Ribbon Poinsettia "ish" Flower

I used sheer ribbon to make this one, but you can probably use any kind of ribbon or fabric. Mine is actually red but it doesn't show up too well in the pictures.

For the bottom layer I cut 4 strips and pointed the ends, probably could have gotten by with 3.

Just wind thread around the middle. Repeat for all your strips. 

Then tie them together, straighten them up a bit.

I made a second layer with 3 strips, a little smaller than the first layer. The center has even smaller strips and I used a different color. I made leaves the same way. You can glue or tie all your layers together. Then I added some gold beads.

Miss Emily Kanzashi Flower Revisited

I've been working on some items to get ready for the photographers and my Miss Emily Flower is getting a little re-do for the occasion.
I just left off the center flower and added leaves. My daughter, Emily, chose the colors and as she puts it, "it really screams Summer". I have to agree.
You can read about the original My Emily tutorial here.

Double Kanzashi Flower

After completing the Miss Emily Flower I decided to fool around a little bit with it and came up with my newest flower, a double layer kanzashi style flower. It is the first of my work for Valentine's Day.

This tutorial actually has 2 versions in it as you can see here. It will be available in my Etsy shop soon. I just don't know what to name it. I'm not real clever when it comes to that. I welcome all suggestions.

Miss Emily Kanzashi Flower

My newest tutorial has taken me literally weeks to get finished. Of course most of that time I spent saying, "I gotta start on that soon". Sometimes you just get in slumps and it is difficult to pull yourself out of them.

I am in somewhat of a slump right now, probably just worn out getting ready for the holidays. I kinda forced myself to get this tutorial done. I had it to the testing stage about 2 weeks ago and sent it out to a few people to review it. I've had their recommendations for a good week or better. But today I made the revisions and have posted it in my Etsy shop.

I call this one Miss Emily, after my daughter. This tutorial includes a 2nd tutorial that I also sell separately, the Single or Double Layer Flower Tutorial #5. I made Miss Emily using cotton fabric, but you can use synthetic fabric or silk to make it too. This is just my way of making this flower, as it appears to me.

And here are a couple other versions of the same style.

Hope you like them. Thanks for looking!

Quilted Christmas Ball Ornaments

I have just listed this newest of my tutorials, the Quilted Christmas Ball Ornament. I first made this a couple months ago as a gift for my Mom, you can read about that here.

Recently my daughter and I sat down and made some more of these and created this tutorial to list in my Etsy shop.

These are limited only by your imagination. They require only scrap fabric and trims plus a few other things.

Here is the one I made for my Mom:

This next one, Mr & Mrs Frosty, was created by my daughter.

Here is my Jingle Bells ornament:

Here is my shabby cottage chic ornament:

and here is my red plum ornament:

Thanks for looking!

From My Scrap Bag...A Mini Message Board

For this project you will need the following materials:
cardboard~~I used corrugated
fabric~~I used cotton
thin batting~~I actually used fleece, but I'm not too happy with it
ribbon and pre-gathered eyelet trim
decorative buttons~~I used 4
glue~~I used Fabri-Tac and hot glue

You can make yours any size, mine is about 7" square. Start by cutting your cardboard the size you want. Cut 1 piece of fabric and your batting about 2" bigger than your cardboard. For my 7" cardboard I cut my fabric 9"x9". Cut a 2nd piece of fabric the same size as your cardboard.

Lay bigger fabric face down, lay batting on top and center cardboard on top of it. Miter and glue 2 adjacent corners and then glue the side down. Do the next corner and side and keep the cardboard centered and pull the fabric taut. I used hot glue for this step and only burned my fingers twice!

Glue a piece of satin ribbon around your piece, creating a criss cross pattern. I used stick pins to hold it in place until I got it adjusted just right. Then glue ends down on the back. Hot glue. Flip piece over, and readjust ribbon if necessary. Add a tiny dab of glue  where ribbons meet at the crosses, I used Fabri-Tac here.

Glue a piece of ribbon so you can hang it. Hot glue.

Glue pre-gathered eyelet trim around the perimeter, squaring off corners and overlapping the ends. Hot glue.

Glue your smaller piece of fabric face up over all the raw edges on the back. Hot glue.

Flip piece over and glue buttons where ribbons cross. I used Fabri-Tac here.

And that's it. Hope you enjoy!

Got T-Shirts? Make Some Flowers

I just had to make something with all these t-shirts that were on their way out. I created t-shirt roses and t-shirt chrysanthemums or dahlias. See my tutorial here in my Etsy shop.

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Miss Patience

Two of my grandchildren, Patience and Edward, are staying a couple weeks with me right now. They are 9 and 11 years old, respectively. I am thrilled they are here, I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like to.

Ed keeps busy doing lots of stuff, playing with my dog, Chloe, or helping with the yard work or playing video games, etc. But Miss Patience is easily bored and keeping her entertained is quite a chore.

So, one day when I was working in my studio I brought Patience with me. Well she just loves crafts. She loves to create things, she is quite a little artist actually. So she started drawing a handbag and showed it to me and asked me to make it.

I told her to write down what size she wants it. I told her to describe the strap. I asked her to pick out the fabric and the lining. She told me she wanted the magnet snap. And she told me she wanted a flower on it. So we got out my box of handmade fabric flowers and she picked one out. I asked if she wanted an inside pocket, maybe one with a zipper. She said no.

So I thought that this would be fairly easy to put together and we set out to do that. And about 2 hours later I had finished her bag. I think it is the perfect little bag for an evening out. It's adorable.

Then came the task of naming the bag and that took about 2 seconds. Of course I call it The Miss Patience Bag. I finished the tutorial the next day and listed it in my Etsy shop. You can see it here.

Patience and I got the thrill of our lives this morning when I checked my Etsy shop and discovered that someone had purchased the tutorial!! (Thank you Jean!) I screamed for Patience to come and look. She was totally ecstatic! And I would've given up anything to see the look on her face and to have that special memory with my beautiful Patience.

Lotus Flower Tutorial

Seems I can't get too far away from the flowers. I finished another tutorial today and have posted it in my Etsy shop. This one is called Fabric Lotus Flower.

Actually I have had 2 projects in the works. One was this flower, which is pretty easy to make. It is not too time consuming. However, the other project I am working on is taking some time to get together. Once I'm finished it will be easy to construct, I'm just doing alot of flip flopping on the design of it. I think I have it pretty well figured out now though. I should have it finished soon. And it isn't another flower, lol!

My Lotus Flower was fun to make. And the fabric I used to make this one is always a pleasure to work with. I love it. The petals are made from Whisper by Sentimental Studios for Moda. Beautiful. There is a little piece of Boutique by Chez Moi, I used it in the center of the flower. The leaves are just run of the mill 1/4" green gingham. This flower measures 4". I rather like it.

What do you think?

From My Scrap Bag: Lacy Flower Bib Necklace Tutorial

I put together a tutorial to share with you on how to make this Lacy Flower Bib Necklace. It is pretty easy to construct. I just used pieces from my scrap bag.

I started with 2 pieces of these gorgeous Venise Laces, about 10" long and some satin ribbon. You can use any scrap of lace or eyelet that is decorative like this. I sewed the 2 pieces together at the top edge. Cut your ribbon long enough to be able to tie around your neck plus weave through lace. Weave it through the openings in the lace. If your lace doesn't have holes in it like this then fold down the top edge of your lace a little bit and stitch in place to make a casing. Thread your ribbon through that.

Make sure your ribbon lengths are the same on each side of your lace. Gather lace by pushing it toward center. Pin the ends in place and tack the ribbon down on each end so gathers stay in place.

I sewed on a strand of faux pearls after it was gathered. Then I dabbed some glue on the back at each end to catch the threads. I just wanted to make sure the stitches wouldn't work their way out.

Also I heat sealed the edges of my lace and ribbon to keep them from raveling. I made a small bow and tacked it down on one side. And I sewed a fabric flower to the other side. Voila!

The Cameo Bag

I would like to share my newest creation, I call it The Cameo Bag.
The tote bag measures about 11 1/2" w across the top, 6 1/2" w across the bottom, 10" h, and has a 3" gusset. The handle drop is about 8".
There are 2 full pockets on the outside of the bag, 1 in front, 1 in back. There is 1 zippered pocket on the inside. This tote is fully lined and is nicely padded. There is a magnetic snap closure. The handles have rectangular metal ring accents.
The fabric brooch can be made any size and from your choice of fabric combinations, I made mine to match the flower on the fabric. It has a brooch pin back and is removable.
I have this bag in a pdf format for sale in my Etsy shop and you can find it here.