Merry Happy Blog: crafts

, by Han

There are seamstresses, and there are "people who sew". . .and then there's me, who is neither of those things by any stretch of the imagination. Once, for Personal Progress, I decided to make a dress as one of my projects (with the encouragement and assurance of one of my leaders) and HOLY COW, although my sewing skills probably did not increase very much, my appreciation for people who CAN sew grew exponentially! I had no idea that when it comes to sewing..."sewing" is actually less than half of the work. All of the cutting and measuring and pinning and the ironing (OHH THE IRONING!) blew my mind. Needless to say, I haven't taken on any real sewing projects since that fateful stint as a Mia Maid. (The dress actually turned out okay thanks to a very dedicated Young Women's leader who had a great deal of patience and willingness to help me redo almost everything hahaha. Sister Pedersen, you're a saint!)

THAT BEING SAID, I've really wanted to find some cute baby girl hairbows and have been so discouraged with how expensive they are! There is a certain style that I particularly prefer, and the cheapest I've been able to find them is like $12 each! Which is crazy. So, one day when I was in one of my particularly crafty moods, I went on a "pinning spree" and pinned all of the baby girl bow tutorials I could find on Pinterest. I was quickly discouraged, however, to find that most of the tutorials I liked required some level of sewing. I pinned them anyway, thinking that maybe I could trick a sewing-savvy friend into helping me make some someday.

BUT THEN, I was on my way home from Target the other day (disappointed yet again at their selection of hair bows) and feeling awfully proud of myself for successfully spending a whole hour at Target and not actually buying anything, when I decided.. what do I have to lose?!?! I'M GONNA TRY TO MAKE ONE.

Surprisingly, I've had a sewing machine at my house for over a year (I'm storing it for a friend haha) and Stephen had an old t-shirt that was meant for DI, so I just went for it.

AND IT ACTUALLY DIDN'T TURN INTO A TOTAL DISASTER.

This is the tutorial I used.

You should absolutely read her tutorial because it has pictures and explanations and all the important stuff, but just to show how incredibly easy this was, I'm gonna give a quick run down of what I did:

Cut fabric around 5 inches wide, 17 inches long. (or longer)* (a rotery cutter would have been quicker and more accurate to use during this step, but all I had was scissors, so I just used the straight edge of a book and traced along it with a sharpie and then cut it.)

Fold in half.

Trace something round (I used the lid of a tupperware) on either end, then cut.

Using a sewing machine, sew along the curved top and half way down the outside, then backstitch. (BY far the hardest part was trying to sew the round part with the machine. I have no clue how to do this haha, but even with my SERIOUSLY SAD attempt (in which I was constantly stopping and then readjusting the fabric) it worked okay in the end.)

Leave a little less than an inch gap, then sew the rest of the way down (backstitch again when starting and finishing to make sure it doesn't come undone.

Using the small gap in the seam, flip the fabric right-side-out.

Tie it in a knot.

That's it! Notice: there isn't ANY ironing, or pinning. HUZZAH! You could go back by hand and close the small gap if you wanted, but it's barely noticeable so I probably won't. And, in honestly, I don't actually know if the ones I made will fit a baby's head, haha, but now that I know how easy it was I have every confidence that I will make more and experiment with different sizes. Also, just in case you were worried that Stephen had a polka-dot black shirt sitting around I'll let you in on a little secret: I painted on the polka dots with some fabric paint I had on hand. HAHA. I'm sure if you look at the picture again you'll be able to tell because I was not particularly good at making them match, but I was still skeptical if what I was doing was even going to work, so I didn't spent too much time obsessing over it.

YOU CAN MAKE THESE HAIR BOWS. Seriously, call me if you want me to give you a pep talk :)
_ _ _
han.

2 comments

, by Han

crafts

DIY Classroom Holiday Banner

2 comments

, by Han

crafts

6th Grade in 6 Days.

I have much to catch up on as the last few weeks have been adventure-filled and action-packed! But I really quickly wanted to post about what's consumed my last 24 hours...

First, I have to give a little bit of background. When I was in 5th grade I had THE COOLEST TEACHER EVER. She was an inspiration to me in many ways, but she was especially instrumental in solidifying my desire to become an elementary school teacher someday. During her class I made a list of things she did that I wanted to incorporate into my future classroom. (I'll have to do a whole post about that later.) One of these things that I vowed to do as a 12-year-old was to send a postcard to each of my students before the first day of school. Well...yesterday it occurred to me that I needed to send my postcards ASAP because school starts NEXT WEEK. That was a bit of a rude awakening. I went to a few different stores in search of postcards and all I could find were reallllly cheesy "touristy" ones that did not have the look I was going for. I had basically given up hope, when "genius" (or maybe stupidity) struck and I consigned to make my own!!!

To make a long story short...they took forever. HA. I'm not sure what I was expecting seeing as it took me A YEAR to send out all of the thank-you post cards from our wedding. (Yes. I sent the last batch out THIS WEEK, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, be sure to check your mail ;)) SPEAKING OF wedding postcards...I decided to use just that! I still have a stack of postcards leftover, so I came up with a plan to "redesign" them for my class. With the help of my two best friends (Mod Podge and an old atlas) I set to work!!!! (Stephen was great company as well, of course.)

And in "no time" (JUST KIDDING IT ACTUALLY TOOK A LOT OF TIME) I had 28 custom-made, individualized postcards. :) (Now lets just hope that the mod podge does its job and none of the kids decide to peel off the outer layer to reveal Stephen and myself in our dashing wedding attire.)

All in all, I can't say I regret the 10+ hours (not exaggerating) I spent on them. I was really pleased with the way they turned out, and 12-year-old me was beaming from ear to ear while accomplishing this childhood dream. Now, if for some reason the post office rejects them for excessive use of Mod Podge or something...well, I will probably cry, but in the meantime I am quite delighted. :)