I DIY: Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu

The I DIY is back! After my cousin had her unbelieveably adorable baby, and showed off her cute Halloween onesie, I knew I needed to make her a tutu. However, I had never actually attempted such a thing before, so it was an adventure all in itself.

I did a little bit of research (otherwise known as googling "tutu diy", "how do i make a tutu?" and "tutu or tu-tu?") but was still unsure of the best method of tutu creation. (I did find that tutu is preferable to tu-tu.) The most common version was the tied tutu, like here by Mammalicious, in which you merely tie tulle onto an elastic band and then slip it on. Though I appreciated the simplicity of this idea, I was really aiming for something a little more... authentic looking.

I didn't find a whole lot of gathered tutu tutorials online, so when I went to the local fabric shop to buy the tulle (My Joann's got snowed in last year. Sad face.) I asked the lady who cut my fabric how she would go about it.

Nice Fabric Cutting Lady: You're just going to gather it, right?

Me: Oh... Um... yeah!?

Nice Fabric Cutting Lady: Right. How much did you want?

So it was a foregone conclusion then. I went home with my nice black stretch tulle and got to work.

Here is how I did it, and I apologize for the lack of photos! After folding my (already doubled) tulle in half, I sewed a straight stitch along the length to gather it with, and gathered it by hand. I'll try and post a video of my method for gathering.

After I had all my fabric gathered up into cute and even ruffles, I sewed just above my initial straight stitch to hold the ruffles in place and then snipped the folds at the bottom of the skirt. Done!? Not quite. Since my sweet baby cousin is pretty tiny, I decided to shorten the tutu so it wouldn't look like she was hiding under a blanket made of tulle.

Now it's short and cute and -- well, not so fluffy like a tutu should be. Since I didn't know any other way to fix it, I decided to cut a few zig-zags in the top layer and about halfway down. I would guess I had six or eight layers. It still was laying rather flat, so I sewed a straight stitch to hold up the top two. At first, this seemed like a horrible mistake, since they stood straight up, but once patted down, they were perfectly fluffed! I did the same thing for a couple layers near the bottom.

Fluffed and chopped, all that remained was the elastic. I merely guessed at my little cousin's size, snipped and then sewed a button and cut a button hole into the ends. Done.

Here's my finished work!

It's not my best photographic work -- can you believe my roommates weren't interested in modeling?

Good news? My cousin loved it. Her sweet daughter? Halloween isn't here yet!

Any fun projects? How about any sweet babies you are crafting for? I can't help it.

I DIY: Valentine's Door

Since the day is getting closer (oy! It's this weekend, isn't it!?) I put together a little door decor for our dorm room. I saw a picture of a deer on something, maybe on facebook... and thus the inspiration hit me.

You may not think that deer are very romantic, but they are very sweet and lend themselves to punny valentine's poems, such as; "You are deer to my heart" or the like. And baby deer are just ADORABLE! Goodness. There's a deer farm nearby, and I think I need to make a trip.

As far as the technical side of this goes, I looked up deer photos online, sketched it out till I got a good silhouette and then cut away. I gave them some foliage to enjoy, since I live in the north now. Cactus are even less romantic than pines!

The words were in fact the most difficult part. Construction paper is not the ideal medium for precise x-acto knife usage. It's actually in two pieces because it accidentally ripped! Don't tell anyone, it's a secret.

Anywho, hope you like it, and feel free to quiz me on any more specifics, dears.

(Gotcha. Bahahah!)

I DIY: Christmas Cards

This year, I really wanted to make some cool and crafty things to give out to my friends and family. Though most of my gifts were handmade, there were still some people that I wanted to have a card, but didn't have a gift for them.

After perusing all sorts of blogs and crafty websites, I conglomerated what was in my head to make these!

It got a little messy... I broke a NEEDLE!

The initial idea of a card made with fabric came from seeing these valentines, from the Purl Bee. I just warped it and added some of my own touches to make it the perfect christmas card.

To make your own, gather the following:

• your choice of cardstock
• a scrap of festive fabric (my pieces were probably only 3 inches square each)
• thread that coordinates with your fabric
• seed beads of assorted colors
• scissors and good lighting!

First decide how large you want your cards to be. I had cardstock that was meant to be folded into a greeting card size, so I just cut each one in half to make two cards.

Next, cut your fabric into little tree shapes. I decided how big I wanted mine to be and then cut a long strip of fabric and marked little triangles onto it.

Now, here's the only hard part. Before you even think about trying your first card, TEST your sewing machine. I sewed a whole bunch of scraps onto paper until I decided how tight I wanted the stitches, where I would start on the trees and how many times I would stitch them. So make sure you are happy with what you do on those cards before you start the first one!

Sew each tree to a card, and don't worry if you mess up, the fabric can be reused and the paper, well, you can punch it full of holes and use it as anger management.

Once all of your trees are sewn on, you can add the little zig-zag down the side, like I did. Again, test your stitch width and length on a scrap of paper before your cards.

Now you are ready for the seed beads. (It's really difficult not to type seed beeds. Weird.) Easy one here, just thread a needle (with dark colored thread, preferably) and knot the end before putting each bead on with one stitch. Tie on the back and snip off excess thread. Oh, and occasionally I found a bead that wouldn't fit over my needle. No big deal, toss it back and use another!

I will say that the back of these cards are not especially pretty, but I liked the homemade feel that you got from feeling the stitching.

There you have it! I hope this comes in handy for you!