My love for buttons

Last night, my good pal Alex Hoskins and I decided to get together and do some crafts. We had a plethora of options to choose from, and eventually decided upon buttons. 

Well. A canvas of buttons. 

Shaped into a heart. 

With a very cute color scheme. 

To hang in my apartment. 

Big Al coordinated everything as I sat and crocheted a rug out of ripped up shreds of fabric (which will be on here next). 

I watched/crocheted while she went to work. Alex is really creative, and will be doing a guest post on here soon, so keep a look out for that. :) 

This project only took an hour or so, and required minimal supplies. 

We used some of my moms buttons from her button bin, an old white canvas we had, and a little bit of lace to add some finishing touches. 

I learned through Alex that pliers come in handy just in case the back side of the buttons have extended loops. 

My love for buttons has only grown. 

-Rachel 

Domestic living

Next year, I'll be living in a real live apartment.

I spent the past year in a dorm room, where I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner cooked for me (courtesy of the magical Cannon Center).

Now that I have a kitchen I get to cook on my own. I'm really excited about this. ha.

Not.

It seems that I can't avoid this fact, so I've decided to embrace it by making myself, and all my roommates aprons. Even if I suck at cooking, at least I'll look good doing it.

I started with my Canadian friend Lacey Holt. She is the cutest girly girl alive, who loves purple and pink. I knew I couldn't get any cuter than ruffles and those colors.

I tried looking for a pattern online, but couldn't find anything I really loved.

Thus I just decided to make up my own.

#1. Found some old fabric laying around in the craft room

#2. Cut 6 strips of differing fabric for the ruffles. Length=28-25 inches. Width= 3 inches

#3. Next I put pleats in every strip as I sewed them to fabric backing

#4. I drew the bodice portion free-hand, cut it out, and attached it to the bottom half. 

#5. I then added the ties to the neck and back. 

Voila

Lacey's apron. 

1 down, 5 to go. 

Side note: I added two cute lil purple buttons to the top. My favorite part. 

I feel like cooking something now. 

Happy Sunday!

-Rach 

Skirt, dresses, and Berkley.

It's fun shopping at thrift stores, but it's nice being able to shop with the perspective of :

"I love this, but how can I fix it?"

You see, most of the time something is either too long, short, big, small or saggy. Rarely do you find a clothing item that fits perfectly. That's why Berk found 5 skirts she loved, but wanted to change.

Here we go: Part 2; skirts and Berk.

Sidenote: I feel super lame right now, but due to an overload of my brothers wedding pictures, I accidentally deleted the "before" pictures. You're gonna have to deal with just the results instead. Whoops.
Another sidenote: each skirt was under $5

1. Black bow skirt. The skirt was originally to her feet. I cut it short, and then used the extra fabric to make a bow for the front.

2. Gray pinstriped skirt. Berk specifically needs blac, gray, and white clothing items for the school she'll be attending in the fall. She found this one at floor length, and I cut it back up to her knees. This skirt took me only 10 minutes to fix! labor time+cost of skirt=major deal.

3. Red pencil. This skirt is adorable. Plus so much goes with it. It once again used to be to her feet, so I just cut it short and voila!

4. Black dress. Picture your mom and her typical sunday dress she wore when she was pregnant. This dress could very well have been it. It was HUGE, so I gook in 2 inches from each side, shortened the straps, and shortened the bottom. I like the finished product.

 5. Hey! It's me. In my new floral for only $4! I also got the belt for only $1. All I had to do was shorten it.

Mazel Tov.

P.S. Wedding crazy-ness will be over this Saturday. Thus meaning I have about five billion things I need to post after that.

-Rach

overdue?

It's been a couple weeks since my last post.
I wish I wanted to apologize--but I don't.
Not having an excessive amount of time to craft is a good thing. Right?
ha.
It just means I'm being productive in other ways. They are definitely not as fun "other ways", but I now have money and am learning rather then letting my brain turn to mush before I go back for sophomore year.

Though I've been quite busy, I've still found some time to fit in some crafts.

#1. Wannabe good at art (painting)

I don't know if you can actually call it a painting. It's more of a doodle.
I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile. My sister KATIE is really good at them and has hung ones up like this all over her apartment. I liked how you don't have to be a great artist to do something like this.

I've been on the hunt for some cheap canvas for awhile now. I didn't want to dish up the $10 it costs at a regular craft store for one this size so when I came across a nearly blank one at thrift store I visited last week-I had to get it.

It originally just had the blue butterfly on it (painted by someone else?). I added the red flower, beads, and the other leaves to the top. During the process, I messed up the butterfly with my paint, so I had to go over it a couple different times. Like I said, I'm really no good at drawing. That's why I like that ou can keep it simple and make it more abstract, like what my sister did with this one. I believe she used masking tape to make the design, and then just painted the spaces in between. Simple enough. I used regular acrylic paint that is available at any craft store for pretty cheap.

#2. Jewelry rack

I found this at the D.I. for $1.

The Jewelry hanger I made a couple weeks back wasn't holding all my necklaces, so I bought it in hopes that I could use it to hold the rest of them. Step Process:
1. unscrew knobs and base
2. wrap assorted fabrics around each one (with the help of hot glue).
3. Add a couple buttons and some lace
4. Hang jewelry.

It took me about 20 minutes, and resulted in a much more findable jewlery, and organized bathroom counter.

On the subject of jewelry, I feel like I have to show you this awesome necklace. 

MY MOM FOUND IT AT A GARAGE SALE. Yea. Those things rock. 

#3. Lastly, I'll show you something ghetto.
Some of you may be grossed out, but I could care less because this swimsuit MAKES ME SO HAPPY. It looks good, and cost me nearly $80 less than what I almost dished out for a full piece a couple weeks ago. I found it at the Catholic Hope thrift store in town for $2. I altered the straps to make it a halter, and used some extra blue material that came with the suit to make it a little tighter/cuter in the back. Its a full piece skirt suit and I freaking love it. It looks good on, and I can't wait to wear it in Maryland this week!

And now, BED.

I secretly have about 10 other skirts I altered this week that I was meaning to put on here tonight. . . but I'll save them for another day.

-Rachel

bows pt. 2

I love making these bows.

In case you were wondering why there are 3 pink ones, it's because my 2 little buds have to match with me, i'm going to give it to them first thing monday when i get to their house...

 also, if you were going to make the bows i made and use metal hair snaps, i discovered a new easier way (it's a trial and error process, people) tear a small piece of paper, then glue on the clip, and then just pull out the paper once the glue dries. then the glue doesn't stick to parts of the clip you don't want it to. 

see. i love wearing the bows.

you should try to make them. 3 reasons why? 1) it takes 5 minutes or less for each bow. 2) you don't have to change the thread in your sewing machine since you don't see the stitches 3) you can wear them to spice up any hairdo! that's all for now.

lets sew some bows

lets have some fun this beat is sick. RAWR it's emilee and i finally made something else. bout time. bows were of a necessity with my summer hair style of messy buns erryday. HERE'S HOW I DID EM.

2 6x2" pieces of fabric.

sewed 3.75 of the 4 sides, leaving small gap in the middle

inside out. scissors help.

guess what you don't even have to sew that part up. tie the rectangle in a knot (unfortunately i only have 2 hands and couldn't take a picture of me tying the knot) but the knot is right at the part which isn't sewed. yay for not seeing any stiches and yay for not having to change the color thread in the sewing machine, ever!

iron down the knot, if you soooo desire.

glue gun the clip on (these definitely work better than bobby pins)

i felt ingenious, and by the 3rd one realized if you cut a small piece of fabric and stick it inside the clip, when you glue it on you don't have to hold the clip apart and wait for the glue to dry. instead the clip is glued to the small fabric part which prevents the problem of hot glue from getting through the hole in the clip and gluing the clip shut. ya get me?

BOWS.

i know i'm like supa cute

DONE.

Patience

Something I have very little of.
As I embarked upon this extremely long crafting journey, my patience was tested more than ever before.

I had to cut, glue, iron, stitch, and aline little pieces of fabric for 6 hours.

I enjoyed myself somewhat, but am very satisfied with the outcome of my project.

I was sick of fixing or making clothes, so I decided to do something different this time around.
I searched through some of my favorite craft blogs and found THIS golden idea.

I love American history, but mostly I just love this country. That is why I chose this project.
I used my moms endless supply of scraps to construct this map of America.
Though it took a lot longer than I expected, I love the outcome and can't wait to hang it in my room when I move back to Provo.

Go America. 

-Rachel