Christmas Wreath

I wanted to try my hand at a wreath this year. Pinterest's wonderful ideas had gotten to me. I had planned to add some pinecones to it, but I didn't have "pretty enough" pinecones, so I stuck with just using faux hydrangeas from Michael's.

I love how it came out!

I bought the grapevine wreath in the craft section at Wal-Mart for $3.99. The flowers were on sale back in October for 99c per bunch at Michaels; I bought 6 bunches. Probably a dozen glue sticks in there too. And the bow was made with Dollar Store Christmas ribbon. It took me parts of 2-3 evenings. Probably 2-3 hours.

Remove the flowers from their plastic stems (but leave the little pieces in the middle of the flower, it will be about a cm long underneath, you need this to help glue it in). First glue down the leaves for coverage. If there are any gaps, you'll only see leaf, rather than wreath. Then start glueing down the flowers. A quick circle of glue around the stem of each flower is good. As you get further in, you can just glue the petals down as they will stick to other leaves and flowers.

A Christmas bow tutorial video for your reference.

Welcome to BBD!

One of my favorite items - and apparently yours too - are my aprons. They are so much fun! The color options are endless. They are durable. They are pretty. What more do you want in a kitchen?Want a chance to win one?
An apron of your choice is up for grabs over on Facebook. Like Bouncing Blossom Designs on Facebook, leave a comment, and get your friends to like your comment.

The poster with the most comments by 10am Friday morning (yes, just 2 hours away!) wins an apron.

And keep your eyes out for another giveaway here in the very near future!

Fabrics I dig!

In preparation for some pregnancy sewing projects - the Sew & Grow with Me series - I had a look around at some cute jersey knit. Don't you just love these fabrics?!

Love the colors in this.

I love stripes, and I especially love this color combination.

One of my favorite colors!

Grass green with silver polka-dots.

Word is out!

I've been sitting on a secret since the beginning of August. I don't keep secrets well. And I don't like keeping them!

We're having a baby - April 8, 2012! Which puts me at 12 weeks, 1 day right now.

As soon as I found out I was expecting I hit the internets for maternity fashion ideas. I always do. But this time, I ran across something super-fun!

DIYMaternity.com ----- check this out!

I got permission from the author to use their tutorials (and some of their patterns, which of course I'll purchase) to do a series. I'll sew along through their tutorials, making what's shown there, and in the process build myself a pregnancy wardrobe.

It's still in the works - I've got my cousin/friend/graphic designer working on headers and buttons and such right now. And *of course* I'll have to start sewing through some of the tutorials. I'll throw in some other tutorials from online and maybe a few of my own.

Back soon!

Would you like to follow along? Welcome!

Packaging and presentation

I'm still perfecting my packing and presentation for items that go in the mail. I prefer to fold them and tie them with a simple ribbon. But unfortunately some items really need to "sheltered". Like the white satin flower girl dress that went in the mail today. That I wanted to put in a ziplock bag to protect (but I didn't).

So these last two items I wrapped in tissue paper. I hate the way used tissue paper looks when it comes out of a mailer. But .... until I find a better option, it's the way it's got to be.

The Rapunzel Braid

We're big into Tangled around here. It's pretty much a princess-y world at my house. So recently, when Oceana was invited to a Tangled-themed birthday party, a Rapunzel costume seemed like the right direction to go.

I went with the Rapunzel costume pattern from Simplicity (which was on sale a few weeks ago for $1!). The more I looked at the way they put their yarn braid together, the more I got annoyed. It seemed like a lot of work for something that wasn't going to turn out looking right.

So here's my own version of the Rapunzel braid. :) 2 skeins gave me 2 large and 1 small (Naomi length) Rapunzel braids. We used leftover flowers from my friend/sister's wedding and a hot glue gun.

Needed:

1 skein of yellow sport weight yarn. I used Red Heart

1 spool of lavender ribbon - under 1/4" is best

2 chairs

flowers

hot glue

I don't have pictures of my process. Sorry :(

I stood two dining room chairs beside each other. For Naomi's braid *2 years old* I put the chairs touching. For the 5 year old version I set the chairs a chair length apart. Tie the end of the yarn to the side of one of the chairs and then wind in a circle around both chairs. Use the entire skein.

Take a small piece of yarn and tie at one end of the yarn - wrap around the entire width of yarn and tie it tightly. Don't trim the yarn, you can just add the edges into the braid.

Cut the opposite end of the yarn - on the other side of the other chair. The lengths should be about equal.

You may need a pair of hands for this next part. Have someone hold one side of the yarn. Begin at the point you've tied halfway down and begin to braid down. After about 6", stop and clamp it with a hairtie or something. Do the same on the opposite side of the tie. You should have about 12" of braid - braiding opposite from the midpoint where you tied.

Now combine the two braids into one and braid down the remainder. Tie off at the end and trim edges.

Unroll entire spool of ribbon. Find midpoint. Tie midpoint around midpoint of braid. Wrap in either direction until meeting where the braids combine. Now overlap the ribbons in opposite directions down the length of the braid and tie a bow.

Hot glue flowers onto the yarn and you're done.

It should look something like this.

I don't have a photo with all the decorations on it just yet, but I'll get on that once we're home from our little weekend trip. :)

Scrapbooking apron

This photo's not anything good quality - just a webcam shot. My camera got left at a friend's house on Sunday. We'll be reunited tonight. :)

Good photos without a studio

So, the truth is that I sew in the finished attic of my 2 bedroom apartment. I climb the stairs in the dark because the stairway is off our bedroom and most often I sew when Matt is asleep. We have two extra beds up in that room, plus my dresser, two sewing desks, an arm chair .... Ok, my point is that I don't have room for a photo studio set up.

Like it or not, a good photo sells an item. A bad photo does bupkis to sell an item.

What's a girl to do when she hasn't got a spare inch of space.

Enter my backyard. Green privacy fence with laundry line strapped to it. Add a few low-hanging tree branches, a handful of toys, and a bright orange water hose.

It's not a photo studio.

But that photo above was taken in my backyard, up against that ugly fence.

I hung two white bedsheets (over each other so it's not see-through) off the tree above the fence, using two clothespins. The resulting photos were okay, but you could see the lines in the bedsheet from folding, as well as the shadowing.

Using Photoshop Elements, I selected the lighten tool in brushes with blurred edge and cleaned up the wrinkles and shadows.

Boom. Easy as pie.

The "Fabulous Apron"

When I was growing up my mom had a go-to apron. It was brown calico on one side with a faux-quilted pattern on the opposite. It was trimmed in brick red bias tape and it was worn. Worn like --- Mom, I can see the quilting batting through that enormous hole at the waistline because you've leaned on the kitchen counter for 15 years in that thing kind of worn.

I was given one apron at my bridal shower and I probably wore it once. It was ok - heavy, red, something about a chicken on the pocket.

But a fabulous apron? Now that's something work wearing!

This one's already sold (one of a kind), but there's plenty more in the works.

Snow White or a Super Hero

If you live in a house of little girls who love princesses, it won't take long for them to start asking to dress like a princess. A few years ago I made my daughter a Snow White costume, complete with a cape, which she was thrilled over. More than a few times I've been accompanied by Snow White on trips to the grocery store. It's amazing the kind of attention princesses get in stores too, it's just short of paparazzi! ;)

Last year around Halloween, when Etsy's Alchemy was still up and running (wahhhh, I loved Alchemy!), I got the chance to make a little Canadian girl her own reversible Snow White cape!

What I love most about this cape is its versatility - it's not particularly girly-looking. So many costumes are strictly boy or girl because of the colors or the style they're made in. But this is an easy switch - Snow White or Super Hero! :)

Without a doubt ...

One of the hardest custom jobs I've ever done!

It took two tries, but the final result was stunning! It was modeled after the anime character Princess Azula.

If you're looking for a costume you can't find in your Halloween catalogue, shoot me an email at bouncing blossom at gmail dot com. I love creating something new!