cheap and easy holiday headbands

I'm hoping to get the girls' Christmas pictures taken over the weekend and the only particular thing I had in mind for them to wear were cute headbands with a big flower or something on the side. Because I'm cheap and crafty, I decided to tackle the headbands myself. These are so easy, anyone could make them!

I started with headbands already wrapped in grosgrain ribbon (3 for $1 at Target in the dollar spot), felt poinsettias with adhesive backs (intended for scrapbooking. $2/pkg of 6 in the holiday section at Hobby Lobby), felt and fabric scraps.


I thought the poinsettias were a little small, so to give them more presence, I decided to stack them on top of some other things. Directly underneath each flower is a fabric yo-yo. They are super simple to make and you don't need anything other than a needle and thread. I cut my original circles a little small (pictured above) but you should cut yours about twice as big as you want your final yo-yo to be. Trace a large cup or small coffee can to help you get the shape.

Using a thread and needle (knotted at the end), stitch along the outer edge of the circle. After you've gone the entire way around, pull the thread so that the outer edge gathers in the center. Make a stitch or two to keep everything in place and close with a knot. Super easy! Normally, you'd press the edge over before stitching so that the raw edges don't show, but since they won't show or get any wear on these headbands, I just left them.


I used the sticky backs of the flowers to adhere them to the yo-yo's and also added a few stitches, just in case. For the bottom layer, I cut a circle of felt just slightly larger than the flower and yo-yo. Fold it in half and cut small notches, then fold in half the other way to notch the rest of the way around. This helps to keep your notches fairly even (I am not very good at this part! haha)




Using a hot glue gun, I glued the yo-yo flowers onto the felt circles and then glued them onto the headbands. SUPER EASY!!!


The entire project cost me about $1 per headband! Yay for cheap and easy!!!

Official Christmas pictures coming soon!

pillowcases: not just for pillows anymore!

One of the easiest dresses to sew for girls is a "pillowcase dress." Originally, the idea was to use a real pillowcase (vintage embroidered ones would be awesome!) but they are great for those whimsical novelty fabrics you wouldn't use for more formal attire. They are fast, cheap and easy! Here's how:

Determine the length and width of your fabric. For Sarah, a 4T/5T, I use the entire width of fabric (45") & for the twins, 18mo/2T, I used about 36 inches. Folded in half, that's 18 inches. Hold your fabric up to your kid to determine the length you want - remember to give yourself an inch or two of wiggle room for the hem and casing. For the larger size, I use about about a 32" length. You will also need double fold seam binding tape and 1-1 1/2 yards of ribbon.

I was working on several dresses at once, so don't get confused by the different fabrics in the pictures! You can click on them to see them better if you need to.

Fold your width of fabric in half, right sides together (wrong sides are together in the picture) and stitch along the unfolded side. Press the seam open. Basically what you've created is a tube similar to a pillowcase that's open at both ends.


After pressing the seam open, you will cut armholes. (You can have the seam stay on the side of the dress, or you can center it in the back as I have here.) I don't use a pattern for the armholes - I just think of it as a "J" shape. This style dress is very forgiving, so it doesn't have to be perfect. After cutting one arm hole, I use the cutout as my pattern for the other side so that they are the same. Your armholes will be about 6" long into your garment and 4" wide.


Finishing the armholes is the trickiest part, but after you grasp the concept, it's really simple! You will take your double fold seam binding and open it up, pinning the right side of it to the right side of your garment along the armhole. I then stitch in the fold nearest to the edge of the fabric. Remove the pins, fold the seam binding over so that it is on the wrong side of your garment, with the other fold of the seam tape folded back under (so it looks like it did when you took it out of the package - all edges tucked under.) Press and then top stitch on the wrong side of your garment along the edge of the seam binding. If you have trouble getting the seam binding to lie flat before stitching, make small cuts along the curve of the armhole (between the edge of your fabric and your stitching) to help give the fabric some ease. For the top stitching, I use a zig-zag stitch so that my crooked stitching isn't as noticeable. The seam binding gives you a nice clean finish to your armhole.


After you've finished your armholes, press the top of the dress down, front and back, about 1/4 inch and then fold and press it over another 1-1 1/2 inches (towards the wrong side of your fabric.) Use your ribbon as a guide for how much to fold over. Top stitch along the edge to create the ribbon casing.


Use the same steps to create a hem at the bottom of the dress. Cut your ribbon in half and attach a safety pin to the end to help guide it through the casing at the top of the dress, front and back. Tie the ribbon at the shoulders and trim off any extra length.

You can add embelishments to your dress to make it special. Appliques are great or you can add ribbon or a contrasting fabric to the bottom.

It's sew easy!

How'd she do that?

I'm guessing (and know) some of you have asked yourself that about my favorite pictures. Well, here's a quick lesson on how that look is achieved! I put this together for a group challenge a few months ago...

Depth of Field (DOF) refers to how much of your image is in focus. With a shallow or small DOF, only a small part of the image is in focus and with a wide or large DOF, a large portion, if not all, of your image is in focus. Generally, a shallow DOF is desired for portraits and macro photography and a large DOF is best for landscape photography.

Bokeh refers to the out of focus (OOF) parts of your image. I like to define bokeh as "quality blur." Bokeh can be just as important as whatever is in the field of focus (DOF) and can take on different appearances with small changes in things like lighting and aperture.

The two most important factors in creating the look of a shallow DOF with bokeh are aperture and distance. Aperture refers to the opening in your lens which controls the amount of light that is allowed into the image. The size of the opening is measured in f/stops. The smaller the f/stop number, the larger the opening and vice versa. The larger the opening (smaller f/stop) the more light that is allowed in and the smaller the DOF you are able to achieve.

small f/stop = large aperture/opening = small DOF = more bokeh/blur

large f/stop = small aperture/opening = larger DOF = less bokeh/blur

Often, the further away your background is from your subject, the more bokeh you will be able to achieve. Playing with distance is something that those of you with point and shoot cameras will be able to do even if you can't control your manual settings. If you do have a p&s, play with different settings to see what gives you the best bokeh/smallest DOF. The macro setting and portrait settings are good places to start. I find that if I get as close to my subject as possible, the better bokeh I can get in the distance.

Here are some examples of how settings can affect your DOF and bokeh. This is the same shot and the exposure is consistent. The settings were the only changes made. Notice how the DOF gets smaller as the f/stop gets smaller.

f/11 ss 1/40

f/5.6 ss 1/160

f/2.8 ss 1/800

If you have the ability to shoot manually, it is always best. If not, shooting in aperture priority is a great way to learn how aperture affects your images. Play with light and distance, along with aperture, to see the different types of bokeh you can achieve. There's smooth and silky bokeh and fun and bubbly bokeh - the possiblities are endless!!

That concludes today's lesson! Get out and shoot!

Making Haunted Houses

Today we made haunted "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers, something that has become a halloween tradition for us. I always get asked how they are put together, so I thought I'd just do a little tutorial on it. (Btw, the pictures weren't that great, so I went with some funky processing - that's why they look funny!)

You will need graham crackers (8 squares/house), royal icing, and candy. I save all the yucky candy no one eats after halloween and Christmas just for this purpose! It's recycling - good for the earth!

Prepare your graham crackers for each house by using a serrated knife to cut one square in half lengthwise to make small rectangles and one square in half diagonally to create 2 triangles. You can use any royal icing recipe, but I make up my own by using approx 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 T of powdered egg whites, and water. You want your icing to be pretty thick so that it holds together well. This year we went with purple icing that turned out to be more of a grey - all the spookier right!? I put the icing in a ziplog bag and snip the corner to make it easy to pipe.


For each house, you will need two sides with triangles to help support the roof. Lay a square down with a triangle piece above it and apply icing to one of your rectangular halves. Place the half where the triangle and square join together. This provides support and also binds the triangle and square together. Just be sure that your rectangular half isn't sticking out past the other pieces.


Next, add squares to the sides of the new triangle side pieces. After applying the two square sides, I find it's the best time to stand the structure up. Once your sides are all joined, apply some icing to the bottom of the house and stick it to a paper plate. Once everything dries, it keeps the house from sliding around.


After you have erected your house, it's time to add the roof. Simply pipe beads of icing along the edges of each roof square.


Once your structure is complete, you can add some decorative icing. Let the structure dry and harden before applying additional decorations. Drying time is the perfect time to prepare your candy...


Once your house is dry and the candy is ready, the kids can go to town decorating!! I simply smeared some leftover chocolate frosting on each side of their houses so that it was easy for them to stick the candy on. You can also apply icing to each individual piece for a cleaner look. (The twins were much more interested in eating the candy!)


Remember, this is halloween, so the more candy, the better!!!!