Tutorials Archives - Palmettos and Pigtails

Easy Roman Curtains

June 26, 2012 posted by Shara

Hey there! Remember last week, when I showed you Maggie’s new bed…and said I was working on something else?

Well, I’m finally ready to show you! I made some functioning Roman Blinds for our kitchen windows!

We had the cheap little paper ones up (just like everywhere else in our house!), but it wasn’t cutting it in the mornings when the sun came right through. So, I wanted something prettier and a little thicker. After scouring the internet and finding a bunch that I liked the looks of (but later found out they weren’t functional), I just decided to make it up as I went along!! So I used more of the fabric that I had Maggie’s bed made out of, and also bought some curtain liner.

*Side Note: So, instead of using a yard stick or tape to measure along the whole {long} piece of fabric…I found that it was easier just to tape off my width on the table (see it? on the right of the fabric above?) and then trace the edge of the table.

So above is the fabric hanging over the edge of the table. I lined up the opposite side of the fabric with my tape marks, and then traced the edge of the table to create my cutting line. It was sorta sloppy, but straight…so it worked just as well!

I did the same for my colored pieces of fabric. Then, after cutting the fabrics to size (I made them an inch wider and eight inches longer than my actual window), I put the right sides together and stitched around the edges, with a 1/2″ seam, and leaving a small opening on one end (so I could turn the fabric right-side-out).

Then I clipped the seams, going diagonal at the corners and pulled the fabric right-side-out.

Then I stitched all the way around so that the opening would be closed, and the curtains would have a more finished look.

At the top of the curtains, I folded the fabric over 4 inches.

Then, I folded it over again and pinned it. You should have just used your extra 8 inches of fabric. Then, make a stitch 1/2 ” from the top of the fabric, taking care to stitch both layers of the folds.

Then, make a second stitch about 3 1/4″ from the top seam, and that is 3 1/4″ from the bottom of the fold. This gives you two different location choices for your curtain rod. I used the top “tube.” Here is a side view of the two seams.

Depending on how much fabric you want at the top of your rod, will determine which “tube” you’ll slide your curtain rod into.

For the folds of the shade, I measured down 17 1/2″ from the seam under the curtain rod and marked with a fabric pen. I sewed one half of the latch under the fold, and the other half on my mark. I had latches on the outer seams and one in the middle. I followed the pattern below to sew all the latched in.

Here are the fasteners I used. They are the largest I could find, I and used 9 per curtain (they come in packs of three).

When I hung the shades, I had to fluff them a little and create the folds…I contemplated putting dowel rods in each fold to make them straighter, but I didn’t want to have to mess with them if I let down the shades. And because I don’t plan on putting the shades up and down regularly, I think they will be ok.

The next project will be a version of these gorgeous shelves above the windows to create a more completed look, and give us a little more storage!

Thanks Martha Stewart!

I’m linkin’ up this week!!

21 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Our Humble Abode, Tutorials

Busy Book

May 8, 2012 posted by Shara

As I promised yesterday, here are some pictures of the Busy Book I made for Jayna last summer. Most of these activities are way too easy for her now that she has mastered colors, numbers, sorting and phonics….but she still enjoys it since she knows all the answers!!

After many years of teaching young’uns and children with special needs, I long ago discovered it’s always easier to NOT reinvent the wheel. So when making these activities (and File Folder Games), I quite often used Dollar Store activity books for each page. I tried to find ones that were already in color, but no worries if the books you are using are in black in white…..coloring while watching TV smut is very relaxing!!

On the first few pages, I concentrated on color matching and color sorting. I used the color titles from the Elmo book above, and the game pieces (the handprints) are actually cut out from bulletin board borders (available at educational stores, Target and the Dollar Tree). Notice that I laminated an envelope onto the opposite page to hold all of the pieces. Glue on the envelope, and laminate it closed (but don’t seal it)…then you can use an exacto knife to cut away the envelope flap to make the flap functional again!

In hindsight, I guess I should have changed the directionality of the page to vertical!

The next few pages were dedicated to shapes and numbers. I got the shapes out of the Dollar Store Elmo book, but had to trace and cut out the shape pieces at the bottom. And I had to color everything. On the right, I used two strips of a bulletin board border for Jayna to match numbers.

Then I made a couple of pages using bulletin board accent pieces (fish) to create a series of pattern completion and sorting activities. On some of them, I traced an outline of the correct answer, and some I did not (to create varied levels of difficulty).

And finally, I did a few pages with matching objects to their first letter (all from the Elmo book) and a page sorting stickers.

See? Not so hard, if you can bring yourself to cut up an activity book from the Dollar Store! Just paste it on cardstock, laminate it and add velcro and viola! A Busy Book!

Linkin’ up here this week!

1 Comment
Filed Under: Crafts, Travel, Tutorials

Easter Bunny Bowling

March 29, 2012 posted by Shara

Well, aren’t I the crafty one lately!! I told you I have been working on lots of things…. I think it must be my daily schedule. I seem to be more on track lately and better able to manage my time (which gives me more ME TIME!). You know that we have put ourselves on a budget, but did you know we are also on a diet? I’ll have to post more about that another time (just know we have lost almost 10 pounds each within the last month!!). Because of these two factors, I have been searching for some creative, cheap Easter basket stuffers. I didn’t want to fill the girls’ baskets with tons of candy and junk, and didn’t want to spend a ton on little Easter-themed junk either. So what did I do? I turned to Pinterest, of course!

I found a free pattern for these cute little guys on etsy….free! courtesy of The Long Thread . Hers were solid colors with patterned ear-insides. But I had some beautiful spring scraps that I decided to use instead.

And I had the hardest time finding a hard wooden ball to serve as the bowling ball. I finally found one at A.C. Moore….but it’s actually a doll head, and a little flat on one side. So I plan on sanding it down a little more so it rolls better, and then painting it brown and modge podging something cute on….TBD. I just have to find a naptime when both girls are down to break out the paint and glue!

I chose six fabrics, but made sure that they were grouped in pairs that matched, because I wanted the ears to coordinate with the bodies.

If you try this project, here are a couple of hints: Although I loved the darker, busier patterns (my reds!)….it’s much harder to see the embroidered faces because of this. However, the lighter fabrics made the dark embroidery floss show through….so make sure to trim if you use lighter fabric. I had planned to add a little something for a tail, but I forgot…so let me know if you try this and add one-I’d love to see your ideas! Also, I did use a 1/2 cup of rice like the directions stated, but I filled the bunnies up with a little more stuffing than she prescribed….to about an inch from the bottom. And finally, I don’t really like my ears. I was worried about them being too short, so I was stingy on the seams….when actually the opposite happened and I think they are a little long (they have a hard time standing up!). So feel free to extend their seam allowance a little (maybe to 1/2″)…and maybe your bunnies’ ears will be perkier!

Here’s the direct link to the pattern

I’m linkin’ up this week…and I have some new linky parties so be sure to check them out for other Spring inspiration!

2 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Scrap Quilt

January 25, 2012 posted by Shara

I’ve been sewing for about a year now, and have no real craft area. Everything is kept in Tupperware tubs in a giant armoire. So, needless to say, I was overflowing with little scraps of fabric. Time to do something with those little pieces. Because they were kind of all in one color family (pinks, browns, turquoise and green), but all different sizes, I decided to try my hand at a scrap quilt.

Don’t get me wrong….I can appreciate the design and hard work that quilters put into their creations. But I have no desire to become a quilter. In fact, I can barely call myself a sewer……so I needed to be able to do this simply and quickly.

So I cut up my fabric into different size pieces, using several pieces of cardboard as my templates to trace. I had a quilt panel in my pile of random fabrics, but like I said….I have no intention of quilting. So I cut it up instead, cutting the characters from the quilt panel into the largest squares, and then using the surrounding patterns as smaller parts. I used strips of the fabrics as the borders too. And to be honest, I did this completely by trial and error….I had no idea what I was doing. But, I figured it was a scrap quilt, so the more hodgepodged it looked, the better.

Bear with me…..here’s how I did it:

Materials:

thirty 6 1/2 inch squares

sixty 3 1/2 inch squares

seven strips of 45 1/2 inches worth of fabric…..with each strip being 2 inches wide….and having 1/4 inch of seam allowance on each end

one large piece of fabric 47 inches by 45 1/2 inches

1 piece of quilt batting measuring 46 1/2 inches by 45 inches

I had a big scrap of padding….so I folded a corner over to form a square and cut off the excess ( I think it ended up being about 46 square inches)

This was one of the spare pieces of fabric I had that I loved, but wasn’t sure what to do with….so I cut it up to use as my focus squares on my quilt.

I measured all of the little critters on the panel, and luckily they all were about 6″….so I decided to make my larger squares that size (when finished).

I used a piece of cardboard as my template to cut around. (I made three templates…a 6 1/2″ square, a 3 1/2″ square and a 2″ wide strip….length doesn’t really matter…..all seam allowances for this project are 1/4″)

There were large chunks of interesting patterns left after I cut out the critters, so I supplemented more 6 1/2″ squares with them (and other fabric I had), and also used them for my smaller squares (which ended up being 3 1/2″ squares). If you look carefully, you can see where I drew my lines using a washable fabric pen. All of my seam allowances were 1/4″.

I also cut 2″ strips from scraps (varying lengths) to use as my borders. Then I laid everything out on top of my batting. I wasn’t too concerned about it fitting exactly, but I wanted to make sure that it was at least as wide as the batting….I ended up trimming excess at the end of my project. I also cut out one large piece of fabric to be the back of the quilt…..measure it to be the same size as your batting, and then add a 1/2″ around the edges to account for the seam.

Lay out your whole quilt…..I alternated one 6 1/2″ square and then two 3 1/2″ squares across, and then a 2″ strip in between each of the square rows. Just keep cutting scraps until your quilt is filled! I arranged mine on top of my batting to make sure it was big enough, and so I could get a visual on where all of the pieces were going to go.

I wanted to make sure that each of my fabrics were spaced out, and no two same patterns were touching. I also had to watch the spacing of my green and turquoise pieces because they totally clashed together….but spread out against the other patterns looked nice and were great bursts of color!

Time to sew!

Since there were going to be two 3 1/2″ pieces in between every 6 1/2″ piece….I needed to sew those together first.

I started to pin everything together before sewing….and quickly gave up. So much easier just to hold it in place as I sewed!

Take your two 3 1/2″ pieces and place them right sides touching, raw sides together. Make sure you know which edge to sew (based on the two 6 1/2″ squares it will be touching….pay attention to color and pattern placement).

Sew the two pieces together with a 1/4″ seam…do a quick backstitch at the beginning and end to tack the ends.

Here’s what the seam should look like on the right side. Sew all of your pairs of 3 1/2″ squares together…but keep them placed out on your quilt so you know which direction they should go (again, watch your colors and patterns!).

Line up the raw edges of the 6 1/2″ square and the two (sewn together) 3 1/2″ squares….right sides touching.

Sew 1/4″ seams, and backstitch.

Here’s what it should look like.

Sew on the next pair of 3 1/2″ squares to the other side of your 6 1/2″ square and continue to the end of the row.

Here’s the first row I completed….you can see I didn’t follow my own advice about really watching my placement and which sides I was supposed to be stitching together….my snail was sideways! I had to undo the stitching on both sides of that square, turn it, and redo it!

Do the same with your 2″ border strips. Sew them all together-end to end with 1/4″ seams. Then place them right sides together with your square strips, raw edges touching. Sew a straight line down the whole strip (1/4″ seam), and backstitch at beginning and end. Once you do this to all of your strips, your quilt will be all in one piece….very satisfying to see it all come together!

I pinned the right sides of my quilt and the fabric for the back together. I layered the batting on top of the quilt back and pinned it.

Ok, so I forgot to take pictures of these next couple of steps (sorry!), but they were pretty easy:

-I sewed all the way around (1/4″ seam), making sure to get the batting into the seam as well. I left a 6-8 inch opening on one end so I could turn everything right-side out.

-Carefully stuff everything through the hole so that your quilt is facing right-side out. At the hole, fold the raw edges under (and pin if necessary) and sew closed. I use an 1/8″ seam allowance to sew it closed…..and then I keep going all the way around the edge of the finished quilt. Then, I sew another stitch at a 1/4″ in from the edge….all the way around to give it a nice finished look.

Then I sewed along the right hand side of each of the strips of fabric in order to keep the batting in place. I spread out the seam and used a light pink thread since it matched much of my fabric color and was light enough to be seen on the back of the quilt (my fabric was a yellow and white gingham on the back)

Done!

And she loves it!

Room for two!

P.S. Here’s where I’m linking up!

13 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Paper Mache NOEL

December 29, 2011 posted by Shara

So you may have noticed the NOEL on my mantel. I was feeling like my mantle needed a little something, and then I saw this on Pinterest. Perfect!

Too bad I had no time to actually follow those oh-so crafty directions. But….I do have a crafty sister. And I do have newspaper. And flour. Hmmm….paper mache anyone? Here’s what Loo did:

First (I forgot to take a picture, sorry!) she mixed together approximately 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of water. Tear your newspaper into one inch strips, about three inches long.

Dip each strip into the flour mixture and slide it over the side of the bowl to get off any excess liquid. Wrap it tightly around each letter, overlapping each strip of paper a little bit.

Feel free to kind of paint the flour mixture over the finished letters, especially around the corners.

Someday, when we have some more time and inspiration (and hopefully before next Christmas!), we’ll end up putting some sort of color or texture on them.

Stay tuned for an updated picture once we finish it!

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Christmas Yarn Ball Wreath

December 22, 2011 posted by Shara

It’s been a hand-made Christmas this year for me….well, decoration-wise anyway. With a new house comes a craving for new decor. So, inspired by Pinterest and my fellow bloggers (and a little bit of Martha Stewart!), I set out to create. One project was a new wreath for our porch door. I made a burlap fall wreath, but obviously it was time to replace that. I found this cute little number on Pinterest, and decided to try to replicate it.

Here’s how I did it:

I bought red and white yarn, and a spool of jute (twine), and a wreath form. You’ll also need thick ribbon, scissors and hot glue. I cut each page of the newspaper into quarters, and then crumpled them into balls.

I decided that the base of my wreath was going to be red, so I tied a knot around the wreath form at the seam and slowly wound the yarn around it, being careful not to overlap and to keep the yarn tight.

When I reached the end, I just tucked the yarn under….not very sturdy, but I’d be glueing on my ribbon holder on top, so it’s ok.

I secured one end of my ribbon where I had tucked the end of the yarn, using hot glue. Do not secure the other end of the ribbon yet.

Then, with a second piece of ribbon, I formed a loop and hot glued it on top of the yarn and the already glued down part of the ribbon.

Then I took the first ribbon and wrapped it over the second loop and secured with hot glue.

Moving on to the yarn balls. Just wrap them tightly around the newspaper balls. You want the newspaper to be completely covered, and its ok that the balls are slightly different sizes. I made about 22 of the red and white, and 8 of the twine. Even though technically I am finished with my wreath, I still may go back and add some more balls to the sides and top to give it some more depth and bulk. You can always add more, so I’d start with just 20 or so. Find something good on TV because these take awhile!

Jayna decided she wanted to help wrap some balls too…..I’m thinking her fine motor skills aren’t quite there yet, what do you think?

But she was ok, she settled for naming her new baby “Yarnie” and toting it aroudn with Pink Baby.

Ready to glue on!

Start slowly, and layer as you go. Remember that there is newspaper in the middle, so the balls can kind of be squished to fit where you need them.

Tada! Great, bright addition to our living room! And because I only used red, white and natural colors…I feel like I can leave it up through the winter…not so Christmas-y!

See on the left hand side where you can still see some of the red yarned wreath form? That’s where I will probably end up adding a few more….you know, in my spare time!

I’m linking up here this week!

8 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Pumpkins into Winter Decor!

December 9, 2011 posted by Shara

We went a little overboard on the pumpkins and gourds this fall. But I just couldn’t help myself! All of the different colors and textures just really get me into the Fall spirit! But, now Fall is over. We ended up only carving two of the pumpkins, and now we have several that are still perfectly good….but just don’t fit in with our Winter decor…..Hmmmm….what to do?

Spray paint!

I bought red, green, white and gold spray paint at Lowes and went to town in the backyard!

After spraying a base coat onto all of the pumpkins, I used round stickers and painters tape to mark off sections of the pumpkin, and then sprayed a darker color over it. It resulted in some polka-dot and “gift-wrapped” pumpkins!

Now I just need to find a giant gold bow to put on top! I ended up putting the pumpkins back out on our front porch stairs, where there were for the Fall too. A couple of the smaller ones now call the mantle home.

Remember my pumpkin entrance?

I loved it. Wished I could keep it all year. But alas, this didn’t go with our Winter decor either. But I didn’t want to just toss the perfectly good pumpkins. Cue the spray paint!

I also sprayed the spanish moss white (it ended up still being a gray-ish color, but that was ok). So I stacked ‘em back up on my porch. Added a scarf. Glued on some small black buttons for eyes and some large black buttons for…well, the buttons. And cut a triangle nose out of orange sticky-backed foam. (Yes, I did try to hot glue an actual carrot onto his face, but the glue wouldn’t stick.)

Here’s how I made the hat. My top pumpkin (which would be the head) had a long stem, so I wanted a hollow hat that I could fit right over the stem. I used an old soup container and some more sticky-backed foam.

I wrapped the big piece of foam around the outside of the soup container and trimmed it to fit. Then, I cut a circle to fit the top.

Since all I had left was two smaller pieces of foam, I cut two semi-circles slightly larger than the circumference of the soup container to be the brim. If you had a big enough piece of foam, you could definitely just make it a circle.

Then, because my top pumpkin had a stem that I wanted the hat to balance on, I cut the middle out and then glued the two semi-circles together to form one circle with a hole in the middle.

Finally, I positioned the soup container over the hole so the brim was centered and hot glued the container to the foam.

Then I carefully positioned my hat on my pumpkin and viola! Repurposed pumpkins into a snowman! I also have sticks for arms…but for now, can’t figure out how to attach them without puncturing my pumpkins….plus I think he looks just dandy without them!

2 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Turkey Tee-Shirt Tutorial

November 24, 2011 posted by Shara

Thanks to The Cottage Home’s Tutorial, I made a little Turkey-Tee for both of my little turkeys! Thanksgiving is obviously always a big deal, but this year, it’s extra-special because it falls on the Thursday after Amelia’s baptism, so we have LOTS of family and friends staying in town for the holiday weekend. Also, with it being our first of many Thanksgivings in our new house, I’ve been thinking of traditions to start…got any ideas? What does your family do on Thanksgiving Day? In our house, the men always fry a turkey (or, two, this year!) and watch football, while the ladies cook up some yummy side dishes and catch-up. And the Macy’s Day parade is almost always on in the background!

Back to the tutorial…..unfortunately, I wasn’t able to open Cottage Mama’s template, so I did mine from scratch, based on hers. So bear with me! Included on my template is also the leaf templates from this tutorial.

For the tee-shirts, you will need:

6 different patterns of scrap fabric…ideally in the same color scheme

1 shirt in the size of your little turkey (I actually went a size up so Buggy can wear hers next year too!)

Iron-On Adhesive (that’s the kind that sticks on both sides!)
Sewing Machine

Iron

A couple of hours while your kids nap

Directions:

1. Iron on the adhesive to the fabric squares, leaving the paper backing on.

2. Print out the turkey template, cut out the pieces and trace them onto the paper side of the adhesive. You will need two feathers from each pattern (except for the middle feather…you just need one of those).

3. Cut out all of your pieces, which will have fabric on one side, and the adhesive backing on the other (with the paper still on).

4. Iron on each feather, starting with the middle one.

5. Carefully stitch around each feather and the body, leaving a little edge for natural fraying whenever you wash your shirt.

6. Using embroidery floss, sew a “V” on your bird’s face, for a beak, and one long stitch and three short stitches for the feet. Make sure all of knots are on the inside of the shirt.

These are my knots on the inside of the shirt for his legs.

7. Cut about a half an inch of red rick-rack for the turkey’s gobbler/hully gully/whatever you want to call it. I singed the ends off with a lighter to prevent fraying. Then I used red thread and my sewing machine to carefully sew it down.

8. Finally, I turned them inside out and ran them through the washing machine. Then I attempted to get all three girls to pose in them….but have you ever tried to get three toddlers awake, in a good mood, and dressed….all at the same time? Impossible. So, next best thing….

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s where I am linking up this week!

1 Comment
Filed Under: Crafts, Life, Tutorials

Albuquerque was a Turkey

November 17, 2011 posted by Shara

I’m not sure what the rest of the words to this song are….all I know is that Jayna is singing it in her Thanksgiving Program at school next week, it is sung to the tune of “Clementine,” and Jayna only knows one line of the song. And that one line is subsequently in my head ALL of the time!

So, in honor of Mr. Albuquerque the Turkey, I made some cake pops in the shape of turkeys for our Sunday School Thanksgiving Dinner….also known as our Meat and Skeet. We all bring our favorite Thanksgiving Day sides and desserts and gather at our friends Lisa and Jordan’s house to fry up some turkeys, shoot some skeet and visit. It’s always a good time, and a great way to kick off the holiday season.

While we were there, Jayna used the rest room and then promptly told me that “Ms. Lisa’s toilet paper is sooooooo soft!” When she told Ms. Lisa how much she loved her toilet paper, Ms. Lisa let her take home a roll!

And now for my turkeys. At first, I was skeptical, but after they were finished, I decided they really were quite cute!

I started to draw eyes and little pointy beaks on them….but then decided that the beaks looked like smiley faces and they looked kind of dumb. So half of them had faces and half did not. They all got gobblers though! (Made out of little colored chocolate pieces I found at Party City).

The heads were made from the all chocolate M&M’s….they are slightly bigger than regular M&M’s and the whole pack is brown! No more digging through the colored bags! The heads were held on with a dab of melted chocolate.

Tail feathers were made from “Indian Candy Corn” and held on by a dab of melted chocolate. Feet were the ends of pretzel sticks stuck into the melted chocolate as soon as I dipped the balls in chocolate.

They were a little more involved to make, but a terrific hit at the party….they were gone so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to photograph them on the table!!

Here’s where I’m linking up this week!

6 Comments
Filed Under: Crafts, Life, Recipes, Tutorials

DIY Artwork Display

November 1, 2011 posted by Shara

Buggy has been quite the budding artist lately. She especially has been into painting handprints, creating rainbows, and drawing pumpkin patches.

I love her creations. I love that she loves to draw. I do not love a ton of paper lying around. So what’s a mama to do? Utilize some wall space, of course! I decided to make a homemade clothesline, but for artwork, in the playroom. So I went to Michaels and bought some wood blocks and painted them brown.

Then, I attached some picture hangers to the back (they just hammer in).

While I was at Michaels, I also picked up some of these pre-painted cuties. I used a hot glue gun to attach some jute rope to the back of them, and then glued the whole thing to the front of the wooden blocks.

Then, Linds and I stretched out the rope (almost taught) and centered it on the playroom wall. Dave hammered in some nails, and we hung the wood blocks on them. We hung them higher up (by the top of the door frame), so that I will have enough space to add another clothesline underneath if I need to.