Retrophile

This year for my soon to be family I decided to make them each a little something.  What I ended up making was pears.  Now the funny thing was, when I went to Michael's they had the perfect cards.  So, I made my pears to match. The pear ornaments are consist of felt, embroidery floss and ribbon. Below is the template for the pieces.  Feel free to save them or print them out.  When you do print them out be sure to choose full page option so they will be the correct size. To make the ornament, I chose 2 contrasting colors of felt and white felt. One color would be for the main part of the pear, and the other for the small circle.  The white was for the medium size circle, and the leaf. Once I cut all the pieces out of the felt, I sewed the small circle to the larger circle.  I used a modified blanket stitch. After that I sewed the circles to the front piece (of the pear cut out) using the same modified blanket stitch. I then, sewed both the front and b

Hello All!   I am back.  Life has been crazy recently.  I finished both my teaching credential and my master's. So for now I am free.  I am back to posting. It is winter break for my district, which means loads of down time for me.  It may sound crazy, but I really don't do well with too much time off.  I get bored and the cabin fever sets in. To help quell my boredom, I am collecting spring clothing patterns and projects.  I have found a few so far on Merrick's Art .  If you haven't checked out the blog before, take a gander.  There are some great tutorials. Here are a few that I found and am planning on trying. Tunic Dress http://www.merricksart.com Doman Sleeve Top http://www.merricksart.com Both of these are super simple tops, made from knit cotton.  I can't wait to give them a try.  I will let you guys know how they turn out! Here area  few more links to projects I want to try. http://www.merricksart.com/2012/06/easiest-pencil-skirt-

So my wedding planning had been delayed for a bit, but I'm back at it.  Haven't really decided on a place yet.  I do have a list of places to check out.  What I have been looking at recently was dress patterns for my bride's maids.  I want something different, not just your typical David's Bridal generic bride's maid's dresses.  I have actually found a really cute site with some great patterns. She has a bunch of awesome patterns that I want to try out.  I think I might buy a few and just make some dresses for myself.  Here are the ones I was thinking could be potential bride's maids dresses http://www.colettepatterns.com        I want to have a summer wedding, so I don't want any big heavy dresses for my girls  I love #2.  It is cute, simplistic and classic.  I can definitely see my girls waking down the isle with me wearing that dress and little fasinators such as this. Has anyone tried these patterns?  If you have let m

Sccchoooollll's out for SUMMER!!!  And you thought student's where the only ones counting down the days till summer.  I have to say I am soooo happy that it's finally here.  It has been an interesting year!  Most definitely a learning experience.  I only have one more day of closing up shop and the summer will officially begin! I am not teaching summer school this year so I have some big plans!  My summer is going to start off with a trip to Mississippi.  I know exciting right?  Well, it is all about how you look at it. A friend of mine and I are going because she is doing research for writing project she's working on.  It is also and excuse to explore an area I haven't really had a chance to delve into.  We're going to be doing a scavenger hunt there as well.  I will try and post pics when I can.  So if you have any suggestions please feel free to share!  I will add them to our list and give you a shout out if we come across it.  The suggestion

So, it is that time of year again and I am working on my Pirate Festival costume.  I am still sticking to the steam punk genre for my pirate costume.  However, I am taking it out of the realm of Victorian and in to that of the orient.  I am not going to reveal my complete costume till the day of the pirate festival.  However, here are some teaser shots. I got my inspiration when looking through the costume patterns at the fabric store.  This is pretty much how it goes with me.  The crazy thing is, this costume only took 3 days to make.  Mind you, this was three weekend day.  But still, I don't think I have ever made a costume from scratch this fast before.  Also, I didn't have to look at the pattern once for directions.  I already knew how it was constructed.  YAY!! One of the goals for this costume was to do something different.  I was sick of the typical steam punk, I am getting rather sick of it.  Don't get me wrong, I still have respect for it, the V

So, the unthinkable has happened.... I walked in to a fabric/ craft store and didn't come out with any new patterns or fabric.  In fact, I only spend $1.39.  This was a strange.  I usually have a hard time staying under 50 dollars when I go in. I wonder what this means??