White sweater pumpkins

You know I love me a good pumpkin!

This used to be a whole sweater…found it at the Goodwill store, it’s not wool, but a winter white cabled acrylic/cotton blend. I thought it might make a nice pumpkin or two. 

 

Aren’t they cute?

The difference between these and the orange sweater sleeve pumpkins I recently made is the stems.  I used the ribbing at the end of the sleeves for the stems. 

Since I made three pumpkins and we can all do the math on that (two sleeves per normal sweater, three pumpkins, you get the picture) I used the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater for the third stem. I cut about a 6 inch section of the ribbing off and sewed the short ends together to make a circle.

I just ran my long needle under the part of the ribbing that sticks out…and kept going around the section and pulling the thread snug until it looked like a stem.  Think pull really really tight!

Just sew the stem on the top of the pumpkin and they are set!!

I gave these to my mom for her birthday which happens to be this month. 

I used the sweater which was $3, the stuffing (FREE) which a friend of my mom’s brought her (a bag of batting scraps which I tore up and used as stuffing), a needle and some quilting thread (mom already had) and about 30 minutes.  Very easy and very cheap!

I am going to make myself some as well from the body of the sweater after I get back home.

I may be linking to some of these great parties!

Washi Tape Decorated Gift Bag

I love me some polka dots!  And I love me some washi tape! And I love free gift wrapping supplies!

If you follow me on instagram you may remember seeing this pic of my loot from the community trash bin (let’s not call it a dumpster, OK?).

I used three different washi tapes, a solid red, a grey polka dot and red with two lines of polka dots. I used the plain white paper handled bags.

And just made a total of four stripes around the bag with the tape.  It repositions easily so I just kept straightening the tape until I was pleased with it.

It only took 15 minutes to make.  I added some red and white netting for a “bow” and it was done!  Hope she likes it!

I may be linking to some of these great parties!

Crochet Fabric Doily

I am thinking about making one of these or this one…so decided to do some experimenting with different yarns and fabrics and textures and hook sizes.  I used this pattern which was reworked from a pattern created/used in the 1890s.  

I used a size L crochet hook and 1/2 inch wide cuts of fabric. It was the perfect thickness and openness.  I think I may try making a rug out of an old white bed sheet cut into 3/4 inch wide strips.  It would be much cheaper than the cotton cording or three strands of yarn.

Anyhow, love how this little doily turned out! 

this one is a gift for someone…but I can’t say who…

I might be linking to some of these great parties!

A thrifted and made-over wooden box

I wanted to show you the end result before I showed you this…

I found this Christmas box at the thrift store…a big fifty cents!  About the only thing it had going for it was that it is all wood and put together well, so it’s sturdy!  I sanded it down a bit, and it took about four days, seems like I sanded off 12-13 layers of paint!

I had been saving a card I got from my package pal Michelle with the cutest owl she had made on the front!  I cut that puppy out and added it to one side of the box, three of the sides I added this…

Yup, a vintage dictionary page with my sister Sarah’s last name on that page…

and her first name on another side…Sarah—Hebrew for Princess!

And on the last side I painted on chalkboard paint.  I painted the inside because you can see so much of it, it’s a few shades lighter than the outside, because I was trying to use up some paint that I had already.

Isn’t that owl cute??  I filled the box with some craft supplies, some washi tape, some stitch markers I made like earrings.

I gave it to Sarah this past weekend with another gift I made which I will post about soon!

I will be linking to these great parties!

Diaper/Wipe Pouch

 

Isn’t this cute?  I saw my niece’s bag that she uses for her baby’s diaper and wipes Thanksgiving weekend and thought she needed an new one!  The baby’s diapers are bigger now than they used to be…so, since I am stash busting, I thought I could whip one up!

 

I used an iron on backing for the monogram, actually I cut it with my Cricut, so it was very easy.  Still can’t believe the Cricut cut the fabric, I am so happy about that! 

 

I also made a diaper changing pad, just two layers of flannel and serged the edges together. It will be great to carry inside the bag for those unexpected diaper changes!

 

It has a velcro closure and a fold over flap, actually the whole thing is just one piece of fabric, only two side seams and trimmed the edges with quilt binding (like extra-wide double-fold bias tape)

I also machine appliqued the “a” so it wouldn’t come off.  I bought a lot of this chevron flannel at JoAnn’s on Black Friday.  Hopefully I will get it used up soon!

 

I am linking to these great parties!

 

My Vanilla Extract Experience

I pinned this months ago (it was pinned from here) and I wanted to give that a try, thinking it would make great Christmas gifts.  You can find the directions to actually make the extract.

The whole project was somewhat time consuming, mostly because I had to find the bottles for the extract.

I don’t have color printer, so just printed my labels in black and white.  Then I used a colored pencil to spiff them up.  I chose two different labels, both of which I found searching on Google images. 

I like the round ones and added different colors to the labels and cut them out by hand, so they aren’t perfect.  That’s OK with me because I am not perfect either! 

The bail bottles I found (one or two at a time, I might add) at stores like Marshalls, TJMaxx and Home Goods.  My plan was to use those exclusively but I just couldn’t find enough of them.

So I found these little 4 ounce bottles on eBay for less than $1 each, including shipping, the bail top ones ranged from $1.99 to 2.99 each.   The vanilla beans came from OliveNation.com.  They were much cheaper there than in the stores like World Market.

My feline assistant had to help with the photo shoot of course!  I must tell you this is a project you have to plan months in advance because the beans need to steep in the vodka for 3-6 months (depends on who you ask) for it to be optimally flavored.

I am linking to these great parties!