Amanda

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I thought I would share my favorite Vintage Valentines and wish you all a a very Happy Valentine’s Day – I love that it’s on a Saturday this year!I think this heart is my favorite – made from Blend’s Clementine line – and it’s not even in traditional valentine colors. I have it hanging in my living room.

This heart is made with Blend’s Modern Lace. I do recognize that not everyone loves cats as much as me, so I made a few versions with vintage love birds.

This one is also made with the Modern Lace line – which I LOVE!

This print is also from Modern Lace.

I love this one made with the spoon print from the Clementine line.

My daughter and I made over 30 of these hearts!

A little peek into some Valentine decor in my home 🙂

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Therm O Web, Valentine's Day

The Lucky Girl Dress {Review}

February 12, 2015 by Amanda 2 Comments

I am so excited to share my thoughts about this new dress pattern called The Lucky Dress designed by Lucy Blaire. Lucy is super talented and has created so many awesome patterns, contributed to books and magazines. You can read more about her and her patterns and designs on her website.

The Lucky Dress is sized from 12 months to 6T. It is a wonderful fitting dress sewn out of knit fabric; it has sleeves with a cuff, a hood, and a twirly skirt. As full as this dress is, there is no gathering which saves a lot of time. I agreed to do this pattern review as a way to force myself out of my quilty comfort zone 🙂 I have never sewn a dress out of knit before and I don’t own a serger – I was pretty intimidated at the thought of putting this dress together. I choose this darling print from Riley Blake Designs called Roots & Wings. This dress can totally be made on a home sewing machine and a serger is not necessary. It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around the PDF pattern assembly, but once I studied it over and read through the instructions, the pattern came together easily. I cut out the size 6T. It was clear how to lay out the pattern pieces and the fold lines and grain lines were marked nicely. The instructions were easy to understand the the illustrations were helpful. Bottom line: If I can make it, anyone can make it!

The kitten wanted in on all the steps of making the dress – especially chasing the scissors 🙂

Here are a few tips and minor changes I made:

1. If you don’t sew with knit very often, familiarize yourself with the stitches on your sewing machine recommended for knits. Then practice on some scraps to make sure tension is right and you like the stitch width and length. I did not do this, I jumped right in – I should have done this!!

2. I think the sizes are generous – which was exactly what I was hoping for. My daughter is 7 and she wears a size 8 or 10 and she is tall. I figured since we were working with knit it would stretch. I added 4″ to the length so it wouldn’t be too short on her. It fit my daughter perfect.

3. The pattern says to fold the hem under 1/4″ and press, then fold again 1/4″ and press. MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS. The skirt is full, round, and stretches.

4. This dress was so much fun to make! From start to finish it took 2 hours – not bad! I can’t wait to make another one! I might try a shorter sleeves version because we live in California and my kids hate sleeves, pants and socks 🙂

I also made a matching headband out of the left over knit fabric. Cut a 5″ x 24″ strip and fold in half lengthwise, right sides together. Sew a 1/4″ seam and turn the tube right side out. With the seam centered on the back, adjust the stitch length to a gathering stitch and sew a serpentine/wavy seam down the center. I tried first to zig zag back and forth but the thread and the knit kept catching at the corners. The curvy line worked better. Then gather the threads to form a wavy type of ruffle. I was in a hurry so I hot glued it to an existing headband.

I think adding 4 inches to the skirt worked great for my tall 7 year- the hem hits right below the knee.

It was hard taking the pictures because all Sally wanted to do was make faces and play with a bug she found 🙂

I had to sneak the kitten in here somehow!!

Make sure to check out these other fabulous bloggers to see their version of the Lucky Dress!

5^th: Melissa (Sew Like MyMom)

6^th: Remona (The StitchingScientist)

12^th: Amanda (Jedi CraftGirl)

13^th: Becca Duval (BeccaDuval Photography)

19^th: Ren Murphy (TheInspired Wren)

20^th: Maryam (Hi and Hello)

25^th: Jen (Lea and Lars)

26^th: Julia Frazier (Riley Blake)
27^th: Lucy Blaire

Filed Under: clothes, review, Riley Blake

Tic Tac Toe Valentine Pillow Tutorial

February 9, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

February is just flying by! I needed a little pick-me-up today and throw pillows always do just the trick! A friend of mine came over and we spent the afternoon sewing. I came up with the idea of this interactive pillow after sitting next to my little girl at church yesterday. We brought along the quiet book (circa 1980) and one of the pages is a tic tac toe game. I thought this would be super fun to incorporate into a Valentine’s Day pillow!

I love how it turned out and my kids LOVE it! They couldn’t believe I made something fun!! I think the fabrics make it – it’s the Flirt line by Dear Stella. I had some left over from my Valentine Bookmark & Sachet project.

Here’s how you can make one

Supplies:

fat quarter white fabric

small pieces of fabric for hearts and Xs – can use charm squares

cotton batting scraps

fat quarter for the pillow back

20″ pillow form

22″ or longer zipper

3 yards pink trim

2 yards pink lace

1/4 yard border fabric

10″ of velcro

Spray n Bond

X and Heart pattern, click here

Begin by cutting the white background fabric 15″ square

Measure and position the pink lace so it creates equal sections, taking into account 1/4″ seam allowances around the outside of the square. Using Spray n Bond basting spray makes positioning lace a snap. If you don’t have this, you can pin. Sew with matching thread. Next, position the next 2 pieces of lace to create the grid. Sew into place.

Print and cut out the X and the heart.

Layer a piece of fabric, cotton batting, and another piece of fabric like this with right sides facing out. You are making a mini quilt sandwich. These don’t have to look pretty. I cut mine with scissors and did not measure. Using basting spray, spray the layers so they stay together.

Pin and X or a Heart on the fabric.

Stitch all the way around the pattern piece.

Cut out the X close to the seam. Cut 1″ piece of velcro and position the soft piece in the center of the X. Make sure you use the same side of the velcro for each piece or they won’t be interchangeable 🙂 I had to use the seam ripper on one of mine 🙁

Sew around the velcro square. Do this to each heart and X. I made 5 hearts and 4 Xs. Sew the opposite sides to each velcro piece in the middle of the tic tac toe squares.

Prepare the boarders by cutting (2) 15″ x 3″ strips and (2) 20″ x 3″ strips.
Sew the 15″ long strips to each side using 1/4″ seams. Press toward the boarder.

Sew the 20″ pieces on in the same manner. Press. Sew the decorative trim around the pillow front, rounding the corners.

Prepare the back of the pillow. Cut a 21″ x 20″ piece of fabric (I add 1″ to the length just in case the zipper or the zipper seam differs). Cut at the 4″ mark. Insert the zipper. Trim off the excess zipper. With the zipper partially open, place the pillow front to the pillow back, matching the top edge and the side edge. There should be about 1″ extra at the bottom of the back piece. Cut this off after sewing all the way around the pillow. Sew all the way around the pillow using the trim seam as you guide. I like to sew just a little larger seam then the seam I created when sewing the trim on. Turn right side out.

Insert the 20″ pillow form and then place the game pieces on the velcro squares – whose ready to play!!

This is the back of the pillow – you can make it how you want – this is just a super fast & easy way to finish a pillow.

The fabrics are amazing!!!

Sally was being silly 🙂

Filed Under: FEATURED, pillow, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, Valentine's Day

Valentine Bookmark and Sachet Tutorial

February 4, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

Don’t you just LOVE February!! I love all the cheerful colors, flowers, fabrics, and blossoms! It’s even been 80 degrees around here in the daytime! I’m super happy!!!

These fabrics from the Dear Stella Flirt line just scream Valentine’s Day. They make me want to throw a Jane Austen inspired Tea Party…..maybe I will!!

I love giving little gifts on Valentine’s Day and these sweet projects can be sewn up quickly. I love using fabric bookmarks in my books, this bookmark is flat and thin so it won’t damage your book.

This lovely lavender sachet is perfect to toss in a drawer or even in your car!

They make a lovely pair. I can’t wait to sew more of these! My full instructions are on the Therm O Web Blog. This project uses Heat n Bond Lite for the appliqué which makes it a snap. There is also a little Heat n Bond medium weight stabilizer in the bookmark to give it stability. I can’t wait to sew a few more!!

Filed Under: FEATURED, Heat n Bond, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial, Valentine's Day

DIY Cat Post

February 3, 2015 by Amanda 2 Comments

We have a baby Bengal Kitten in our home, his name is Mufasa and he is super spoiled! Pretty much my life is devoted to keeping him happy and teaching him everything he needs to know. Part of raising a well adjusted cat is having places for them to scratch, climb, and perch. I looked online and I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I sent hubby to the home improvement store and last Saturday he spent the day creating the perfect cat post for Mufasa. I will explain a little how we made it; if you are somewhat handy, you can follow along!

We began with a wood base 29″ x 19″, a 6 foot 2″x3″ and an oak log (bark removed). Here you can see they’ve been attached to the base. (We recommend not using particle board).

We cut a piece of corrugated plastic pipe the same length as the 2″x3″ and slid it over. We used long staples and some liquid nails to anchor the post to the 2″x3″ at the bottom. We cut a board smaller than the base and cut out a circle for the pipe to extend through. This was secured to the oak log.

Making sure everything is level.

Here you can see where the staples were inserted to secure the tube to the 2×3.

We put Liquid Nails on the pipe and wrapped sisal rope tightly around.

We anchored the sisal with a staple.

This is a good job for the kids to help out with!

We continued in the same manner adding 2 more perches. We needed something extra on the lower level for support, so we added another piece of wood.

Next we covered all the perch surfaces with carpeting. We had to create a kind of template to cut out where the pipe and the wood pieces were. We used Liquid Nails and staples to secure. On the bottom level we didn’t wrap the base in carpet, but added some wood pieces to finish off the edges. The upper perches we wrapped in the carpet.

It looks great and we couldn’t wait to bring it in the house and let Mufasa play on it!

That crazy little kitten climbed it all the way to the top! It was his first time ever climbing something that high!

We put it in front of the sliding glass window so he can perch and look outside. He LOVES it!!!!

Filed Under: bengal, DIY, FEATURED

Deco Foil Hanging Heart {DIY project}

January 30, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I didn’t quite know what to hang on my front doors this Valentine’s Day season. Do any of you have the problem of having 2 front doors? It’s always a delllama, do I hang just one item on the door we use, leaving the other one bare? Do I hang two of the same thing? Two different things? If I hang 2 wreaths, does it look like my doors have eyes? I came across these sparkly scalloped wood heart hangers at the craft store and I thought they might solve my front door problem. They were just screaming for some embellishment, don’t you think? I ran around the house, gathering items that might be cute all while eating cinnamon gummy hearts (highly addictive). If you don’t have wood heart hangers like these, you can add this heart to a pillow, a frame, or pretty much anything! Here goes!!

Supplies:

fabric scraps for the hearts, I used Riley Blake Designs small dots, pink & white

a few yards of small lace and larger lace to hang

Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print sheets

Heat n Bond Lite

Deco Foil silver

Don’t you just love all the colors this Deco Foil comes in? This was my first time using it, I was a little intimidated; now it’s my new favorite product!

Begin by drawing your desired heart shape onto the paper side of the Heat n Bond Lite. Roughly cut around the heart and iron it to the wrong side of the fabric. I choose to use Heat n Bond Lite rather than fusible stabilizer because I like the texture it creates when applied. Leave the backing paper on.

Print out the words in reverse onto the EZ print sheets. You can download the words like I used or make up your own.

Press the words to the wrong side of the Deco Foil. Then cut out with scissors. The XOXO were easy to cut, the Love was a little intense, I might not choose such an intricate word to cut with scissors next time 🙂 But I like how it looks.

Once the letters are cut out, peel off the backing paper and place the words as desired. I covered my letters with tissue paper because I was afraid to put the iron directly on the foil. Press into place.

I LOVE the foil! I can’t wait to try it on more projects! To finish the heart, peel off the backing paper of the heart. Center it on the wood heart. Using hot glue, glue the lace all the way around the heart. You will burn your fingers many times while doing so 🙁 If you have another favorite glue, you might try that. I was in a hurry 🙂 You could also use any kind of trim: ric rac, small tinsel, pom poms, ruffles, etc. I wasn’t in love with the cheap ribbon hanger the hearts came with, so I snipped them off and added some wire.

I added a lace bow and also hung it with lace. I don’t have a wreath hanger, so I tack the lace with a tiny nail to the top of my door. Maybe that’s not a good idea?

A little peak at my front porch….

My teenage daughter is in charge of all the chalkboard writing in our home. It’s too nerve racking for me!

I found this desk literally on the side of the road. I spray painted it grey and made it look rustic and it lives on my front porch. In the spring I have flowers growing out of the drawers!! I also found the chair on the side of the road. People probably think my porch looks junky – I like it!!

Filed Under: crafts, decorating, DIY, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, Riley Blake, Therm O Web, tutorials

Little Girl’s Western Outfit

January 28, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

My sister and her friend asked me to sew western outfits for their 4 year old girls. I just finished them – I think they turned out pretty cute! The hardest part was finding plain tops – all our stores are in-between seasons and there is not much to pick from. I was lucky to find 1 white and 1 black shirt! The cow print is my favorite 🙂

I used Heat n Bond lite for a quick appliqué on the shirts. Then I added a denim & lace rosette accent.

Filed Under: clothes, FEATURED, Heat n Bond

Birdies for Baby: Cottage Garden Baby Quilt Pattern

January 26, 2015 by Amanda 7 Comments

I love this baby quilt pattern. I recently helped with a baby shower for a sweet friend who is expecting her first baby. I made her this quilt. This is the best baby quilt pattern because you can sew it start to finish in a day (as I did), you can use precuts for the bulk of the quilt, it shows off larger prints or theme prints nicely which I always like to use in baby quilts, you don’t need to piece the back (yippee!), and it’s a little more interesting then just squares. The fabrics in this quilt really make the quilt – The Cottage Garden from Riley Blake Designs. Click here for my other Cottage Garden Baby Quilt pattern:

Instead of writing up the tutorial, I thought this chart might be easier – I love “at a glance” pattern outlines like this.

It’s important to let the kitten inspect all sewing!!

Sew the quilt together in rows. I used Spray n Bond to baste the quilt together. This cuts my pinning and quilting time in half at least. No more stopping and starting to remove pins. It is a HUGE time saver!!! The back of the quilt is flannel, I forgot to photograph it as I was on my way to the baby shower while taking the photos!!

I quilted loop de loos and swirly flowers in an all over pattern using light grey thread.

I love this quilt!! This is my new “go-to” baby quilt pattern, especially when I need it done in a day! Kitten likes it too 🙂

Filed Under: FEATURED, quilt, Riley Blake

Vintage Kitty Valentine

January 20, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I’m excited to be sharing my tutorial for these darling Vintage Valentines over on the Therm O Web Blog today! They are super fun to make and sew up quick! In fact, my 6 year old daughter even made one all by herself! All the wonderful fabrics are from Blend’s fabric lines: Equniox, Modern Lace, and Turkish Delight.

I choose some vintage cat images off the internet and printed them onto the EZ Print Transfer Sheets. You could print any image you want. The image is then ironed on to white fabric.

Of course I had to include my kitty in this kitty project! Mufasa had fun playing in the lace, then he had a nap in the lace!

Sally loves to sew!!

I made this one for Ella to match her room with blues and greens.

This one is Sally’s – she choose the fabrics and the buttons and sewed the buttons on herself.

I like this one too – it has diagonal rows of lace for the background. They are so much fun to make and they make great gifts because you can really personalize them! Now, get sewing 🙂

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, sewing, Therm O Web, Valentine's Day, vintage

Jumbo Half Square Triangle Quilt

January 19, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

I finally finished this quilt! I attended Sewing Summit in September 2013 where I took a class from Diary of a Quilter’s Amy Smart. I loved meeting her – she is the sweetest person ever!

While at Sewing Summit I was able to put the quilt top together. This is such a fast, fun quilt. I also love half square triangle quilts because there are so many design options.

I took the quilt top home and it sat in a drawer for quite sometime. I wanted minky on the back of the quilt so it would be a cuddly throw quilt for the family. Since I don’t quilt large quilts with minky on the back, I had my quilter quilt it this last summer. Then finally this weekend I sewed the binding on! I love it! It’s fun sewing something for me! I seem to give all my quilts away which I love.

This is the perfect quilt top to sew up in a day. Most of the fabrics are Riley Blake with light grey Kona solids. Now, I just need a good movie and a bowl of popcorn 🙂

Filed Under: FEATURED, quilt, Riley Blake

Happy Valentine’s Day

The Lucky Girl Dress {Review}

Tic Tac Toe Valentine Pillow Tutorial

Valentine Bookmark and Sachet Tutorial

DIY Cat Post

Deco Foil Hanging Heart {DIY project}

Little Girl’s Western Outfit

Birdies for Baby: Cottage Garden Baby Quilt Pattern

Vintage Kitty Valentine

Jumbo Half Square Triangle Quilt

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