Pine Cones Dipped in Glitter

My niece-in-law and I went to gather some  pine cones a while ago and some days ago I decided to glam up the pine cones with some glitter to make them a bit more festive.

For some of the cones I used some leftovers of a gold and a silver glitter. I just brushed on some glue and then sprinkled on the glitter.

 
But as I said those two (very very pretty glitters) were only leftovers from some previous projects so for the rest I just used some golden glitter glue I had and although the glue isn't as sparkly as the leftovers I had, it did the job well enough.
It took a while (approx 1,5 hours) to coat all of the pine cones with the glitter and I also let them dry over night just to be sure the glue has dried properly.

You can use these pine cones to make a garland, or decorate your candle holders or just arrange them in a vase or glass jar and put those on the windowsill.









It looks really pretty and oooh I love the sparkle, especially in candle light. It's a pity that the pictures don't do the glitter justice, it really does sparkle a lot and looks so-soooo beautiful :))

Hopefully I will get at least one more post up before it's Christmas. I can't believe it's just over a week until it's Christmas Eve, I'm so excited!

Ciao-ciao!

PS! Be aware of fire safety if you are using pine cones as decorations around candles. They are very flammable.

Glass Jars and Sparkly Glitter

I wanted to make some candle holders with numbers on them for each of the Advents.
And the easiest way I could think of was to take some random glass jars I had in my collection (yes, I do have a collection of empty jars ;D), some basic paper glue and glitter (I chose red just because I love the colour and I thought it would stand out the most).


 

I used a small brush to make the shape of the numbers with the glue and a fluffy brush to dip it in the glitter and then tap the brush so the glitter would fall on the glue.

I've tried pouring it straight from the little glitter container before and i don't know if it's just me but it made a huuuge mess. It was a little messy even using the brush but not as much as pouring from the container.




When the glitter had completely dried I brushed off the excess with the fluffy brush, then added some candles and... Ta-Daa! Very easy and quick (it probably took me under 30 minutes to make these).

PS. I took most of the pictures already over a week ago ( that's why there's only one candle burning on most of the pictures) but the picture taken in the evening looked best with all the candles burning :))

I hope you're enjoying December, I know I sure am :))
Ciao-ciao!

Pearl Wreath for Christmas

I can't even express how excited and happy I am that it is December already and the Holiday season is on!!
Christmas is definitely my favorite Holiday of the year, I just LOVE it!
I love the weather (especially when it's snowy), I love glögg and ginger breads, I love the festive atmosphere and all the decorations and of course I love spending time with family...do I have to say more? ;D
Every year I try to make some decorations for our home and this year has been the same. I will try to write about as many Christmassy projects as I can and I hope you will enjoy all of them :))
 
I actually made this pearl wreath last year already.
I just used a styrofoam base that I got from a local crafts store, A LOT of different coloured and sized plastic pearls, a hot glue gun and some ribbon.

I basically just glued the pearls on the styrofoam base with my glue gun, arranging the pearls in a way that pleased me. It took much longer than I had anticipated, but it was well forth it. I really like how it came out. It's really festive and that is exactly what I like ;D

I decided to hang it in front of a mirror as I like the effect it gives.

You can see Tindra climbing on some boxes on the background, I actually didn't notice her featuring in the pictures until I looked at the photos on my computer ;P

I'll be back with other Christmassy projects soon, until then I hope you're enjoying the Holiday fuss as much as I am.

Apple jam and pretty little jars

Who doesn't like a nice jar of spicy apple jam?
Well I definitely do and that's why I decided to make some for the first time in my life. I also decided to alter the spices a little for every batch I made just to try out different tastes and combinations :))The actual recipe of the jam is combined from a couple of recipes I found on the internet. And I can tell you that i didn't follow them very strictly, I kind of winged it :P
The only thing I actually tried to follow was that for every liter of cubed apples I used approximately 250g of sugar (maybe little less, because that seemed like A LOT of sugar).
So the recipe that I came up with was something like this:

• Ingredients: 4 l of apples (peeled and chopped into cubes)
                   1 kg of jam sugar (it has some pectin in it witch acts as a gelling agent)
                    spices to your flavor (this is optional)
  
  *I made three different kind of jam: one with
  cinnamon (I put two cinnamon sticks to thepot and added a teaspoon or so of powdered cinnamon also), another one with ginger (I used a couple of teaspoons of powdered ginger but you could also use fresh ginger and grate it into the pot) and the last one with a combination of Christmas spices (a couple of cinnamon sticks, a couple of teaspoons powdered ginger, 6-9 gloves and a teaspoon of ground nutmeg)
  
   
• Making the jam:
  Start with peeling, coring and chopping the apples into cubes. Place into a large pot, pour the sugar over the apples (don't mix), cover the pot and let sit over night. This helps the apples to release their own juices so you don't have to use any water to make the jam. This makes the taste more concentrated. The next day put the pot on medium heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the spices and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes, mixing occasionally.
  While the jam is simmering prep your jars and lids.
  When the jam is ready and your jars are prepped it's time to fill the jars and put the lids on immediately while the jam is still hot (be careful not to burn yourself). this makes sure the lids will be airtight.

When the jars have cooled, it's time to make the labels and decorate the jars (this part is optional of course, but for me it makes the jam even more special).
I used some little doilies, white fabric with little red polka dots and some red yarn.
the doilies were too big so I cut them a bit smaller with these scissors with a zigzag edge, I also cut the fabric with the same scissors.

I wrote the labels, glued them on, put the fabric on the lids and tied it with the yarn. it's fairly simple but it took me a while to tie the fabric on top of the lids, it's more difficult than it seems :P and i should have used different glue for the labels so the writing wouldn't have bled. All in all I'm very happy and proud of my little jars of spicy goodness :))

Have a great weekend!

Do a Redo: Women's shirt into a dress for children

It's been a loooong time since  last posted anything but I want to get back on track again :))
And what would be more suitable than a very summery post about a very summery dress...ok i can think of many more suitable things to post about now that it's getting colder and we're nearing Halloween etc, but the truth is that i was supposed to post about this dress before the summer started and then...the summer started and I forgot...
So I'm posting it now and if not for anything else then at least as a reminder that the summer will return in about ...9 months ;D

But anyways let's get to the business...
So my sister in law gave me a bunch of really airy and light white blouses and at the time I was planning on wearing them during the summer...and then I cut them to pieces and made children's dresses :D




















I used a pattern from a craft magazine I had in my stash. This differs from the post I made about re-purposing a men's shirt into a girl's dress in a couple of ways. Firstly the bodice and the skirt are two separate pieces. I wanted to maintain the interesting look the fabric had originally so I cut the front piece of the bodice out of that and then I wanted the skirt part to be quite gathered and flowing so I pleated the skirt to the bodice.

I left the sleeves loose instead of shirring them like I did with the other dress.It came out pretty much exactly as i wanted it and I will definitely make her a couple of these for next summer, too :))

Hope you have a beautiful autumn day!!
Ciao-ciao!

PS. Looking at these pictures I realized HOW MUCH Tindra has actually grown during the summer :))

Do a re-do: men's shirt into a girls dress

So some weeks ago my hubby and I decided to clear out our closet. And although we donated quite a bit of the clothes that don't fit anymore or we just don't wear anymore we I ended up keeping a bunch in my "I-have-such-great-redo-ideas-I-will-definitely-make-so-I-keep-way-too-many-old-clothes-we-don't use-anymore pile".
And I have actually been trying to make stuff out of those garments in that huge pile. Now that we have a child, it's easier to redo old clothes into new ones because you can just make a smaller version of everything :D
I'm also more motivated to make clothes for my daughter because I love seeing her in cute clothes :))
Anyways let's get into the business.





I took this shirt that didn't fit my hubby anymore. I used the basic guidelines of this tutorial. But I made it a bit easier by taking one of my daughter's dresses placing it on the shirt and tracing around it. I did the same for the sleeves.

 I made the neck casing and put a rubber band inside but I didn't put a rubber band into the sleeves or the waistband. Instead I just shirred the sleeves and also the waistband, much easier in my opinion :))
The little lady is walking on the grass bare feet for the first :)) She didn't find it very enjoyable ;P


















I already have a couple of other dresses in the making, I'll keep you posted on those :))
See you soon!
Ciao-ciao!

Granny Square Dress for a Girl

Ok, so I made this pile of granny squares I showed in my previous post...

 And then I started to put them together.I didn't have any specific plan or pattern I just started to crochet the squares together with a slip stitch. I crocheted the shoulder straps and added some buttons for the fasteners.

 

I also left the back a little bit open and added three buttons there, just to make it easier to put the dress on (it would fit on without the opening also, but it's less fussy like this ;D)

It came out bulkier than I originally planned, I should have used a finer yarn and a smaller hook but then I probably wouldn't have ever finished it (I'm not good with time consuming projects :P).
Maybe I'll be up for the challenge in the future, we'll see :))

I hope everybody is having a wonderful weekend!
Ciao-ciao!

Granny Square Madness

I've been making these granny squares for a couple of weeks now (not non-stop of course but almost every day at least a couple) and I finally have the amount that I need for making a summer dress for my daughter. Or at least I hope I have enough :)

 Anyways I will start crocheting the squares together and I hope I will achieve the look I'm going for as I'm not using any instructions or a tried out pattern, I'm pretty much just flinging it.

I already know though that it will be a bit bulkier than I intended but anything looks cute on a baby, so it's gonna be ok ;))
I'll keep you updated on the progress.
Ciao-ciao!

Two Sided Duvet Cover

I have long wanted to make a Duvet Cover for our bed and when I was searching for inspiration for making one I found two which I loved.
The first one was quite minimalistic and modern and the other one was very romantic and quite girly.
Both of the posts have instructions for making the duvet covers, so if you'd like to make one the instructions are there.
I wasn't able to decide which one I'd like to make and so I combined the two and made a two sided duvet cover. I didn't follow the instructions too strictly but I got my basic guidelines from them and then I just made some modifications to suit what I wanted to make.

For the minimalistic side I bought a bunch of linen in different shades of grey and also white. I cut it all up and organized the pieces according to the directions. After this it was all sew, sew, sew.

Seems relatively easy but it took me a looooooong time to do all of that. It was partially because of the pattern and partially because I just got tired of doing the same thing all over again and again and I'm not even talking about the times I messed something up and had to take it apart and start again. But I pushed through and got it done :)).

For the romantic side I bought a 220cm x 220 cm bed sheet to use as a "base" and for the ruffles I used some old cutup cotton sheet I had lying around. I started by cutting the base piece to fit the minimalistic side I had already finished (so about 200cm x 180cm). Then I cut out long strips of fabric in different widths. After this I hemmed all the long sides of the strips with the zig-zag stitch on my machine because I don't want the pieces fraying too much. And then I started ruffling the strips. I made the ruffles just by gathering the fabric while sewing at the same time, I found this to be the most efficient and fastest way to do it. I also made the ruffles in different widths to add some more dimension and versatility.

So I ruffled and ruffled and ruffled away until I felt that I have enough.(I ended up making some more ruffles after I had pinned the existing ruffles on the "base" because I felt that it needed at least 3 more rows of them) This was actually the funnest part of this project, to see the pile of ruffles grow bigger and bigger.

Then I placed the ruffles on the base piece and pinned them to place. After this I stitched all the ruffles in place with my machine. Some of the ruffles needed two rows of stitches to hold them in place the way I liked it.

After this I also made a long continuous ruffle by stitching 6 2m long (13cm wide) strips of fabric together. i did this to make the ruffle edge to the duvet cover because I felt that it needed some kind of trim or edge to finish the look I was going for. So I placed the minimalistic side right side up, then I placed the ruffled trim around the edges so that the edge of the trim that I wanted showing was towards the center of the cover and the other edge was even with the edge of the cover. And then I placed the ruffled side on top with the wrong side up. Ok, I know this all sounds very confusing, but I tried to do a little illustration to make things (maybe?) a bit more clear :P Please keep in mind that I really can't draw at all ;D The yellow parts indicate the ruffles.

Then pinned everything to place and sewed along the edges leaving approximately  a 30cm opening to the upper edge (where I didn't place the ruffled trim) to turn the whole thing right side out. then I just stitched the opening and ...

TA-DAA!!

 I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. I've never been so happy to finish a project :)) It gives our bedroom a very idyllic and kind of a fresh feeling. Anyways I love it!

Oh, and did I say already that I love it ;))

 

I hope you enjoyed and have great weekend!
Ciao-ciao!

A Summer Bonnet

I found this tutorial for making a bonnet and I knew right away that I want to make one for my daughter Tindra. And because we've had quite warm weather here in Estonia I thought it would be quite appropriate to also write about it.

I had bought this fabric from our local fabric store a while ago just because I liked it a lot and thought it was pretty. And when I found teh tutorial mentioned above I knew I would use this fabric for making it. (I only used a small part of the fabric so I still can make a dress or something else for the summer ;D )

I love the embroidery on the fabric.

There are much better instructions in the blog I referred to before but I will briefly take you through the process, too. Firstly cut out the pieces for the bonnet. The bigger crown piece is 18cm x 36cm, long side on fold. And the two smaller brim pieces are 9cm x 23cm, short side on fold. Also cut out two pieces of interfacing for both of the brim pieces. (Lets see how many times I'm able to write the word "piece" in this post ;D ;P).

After this iron the interfacing pieces on the brim pieces. Note that you will iron it on the wrong side of the fabric. I accidentally ironed it on the right side on one of the pieces, fortunately my fabric looks almost the same on both sides so it's not very noticeable.

Then sew the two brim pieces together with the right sides facing each other and leaving the long straight side open.Turn the brim right side out, cut the corners.

Fold the edge inside and press so it will be easier to attach the gathered crown piece between the brim.

Hem the crown pieces neckline (the straight shorter side of the crown piece). 

I forgot to take pictures of the last steps of making the bonnet, sorry.
Stitch the crown pieces unhemmed sides (from the neckline on one side around the curve to the neckline on the other side), pull the yarn so that it gathers the fabric. The gathered fabric should match with the pressed side of the brim. Then put the gathered fabric between the brim, attach it with pins and sew along the brim.

I attached a rubber band to the neckline (from one side of the brim to the other) because the bonnet was very big for my daughter.

Lastly I attached some ribbon so we could tie a nice bow and keep the bonnet from slipping off her head.
I really like the way it turned out, it's super cute and I can't wait for summer so she can wear it all the time :))
Also I think this will fit her at least two summers if not three, because of the gathered fabric and the rubber band at the neckline.She will definitely get a lot of use out of it :))

I secretly want to make one for myself also ;P. Too bad I'm not a cute baby who can pull it off ;P ;D

Hope you enjoyed it! Ciao-ciao!