Pom Pom Tips (and other handmade party details)

 I had lots of questions on the tissue pom poms in the last post.  They are super easy - it's a Martha project! (and not one of those Martha projects where you wonder who in their right mind would ever try it.)

Having made dozens of them over the years, I feel like there are a few tips of the trade I can share with you:

• 8 pieces of tissue paper looks great in the small poms, but the larger ones actually need about 10 sheets to look nice and full

• Use smaller fan folds in the tissue paper - about an inch wide for the small size and no larger than 2 inches for the big ones (I try to fold mine at about an inch and a half)

• Make sure those folds are really creased!  After folding the length of my tissue, I always go back and press the creases again with my fingers, making sure it gets through all the layers.  The better the pom holds its crease when it is fluffed, the better it will look.

• Tie your length of string for hanging to your loop before fluffing the pom (so you don't have to dig for it later).

• Always fluff the poms from the center and resist touching the edges, and pull the layers apart one sheet at a time, one crease at a time.  To get a good grip, I hold the pom on the crease directly behind the one I'm fluffing (hope that makes sense!)

• Fluff one side of the pom completely before moving on to the opposite side.  This also means they will lay flat if you need to transport them.  For my party, I fluffed one side of the poms at home, and then completed them on location.  If you try to transport them fully fluffed, they are sure to get smashed.

• Hang immediately!  :)

They look especially nice if you have a fan or air conditioner running in the room, making the poms spin slowly.  It is mesmerizing!

A great place to buy tissue paper in bulk is Paper Mart.  They have a nice variety of colors, and the price can't be beat.

We also made these gray table runners with sprinkled confetti to decorate the tables.  I already had our color scheme picked out when I saw this post on The Crafts Dept. blog.  Talk about perfect timing!  I promptly ordered a roll of 12" bogus paper.

Instead of fringing the edges, we punched it (or rather, my friend Nancy punched it) with a scalloped edge paper punch.  I'll be honest - it took her a long time.  But it looked great!

I also made a trivia quiz game to put at each place setting, and the ladies filled it out during dinner.  I got the idea from this baby shower featured at Hostess with the Mostess.

I have so many projects in progress right now, my head is spinning - another maternity refashion, a home decor project, and something for Oscar are all in the works.  Not to mention the fact that his play kitchen has been on our deck, half finished, for almost two months.  Oh, and there is that whole Easter holiday I should probably prepare for.  :)

spring church party

Every waking moment of the past week was spent getting ready for an event celebrating the anniversary of the organization of the women's group at my church.  The party was last night and was a huge success!  I could not have pulled it off without my excellent chefs, Lorrie and Cari, and my expert pom pom helper, Nancy.

I think I'll spend the rest of the weekend sleeping.

purl bee rose clips and cupcakes

This weekend I tried out the Rose Barrette tutorial from The Purl Bee:

Talk about a quick and satisfying project!  I attached one to a clip as directed, and one to a ponytail holder, which I am far more likely to wear.  I'm always amazed at how pretty felt can be.

The majority of this weekend, though, was spent baking.  Then baking some more.  I made over 6 dozen cupcakes as a reminder for a church party this week.  Despite some hiccups in the kitchen, they turned out really yummy.  And when I say hiccup, I mean this:

Making buttercream frosting with a toddler is NOT a good idea.

I took notes from Kristin at the Blonde Designs Blog and tried the 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe from the back of the Swans Down Cake Flour box.  It was really good! (I loved the flavor from the almond extract.)  For the frosting, I used Wilton's Buttercream recipe, which never fails.

This photo is horribly fuzzy ... I forgot my camera and had to take one with my phone.

All in all, my weekend was tasty (though sticky), and my ponytail has never looked so good.  Hope you had a great weekend, too!

getting aquainted with hair clips

With a baby girl on the way, I decided I'd better start getting acquainted with hair accessories.  I've never really known what to do with my own hair and it generally looks kind of pathetic.  And I've definitely never put much effort into accessorizing my hair.

My point is, I have a real fear of my daughter looking like a rag-a-muffin, especially if she gets my curly hair.  You know who says, "you're so lucky to have curly hair!"?  People with beautifully straight hair.  I've never had a curly-haired person say to me, "I feel so grateful to have curly hair, don't you?"

I spent an hour yesterday afternoon making a couple of hair clips (for me - these are big clips).  The pink flower buds were made from leftover scraps from my cardigan refashion.

The white rose was made with satin ribbon.  I used a wide ribbon and folded it in half so the edges wouldn't show when I wound it up into a flower.

All of the flowers were hand-stitched together and hot glued to the hair clips.  So easy!  Plus, the clips were only $1 for the pack of 6 (found at Michael's), so this is a very cheap project.

I'd love to hear about your favorite tutorials or homemade hair accessory ideas (for mamas and kids!).

Refashioned Jeans to Maternity Skirt Tutorial

March is Go Green Month over at Sew Much Ado, and today I'm participating by showing you how to take an old pair of jeans and t-shirt and refashioning them into a cute maternity pencil skirt.

For this project, you'll need a pair of wide leg jeans, a jersey knit t-shirt, and the usual sewing equipment.  I used a well loved pair of trouser jeans that I'd walked the hem off of, and a t-shirt that fit well, except it had shrunk in the wash and was too short.

I'm not going to provide many exact measurements in this tutorial, because you should be using clothes that already fit you reasonably well.  Please use the guidelines below, but account for your own body type!

Using a seam ripper, take out the inner leg seam all the way from the hem to the zipper on both pant legs.  Carefully remove the zipper, and sew the opening shut (I just top stitched mine).

Also remove the waistband.  These jeans were a low rise, so I didn't need to cut any lower than removing the waistband.  If your jeans have a higher rise, you'll want to cut them lower in the front to accommodate your growing pregnant belly.  Most importantly, you need to be able to pull the closed pants up over your hips, since this will be a pull-on skirt (no zipper or button openings).

Open the pants up so the pant legs are laying on top of one another, with the right sides of the fabric facing together.  Using a ruler (or just eye-balling it), mark and pin a straight line from where you stopped removing the leg inseam, all the way down the pant leg. 

(Please ignore my taped-together ruler.  Oscar sure is cute, but he breaks things)

Sew together and repeat on the other side.  Turn the skirt right side out.  Assuming everything lays nicely, turn inside out again and cut off the excess fabric.

Turn the skirt right side out again - looks like a skirt now, huh?  Press your new seams.

Try your skirt on and decide how long you want it to be.  Mark the length and cut.

I opened up the seam on the back of the skirt a few inches to allow for a slit.  This is kind of necessary, since it will be a narrower skirt.  Don't forget to back stitch again at the top of the slit.

If you have a serger, now would be a good time to use it.  If you don't have a serger, you can either leave your seams as is, or zig zag over them.

Sew the slit.  I folded over the edges on either side of the slit (there was an existing crease here anyway from the original seam) and pin.  Top stitch approximately 1/4 inch from the edge.

Top stitch your seams on the front and back of the skirt.

Hem your skirt!  I sewed a nice, thick hem.

If you don't like the look of freshly hemmed denim, you could distress it a little bit with some sand paper.

Time to start cutting up your t-shirt to make the stretchy waistband/belly panel.   A jersey shirt with a lot of stretch works well for this project.

Using a ruler and rotary cutter, cut straight down both sides, and across the top (removing the sleeves and collar).

After cutting, I had two pieces that measured 15x19 inches each.  Pin your fabric, right sides facing together.

Using a zig zag stitch, sew both side seams.  Double stitch for durability.

Other tips for sewing on knit fabric:

• Use a ball point needle!  This makes all the difference.
• Loosen your machine's tension.
• I like to use a walking foot - it has feed dogs on the foot, so the fabric is gripped from the top and bottom and feeds through the machine evenly.  No slipping.  :)

You should now have a tube of fabric.  Turn the tube right side out.

At this point I top-stitched over both seams using a straight stitch.  I'm not sure this is absolutely necessary, but it strengthened the seam and I liked how it looked.

Fold the tube of knit fabric in on itself so it is two layers thick.  The side seams should line up on the inside.

Place your denim skirt inside the knit tube (sorry for the super blurry photo!), lining up the waist of the skirt with the cut edges of the tube.  You will have three layers of fabric here.

Pin in place on the sides, the front middle and back middle (4 pins total).  The knit tube will be smaller than the waist of the skirt, but you will stretch it as you sew.

Using a zig zag stitch, sew around the entire waistband, stretching the knit tube to fit as you go.  Double (or even triple) stitch for extra strength.

Turn the skirt right side out, and you're done!

You can wear the skirt either with the full belly panel as shown below, or fold it over if you prefer a lower waistband.  My pregnancies give me a gnarly outie belly button, so I need all the smoothing effects of stretchy fabric I can get.

This skirt is SO comfortable!  I have worn it two days in a row.  :)

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

Is your mouth watering yet?

After about eating my weight in strawberries this weekend, I pureed the rest and tested out this Strawberry Lemonade Bar recipe from Baking Bites.  It is fabulous!

These perfectly pink beauties are going to be one of many treats on a dessert buffet I am putting together for an upcoming church party.  I'm no Amy Atlas, but I'm really excited to do a dessert buffet.

Do you know of any wonderful pink desserts?

mama's night out clutch

Last night I went out with a bunch of mama's from Oscar's playgroup.  And I realized beforehand that I don't have any bags that aren't a diaper bag, tote bag, or something else large enough to accommodate sippy cups and goldfish crackers.

So ... I made this little clutch using the Scrappy Clutch tutorial at From an Igloo.

It was a quick (like during nap time quick) and easy project - my favorite kind!   The only change I made was to pleat the bottom of the bag instead of gathering it, because my lining fabric was too thick and refused to be gathered.

It is a wee bag that will only hold the essentials, but it was such a relief to not lug a big bag out the door!  I think I like it as a clutch and love it as a make-up bag.   I'm going to try again with something of my own design, longer, maybe narrower, and this time I think I'll cut my fabric more thoughtfully so the pattern lines up nicely (duh).

In a bit of non-craft business, can I just rave about Santa Barbara for a moment?  Oscar and I were at the park today when I spotted a little meadow, chock-full of yellow daisies.  It spoke to me.  It said, "come over here and frolic and take pictures of your adorable son!"  So I did, and it was kind of great.

And then on the drive home, I saw the strawberry van that is always parked on the side of the road with a sign that says, "Picked Today!" and couldn't pass it up.  I really like living in the center of the strawberry-growing universe.

p.s. sorry to those of you living in winter wonderlands.  :)

Disneyland Report

Someone had a magical time at Disneyland ...

Oscar proved himself a little daredevil, and went on every ride with me.  We had so much fun!

We've been spending the last several days trying to feel human again after too much partying and not enough napping.  I think we're just about there.

Sorry I don't have anything new to share today!  Craft time is resuming tonight.

at disneyland ... have a great weekend!

Some of the best people in the world flew into California for the weekend and we are all spending a couple of days at Disneyland.  No crafts to be spoken of ... just fun rides, a monte cristo sandwich, lots of board games, and hopefully a good dose of child-like wonder.

I made some simple mickey shirts for our little guys to wear, freezer paper stenciled, as usual.  I keep getting the same question - where can you buy freezer paper?  You should be about to find it at any grocery store.  I buy Reynold's brand, and it is usually right next to the aluminum foil and saran wrap.

Have a happy weekend!

party invitations

 

I am working on a party for the women's organization at my church and these are the invitations.  The color scheme is inspired by this spirograph wedding  featured on Design*Sponge, and I made the pom pom/starburst graphic to look like this fabric print. 

I've never been in charge of something like this at church, so I'm doing my best to channel Jordan Ferney, who, as far as I can tell, throws the best parties around.  And when I say channel, I do mean that I plan copy her in any way possible.  :)

I'd love to hear about your best party decorations and tips on serving dinner to a crowd of 50+ people!

big tee to maternity tee refashion

Time for another maternity refashion.  I found this blue t-shirt on clearance at Target for $1.50 (sorry there's no "before" photo).  It was about two sizes larger than I would buy pre-pregnancy, which was perfect for the refashion.

All I did was add 1/4" elastic to both side seams.  I started just below the bust, secured the elastic with a few stitches, and then stretched the elastic as I sewed down the seam using a zig-zag stitch (the more you stretch the elastic, the more gathered the fabric will be).  I stopped the elastic about 1/2" above the bottom hem of the shirt.

Here's what it looks like from the inside (not my tidiest work, but oh well):

Very easy!  You still have plenty of room for the growing bump, and don't have to wear a tent.  Hurray for that.