Craft-a-holic

Here is where you can buy my crafts: Precious Prep on Etsy
I did a LOT of sewing this weekend! And let me tell you- it was awesome! I'd kind of taken a break from sewing for a bit there but it felt great to get back at it! Here are the majority of items I made:

Quite a bit right?! And that isn't all of it! Please leave a comment or shoot me an email (chicboutique612@gmail.com) if you'd be interested in any of the items pictured! I can do custom items too with my embroidary machine! 

So the real point of this post is to share some valuable lessons I learned this weekend! 

1) the iron is your friend! I never use the iron because it is a pain to get it out with the ironing board and wait for it to heat up and blah blah blah... But for once I went through with the hassle and OMG! It makes a difference! 

2) pin pin pin! I always hated the process of pinning my fabric- takes so long and then you have to pull em out as you sew and... Am I sounding lazy yet? HA! But yeah, pinning makes a huge difference! So just do it!

3) patience! As you might be able to tell from tips 1 and 2... I'm not the most patient girl on Earth ;) But if you are patient the first time, you won't have to rip everything out and try a second (third) time! And you won't have to insult your sewing machine with a dictionary's worth of 4 letter words ;D tell me I'm not the only one who does that... Oops 

Happy Crafting! :) 

If you are interested in purchasing, the items I have available are:

Makeup bag

Pencil pouch

Hair bow

Glasses sleeve

Key fob/ key chain

Prices will vary based on each order but items are between $5-$10 :)

Chicboutique612@gmail.com

or 

Etsy

Littles!

No I'm not in a sorority, I'm on a dance team!  And we have bigs and littles.  This is my first time as a big and it is very fun!  I LOVE making things for people and giving it to them!  It is so much better than getting a gift to me.

I made several gifts as well as bought a few, but I am just going to cover the ones I made on here.
So I didn't intend to necessarily write a post about this so don't hold my pictures against me :)

This was the first gift they received (the dance group is called Extreme, fyi). I picked the colors based on what my littles said their favorite colors were.

These were the gift bags that I had for them, I got them from Michael's! Super cute colors and patterns.

These are their final gifts! Each one will get a shirt and hanging plaque.  I rolled up the shirts so that they would be a surprise and tied 'em up with pretty bows.  Note how the colors of the letters match the chevron frames :)

Here is another picture of the plaques. These were really fun, easy, and cheap to make!  I got the plaques ($0.97 ea), letters ($1.77 ea), and ribbon ($1) from Walmart.  I painted them and Mod Podged a piece of scrapbook paper on, then hot glued ribbon for a hanger.  I added the bow as a last minute decision and I'm so happy I did!  What do you think?

Here are some really bad pics of the shirts I made!  The pics don't do them justice, I tell you!  I embroidered the white letters onto the black fabric and then sewed the squares on using a zig-zag stitch.

For the front I embroidered their initials onto the same black fabric and created a pocket!  They turned out so cute I think!

What have you made for your littles?

Boyfriends need crafts too!!

So today I decided to make my boyfriend a case for his sunglasses!  He is always losing those things or complaining if they get scratched so I hope this will make him happy.  I actually made this all up from my own mind and even took pictures during the process of making it!  You will love this craft because it can be made for anyone and took me maybe 20 minutes from start to finish... not bad for a thoughtful gift!

So here we go!

First I decided on some fabric with flames and dragons (this was the most... ok only, manly fabric I currently have) and for the lining just a reddish fabric with some small design on it.  I also used a dark red thread for my needle thread.

Next I cut two pieces from both the lining and the fabric that were approximately 8" by 5".  For the dragon fabric I made sure to center a dragon on each piece so I didn't end up with a bunch of dragon parts on the sides :)

I then sewed one piece of lining to one piece of the outer fabric, wrong sides together.  I sewed close to the edges because this step is just to make it easier to manage your fabric later, in the end this stitching was actually cut off.  So don't worry if it isn't straight or if it goes off the edge a little.  Here were my pieces:

The next step is to fold over your top edge so that it will be on the inside in the end.  My top edge was the side with the selvage (the white strip).  I folded each piece over the width of the selvage and then again.  Then I sewed across it, I didn't have to backstitch at the beginning and end because I knew that I would be sewing over the edge again later.  Be careful at this step!  If your needle and bobbin thread are different colors, be sure the color you want is on the right side.  Since I put the dark red thread in the needle, I had to sew with my dragon fabric face up.  Here is what it should look like with the top edge sewn:

Now you can line up your two pieces with right sides together, making sure the top is aligned correctly.  Then sew around the long sides and the bottom.  This is where your stitching needs to be more precise. But since you will be turning the project inside out in the end it doesn't have to be exact, so no worries! Make sure that you sew to the inside of the stitching which is holding the lining and the outer material together.

Once you are happy with that, trim off the excess material leaving about 1/8" edge, this means you may cut off what you sewed in the beginning (I told you it didn't have to be perfect!).  I ended up cutting off all of mine!  You can also trim the bottom corners so that you will have more precise points when you turn it, up to you.  Just make sure that you don't cut off any stitching when you trim the corners, other wise you will have holes in the corners.  Here is my trimmed project, you can see how much I cut off:

Finally, turn it right sides out and you are done!  Easy right?  And it will make a great surprise for boyfriend, I think he will love it and be happy to know that I still think about him when I am in one of my crafting frenzies :)

Making something for someone else is so much fun!  I love giving things to people and seeing how touched they are by even the simplest of things.  I hope your sunglass case turns out well for you and your recipient loves it, even if the recipient happens to be you! 

Happy Crafting! :)

Update! Here is another gift idea for your guy: Personalized accessory pouch to clip to his golf bag! Great for dads too! Order one here.