Skinny Fabric Wreath Tutorial

When we bought our first house, in 2011, my bff Darci gave us a wreath to hang on our door. She had made it, and I was in love with it. I made one like it for Christmas, so now we have a Christmas themed wreath too (so festive, right?). When we moved into our townhouse, I hung up Darci's wreath once again. And then I finally realized I needed to redo it, since the sun had literally bleached all the colors out. It was a very sad day, because she had used such great fabrics and it was so perfect. I made a new one and posted it on instagram, and got a tutorial request. So, disclaimer, I didn't make up this wreath technique/style. Darci made my first one, and either she is a genius (which is true anyways), or she saw some sort of original tutorial.

Last week I decided to increase my holiday-festivity-ness and make a Halloween wreath. I didn't want it to be too in your face Halloween, so I just went with Halloween-themed colors. Here is how I made it:

Supplies needed:
Wire wreath
3+ Fabric choices (at least a fat quarters worth)
Scissors

I purchased my wire wreath at Michaels, where they are relatively cheap and come in different sizes. This one is a 12" wreath, and probably cost about $3 (I can't remember exactly, sorry).

Start with your fabric. I purchased three different fabrics from Joann's--two were fat quarters and the other I had cut a 1/4 yard off the bolt. Either way you purchase the fabric will be a good width (fat quarter, or a quarter yard). Fat quarters are the perfect size though, and they were on sale for $1.29.

You will need to make strips of fabric, which I made ~2" wide. I used the cut and tear method, for a shabby chic type of finish. So cut a small tear in your fabric, and rip it off into a strip.  I made 5 strips of each fabric.

Start anywhere on your wreath, and you are going to wrap the strip of fabric around the wreath. Place the strip of fabric so there will be enough left out to tie it in a knot (as seen above).

Wrap the strip around itself 2-3 times on the wreath.

On the back side of the wreath, tie the ends of the fabric strip into a secure knot.

Start with your second strip of fabric, and repeat the above steps. When you start wrapping, have the strip overlapping the other fabric a little, so there aren't any gaps.

As above, tie the ends together on the back of the wreath.

Continue this same method with all your strips of fabric. Your very last fabric strip will be placed in the last gap of your wreath, so it will overlap the fabric on either side.

And voila!! Easy peasy, and it looks so cute! If you make a larger wreath, you will of course need more fabric strips. And you can use as many different fabrics as you like! If you end up making your own, I would love to see a picture of it :)

Happy crafting!

caviar nails

 I tried caviar nails. I just did my ring finger on each hand. I painted the nails black, and then poured the "caviar" beads over them. Then you kind of smush them down so they're all level, and you're done. I wanted to add a clear topcoat to prolong the wear of these, and I applied it on a little too thick on my left hand (you can see below). Afterwards I applied a thinner layer to my right hand, which looked much better. It has a cooler-looking effect without the clear coat (as seen in the first picture below), but I was worried they would all fall off a little too quickly.

I had someone ask me about the wear, so I'll just share here too. After a full day, about 5 little beads had fallen off of each nail. You couldn't really tell though, unless you were looking super closely. By the second day, a few more had fallen off. Then I started picking them off haha. I think that you could wear these 2-3 days.

pre-clear coat: you can see i missed a spot...but after the topcoat you can't tell 

i did the clear coat a little thick on my left hand, which made it look funky...

What do you think? I might do it every once in a while when I want to mix it up, but I probably won't do it regularly. Overall though, I liked it!

DIY: confetti nails

as you may know, i love doing my nails. i always say if you didn't have to deal with feet, i would be a nail technician. i have an entire pinterest board called nail polish love. which is where i saw the below picture which inspired my current manicure:

the goal: confetti nails!

first paint your nails white (or whatever base color you'd like)

to do the dots, i used this method to create a "dotting tool" (take a flat pin and stick it into the eraser of a pencil). then i took a piece of wax paper and dropped the colors i wanted onto it as i went along. i dipped the "dotting tool" in the drop of nail polish and made the little dots on my nails. i kept it simple with three colors, but you can do however many you want.

like so

i chose pink dots. i just placed them randomly in the general area i wanted my confetti for each nail

then i added blue, randomly placing the dots intermixed with the pink

and finally i rounded it all out by adding green dots

and voila! confetti nails! remember to top it all off with top coat so it lasts longer :)

diy: filing cabinet makeover

i have been wanting a filing cabinet since forever. well, since i started filing things.... so for the past 2 or 3 years. the problem is that filing cabinets are freakishly expensive. who knows why, but they are. everytime i go to ikea i get tempted to buy one from there, but their smallest and simplest one is like $70. tragic, right?

which is why i was so stoked to find this filing cabinet on this facebook group thats like a yardsale for our city. and best of all? it was FOR FREE! whaaaa?! yes, i was excited. i haven't done any big projects in a while, and i thought it seemed simple enough. i perused the beloved pinterest for some tips on spray painting metal, and went to work. here's the project in pictures:

the before

the supplies: 

-rustoleum primer

-krylon in blue ocean breeze and in black

-all purpose sanding sponge

-plastic drop cloth
-[not shown] surgical mask that probably didn't do anything, but made me feel better

i sanded the drawers and the main frame. there was some rust, and old crappy (probably lead-based!) paint

primed the main frame

primed the drawers

voila! ocean breeze....so dreamy

the finished product! all at home in my office space :)

i am so happy that i now have my very own filing cabinet, and that it's personalized. it also cost me less than 20 bucks total. i couldn't be more pleased :) have you guys done any fun spray-painting projects lately?

23 weeks, and sneak peeks of henry's room!

saturday marked 23 weeks! it also was the day our new nephew cameron was born!! and we also had a fun dinner at red robin with some friends (i'm going to steal some of those pictures later from emily). this past week was good. my favorite foods of the week are twix and taco salad. i just told josh last night that ever since i've had my appetite back i am in LOVE with taco salad. he was like "umm...you always liked that," and i said "well duh, but now i want it ALL THE TIME!" haha. sometimes i try to get away with making it twice a week for dinner :)

on friday i got some maternity clothes i ordered (everything that was on sale at motherhood maternity was an extra 40% off and so i got lots of cute clothes for cheap cheap cheap!). so the shirt is new, and the pants are new. the pants were a risk, but they are skinny jeans so i figured it doesn't matter if skinny jeans are a little shorter on me, because i'll just be wearing them with flats. thankfully this pair is super cute, and also freakishly comfortable. i've been wearing them every single day since i got them in the mail haha.


so...about a month and a half ago i was at ikea looking for fabric for curtains for henry's room. they were all sold out of the fabric that i had wanted, so i was just browsing. in the kids section i spotted a duvet cover that i fell in love with. ta daaaa.... curtain fabric! so the duvet was red with white animals on one side, and then the colors were inverted on the other side (white with red animals). so i cut the duvet up and made curtains out of the red w/white animals side:

i didn't really measure anything, i sort of just cut and sewed it, and thankfully all the animals lined up, and the bottom of the curtains lined up. phew! because these were twin-sized duvet covers, i ended up buying two of them. so with each duvet i made one curtain panel. 1 duvet set was $20, and since i ended up using half of each duvet, the curtains were $20 total to make. considering curtains typically start at about $20, i considered it a good deal, especially since i got a pattern that i loved.

with the opposite side of the duvet, i figured i could make coordinating fitted crib sheets! at first i was worried it might be a little too much of the print going on in the room, but i decided to try it out anyway. i used THIS TUTORIAL to make a fitted crib sheet today, and it turned out great! it used up about 3/4 of one duvet panel, so the cost for the material was about $7.50. i got the elastic at hobby lobby for less than a dollar. to round up, we'll say the total cost for one crib sheet was $8.50.

it turned out really well, and it doesn't look too pattern crazy in the room. so overall i'm very pleased! i can make another fitted sheet out of the other duvet panel i have, and i'm also going to be making more out of other material i buy at the fabric store. it's a fun and easy project, and adds a lot of personalization to the room.

so there you have it, a sneak peek of henry's room! :) oh, also--thanks for everyones nice comments on my last post! you are all so sweet and encouraging, i really appreciate it! ♥

tutorial: how to make maternity pants

ok, so i am kind of tall. like 5'11" kind of tall. so i require a pants inseam of at least 35". the longer, the better. so i knew i wouldn't be able to find maternity pants that were not only long enough, but also didn't look frump-a-licious. soooo...i scoured the internet and looked at a lot of tutorials, and sort of combined a bunch of them. i think this is the best way to take an existing pair of normal pants, and convert them to maternity pants. these are a pair of my work pants, which i bought last summer for 10 bucks. here is my version on how to make your own maternity pants:

materials needed:
-pair of pants you can still at least sort of zip up (my pre-pregnancy pants worked just great, and i'm 22 weeks along right now. and i'm pretty sure they will fit for my whole pregnancy, unless my butt gets about 15x bigger)
-t-shirt (the smaller the better, even one that was pretty tight before your pregnancy)
-seam ripper
-scissors
-sewing machine
-fabric marker/pencil (a regular marker would be fine if you mark it where you won't be able to see it after you sew up the zipper flap)

instructions:
(click pictures to enlarge)

start with the pair of pants you want

do this for all the belt loops, and it will make cutting it up much easier

try them on and zip them up. mark where it feels comfortable. i marked this with a fabric marker. then later when i cut the front, i left a little extra fabric to allow for seam allowance.

most of the tutorials i found didn't have this step. but who needs a zipper for pants that will be zipper-less!? and who wants to sew over that? i cut that baby out asap!

remember, like i said before, leave some extra fabric above where you marked-- for seam allowance

then take your t-shirt you want to use:

i cut some extra off the bottom part of the tshirt, so it would fit smaller. i'm sure it would have been fine if i left it though.

i hope this makes sense. after i pinned the seams on the sides, then i stretched the shirt and pinned the front middle, and the back middle. then i stretched between pins and pinned the center of that area, and so on. [if you still don't get what i'm saying in this step, email me.]


i did the zig-zag stitch all the way around on the edges. i just forgot to take a picture afterwards.

you made it! try it on! the t-shirt i used won't fray when you cut it, so i left the edges raw. the t-shirt was tight enough that it stays up. you can always make a hem, or sew in some elastic on the top.

this is a weird picture, but i wanted to show how it looks with just the pants and the added t-shirt portion. you can fold the shirt down if you want to wear it under your belly.

long pants! with my shirt pulled up...awkward...

yay! they look normal! and fit well!

i wore these pants to work today, and was amazed with how comfortable they were!! and they didn't fall apart, so thats always good ;) no one even knew they were maternity pants (yes!). so thankfully this was a success, and now i have some more pants and t-shirts to rip up!

jessie homemaker?

naww...but i did make some stuff this week. in keeping with my 4 simple goals, i've been trying [read: struggling] to make meals for dinner. a couple months ago i found a recipe in real simple for this cheesy chicken concoction and i thought, "hmm...josh might actually like that!" so this week i decided to finally make it.


it looks a little weird but trust me, it was delish. i couldnt find the recipe online [they probably dont put it online because it's in the mag? idk] but if you want the recipe you can email me.

now...a few weeks ago we were watching project runway and then josh goes, "why dont you ever make me anything?" and i was like "umm....you've never asked?" and then he asked me to make him a tshirt that would fit him perfectly. i figured a t-shirt would be pretty easy, and set off to buy some knit fabric the next day. i didn't have a coupon for joann's, so the materials ended up being about $10 per shirt (i bought enough to make 3). i took one of josh's favorite shirts that fits him pretty close to perfect, and traced it (i used wrapping paper for the pattern, haha). i was really nervous about the sleeves, but they actually ended up perfect..

the HARDEST part for me was the stupid collar. i scoured the web for tips and tricks and how i should do it exactly. i redid that collar so many times i wanted to rip up the shirt. the first time i couldn't even stretch it right to line up at all. the second time it was too small and josh couldn't even get his head through. then times 3-5 it made it look like a turtleneck. that was a lot of seam-ripping. finally, the 6th time it looked semi-normal. i had him try it on and the collar was a tiny bit too big for his liking, and you could see part of his undershirt (which is one of his biggest pet peeves, and the major reason he wanted me to make him shirts). so, i improvised. i cut the collar and down into the shirt, and then sewed it off to the side. it created an obvious pucker, but i was SO sick of it by then i didn't even care. i added buttons and voila...a modern shirt? after all that work, it only turned out ok.


determined to make a better shirt, yesterday i started shirt #2. i finished it today, and the collar turned out perfect THE FIRST TIME! i ignored the instructions i found online and just winged it myself. and voila: perfection. i sewed a little pattern on the front and after it's washed it will [hopefully] fit perfect. [i guess practice really does make perfect? or somewhat close to it...]

bad picture, horrible lighting, yada yada. sorry.

also, i made another elastic waist skirt. it was just so easy, i had to do another one. i'm planning on wearing it to church tomorrow, so maybe i'll do an outfit post for it or something. i'm glad i've been sewing more, and i hope to keep getting better and better as i keep sewing and trying new and challenging projects. and if you ever see josh and he's wearing one of my shirts, please just tell him it looks good. for my sake, not his. haha ♥

outfit of the day...and purple hair!

so you know my 4 simple goals? and one of them was to buy less and make more? i used this super easy tutorial to make an elastic waist skirt. this skirt cost me like 3 or 4 bucks to make, and only took maybe 30 minutes or so (i'm a slow iron-er). i was excited to take it for a spin today at church:

necklace: lia sophia

top: gap
skirt: made by me!

boots: forever young shoes

andddd...yesterday i got purple extensions put in! they are so much fun and i love them. they aren't super noticeable so it's fun when they come peeking out. and they match my nail polish right now haha.

when i was getting them put in everyone in the salon kept coming over to feel my long thick hair. they asked where i worked and when i told them the forest service they were like "what?? you dont look like you work for the forest service... maybe you should have gotten forest green extensions" haha. it was kind of funny. anyways, if you live in utah you should go see allison at capelli. she is awesome! she works at a hair school so she can get more hours [she's a certified stylist in another state but utah requires more hours to work here]. i definitely recommend her though, she is super cute and nice, and obviously really good at hair.

happy weekend!

vintage lace, redone

[poor lighting, it looks better in real life haha]

i added vintage lace on top of my pink nail polish. i think it looks cool. sort of lady gaga-ish. you have to trim your lace to the size of your nails, and then "glue" the lace on. i just coated the nail with topcoat, put the lace in place, and then loaded up the topcoat on top of the lace. i did this last night and it has worked good so far. there are a few loose strings of lace that are hanging over, but you just need to trim those off if that happens. it was easier than i thought it was going to be, and a pretty cool idea. i wanted to do black lace but i didn't have any, so gray was the next best thing. the worst part was cutting the lace to the same size as your nail, which really wasn't even that hard or too time consuming. and jay-z only knocked some lace pieces to the floor one time. he wanted to feel like lady gaga too, of course. what do you think? will you be trying this out?

funny stuff and a new DIY

i should seriously have a whole separate blog for the funny conversations i have with my husband. he is the funniest person i know in real life, which is why i married him (duh). anyways, the other day i cleaned the back room, cleared some shelving space for all my fabric, and cleaned off the sewing desk. this simple act of cleaning the sewing desk added room for my computer to sit, and then i just kept being on the computer back here. josh accused me of being a hermit, and i matter-of-factly told him that it feels like my new "office." so just about half an hour ago i was sitting back here working on something and calmly told josh that there is a turd in the litter box (also, conveniently located in the closet of the 2nd bedroom). he didn't exactly care.. fast forward about 20 minutes, where this conversation happened in the front room:

me: im gonna go blog in my office
josh: your office has a turd in it

such a sweetie, huh? hahaha♥. anyways, yesterday i worked on a little project that was inspired by this post from the blog ruffles and stuff. unfortunately she has stopped writing on that blog but she left it up full of lots of tutorials and fun things. i took this project from her tutorial about refashioning a long sleeve top into a short sleeve with ruffles.

in hers she just has one panel of ruffles going all the way down the front, with the buttons all the way down in the middle. i decided to just do ruffles on the top, and do 2 layers, with a smaller layer overlapping the larger layer on bottom. [i wish i would have checked out this tutorial before i made it so my ruffles could have looked more finished, but oh well..] the lighting in my apartment is horrible so the shirt actually looks a lot better in person, and the buttons are all pink vintage buttons from my collection. i'm pretty pleased with it, since i hardly ever wore this shirt (i'm not a huge fan of long sleeve shirts) and i found i don't have as many short sleeve ones as i would like.


i think it's pretty cute now. what do you think? are you going to go tear through your closet for all your long sleeved shirts now? haha. there are a ton of other cute tutorials on that blog that you should go check out.

it's been a pretty chill monday night. we were supposed to go out to dinner for josh's work but that fell through. boo. instead we watched our most recent netflix arrival: it's complicated. see what we thought on our review blog. it wasn't a totally wasted night though because we had delicious eggs in a basket. yum.

what did you do tonight?