Stockings!

It's Christmas Eve!  I finally got our stockings done and hung!  Right in time for Santa.  I love how they turned out!  I made them out of sweaters; the green one was part of my wardrobe,  until a few years ago,  and I have been saving it for this idea since then! I picked up the red and cream sweaters at a thrift store.  Hobby Lobby has the fabulous Chevron fabric.  For six stockings, it cost me less than $20!  I had to enlist the help of my very talented mom for this project.  We spent an entire Saturday sewing stockings.  I managed to snap a few photos with my phone as we went so I can show you how we made them.   I completely forgot to take a picture of the sweaters before!  I was so excited to get cutting. Before pictures are so fun too.  Sorry  : )  
First we drew and cut a stocking pattern out of tracing paper:  

Then I cut all my front and back pieces.  I was going to use the sweaters for both the front and the back, but after sewing one, I learned it was going to be too hard.  The sweater fabric is too thick and stretchy, so the finished stocking didn't hold its shape well.  Plus, I would probably need to sew liners in to help it not stretch and loose its shape after Santa fills it with goodies.  More work.  So I un stitched the sweater front and back stocking and went to plan B.  Fabric back, sweater front.  IMPORTANT:  As you cut the pieces make sure all the stockings will hang the same direction!  Unless of course it wouldn't bother you to have them hanging different directions. : )
I wanted the chevron fabric to fold over,  so we had to figure out how to sew it on and have it face the right direction.  The hardest part about these stockings is all the right side/wrong side sewing.  I hope this little tutorial will help!
Cut the stocking pieces.  (Remember to pay attention to which direction they will hang!  We messed up on one and had to re-do it.)

 Sew a piece (same sizes) of the chevron fabric to the top.  This will be the fold over.  Lay the stocking pieces right side down.  The 'fold over' piece will go right side to wrong side.  Sew along the top.

 It should look like this after it is sewn and flipped up.  (Sorry this pic is blurry)

 Then iron it so the 'fold over' piece is up.  Also fold over and iron the raw edge.   

Next, put your two stocking pieces right sides together and pin.  The 'fold over' pieces at the top should be wrong sides together or right sides out as shown here.  (Confusing I know!)

 Now sew around the stocking. Do not sew the 'fold over' pieces yet!  

Turn the stocking inside out and think "Hey, it looks like a stocking!  Cute!"

 At this point all the right side/wrong side starts to make sense.  See how the 'fold over' pieces will fold over and show the right side?  Pin the edges.

 Sew along the two edges.

Now fold over the 'fold over' pieces.  And Ta-Da!  It's a stocking!

 I did four with the chevron folded over and 2 with the sweater folded over.  For the two with the sweater folded over, I added some lace and poofy ball trim.  And I totally hot glued it on!  First I hot glued the trim to the lace, then I hot glued the lace to the stocking!  It looked way to hard to sew on and I was all sewed out : )  I think the hot glue will work just fine!

   Last, I sewed some ribbon loops for hanging. 

 (You can check out my stocking holder here.)

 This is what the backs look like:

I could not have figured all this out and got them done without my mom, she really made it happen. : )  She's a genius!  Now deciding who's is who's has been a hot topic around here!  I love them all. I'll probably add initials to each one somehow, but not by tomorrow.  We'll do something more temporary this year. Can't wait for Santa to put some treats in them! 

 I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!!

We're hoping for snow!!

DIY Santa bags

        I made these bags to leave out on Christmas Eve for Santa to put our girls presents in.  This saves loads of time and wrapping paper and time spent using wrapping paper!  They are the simplest sewing  project ever!  I used fleece, so there is no hemming, or fraying. 

 Plus it's inexpensive and soft!  

 I made them pretty big, 3ft. by about 2 1/2 ft.  I stuffed these with blankets for the picture.  The green one has 3 blankets in it!  The red one has 1 blanket, 2 Snuggies, and 2 throw pillows!  Big, yes!  They will hold big presents or multiple presents.   To make them I simply sewed 2 pieces of fleece together along 3 sides.  Then turned them right side out.  To make it even simpler I just had the fabric store cut the fleece in 1 yard increments (3 feet!)  

I made one for each girl and stitched their initial on their bag.  Nothing fancy here, I hand drew the letter straight onto some white felt, cut it out and hand stitched it on with embroidery floss

Definitely not perfect, but still cute : )

My girls are so excited to leave these out Christmas Eve!  I feel like wrapped gifts are so magical and exciting under the tree, but there is something magical about an empty bag at night and a full bag in the morning too!  

I hope you're feeling ready for Christmas!  I am not yet!  As far as shopping goes anyway; the magic and fun and family of Christmas is here of course: )  My cute 4 year old said "Christmas is about love huh mom."  "YES!"  I said proudly.  Then she said, "well, love and PRESENTS!"  I still said yes, we like to give presents to show our love.  Kids are cute : )

Linking up at these great parties! Ginger Snap Crafts,    Someday Crafts,  Not Just a Housewife

Printed burlap pillow

This is my new favorite craft discovery!  Printing onto burlap right from my home printer! 

Simply cut the burlap and a piece of freezer paper to 8.5 x 11, iron the burlap to the freezer paper and run through your printer.  Pull off the freezer paper and it's ready to use.  The design I did here was for my sister's bridal shower gift.   I made this into a pillow.

First  measure and cut the fabrics according to the pillow size you want, then lay them out to see how it will look (remember a seam allowance when measuring):

Then sew two of the sides onto the burlap piece:

Then sew the remaining two sides:

Then onto the back.  To make an envelope opening,  cut two pieces of fabric the same height as the front of the pillow, but about 4 inches longer in width:

 Hem the two edges that overlap.  Lay them on top of the pillow front, right sides together and lining up the edges.  Pin in place:

Sew around all four sides. Turn right side out and it's ready for the pillow insert.  Mine is 16x16 inch pillow.

Ta-da!  Seriously this was a quick and fun project!  I've got to make a couple for me now!

Junk lamp makeover

We needed more light in our living room so I have been lamp shopping for a while.  Turns out, lamps are kind of expensive.  I needed cheap and ugly but with potential!  After a few thrift store runs with no success I discovered this in my parents basement:

Unfortunately, this is the best before picture I took.  The lamp shade had that accordion fabric cover on it, it was a breeze to pull off.  I cleaned it really good, see how shiny it is : )  Then I primed it and painted it this fabulous yellow!

I scuffed it up a bit to get the shabby look I wanted.  Then I used a gloss varnish to seal it and make it just the right shinyness : )

Now for the shade.  I got some inexpensive fabric and traced the lamp shade by rolling it over the fabric and marking with a pencil on the top and bottom of the shade.  Then I cut it, leaving about a half inch extra to sew.   I hemmed the top and bottom, then sewed the two ends together.  It slipped right over the shade.   It needed a little something still, so these fabric rosettes worked perfect!

 See that fun yellow pot?  That was the inspiration for the yellow.

  I am thrilled with how it turned out!  I love a good cheap project : )