sides and background in varying shades of green. Painting the background made it easier to attach the petals without having to worry about covering every tiny hole. After the canvas dried I took craft glue and started attaching different shades of petals in groupings and then blending the groups together with a gradient of petals. I also added a few dried leaves to help make the green underneath blend well with the overall composition.

I couldn't be happier with how the piece turned out. I now have my own unique piece of spring art that ties together our flowered curtains and green couch in the living room.

Knitted Blanket for Avynlea

I've been working on this blanket for my soon-to-be niece, Avynlea. Her mommy asked for pink to match the room. I ended up with 2 shades of pink that are girly but not necessarily little girl, girly. I like to think these colors are a bit sophisticated as well.

I chose Loops & Threads brand Country Loom thread. I love this thread because it is a little fluffy so it hides mistakes well. My colors are (from right to left below), Rodeo, Warm Cream, and Snapdragon. Snapdragon is my favorite!


I like to knit while doing other things (watching Biggest Loser)so I decided not to count rows because I know I'll get distracted. Instead I am knitting one whole ball of yarn (104 yards/95m) for each pink color (ends up being 16 whole rows-32 single rows) and separating them with 8 whole (whole="down and back") rows of cream. Another great striped blanket pattern can be found here.

Blanket:

Stitch: garter (knit every row)
Yarn: 4 snapdragon, 2 rodeo, 2 cream
# of Stitches: 115
Needle Size: 9-10mm (mine is 9 wish I would have done a 10)