Burlap Monogram Decorative Letter

Lately I've seen several cool posts about things people have made with burlap. Honestly I have never really been a big fan of burlap...I mean I like the texture but it smells kinda weird and frays and can be a little messy. With three kiddos, I probably have enough mess in my life. After trip to Hobby Lobby I decided to come home with a yard of burlap to fool around with. I had a plain paperboard hollow letter "C" hanging around and decided to get crafting. You will notice in my pictures I also started working on a letter "G" for a friend of mine as a surprise because she liked my "C" so much.

For each letter I used about a half yard of burlap and a dozen glue sticks.

Start by folding your burlap in half once.

Cut through both layers of burlap and make 2-inch strips. It doesn't have to be exact. The wonkiness only adds to the character of the finished product.

Start with about 10-12 strips of the burlap. I think I ended up using 14 strips. How many you use depends on how tightly you pack the squares of burlap together when gluing your project together.

Next cut all the strips of burlap into 2-inch x 2-inch squares. Again they don't need to be perfect.

...and continue cutting squares out of your strips of burlap. Make lots of piles and heat up your glue gun.

Time to get out your letter and remove any stickers or store tags.

Fold your burlap square in half. Put a dab of glue in the middle and fold in half again. The edges do not need to match up exact. In fact, you probably want to make sure some don't match up just to vary how the burlap flowerettes look. Be careful when folding with the hot glue because it can and does seep out and burn your fingers.

Now your flowerette is ready to be glued down onto the paperboard letter. There really is no method to my madness. Put on a dab of glue on the burlap and squish it onto the paperboard. Again be careful not to burn your fingers.

Try to vary which edge of the flowerette you glue to the letter. Be sure to also glue burlap to any edge that you will see. It is not necessary to glue to the back.

Here you can see the back edge of the letter.


Keep gluing! You can do it!

  It took me about an hour and a half to do all the gluing. The pads of my fingers were covered in dried hot glue and burlap pieces. My workspace and floor were covered in shedded fibers from the cutting and gluing. Once you get done it will probably be necessary to give your letter a "haircut" to get rid of the fullness in between the space in the middle of the letter in order to be able to tell which letter it is.

Here it is sitting on a shelf.

...and here resting in the nook of a bookcase with his friend the pineapple.

...and hanging as a simple wreath.

...and hanging as an embellished wreath.

What are you going to do with yours? Take a minute and leave me your idea in my comments below. Thanks for stopping by!

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Lightweight Lace-Trimmed Knit Scarf

Recently I found this slightly stretchy bright-colored lace at my local craft store.

After bringing it home sat next to this dark pea green knit and I knew they had to stay friends. I love the contrast of the colors. Also I am trying to get over my aversion of sewing with knits.It does seem to get easier with each try. The best advice I ever received in regards to knits was to use a brand new needle made specifically for sewing with knits. So I always follow that advice.

I bought a half yard of the green knit which measured 36"  selvage to selvage.

I started by making two equal measurements of knit. I cut my length of knit in half. So I now have two pieces of knit measuring 9" x 36".

Next sew together the 9" widths of fabric. My seam allowance is 1/2". Once they are sewn together, the dimension of the scarf will be 9" x 72". Keep in mind of course that you can make your scarf any dimension you choose.

Next stretch out your scarf and lay your lace or trim over the width of the scarf. Loosely pin down the lace.

Cut the lace to fit the exact width of the scarf.  Go to the other end of your scarf and pin down the lace. Trim to fit.  Then flip over your scarf and cut lace to fit both ends of this side. This way your scarf will look identical on either side.

Now it is time to sew through both layers of lace in order to attach it to the knit.

I sewed and square starting at the very edge of the scarf, up one edge of the lace, across the top edge of the lace and back down the last unsewn edge of the scarf.

 Once you have completed one side of the scarf, finish the other side.

This jersey knit is fabulous particularly because the edges do not fray so there is no need to finish them.I love the bold contrasting colors. Now it appears as though I need to pass an iron over my scarf. Once I do, I'll upload a photo of the scarf with an outfit.

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Fraser Fir Monogram Wreath

Every year I make my own wreath for my front door. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, our family goes out and cuts down their Christmas trees and I scrounge around collecting branches from the bottom layers of the trees. I brought home a garbage bag full of white pine, Fraser fir and scotch pine boughs.

My husband took a few wire dry cleaning hangers and used them to fashion a "C".
Honestly I could have done this myself but it is always fun to put him to work.

Next use garden clippers or pliers to clip sections of your pine tree boughs. Layer the clumps on top of each other until you get a thick enough clump. This is probably about four sections of the boughs. I used a mixture of mostly Fraser fir because I had the most of it and also white pine and Scotch pine.

Use green floral wire and wrap it around the ends of the boughs several times.

Then set the clump at the top edge of the wire letter and wrap the wire several times around the wire. There is no need to clip the wire until you have completed wrapping clumps of pine to the wire letter. Make sure to wrap each new section of pine as close as possible to the section you just wired. This will help to keep the wreath nice and full.

It took me about an hour to finish mine. Since I can rarely resist something shiny and glittery, I picked these up during my weekly visit to my local Target.

At first I used them to do this...

and it bored me to tears. So I broke out some fab new red burlap and re-constructed my wreath.

I like it much better now. In case you are wondering, I used 4 inch pieces of floral wire to attach each bulb to the wreath. First slide the wire through the hook at the end of the bulb. Twist the buld end around the middle of the a few times to hold it on. Then decide where you want the ornament to hang and twist the wire around a section of the wreath.

After I finished this version, I still wasn't totally happy so I went to work on it again. I clustered three bulbs together and hot glued them together. Then I once again used the floral wire to connect the cluster of bulbs to the wreath.

That's it. I've read that you should spritz your wreath with water once a day in order to keep your wreath looking fresh longer. Must. Remember. After viewing my pictures, I also must remember to get a manicure. Working with pine is a little rough on the digits.

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Fall is a Great Time for Felting

This new post is for you Dee Dee. She has noticed my blog absence and has requested (on many occasions) new posts.

My friend Carly got me into felting two years ago. I have always loved wool. Now I love it even more because I enjoy the possibilities of what I can turn a tired old sweater into.

After rummaging through tubs of old wool sweaters from college, I was armed with just what I needed for this project. I began felting the wool sweaters by washing them in the washing machine on hot. Once the load was complete, I dried them in the clothes dryer on hot for a full cycle. Most of the sweaters turned out perfect. Then there was this one...

Seriously it was a disaster. I had originally planned on making a sweater jumper for my 18-month-old daughter and had to come up with a new plan for this mess. I stared at it for months and finally got an idea. I turned the sweater inside out and the wool wasn't as pilly and looked a million times better. I cut the usable wool down to a square size and decided to make a fun felted wool purse.

After cutting, I turned the wool so the pilly part was on the outside and hand-stitched the two sides of the purse together. The bottom part of the purse was the fold and the top was left open to insert a lining and handle for the purse. Felting this wool caused it to get really thick and when both sides were sewn together I was sewing through a full inch thickness of fabric - unfortunately my sewing machine was unable to handle that. I had a gorgeous callus on my finger for quite some time.

Next I made a lining and eventually added a cell phone pocket. I inserted the lining into the purse (after turning it so the pretty side was on the outside) and had to hand stitch the lining to the wool all the way around the opening.

I then cut out a bunch of circles from other wool felt I had made.

Cut each circle into a giant spiral (see below).

Once cut, hot glue around in a circle to form a flower.

I did enough flowers to cover the perimeter of the opening of the little purse. 

Last I added a felted wool handle.

And done! I will probably go back and add a magnetic snap closure but doing so will require me to tear away half of the lining, add in the snap and then re-sew the lining to the wool.

I love fall. I love felting. Fall is a great time to repurpose an old wool sweater or make a trip to a second-hand shop to pick up some fabulous wool to cut up and make into something you love.

This project is entered in an Upcycle contest. Please click on the botton below to vote for my Upcycled Felt Purse.






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