The Wedding Flower...mini tutorial

My younger brother and his long time love are getting married in September so weddings have been on my mind a lot lately.  It's been a while since I have creating anything with a wedding theme but I have wanted to give a large flower clutch a try.  Like most of my creations, I had a vision and wanted to see if I could make it reality.

After I had already cut and singed the first part I thought what a great opportunity to make another tutorial.  So, I'm just going to call this a mini-tut because I didn't get pictures of each step of the process but pretty much enough to get you on your way.

First off, I cut a long strip of satin fabric, about 70" long and about 3" wide.  On one of the cut sides, I cut in a sort of a rolling wave pattern since no flower is ever perfect in form.  I singed, VERY Carefully, both sides and the ends so that the satin does not fray.  Because I was using my bigger candle and because the winds picked up, I did get some black on my satin but later in the tutorial you'll see that I went back in, cut off the black and took a lighter to the fabric to singed it without the burn marks.  It's a much more aesthetically pleasing look without burn marks.

I hope the picture tutorial will get you on your way to make a large ornate flower to adorn a bag, a pillow or even a shirt!  If you make something using this tutorial, please feel free to share a picture. If creativity is not your thing but you like the final product, you can find it on my Etsy page as well.

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą

Here is my 70" long b 3" wide strip, already singed on the ends and sides.  Use a wide running stitch along the bottom. You will gather this to help make the flower gently ruffle by pulling one thread and pushing the ruffles down as you make them.

Which ever fabric you have decided to attach your flower to, make sure it is stiff enough to handle the work, turning, and stitching you will be doing. I started with a small circle first and worked my way out making sure not to get the already attached ruffles stuck in my stitch.  It would probably be easier to start this flower from the biggest point and circle in to the smallest point.

Here, I started stitching my flower to my main fabric.

 

I gently turn the fabric to continue stitching the ruffle on the bag in a circular pattern.

Here is how it looks all stitched. Cut the extra threads to make a nice neat appearance.

Next, your going to want to cut some satin circles, making each circle smaller than the one before. Make sure you base circle is large enough to cover the center.

Take those circles and carefully singe them. (please make sure you are very careful doing this!!) I use a small tea light candle, which I let burn for a few minutes before I take my fabric to it. I hold the fabric about 1 inch away from the flame, it takes longer but this process is better than burning the fabric.

 

Once you've singed all your circles, place them in the circle until they look nice to you. I had mine all stacked on top of one another but I didn't like the "perfect" look so I randomly placed them.

Sew them in place. I made a square to make sure I stitched all the petals down.

 

Now to get rid of those unsightly burn marks, I took my scissors and clipped away and I carefully used a lighter in the areas that were clipped to seal the fabric.

A much nice look to get rid of those burn marks!

 

Now the fun part, pick out some bling for the center.  I chose some silver tones and crystals.

 I used this strong beading thread to hand stitch each center bead.

 

 Here are my beads, hand stitched and ready to go.

I chose to make a wedding clutch, but you can use this flower technique for just about anything! Have fun. Can't wait to see what you create! 

Made another this afternoon as the bridal one sold pretty quick. Here it is on Etsy:

A Boxy Tutorial

I love these boxes, they are great for DVD's, toys, TV controls, anything that needs a place but doesn't always have a place. My oldest daughter has "Open Market" at school on Friday so I thought I would make her a couple of these for her goods, and then she can sell them if she wants.  I know a couple of her friends love Little Pet Shop toys and I've hoarded this fabric long enough, so it's the fabric I used for this tutorial.

I hope my tutorial helps you and if you want to share a picture, be sure to! I would love to see!!

So what you'll need:

•  fabric (1 or 2 coordinating) **The fabric size will depend upon how big of a box you want to use. I used about 1/2 yard of fabric for my box that is a 6" cube.**
• measuring stick (I love my clear ruler)
• scissors
• fabric pen/pencil for marking
• thread/sewing machine
• iron
• decor weight fusible interfacing (I buy mine from Hobby Lobby)

For these sake of easy, I used 6" through out, for my box.  What you are basically going to do is make a big fat + sign, each end will be 6", each perpendicular line will be 6"

When you've measured all 12 lines, cut out the fabric. I like to use the fabric as my guide to cut another piece of fabric (your coordinating fabric) that will make up the interior of the box.  I like to place right sides of fabric together for this process so I know that all the sides will match up perfectly.

Next is the fusible interfacing step. Depending on the fabric you use, you might only have to fuse on side. If you are using a light weight cotton, you might need to use interfacing on both interior and exterior fabrics. 

Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.

Once you've finished interfacing, place both fabrics right sides together,

Pin rights sides together,

And sew, you will leave on side open but stitch the other 11 sides.  I like to leave a top piece open for ease of turning.

In the picture below, you can see the one side I left open is the top of the kitties head (left side of the picture)

Now, ever so carefully go in at the 4 corners and make a tiny little snip with your scissors so the fabric is easier to work with.

Then go around and cut each corner off as close to the stitch  as you can. This will make a nicer angle when you turn the fabric right side out.

Using the one open end, start turning your fabric right side out.

It'll be a little wrinkled so definitely press it

Now fold in the open end

Press for a nice crisp line,

Stitch it closed.

 

You'll start with one side, make sure the tops and bottoms meet up and then you are going to top stitch this.

You can go back in with a zig zag stitch or just leave the top stitch.

In this picture, you'll see 2 sides already connected.

Once you've connected all 4 sides, I like to go in with my iron and gently press the bottom to form the box.

And there you have it friends, you box is ready to be filled with toys, controllers, or whatever else you have that needs a spot! Remember to share a pic if you make this box...and pass along :)

Much Creative Love to you all,

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą

Anchors Away

It felt good to have a little bit of art time and a little bit of sewing time today. I came up with a new sketch for another zippered something, tote, pouch, clutch? Haven't decided yet.  But, I think the sketched bird is going to look very cute once I finish him up on some fabric. 

Today, though, I concentrated my efforts on an anchor slouchy tote. I've had this anchor in my mind, I have wanted to try it on a chevron piece for a while. I sketched out my vision, fingers crossed that it would turn out something like my vision.

Got the girls off to school, not without incident. Miss M. forgot her homework at home and we had to make a mad dash back home to find it.  Once the little and I got back, I got him all settled and we worked together on some art. Me with my paints and fabric, him with the markers and paper.

You'll see my new zipper install that I love! Anyone want a tutorial on it? I'm sure there are a bunch of tutorials out there about it. I absolutely LOVE how finished it looks with that little added rectangle of fabric.

Anyway, tomorrow is brew day for hubs. He's been waiting ever so patiently for his first day of "creative" play for months now.

So enjoy my picture process and be sure to leave a comment if there is a tutorial you'd like me to put together for you.

Have a wonderful evening, my friends!

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą

 The start to the design. First penciled in, then I used a black fabric marker to make it more bold and then the acrylic paints.

The completed anchor, heat set and ready for some sewing magic!

Here, I've installed the zipper on one side and you can see the rectangle of fabric that I've been talking about. When you attach all the sides, you either let that area go upwards in the stitch or downwards, and your finished product is much more professional looking.

I wanted to add a touch of femininity so I took some funky Batik paisley fabric and made a large bow. It looks off in this picture because I had it pinned down so as not to interfere with my zipper stitching.

I pieced everything all together and then it was time to decide on the handles. My lovely friends Paurenia and Lori, on QJB suggested rope and I was thinking right along the same lines.  So I got out my rope that has been packaged up ever so neatly and got to work on the handles.

I wanted a strong stitch but I didn't want to knot it and have that bulky somewhat unsightly look so I thought, why not a macrame knot for a more finished appearance, and strong hold too.  Tapered off the macrame and braided to the other side so it's comfortable on the shoulders.

 

The final product was together and ready for pictures and ready to be listed to the world on Etsy.  

MIA

You know what happens when your husband comes home after 2 1/2 months away?? Things like daily blog posts, sewing, beading, cleaning all take a back seat to some much needed quality family time!

My hubs came home on Saturday night. Since then we've got stuck in the rain in Honolulu, celebrated the little guys 3rd birthday, took pics near Hanauma Bay, took the kiddos on a 2 mile walk to Makapu'u Point Trail and just relaxed out back in our little slice of tropical paradise.  But not to worry, I haven't given up creating completely.  I've been busy with a few bracelets and this morning, I finished an original art piece on a zippered flap clutch which I also listed on Etsy. 

What I learned from making this zippered clutch is by adding 2 little squares of fabric on the ends of the zipper, the finishing job to a zippered pouch is MUCH more professional that that weird angled finish I would get without it.  So, I'm going to be making a tutorial within the next couple of days about adding this so called fabric squares to your zippers!

Until then, I hope all you lovely people have been well and happy. Keep creating!!

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą