Has it really been almost a month?

Wow.  I do get distracted.  Last time I posted, the current pumpkinhead was just a baby form.  Now it's getting a base coat; photos soon.  I am posting a "How To" for the pumpkin masks on Cut Out + Keep.

Fancy Bat is taking shape.  The only parts left to make are the leggings and the shirt.  I'm still frightened of knit.  I am sewing a practice set before cutting into the actual costume fabric.

I made my first turban and wore it to a holiday party.  I used these instructions in a size medium.

 

Okay, last thing today, a picture of my daughter's room taken while she was in ballet for the day.

She gets the best light in the house.

xoxo,

bmerry

From Wrist Brace to Statement Cuff

Hello!  I still have tendinitis.  Which means I still have a brace.  Well, I have a brace to wear indefinitely and I'm sure I paid an unreasonable amount for this accessory.  Since I have to wear it though, why not have fun with it?  I can pretend it's a bracelet and since it's big, it can be a statement cuff, right?  It works.  I mean, people decorate their casts so why not their wrist braces?

The materials; oops this was an after though photo (my brace is already bedazzled).

 I chose to go with black and gold studs.  You'll need a brace, studs (mine weren't silver so I liquid leafed them), jewelry pliers, utility knife, marking pencil, and if you want a different finish, liquid leaf, and a paint brush.

I had metal studs that I purchased years ago (Ms. Merry is a punk rockeh).  All the studs were silver though and I wanted gold. I counted out the amount of studs I would need and painted them with 2 coats of liquid leaf.  After they dried, I placed them on the brace and marked where to cut to attach them.  These studs have prongs on the bottom that fold over and grip the fabric so you'll need to make a little hole to pop the prong through.  You can use a tape measure to get everything exact or you can just eyeball it.  I measured a little and then it just started doing it's own thing.  So I started to  lay the studs out and mark where the prongs hit so that I wasn't messing up and cutting extra holes.  Use the pliers to bend the prong over and hold the stud in place.  That's it.  If you want to get even more fabulous and fancy you can use some glitter tape (as seen in the photo above).  This tape came out of the Target dollar aisle and it actually sticks to the fabric really well.

Boom!  Statement Cuff.

Of course, why stop there?  Do your nails and put on some rings.

X's and O's,

Tendinitis B

Pompom Wreath

Finished wreath

Hello kittens!

Awhile ago, I went crazy and bought every size of pompom maker available.  I made a huge amount of pompoms.  I used them for various things, headbands, garlands, etc., but I still had (and have) and basket full of them.  

During December I bought two of those super fab boxwood wreaths from Trader Joe's.  So... the Christmas decorations are still on the front porch and maybe the lights are still hanging.  The boxwood is all dry and crumbly now, but it's attached to a substantial wire frame.  I was looking through the Dottie Angel blog over the weekend, and dreaming of being able to wear an apron that well, when I saw a pompom wreath she had made.  I made my decision to use up my supply of pompoms to make a wreath as well.

I pulled all the boxwood out of the wire frame and made a huge mess while doing so.  This probably would have worked better outside.  So if you have one of those wreaths and plan to re-use it, this step is best completed while standing next to the compost pile.

Frame from the boxwood wreath

This is what I was left with.  I grabbed my basket of pompoms and heated my glue gun.  I left long strings on the pompoms I made so I used the string to tie them to the frame first, but then I made sure they stayed in place with hot glue.  I placed the largest pompoms next to the prong areas first and filled in from there.  I used my smaller pompoms to hide any visible ends of the wire once the curved sections were filled in.

I cut some ribbon and knotted it around the wreath.  Then I decided that I needed to tie in the red that was on my left over Christmas twigs (that have since become Valentine's decor) so I got out a piece of bakers twine and some red washi tape to make mini garland.

Detail

If you do not have a pompom maker, you can use another method like this one that is done with cardboard.  Additionally, if you don't have a wreath frame, you can cut a circle (or whatever shape you like) out of cardboard and glue the pompoms to it.

Okay, I promise to remove the Christmas decorations and clean up the porch.  If the polar vortex allows, I will then photograph my happy heart Valentine's twigs (Yay for transitional decor!).

xoxo,

b

It's October!

Hello!  It's October!  First though, the 2013 Room for Color winners are in!  Um, once again, not it, but also once again, I didn't participate to win (although it would be nice).  Go take a look at the winning rooms.

Back to October...

The decorations are slowly going up.  I have a paper pumpkin assembly line in my living room and I have a theme.  This year I'm doing pumpkin patches, but probably a haunted pumpkin patch for the house and a cutesy patch for the faux office.

2013 Halloween wreath

I used scavenged materials from Octobers past to make a wreath.  I also painted the face of the pumpkins with glow paint, but I have no idea if it's actually working.  I like it.  I bought two wire wreath frames from the thrift store a while ago so I might make another one or just wait and do a general Fall wreath.

All Hallows Mess

Here you can see a variety of projects piled together.  A sewing pile on the dress form, a witch hat waiting to be hung, and the first 3 pumpkins in my faux pumpkin patch.  Right now I am very much into DIY decorative lawn stakes.  They make a big impact and as long as there are boxes to recycle and acrylic paints, I can make them.  I just glue sticks to the back and pop them in the ground.

Lawn stakes from Amazon.

Above are the decorations that I ordered.  They're a little smaller than I expected, but they're nice.

Mums

Don't forget the mums!  I ran out of nice planters to put them in, so here's a festive grocery bag.  It's rustic right?  the colors work.  I put a drip tray in the bottom so I'm not ruining the bag.  I was content with my thrifty solution.

Pumpkin Pouf

Over the summer, I bought a 20lb box of Poly-Fil.  If you aren't familiar with this product, that's A LOT of Poly-Fil (more than I realized).  So I've been making poufs and cushions.  Of course all of the outdoor poufs are in my summer colors and patterns.  I wanted to keep them on the porch because we use them a lot, but I wanted to include them in my fall decorating.  The Great Pumpkin Pouf cover is the solution.  I'm also going to try to make some black cat floor cushions, but those aren't done yet.  Pumpkin pouf is a giant fabric pumpkin, but I didn't have to stuff it because I slid my outdoor pouf inside, tied it with twine, and then wrapped the excess fabric in green to make a stem.  You follow the basic instructions for fabric pumpkins, but you use a piece of fabric large enough to cover your pouf.  Then you skip a few of the sewing steps; I rubber banded the bottom closure instead of sewing and I just wrapped twine around the pouf to make the pumpkin segments (for the fabric pumpkin you would sew through the center of the form, but that just isn't going to work for something this big).

xoxo, 

pumpkin patch

b

The wig is done!

Sewing piles

There was a lot of the above for a few days.  Numerous piles of 12 strands each ready to be lined up and sewn.  This was probably the most un-fun part of yarn wig making, but...  It's over now!

Getting the character involved a bit.

Now there's a big pile of long and luxurious wig.  If my face were blue this might be more convincing...  Anyway, it ended up taking less time than I had anticipated (which is great because I still have the rest of the costume to mend) and less yarn.  The original tutorial used 2 skeins of yarn and although I wasn't using the same kind of yarn, I went with two as well because I was making a long wig for a larger child (my daughter almost the same size as me currently).  I was wrong.  Also, I should add that I did follow the first part of the Jasmine wig tutorial exactly, but I wasn't sure how far onto the wig cap she sewed the yarn.  I started sewing at the front edge of the stalking cap (I put the tag in the back) and I had enough yarn to give full coverage once I got to the end of the crotch seam (which should be roughly in the middle of the cap).  If I had added more yarn past this point, I'm not sure if it would have laid properly and it might have become too heavy.  The point is, you can stop sewing there or a little earlier if you're planning to let the hair hang.

1 skein + is how wrong I was.

Now comes the debate; do I dare attempt a return without a receipt (and to be technical their return policy does say that this can be done for store credit) or do I find a use for all this extra yarn?  I don't know how to knit, but I suppose you can do other things with yarn.

Now that we have the wig, I want to give her a proper Sally blue face.  Also, this doesn't work.  Pinterest fail.

XOXO,

b