Two Little Smiles

Pillowcase hanging hamper!

2011-03-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

So, we have an incredibly small kids/guest bathroom. It absolutely has zero room for a clothing hamper. I had to create something that could possibly hang on the back of the door. In order to do that I took the width measurement of our over the door towel hanger that has two hooks on the bottom for hanging robes and such. I then made two pillowcases that were the width of the two hooks apart and about three feet in length. I made two pillowcase so that it would be double lined and be a little more sturdy. I then made some cute appliques. The kids'/guests' bathroom is decorated in a jungle theme. So, I made a giraffe and elephant applique for the outside of the hamper. After attaching those I then attached two tubes of fabric (about 1/2 in width) to the backside of the pillowcase openning. I did two of these. These tubes would be tide and used to hang from the hooks on the over the door towel hanger. After that it was finished! Here's the finished product:

Craft Organizer w/ Tutorial!

2011-03-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

So...my crafting is beginning to take over our master bedroom. Lucky for me my loving husband allows me to take over our room in that fashion. In order to make more room in our bedroom, and get rid of one set of plastic drawers, I made a hanging craft organizer. This isn't the most detailed tutorial but I think most people will get the jist of it!

So what I did was take a spare picture frame. This one just happened to house a piece of canvas art that I did not care for. My husband likes it so now it will find a home in his classroom at work.

So, after removing the unwanted picture, I place the frame right face down on to some brown fabric, which is actually leftovers from a brown flat bed sheet that I used to make Aaron's shepherd costume.

Anyway, I measured enough fabric that it would leave about an inch on the back of the frame so it could be secured with staples or finished nails.

Next...After measuring the main piece of fabric I went on to measure the fabric for the pockets.

I cut three strips of fabric about 8 inches in height and same width as the main fabric piece. I pressed the bottom edge of each pocket under and sewed it to the main fabric piece. I then sewed up each of the sides of the pocket. You do not need to pressed under the sides of the pockets because that part will actually be hidden behind the back of the frame!

Next secure the fabric to the frame - like we did the the $2.00 wall art tutorial. All you have to do is lay your fabric right side facing down on the floor, place your frame on top of the fabric and the secure one side to the back of the frame with finishing nails or staples and then do the same thing to the opposite side. Do the same step for the other two sides.

To hang your new organizer you will need to use wall anchors so it doesn't fall off the wall! I used a heavy duty piece of picture hanging wire on the back of my organizer and used heavy duty frame hooks on the wall to secure the organizer to the wall!

Finished Product

Now the crafting area or "Sanguine Corner" as my husband calls it looks much better!

Happy crafting!

$2.00 Custom Art w/ Tutorial!

2011-03-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

So, I absolutely love the Clearance/Discount area of HobbyLobby. That's always the first section I head for, because face it some artsy stuff is just too dang expensive! Anyway, upon shuffling through the clearance aisle I stumbled upon two pieces of stretched fabric on canvas stretchers.

So not really my style of fabric, but hey you can't beat getting these for $1.00 each! So...after finding these I thought that I could take off the old fabric and use some left over fabric and make some cute wall art for Mary's room.

So .... here we go!

Step One - Remove the old fabric from around the frame. To do this flip over the canvas and pull out the staples or nails with pliers. Pretty easy to do!

Step Two - Take your new fabric and and cut it down to size. Leave about two inches of fabric on either side to insure that you have enough fabric to staple or nail to the frame.

Step Three - Now, staple or nail the fabric down to one of the edges of the frame then do the opposite edge, pulling tightly. Then do the other two edges the same way. Leave the corners to do last.

Step Four - How to fold the corners. To finish the corners, tuck in the extra fabric as if you're wrapping a gift. Then staple or nail them to secure. Trim any extra fabric off with scissors.

Here's a picture of what the back should look like

Here's a picture of what the front looks like.

Now I didn't want to leave mine plain so I sketched a little "retro" bird, a branch, and a bird house to add to the art.

I sketched the images onto Heat N Bond iron on adhesive. I then adhered the heat n bond to some fabric and cut out the images. Then I ironed the images on to the canvas.

Here's the final result:

Happy Crafting!

Hanging Cloth Bookshelf

2011-03-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

or Fabric Holder or Whatever else you want to stuff in it!

I was inspired by this bookcase

I love the design but I was still afraid that my toddler would climb up the the shelf still. So I thought using something to secure it to the wall would be a great idea. Upon hanging some curtains I thought of using the double curtain brackets to secure it to the wall. I thought of just using a double curtain rod set but most of the ones I could find looked kinda dangerous with pointy ends, so I figured a piece of pvc pipe (hehe) or dowel rods would work. The dowel rods looked a lot better so I decided to use those!

You will need:

Fabric - 1 1/2 yards to be safe!
Thread
Sewing machine
Two dowel rods (I use 1 inch or 3/4 inch rods) or pvc
Two double curtain rod brackets (can be found at Lowes in the curtain rod section)
Power drill
Pencil

Step One:

Measure your dowel rods. Mine were 4ft long. So I cut my fabric length to 42 inches long and 24 inches wide.

Step Two:

Hem the short edges of your fabric (ie the 24 in sides). A half inch hem will work just fine!

Step Three:

Now create a casing for your dowel rod (the casing will be on the long side of the the fabric 42 in side). I fold about 2 inches of fabric over to create the casing. You then sew the casing! Just don't sew it closed the edges!!

See now you've made a casing!!!

Step Four:

Now make a casing for the other side!

Step Five:

Install your double rod curtain brackets on the wall. This is where your power drill comes in handy! Use one of your dowel rods to help mark the width the brackets will be installed apart. I leave about an 1 inch or 1 1/2 inches of dowel on the side of my bracket (you will see this in the final product picture). Be sure you use the anchors that come with the brackets! This will keep your hanging bookshelf from falling off the wall!

Step Six:

Place the dowel rods into the brackets on one side and slip the dowel rods through the casings on the fabric and then through the remaining brackets.

Step Seven:

Tighten the securing screws on the brackets to hold the dowel rods in place.

Step Eight:

Step back and admire your awesome craftiness!!

Final Product

This is one that I completed a week or so ago. I could not hang tonight's shelf because the babies are sleeping and the power drill would wake them up! It works great for holding fabrics! You could even get SUPER! crafty and add little pockets to the front to hold your scissors, fabric marking pens, etc.

Total Costs:

4.97 for each bracket at Lowes

2.18 for each dowel rod

1.98 for the clearance table cloth that I used as fabric

New Blog Design!

2011-03-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

I have to give a big thank you to Shabby Blogs for their totally awesome and FREE!!! graphics!!

First Craft Share!

2011-02-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

So, I've had this one design in my head for several months now for a baby dress with a rounded yoke collar. Now, I don't have the pattern ready yet...as hubby has to teach me how to use the tablet feature on his laptop! But...I can at least share some of the pictures of Mary's new dress!

And I have to say that I'm absolutely in love with clothing snaps. If you've ever tried to button up a dress or shirt on a toddler then you know it's easier to wrestle an alligator! Whenever I put Mary in a dress that has buttons it feels like I've been working out for an hour after I've finally finished buttoning the last button. Simple solution to this problem are Snaps!

These can be found at Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics, etc. They come in the sew-on option or the option that requires a small tool and a hammer. I like using the one with the small tool and hammer because I don't have the patience to sew on these little things!

Anyway...

Here's a viewing of the new dress... and I promise I'll post a tutorial very soon!

Please forgive the crazy stitching on the collar! I had a toddler in my lap at the time!

I've decided with the next dress that I'll hide the snaps. I can't sew on a button because of how the snaps are designed, but I can encase the snaps within the fabric so that they will not show! I'll add that to the tutorial!

Welcome!

2011-02-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

I've been putting off the creation of this new blog for some time now. My life has been so busy lately, especially with two toddlers! But as I've been told many times now that I should have an outlet for expressing my creativity. I'll be posting crafting projects, tutorials, and my craftastrophies that happen along the way.