How to make easy hanging shelves for kids room: What I'm Makin' Monday

I saw the cutest image on Pinterest of these hanging wall shelves. I followed the link and found pictures of an adorable little girls room, but no tutorial for these cute hanging shelves, but it looked simple enough so I decided to try it myself.

Source: Bees Knees Bungalow via Order in the Court! -Organization on Pinterest

My first idea was to use fabric like in the picture, but after a long week of work I was too lazy to cut and sew a bunch of fabric so I decided I'd make it even easier--A four-step process that'll get you some cute shelves for less than $5.

I like it because it's a quick and easy way to decorate a wall and hang stuffed animals and other light things we might want on display. I've never been good at hanging real shelves on the wall, with all the extra mounts and screws needed, big gaping holes my husband hates, so this works great! And they look like fun little swings for your stuffed animals.

All you need is some wood planks, ribbon (or fabric), and D-rings.

I got about 1.5in D-rings (you can get these at craft stores or online for way cheaper, I got brass as Home Depot which ended up costing a bit more-Like $1.50) and used 1.5 in wide grosgrain ribbon, and since I have SO much tulle I'm trying to utilize, I used some of it for these shelves. I started to buy paint to paint some 2x4s for planks but then found some 1x4in-ish primed wood that was 8ft tall in the trimmings (like baseboard area) section of Home Depot (is it just me or is everyone here SO helpful?!). I had it cut into four 2-foot planks. That was $6. So I didn't need to paint it (I may add some fun color to the sides later with my craft paint).

So once you have all of your supplies here's what you do:

1. Cut your ribbon/fabric. I did mine about 35in long, because once it's folded in half, and the board is placed inside, it'll hang about 15in.

2. With right sides of the fabric/ribbon together, sew a straight stitch across. For safe measure I went back and forth a few times.

3. Place the D-Ring upside down, between the two halfs of fabric/ribbon and sew another stitch across just below the first line of stitches, sandwiching the D-Ring between them. Go slow, if your needle pounds the ring it'll break. One of my needles fell victim to the D-Ring.

4. Turn the ring and fabric/ribbon right side out, repeat process with another strip, hang with some little nails or hooks, add wood plank and enjoy!

TADA!

What do ya think? They aren't perfect, but they're good enough, and that's my style when it comes to crafting.

Please excuse my horrible photos. It was bedtime, so no sunlight, and harsh lamp lights. I'll try to take better ones for examples today.

If you made something this week (or any week) and blogged about it I'd love to see. Let us know in the comments so we can check it out!

DIY Kite Hair Bow Organizer: What I'm Makin' Monday

Finally got the craft bug again. Moving took it all out of me, but a huge blank wall in Lil' J's room was driving me nuts and I had to do something about it.

Something else I needed help with? My bow addiction. I've realized I have a bow hoarding problem. It's ridiculously hard for me to get rid of any bows because right before I do I think "but it'll go great with X-outfit" or "I can make a skirt to go with this."And I hang on to it. Unless I'm giving them away to friends, I can't bring myself to toss them out or even donate them yet.

I've already made a headband tree, used oatmeal cans to make more headband holders, and a picture frame to hold some clippies, but we still have more that need a home.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found another bow organizing tutorial that would also fill the annoyingly blank wall, and give a solution for her growing bow collection.

So I've seen ribbon bow holders. Simple strips of ribbon hanging from a doorknob or such, that you can clip your bows to. I found a genius tutorial that took it a step further and made the strip into kite tails and the bows clip to the tail.

With the amount of bows she has, and the amount of wall space, I decided to make four kites with long kite tails to string across her room.

Here's how I did it.


I used: Hot glue, scrap fabric, wire hangers, coordinating ribbon.

Step 1: Bend the wire pulling the bottom part of the hangar down so it becomes shaped more like a triangle. Straighten out the hook too (I kept mine slightly curvy since I wanted to look like it was flying across the wall.)

At this point, Lil' J already knew they were going to be kites. She ran around yelling "Kites! My kites!" After wrangling her I moved to step 2.

Step 2: Cut the scrap fabric to be about 1/2-1" wider than the kite shape.

Step 3: Hot glue the fabric to the wire one half of the kite at a time. Pull it tight as you glue the second side down.

Step 4: Cut and glue ribbon strips 1" longer than the length and width of the kite and glue them around the back side of the kite.

Step 5: Cut the ribbon for the kite tails/ bow holder and tie a knot with extra slack at the base of the kite, then glue the ribbon on each side of the hanger hook.

Hang on the wall and enjoy! What do ya think? Link up, I'd love to see what you've been makin'!

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Valentines toddler dress: What I'm Makin' Monday

I'm getting into the groove of making dresses now. This was the first time I put a dress based on a pattern together without reading the directions on the pattern. Following the Playdate Peasant Dress pattern. I've used before. Ok, maybe I glanced at it a little. But the point is, I'm getting into a groove.

A reader asked me if I'm sad that she'll only get to wear her seasonal dresses a time or two. I am a little sad looking at all of her Christmas dresses and outfits, and Halloween outfits I have piled to the side, but I made most of them big so she can wear them next year, or at least as a top next year.

The reason I've only been making holiday outfits so far is because I knew the only way I'd actually sew these things is if I have a deadline. And a holiday is a great sewing deadline. Seasonal fabric is usually on sale too... At least at Hancock it is. About 40-70% off. It's hit or miss at Hobby Lobby, which is where I got the fabric for this dress.

Now that I've made it through three, almost four holidays I'm getting the hang of this.

I bought a ruffler foot and a rolled-hem foot for my new machine and it's helping so much with these dresses. No more ironing and pinning the tiny hems. Yay!

My ruffler is cool, and I've learned how to use it (thanks YouTube!) but I'm having a hard time gauging how ruffly to make the ruffles so they fit perfectly on the bottom of the dress. If anyone knows how to do this without guess and check let me know!

Oh, and I got the hang of shirring with this dress! It's gathered at the center of the sleeves and in the middle of the dress.

I didn't make the bows, she got these over the top Valentines pieces from Izzy Diane's Boutique and modeled them with the dress for us.

So now that I have this pattern down I want to experiment with other patterns I have, and learn how to follow a tissue paper pattern. They are much less expensive than the Etsy ones and there's much more variety. My friend Jennie is going to teach me (same friend who helped me with my first ever dress for her in October!). I know some people are good at following tutorials, and I prefer that if they're easy enough but if there's too much math involved (ie: take a third of your child's weight size, and measure to the knee, then divide that by 1.5...) I get lost. So I prefer to use actual numbers that have been figured out for the specific size I'm making (18 months, 2T... etc).

Many of you have written and said my craftiness is motivating you to give it a try. Let me tell you, if you're thinking about it... GO FOR IT! If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously. There's few things more exciting than having someone rave about the outfit your kid is wearing and complimenting your work. And I think there's something to be said for learning skills we can pass down to out children. Home economics has all from disappeared!

Not to brag or anything but I made the leg warmers too.

As I find easy tutorials and free patterns to attempt I'll try to keep bringing them to you. If you're looking for a dress pattern to try that's not to hard, the one I have linked above in this post (ok here it is again) is a great place to start, and the price was right for me. There are pattern pieces you print out, tape together, then cut around to make your dress pieces, and lots of step-by-step photo directions to follow until you get the hang of it and don't need the directions at all!

Oh, and side note, I made the leg warmers too... Super easy! I got a two pack of women's' Valentines knee-socks at Walmart for $3, cut off the feet, rolled the ends (didn't even sew them), and TADA! Takes seconds. See... You can do that!

So I hope this was a little bit of eye-candy for today, and a bit of a pep-talk for some sitting on the sidelines waiting for the push to jump into the Domestic Diva game.

Made anything lately?

My craft button.

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Her first pair of pants: What I'm Makin' Monday (a day late)

No, not her first pair of pants EVER. But the first pair of pants I've ever made her.

My friend Taylor, aka Alt Mama, and I have a deal. I'm going to help her learn to sew, and she's going to teach me how to cook. To be honest I'm sorta felt like a blind man leading the blind with the sewing part, but I at least know how to read toddler patterns now, and how to find videos on YouTube to get us along.

Taylor was a super fast learner. So while I was putting along at my grandma speed of sewing, she was putting the pedal to the metal and flying through the stitching. And on my old machine by the way! I got this new baby for Christmas and she took my old one off my hands.

I had never made Lil' J pants before, so when we found this pattern for toddler pants, I didn't realize how small the butt area was. I guess the creator's baby has a teeny booty and since my daughter not only has my fabulous booty jeans, but she also wears cloth diapers, so these ended up being a bit snug, and sort of hip-huggers for her... Er, where her hips would be if she had some.

Taylor wanted to make reversible pants and she had two of the cutest fabrics picked out for them. I decided I'd use some of my fabric stash to make Lil' J some too, so I grabbed some purple and pink polkadot and headed over to her place with our machines.

Now had she asked me to make a toddler dress I could have nailed the instructions no problem. But I had never even seen a pants pattern before, much less reversible. So this was a bit tricky for me at first. But after watching this youtube video about thirty times I realized what I needed to do to get the pants part down, then making them reversible was pretty much a sinch.

I love the purple side with the pink polkadots sticking out on the cuffs. I haven't been daring enough to try them facing the other way yet, although if anyone can pull off pink polkadot pants it's gotta be her.

Next time I want to add big ruffles to the bottom and make them bell bottoms. Pants aren't such a bad idea for winter time. My husband thinks this, and her Adidas run suit grandma and grandpa got her for Christmas are the best outfits ever. So I may need to start adding more pants patterns to my collection soon.

 Whatcha think?

Easy Peasy Christmas Dresses

I'm up way too late but here's a preview of a tutorial I'll post later today for an easy t-shirt dress. I'm making a bunch for Lil' J to wear this month, along with other cute dress styles, but since these are quicker I started with these.

They cost less than $9 to make and they're super cute!

I'll also tell you a great shop you can buy these from, or get a pattern for a more elaborate style.

For now, I leave you with my crappy iphone photos of my girl's new dresses.

I seriously overestimated my sewing abilities

I had this fantastic idea to design my own dress for Lil' J. I wanted it to have lots of ruffles and some smocking. I hadn't tried either skill on her dresses yet.

A few years ago I bought a bunch of gingerbread fabric when I was sewing holiday dog collars. I had that left over, along with a slew of red and white striped fabric I picked up from a thrift store about a year ago. Finally I could put these to good use and make a (free) dress!

I decided I didn't need a pattern... I'd wing it! But come to find out I'm not much of a "wing it" person, because I still wrote down the measurements I wanted and the steps I'd need to take.

I cut all the fabric for the different pieces and placed them out how I planned for them to go. Easy enough right? I'd just gather the ruffles, and hem the ends, then sew them all together.

HA HA HA! ... No.

About 8 hours and 80 f-bombs later, I was done. I think it's cute but I also think I've made cuter in less time. In the beginning I was taking photos for a tutorial but about a quarter of the way through I realized I hadn't a clue what I was doing and no one should try to imitate this the way I was. There's probably a much simpler way to make something like this.

My little model was already sleeping when I finished so I'll have to post some picture of her wearing this later.

Shirring wasn't too hard but it was a pain in the butt going back and forth from straight stitching to shirring, changing the tension, and re-testing the machine because it's finicky. I added some fun funky stitching at the hem line, and made some matching leg warmers from womens socks. It's warm here in Texas so she may be able to get away with the short sleeves for part of the month but I'll most likely have her wear a long sleeved white tee underneath.

Whatcha think?! Turns out designing isn't as easy as I had hoped, and I'm not as advanced in my sewing skills as I thought.
 
Would love to see your creations, craft, food, or just bragging about something you've done!

Feel free to grab the button so others can know to share their craft ideas.

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DIY DSLR Camera Lens Puppet {Tutorial}: What I'm Makin' Monday

I sometimes do the craziest things to get my toddler to laugh while I'm photographing her. At times I run and jump over her then turn to snap the photo, sometimes I sing songs or make funny noises, and sometimes I threaten to tickle her. I usually don't have to do much though cause she's one happy girl.

Ruffle sweater dress: Re-purposed by mommy (tutorial); Shoes: Immauel's Closet; Bow: Simple Little Things

I have a fun little butterfly lens puppet from Tiny Tots boutique, and I've been meaning to attempt to make my own for some time now. The other day she saw my butterfly one outside of my camera bag and took it to my camera and tried to put it on. She's quite the clever one. It gave me the push to surprise her with a new one.

I decided to go with her favorite Seaseme Street character: Elmo. Without using a red scrunchy, and using things I already had around the house.

What you'll need:
1. Red fabric (probably something soft and simple like cotton. I didn't feel like going to get some so I used some thrifted red velvet fabric I've had stashed for a year. You could even use a piece of an old red t-shirt you don't need anymore)
2. White and orange felt
3. Black buttons
4. 1/4in elastic (or cord elastic would work).
5. Scissors
6. Hot glue
7: Needle and thread
8. Sewing machine/thread if you want to sew it, or iron-stitch if you want a no-sew version

Step 1: Cut the fabric out. I cut mine 17in long and 4.5in wide.

Step 2: Cut the eyes and nose out, the eyes in circle shapes and the nose in an oval shape.

Step 3: Cut the elastic. I cut mine about 10in long to fit all of my lenses, some with lens hoods.

Step 4: Fold the fabric in half hotdog style with the outsides facing each other (inside out) then sew down the side of the fabric (or use iron stitch here and iron down the edge for no-sew version).

Step 5: Flip the strip right side out.

Step 6: String the elastic through by using a bobby pin, or just sliding it down through.

Step 7: Sew the elastic ends together, (or tie it together if using elastic cord or doing a no-sew version).

Step 8: Tuck one end of the fabric tube into the other then sew the two ends of the fabric together, making it like a scrunchy. (If doing a no sew version, iron another piece of iron stitch here).

Step 9: Map out where you want the eyes and nose placed on the scrunchy before gluing, maybe place it on your lens first to see how it will all look. Then hot glue eyes and nose on the scrunchy.

Step 10: Sew the "eyeballs" or buttons on using a needle and thread.

Go take pictures of your little one and watch their face light up at your funny-looking camera.

TADAAAA! Love it? She does!

If this is too daunting, there are other etsy shops like this one, who sell a version of these. 

Would love to see your creations, craft, food, or just bragging about something you've done!

Feel free to grab the button so others can know to share their craft ideas.

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Easy No- Sew Baby Leg Warmer Tutorial and the Cutest Thing I've Ever Made: What I'm Makin' Monday

What am I makin' this Monday? Only the cutest thing I've ever made... Minus my daughter herself.

Thursday night I was up until some crazy hour finishing on last Halloween dress for Lil' J to wear to school Friday. I purposely have been making ONLY seasonal clothes for her because that way I'm on a deadline to finish them all before the holiday is over. It forces me to use the fabric, and learn faster.

This is a reverse-knot dress. I got this pattern from Designs by Elli Ette Boutique. I added the sash myself by just sewing the right side ends together of 4in wide and 52in long fabric (hot dog style). Then flip it inside out and sew the ends.
Easy peasy!

But not as easy as these leg warmers she's wearing. I did an easy tutorial for them before she was born that was pretty easy but these were even easier.

I made her dress the night before right? Well, that next morning as we were leaving for work I realized it was sooo cold out! So I ran up to her sock drawer and pulled out some knee-high Halloween socks I had on standby. They are women's knee-high socks. There was a black pair and a striped pair so I grabbed one of each. I'm into mismatched leggings right now.

I ran downstairs and turned them in to leg warmers in 5 seconds... All you need are knee-high socks and scissors (preferably fabric scissors, but whatever).

Step 1: Cut the feet section off your socks.

TADA! You're done!

I put them on her with the top part of the socks that has the elastic stretch towards her thigh, and the ends are just loose. You can fold them up and pin them from the inside with a safety pin if you want or just do what I did and leave it unfinished. You can't really tell, since it's knit fabric it doesn't fray, and they are way cute and fast! Of course if you have more time check out my other tutorial for a slightly nicer way to finish them off.

It makes or a cute outfit spicer upper.

We went to the store with her dressed like this after work and school and at least 10 people commented on her outfit or "costume" as some called it. When some asked me what she was I said "a pretty witch" ... Whatever. I made the coordinating small bow that's in some of the photos. The fancy hat she's wearing in the others is by London Blue Designs and her shoes are from Cambria Laine.

I also made her Lamb Halloween Costume and I'll try to post a tutorial for that next week, unless it's lame that it's after Halloween. If so I'll just post a photo when I get a good one.

I hope you're enjoying my more frequent Makin' Monday posts. I'm trying to be more crafty and share what I'm making. Many of you have shared your new sewing talents with me posting pictures on my facebook page and emailing me, I'm loving it!It's great finding new ideas to try, testing them out, and sharing the ease of it all. I think is blog is motivating me to be crafty. Yall's positive reinforcement really helps. So THANKS!

Seriously, if I can do this stuff, you can too! I'm hoping to make a really easy dress tutorial soon if I can figure out how to make it myself. I'm also pinning sewing ideas like crazy on pinterest, so if you want to follow me there, my board to watch for is "SEW Making This"

Did you make anything this week?

I'd love to see! Link up! Grab a button to share if you want too!

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