Believe it or not, my house is only half decorated for Christmas!
WHAT?? The girl who begins her countdown in June? The girl who starts listening to Christmas music in October? The girl who watches Christmas movies every night in December?

Yes, all that is still happening.

I had to postpone my decorating this year.
But don't you worry, it'll get done.
And when it does. I'll show it to you! Yippee!

On the bright side, the tree is up! It shines brightly in our front window.
And I remembered something cute and crafty I did last year that I almost forgot about!!

Drum roll please......


These are my scrapbookie ornaments (for lack of a better name).
I rolled up 1/2 strips of paper, stuffed them into clear glass ornaments and voila!!

They'd probably be even cuter if I tied fabric strips on the top, huh? Maybe I'll do that. When I finish decorating...

Ooooooo. Ahhhhhh!

For Short People: Hemming Jeans

As a shorty, it can be tough finding jeans. And even when you find a pair you really like and wear all the time - you end up stepping all over the bottom of them until they are just a big jumble of ripped, shredded threads. Ugh. Ugly.

So, you just wear the same old favorite pair of jeans until there are big holes in the knees and the back pockets are falling off. Or even worse, you settle for jeans that look bad on you, but hey, they don't drag all over the floor, right?

In the past, I have tried hemming the pants myself like they are a pair of pj's. Let me tell you, it doesn't work. They just don't look the same. Jeans have a special kind of hem. I don't know exactly what it is, but they do. So, I gave up hemming jeans...

Until now that is!! My friend Sarah taught me this GENIUS trick for hemming jeans:

USE THE ORIGINAL HEM!

Now, why didn't I think of that? I have done this on 4 pairs of secondhand jeans now and I am so very happy with the results! I got them cheap and they are the right fit! You can't even tell I chopped them up and put them back together. Hooray! Now I can buy jeans no matter the length! And all I have to worry about when jean-shopping is that the butt looks good and my thighs look skinnier than they really are.

Here's a tutorial for you:

1. Trim your jeans to the length you want them.

(I used another pair of jeans as a guide)



2. On the piece you just cut off, trim the hem off (about 1/4-inch above the hem).



3. Pin the hem to the bottom of the jeans, right sides together, matching up the side seams.

(You may have to trim off a little to make it fit right, otherwise you might end up with a pucker)



4. Sew the hem piece to your jeans. Sew right along the fold in the original hem (as shown in photo).



5. Iron the hem flat making sure your seam is pressed down really well.






6. If you want to be fancy you can serge or zig zag stitch the seam so it doesn't fray. I'm not that fancy. So, I just topstitch the hem down (right over top the original yellow-ish thread) making sure I catch the seam inside. So far it had seemed to do the trick.

(use matching yellow-ish thread and you'll never even be able to tell that you sewed right on top!)



You're done! Now you can strut your stuff around and people will just think that you found jeans that naturally fit your short little legs!

Little do they know...

Happy Birthday Bunting

Somebody's FIRST BIRTHDAY is coming!!

That's right, I'm going to have a one year old in a few weeks. Even I can't believe it.
I wanted to make her a few things for her birthday, here's a special project I have completed:

The Birthday Banner!



I just have to say, I love it. It is already hanging up in the front room because I can't wait for her birthday to display it.

I'm thrilled about this project because every year on Brinkley's birthday, I can pull this out and remember my little baby girl. I think it will be fun to watch it age as she does.

Look at me, creating traditions.

Here is a closer shot:

It was fairly easy to make.

Here's some basic instructions:

You'll need:

• 5 patterned fabrics (1/8 to 1/4 yard of each will do. I used fat quarters - that way I had leftovers to use on other projects) You could also just use scraps you have hanging around.
• About 1 yard plain backing fabric
• 1 Package of coordinating bias tape
• Thread
  

Basic Instructions:

1. Cut out 14 circles of patterned front fabric (with the top cut off about 1 inch). And 14 circles of back fabric (I used plain brown fabric)
2. Pair up a front piece fabric (patterned) with a back piece fabric (plain) and place them right sides together.
3. Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew along the edge of the circles, leaving the top open.
4. Turn right side out and press flat with your iron.
5. Arrange them in the order you like.
6. Print off your letters on Iron-on Transfer paper and iron the letters onto the front side of your circles according to the Transfer Paper package instructions. (You can get Transfer Paper at Walmart or Target) Oh! and don't forget when you are printing out your letters - Print them BACKWARDS!
   
7. Arrange and pin your circles to your bias tape leaving enough spare tape at each end for tying (about 8-12 inches on each end). The raw edges at the top of your circles will be covered by the bias tape.
   
8. Sew the circles to the bias tape and you are done!
   
9. Hang it up and admire your work.
   

I'm sorry I don't have photos of the process. It didn't even cross my mind until it was finished.

Easy Dishtowel Apron

For Christmas my wonderful mom made me an awesome apron. When she told me how to do it, I was shocked - it is probably the easiest apron to make on the planet! (no hemming involved!) Even the sewing machine challenged could make this an not mess it up. Plus, it's CUTE! It will only take you a half hour to 45 minutes - tops.

All you need is:
A large dishtowel
Twill Tape or Bias Tape (my mom used twill tape, I used bias tape)
Coordinating Thread

1. You get a cute dishtowel that you love! I found this one on clearance at Target!

2. Fold in half lengthwise and cut off the top corners with a rounded edge.
3. Pin on your bias tape following the curve you cut. Leave enough on each end to tie it when you wear it (I used the whole package of tape). Also make sure that the neck hole fits over your head, but isn't too big that it sags. No one likes a saggy apron.

(If you're using twill tape, you'll need to fold the edge over (yes, on TOP of the apron, which seems weird, but do it anyway) about 1/2 inch and place the tape on top of your raw edge to cover it up. Then match up the edge of the twill tape to your fold and pin. This will make sure the inside of the apron looks as good as the outside!) Did that make ANY sense at all?

(Here is a close up of it pinned)

4. Sew from end to end on each side of the bias tape. (Sorry my picture is so dark, it doesn't show up very well).

If you're using twill tape, you will only need to sew the parts that actually touch the dishtowel! Bonus!

5. Put on your apron and start cooking! (I know this picture makes my body look weird. I don't know what I was doing to make my posture look so strange. It's like my Wonder Woman pose or something. And the reason my head is cut off is because my hair looked awful and I made my husband cut it off on purpose. Just in case you were wondering...)


ALSO... If you are a pocket person, you can embellish this apron all you want. I personally never use pockets in my apron, so I didn't care, but it would probably be a nice cutsie touch.

Ugh! Cords!

Cords are ugly. They get all tangled and messy and, well, ugly.

For as long as I can remember, my mom used the old toilet paper roll trick to wrap up her cords.
Well, I went a step further because in my opinion, toilet paper rolls aren't much more attractive.

I found cute paper in my scrapbooking stash (since I hardly ever scrapbook anymore) and
covered the brown toilet paper roll with some pretty paper and then covered that with packing
tape (you could also use contact paper). Voila! Now I have a cute cord cover.
I'm just waiting for the next roll of TP to get used so I can make another!

Scalloped Blanket Tutorial

Wow! I'm flattered by all the nice comments! I got several requests to give instructions on how to make the scalloped blanket, so here you are!

Materials Needed:
1 ½ yards fabric (I used flannel)
1 ½ yards coordinating fabric (again, flannel)
1 ½ yards plain white flannel for inside lining (this gives the blanket the perfect thickness)
Coordinating thread
Scallop Template

1. Prewash fabric
2. Draw your scallop template on a piece or two of card stock (I used a sour cream lid to make mine). I just taped two pieces of card stock together, drew two scallops and a corner scallop and then cut it out. It looked like this:

(Sorry this is so fuzzy, I don't have a scanner, so I just drew the pictures and then took pictures of them. I know it's ghetto, but what do you do?)

3. Draw your scallops onto your plain lining fabric with a fabric pen. Mine ended up being 8 scallops by 9 scallops including the corner scallops. (I left a little extra fabric at the end so I could make a matching stuffed animal otherwise it would have been about 8x10 scallops). It also would be cute as a perfect square too - really, just do however many you want and can fit on your fabric!

4. Lay your fabric and coordinating fabric right sides together. Place your lining on top with your scallop drawing face up. Be sure to match up the sides carefully and smooth it out REALLY WELL. Pin it together.

5. Sew along the lines you drew leaving two scallops open to turn it right side out (I recommend leaving just two normal scallops open and NOT a corner scallop. I learned this the hard way).
6. Trim around your sewn scallops leaving about ¼ inch (if this makes you nervous, you could probably leave a larger raw edge, it just might be bunchier). Carefully clip the inside of each scallop to the point, leaving about 1/8 inch.

7. Turn it right side out, pushing each scallop out really well. Iron each scallop flat.
8. Slip stitch your open scallops shut. (I learned this the hard way too. I recommend re-drawing the scallop right on the blanket with a washable fabric pen so you have a line to follow. Otherwise your scallop might end up more triangle-y than round).

9. Top stitch all the way around the blanket at ¼ inch.

10. Now quilt the blanket by sewing straight lines from end to end. I just sewed it every two scallops, but you could do it every scallop if you’re feeling ambitious.

11. Voila! You have a beautiful scalloped blanket. Now snuggle up your baby in it and kiss her cheeks off!