small craftroom update

The basement was put on hold for a bit there, Mr. J had to have surgery. But now he is all better and has began working on the basement yet again!! So, over the weekend (while I was uber lucky and had a girls' weekend with my MIL and SILs) my sweet hubby put the flooring in for my craft room!! I was ecstatic when he text me while I was out shopping (oh yeah) and told me he had it all done! Here she is!! When deciding what kind of flooring to put in the craft room, it was slightly harder to decide. Carpet was a definite no. I didn't want to deal with losing needles in it and threads getting caught in it, and I figured it was just be easier to clean without the carpet. Plus, crafting may not be the only thing I do in here. There may be some painting going on as well. If I have room for a painting station (which I've never had, so I'm praying there's room). So another option would have been tile. Uh, no thanks. Cold tile didn't sound to appealing. So, of coarse, I wanted wood floors. Unfortunately, it just wasn't in our budget. (sigh.) So the hubs started trying to convince me to put vinyl in--he had found some cheap "fake tile" vinyl. Apparently I'm a little picky, because I fought that option. We looked at Pergo, but for reasons I won't get into, it would take too much extra effort. So I started looking at regular vinyl wood flooring from Home Depot. I decided it would do. But...while looking at Lowe's, we found some peel and stick vinyl wood flooring and I remembered reading about that over on House of Smith's. It was SO CHEAP! Plus it's super easy to put down. You just paint some special primer, and then peel the backs and stick it down. And it hoenstly doesn't look like cheap vinyl flooring. It actually looks pretty dang good! So we went that way, saved a little bit of money and time, and now I have a few extra bucks in the budget for other things I want! Woo hoo!!

I'm a big fan of dark wood, which is what we put in the rest of our house, and I almost went with the darker color in here, but then I figured maybe I should mix it up a bit. Plus, seeing as the craftroom is in the basement, why darken it up anymore then we need to? Although for being in the basement, it gets surprisingly good light in here, due to the fact that there are two big windows in the room.

Here's the view from the other end of the room.

Now we just need to do the finish work, paint and put in the lights, and then she's all ready for me to decorate/assemble/craft-in!

Unfortunately, the air vent runs right through the room, so I'm not able to put a light fixture in. So we did lots of cans instead--3 on one side and 2-3 on the other, so that should give me plenty of light at nights, along with some desk lamps and I'll probably do some kind of hanging light in one of the corners.

While on the subject of the basement, he also got the tile laid in the bathroom. (not yet grouted)

He also tiled where the bar will be in the family room (also not yet grouted).

So that's the little bit of updating that has been accomplished. I'm sure it's much more exciting for me then it is for you. But I'm allowed to share my excitement, right?! :D

a quick gift

I just wanted to share a skirt I whipped up for Kadie's friend for a birthday party. I love how easy it is to make skirts. And doing layered skirts are extra fun.

Of coarse I had to add a little ric rac, a result of my ric rac obsession at the moment.

And I also threw together a fabric headband.

Hopefully this gift will be enjoyed!! Tomorrow, I'm excited to show you updates on my craft room. It may not be as exciting to you, but I'm ecstatic! :D See you tomorrow! Happy Monday!

Camera Strap Cover {guest post on 2 Little Hooligans}

Today I'm guest posting on one of my bloggy-friend's awesome blogs,

2 Little Hooligans.

Christina does Fat Quarter Fridays every friday and asked me to come up with a tutorial you can make with a fat quarter to post on her blog. I LOOVE fat quarters. I have a whole hoard of them. I can never resist cute little mini bundles of fabric. Plus I love the quick little projects that can go along with them.

So I thought I'd also share the tutorial for the camera strap cover on my blog as well!

I DESPISE camera straps. They are so uncomfortable, the way they cut right into your neck. So, "photography life" has been much more pleasant since I put together a camera strap cover for myself. So here's how I did it.

All you need is: -a piece of fat quarter fabric
-scraps (optional)
-thin batting
-heat-n-bond
-iron
-basics (sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins)

So start out by measuring your camera strap. I have a Canon Rebel XTI, so I have one of the 2 inch wide straps, which I'm pretty sure is standard for any DLSR cameras. So I cut my fabric

5" x 21". But if you have a different size, just double the width of your strap and then add on another 1/2"-3/4".

Fold it in half, length-wise right side out, press, and sew along the fold, 1/8" from the edge.

Unfold, and add any embellishments you may want. I chose to do some scrap flowers.

Flip over to the wrong side and iron on some heat-n-bond strips down the center of each side.

Cut 2 strips of batting, about 1 1/2" x 20" each and "bond" them to the bond strips.

Fold over each small end about 1/2" and sew 2 seems to keep them put (as shown above).Fold it right side out and "sandwich" the raw edges (just over an 1/8"), press and pin. Then sew along the edge 1/8".

Fit it onto your strap, and "Wah-lah!" You're done!

Try out the luxury and comfort. Oh yeah.

Hope you like the tutorial! Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Friday!! :D

spring dress

So here's a spring dress I whipped up a couple days ago. I've been on a bit of a crafting/sewing kick lately, and I LOVE it! I'm so anxious to have my craft room done so I don't have my supplies messing up our main "living area". (updates on the craft room coming soon! Eek!) I just kind of winged it, (like I do most projects), but I was incredibly happy with how it came out! Especially since clothing is not my forte. But it definitely helps when the dress is forgiving, not needing to fit a certain way.

I just used some fabric I had in my stash. I thought they were perfect colors for spring. If only it looked like spring in these shots instead of the cloudy skies and grass that is attempting life and failing. I had to pair it with a shirt underneath because it was so chilly outside.I did some pleats along the bottom to match the pleats on the chest and back around the collar.

I'm not sure what these dresses are called, but I've seen lots of them floating around the blog world, so I attempted to mimick them. Not too shabby, eh?

I made a simple headband to match with a big scrappy fabric flower and a vintage glass button I had in my stash.

The headband is just a basic long scrap of fabric that I serged around the edges to prevent fraying.

All in all, I feel it was a success and am happy with how it turned out. But I'm not sure if I'll use it as her Easter dress. I guess if I fail at all other attempts for a dress I can always fall back on it.

{super model! :D}

It's a...

So, with my AWESOME "pregnancy-brain", I realized I never announced on here what I'm having. So here you go!! I've been crazy busy thinking of names, picking out fabric for the bedding, shopping, and pulling out all my little girl things. I love this part!!

By the way, I've been working on a spring dress for Kadie (possibly her Easter dress??) I'll be sharing tomorrow. Assuming it works out.

Simple Bow tutorial

One of my favorite things to do with scraps is make accessories (particularly hair accessories for Kadie and myself). The one I've been doing a lot of lately is bows.
So I thought I'd share my little tutorial on how I like to make them.

So here we go!!

Materials needed:

-fabric strip A (8 1/4" x 2 3/4")

-fabric strip B (7 1/2" x 2 1/4")

-fabric strip C (2 3/4" x 1 1/2")

-sewing machine

-scissors

-needle and thread

-iron

-headband/alligator clip or any hair clip/elastic/safety pin/whatever you want

Start with fabric strip A (the larger one). Fold it in half width-wise.

Sew it about 1/8" from the edge (or as close as you want to get). Then iron it flat so the folded edge has a distinct crease.

Unfold and line up the seam and the folded crease.

Sew along the top 1/8" from the edge.

Sew along the bottom, leaving a small opening in the center to turn fabric right side out.

Turn fabric right side out, pushing corners out completely, and then press all the edges.

Sew the opening closed with either in invisible stitch (such as a ladder stitch) for a cleaner finish, or just top sew it closed as close to the edge as you can get it (as I did here). The stitching will be on the bottom of the bow, both tucked a little under the bow and mostly covered by the center tie. But do as you'd like!

Repeat these steps for fabric strip B.

When fabric strips A and B are done, lay and center fabric strip B on top of fabric strip A.

Make sure the "top stitched" edges are down if you chose to do a top stitch instead of an invisible stitch.

Sandwich it closed pinching the center along the bottom as shown above.

Fold the two sides in the center down as shown above.

Stick a pin through all layers to hold it.

With a threaded needle, pull the thread through on the right side of the pin.

Then pull the thread through on the left side of the pin.

Pull the needle through the thread loop and pull tight.

Tie the thread to keep the bow tight. Now, with fabric strip C (the center tie), fold it in half length-wise.

Sew along the top and down the side, leaving the bottom open. (I didn't get a photo of this, so on the photo above, I drew small black "stitch" lines to show where to stitch)

Turn it right side out and press.

While holding the bow, turn it so the bottom of the bow (where you pulled and tied the thread) so it is facing you. Line up the raw edge of the tie with the bottom of the "top bow" as shown above.

Do a loop stitch to secure them together. It doesn't need to be pretty. You won't be able to see it later.

Tie off the loop stitch, but don't cut the thread. We're just going to pull it through later so we don't have to re-thread a needle. Pull the center tie around so it crosses the top of the bow.

Don't pull the center tie too tight so you can slide clips or head bands in and out, letting the bow be interchangeable. (If you want to make the bow permanent for something, you can insert the object under the center tie now, such as a hair clip or safety pin)

Make sure the end of the center tie is on the underside of the bow.

Pull your needle and thread through the bottom of the tie and through the edge of the tie as show above.

Pull and then begin to do either a loop stitch to secure it or an invisible stitch (such as a ladder stitch) if you want a cleaner look. (I personally don't care what the underside of my bows look like, but I'd probably do an invisible stitch if it was for a gift).

Tie it off and snip the thread. You have yourself a bow!

There are a bunch of things I like to use my bows for. Some times I slide a safety pin underneath the tie and pin it onto the side of a beaded necklace. Or slide in a hair clip as a fast hair accessory for the little girly-girl.

Or slide it onto a headband.

It's also perfect for a bow tie for the little man. Just pin a safety pin on the end of a 1/4" elastic and pull it through the tie on the under-side. Sew the ends together or sew some velcro on each end.

And you've got yourself a snazzy lookin' boy!

Hopefully you enjoyed this tutorial! Please feel free to ask any questions if you have any!!

Happy Monday!!