Going Pink for a Cause

One Day, as many bloggers as possible, painting our blogs P I N K
for an incredible cause "Breast Cancer Awareness".

Pretty in Pink

A fabulous friend brought over this fabric for me to have fun with.

Here it is in a single layer.

I used my rotary cutter and cut off about a 4-inch strip cutting from selvage edge to selvage edge. Once done, I cut the length of the strip in half.

I read recently about being able to use a sewing machine to make gorgeous ruffles.

Set your tension all the way up (mine is at 9). Use a long running stitch - I set mine at 5 mm.

Take your strip of fabric and fold it in half. I chose to sew mine along the folded edge.

A trick I learned in a sewing class a while back was that when ruffling, lay your hand against the back of the machine so the fabric pushed against it as it runs under the presser foot. This will add to the ruffling effect.

Here is the ruffle hot off the sewing machine. Trim your threads and heat up your hot glue gun.

Use small dabs of glue (be careful it does tend to seep though mesh or sheer fabric and that glue is hot, hot, hot) and roll the fabric up forming a flower.

It should look a little something like this. Cut out a circle of felt and hot glue it to the back of the flower. Lastly, hot glue a pin back.

Another option is to use the ruffle flowers to make a cute headband.

I first attached mine to the elastic headband using Fabri-Tac. Then I cut out a double circle of felt and attached both flowers and the headband to the felt also using Fabri-Tac.

You can even embellish them by sewing beads or pearls into the flowers. It took me all of about 20 minutes to make both items.

This project linked up at:

I Heart Naptime

Mop Top Headband and Pony-O

Last week I was busy making this layered twirl dress with my good friend and sewing mentor, Carly of Sewing and Design by Carly...

and had these fun leftover scraps of knit that I had to find a way to use.

You may have figured out how much I love to make hair pretties. Clippies, headbands, hair scarves, ANYTHING.   Yep, definitely can whip up a few headbands and pony-o's with these great scraps. If you have old t-shirts or other knit items in your "donate" box, these scraps will work great too.

I used the selvage edges that I cut off of the skirt bands from my dress above. Then cut into some small pieces of leftover fabric.

The pieces measure about 1/4" wide and about 3 inches in length for the smaller Mop Tops and about 5 inches in length for the bigger Mop Tops.

Cut, cut, cut and pile them up. I didn't count exactly how many strips I used. More = a bigger fluffier puff and less = a flatter thinner puff. The measurements do not need to be exact. Be sure to set one strip of knit aside for later use for each Mop Top you make.

.
Once you are happy with the size of your pile, get out some elastic thread. If you don't own elastic thread, you can buy it in the notions section of your friendly local sewing store. You can also improvise by using embroidery thread, very thin ribbon or maybe even very thin elastic. Cut off a 5-inch piece.

If you are making a Pony-O...

Pick up your pile of knit scraps and set it down in the middle of the length of elastic. Grab an elastic ponytail holder.  Tie a double knot around the knit pile of strips and through the pony-o. Turn the pile and elastic over, bring the elastic ends and tie a double knot again.

Clip off the long ends but don't clip too close to the knot.

Now it's time to pick up the one strip of knit that I had you set aside a little earlier and tie a double knot with it over top of the elastic you used to tie the Mop Top. 

Cut a small circle out of coordinating felt (about 3/4 inch in diameter). Cover with a medium layer of Fabri-Tac. Then press the felt circle onto the underside of the Mop Top to cover the knot of the single strip of knit and to also cover the pony-o where it attaches to the underside of the Mop Top. 

Done! How easy was that?

If you are making a headband...

Pick up your pile of knit scraps and set it down in the middle of the length of elastic. Tie a double knot around the knit pile of strips.

Turn the pile and elastic over, bring the elastic ends together and tie a double knot again. Clip the ends of your thread but don't clip too close to the knot. Take one strip of knit that you set aside earlier and tie a knot on top of your piece of elastic thread that is holding your Mop Top together. Tie a double knot. For my headband, I made two Mop Tops. I wanted it big and full.

Cut out a small circle of coordinating felt for each Mop Top. Cover one side of it with Fabri-Tac. Set aside for a minute.

Grab one (or two) Mop Tops and flip them upside down - or - the part that you want to be the top should be laying on your work surface. Lay your elastic headband across the bottom of one or both Mop Tops.

Then finally lay your felt circle(s) on your elastic and Mop Tops. Push down with your fingers so that the glue adheres the elastic, felt and Mop Top(s) together.

 

Let dry a few hours. Wear with a smile.

Cute, cheap and FUN! I love making something out of scraps that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. Revise my previous statement...cute cheap, FUN and green. Love it!

Thanks for popping by today! If you aren't yet a follower of my blog, now is the time. A giveaway is coming soon to my Bucket of Buttons Followers. 

This project is linked up at:














Blue Cricket Design and Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice at 733


The Mop Top Headband was FEATURED at:

Ribbon-covered clippie

 May God grant you always...A sunbeam to to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.

-Irish Blessing

Today's post is serving several purposes...a request from a friend is being taken care of, it's a very basic and non- time intensive project and a little teeny shout out to St. Patrick.  Let's make ribbon-covered clippies.

 The supply list includes ribbon (I prefer grosgrain - the kind with raised lines in it). Your ribbon shouldn't be wider than 1/2" when making clippies.

Also on the supply list is Fabri-Tac (or a hot glue gun). A little side note...Fabri-Tac costs about $12.99 for the big bottle at Jo-Ann's and $10.99 at Michael's. This is a great item to use your 40% or 50% off coupon on. While it is expensive glue, it is the only glue I trust to glue fabric...and... I've tried them all. You only need the large bottle if you'll be making tons of clippies. This glue doesn't store well over long periods of time so don't buy the larger bottle thinking you will then have it on hand when you need it the next time. It does thicken up and get difficult to use.

Lastly you need single prong alligator clips. The single prong clip is on the right. (The clip on the left is a double prong alligator clip).

I purchase my clips at Sally Beauty Supply. They carry a box of 100 clips for about $5.65 a box. Yes, that works out to less than $0.06 per clip.

Alrighty then, let's get started. Remember the directions will make a lot more sense if you have a clip in your hands and you can manipulate it while you go through tutorial. Take your ribbon and spread on some Fabri-Tac on the side you don't want to show (also known as the wrong side). You can use hot glue but I personally find it a little bit more difficult to control how much glue you use. Hot glue is a little bit messier when doing small projects and dries too quick. If you only have a glue gun on hand, give it a try, just be really careful.

You want the glue thin and not too close to the edges (otherwise it oozes out a makes a mess). I do about 2 inches of ribbon at a time. Open up your alligator clip and slide in the gluey ribbon all the way in.

Press down lightly. Wrap the ribbon around the front part of the point of the clip. Then spread about 2 more inches of glue very thin and press the ribbon to the other side of the clip.

Now you can pinch both layers of ribbon together. Make sure the edges are lined up.

Next wrap the ribbon over the part of the clip that you pinch to open it.
You DO NOT need glue here. Notice the ribbon doesn't actually touch anything so it doesn't need to be glued.

Then glue more ribbon and press down on the top part of the clip while you have the alligator clip pinched open. If you don't keep it pinched open, glue will squish through onto the top side of the ribbon that is already glued down and make a mess.

So finish up the clippie by gluing the rest of the ribbon you will need to cover the clip entirely and slide it all the way into the mouth of the alligator clip and cutting off so that the ribbon goes all the way in. Press the two layers of ribbon together.

 You can see some bubbles in my ribbon. To remedy this, I use a few plain alligator clips to hold layers of ribbon together so it dries flat and nice.

I happened to find some scrapbooking 90% off deals at Meijer after St. Patty's Day last year. The little shamrock in this package is perfect to embellish the clip. I used the Fabri-Tac as well to glue down the shamrock to my ribbon covered alligator clip.







Easy, peasy, right?

Just about every time I make some sort of hair doodle, I start with a ribbon covered clip. So it is worth getting good and efficient at making these if you  intend to make lots of hair bows. A wrapped clippy finishes the hair bow nicely as opposed to a plain alligator clip. Because you will be so good at making them, you will bemaking a matching hair pretty for every outfit. I promise soon more blog posts about fabulous bows and other items to mount on the clippies.

BONUS...here is a great way to help keep the clippie from sliding out. Use craft foam. I buy a package of twenty four 4" x 6" sheets for $1.00 at Dollar Tree. Cut a small rectangular piece of coordinating color foam. Mine is about 1/4" wide by 1" long.

Next spread the Fabri-Tac or hot glue in a thin strip along one side of the craft foam rectangle. Open the mouth of the alligator clip, press the craft foam piece onto the bottom.

There. You did it! I don't claim to have invented any of the ideas explained or pictured above. I am simply providing my take on how to make them for those that asked me "how". There you have it.