Dress-Up Wedding Veil

Today's Dollar Store Craft is a sweet little dress-up wedding veil. Sewists of ALL skill levels can tackle this in very little time!


What you need:
~ a plastic headband! I found a three-pack of satin ribbon-covered headbands at my dollar store. Important: You want one that is completely smooth -- with no scratchy bumps to (supposedly) keep it in place!
~ roll of tulle -- you can find it in the wedding section!

STEP ONE: Cut your roll of tulle into six equal sections. You will then fold each tulle strip and sew a casing for your headband to fit through. Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end! My headband was 1/4" wide, and I sewed my casings 3/8" wide -- and it worked perfectly. You can choose to sew each strip's casing separately, or you could do as I did (as shown in the above photo) and overlap each strip a few inches so there is less separation in the strips when worn. If you do it the way I did, just make sure you end up with one continuous casing! :o)

There are a couple ways you could fold your tulle strips:
Option A: Fold each tulle strip exactly in half.
Option B: Fold each tulle strip so one end is about 8" shorter than the other. This gives the veil a little more body and interest, with the shorter layer on top.
(Wish I'd done Option B, but didn't think of it until I was already done!)

STEP TWO: Thread the tulle onto the headband. I chose to use the headband in my three-pack that came with a bow on it -- which luckily happened to be the white one!

STEP THREE: Scrunch all the tulle together at the top.

DONE!
Told you it was easy!!

How to Make a Kids Spyglass Telescope

Susan made the most FABULOUS telescopes for my boys last week -- pirate style, of course -- and today she is here to show you how to make one of your own! Read on for Susan's instructions!


Here is how to make a Kids Spyglass Telescope -using PVC pipe!

The idea came when my nephew had a pirate birthday party coming up-and needed the perfect Pirate Spyglass! I have a ton of PVC pipe leftovers from making Teepee Tents- so this idea was born. It looks great and collapses down, just like the real thing!

And this pirate thinks it's pretty awesome.


(I got my supplies at Lowes. I recommend that you try out all your pieces before you buy them, just to double check that they fit together. I'm sure people at Lowes thought I was nutty when I spent an hour there testing pieces together to see what would fit!)


You will need:

One 8" piece of 1 1/4" PVC pipe (comes in 5' lengths. 1.20)

One 7.5" piece of 3/4" PVC pipe (also in 5' lengths. $1.09.)

One 3/4" Slip coupling ($.24)

One 3/4" Adapter, Slip and Thread ($.44)

One 1" CPVC Slip coupling ($1.22. This piece is key and is found in a slightly different section than the other regular PVC pieces. It is more of a tan color.)

Sandpaper

PVC pipe glue or Super Glue (put everything together for a trial run before you glue it)

Paint, stickers, or whatever to decorate!

Your CPVC piece needs to be able to fit inside your 1 1/4" PVC pipe. You will need to sand down the ridge across the middle in order to get it in. It should be a very snug fit!

You will also need to sand down the ridge on the inside a little bit. Just enough that your 3/4" PVC pipe can slide smoothly inside (keeping in mind that you will need some extra clearance to accommodate a layer of paint if you want to paint your telescope).

Insert the CPVC piece into your 1 1/4" PVC pipe, leaving a little bit sticking out (just for looks) You can glue this piece in, but it is such a tight fit, you shouldn't need to.

Take the 3/4" coupling and put into place on one end of your 3/4" pipe.

Insert that 3/4" piece through your 1 1/4" pipe (the coupling will be hidden inside) and put the 3/4" adapter on the other end (You will end up seeing the side with the threads). And you are done!

To paint mine, I used Krylon Fusion spray paint,which seems to work well, though not totally scratch proof. However, a word of warning that you are supposed to let it cure for 1 week. And they mean it. I am very impatient. I also recommend that you paint it before you glue all the pieces together.

Enjoy! Make one for a pirate or explorer (or Princess) that you know! And share pictures with me! I love to see how creative you can all be! (in fact, if anyone can figure out how to make these really work to magnify things, I would love to know how!)

EASY Pirate Doo-Rag

With Buzz's pirate-themed birthday party over the weekend, I've got pirates on the brain -- and a few ideas to share! Today I'll show you how I made an easy pirate doo-rag for Mr. S. (Check that pirate-y sneer!)

I find that the secret is to use a KNIT fabric. It's more comfortable and has a little stretch, which helps it to stay on much better. I had a random bit of black knit fabric in my costume fabric box, but you could certainly recycle an old t-shirt too.

What you need:
Approximately 20" square of black (red would be great too!) knit fabric
approximately 5" square scrap of white knit fabric
5" square piece of freezer paper

STEP ONE: Draw a skull and crossbones on your freezer paper.

STEP TWO: Cut it out -- you are removing the inside part of your pattern and keeping the outside part! Fuse your freezer paper pattern to your square of knit fabric.

STEP THREE: Pin your freezer paper and knit fabric on one corner of your black square, so the bottom of the crossbones is about 6" up from the corner.

STEP FOUR: Using black thread, sew around the inside edge of your freezer paper pattern. I used my free-motion foot. (See why I love my free-motion foot in the short video under step four in this tutorial!) You can certainly use a regular foot -- it just means you'll be lifting and lowering your presser foot a lot to get around those curves and corners.

Of course I had to add some angry eyes!

STEP FIVE: Cut away the excess fabric around your skull and crossbones. Your doo-rag is complete!

I found the most FABULOUS how-to on tying doo-rags here! This particular page is perfectly safe to look at, but please note that it is a biker website, so photos of scantily-clad women are likely to be on other pages. Just be forewarned! :o)

Pirates!!

It's Buzz's birthday today -- FIVE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! -- and we are doing Everything Pirate! Yesterday we got out my pile of random fabrics to create some pirate ensembles....

Many pirate-y options!

While JellyBean was sleeping I cranked out some 15-minute pirate pants using some pajama pants to create a pattern. I also made some sashes, a piratey doo-rag, and a flag.

Ta-Da! Pirates!
(I admit -- that doo-rag is my favorite!)

I foresee plenty more piratey goodness to come at OUR house.... But for now -- we're off to have some birthday FUN!

Where I've been all day....

Well, I've spent most of the day TRYING to work on Halloween costumes. I actually did get a lot done -- just with the million interruptions that come with three littles! Here's what my boys are going to be:


Buzz decided he HAD to be a cowboy. He and my husband watched parts of Silverado a month or so ago, and he's been hooked on the idea of cowboys ever since. (Can you blame him?? That movie is a CLASSIC!) Don't worry, I replaced the very bad hat in the photo with a much better one! Lucky for me all I had to make for Buzz was his pants -- because I spent all the rest of my energy on this:


Mr. S decided he was going to be Zurg, and once he's got a plan it is very hard to deter him! Not that I tried, really. I wanted him to be what he really wanted to be. But it sure was a bit of a doozy to make! Luckily my sister-in-law helped me with the construction of the grey chest-plate-whatever-thingy, because I was lost on that one! It's hard to see in my "fantastic" phone photo here, but his hat is a dollar store knit winter hat. I added vinyl horns and reshaped bike reflectors for eyes. Mr. S is very happy with it, which is doubly great because I had a really hard time getting him to try on all the parts separately as I was making them!

I have been working on JellyBean's costume too, but alas it isn't quite finished yet. I'll post photos when it is!

Flashback Friday -- The Wooden Bunny

Last fall I was at T.J. Maxx, minding my own business, when I saw the cuuuutest little bunny staring down at me from a shelf. His sweet little eyes said, "Take me home!"

So I did.

I decided (during one of those have-to-make-something-or-go-nuts moments) that he needed a Halloween costume. Well of course I couldn't stop there, so for every holiday or season, I have been making him new outfits...

...and I only get a little bit of mockery from my husband.....