Something to Cover

So this is my first attempt at a how-to so hold on tight and if you have any questions at all please let me know!!! I will answer any and all questions sent my way!

My sister is the head swim coach for an all girls Catholic high school and for her senior gifts she wanted to give them something they could use in college so she thought it would be cool to give them towel wraps that that would be able to use after the shower walking down the dorm hall or even getting ready for class or to go out on the town. All the personalized ones, so that they could be the school colors, that she found were way to expensive for the quality so I explained to her I could make them for around $10.

Fist you need to get your supplies... I went to Target and got their $4.99 basic towels in the solid colors, everywhere around her is basically the same price.

You will need:

• Towel
• Ribbon
• Elastic
• Velcro
• Matching thread
• Ruler (not pictured)
• Straight pins
• Optional: Tailor's marker

The towels I got didn't have a band around the edge so I measured 5 1/4" in from the edge and pinned the ribbon down.

After pinning down and securing both sides I stitched down the ribbon making sure to back stitch and secure the ribbon.

Then I folded over the top of the towel 1 1/4" and pinned down the flap.

Now is where you add the elastic. To measure the elastic I took the end of it and pulled it tight from one side of my rib cage around my back to the other side. Yes, there is velcro in the front but I've had a few of these I've bought from the store that have been WAY too stretchy and don't stay up around my chest and are just a hassle. The elastic ended up measuring about 9" for me. Now you take the towel and wrap it around your upper body (where it would hit you when wearing). You want the front flaps to rest on your chest and the back to hang loose behind you, (*It's easier if you have a buddy to help but I was able to do it on my own*) in the same position where you measured and cut the elastic mark the towel. There should be about 13" or more of towel on each flap.

Now you want to stitch the elastic in the inside the folded over section. ONLY stitch down one side at this moment, be sure to back stitch and re-stich again and again since it will be used a lot! You have 2 options here. I hate elastic so I tried both ways and found the open way was easier for me. I'll explain the closed way first.

CLOSED WAY:

 After stitching down the one end of the elastic inside the folded over section, secure a safety pin to the other end and lay it flat inside. Then stitch the flap down until reaching the second mark. Push the safety pin through the tube and stitch the other end of the elastic down. Finish stitching the flap down making sure to secure edges down.

OPEN WAY:

 For the open way, after stitching down the first end of the elastic I then fed it un the flap through the pins and stitched down the second end of the elastic. Then I stitched the flap down. When I got to the elastic I had to stop every so often and reposition the elastic and excess towel. It was a hassle, but ironically I found this way to be much simpler, maybe because it was faster and I had to make 6 (ended up making 7, and extra for my sister). If you guys find another way, let me know I'd love to hear!

Your final flap prouct should look something like this:

Finally you attach the Velcro. I cut my Velcro 10" long, that way with the Freshman 15 you never have to worry about it being too tight, or the other way around, if it's too loose. I stitched the soft side on the side that could come in contact with the body and the rough side that would not.

 Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the actual final product. So all I have at the moment is a crummy cell phone picture, but I have a feeling I'll be making/selling more of these as graduation gifts for other people (already made/sold 5 so far) so hopefully I'll get a better picture up here for you guys!

Wednesday Spotlight

This Wednesday Spotlight are gun holsters I made out of vinyl upholstery.

They are modeled by my friend Dave! These holsters were made to be part of a Nathan Drake costume for a convention. Hopefully in the near future I can get a picture of him in the full regalia!

Also I made this head band for my sister today!

We had the ribbon laying around from when we all rode RAGBRAI (which is a week long bike ride across the state of Iowa) and she had always wanted it made into a head band so I delivered!

Until next time... Happy Crafting!

March Madness

Ok so in the last like 2 years I have been making headbands and selling them. They are no slip with a velvet back and ribbon top and secured by elastic. If they are in stock they are $5.00 and special orders are $7.00.

Starting in March I will introduce 5 new patterns each month. The old patterns will still be available until they are sold out but can be ordered as a special order.

March's new patterns!

Silver Sparkles
Green with Circle Sparkles
Green Clovers
Large Basketballs
Small Basketballs

When I think of March I think of St. Patrick's day and college basketball finals, so the theme for March is such!

I still have all of these great styles available too!

If you are interested in ordering any of these styles please comment with your e-mail address or message me and I will get in contact with you about your order.

BIG SALE!!!

Ok so I have been busy but have forgotten to post! I have been making no slip head bands. They have a fun ribbon on top (like glitter or animal print) and a velvet ribbon on the bottom and an elastic band connecting the ends!!!

I got the idea from my sister who runs a lot and has problems keeping her hair pulled back. I also have the same problem but because I have a small head (ha ha).

This one is a giraffe print.

I have also been working on upcycling some t-shirts and using my scrap material to make some cute clutches. I also have a problem with having something to put my stuff in when I go out, so I decided to fix that and use scrap fabric to make some. Right now I'm just working on getting a pattern made. (Thanks Carli for helping me figure that one out!!!)

Its also been a year since I started this little blog (too bad I can never remember to post haha). And its that time for Halloween costumes... I'm hoping Carli can help me create a Playboy Bunny costume... although The PlayBoy Club got cancelled. Maybe I should go as a Pan Am stewardess. Decisions decisions! At least I have a little bit of time!

Until next time!

Hippos, and Crafts, and Steam Punk, OH MY!

So it has been awhile and I do apologize, but in this past month a lot has occurred! I took up some crocheting again and while at hobby lobby I found a leaflet for Vanna's Choice yarn. In that leaflet were patterns for crocheted animals or amigurumi. Well I fell in love with the super cute animals I had to get the little book and then found some dark sea foam green in the clearance section (oh how I love items on sale!) and of course since I'm at school I bought a crochet hook. Well I diligently worked on one of the animals (sometimes neglecting school work... oops) and 2 days later my cute little hippo arrived!

He's a super cutie and sits on my nightstand now! Next I forgot to keep putting pictures of my winners, and after a week I changed it to craft-a-week give-away. It made for things to be much easier. Well I then forgot to get pictures of my "winners" because it seemed more cool and "paying-it-forward"-esque to sneakily give things to people. They would find something hidden in their stuff and then would feel better about whatever and in turn that made me feel good. Hooray for warm, happy fuzzies! Well the last picture of a person I gave something to is my friend Bri. She's a really good artist (side note). I made a crocheted friendship bracelet.

A couple of weeks ago my theatrical productions class each had a tiny square of a larger picture and we had to recreate that square. The final product was a picture of the Ring Wraiths from Lord of the Rings where Frodo is wearing the ring and seeing the wraiths and they look like wisps of light. The final product turned out really cool and some of the images fit really well together!

I think we were all really proud of how it turned out! Mine is the top right corner. It didn't fit perfectly but it still looks super cool!

My really good friend from back home is really into dressing up for anime conventions and from her pictures it looks like she has a ton of fun doing it. There was one back home over spring break and I tried to go to it but I ended up getting kinda sick so had to pass. (I would've dressed up as Lara Croft) Well in my spontaneous nature and secret love of all that is steam punk, I fashioned myself some goggles out of leather scraps and other material.

I made the rims from old mason jars and the lenses are safety stained glass (so they still probably aren't the safest, but its not like I'm gonna use them on a motorcycle or anything). I hot glued some nuts around the frames and created a strap with a buckle out of suede strips. Let me tell you those things were so hard to work with. I bent 2 needles trying to sew them so I said screw it and just hot glued them ha! The nose piece is a little weak so I'll probably end up soldering it before I actually attend the convention over the summer. On the inside of the eye caps I put some imitation sheepshide so it would look like actual aviation goggles. I'm pretty proud of them. I found a couple pictures online and created mine like that. I can't say it was all my idea. Next up I'm working on a double watch cuff also in the steam punk style. I'll hopefully have those done by the weekend! I still have to buy fabric for my costume and my boyfriend's costume since I will be dragging him with me (evil giggle).

Until next time, happy... we'll say crafting!

Craft-A-Day Give-Away!

Ok so to keep myself sane until I graduate and since I don't have my sewing machine in Iowa anymore :( I have decided to opt-in to this "craft-a-day give-away". I heard about it a long time ago and I thought to spread a little kindness and craftiness I'm going to create something each day and then give it away the next day. Now these are fast simple projects like friendship bracelets and crocheted amigurumi creatures, etc. I started yesterday (I wish I would've started on Tuesday but sadly I did not).

My first "winner"(yesterday) was my friend Anna. I made a beaded zig-zag friendship bracelet!

My second "winner"(today) was Taylor! I made a monkey bookmark.

Tomorrow will be a surprise. What did I make, who will be the lucky "winner"???? It is a mystery!

Until tomorrow, happy stitching (or whatever else you might be working on) :)

Oops...

Well over Christmas break I made a skirt for my sister. I kinda botched it due to the fact that I was altering a pattern and don't have much experience with it. Then I decided to leave my sewing machine in Texas for the semester. I don't know what I was thinking but it wasn't very smart.

I've turned over a new leaf and am now going to be doing lots of crafts. Recently I got the urge to make bookmarks, probably because I am in a literature class and of course unless you are going to read a whole book in one day you need something to hold your place. Usually I just use an old receipt or a movie ticket stub. This time it was monkeys!

Sadly my scanner isn't working so I took a picture of it. Its sideways because thats the only was it would fit and not look so shiny. I know the picture sucks but it'll have to do at the moment.

Next project... a picture frame. No hints here it's a gift for a reader!