{little girl} hair bow

Last week a friend called me up and asked if I would help her with a bow she wanted to make for her soon-to-be baby girl {it is one of the same friends that I celebrated with a few weeks back}. I had made a variation of the type of bow she was wanting to do, but not the exact type she was wanting to try. However, I am always up for something new, so I told her to come on over and we would try it out. The bows that we made were seriously the easiest bow ever!!!! EVER!!! {I can not emphasize this enough} E.V.E.R!

When she was over we made a sweet little headband for her baby to wear home from the hospital, as well as matching bows for her other little girl and for Soph. 

We made the three bows in about 30 minutes. And that was the first time we made them... love when things are easy and don't take me all day to make!

{What you need}

~ fabric {you can use any type you want... you can use anything from organza to burlap}

~ hot glue

~ alligator clip {or a headband, or really any type of clip you want}

{one} Cut circles of different sizes {small, medium, and large}. The size of circle depends on what you want your bow to look like. For the bow I made I cut 2" circles, 1 1/2" circles, and 1" circles. {I cut about 6 of each size of circle. You may not need that many, but it is nice to have lots of each size to choose from when you start glueing}

{two} Hot glue one of your 1" circles to the inside of your clip as a base {if you are using a headband, glue the circle to the underside of your headband}

{three} Take one of your large circles and fold in half, and then over once more. I like to fold mine not exactly in half. This makes the layers uneven and gives nice fullness. 

{four} Hot glue your folded circle to the clip at the center of your base circle. 

{five} Continue folding your large circles and glueing to the base till you have the base circle completely covered. 

{six} Fold your other circles in the same fashion. Glue them into place where needed to get the fullness you desire.

{variations} For the bow that I did, I took a few of my 1" circles and scalloped the edges before placing them in the middle. You could also add a couple of buttons or beads to the middle for something different {we added three white buttons to the headband and it was very cute... just wish I had taken pictures}


And just to remind you how d-a-r-l-i-n-g this bow is on top of a little head, I leave you with this...

Happy Bow-ing!

Reusable Grocery Bags

Starting October 15th, Portland will be banning the use of plastic bags at grocery stores. The hope is that it will help the environment and reduce the hazards that these bags cause on marine life. Those that passed the ban {and those in favor of it} also hope that it will be an incentive for shoppers to bring their own reusable bags to the store with them {the ban only keeps grocers from using plastic bags, paper bags are still available to customers}. 


James' Grandma's birthday is coming up, and as I was brainstorming ideas for what to do for her, this {soon-to-be} ban was brought to my attention. I figured making her some reusable produce and grocery bags would be such a great and practical gift since she lives in the city. 


I threw around the idea of using one of my reusable bags as a pattern, but I found a great pattern at JoAnn's that was cute and different, and decided that using that would be a better idea {and cause much less grief than going at it alone}. I used this See & Sew Butterick pattern. 

It really was very easy, just like the pattern says! The most difficult part was the bias tape. Am I the only one that can not, for the life of me, sew a straight line when I am sewing bias tape! OYE! To cover up my less than perfect seem, I used a decorative hem on my sewing machine... it turned out super cute and actually made me really happy that my first hem came out *ahem* less then straight. 


After I sewed the grocery bag, I decided to also make some cute produce bags but I was having a hard time deciding how I wanted them to look. I threw around the idea of making them out of mesh fabric, but I happened to find a yard of muslim in the remnant bin and decided to just do that instead.


Once I got home I just started cutting... seriously! I went into making the produce bags with NO IDEA how I wanted them to look or what size I wanted them to be. 

The first bag I cut ended up being about the same size as a standard plastic bag you get on the produce aisle. I did the embellishment BEFORE I sewed the bag together. To do the embellishment I cut a long strip of my leftover flower fabric and sewed up the middle using the longest stitch on my machine. Then to ruffle it I carefully pulled the bottom thread. Once I got the right amount of ruffle I pinned it down in a big letter P {the P is for his Grandma's last name, but it also could stand for produce, since that is what will go in there}. I sewed the P in place with my sewing machine {word to the wise... when sewing your ruffle into place the quicker you sew the better your ruffle will stay evenly ruffled. If you go to slow, the machines foot will push the ruffle out of your material}. Next I sewed up the side and the bottom right side out, and then put it inside out, pressed it, and sewed again {making a french seam}. Lastly, I sewed the top by making a little pocket for the cording by folding the top over twice and sewing close to the edge... you know what I mean, right? Then I added the cording by attaching the end to a safety pin and sliding it through the pocket. 

The second bag I made is a bread/baguette bag. This bag is actually the exact same size of fabric as the produce bag, except I folded the material the hotdog way versus the hamburger way. I also added the ruffle before sewing it together. I did the ruffle the same way as before, but instead did a little stripe of the flower fabric. 


These bags turned out so cute, that I was very tempted to keep them for myself and just bring his Grandma some flowers for her birthday!

The wrapping turned out to cute that I had to share as well. I folded and wrapped all three bags in tissue paper, and then cut two large rectangles a little bigger than the biggest wrapped bag. 

I sewed up three sides of the brown paper, put the three folded bags inside, and then sewed up the fourth side {be careful that your paper is big enough that when you sew up the final side, you don't accidentally sew into your gift}. 

Lastly, I made a cute bow out of the leftover scraps {I attached the bow to a hair clip and stuck the clip through the paper to get it to stay}. 

Then I made a card out of some leftover ruffle and card stock.  To finish the card off, I sewed a leaf pattern to hold the two pieces of card stock together, and attached the card to the gift with the bow!

I even made a bow for Soph's hair to match. This bow took about 10 minutes, from start to finish. And all that was required was a clip, hot glue and fabric... THAT'S IT!!!! 


Easy+adorable= winning combination! 


Check back Wednesday for a tutorial of how I made the bow for her hair!


I linked up to Someday Crafts... go check it out for even more inspiration!

It's Ladies Night!

I love a reason to go out and celebrate! Job promotions, holiday's, heck I have even been known to go out and celebrate a good deal that I found at the store... 


So, when one of my good friends suggested that we go out and have a girls night before I had Sophia last year, I was all for it. Fast forward to one year {almost exactly}, that friend and another friend are 'bout ready to pop, so we went out to enjoy a last hurrah before their lives were overtaken once again with sleepless nights and dirty diapers. 

It was so much fun to go out with just the girls and celebrate. We went to dinner at PF Changs and then went and grabbed some Frozen Yogurt and sat outside and talked and laughed {I know we are wild and crazy... right?}

And since I can't go anywhere or celebrate anything without making something to commemorate the occasion, I made a cute little pull tab mommy emergency kit. I got the idea from the site Our Best Bites. It was originally a Mother's Day gift idea, but I thought it would be so perfect for a getting-ready-for-a-new-baby gift too. 


Items Needed:
~ Pull tab can
~ Hot glue gun
~ Treats for in the can {candy, candle, trail mix, etc}
~ Baggies
~ Card stock
~ Ribbon
~ Printer {to print the little signs for the can}


You can do this with any size of pull tab can that you want. I used a larger soup can, because I wanted to be able to put more stuff in it than I would have been able to with a tiny can. 


To create this, all I did was remove the bottom of the can with a can opener and cleaned it out really well. Then once it was dry I stuffed it with little baggies of candy, a candle, and some trail mix. You could put whatever you want in the can... that is the beauty of this little project. 


Once it is stuffed with good stuff, I hot glued the bottom back on, and decorated the outside of the can with some craft paper and ribbon. I modified the words that Our Best Bites used, by just removing the happy mother's day, and recreating the same thing in a word document. 



Once it was all put together I added a little baggie {which was just a sandwich bag, cut way down with little scalloped edges} that had a pair of ear plugs with a little note that said, "For added enjoyment, use these while consuming contents of this package." 

Hopefully, these will come in handy for those days when the mom's just need a little break!