Flip In Hair Extensions - DIY results on short hair

Our daughter loved her short haircut when she first got it but now, like most of us, she is annoyed with the growing out stage. She wanted to try something new and fun.

I've been missing my clip in extensions and wigs lately too.

Couture Hair is such a fun accessory!

Speaking of fun, have you guys seen this?!
Halo Couture Hair Extenstions

We loved this idea. The first photo of Aurora there with her mouth open is her watching these videos! She thinks it's the coolest.

Naturally, we set out to Do It Yourself. There are loads of Youtube DIY instruction videos. We watched several and made some adjustments to make it comfy for short haired my teen.

Here's the photo breakdown:

Top -
1. Just get ya some hair.

2. Sew or glue it together. I sewed it because I didn't want to buy glue when sewing it seemed stronger anyway.

3. Sew in your bead elastic, fishing line or whatever you are using for the clear part. We used beading/bracelet elastic because we already had it. Also, the give is comfortable.

4.-5. Then you see my hair length and me with the "flip-in" styled. I need to learn more about styling hair.. back to youtube later!

Right -
1. Kiddo loving how fast, easy and fun "flip in hair extentions" look.

2. We both have hair that is shorter than the recommended length for this kind of extention. That said, I think it looks pretty cool! She wouldn't let me style it or trim it so that it looked more blended yet. She is way too busy playing with it!!

It took me about 40 mins to make both of them. That includes me fussing with the sewing machine and adjusting to fit! Not too shabby.
Since we already had the string and I sewed instead of buying glue, the total cost of this was just the hair we chose. Not bad!!

So, go play with some hair! I gotta learn how to use a curling iron properly now.  ;)

Happy crafting!

Baby Snuggle Sew Along!

Just in time for Christmas sewing! My niece, Aubrey, needed a nice warm snuggle for her car seat. I made one for my 9 year old daughter so I figured I'd give it a shot for the baby too!

What you need:

Fleece

Sewing machine & Thread

A way to measure the child or baby you are making for

Okay! What you do is measure the person you are making for, you will need to know how many inches around the arms will be too so measure that. Give yourself lots of extra room in the length and the sleeves, you don't want a tight snuggle.

Cut and hem your blanket portion based on the size person you are sewing for. You don't have to hem fleece. You can leave it as is, tie it, fringe it, ect.

        

Cut a rectangle, twice as long as he arm length and the width of the arm. You will have a long rectangle. Hem the short ends (this will be the end of the sleeves). Fold in half lengthwise, right sides together to make  a long tube (pic A). Now, cut your tube in half. Tada! You have 2 sleeves!

           

Okay, attaching the arms! Here we go. Measure how far apart you want the sleeves and cut holes the same size around as your sleeves (pic B). I fold the blanket part in half and mark the second hole using the first as a template. That's easier for me. I hate measuring anything. lol

  

Now place one sleeve into one hole. You can pin it or stretch it to fit if you cut too large, don't stress it. Fleece is forgiving. Sew the sleeves on (pic C).

Guess what? You're done! Check out how cute my niece is!! :D 

    

Click pics to see them larger. Happy crafting!!

    

  

Outgrown pants? Let's make a purse! Sew Along

My daughter is finally growing like a weed. I say finally because she has been shorter than the other girls her age pretty much her whole life. I can't see on top of the fridge so she comes by her size naturally. LOL

She outgrew these pants. SO! Lets make a purse. This is a pretty easy sewing project. It didn't involve any measuring. The inches depend on the size of pants you are cutting up. These are size 7 lined pants from Old Navy.

 

You will need:

Sewing machine and thread

Sissors

pants, skirt or shorts your little one has out grown

Optional:

Ribbon and Humor

  

(1)Cut the pants off at the crotch area. If you want to save the pockets so that you have them  as functional on the purse be sure to slide them up before cutting. Turn inside out, sew straight across. (2) Line the bottom seam you just made up to the side seam ans sew across it, pretty sure this is called a gusset. All I know is that it makes the purse have a flat bottom.

   

Turn it right side out (3). You can be done at this point by jsut putting a strap on, running ribbon through the belt loops and tying a pretty bow.

  

If you want a flap lets keep going.

Cut down one seam on one of the pant legs (4) and lay that fabric out. This will be the flap. Cut it to the size and shape you would like. If you want rounded flap, use a plate to draw the shape into the back of the fabric before you cut. We did a straight flap because it's basic and basic is what we do! :) Make your hems around the flap.

  

Aurora's pants have that elastic band in them to adjust. We decided to keep the elastic. If you are too make sure you up hook it for this next step. Lay the flap in where you would like (5). Mine ended up with the cargo pocket off center, this is where I tell you that pinning is a good thing. ;) lol Sew it on. If you're keeping the elastic go ahead now and tighten it up. 

   

(6)Use the other pant leg to cut a strip for the purse strap. Sew it into a tube and turn it out. Then top stitch the sides down like any purse strap or camera strap. You can just leave it as a tube. You could even cut 3 strips and braid them or use ribbon.

          

Whatever you make as a strap, sew it on (7)

You could add a button or velcro to the flap if you feel that you need it as well. Decorate away!

You can do this with just about anything your kids outgrow. We made a blue jean one a while back. 

 So that's it. Here's my daughter, Aurora modeling her purse. She loves things being made into other things. She's pretty easy to please. :D

Happy crafting! I hope you all have a great Halloween!! We are having amazing weather here in AR, so this is going to be great!

 

More sewing!? Scraps of fleece baby tag blankie

I'm really enjoying learning to sew! I've been working on cards and paper crafts too. I'll have some of those up soon.
      

My little girl has been wanting a snuggie/slanket/sort of thing made with cupcakes so I got some fabric 30% off at Hobby Lobby and gave it a shot. That is so easy. It's literally sewing a few straight lines, cutting arm holes and sewing the sleeves in. Oh if only making clothing were so easy! Anyway, we had a little scrap left and it seems like everyone we know is having a baby, so we put those scraps to good use.

Using a Ribbon Blankie tutorial we used ribbon scraps and fleece scraps to make this blankie. Of course, you know I had to put a twist on it. I put one of my pacifier clips on one corner so not only will this blankie be a soft toy for a baby to chew on and play with, it will also keep that pacifier handy.
            

It's fleece on both sides, I just pinned the ribbon and went to sewing around it. Turned it out and hand stitched hte opening closed. I'm not totally comfortable with top stitching yet. I like my uneven stitching to be hidden. lol! So do you think this sewing thing is working out for me or should I just give up?

My first fabric bucket...A beginner's lesson

I keep seeing really cool fabric buckets on Etsy and all over Google. I wanted to try my hand at it. For the record I just recently started sewing so don't expect too much.

Some of the tutorials have round bottoms, that's a little much for a newbie at sewing. Some of the tutorials use stitching some stuff inside out and turning. That made me nervous. I can juse see myself making a newbie bonehead mistake like sewing it shut. LOL

So I decided I would make a hybrid fabric bucket. I used my little girl's jeans that she grew out of and was very upset that she had to get rid of (we usually donate unstained clothes but she just could not part with these jeans). I grabbed a shirt that was getting  way too small on her and we decided that we could do it!

  

The first step was cutting a section just a little taller than I wanted to finished bucket to end up being. I kept the sides of the jeans as my side seams. I finished the bottom using this tutorial. (step 4)

Then I cut a section out of the t-shirt that had a butterfly on it. T-shirt fabric isn't stiff enough by itself so I ironed on some fuseable interfacing (I got at WalMart for $2). I sewed three sides straight and used the tutorial link above to make the bottom flat. :) Much easier than making a round bottom and trying to stitch all that on.

  

So that's what it looks like when you have your two buckets (one is the liner and the other is the outside of the bucket). 

Next you have to put the liner in and sew the bucket together. One of the tutorials for that showed you having to turn one inside out and stitching them and turning them back out. That intimidated me as a newbie so I decided to use Pippijoe's tutoral for sliding one inside the other and stitching them exactly as the finished project was going to look. That took the pressure off for me.
    
I liked the idea of having the butterfly in the back so when it's standing up you can see all the butterflies. My little girl was happy to help and thrilled that she has this cute little bucket for her vanity. It's not perfect but she is 7. She doesn't see flaws, she sees fun. :) So what do you think?