Oven Mitt Makeover

Last week I was in the check-out line at IKEA and I spotted these plain, white oven mitts and I thought, "I can spice those up a bit." So I bought one, and this is what I did with it:

Here's how I did it:

First, I sewed on a length of fabric about an inch and a half wide around the base of the mitt.

I stitched around the top and bottom of the strip.

Next, I ironed on some stitch witchery to red fabric and traced and cut my whimsical bird outline (backwards from the way I wanted it to face on the mitt).

Then, I ironed it onto my oven mitt, and hand stitched around the perimeter.

I added some buttons -- and it's finished :)

Spiced-Up Tea Towels

I love the ideas from Ashley's makeitandloveit blog. She posted about dressing up plain-old tea towels to match your kitchen. I made these for my good friend Kim's bridal shower. Her kitchen will be red, tan and black.

Here's how to:

Cut a 2 1/2 inch strip of fabric - measure the width of your tea towel and cut length of fabric 1 inch longer (length-wise)

Iron your fabric edges over 1/4 inch around entire perimeter.

Place on tea towel and fold 2 edges around the back side of tea towel.

Stitch 1/4 inch seam around entire strip.

Embellish with buttons, yo-yos's, applique, et.

(Yep, there's that fabric yo-yo showing up again. :)

Nursery Makeover Part 2: Orange Curtain

My sweet mom made a cute valence curtain that I followed the basic pattern of to make this orange curtain.

Here's how to if you want to try it yourself:

Cut out 2 equal lengths of fabric. Mine each measured 22" x 50" (you could make it shorter if you like, it will just affect how 'bunchy' the valence is)

Place both pieces right side together and sew 1/2 inch seam along width edge to make one long piece of fabric. (Once put together, mine measured roughly 22" by 99")

Iron open the seam you just made. Then, stitch a 1/4 or 1/2 inch seam around entire piece of fabric.

Fold over one length of the fabric 3 1/2 inches. Stitch along the bottom of this fold. THen, Stitch another seam 2 inches closer to the folded edge. This gives you a space to put your curtain rod through.

Quick and easy way to add a splash of color.

Cute in just a white onsie.

Baby shower present, anyone? These are so simple to make and are so darling. I know you can find these onsies everywhere on etsy, boutiques, etc., but here's how I made them.

This first one doesn't even require a sewing machine and I think it's my favorite. (Sorry these first two pictures look a little pink - they are in fact white onesies).

So, I found this tutorial for fabric yo-yo's here. It is a great tutorial and makes more sense than I could by trying to explain it. Check it out if you want to try them out. (I now embellish all sorts of things with these yo yo's: headbands, brooches, cards, cork boards, et.)

For this project, I made a yo-yo, then just stitched a button in the middle of it to hold it in place. So simple!

This one is just 2 misshapen squares stitched on top of each other.

The elephant. Honestly, to make these animals, I just googled images of 'elephants' 'frogs' girraffe' etc. I printed them out, then cut out the silhouette, traced it onto the wrong side of the fabric (with applique ironed on). Then, I cut out my traced image, ironed it onto the onsie and simply stitched around the edge. I did just a straight stitch, not zig-zag because I kind of like the frayed/homemade look once it's washed.

I don't know what this is.. apple? flower? any other guesses? It turned out cute anyhow.

Flower.

Boy Nursery

I can always find greatest ideas for little girl nurseries.. not helpful when you have a boy! I think these art pieces found here would make perfect boy nursery decor.

I'm going to try my hand at it.. stay tuned for the results :)

Modern Birdie Fabric Craft

I found this amazing picture on my friend Heather's blog. I LOVED it. With the fabric scraps I had, I made my own rendition that now sits on our fireplace mantle.

Here's how I did it:

First, I printed a picture of the birdie image, then I cut out the birdie.

I ironed on some steam-a-stitch/wonder under/stitch-witchery onto my red fabric, traced the birdie and cut.

Peeled back the steam-a-stitch and ironed onto the polka dot fabric. Then I zig-zag stitched around the edges.

I also cut out the little feathers for the tail and adhered them the same way with the steam-a-stitch and zig-zag stitch.

I cut out 3 circles (rough cut - not perfect circles - cuter that way) of differing sizes and just did a straight stitch around the circumference to make the "wing".

I sewed a button on for the eye, then mod-podge adhered the whole thing onto an 8x10 cut out of a cereal box so it would lay taught in the frame.

Super easy and fun!