Bella Nube Rose Tutorial

My sister knows me all too well. I made this... 

out of this.

My sister bought/sent Sam a silk lined wool skirt that she found at a thrift store. She knew I could "fix" it for Sam...and I did.  I threw it in the wash and dryer. Bingo! The skirt shrank so much that it fits Sam perfect now.  The lining is a different story.  

It didn't shrink as much.  So I cut it off the skirt.

I used half of the lining and cut up different sized squares...

cut these square in to random "cloud" shaped circles...

stacked them up by size...

and sewed each "cluster" right in the middle...just a couple of stitches, back and forth ...just enough to hold the "cluster" together...except for the last and smallest "cluster".

To the "cluster" that I didn't sew together, I hand-sewed on some beads...just random.  Then I hot glued it all together from the largest "cluster" to the smallest...added a pin to the back with hot glue...

and done...a beautiful cloud rose pin...

no matter the weather...

Bella Nube is Italian for Beautiful Cloud...and the darkening clouds tonight are definitely beautiful.  They hold an 80% chance of rain tonight and tomorrow...which is a very good thing for a drought stricken central Texas.

Every once in awhile...

our kitchen table looks like this...

it just happens when my kids get into "craft" mode...

sometimes they end up like this...

and when they let their imaginations go wild...

Samantha and Joshua's Pet Rock Collection 2011

they make and create...

Joshua's                  ~Fabric Paint Mix~               Samantha's

and I'm bursting at the seams with love, joy and pride.

3D Flower Tee Tutorial

Sometimes I tend to take things just a little overboard...as a case in point, just look at what I sewed for Sam the other night...

see what I mean?  A humongo 3D beaded flower appliqued tee.  

Sam and I L.O.V.E. how this shirt turned out. We both especially like how the wavy petals and leaf give the shirt dimension.

Want to make one? 
But first a disclaimer: I want to apologize for not taking enough pictures for some of these steps...not only do I tend to go overboard at times but I also tend to forget to take pictures along the way when "crafting". So if you have questions, please email me...
3D Flower Tee Tutorial

I started out with 3 tee shirts: a plain long sleeved thrifted shirt and two patterned tee shirts that I already had.  The floral one should look familiar to you...it's the same as the one I used for this shirt here. The striped one was already in my stash of shirts that no longer fit Sam.

Making the flower applique

1. Cut your tee across at the arm pits.  

Now you should have a tube from the bottom part of the tee.  

2. Cut down the sides of this tee tube. You should have two pieces. Use fusible web to fuse these two pieces together...WRONG SIDES to each other.  

3. Make a flower pattern using freezer paper.  You can free hand it or do like me, find an image on the web, copy and paste to a word document and enlarge...trace your image onto the dull side of the freezer paper.

4. Iron on the freezer paper, shinny side down, onto the fused fabric. Let the fabric cool down and using the outline of the flower, cut out the flower piece. 

5. Now find a plate that is large enough to cover up most of the center of the flower.  Using said plate, make a pattern on freezer paper.  Iron on the freezer paper to right side of fabric and then iron on fusible web to the wrong side of fabric. This circle is only one piece of fabric and not two like the flower part. Once cooled, cut out circle. Now you have the second part to your applique. 

6. Repeat the above process but now use a smaller plate to make the inner circle. Now you should have a flower and two different sized circles.  

Assembling the flower applique 

7. Lay down the flower piece and lay the bigger circle on top, making sure to center it.  Be sure to have the wrong side, the one with the fusible web, down. Iron on that circle to the flower.  Now repeat with the smaller circle.

8. Now that the flower is all fused together, zig-zag around all the edges. Use a tight zig-zag stitch. I used the shortest stitch length and the longest stitch width to get a nice tight zig-zag. I also used the gap on the sewing foot as a guide while sewing the edge.  It works every time.  

9.  Sew on beads if you want.  Since this fabric had small flowers with a blueish center, I just sewed on a bead at each of the blueish centers.

10. Use freezer paper and draw out a stem and leaf. Follow the steps 3 and 4 to make, cut and fuse the stem to your shirt.  

Once fused, zig-zag the edge of the stem to the shirt.

11. For the leaf, follow step 2...it needs to be double-sided. Zig-zag the leaf edges. Pin the leaf onto the shirt and sew a straight stitch down the middle of the leaf onto the shirt.

12. Now position your flower onto your shirt. Pin it securely and

 sew a straight stitch right along the inner edge of your zig-zag stitch. Again, use the gap on your sewing foot to guide you.

*Make sure to alternate your fabric patterns when cutting out the flower, circles, stem and leaf so that your shirt has a contrasting pattern to it. 

This has been the hardest tutorial I have ever written because of the lack of photos, but I hope it made sense to you.  If not, please just email me and I will try to clear it up for you.  

You ROCK #6

Huge shout out to my Sammie Girl...She became a 1st Squire of the

 EarlyAct FirstKnight for demonstrating above and beyond character traits of Honesty and Responsibility...a very noble honor. Way to go girl!! Who knew a princess could become a Squire? We are so very proud of you...keep it up!  
For more information on the EarlyAct FirstKnight program, click here.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

So, are you ready to ROCK IT?!

Here are the very simple to follow rules:

1. Link up something that YOU made: sewing, craft, recipe, anything that you would like to share, etc…

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3. No linking giveaways or items for sale.

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5. Grab this button and post on your blog or post...just somewhere where others can come and link up as well.

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So you ready to Party?! Let's ROCK this place!
Also, remember that the party will be open until Monday night. On Wednesday, I will feature the #1 link that ROCKS (the most viewed). I will also showcase my 3 favorites. And to entice you just a little more, the #1 link that ROCKS will also get to be a guest blogger at a future date (of course only if the winner wants too)...Sounds like fun, right?

Butterfly Love Shirt

I love the look of a faded graphic t-shirt especially when it's personalized for my girl. 
Purple? Check. 
Butterflies? Check. 
Glitter? Check. 
Super long lashes? Check.

Last week, Happy Hour Projects had a great tutorial on  how to make a graphic using freezer paper and bleach. So using that tutorial, I made this shirt and took it a step further... x 3.

I started with a regular purple shirt.  I traced the butterflies onto the freezer paper, cut and ironed onto the shirt. I purposely ironed the butterflies over the sleeves...

I lightly sprayed bleach onto the shirt...just enough to get the fabric wet...and by total accident, a couple of drops of bleach fell onto the bottom of the shirt...in the end, it worked in my favor. Make sure to insert cardboard or plastic bags into your shirt to protect the back of the shirt...you don't want bleach to stain that part.

When it was dry, it looked like this

When I removed the butterflies, it looked like this...see how the accidental drops of bleach worked in my favor...looks like butterfly dust as they flutter about.

I liked it but it was missing something...so then I did this...using freezer paper, I traced and cut out the word LOVE.  Ironed on the stencil and proceeded to paint the letters using several fabric paint colors. I painted and blended in the colors over each other.  Once the paint was dry, I went back and repainted the letters again using fabric glitter paint.

Then it looked like this...I forgot to take a picture of the shirt without the hearts, but basically, the shirt still looked too blah at the top.  So I drew and cut out heart stencils using freezer paper.  When I ironed them on, the white fade from the bleach turned yellow... :(  I painted the hearts in just like the letters.

I wasn't loving the yellow "glow" in the middle.  In my attempt to "cover up" the yellow, I added more sparkle to the shirt with glitter fabric paint.  I just dabbed on some glitter dots and smeared them with the paint brush. 

Now the shirt looked like this

 Now the shirt looks like this...much better

After washing it in a regular load, the yellow came off...whew.

And this is what the shirt looks like when Sammie is in model mode...

Work it girl!

Baby Rose Shirt Redo

I hope you are not getting too tired of my kid's shirt redos, but I REALLY like to make their shirts, especially if I can reuse their baby clothes.  My kid's baby clothes were/are so cute...I just can't help myself.  
So, this refashion comes to you courtesy of my daughter's long sleeved 2T shirt.  I love the details of this shirt and how cute it looked on Sam when she was little.  When she outgrew it, it got put away. I figured I would let Sam use it for her dolls someday. Well, forget the dolls, I used it to make a cute shirt for Sam ...six years later.

Here is what the 2T shirt looked liked before the transformation.  See how wrinkled it is from being tucked away in a chest for years?  I love the rose cut-out and the striped sleeves especially the ruffled edge at the end of the sleeves...

So, basically what I did was cut out the flower cut-out  and centered it to the new shirt. I did this by folding the shirt side ways and ironing a line down the middle.  Then I did the same with the cut-out.  

See the thread running down the middle...that is just to show you how to line up the shirt with the cut-out to get it to look centered. 

Then pin and sew around the cut-out

I sewed around the cut-out twice just because...and then trimmed the edge (sorry, forgot to take pic)

Make several strips by cutting up the sleeves. Fold and iron your strips length wise

and use them to trim out the sleeves like you would with bias tape.  Just start with one strip and when that strip runs out, layer another and continue around the sleeve.

Just sew around the sleeve.  I used the width of the foot as a guide. 

Once I was done sewing, I just trimmed off the extra fabric.

Don't forget to do the same for the neckline. Remember the cute ruffled edge on the sleeves? I cut the ruffle close to the edge and made these pretty roses. I pinned them to the flowers that were printed on the cut-out.

I sewed/tacked them down by hand and added clear beads.

and there you have it...still cute six years later ...

and, um, yeah, don't you think the shirt is cute too...?