Craft Tutorial - I'm Topsy Turvy

how to dye voile curtains ombre

April 29, 2013 by Ashlee · 6 Comments

Don’t forget to link up your window crafts on this month’s point of view link party!

We have no curtains on any windows in the basement, not that we HAVE many windows, but still. When this month’s challenge for “windows” came up I want straight to my pinterest board for inspiration. Picking lightly ombred curtains was easy, and just the bit of color this room needed!

The window in the living room is the largest window in the basement and the source of any natural light we get. BUT it was pretty boring and not very pretty. It doesn’t help that we have super low ceilings making it feel even more squished down here.

So I decided on full length curtains hoping it would make the room feel a bit taller!! I didn’t need anything to block light, just something airy and pretty. So I picked some voile curtains. It’s 100 polyester and I knew that it wouldn’t take the rit dye well (you need special sythetic dye- and have to boil the fabric) but I didn’t want the color too strong so I thought I’d give it a go!

I started by soaking the bottom of the panels in hot hot HOT water (I soaked them about 1/3 of the way up)

Then I added salt, and the powder rit dye. (I did purple and blue to get the shade I wanted) I stired until the dye was dissolved then added the bottom few inches of the curtains.

Every 15 mins I lowered the curtains into they dye a few more inches… then a few inches every 10 and then every 5 mins. creating a very faded effect. Then I rinsed them in cold water (top down so as not to get any dye on the top 1/3rd of the curtains. And dried them on the no heat setting of my dryer.

I wanted to hang the curtain rods from the ceiling, that’s why I got these cool round holders, but the air vent goes RIGHT over the center of the curtain rod and it didn’t work out. I attached them about 1/2 an inch down. The curtain panel are just a bit too long and my sewing machine is buried right now so I did a quick fold over and hand stitch so I could enjoy them until I can do a more permanent sewing job.

It was a bright day, and hard to take pictures of windows anyway… so you can hardly tell, but I LOVE the ombre effect. If you want a dark color don’t go with voile to dye, but for the light effect I was looking for it’s PERFECT!

You can see my slightly uneven fold over and stitch at the top. I’ll like it better when I can do it right without the extra bunch of fabric getting in the way. But for now I love walking into the room and seeing them. Just the perfect amount of color.

What color would you do in your living/family/dining room? I have grand plans to reupholster one of my vintage couches in purple this year…

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, sewing · Tagged With: dye, tutorial

Bulky flower hearts felt scarf tutorial

April 8, 2013 by Ashlee · 2 Comments

Don’t forget to head over to the Pinterest challenge and link up!!!

I made this scarf 2 years ago for the “so you think you crafty” competition. This was BEFORE pinterest and before my DSLR, so the pictures are pretty bad, and the inspiration was from a quilting magazine…. So I can’t really SHARE it with you, I went through my office looking for the magazine to see if could at least tell you where I found it… nope!

the idea behind this is circles sewn together creating triangles. to get the heart shape I wanted I added to “bumps” to one of the triangle sides.

I cut out a LOT of these… I did it while watching HULU one night.

And now the real mindless/fun part… Sewing them all together! Put two together, and sew a straight line from the center to the edge of the “bump” side (follow the triangle lines you saw I drew on the first test one)

fold open the first sew lines, add a third to the second and sew the same line. do this again and again.

You want to sew 6 of the circle/hearts together, you can see from here (front and back) what it looks like once you have 5 of the 6 sides sewn together… Sew the last ones together and…

Here are all the finished flowers!!!

Now it’s time to sew them all together! Put the backs of two flowers together, and sew from one corner to another of the “bump” side!

This is what it looks like when 2 are sewn together! Now sew the rest together remembering to do opposite sides.

All done!!!

I love all these petals rolled up, the hearts are subtle, but this was perfect for Valentines day. The rest of the year it just looks a bit flowery!

Here you can see the backs!

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, sewing ·

Baby Christmas Chair gift with Duct Tape

December 11, 2012 by Ashlee · 20 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I got an email asking if I wanted to try out the new holiday Duck(R) Brand I jumped at the chance! I have always loved Duck Tape®, I used to make wallets back in the day, and my sister STILL has a Duck Tape® wallet!

When the tape arrived my kids saw it and asked if they could make something too! They love to craft as much as I do.

It was the same day I made a Costco trip and they had made a chair for the baby out of a mozzarella box filled with pillows. He loved it, so we decided to make a full holiday chair for him!!!

(I had my iso off for the first few images- sorry) So we picked our favorite Duck Tape® from their amazing holiday collection. Then we grabbed the box and some used some 3 inch foam we had in the garage!

we started out by cutting the foam down to the exact shape we wanted them. The Reader actually helped with all of this, but with the ISO off so many of the pictures were unusable that I don’t have any of her! boo. She was extremely helpful!

Then we covered the foam with the Duck Tape® creating cushions. We overlapped the design for the seat and back. We wanted to be able to flip it too, so the other side of the cushions are all red… We ran out of the polka dots so we covered both sides with all red.

Then we used the green to cover the box (yes it was already green, but now it’s plain.) The Reader did this entire part herself, I’m so proud of those straight lines… she totally has my OCD ness!

Then we put all our new cushions back into place!! What do you think? I love the red/polka dots against each other. We doubled the foam seat cushion so it’s extra soft. And because of the Duck Tape® it’s also water proof… so no worry for leaky diapers (lets face it, he’s the 5th so he doesn’t always get changed asap)

We put it under the tree and the baby saw it when he woke up from his nap! Everyone was SO excited for him to see it!

he ran STRAIGHT for it, and jumped right in! He was so so SO excited! he has barely left his chair since he woke up yesterday!

See this face? He is so happy with it. He carries it around the house and uses it everywhere, for everything. He’s sitting in it in my office next to my computer right now.

So what would you do if you had a few rolls of holiday Duck Tape®? I still have some left! We used it to box of Christmas presents to mail to family members, as well as reattach my husbands side mirror my FIL broke off when he got to close backing up (my in laws aren’t known for being good drivers.

For more ideas head over to the Duck Tape® Facebook page

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, review · Tagged With: tutorial

My Craft Channel episode

November 13, 2012 by Ashlee · 8 Comments

I have always wanted to be on TV, in fact to this day I wouldn’t say no to my own show… But for some reason I don’t think the Food Network has much need for a show about a one woman cake business done in my small basement kitchen at midnight when my kids are asleep… But hey, if you guys want to see it I’m all for it!

So when the chance came to film an episode of My Craft Studio I jumped at the chance! I was SO nervous, and it went so fast! But it was super fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat~ So who wants to give me my own show?? HA!

I look like a GIANT next to Kristine!!! I even took off my 5 inch stiletto’s for filming! It was really fun to film. It was fun and I think it went well, but I can already see what I wish I had done differently! I certainly need some practice before I get my own show, but what a totaly rush and so so SO much fun!

I didn’t HATE my voice like usual, but I hate my double chin… And the fact that I NEVER looked at the camera. My eyes are my favorite feature and you only get to see them for seconds at a time! GAH!!! So be kind! Head on over and watch it and let me know what you think!!!

So whose going to try to make some gumpaste roses??? These are the roses I’ll be teaching with my Fondant Roses and Ruffles class at Gygi’s

I got my egg shaped Styrofoam at Michael’s.
The ball tool, large rose petal cookie cutter and flower foam from any cake decorating supply store, like Gygi’s. Don’t forget to use my code: “topsyturvy” for a 10% discount and for locals choose next day pick up.