Knock it Off!

I love knocking stuff off.  I'm sure there's something wrong with that.  But I love it.  I always have.  I have boxes of beads and shells from making hemp jewelry when I was in middle school and early high school.  I didn't want to pay $10 (which was a lot to a 12 year old back then) for a necklace I could make for about $3.  Plus I got the satisfaction of knowing that I made it.  I think I've always been very analytical.  I can look at stuff and figure out what went into making it.  I've always been good at spatial things, like geometry.  I think that was one of my favorite classes in high school and I did really well in physics in college.  I just like figuring stuff out.  And it's awesome when all of that combines into something more useful than what time two trains will collide. 

All that being said.  I found this dress at Belk a few weeks ago.

Source: belk.com via Evan on Pinterest



(Yes, I succumbed to Pinterest, I feel like a sell out)

But I did find this dress in real life at Belk.  There were just a few problems.  1) It was in the junior's department.  Some things I can get away with in the junior's dept. like T-shirts.  Not dresses.  2) Coming from the junior's dept. it was very short and see through.  People complain about what hoochie mama's today's teenagers are becoming.  Part of the problem is that mamas are buying the hoochie mama clothes for their teenagers.  OK, getting off the soap box now.  3) The print is all wrong for me.  Petite girls should wear petite prints.  Not giant butterflies gracing their naughty bits. 

So I studied the dress in the store while the Clinique lady wondered what I was doing to the poor hanging half mannequin thing and remembered it for the day I found the perfect fabric.  Little did I know it wouldn't be long before I found it. 

I found this wonderful cotton knit at Hancock for $3 a yard!  $3!  And I used less than 2 yards.  So that's a new dress for less than $6.  It kind of has an Indian feel to the print.  But it's in dominantly berry color.  I love berry color.  And I got some practice matching stripes.  I'm wearing a long sleeve T-shirt under it because it was cold that day and I couldn't wait to wear my  new dress, but the little white panel in front is sewn in so I won't have to wear a cami underneath in the summer.  And the fabric is such better quality than what's in the stores. 

I'm in love.

So my next knock off project is in the works.  Because I think it's senseless to pay $200 on sale for a bag just because it says Michael Kors.  Did he sign it?  Sew it together himself?  Guaratee it free of defects in workmanship?  Write you a personal thank you note for shopping his brand?  Even if he did, there's no sense in spending that kind of money for a bag that will go out of style next season.  Just sayin'. 

Selvage Earring Tutorial

Ever wonder what you could do with all those selvages or thin tiny fabric scraps?  Ever have an outfit that you could never find earrings to match?  Fret no more! 

I finally got the time to make my selvage earring tutorial!  So here goes.

Materials Needed:
~Low temp hot glue gun
~Bendable wire (I used floral wire)
~Ear wires
~Crimp beads
~Needle nosed pliers and wire cutters
~Scissors
~About 18 inches of selvage or just 18 inches of 1/2 inch thick fabric

Depending on how big you want your earrings, cut your wire into two equal lengths.  Mine were 5 inches.

Place a small strip of glue at an angle at the end of the selvage.  You want to use the smallest amount of glue possible so the ends will go into the crimp bead easily.  Glue the wire down at an angle like so.  Then just start wrapping the wire.  You may need to glue it at points here and there if the wires are much longer than 5 inches.

When you get to the end of your wire, glue down the selvage with a thin bit of hot glue.  Make sure to glue it to the wire and not just other fabric.  You don't want the wrapping to unspin.  When it's glued down, cut the extra selvage off.  This will be used to make the second earring.  Excuse my camera strap at the bottom of the picture.  It has nothing to do with the earrings.

Now bend your wrapped wire into the shape of a horseshoe. 

Pinch the ends of the wire together and apply a crimp bead to the top.  I used a wider set of pliers for this than my needle nose, but needle nose should work just fine.  Then trim off the scraggly ends at the top of the bead. 

Now use your needle nose pliers to open the bottom loop on the earwire enough to thread the crimp bead onto it.  Make sure the pretty side faces front and thread the crimp bead onto the earwire.  Close the earwire back with the needle noses.  If you were a little violent with your project (like me), you may need to reshape your fabric/wire loop at this point.

And there you have it!  Now just do the same thing for the other earring using the rest of the selvage scrap.

If you make some of these I'd love to see a picture!  Upload one to my Flickr group here --> Evan Becky's Fan Pics on Flickr



Zipper Flower Tutorial

So as you may remember from my last post, this past weekend I bought 2 pounds of zippers for $4.  When zippers are that cheap, you can afford to play with them.  So I had bought some metal ones, and decided to make this.  And now, out of the generousness of my heart, I am going to share the tutorial with you! 

 

Zipper flower by me, bag by Vera Bradley

Materials needed:

~1-20-ish inch long metal zipper, shorter if you want a smaller flower, longer if you want a larger flower 

~Low temp* hot glue gun.
~Scissors

~Fabric scrap big enough to cover the back of your flower in the same color as your flower.  I used broadcloth because it's what I had handy.  Felt, cotton, canvas, or other fabrics are fine. 

~Pin back, barrette, headband, or anything else you want to glue it to (not completely necessary)

*I highly recommend the low temp since you will be holding some pieces together and I got glue on my fingers more than once. 

To start, cut the ends off of your zipper and unzip it to take the pull off so all you are left with half a zipper like so.  You'll acutally have two half zippers.

You might not want to use your fabric shears for this.

Fold over one end of your zipper about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch and glue in place  

 Now start wrapping the zipper around this center, glueing in place along the way. 

Now we'll look at how to make a little loop without a big hole.  Find where you want the center of the loop to be and put a small dot of glue there

Then mash together and hold in place until the glue sets.  If you don't hold it in place, you'll end up with glue showing, and trust me, it is noticeable.  When it's dry, it should look like this:

 Now glue that down as you're wrapping.  Just keep wrapping however you see fit.  You can double back too if you like.  But wait.  Uh oh.  Looks like we're running out of zipper.  That's ok.  We can fix that.

Just glue the end of the zipper down somewhere on the back.  Like this.

Then start the other half of the zipper by glueing it to the back.  No one will ever be able to tell the difference.

So I'm done with my flower here.  It's got some loops and a couple of double backs.  It's mostly symmetrical (which I like, but you don't have to do it that way).  I've got a little piece of zipper left that I just don't want to use.

I'll just glue that little stinker down and trim off the ends.

 Well dang.  Now I have some holes.  The big ones like this I'll just glue down a little better.

The little ones like this will need a little something something extra.

That's where the matching fabric scraps come in.  Cover the back of your flower in a few strips of glue and then stick it down to the fabric.  If your fabric is thin, like mine, make sure you don't accidentally glue it to your work surface.

 Now just trim off the excess fabric on the back, but be careful not to cut your flower. 

The trimming doesn't have to be perfect as long as you aren't going to display that side of your art.  Just functional.

There!  The little hole isn't so noticeable.

I decided that I wanted mine to be a pin, since I was going to pin it to my old black Vera bag.  So I just glued a pin back to it.  This is the part where you can glue it to whatever you like, or nothing at all.  Just your preference.

Now just pull off all the little hot glue cobwebs and there you have it!  Something cute to put on a bag, or sweater, or t-shirt, or hairband, or...whatever!  The possibilities are endless!   

I would LOVE to see some of your interpretations of this little flower.  If you make one, upload a picture to my Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/evanbeckyfanpics/ so we can all see!

Glorious Weekend!

This past weekend was one of those that you hate to see end.  God knew that I have been having a hard time here latetly (of course He did, He's God, He knows everything).  There's been a number of different factors between my job, happenings at church and just not getting to see my husband enough.  I was off on Friday, Hubs unfortunately was not, but that gave me an opportunity to go to All About Fabrics in my good ol' hometown of Williamston.  Williamston, like many good southern towns, was big into textiles.  There are at list 3 different textile mill buildings all in one place.  But like many good southern textile towns, the mills have been closing.  A company called Phoenix of Anderson bought one building, though, and moved in their wholesale cost fabric store! 

It's a massive expanse of fabric at wholesale, or below, prices.  Most of it it heavier weight fabric, like upholstery, canvas, outdoor, and vinyl, but there are some good selections of flannel and fleece.  If you're looking for quilting cotton, you're probably better off going to the fabric store when they have a sale, but if you use designer quilting fabric, they have a pretty good selection (I don't like to pay designer prices when there are other things that are just as pretty).  So I went Friday when I had a lot of time.  I decided to head straight for the zippers, because I needed some.  They sell Coats and Clark zippers for $0.50 for zippers under 20 in and $1 for zippers over 20 in.  I had roughly $11 worth of zippers by the time it was all over with.  So I decided to move on.  I headed for the back where they sell remnants by the pound.  I needed some heavier weight stuff for my market bags.  Decorator remnants are $4.50 a pound, so I gathered up a zebra print, a turqoise damask on white fabric, a white polka dot on pink fabric, and a grey and yellow damask (I still don't know what the obsession with yellow and grey is, but as long as it will sell, I'll buy it).  Then I decided to look around a bit more.  I found velvet remnants for $4.00 a pound.  This will be perfect for putting in the jewelry rolls.  I also found, in all it's shining glory, cheetah print micro plush for $5 a pound.  I bought the 3 pound mass that they had there (only one!).  When I measured it at home, it was roughly 5 yards of 60 in fabric!  That will be lining the jacket I wrote about in the last post instead of flannel.  When I was done (read afraid to spend any more money), I went to the register to have all my stuff weighed and tallied up.  I set my mass of zippers on the counter top and prepared for the girl to start counting.  Instead she picked them all up, put them on the scale, then wrote "Pound of Zippers--$2.00" on the ticket.  Are you kidding me!?!?!  I bought 21 zippers for $2!  That's how much I pay for ONE 7 in zipper at Hancock!  I went back the next day and got another pound of zippers.  My zipper collection is ridiculous right now.

Friday I also got my hair highlighted by one of my best friends.  Tabatha's in cosmetology school and I went up there to get me some awesome highlights.  She did a great job!  I'll have pictures soon.

Between Friday and Saturday I finished the wholesale order.  I'm gonna take some more pictures before I ship them off because I have extra fabric of some of them.  I'll put those in my shop I suppose.

Saturday night, Hubs and I went on a date for the first time in a while.  We went to Texas Roadhouse (because Hubs says they have the best ribs ever) and then Yogo Express in Anderson. 

  We also picked up some bones for Ike Beast at Tractor Supply Company. 

Sunday was the most amazing because Pastor Joe, our senior adult pastor, preached.  Preacher Mark, our usual pastor, was on vacation.  Pastor Joe talked about seizing the opportunites that God gives us to witness to people and to draw people in to church.  One of my favorite quotes was, "Church is not a country club, it's a hospital."  People who know God and feel they have a good life don't need church like people who are searching for something more and hurting.  It's our job to take care of those people.  He also talked about how when we are in line with God, He will give us the desires of our heart.  Exclusive of that, on Sunday night, Tyler, our summer youth pastor, talked about the same thing.  When our desires are God's desires, then God gives us what we want.  This has helped me make a big decision that I've been struggling with.  After church Sunday night, we went to Zaxby's and went bowling with the High School Youth.  We normally take care of the Middle Schoolers, but the high school, and high school leaders begged us to go.  It was a lot of fun and very encouraging.  I honestly haven't felt God in the church like I did Sunday in a long time.  It was nice to know he's there.   

Wow.  That was a lot.  Anything good from your weekend? 

Buy Nothing Summer Fail

Yep, that's right, I gave into temptation.  But I did go a solid two weeks without buying ANYTHING.  And I do feel that my purchase was justified.  First of all I got a few things that I reallly and truly needed.

I was running low on the fusible interfacing and it was on sale.  I only had one snap left.  I thought I was about out of key rings, turns out I had a whole 'nother pack, but I got 20 of these for the price of 6 elsewhere...it was a good buy.  And the fat quarters were to make sure I could relist a wallet in these colors.

Now on to the Fail...

In my defense, I had a custom request for a black and yellow wallet.  I just already had some black and yellow fabric that I could have used, but I liked this much better.  And the grey and pink and pear fabric were on clearance for a dollar a yard.  A DOLLAR!  And I had to get matching fat quarters to line wallets and bags with.  And zippers.  But that's all I bought!  So I suppose I'm doing good.  Plus Hubs told me that I didn't buy them, that they are a present from him.  (That really makes no sense since all of our money goes into one bank account.) 

And I found the Etsy shop of all Etsy shops.  Well, Jenilyn showed it to me.  Zipit has wholesale zippers for a quarter of what I can buy them in the fabric store.  And that's calculating shipping in.  I'm gonna be buying a sampler pack like seen here --> 8 inch Zipper Sampler then I can decide which colors I need more of.

Zippers fall under the category of things that I may run out of that I need.  They don't count in the Buy Nothing Summer.

So, yes, I did fail, but not much.  I'm hoping my newest purchases can keep my happy for a while.  If not, I'll just go get my toes painted at the nail salon.  I may just do that anyway.

The Buy Nothing Summer

As I have discovered among people in the craft world, we all have too much stuff.  By stuff I mean materials.  We all seem to hoard fabric, and buttons, and paper, and yarn and whatever else we have ever used for any project whatsoever. 

I started following http://craftymoira.blogspot.com/ during the Sew, Mama, Sew May Giveaway Day 2011.  She gave away a dump truck load of zippers that I rather wanted.  Alas, I didn't win them, but I did find a new blog to follow that has been very entertaining. 

Moira has decided that she is not going to buy any more crafting materials from now until September 1 and just deal with what she has.  I think this is a fantastic goal.  So fantastic that I think I will join.  Starting Tuesday.  I have a few things that I know I'm going to need before this weekend (i.e. seersucker, broadcloth, some buttons and maybe, just maybe a peek at the clearance table). 

Moira has her own rules and exceptions, and other people have kind of set some exceptions for themselves.  Since me saying that I won't buy anything all summer would turn me into a liar, here are exceptions:
1.  I can buy things that I run out of that I need, such as zippers, snaps, buttons, interfacing, etc.
2.  If I have a request for an item in my shop and I am out of that fabric, I can go buy more of that particular fabric.  Same goes for yarn.
3.  I should not buy anything off the clearance table just because I like it.  I need to use what I have first.  But of course that doesn't mean that I won't.  But I'll try my darndest.

I think I'm going to create a page here on my blog chronicling the undertaking.  I'll post pictures of things that I have made as a result of my stash busting, and maybe you can send me some of your pictures!  I love pictures!

So there is is.  All the credit for this goes to Moira, but I would like to know if you are participating.  Let's make it a party!

Beach Gifts for my Nieces

As I've stated before in other To-Do List posts, beach gifts for my nieces are top priority right now.  I kind of started this tradition last year when I was so excited to just be able to go to the beach and spend time with my family that I put together little gift bags for them.  They had beach balls and other little beachy trinkets in them and crochet top tank tops that I made especially for them, OOAK (one of a kind).  Both of them are crafty too and really appreciated the tank tops.  Emma even begged for us to match when I told her I had a black tank top and khaki shorts too.  She was also pleased when I handed my flip flops down to her when I couldn't wear them anymore.

So this year, since I've started sewing, I decided they were going to get good beach gifts.  And not that I have entirely ulterior motives, but making gifts for nieces is always a good way to practice new techniques. 

So I have some hot pink canvas that I'm making the gift bags from with this to applique their initials with:

I think I'm gonna do the zig zagging around the letters in bright blue too. 

Then I'm going to make the Towel Roll using some black and blue kind of Hawaiian fabric that I found at Hancock.  I was actually at a loss as to what to do with this fabric.  When I bought it, I had never sewn anything before and thought that it would be OK if I ruined it.  I bought it on the clearance table for about $1 a yard.  But then I found that sewing was easier that I thought it might be and just kind of shoved this stuff to the bottom of my stash because I didn't think it was the most beautiful fabric in the world.  It's too much dark color, but too much floral happiness to make something entirely out of it.  But then the Towel Roll came along and I paired with a white towel, it's going to look great!  Sorry, I don't have a picture of this fabric.

Then lastly (that is if I don't come up with any other ideas), are the skirts.  Thanks to April Baylor at Sewing Novice, I found out how to make a full skirt for a kid.  I was going to make it reversible like mine, but had some issues.  Sewing at 2 AM when already tired is not recommended.  But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that the lining was too thin to be seen on the outside anyway.  So I ended up with a full gathered skirt with a built in slip.  This one here is for Lila. 

And I put my label in it, down near the bottom of the slip so it won't itch.  I was going to make a tutorial about it, I even started taking pictures, but I got tired and frustrated and didn't feel like doing it anymore.  So maybe I'll make a tutorial when I make Emma's.  It's really super easy, as long as you cut the fabric the right length, which I didn't the first time.  Now to make another trip to Hancock to get more elastic and more lining fabric.  When I bought the fabric, I had no idea that for a skirt this full you had to double the waist measurements.  So I ran short on lining.  Oh, well.  You know how much I hate making trips to Hancock!  

Where Am I?

So it's been forever and a day since I've blogged.  And I myself am starting to wonder where I went.  After reading an article about blogging, I realized that my blog has no cohesive-ness.  Sure my title is "Musings of a Craft-aholic" but what is my theme.  But then again, what in my life is cohesive?

My friend Jenilyn from the Grits and Giggles blog (go check it out, now ) is a mommy to a beautiful little girl and has tons of great mommy stuff to blog about.  Another blog that I follow Arm Candy for You, has great mommy stories too.  I'm not a mommy.

Other blogs that I find interesting are from college students.  I am no longer a college student.

I am a Med Tech.  I work second shift.  I sleep way too late because of this.  I have an obsessive and expensive love affair with crafting materials that I may not ever use.  I'm a dreamer who imagines a plethora of things that are supposed to work, and do in my head and usually on paper.

I'm a dreamer.

Maybe that's where I go from here.  Though I may not know exactly where I am, I can always look to where I may be going. 

So my dreams for the next week:
--I have plans on making a reversible skirt out of the rather expensive cotton interlock fabric I bought today
--I also want to make a matching reversible tote bag for the skirt.
--I want to make a bag for my grandmother-in-law for Mother's Day.  It will undoubtably be late, but not too late, and since she things I'm all that and a bowl of grits, she'll love it.
--I want to make a wallet to match the bag.
--I want to make a concealed carry purse for my mother in law.  She has no idea about this.  It would  help though if I remembered the hidden zipper while I was at the fabric store.  Making another trip.
--I want to make a concealed carry purse for myself.
--I want to make a duffle bag for myself.  I have bought so much fabric thinking, "Oooh, that would be a pretty bag!" that I just need to stop and take inventory and sell a few things before I do any more.  I actually have a dream for the duffle bag, but I'm not writing it down for fear of someone stealing my idea before it comes to reality.  I know, I'm a skeptic. 
--I want to make wallets and makeup bags and little zip pouches and TONS of other things, I just don't have the time. 
--I want to one day host a giveaway on my blog from my Etsy shop.
--And on top of all this, I want to keep crocheting
--I want to have a successful Etsy shop.  I've always wanted to be successful at something like that.
--I utlimately want to quit my "real job" one day so I can be a stay at home mommy like my mom was and enjoy my kids while the grow up.  This entails becoming wildly successful at said Etsy shop.
--I want to be pretty (doesn't every woman)


That's all I've got, or want to think about, right now.  I guess my blog is changing directions.  I think I'm going to start updating on my dreams, and how they are going.  Maybe one day they'll turn into the dreams that you try to wake up from, but you can't because you're already awake.  Hopefully they won't turn into nightmares.  Hopefully along the way I can offer some hints and tips and freebies and maybe a giveaway and drag y'all into my dreams. 

For now, I'm going close my eyes and hope for the best.