Fun with no sew appliques

I've been in a crafting slump the last few weeks. I thought I'd have time to escape to my craft room some this past weekend...but it didn't happen. I did upload some pictures from my camera and realized I hadn't done a post about the no sew appliques yet. So, here we go...

See, I even took a goofy pic of myself in the mirror (which needs to be cleaned by the way) so yall could see my appliqued t-shirt being modeled! :)

I taught the ladies in my MOPS group how to make no sew appliques last month but forgot to take my camera to the meeting (I know, I know...won't let it happen again!) Because of sick kiddos, I've missed both meetings this month and haven't had a chance to snap pics of any of the awesome appliques they made. I did happen to snap a few pics of some items I appliqued at home though. Will yall forgive me?

This is a blurry close up of the applique I'm wearing in the above shot. Recognize the material? It's a scrap left over from this. I used e6000 and applied three rhinestones to the fleur de lis after I'd ironed on the applique. You can see them better in the first shot.

Here is my silly boy modeling his rockin' guitar applique tee. I found the clip art online and resized the image in my word processing software. He loves this shirt! The material is an orange, yellow, red, black and white flame print. My son said it was "so cool!"

You can find directions for making appliques all over the web. Here are two links to get you started here and here. It's really late (or early, depending on how you look at it) and I'm not thinking clearly so I'm more than happy to answer questions in the comments area if needed.

In our MOPS meeting, we created really cute tote bags. I purchased black canvas bags from an ebay seller in bulk and then the ladies made some adorable appliques. Most of the ladies made adorable monograms or layered cute crosses cut from zebra print fabric or other cute coordinating patterns. I promise I'll post some pics of them once I snap some.

If you don't sew down your applique (by hand or by machine) some fraying will occur. I happen to like that look. :) I've also realized you can touch up the appliques with a hot iron if sections seem to lift up. This is great to know if your sewing skills are lacking like mine! I can sew straight lines...but curves are not so pretty! I did make a fleur de lis for a tote bag and practiced sewing on it. It looks terrible! Why did I choose to practice on an applique with so many curves? Is there some secret to sewing small curves? Please tell me there is some super cool secret that I'm not aware of! Otherwise, I guess I'll have to find some time to spend at my machine and figure it out.

{My first feature!}

Wow, I've neglected this poor blog for a few weeks now. Anyone else find February to be a rough month? I don't know about you, but my kids seem to have been fighting back to back illnesses for weeks now! It's beginning to get a little exhausting. Thankfully, we've not had any major illnesses, just lots of little ones back to back to back...which creates monumental loads of laundry, sleepless nights, lots of trips to the doctors office, and LOTS of disinfecting...and little time for crafting!

But, I was just pleasantly surprised when I took a quick break from disinfecting the house and folding the hundredth load of laundry to come check on a few of my favorite blogs to see what I've been missing...and low and behold...I found the desk transformation I did last month featured on Ucreate! What a fun surprise! I had to do a double take to make sure I'd not refreshed my own page. Thanks for featuring my desk Kari! Now, go check out the post and her blog because Kari's got TONS of fun links to tutorials and projects that should keep you busy for hours.

Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll be back in full swing next week. I'm hoping to get some time in for crafts this weekend because I need a craft fix...I'm starting to go through withdrawals!

Cuuuute sewing projects for your little girls...

Before I start, I have to give a big THANK YOU to Kristin over at Grace Violet. Do you remember how I recently mentioned that I NEVER win any of the blog giveaways? Well, that has since changed! :) I bet some of you entered to win the adorable zipper bag she was giving away, but didn't win because I won it! Well over 200 people entered and my number was selected...YEAH! It's adorable and I'm fighting my toddler for the bag (she is already obsessed with shoes and bags) but this one is for me! See, isn't it cute? Thanks again Kristin, I ♥ it!

{photo from Grace Violet}

Okay, so speaking of Kristin at Grace Violet, did you see these adorable summer dresses she made? (Her girls are adorable, too!)

{photo from Grace Violet}

She made them out of the smocked material that Hobby Lobby has right now AND she gives you directions on how to do it. It looks really easy, too! I just need to see if I can get my hands on some of the material before it's all gone. They're adorable! Go on over to her site and check them out!

Also, Julie at Joy's Hope posted a tutorial for these precious tutu t-shirts.

{photo from Joy's Hope}

They are so cuuute and I can't wait to try this out! I'm thinking of folding the tulle in half and filling the top or bottom layer with some fun pompoms, flowers or even confetti.

We have several tutus in this house because my daughter LOVES them. It cracks me up that she likes them so much at such a young age. She'll tell me "pwincess mommy, pwincess" and put on a tutu or two. There has even been many trips to Hobby Lobby with Breanna wearing a tutu...but I don't mind. :)

So, I've got some projects to keep me busy for a few days. What are you working on right now?

Quick Kids Costumes

I know it's not Halloween but I'm doing a post on kids costumes today. My son LOVES to play dress up and I bet a lot of your kids do, too. We also seem to have a few events at school that require them to dress up as their favorite story book character or what they want to be when they grow up.

Last week, the first graders at our school had a Fairy Tale Ball. Connor decided he wanted to be Robin Hood and this is what we came he came up with. {Note: the school sent home a note telling the kids to not dress up in their Halloween costume but to please come up with something creative at home...love that!} Despite the quirky, stiff lipped smile, he was REALLY excited about this costume. Any of your kids smile like this? I know my little brother always did and it drove my mother nuts!

For this costume we used the following:

• green t-shirt ($2.00 at Hobby Lobby)
• an old belt
• 1 large sheet of green craft foam for the hat
• pipe cleaners for the arrows
• feathers for the hat and tips of the arrows
• paper towel tube for the arrow holder (don't know what it's called)
• sheet of tan felt with pennies inside, twisted shut with a pipe cleaner and looped through the belt to stay in place
• yarn we already had in the craft closet

I found this fun site that teaches how to make several types of kids hats here (and it's step by step videos...no trying to decipher wierd directions and fold lines!) This is where we found the directions for the Robin Hood hat and used the large craft foam sheet instead of construction paper. Any of the hats on her site would be really cute for a birthday party!

Connor was so proud of his costume, especially since he helped make it. Here is his robot costume from Halloween. Some card board boxes sprayed silver, dryer duct, old shoes sprayed silver and various "things" Connor helped find and make to create his robot costume. The colorful stuff on the front and sides are those glow in the dark bracelets. We hot glued them on just before he walked out the door. It looked really neat once it got dark!

I'm sure we'll be making many more costumes in the future. Thankfully, my son likes being creative as well and we really enjoy making the costumes together. Do you have any favorite costumes you've made with or for your kids? Any great sites where you get ideas from?