sewing - 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 ·

The Lorax Family Costumes – Onsler (greedy, non-greedy), Swami Swan and Humming Fish

October 31, 2012 by Ashlee · 14 Comments

I love Halloween! I love all holiday’s, but my favorites are Christmas and Halloween! Last year we did the grab bag costumes since I had just given birth to Baby Boy, but THIS year I wanted to go back to our Family costume themes! We actually went through a few different costume themes before settling on The Lorax!!!

It was perfect cause we found something for EVERYONE to be that they were all happy with! All the other themes one of the kids wasn’t happy! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a theme that 7 people agree on? in the end Bill and I ended up not doing costumes but I am SO happy with how the kids turned out.

The Baby was an easy choice. The Lorax!!! I found an orange bathrobe and bought a size 18 months! I added a zipper down the center and used my serger to thin out the sleeves, sides and create short legs! The bathrobe was a tad bit shorter than I’d like the outfit, BUT I figured it’s be a snowy cold winter and he’d be in boots (jokes on me!). I bought white fur (they didn’t have yellow) dyed it with a polyester specific dye. I cut out the eyebrows and mustache in felt first – a few versions- and when I was happy with the shape cut out the fur. I sewed the eyebrows onto the hoodie, and the mustache onto elastic.

Computer boy was the most excited about his costume! The GREEN Onesler… He kept repeating that part, it had to be the one who sang the “how bad can it be” song! We already had the white shirt and black cords. I bought adult green gloves and boys green tie. I made the jacket adding green to a top hat we already had, and added the gold buttons and chains! It was so so SO much fun to make, esp with his total excitement as I worked on it! He kept posing (left) in what he calls his Onesler pose! He has been singing the song “how bad can it be” for weeks!

I created a list of a dozen options for costumes from the movie and let the kids pick what they wanted. The DA jumped on the Humming Fish… I wasn’t sure how to even begin! I bought an extra large orange sweatshirt, adding felt stomach, and felt fins. Everyone of the kids kept bringing up the back fins. Coming up with them was hard, but I think it turned out okay! I dyed some jeans orange! and we’re done!

The Computer Boy didn’t want to dress up this year, so he was the hold out on most of the themes. So this Onesler outfit from the beginning of the movie that is almost a normal outfit was easy! I bought some black jeans, taped off some stripes and then sprayed on some watered down bleach to create the faded lines! Add a white long sleeve shirt, a black vest and a grey hat and your done! He’s showing off his dance shoes here!

And The Reader, picked the hardest one, a Swami Swan! How in the WORLD do you create such a strange shaped Seussical outfit??? I looked up bird costumes and found the idea for the wings. I used felt for the feathers, and sewed them onto fabric quarter circles. Then sewed the “wings” straight onto a yellow sweatshirt. Adding peices of an orange boa for the feather on the top, the tail and around the neck… Dyed some khaki’s orange and done! By far the most time consuming, but she seemed really happy with it!

And the whole family again! They weren’t allowed make up at school, but we’re planning on doing the girls faces for tonight, hoping adding large eyes will help the fish and birds look more Seussical!

We spent the morning at the kids school for the parade… first the Kindergartners! obediently folding their arms…

The Green Onsler (with his “girlfriend”, the gypsy, behind him, he thinks she’s beautiful)

The non-greedy Onesler, look at that SWAGGER!!! Such a handsome boy!

And finally my little Lorax!!! He loved the costume parade, but for some reason one person thought he was a walrus, and 3 people thought he was a pumpkin… Seriously a sweet handsome happy boy, I sure love him bunches and bunches, even if he won’t wear his mustache!

Filed Under: baby, Crafts, Family, halloween, Holidays, kids, sewing · Tagged With: school

Baby Boy’s Birth Annoucements

January 22, 2012 by Ashlee · 7 Comments

I created and mailed Baby Boy’s birth announcements at the same time as our Family Christmas cards. I figured they were going to the same people might as well save on stamps! But with as much time as both projects took I probably would have been better off doing one of the other. But I did get everything mailed by the 23rd so I BARELY made it before Christmas!

I created a booklet of sorts for his birth announcements, with the edges getting longer with each page so I could put his information on the sides. There were just TOO many good pictures to leave it to just a two dimensional announcement! I used pictures from my maternity photoshoot, the birth pictures Chelsea took as well as the birth story from Kim, his newborn pictures and finally his blessing pictures!

I used photoshop to create the booklets and printed them on brochure paper. Brochure paper is great, because it’s thinner than photo paper AND you can print on both sides. I created the booklets so I could print one complete book on a single 8.5 x 11 page. Notice I left 3/4″ on each side of the pages (outside edges) for the binding. Here are the layouts:

front: page 1, page 8 back: page 7, page 2
page 3, page 6 page 5, page 4

Then I cut out the pages, and used my sewing machine to “bind” the booklets together (use your sewing machine on the longest stitch for this to work best)! Voila!

Here is the full book layed out like you would see it if you flipped through it!