How To: Picture Frame Brooch Display

I love red. Seriously. Since I was a kid I have been choosing red game pieces, red lollipops, red clothing and as an adult I still do that but I also choose red home decor pieces like my red Ikea duvet cover. So it was only natural that when I had two cans of apple red spray paint land in my lap that I go to freakin' town on something right? Well, I did.


Looks like this Island of Misfit home decor doesn't it? It kind of is.


I gathered together two plastic dollar store picture frames, one hideous and almost not even useful jewelry box from my Mom, a thrifted mug rack and an empty picture frame collected during a trip to the dump (not shown). I gave everything three light coats of Rustoleum Apple Red paint, added some cork board here and clip on earrings there and voila!
And voila! You have a gorgeous framed brooch display made in minutes!


This is what happened to my closet when I put it all together! I love it!

While the mug rack is pretty simple (Find one and paint it.) The others do require a bit of a step by step. I am not going to make one or the larger earring display though. All I did was staple some wire mesh I had laying around to the painted frame. I had wanted to use lace but didn't have a piece large enough. I like the bigger mesh though, it supports the bigger post earrings. But i you need a tutorial there are lots of great ones out there. Here, here, and here are all great ones to get you started.

In this post I am going to run through the brooch display. I'll post the step by step for the jewelry box in just a couple days.


Gather Ye Materials
Picture frame finished to your liking
Piece of cork board at least as big as your frame
Piece of batting (or any bulky sot material like felt or fleece) as big as frame
Piece of fabric a couple inches larger than your frame

Gather Ye Tools
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Picture hanging hardware in case your frame doesn't have that. (Mine didn't)

Begin at the beginning...


Step 1: Place your frame backing on a piece of cork and trace. Cut out your cork and fit it in the frame. make any necessary adjustments.
Step 2: lay cork on batting and trace. Cut.

Step 3: Layer your fabric, your batting and your cork board so that the cork is on top and fabric is on the bottom.

Fold each side over and glue with hot glue one side at a time. Do this in opposite sides creating a nice taught front piece of fabric.

Step 5: Flip over and check for taughtness or in my case wavy stripes.

Step 6: Fit back into frame.


Step 7: If you are using the frame as a dresser top display, this is where you try and squeeze the back, back into the frame.


Step 7.5: If you can't fit the frame back on, or want to hang the display on the wall using tack, little nails or a good glue attach picture hanging hardware directly to the cork board.


And voila! You have a gorgeous framed brooch display made in minutes!

Come back soon to see how I made this gorgeous little number!

Wednesday on Wednesday

 

A couple weeks ago (in November) we had out one and (so far) only snowfall of the season. There was just enough on the ground we were able to go out and play for a little while. I managed to snap a couple great photos of Wednesday in a great mood. How are your towns doing snowfall-wise?

♥ ♥ ♥

Layout is made with MyMemories software (mostly) Eskimo Kiss design pack.

How To: Ruffled Christmas Garland

A couple months ago, I organized my vintage sheet collection. I made some mini fabric bolts from corrugated plastic. It looks great, but I had to trim a lot of large pieces of most of the sheets. I also decided to thin out the stash a little bit. My solution was a braided rag rug for Wednesday's play space. I have no idea what cold medicine I must have been on because as soon as I had torn up the sheets I realized that it was just too big of a job. So, now I had three large reusable shopping bags full of torn strips of vintage sheets and no way to use it all fast enough. Enter Christmas and my sewing machine ruffler foot.




I managed to use up one out of three bags making a skinny garland for my tree and a fatter garland for my banister. I love them both. Captain Awesome called it "Country cute". I prefer chic to cute but I'll take what I can get! I almost feel silly for posting it as a tutorial but I took process photos and thought I would share. ***Authors Notes*** You could try this with burlap, or double up on your fabric, a skinny strip on top o a wide one. Or ribbons, have some spools of ribbon you haven't used in since last Christmas? Or scraps, the strips would be smaller of course but the variety and colour would be gorgeous!

Gather Ye Materials
Fabric (The longer the pieces the better, I used vintage bed sheets.)

Gather Ye Tools
Sewing machine
Ruffler foot (Gathering foot will work as well, it just produces a less full ruffle.)

Begin at the beginning...



Step 1: Tear your fabric into strips. The easiest way to do this is to snip the fabric at regular intervals at one end and just tear down at each snip to the end of the fabric.



Step 2: With your ruffler foot set to rufle @ every stitch, and your stitch length set to the most per inch (I think mine was twenty?) feed the fabric into the ruffler foot a single layer at a time. This is just like using a serger.



Step 3: To join fabric pieces slide the next piece under the current piece with a half to full inch of overlap.




This is to show the different width and what the ruffle looks like. I used a skinny ruffle on my tree because it is a tiny tree (Artificial 6ft)I probably could have used a fuller ruffle but I am totally happy with how it turned out. I used a wider ruffle for my banister and also upped the fullness.


Shabby farmhouse chic by day and Country chic by night.
This our first Sweet family tree in the six(ish) years we have been together. Oh, we have had tree branches, and potted Norfolk pines, table top artificials and even giant firs (the fir was at my parents when we stayed with them upon moving back to Onatrio.) but this our first standard sized, lit up Christmas tree. At first I wanted a real one (Farmed trees are my eco choice) but the space we had to fit it was so narrow that really only a fake tree could fit. Also, our budget was nil so when this pre-lit 6ft went on sale at Canadian Tire I begged for harassed Ron jumped on it. The bonus is that it is small enough to be a second tree if we ever have a place that is big enough for two trees.





Our very old Springer Spaniel, Sweetie Sweet. She is deaf and mostly blind and always looks like someone has beaten her or will be beating her soon. Emotionally high maintenance this dog.

Happy Holidays and of course happy crafting!

How To: Scrap Fabric Flower Accessories

What seems like ages ago, I gave away some vintage sheet fat quarters and a fabric brooch I made as a bonus. I was asked by a couple ladies how I made it so I put making a tutorial for it on my to-do list but, as most things blog related last year it was de-prioritized. Well, since I began my fabric scrap management series, it was re-prioritized and finally completed! *yay* Would you like to make one (or five) o these little beauties? Sweet!

Gather ye materials
Fabric scraps cuts into circles (What size, how many different sizes and how many circles is dependent on what you want your flower to look like.) I like six per layer, sometimes eight and even five works.
Coordinating felt scraps (Or now that I think about it, leather and vinyl would look good too.)
Baubles for the center of the flowers (Buttons, brads, pins etc.)
Findings for the back (Brooch clips, alligator clips etc.)

Gather ye tools
Sewing machine (Not necessary but I don't enjoy hand sewing that is not purely decorative)
Needle and thread
Glue gun & glue sticks

Begin at the beginning...
Step 1: Cut circle.
Step 2: Cut the circle in half.

Step 3: With right sides together, sew around curved edge.

Step 4: Turn right side out.

Step 5: Thread a needle, sew a loose running stitch along bottom of turned circles. Pull tightly.

Step 6: Continue threading petals onto needle and thread until you have enough petals or a single layer. Tie of after each petal if you find them unraveling to quickly. Tie after last petal before you tie two ends together.

Step 7: After you have tied the two ends together, arrange your petals. This might take a bit of shifting and such. I also stitched a few petals in place because I didn't like how they had gathered. You'll figure it out once you get playing with it.

Step 8: Repeat steps 1-7 until you have all the petals and layers you would like for one flower.

Step 9: Play with the centers. Try a few things out. Here I tried a vintage green button, an extra large white brad and finally a button pin.

Step 10: Cut a piece o felt for the back about a half inch smaller than the largest flower. Begin layering and gluing.

Step 11: When gluing, add the smallest bit of hot glue (or tacky glue) around the center of each flower.

Steps 12-14: Attach your desired accessory piece. If you use a brooch pin, I like to add a piece of felt to cover up the glue. But I also made one into a hair clip and one into a wrist corsage. And you're done!


Voila! Your new fabric scrap flower accessories! Now go make a billion for your little girl(s) and sister(s) and mama and grand mama and co-workers and BFFs and acquaintances!  

Wednesday on Wednesday

Little Drummer Girl a video by Cara.Mia on Flickr.

Wednesday grabbed her drum and played it while we watched the sing along video to Little Drummer Boy Christmas movie.

She is so cute she gives me cramps..

Winner!! MyMemories Scrapbooking Software

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How To: Patchwork Mug Rug

It's as if a place mat and a coaster had a baby!

A couple weeks ago I made a post about managing your fabric scraps, it pretty much just boiled down to having a plan or those scraps and then cutting them to the sizes and shapes you need them for for easier storage. I found a use for my bigger scraps. Mug rugs! Super cheerful little bits of patchwork. So easy that I made nine on my first try. :)

Seriously folks. They don't even have to be a certain size. I started out with a template but eventually just worked with what the fabric scraps were giving me.

Most of these are made with vintage sheets. Except for the black and white Ikea print you see in the first photo and a piece of fabric I used in the mug rug for the tutorial. Oh yeah, and a couple of these are backed with a cut up mans shirt sleeve. But mostly beautiful, cheerful vintage sheets! Would you like to make some for yourself? Awesome!

Gather ye materials
Fabric scraps of varying sizes
Some sort of batting material, I used the bottoms of a pair of fleece pants that were cut into shorts and then felt when I ran out of fleece.
Scissors, pins, thread
Sewing machine is ideal for this but not necessary

Note: Finished size of the mug rug pictured in the tutorial was roughly 8.5x8 inches.

Step 1. Gather your pieces and find an arrangement you like.

Step 2. With right sides together sew your pieces together. (Red line is for emphasis.) I like to use my zig zag foot as a guide which is roughly 1/4" I think.  Continue until all of your pieces are joined.

Step 3. Press your seams flat. (Does anyone else use a towel as an ironing board?)

Step 4. Cut your batting/fleece/felt to one inch (length and width) less than your patchwork. E.g.: I your patchwork is 9x9 you would cut your batting to 8x8.

Step 5. Turn over and pin.

Step 6. To quilt the batting to the patchwork, I top stitched some echo stitching along the seams.

Step 7. Turn your quilted piece over and square up your edges.

Step 8. With right sides together sew the backing to the quilting around three sides. Leave one size open or turning. Trim and clip corners.

Step 9. Turn. Use a chopstick or paint brush to get your corners out nicely. Fold the opening into itself so that it looks just like the photo. Press it closed.

Step 10. Top stitch around the perimeter. And ta-daa! You're done!

Groovy baby. Groovy.

Wouldn't these make great Christmas gifts? You could add in a handmade coffee sleeve and a gift card to the recipient's favourite coffee shop. Or with a nice mug and a bag of their favourite coffee or tea! The possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoyed the first tutorial in my Scrap Management series. If you make one (nine) I would love to see them! Cheers and happy sewing!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for MyMemories Digital Scrapbooking software!