Shirring

Last summer I made a shirred top and gave it to my sister... So I know how to do it, but today not so much. I am going to blame it on my new machine. Last summer I used my Singer, this time around I used my Brother. Hm. Not sure what happened but after 6 inches of shirring I got nothing.  I even steamed, sprayed with water and threw it in the dryer.  The only way it would work was to pull the threads and that made them break. Yuck.

Any advice? Could it have been my tension?  Thats the only thing I think I did different. I don't remember if my old machine let me really play with tension, but with this machine I adjusted from a 4 to a 3.

Now, I guess I should have listened...

My husband is a mechanic, and I am always hearing him tell everyone that "Preventative maintenance now will save you money in the long run."  So, just today I listened. I was attempting to shirr some fabric for a dress for a pregnant friend of mine and my machine kept jamming.  I opened up the bottom plate and yuck! Look what I found!

Gross! Gross! Gross!

So I got out my handy dandy vacuum which has a million attachments, including a teeny tiny one perfect for sucking our all the lint!

Much better....

Locket Makeover

Little by little, my mom has gone through her mother's cosmetic jewelry and given me some of it.  And some of it well is not the prettiest, or even most normal, but this piece is an exception!

I felt like it was too loud with it being such a bright gold, so I wanted to "age" it to tone it down.

All I did was water down some of my artist acrylics and using a teeny tiny brush added the black. 

I think it is a success!  Now I just need to figure out if I want to do a long or short chain, and which pictures to put inside!

Recipes being organized...

Remember this pile last week of magazine articles, and recipes?

Well I am trying my best to thin out so... I got working on my recipes!

In Word, I created a 4 x 6 document ( Thats how big my recipe box holds) and I started typing each recipe.  Not only will it make them email-able to friends and family, but I also realized that I don't really need some of them, so I didn't type them in!

Did you know you can create different size documents in Word?  All you need to do is go to File>Page Setup. This will open a new box.   Here's what it looks like on my Mac.

Then I changed the size to 6 wide and 4 tall.

See? Now my paper is only as big as my recipe box!  Now I just have to send some plain white index cards through my printer and I have some new recipes, that are easy to read too!

Link Parties!

Just thought I would share where I visit, and link up a lot of my posts too!

Reverse Applique

Do you have a shirt that you LOVE but is stained?  Ugh. Me too. Well not anymore!

Here's my stain, yuck. Mac and Cheese... Thanks Carter. I think I only wore this shirt once. Guess I won't be wearing white for a while!

Centering the stain, I drew what I would sew and cut out.  I chose a heart cause it is a basic shape that I thought would be easy enough to sew.  See my pins? Thats my fabric under neath. Just choose a piece big enough for your design.

Using the edge of my foot as a guide I lined up the left edge with my drawn design, and sewed around once.

See?  

Next, I cut back my fabric revealing my fabric I pinned underneath.

Here's what the back looks like. You can leave your fabric square or...

Cut it down a bit.

Flip and your done!

Soap never looked so good!

Earlier this week, I stopped by Little Apartment on the Prairie, and saw this great soap dispenser. And I had to have them! So easy, so quick. My kind of project!  Here's the tutorial!


And here are mine... I'm not crazy about the blue dispensers, but thats what I had for now! Plus I think you can buy just the dispenser part in stores.. So I will be picking up some for so many more of my jars!

I am even thinking about my lotions that have pumps... On the possibilities are endless!

Happy Father's Day!

I wish I had gotten this up to share late last week, so that others could make it!  But this weekend flew to fast to sit down and post... Sorry!

I saw lots of cute father's day ideas incorporating a tie, but my husband is not a tie person.  After showing the cute tie banners to my sister, she even commented " Too bad our husbands don't wear ties!"  So.. I got thinking what do they like? And I thought perfect... The Nut and Wrench banner!

I didn't think to take pictures step by step, but here is what I did:

Found a nut clip art online, traced it right off my screen ( then I knew exactly what size I was getting)

Then cut out 15 nuts for my letters using white card stock. ( Nice and stiff)

Using tin foil I wrapped each one to make them look like metal.

Then using a jar lid I traced circles for the centers.

Painted each circle black.

When back in once black was dry and painted on letters ( You could use stamps or cut out letters too!)

Then I took my three hole punch and made two of them close together to make even spaced holes. I like two holes in a banner because it lets them lay flat...

I know random, why just this pic?

Threaded with white ribbon, spaced and cut to size.

Done!

Sigh.

I've been really assessing my house situation in the past week or so, and realized I have a lot of clutter. And most of it could probably go. So I started small, with a stack of magazines.  My clutter went from this:

To this!

Ah. Much better!  I ripped out anything I thought was interesting enough to keep, then sat done and went through it again really reading the article/recipe/tip.  I ended up throwing out more the second time too!  

Now I  am thinking of either cutting the recipes out and sticking in my box, or leaving them full sheet for a binder.

Anyone ever do this?  Or have any other ideas? I would love some help!

Another gift for Baby S

On Saturday I attended Baby Boy S's shower.  So I can show my favorite part of the gift I made! You have already seen my knit baby blanket ( my first!) and now I used my embroidery machine to make this:

And of coarse! I do not have a pic of the Older Sister's, but I do have a picture of the one I didn't give her!

  

I ended up not liking how the word sister was thicker ( I changed bobbins) so I ran out and bought a new tank top and redid it.. It came out MUCH cuter!

Home Made Rinse Aid

If you haven't figured out by now, I like to experiment and a lot of the time it saves me money... Well this time I was just being lazy. I cannot believe I just admitted to it, but yes at times I am L-A-Z-Y!

The other night I noticed that we were all out of the Dishwasher's Rinse Aid, but I did have a bottle of  dish soap that was at the very end... So... I thought whats the worst thing that could happen? Bubbles everywhere, not a big deal I could handle the bubbles.

Here's how watered down the detergent was:

All I did was take the bottle of dish soap ( that was lower than the UPC label) and fill with water. It bubbles up so I had let it sit for a day before I put it in my "Rinse Aid" compartment of my dishwasher.  And I have to say it works like a charm. I don't notice a difference between this and the store bought!

Recycled can planter!

I was going to enter this for Iron Crafter, over on Fireflies and Jellybeans, and never got around to it. Maybe next time...

This is so simple, I don't even think I need to use words...

I guess I do now! Ha!  Fill your can with potting soil, add wire or ribbon to the side whole. Add plant. and hang!

I am envisioning a whole wall or fence outside, with each can a different size and color!  Bonus, I believe if you spray paint the can you don't have to worry so much about rust!

I think I will start saving my cans!