In The Mood

I have been WANTING to sew lately but have had several other things going.  My sister was here visiting along with my other friend Kevin.  We had lots going on while they were here.  My house, when they left was a MESS.  Like horrible mess.  Kayla was best buddies with her cousin Jacob who crawls.  She would crawl on the floor with him and says, "Come on baby Jakey"  It was so cute.  Then he would smile and laugh and follow her.  She would also dump out EVERY little thing she thought he would like to play with and spread it out all over the floor.  You could barely walk in my living room.  I have no idea how they were crawling on it.

Any ways.  We had lots going on after they left too.  I FINALLY got about 25 clips to the shop here where I live.  I am both nervous and excited to have something in a store for sale.  I have no clue if any of them will sale.  If they don't sale, then it will be kind of disappointing.  The good news is that I am in no contract or anything and my first month of rent space is free.   Take my advice people, if you have a skill you are good at always ask if someone is willing to trade services.  The shop I was going to be selling hair clips at was having problems taking pictures and getting them on facebook.  I told them I was a photographer and asked if they would be willing to have me come do pictures for them and I could get rent space free for the first month.  They said yes!  WOO HOO  Here are some pictures I took of their shop

It's a pretty cute shop!  The good news is that no one else sales hair clips either so the only hair clips in there are mine!  I made some cute stuff for the shop too.  But because I have been doing hair clips like crazy, I am not in the mood to do some for my etsy shop.  Maybe in a week or so I can duplicate some for my etsy shop because some of them were really cute.  Here is a picture of all of them together.

I have more crafts to write about but I don't want to write them all in the same post so I'll write more soon.  I need to shower and go over my lesson for church today.  It's a pretty intense lesson that I am praying I can get through.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today is thursday. I am having a crappy week. It makes thankful thursdays kinda hard. I am thankful for so many things. When I am having a bad day I usually miss my husband a lot. He has been having a crappy week too. Some of our reason are the same, some are different. We are both amazed lately at how many people SAY they will do something but DON'T. It amazes me when how bad the economy is, and how much people need business right now, they are not pulling their weight. We have had family members totally let us down, lawyers NOT call us back and real estate agents who ignore our calls. Seriously? Do you NOT want our business? I thought EVERYONE right now needed and wanted business but I guess not.

SOOOOOOO for today I am going to name something simple. I am thankful for my new business cards! haha I ordered some new cards for my photography since my old ones say Serving the Central Texas Area. I really liked my old cards so I did something almost exactly the same. I changed things up slightly. In stead of business cards, I got postcards! I LOVE THEM! They are so cute and I love that they are big enough to see the pictures well on them. I have seen photographers do this a couple times over the last year and every time I found one, got given one or picked one up somewhere, I just loved how big and colorful they were. So you want to see?

Sorry it's a bad picture.  It was taken with my cell phone.  SOOO who wants one?  :)

Lady Bug Purse Tutorial

So who wants to make a cute ladybug purse?  I am telling you this was EASY, quick and my daughter has taken it every where we have gone since I made it for her.  She LOVES it!  So here is what you need:

2 fat quarters
2 pieces of 14 inch ribbon
1 piece of 3 inch ribbon
two scrap pieces of fabric about 5 inches or so in all directions
interfacing ( optional )

READ INSTRUCTIONS ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE SEWING!

I started out by cutting TWO pieces of fabric 11 1/2 inches tall by 11 inches wide from one fat quarter.  If you have pattern on your fabric that is directional ( meaning the pattern goes one way ) then make sure you cut it going the way you need it.  Mine needed to have the animals upright so I made sure to do so.

Do this with both fat quarters.  One will be the outside of the purse and one will be the inside.  If you want to interface it, do so now.  I decided for my daughter, it didn't really need it.  Don't know what interfacing is?  It is the stuff that makes purses stiffer and more padded.

Next you want to round the corners ( you don't HAVE to, but that is the look I wanted for my purse.  I didn't want it to just look like a cute tote, but a purse instead. )  I just grabbed a bowl from my cupboard and used that to outline a curved edge.  Make sure to do it to both the left and right corners of the bottom of the fabric like so

Again, make sure you do this with all four of the pieces of 11 1/2 X 11 inch pieces.  

Next you want to pick a color for the lady bug.  I picked some pink fleece.  If you are doing a lady bug like me you want it to be an exact circle.  I used another bowl that was slightly smaller then the one I used to round out my edges.  It turned out to be about 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 inches all the way around.  Yours can be whatever size you want!

Next I made another circle cut out for the wings.  I chose a black and white polka dots so it could be close to what a real lady bug looks like but anything works well.

Here are my circles.

Next I took the circle that would become the wings and folded it in half and then cut it down the center.  This gave me two pieces like so

HOWEVER, this part is up to you.  The one I saw in the store had wings that were much smaller.  I played around with this and I liked the big wings because that is how a real lady bug would be.  YOU DO WHAT YOU LIKE!

Now, I didn't have any iron on adhesive and so I used some spray on glue.  Very clever I thought until I noticed I sprayed it all over my hand and everything was sticking to it!!!   Not cool...

Place your lady bug how you want it on the out side of your fabric.  I over lapped my wings a little because again, I LIKED it like that!  Do what you like....

I then did a zig zag stitch all the way around the wings and body.  This is going to get repetitive but seriously do it how you think it will look cute.  I think the zig zag kinda ties everything together.

Looking cute right?  Now I took a round piece of tule ( you know the kind they sell at the dollar tree in the wedding section ) and scrunch it in the center and pin it to the lady bug over the wings right in the center.

I LOVE the tule.....if you don't like it, scratch it!


Next take your 3 inches of ribbon for the antennas.  There are a couple of things you can do.  I just pinch mine in the center and folded it over and glued it.  If you want to make the antennas a little cuter you could tie knots on the ends.  The version I saw did this.  I was just too lazy and the ribbon I liked was a little too fat for that.

Next glue it to the button of your choice.  Or whatever you think would make a cute head.  I thought a button was a good idea but you could get really creative with that.  And then I got lazy again and instead of sewing the button on, I glued it.

Now that the outside is done you need to pin the two outside pieces with the right sides together and sew all the way around on the sides leaving the top OPEN ( i love how you can still see all the black lint stuck to my fingers!  haha )

Put the top off to the side and do the same with the inside pieces ( if you want pockets on the inside you must do so now BEFORE sewing it together.  Since mine was for a 2 year old I felt pockets to be unnecessary )

When sewing the inside together ( right sides together again ) make sure to leave an opening on the bottom.  A good 5 to 7 inches.  This is so you can turn the bag right side out in a minute.  What I do to remind meyself so I don't forget and just keep on sewing is I do a double pin where I want to stop sewing.

In the picture above you would NOT sew in between the two sets of double pins.

Next I clip the corners and I iron open the seams.

If you have NEVER made a purse before this next part will seem weird.  Trust me though...I have made about 40ish purses!

Take the outside of the bag and turn it so it is wrong sides facing together ( in other words, what it will look like when the bag is ALL done! )  Then take the INSIDE of the bag and put it over the outside of the bag so that the right sides of both fabrics and facing each other.  Check out the picture if you are confused.  It should look like this

Next you take those seams you ironed open and line them up and pin them together ( with the seams still open )

Next you want to take your 14 inch ribbon and pin it where you want your straps to be.  Honestly if you are smart ( unlike me ) you will do this BEFORE pinning the two together.....I forgot, however and had to do it on this step.  Also, look at my picture below:  you will notice that my ribbon was sliding sideways.  You do NOT want that to happen!!!  If you do then your straps will be crooked.  I had to fix this a million times before I sewed it down.  If you are smart ( unlike ME! ) pin the strap to the outside of the fabric BEFORE putting the inside over and lining up the side seams.  It seems fussy but it will be worth it I promise!  Also, make sure you pin the strap in between the two.  If you pin it to the outside of everything right now, when you go to turn your purse the right way, your straps will be trapped between the two fabrics.

Next you want to sew all the way around the top of your bag.  You are ALMOST done!  WOO HOO

After you sew around the top you may be wondering how you are going to pull the whole purse the right way.  Have no fear!  Do you remember that hole we left in the bottom of the inside of the purse?  Find that hole, put your hand in it and pull the OUTSIDE of the bag through it like so

It should look like this when you pull it through  ( at this point your daughter might come to see whats going on and get REALLY excited to see something you made for her! )

Next you want to shove the inside of the bag....well....in the INSIDE!  And then iron down the top of the bag and stitch across the top again to make sure the lining stays down.  Also, it just looks cuter when you finish the top.  I again used a zig zag just because I think it fit with everything else better.

Next do you remember that stupid  dumb hole in the bottom of the lining?  ( I'm not aloud to say stupid because I get yelled at by my 5 year old for saying a bad word.  Aunt Kimmie got yelled at a LOT while she was here last week haha

You want to tuck under the seam and iron it down.  Then pin it closed and sew it down.

You could also just sew it by hand.  I was just lazy and I like to think that when I sew it by hand it makes it slightly weaker.  Then again, my daughter is putting really small things in here so far.  She had some crayons, some bracelets and some puzzle pieces in it all weekend.

You now have an adorable new purse for your daughter, grand daughter, sister, friend, niece or heck, yourself!

I was thinking of all of the fun animals you could do instead of a lady bug.

butterfly
monkey
OWL ( i'm gonna try that one! )
caterpillar
hippo

all sorts of fun and easy different shapes and sizes.  I would LOVE to see if anyone does one.  Send me a link if you do and if I get enough of them I will make a new blog in a month or so and post all of them who send them in.  Either leave a link in the comments or email me at  katiesclicks at yahoo dot com.

I hope everyone had a great Monday!  Mine was awful!  haha  I woke up to realize it was that "time" of the month, my kids were PMSing WAAAAAAAAY worse then I was and I had a bunch of errands to run.  Not cool.  Then my husband came home and he was in a bad mood too which just made everything worse.  Now the kids are in bed, the house is quiet and we are both typing away on our lap tops.  Him doing homework ( he is ALMOST done with his first bachelor's degree!  His second one should be done by April! ) and I am changing the craft world one tutorial at a time....okay not really but hopefully at least ONE person enjoys this tutorial and gives it a try.  :)

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

I'm linking up to some parties through out the week...

A Loss

Last Saturday our family suffered a loss.  It has been tough.  We had a GREAT day!  We drove out to where I used to live and met up with friends we hadn't seen in forever.  The kids played together on the playground while the grown ups talked and laughed.  We were there for hours.  It was wonderful.  We also ate at 2 of our favorite places.  You can't beat great food.  As we were driving home from our most excellent Saturday, as we got closer to home we noticed there had been a storm.  There was flooding on the streets and you could tell that had been some strong wind.  It was drizzling on us a bit.  We got home and noticed the power had gone out.  A couple of hours later the power went out again.

The next day we woke up and I looked out in the back yard and saw something horrible!

Do you see it?  

We were missing something.

I looked to the left......nothing.

I looked all the way to the right.......nothing.

CRAP.

Cody got up a little while later and I said, "Go look outside"

He looked.  "Where is it?"

I said, "No clue"

Cody went outside and looked around.  He looked left....nothing.

He looked right.....nothing.

He looked UP!  BINGO

FOUND IT!  My kids are devastated.  They loved their trampoline.  Do you noticed how not only is it on the roof but that the frame was completely destroyed?!  YUP!  No fixing this puppy.  What was worse is that after Tyler cried for a minute he said, "Now I'll have to wait until I go to grandma and grandpa's  to jump on the trampoline."   My parents JUST moved and no longer have a back yard.  DOH!  We explained that to him and he cried for a second again.  Bummer.

So after some tears ( from both Tyler and Daddy )  Okay Daddy didn't really cry but he wanted to because he had the task of climbing on the roof and trying to get the dumb thing down.  Everything on it was ruined.  We loved you trampoline.  May you now rest in pieces...literately.

Butterfly Purse

Can I just tell you how happy it makes me when I ACTUALLY get some crafting done when I haven't had time?!  SOOOOOO happy.  My sister was here visiting so I wasn't crafting at all and then my house was a mess.  I got it almost cleaned and then decided it didn't matter any more because if I didn't sew SOMETHING I was going to go crazy.  Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Any ways.  I saw a purse at a boutique in Utah while I was there and thought it was really cute.  They wanted 18 dollars for it though and it didn't even have interfacing in it and the handles were made out of ribbon.  Hmmmmm.  I didn't think it was worth 18 dollars for those two reason but it was such a cute girly purse.  I quickly clicked a picture with my cell phone and knew I would have to try it.  I went ahead and didn't do interfacing either and made the handles out of the ribbon.  It's perfect for a little girl who is going to just put little toys and things in it.  Here is how it turned out

I love the fabric!  I got it as a fat quarter for 99 cent when I was in Utah.  I also got the inside fabric at the same price.  So basically it cost me maybe 5 bucks to make and didn't take that long.  It took maybe 2 hours and that was because I took pictures along the way so that come Monday I should have a tutorial up!  WOO HOO  I have been wanting to do a tutorial again.  So there you have it.  Monday or Tuesday I should have the tutorial up and just so you know it takes less then two fat quarters for the out side and inside and then scrap fabric to make the lady bug.  Fat quarters are on SALE at Joann's right now for 99 cents!  Go grab a couple and come back Monday so you can make your own.  I am hoping to have some different animals too.  I REALLY want to do an owl or a butterfly.  Here's hoping I have time!

Thankful Thursdays

I am SO thankful that my sister was able to adopt this cutie pie!

Seriously could he be any cuter?  I think not!