Crochet, and Tulle, and Ribbon, Oh my!

Hello Friends!

A few months ago, Tom and I were at the mall and I saw these AMAZING red glitter Converse shoes. Naturally, between my obsession with Converse and the Wizard of Oz, I had to have them.

I then decided that I would be "Awesome Dorothy" for Halloween, as in Dorothy in an updated, modern sort of style. I also decided that Tom could be the Scarecrow, and if I played my cards right, Molly could be the most precious "Princess Glinda!"

I had to think very carefully about how I was to propose this Princess costume to Molly. What if she was totally not into it? I was nervous. Here is how it went:

Me: Molls, what do you want to be for Halloween?
Molly: Umm...a butterfly!
Me: (Thank goodness, something girly) That's great! I have an idea. How about you can be a butterfly with your mom, and you can be a Princess with Daddy and me!
Molly: (To my great relief and with a smile on her face) Okay! (She so did not get her compliance from her dad. ;) Love you Tom!)

Thus begun my "Pinteresting" for ideas on how to make a Tutu costume. I saw many tutorials for how to make them, but my real inspiration came from this video. I didn't exactly copy it, but I did mostly everything they did. I'm so in love with this dress, and the whole time I was thinking, "I could make the flower girl dress at my wedding!"

One of my favorite things about this project was its price. I made sure to start with so much time ahead of me (I started it about a week and a half ago) that I could go to Michael's, AC Moore, or Joann Fabrics once a day to use a coupon! With the wonderful technology that is my smartphone, I can use a 40% or 50% off one item coupon EVERY DAY! I added everything up and it should have cost me $42 (which is still pretty good for a gorgeous [ if I don't say so myself ;) ] costume!) BUT since I used so many coupons for so many days, it only cost me $26! Mind you, I ended up having some leftover items that I never used AND one of the shopping trips, I was so excited, I bought more than one thing because I couldn't stand the wait ;)

Anyway, I hope you like the dress AND I hope it inspires you to make your own beautiful tutu costume, even if it's just for the dress-up bin. Remember, there are INFINITE possibilities of colors and styles so you can make it your own to meet your very specific and unique needs!

Close up of the front. The two pieces of ribbon will be the halter straps

The whole front, complete with silver glitter felt 4-point stars

Close-up of the back

The whole back

 

UPDATE: We have had the fitting of the costume!!! She looks too beautiful!!

As always, feel free to comment or email me any questions! Have a Happy Halloween!!

xo Christie

Freezer Paper Tutorial

This is my first video tutorial!! I really hope you guys like it. 

 

xoChristie

Make Up Magnet Board: Tutorial with Pictures!

Hello Friends! I haven't posted in almost a year :( But I'm really going to try to post more of my crafting adventures now that the holidays are over.

This year for Christmas, I made my sister, Courtney, a magnetic make up board. I couldn't post it until now because I didn't want the surprise to be ruined! Now that I'm sitting here with my feet soaking in my new foot massager, I feel it's a perfect time to write this tutorial. This one's for you, Jo!

First, here are the materials you'll need. A frame, fabric, a sheet of magnetic sheet metal (I got mine for $5 at Home Depot), some spray adhesive (make sure it works on metal!),  and magnets. Not pictured are scissors, an iron (optional), and your make up, of course!

I noticed my fabric had creases EVERY WHERE when I started, so I went back to my craft closet and dug out my iron. I'm really glad I didn't skip this step, wait till you see how smooth it turned out! ;) 

Next comes the glue! Just follow the directions on whatever glue you get. I highly recommend the spray adhesive because it doesn't get all gloopy and thick. It sprays a nice, even coat which is really important if you want any magnets to stick right. What I did was lay the fabric over the sheet metal and then fold it back (I hope you can see from the picture) so all I had to do was lift the fabric back up and over onto the sprayed metal.

Working quickly and still trying to hold my phone to take pictures (;-P) I smoothed out any wrinkles in the fabric over the metal. This was pretty easy and I attribute that to my method of "Up and Over" before gluing. 

See?? All glued :)

Next, I trimmed off the excess fabric. You should have seen it before...I had a whole YARD for this 12x18 piece of metal. Silly. As you can tell, the edges don't have to be pretty. No one will see them.

Fold and glue the sides over...

And again...

TA-DA! Pretty, clean, smooth Metal-Wrapped-in-Fabric.

If you're like me and get cheap frames to save a little cash, you might want to touch up yours. I left the glass on because, guess what, Genius? We're not using it! After you TAKE THE GLASS OUT, put your Metal-Wrapped-in-Fabric in the frame, and put the backing on, you end up with....

A BEAUTIFUL magnetic make-up (or whatever you want it to be) board! Yippee! It was super easy and probably only took a half an hour from start to finish.

I even went a little fancy and added my own picture hanging hardware. I'd always been really intimidated by it but trust me, it's SO easy! and it's easier to hang with a wire than with those stupid metal teeth things or the puny, dinky triangles that always smoosh back into the frame...ahhh yes. Definitely take the extra time and $5 to put the hardware on. If you're not sure which one to get, just ask the person in the frame shop at your local craft store.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! I definitely had fun making this and Courtney loved it! Please feel free to add any comments or questions about this. I will do my best to reply ASAP! I hope you and yours have a very Happy New Year!

xo Christie