Open Market Ideas

Little Miss V has another open market at school tomorrow. The first one she experienced was her very first Friday at her new school. We were completely unprepared for it. Having no idea what it was all about, I sent her to school with chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods.  After her day was over, she was so anxious to tell me all about Open Market at school.  It's a day when children in 3rd grade brings in home made goods, goodies, toys they no longer play with and other little knick knacks that they want to sell for "mula".  

They earn "Mula" at school for doing good on tests, good behavior, participating in class, etc. Then, every couple of months, the children host an Open Market where they get to spend their hard earned school money.  I think it's a great way to teach children value of money, encourage good behavior and give them a chance to understand a little bit about sales. 

So it's been 2 months and this time, Miss V is going to her Open Market completely prepared. She made her little boutique an "open" sign, we made up a name for her shop and created a sign for that and she's got a lot of home made goods to try to "sell" to her classmates.

I have a bunch of scrap fabrics, juvenile fabrics that no longer interest my girls so I decided to use some of them up to help create things for the Open Market. I am sharing because I think they are cute and quick projects for all to do. And pretty simple things to put together requiring only a straight stitch and the ability to measure correctly.

Until next time, my friends, have a wonderfully creative filled day (or night!)

♡ ąℓexąnʠяą

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