GIVEAWAY!!

Hi friends!  I'm doing a HUGE 4 week long giveaway, and today is the first day!

To enter to win, just visit my Facebook Page, 'like' and comment on the photo (as seen above).  Which coin purse would you like to find in your mailbox?  Contest closes February 1st.

Good luck my lovelies!  

Felt Birthday Banner Tutorial

A homemade banner has been on my must-make list since Rowan's 1st birthday.  He's turning two next week and I got my act together and made him a felt and ribbon banner to fit into his dino-themed party.  Yay me!

To make this retro-style, uber neat banner, you'll need:

Felt; 7 sheets (8.5 x 11") each of two co-ordinating colours and 4 for lettering.  An iron and ironing board, iron-on transfer paper (such as Heat N Bond or Wonder Under), sharp scissors, lettering (I used 'Airplane' which you can download for free if you type in '0' for the donation amount.  It's kind of a jerk move, but I have a hunch that a lot of people do it), 5.5 m of 4cm (6 yds of 1.5 inch) wide ribbon and a pencil. 

Depending on whether you want to sew the pennants on or glue them, you'll also need straight pins and a sewing machine with co-ordinating thread or fabric glue.

Let's get started!

Print out your lettering (I used airplane in size 500) and cut them out.  I noticed that the 'p', 'd' and 'b' were essentially all the same (just flipped around...it was a "duh, Anne" moment) when I cut them out, so you can save paper if you use this font and just type out one of them.  I also cut out a dinosaur (a brontosaurus - I'm becoming reacquainted with dinosaur species) silhouette just for kicks.

Arrange them on top of the paper side of the transfer paper reversed and trace around them with the pencil. 

Cut around a few groups of letters (don't cut out the letters yet) and arrange them on top of the felt.  Iron according to the transfer paper directions. 

Cut out the letters.

Cut a large triangle out of the coloured felt, I left about 5cm (2") off the bottom. 

I wanted to do a blue-green-blue-green pattern with the dinosaur on a ivory pennant at the end of 'happy'.  To make sure I didn't fudge it up, I layed out all the triangles in the pattern and placed the letters in order.

Peel off the paper backing and iron letters onto the pennants.

Be sure to place the letters on the same spot on each pennant.  I used the first 'h' to keep me on track.

The dinosaur's head was a little too tall and would have been run over by the sewing machine.  I left it un-ironed until after the banner was sewn.  If you're gluing the triangles on, it doesn't matter.

My banner ended up being H-U-G-E, so I split up the 'happy' and the 'birthday' on seperate lines of ribbon.  I decided I wanted the ribbons the same length, so I made up the 'birthday' banner first.

Place the pennants side-by-side on the ribbon, or over-lap them if you prefer.

Pin on each end of the triangle.  Obviously if you're gluing, you can skip that part.

Sew with a straight stitch on the top and the bottom of the ribbon. 

Iron the dino head.

 Well done!!  Relish your birthday banner success.

Monogrammed Tea Towel Tutorial

I received a virtual kick in the tush last week from a fellow blogger.  She didn't think my once-a-month blog posts were sufficient.  I have to agree with her.

I've been busy.  I know that's a lame, catch-all excuse.  But, it's the honest truth.  B-U-S-Y.  Yeah, click that link.  You'll see that I've completely lost my mind and deluded myself into thinking that someone (or maybe a couple of someones) will actually want to BUY the things my sewing machine spews out.  Go ahead and 'like' my Facebook page too.  Sometimes I give stuff away on there.

I managed to snag an hour to make up a little personalized gift for a bridal shower I'm attending tomorrow.

Round up the following:

Tea Towels
Co-ordinating cotton fabric
Iron-on adhesive (I used Heat 'n Bond)
Letter templates
Iron
Fabric scissors
Tape

Optional: needle (or sewing machine) and thread

Print out lettering off of your computer to your desired size.  Cut around the letters (don't cut out the letters yet) and tape them to the paper side of the iron-on adhesive.  If you are using letters that have a right side, like 'P' or 'K', be sure to tape them down reversed.  Otherwise you'll stomp your feet and yell "Aaaahhh! I have backwards letters!"

Place the adhesive, paper side up, on the wrong side of the co-ordinating cotton fabric.  Iron according to package instructions.

Using the fabric scissors, cut out lettering. Peel the paper backing off.  Please excuse the gross, chipped nail polish.  See!?  No time!

If your tea towels have come folded, be sure to unfold them and iron out any creases.

Place lettering at your desired location.  I left my tea towel folded in half (length wise) and placed the letters in the middle.

Iron again according to package instructions.  You can either stop here, OR add a little bit of stitching.  If you don't own a sewing machine, you may want to add a neat little back stitch around the edge of the letters with an embroidery needle and thread.

I chose to use a sewing machine, since I was short on time.  Change your presser foot to a satin stitch foot (clear plastic) and switch up your stitches to a short zig-zag.

The satin stitch foot allows you to see what you're doing a little better.  You'll need to stop and pivot the fabric around tight corners.  Be sure the needle is in the fabric before lifting the presser foot!  I ended up doing a lot of manual hand-wheel turning around the 'H'.

Snip threads and you're done!

Since my tea towels came in a set of four, I thought I'd make up two animal silhouette towels as well.  'H' is a horse riding instructor and 'T' has a beloved pit-bull cross.  I was afraid the horse silhouette might come out looking like a donkey...but I think it looks like a horse.

Sweet beans.  I'm a teensy bit peeved about the lines that show through little miss pit-bull.  Next time I'll use a darker fabric.  Or pattern-less towels.  Sew and learn.

Have a mah-velous weekend!

1947 Called...

...they want their dress back.

Growing up, I only wore dresses for special occasions.  So to me, Dress = Fancy Pants.

Then I became a mum and I discovered that dresses are a great wardrobe staple.  Why?  Partly because I want to feel fancy sporting a cascade of baby puke and partly because they're probably the easiest outfit to assemble.

I L-O-V-E this dress pattern.  Butterick has a great selection of retro dress patterns from the '40s, '50s and '60s.  You just have to be sure to measure yourself before buying; sizing has changed over the years.  I'm apparently two dress sizes larger according to 1947.  Pffftttttt.

It's not challenging to sew and it's comfortability rating is through the roof.  Not to mention it's totally kid proof.  The neckline cannot be pulled down to your waist and the skirt is long enough to lessen the chance of bum-exposure.

It's also quite entertaining.  I wish I had photos of Rowan using the skirt to play peek-a-boo with the dogs, because it was pretty adorbs.

 I like my polka dot dress.  I think Lily likes too :)

Amy Butler's Weekender Travel Bag - A Review

Recently, I turned 29.  My last year as a 'twenty-something'.  Before all of my 30 and over readers begin an unanimous eye-roll, I will assure you this is not one of those posts.  I'm actually looking forward to turning 30.  Really, really.

Being on the cusp of 30 means I have a few things to consider.  I think of myself more as a grown-up now (I'm really hoping those of you who know me well won't giggle at that comment) and while I'm very comfortable in my own skin, I'm thinking I need to put a little distance between 19 year old me and 29 year old me.  There are a few things that I desire to improve and/or change.

Or remove.

For instance, a few years ago, I thought: "When I turn 30, I'm going to take out my industrial ear piercing."

I've had this piercing for ten years.  The first time I saw it, I was 17 and sitting in a tattoo and piercing studio in Berlin, waiting for my exchange student's sister to get hers.  I thought it was uber cool.  But is it cool at 30?  Now that I'm here (or...almost here), I think so.  I'll post-pone removal for another decade.

One thing I chose not to delay was my overnight/weekend clothing-and-assorted-essentials vessel.  Up until a few days ago, this is what I was using:

Yeah.  For shame.  The Ralph Wiggum applique really isn't doing me any favours.  I can only imagine what Stacey and Clinton of What Not To Wear would say.  Probably something along the lines of, "What are you, 19?!?"

Please enter Amy Butler's Weekender Bag.  And I need to make a correction:  it's not a 'bag' it's luggage.

This was my first Amy Butler pattern, (of course I picked the biggest bag she has!) so I was excited to see how she does her packaging, pattern, and instructions.  Of course they are all polished and professional - very impressive!!  I've read posts on other blogs about how much she loves to use interfacing.  I thought it was a humorous comment.  Then I read the list of materials.

Amy Butler loves her interfacing.  Thick, stiff, interfacing.

That didn't discourage me!  I'm incredibly stubborn and I had been coveting this bag for a long while.  The super cheery fabric is from Tonic Living.  I used Tempo, Mambo for the outer bag and Joy, Fiesta for the lining and piping.

The sewing process was....interesting.  I should have suspected something while reading the instructions.  The first line (even before the materials are listed) goes like this: "This bag gets cumbersome when stitching some of the heavier seams.  Be persistent.  The finished bag will be worth it.  Have fun!"  Even Amy Butler thinks this bag is a real bitch to sew.  That's not daunting at all.

To sum up the entire process: I was frustrated but determined to finish.  Just like the instructions said I would be.  The interfacing was challenging to work with and I may have dropped a few f-bombs when the piping kept shifting on me.  After breaking three needles within 5 minutes (nine...*NINE* heavy duty needles in total for the whole project), spilling coffee on one of the side panels, stabbing myself repeatedly with pins, and burning my finger with the iron; I decided that since I wasn't quitting, I needed to find the humor in it.

It definitely helped to vent to a friend.  She certainly saw the humor in it.  Thanks, Kennedy :)

Hopefully this won't intimidate you.  In all sincerity, I do love the bag.  Just as Amy said I would.  I mean...it fits an 'In Style' magazine in the side pocket!  What's not to love?

Thanks to Kennedy for the photos!

If I make another one, I would add a pocket or two on the inside and maybe skip the end pockets.  I wish I had read this post before starting to sew, though.  Some great tips and modifications can be found there.

Proceed with confidence, coffee (but not too close to your workspace!) and a sense of humor.

More Love for the Urban Hoodie

Have you purchased an Urban Hoodie pattern yet?  No?

DO IT!!

It has to be my most-used pattern (excluding the Big Butt Baby Pants of course) and is quite easy to make.  And you don't need a serger!

I made four hoodies for Christmas this year; three for my friend's baby girl and her cousins (they were all identical and I forgot to photograph them!  FOR SHAME!) and one for my niece.

I absolutely adore the red with silvery-grey hearts.

This is about as much modeling as I could coax out of Brianna on Christmas Day.  It fit like a glove!  She's also got a cute, new flower head band.

Satin flowers are really fun to make.  For the center of this flower, I put a glob of hot glue in the middle and pressed some teeny glass beads into it.  Yes, you'll burn your fingers a little bit, but it's totally worth it!


While you're visiting Heidi and Finn's Esty page, be sure to check out her other patterns.  They're just too cute!