Fun with flowers and tutorial

Before I get to the flowers, I need to tell you that I made the best gumbo on Tuesday night.  To celebrate Mardi Gras, I decided it wouldn't be right if we didn't have a little cajun goodness. 

 On the menu: 

Shrimp, Sausage, Chicken Gumbo

Androuille Sausage Creole

Cajun Shrimp and Cucumber Salad

Crepes

King's Cake

Sangria

It was all so wonderful!

I snagged the gumbo recipe from here and the salad recipe from here.  Both are on the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website.  For the sausage creole and sangria, just hit up the Food Network website for both. I'll admit, the King's Cake was not homemade.  But everything else was, so that makes up for it, right?

I've been trying my hand at making some flowers.  You've seen the felt flowers.  This week, I've worked on a few with normal fabric :)  These are two I've made so far:

I got tutorials for both of these flowers at Prudent Baby.  So much easier than I thought it would be.  I took the first flower and incorporated it into a little project I did.  And this leads me to a tutorial. . .

Skirt Slip Tank Top
I was at a little boutique a few weeks ago and I saw tank made with a skirt slip.  I thought it was the cutest thing.  I knew it would be perfect in the summer time over a solid colored tank.  Because I always think I can make anything (I like to pump myself up), I decided to make one for myself.  It actually turned out alright.  What do you think?

(You can't see my face because I don't have makeup on and I don't want to scare you!)


It wasn't that difficult to make.  So, here's how I did it:

Necessities:

Skirt slip (it needs to be wide enough to fit around your chest)
Doilies (as many or as little as you'd like)
Fabric (for the straps; you won't need a lot, I used scraps)
Buttons
Fabric flower
Ribbon
Needle
Coordinating thread

1) I started by picking out the buttons I wanted to use as decoration.  I placed one at the center of each doily.  You'll also need two matching ones to attach to your straps.

2) After I attached the buttons, I laid out the doilies to decide how I wanted them placed on the top.  Once I got what I wanted, I hand-sewed the doilies together.  Remember to use coordinating colored thread because you don't want your crazy sewing to show.  You'll want to make sure the doilies are pretty secure to each other, so sew all over the place (that's what I mean by crazy sewing!).

After connecting the doilies, attach it to the slip.  I hand-sewed this as well.  And I didn't sew all the doilies to the slip, because I was afraid it would bunch up.  I chose to just sew the top two doilies, but I did sew all along the circle.  It should be pretty secure.

3) Next, I made the straps.  I cut my fabric to be 21 inches long x 2.5 inches wide (and you'll need to do that twice).  Then fold the fabric in half, lengthwise, right sides together.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam down the long side, making sure not to close off the ends.  Once that is done, turn them right side out.  To finish the ends, I just folded them 1/4 inch and sewed.

(My sewing machine went wonky, so I apologize for the jumbled thread-mess!)

4) Next, make button holes on one end of your straps.  This is how you'll attach them in the front.

(Please shield your eyes to the dry, scaliness of my fingers. . .yuck!)

5) Decide on the placement of your straps.  I tried on the shirt and placed a pin in the spots where I wanted my buttons to go.  I then attached my buttons and buttoned the straps to them.  Then I tried on the top again, but backwards. . .so I could see the back and figure out where I wanted the straps to attach on the back.  Does that make sense?  I'm sure there's a better way, but this worked for me.  I don't have picture, but if I did it would be silly.
After pinning the straps to the back, I hand-sewed them to the top.

6) Because my slip has a little slit on one side, I wanted something to cover it.  I chose to put a flower there.  Just enough detail to take away from the fact that there's a slit.  I took this flower:

I attached some ribbon and a felt backing to it and began sewing it to the top of the slit.

7) After that, all you need to do is to trim off any stray thread that might be hanging around, try it on, and marvel at your beautiful creation.

I plan to wear mine over a solid pink tank (which is in the wash, that's why it isn't being shown here).  The fabric of my straps is a coordinating fabric to the one used for the flower.  I wanted something with color and a pattern, because the slip and doilies are just white.  I'm please with the way it turned out.  I can't wait for warmer weather so that I can wear it.  Tell me what you think!


Because I like to put silly pictures of my children on here, I'll leave you with a couple to make you smile:

She likes to put the headband on herself.  She also likes to wear my shoes.  These ones were a little too high for her to lift her leg into, so my hubs need to help.  It was so funny watching her try to walk, while saying, "Look at me, Mommy, look at me!!!"

We lost our first tooth! (can you tell?)

A little K-State love. . .even though they lost yesterday.

A couple of things

To start, I have to tell you that life as I know it has ended.  Something alarming happened to me two days ago.  It was shocking and a little bit scary.  It was something that snuck up on me, practically in the middle of the night.  Out of nowhere this unwanted visitor showed up.  Two days ago. . .

I FOUND A GRAY HAIR!!!

It was awful and traumatic!  I don't know where it came from.  One singular gray hair, taunting me in the mirror.  It was reminding me that in a few months, I won't just be almost thirty, I'll actually be thirty.  (Side note: I feel that if I type out the word thirty rather than the numbers, it doesn't look as obvious.)  I couldn't find my tweezers to pull it out (it was short) and because I'm not one to over-react, I did the next logical step. . .I immediately went out and bought a box of hair dye!  So, now my hair is nice deep brown all over, with zero chances of that pesky gray hair popping up and taunting me again.  My wonderful husband told me that it was just a fluke and that I'm not going gray.  He said that it probably wasn't a gray hair after all and just the way the light was hitting my hair. . .do you see why I love that man?!

I took his words to heart.

Maybe he was right.

I dyed my hair anyways.  He could be wrong and I didn't want to take any chances.

So, crisis averted and all is well.  My hair looks nice and I feel better.  Now on to craftiness. . .

I finally made a circle skirt.  I'm unhappy with the elastic on the top, so I won't be tucking in any shirts while wearing it.  But I am happy with the way it looks.  I just need to finish the hem. . .shocking, I know.  If you've read any of these blog posts, you'll know that I hate the hem.  I need to get to it though, because things are piling up.  But here's the skirt:

I apologize for the lighting.  Remember, I'm just using my iPhone.  It kind of looks brown, but it isn't.  It is a deep purple with green vines and little blue flowers.  It's cute.  I'm ready to make another, so a visit to the fabric store may be on the agenda for this long weekend.

I also made the little girl another pair of leggings.  I didn't plan on making them, but I promised something crafty on my next blog post and I wasn't sure if I was going to finish the circle skirt.  The leggings are an easy project.  Plus, I saw the cutest socks at Target that I HAD to get.  So I cut them up and made. . .

If you didn't see the previous post with these on them, I found the tutorial here.  They're super easy.
And finally, last night I whipped together a little headband.  I saw them in a store and thought I could make it myself.  There are a few things I'll work on for the next time, but all in all, I'm happy with it.  Plus, I can use it to cover up any gray hairs I may see in the future :)

And that's all I have for you now.  We're headed out of town for the weekend, so I need to get us packed and the house cleaned.  Who else here hates leaving your house a mess when you go away?  ME ME!  Oh, and I think the dog wants to be fed eventually.

Happy weekend!

The Graphics Fairy