The look for this hot air balloon hoop art is achieved by using iron-on webbing. This easily and quickly attaches the fabric pieces together before you begin embroidering, so it’s very easy.  I used the back stitch for all the stitching on this piece, except for the small ties (lazy daisies) for the bunting (click here for photo tutorial for the lazy daisy and back stitch). My version is quite a bit simpler than the original, but it still turned out very cute. 

I got a bit off when doing the letters. I should have unstitched it right after I got off track, but I think it turned out okay. I love that Bev used a cute font that looks like hand lettering because it really hides any small mistakes that may occur. In my case, quite a few mistakes occurred (betcha can’t tell!). 

I gave it to my mother-in-law and she loved it! And I certainly love the instant-gratification of this cute balloon hoop art because it took less than an hour from start to finish.  
I hope I can convince you to give it a try! Bev has  the pattern and tutorial FREE on her blog.

Get the free hot air ballon hoop art pattern HERE at Flamingo Toes.

Enjoy!

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Now, you should know that I have ZERO graphic design skills, so you would laugh out loud if you saw my “creative process” for this pattern. The bees were particularly tricky to create, but I am pretty excited that my hard work turned into a pattern that actually worked. 

Also, I should preface this by repeating this is my first embroidery pattern, so please be gentle in your comments and please have patience! If there is something that I should include, please let me know!

Always Beekeeping It Real Embroidery Pattern

Please remember: You are free to use this pattern to make and sell, but do not republish or distribute this pattern in any way. DO NOT use my photos in your listings. Please do share my blog links! It’s a quick and FREE way of supporting Whistle and Ivy and more free crochet patterns in the future. 

What you need: 
– 3 colors of floss: yellow, amber and black (one of each is enough)
– Plain Cotton or Linen fabric
– Pencil

Begin by downloading and printing the free embroidery pattern here: >>Beekeeping It Real Embroidery Pattern

You can transfer the patten in  your favorite method, but I have decided that I love using a bright window and a regular no.2 pencil. 

Using a delicate-hold tape like washi tape, tape up your pattern in the window. 
Then, tape your fabric on top of the pattern. Be sure it’s taped on all sides and is taut, so it doesn’t move while you are transferring the pattern. 

From here, you should be able to see your pattern clearly enough to trace it onto you fabric. You still need to treat it gingerly, the pencil can be wiped away and fade if you handle it too much. 

This pattern requires only backstitches and satin stitches, which are very quite simple. Backstitch all the outlines on the bees, honeycomb and letters using 2 threads. Use three threads to work the satin stitch across the filled honeycombs, and to fill in the letters. 

My letters turned out a bit weird. I couldn’t figure out if a long stitch to fill it in would be better, but I settled on a diagonal satin stitch, which looks much better. 

It turned out fabulous! That is the wonderful thing about embroidery, it’s almost impossible to ruin. 

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It took me a while to pick the colors, but I finally settled on mint, navy and gray. I love how they turned out!

What you need: (affiliate links)

• 2-Pack White Cotton Pillowcases (similar)
• Acrylic or Fabric Paint
• Paint Brush
• Poly-Fil Stuffing
• Basic Sewing Supplies

You can use either fabric paint or acrylic paint. When the acrylic paint dries it will be rather stiff, while the fabric paint will be soft. However, once you throw your acrylic painted pillowcase into the wash, it becomes soft. It also comes in a wider range of color than fabric paint as well, so if you have acrylic paint on hand, don’t be afraid to use it. 

Wash your pillowcase before starting. Then start by cutting it about 20” long. 

From here, mix your paint and start painting! Place a piece of cardboard inside your pillowcase tot keep the paint from bleeding through to the other side.
 

 I was going for a rough, choppy look so I used a small paintbrush, but if you want more of an even coat, use a larger paint brush to paint your stripes. I also mixed a little bit of water into my acrylic paint so it’s a bit thinner. The dry cotton drinks up the paint, so it goes on better and smoother when the paint is slightly thinned. 

Once you are done and the paint is dry, turn it wrong-side-out and sew most of the open side shut. Make sure to leave about 4 inches unsewn (the middle is the easiest place to sew it up later) for the stuffing. 

Keeping it wrong-side-out, iron it on high to seal in the paint. Then, turn it back to right-side-out and throw it in the wash and tumble dry low. 

From here, keeping it right-side-out, sew around the edge of of the whole pillow except your open part.

Using your hole on the edge, fill the pillow with stuffing. I used about half the bag. Once it’s stuffed, pin the opening closed and sew it shut. 

Isn’t it pretty? Next up, pillow for the master bedroom. 
What is your go-to way to brighten and refreshen a room? 

 Happy crafting!

Originally posted at Pretty Providence

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What you need: (affiliate links)
–Cotton or Linen Fabric
–5″ Embroidery Hoop
–Embroidery Thread in 2 colors
-Hospital Footprint cards (or photo of footprint)
-Printer paper
-Pencil
–Hot Glue Gun

Start with the footprint. My sister texted me a photo of her baby’s footprints next to a ruler so I could scale the photo properly. You can print it just like this once you have sized it, or you can change it around a bit in Photoshop to use up less printer ink. I use a free photo editing software called Gimp.
Start by grayscaling your photo (removing color). Go to Image > Mode> Grayscale (I made mine into separate photos, one for each foot, and cropped them very close to the foot print).

So I wasn’t printing lots of gray, I adjusted the level to make the background white. Go to Color > Levels. 

Then, move the gray arrow over to the left a bit, until the white looks white. You can also bring the white arrow over to the left as well to make it brighter. If you need to, drag the black arrow to the right, if your footprint needs to be darker. 

Repeat these steps for the other footprint. Next, I simply added both photos to a word document, dragged them so they were even with each other, and printed. I did the feet and the words separate. 

Once your footprints are printed, tape them up to a very bright window for tracing onto your fabric. Tape the paper to the window first, then separately tape your cloth over the paper. Use a pencil to trace the online of the footprints in the middle of your fabric. 

From here, you can do a simple backstitch across your lines. I freehanded the heart in between the feet (you can draw with pencil first), and then I printed the name, and traced it to the bottom of the embroidered feet using the same window technique. 
Finish by pulling your fabric tight as possible in the hoop, trimming the ends, and hot gluing it to the hoop. 

Now you have a beautiful baby footprint embroidery keepsake of your baby’s actually footprints! And it takes a minimal amount of time, which is super nice. You could also add other details, like the birthday or height and weight.  I forget how tiny those newborn baby feet are. So cute. 

Want more fun, easy and chic projects? 

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I am not boasting, friends. Not. At. All. I am simply expressing the simpleness of this project. If you can cut the fabric to the pattern and sew a simple running stitch, you will be good to go on this project!

Bev’s orignal project used some machine showing, so be sure to check out her exact methods when you pop over to her blog. I opted to hand-sew everything so I could practice my stitches. For my version, I used the running stitch and the backstitch (Click here for Bev’s stitch tips). 

I also changed the saying to “Let’s go somewhere.” 
I think it’s more fitting for the intended recipient of this embroidery art

 What I love about this project is that it only took me a couple of hours from start to finish. It was so fun to complete the project in such a short amount of time. You can also use things that you have on-hand: scraps of fabric, bits of ribbon, different-colored threads. I used double-fold bias tape instead of ribbon, and think it looks great, too. 

I am totally hooked! I obviously need more practice but I have lots more projects up my sleeve, and I am polishing an original embroidery pattern coming SOON. 

 

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Is it really time to start thinking about back-to-school?  This year with be The Boy’s first real year of school: Kindergarten! I already enjoy shopping for school supplies, but this year will be even more fun. We love also doing paper crafts, painting, coloring, and drawing pictures, so it’s a great time to stock up on those items, even if your little ones are still home during the school year (am I the only one with a bucket full of crayons pieces?), Duck Tape is also a fun medium for making your things colorful and fun. This Cereal Box Embroidered Sketch Pad is a great way to recycle an old cereal box, and make your own customized notebook.

I absolutely love the look of embroidery. It always gives a very beautiful and handmade touch to an item, and because this sketchpad is bound with string, you can keep the sketchpad cover and refill it with paper when you need.

Cereal Box Embroidered Sketch Pad

What you need:(affiliates)

• Duck Tape in 2 colors (I used Yellow and Pineapple Delight)
• One Family-sized Cereal Box
• Several pieces of printer paper (or other paper you would like to use)
• Precision Knife
• Baker’s Twine or other string
• Sewing Needle
• Sharp Yarn Needle (or Large Tapestry Needle)
• Embroidery Floss
• Safety Pin
• Sticky-Back Hook and Loop Fasteners
• Hole Punch 

Start by cutting your cereal box. Cut off the front (or back), but leave the top flap attached.

Because the yellow-colored Duck Tape is slightly see-through, the brown cardboard back will be the front of your sketchpad. Start by covering it with strips of Duck Tape. Go over the sides a bit, then you can fold the tape over and have a nice edge. Cut the ends with your precision knife to get a clean cut.

Once the front is covered, turn it over and work on the back, which will be the inside of the notebook. This time, you will need to measure the pieces exactly. Working with your patterned Duck Tape, measure one piece and cut the rest of the pieces to the exact same length.

You will need 5 pieces. 
Next, use the pattern Duck Tape to tape the flap — the top edge that you left on when you cut your cereal box. Make sure to tape the outside and the inside.

Now, you need to work on your paper. Unless you have an awl, you can use a hold punch to make your holes. Divide your paper into a few piles, and fold them in half “hamburger style.” Take your hole punch and line it up so only half of the little circle of the punch covers the folded edge. Punch four holes along the paper’s edge.

To make sure your holes are lined up on all the paper, mark each space with a pen or marker, then punch the holes the same way. Repeat for each pile of paper you have.

Next, you can bind your sketchpad. Fold your cardboard piece in half (the flap doesn’t count as the length), so you have a book spine. I’ve taken pictures of each step so you can understand how it’s done. Unfold your papers, line them up in a nice pile, and then fold them in half all together. Get a long piece of string (I used baker’s twine), and thread it through your sharp yarn needle. Make your first stitch by going up through the back (you will be making holes in the cover, but going through the holes you made in the paper) through the 2nd hole up from the bottom. Follow the pattern shown in the pictures.
You should have two end coming out through the back. Tie a sturdy knot. You can either clip your ends, or tie a bow.  Now you can start on the embroidery. You can free-hand the design if you want. If not, you can make a simple pattern by printing off some words and poking holes with a pin.

Using your pin, poke small holes along the words. They shouldn’t go all the way through, they just need to make pattern for you to follow when you removed the paper.

Once you have transferred your pattern, you can start embroidering. It’s not super difficult to get the needle through the cardboard and Duck Tape, but it can wear on your fingers after a while, so I do recommend using a thimble.
 
To finish your sketchpad, apply the sticky hook and loop fasteners (I used industrial strength).

The easiest method is to peel and place the rough side on the notebook. Then, peel off the soft side and place it down (sticky side up) on top of the rough side, so the two pieces are fastened to each other. Close the notebook so the sticky back of the soft side sticks to the notebook. This insures that the hook and loops will line up perfectly.

I love my new sketchpad! It’s bright and fun. And I do love that pretty pineapple print, isn’t it fantastic?

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As with any quiet book or other felt projects, make sure you are sewing the top pieces first. So you would sew the bug body pieces onto the top layer of the background, then sew the top to the back very last. The flower, stem and mason jar are sewn directly to the page. I also just eye-balled a rectangle to use as a pocket for the magnifying glass.

The rock and grassy brush are connected to the page at the very bottom so that they can be flipped down to reveal the bugs hiding. The leaves are sewn to the page where they meet the stem.

You can use a popsicle stick and put it in the handle of the magnifying glass to give it some stability. The kids will love it!

Are you doing some exploring this summer?

Happy sewing

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Now, I am not a great sewist (sewer? That doesn’t read right..)t. I try. I try real hard. By sheer tenacity am I able to accomplish anything with my sewing machine, so trust me when I say if I can make these, anyone can (even if it takes a few “practice” pairs.)

I did make a few frustrating mistakes that I wanted to help you avoid should you attempt to make these (and you should!), and a couple tips for a smoother experience.

1. Make BOTH shoes at the same time, so everything is the same!
Cut all your pieces out at the same time, and work each step for each shoe so everything is the same.
I cannot stress this enough especially when you get to the heel piece. I made several pairs that had weird heels; one was super stretchy, and one was super tight because I wasn’t pulling the elastic through exactly the same for both pieces, so compare them and make sure they are the same before moving on to the next step.

2. When I get to the top toe part, where the elastic is sewn into place, I skip the unpicking part and shove the elastic up under the seam. It won’t be as perfect as hers, (mine never will look as perfect as hers, haha!) but it shaved off enough time that I was comfortable with the trade-off. If you decide to do this, make sure to pin it very well so it doesn’t move while you are sewing it.

3. I couldn’t quite get the top sewn part to match up perfectly with the sole, (it is probably just me!) so I found the easiest and best way to finish the shoe is to pin the toe in place, pin the heel in place, and then work your way around, pinning. When you get the side (right behind where the heel piece meets the toe piece) and have extra fabric, just pleat it over and pin it. Repeat with the other side. If you pinned the toe and heel in the correct place, the two pleats should be the same size, and they are completely unnoticeable.

So are you ready to give these adorable shoes a try?! Do it!
Get the FREE pattern HERE at Homemade Toast for a general size, and you can purchase additional sizes HERE at her store.

I love them so much!
Happy sewing,

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