Toddler Shoes Makeover

I have a fairly strict no-characters-on-shoes rule. I got these shoes on clearance a few months ago with the intention of covering them with SOMETHING. Paint? Felt flower? My baby girl really liked the Dora on them (though she's never seen the show), but I never let her wear them outside the house.

I used a couple samples from my extensive supply of vinyl to make the flowers and leaves to cover the obnoxious cartoon on these shoes. I used regular hot glue, but I plan to use E-6000 if the flowers start to come off.

I must admit I was nervous at first that she'd be upset about covering Dora, and I was greatly relieved when she was excited about the flower. SCORE!

There are a few little parts of the design underneath that show around the edge. I could have been more careful and covered them up, but I'm okay with the way they turned out. And so is my daughter, which is what matters. 

Lace and Ribbon Rose Cuff Bracelet

 

Remember a few months back when I was making ribbon flowers at my mom's house? This is one that I had leftover. The rose is made from grosgrain (the ribbon, not the "fabulous" blog!) and the leaves from a satin ribbon.

 

The embroidered lace was left over from Ivory's blessing cap (Have I blogged that yet??). I took an extra wide ribbon for the back of the cuff and folded it lengthwise over the raw edges of the lace.

 

At first I had metal hooks and loops, but the cuff looked too metally (like my mouth when I had braces a few years back). So I took off the loops and stitched some from thread. The exposed loops give it an old-fashioned corset look, I think. Very romantic.

 

As you can see, one of the satin leaves is snagged. That's what I get for not taking pictures before I wore it so many times! I guess now I can call it "shabby chic."

I have sensitive wrists, so I don't wear bracelets and watches very often. This is one that won't give me a rash because it's made of fabric with no metal parts touching my skin! Another romantic element!

Spring Wreath

A new wreath for my new house. Actually, I had the wreath before ($3-$4 at Joann), but I just added the flower garland around it ($5 at a Rod Works warehouse sale). I plan to dress it up for each season. Ahhh, springtime makes me happy.

If I were a marshmallow peeps fan I could probably work those in around the peep hole. What do you think? It's not really my thing, but it could be a craft blog sensation by next Easter (if it isn't already)!

Newborn Bibs

You know when you spend several minutes getting your baby into clean, fresh, adorable clothes and then—wham!—she spits up all over the front and neck of them and then you have to change her whole outfit all over again? Well, here's a little solution: spit up bibs. Then when she spits up unexpectantly you only have to change her bib!

I made two: ruffled and flowered. I think I need more in several colors!

She started getting fussy so I had to put her pacifier in for the rest of the pictures.

You might recognize the fabric from the Stella Pixie Hat Knockoff (here and here). I needed something to match the cute hat, since all of her clothes are pink.

So here they are, paired together:

See what happened when I pulled the "plug" out?

I made these bibs a few weeks ago but held off blogging them because I never put the fasteners on them. In the meantime I've been using safety pins. You know what? I have no idea when I'll get around to putting snaps or Velcro on them! They are not perfect, but they'll do!

While we're talking about bibs, I'll throw this in:





I just saw this picture of my nephew wearing one of the bibs I gave him. It's fun to see something I made actually being used. What a cutie he is!

Ribbon Flowers 2: Black Eyed Susan

I'm continuing with my wire ribbon flower adventures at my mom's house. Yesterday I did indeed finish the black eyed susan I had started before.

Source

Aren't these cheery? I love to see black eyed susans growing alongside the road in the summer. And although it's March, I just couldn't resist making this flower when I saw the pattern in the book.

Cute, isn't it? And even cuter on the girl. It still needs to be put on a clip, and then probably on a headband until Ivory's hair is thick enough to keep it in (although her hair is certainly long enough!). I might have to borrow it from her in the meantime. Or maybe we'll just share it always :)

Since Pfaffy is all alone in a dark storage unit for a week or two I hand-sewed the whole flower. This way I got to hold a cute baby on my lap and sit on a couch!

My favorite part was pulling the gathering stitches together. It was so satisfying! I didn't have any clear nail polish or Fray Check, so I singed the raw edges of the ribbon. You can see the burn marks here from the back view of the flower.

 The button for the "black eye" came from my mom's stash. And speaking of that...

Here are the ribbons I was telling you about. She likes to organize by color the same way I like to line up my M&Ms by color when I'm eating a handful. Pretty, aren't they?

And here are the books I used. The black eyed susan is in A Passion For Ribbonry by Camela Nitschke. Alexander's ribbon roses came from The Artful Ribbon by Candace Kling. The second book has lots of pictures of vintage clothing embellished with ribbons alongside instructions for many, many flowers. It's fun to look at, though somewhat old-fashioned. The instructions were clear and quite thorough. The first book has more fresh ribbon flowers (if ribbon flowers can be fresh!). The hat-decorating projects are a bit too dated for a young, hot, hip, 2011 mamma like me (cough, cough), but the flowers themselves are really fun and the instructions were great.

Next time I'll show you the first wire ribbon flower I started: some sort of geranium. I have to find it, though. It's so little that I'm not sure where it ended up!

Happy crafting!

Ribbon Roses (Ribbon Flowers 1)

I realize I have nothing green in this post for St. Patrick's Day today. Lately my life has been taken over by the color pink. It's been loads of fun! I have so much baby stuff to blog about, and pictures to go with it. Unfortunately, those pictures are all on my home computer which is temporarily in storage while we move to our new house. Guess what else is in storage? ALL my sewing and craft supplies. All of it.

Lucky for me I'm at my mom's house while we're between houses. She's been known to have a stash of her own. The last couple days I've been trying out her ribbons and flower ribbon books. My six year old took this picture of me:

(You can see where my wedding ring goes. It still feels too tight to wear comfortably, even though I'm not pregnant anymore. I'm thinking I need to get it resized... Um... Okay, now back to my story.) My son likes to be a part of whatever I'm doing. He looked through a book and picked out a pink rose to make for Ivory to wear in her hair. So I temporarily abandoned the little flower I was attempting so I could help him. Well I ended up spending quite a bit of time on the rose "he" was making, but it was worth doing it together.

All my clips and brooch pins are packed (Did I mention that already?), so we improvised by safety pinning the flowers to Ivory's shirt. These two roses were made from the same pink-to-red wire ribbon.

She is one month/four weeks old today! I love this age.

Next time I'll show you the little pink geranium flower I made, and the black eyed susan that I'll hopefully finish today (kids willing). Now I'm going to go kiss my baby. After I pinch her for not wearing green.

My Stella Pixie Hat Knockoff

I got this idea here from Sew Liberated. She is amazing! Her little boy looks so cute in this Stella Pixie Hat! But alas, I'm not a knitter. My sister Bridey is (as you can see from her blog), but I was hoping she'd knit my baby girl a sweater (hint, hint). So I decided to fake—I mean make—the hat myself.



I made this cap out of some knit fabric I had on hand. Who says blue has to be a boy color only? I think it looks so cute with the contrasting white jersey knit. And just to make it especially clear that this is a girl's hat, I added a little white flower with a tiny pearl-like bead center (bead from Grandma's trim stash that I inherited).



I wish I could try this on an actual baby because I'm not sure how the fit will be. (I still chuckle over the ill-fitting monkey newborn onesie and cap I made Lincoln, then had to cut off him because it was so small!) I think my Kirsten doll's head is smaller than a newborn's, so I can't get the full effect. If only I had my one-day-old niece nearby.



Speaking of my newborn niece, I wonder if she'd like one of these. Hmmmm...

Feminine Flower Brooch/Hair Clip

Remember my feminine flower headband from last year? This morning I needed a pin for my sweater so I whipped this up in a minute or two. So easy! The silk flowers came from a craft store closeout I went to last year. (Zim's—it was the craziest place, like I stepped into a time machine and went back to a craft store of 25-30 years ago.)



All that's needed for this project (besides the flower, of course) is an alligator clip, a brooch pin, and a little hot glue. Most of the time spent on this project was waiting for my mini glue gun to heat up.



Here's my 34-week pregnant belly with the brooch/hair clip and headband set.



Maybe I should save some of these flowers for the baby girl!



I like the flower as a hair clip because I can place it lower in my hair than the headband. When I wear the headband to church I feel like I'm blocking the view of the person sitting behind me!



Speaking of flowers, I'm really enjoying Grograin's month of Shoe Sugar. I need to make some of these! I also want to make more homemade flowers like the one I made for Melanie's purse last year.

Feminine Flower Headband

There seem to be flowers popping out of little girls' hairdos everywhere these days. But there's no reason for the under-aged to have a monopoly on this trend!



One afternoon I found myself in need of something special to dress up my hair for an event I was attending that evening. I had this project in my stash so I pulled it out and whipped it together in less than five minutes. Seriously.


I love it. I can wear it on a casual date night, to book club, to church, or to a formal event. And, heck, why shouldn't I wear it to the grocery store, too?



You only need three items for this project:
1. Silk flowers
2. Headband - I got these simple, black metal headbands in a 3-pack for a couple bucks at Hobby Lobby
3. Floral tape. A ribbon would work as well.

Now place your flowers on the headband and secure the stems with the floral tape.

Move over, little girls: you WISH you were 30!