How To Make Your Own Decorative Pom Pom String

by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 19, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial, Video-Tutorials, Violet Vision Videos

Last christmas I saw little felt pompom decorations everywhere but they were quite expensive. I think they were overpriced because of the hipster tax. Every time something uncool is picked up by the hipsters here it pretty much quadruples in value, case in point: dear heads. Apparently pompoms are cool who knew?

Anyway, if you have some spare time they are actually extremely easy to make with some needle felting supplies. Of course you could take the even easier route and just buy premade Pom Poms but I find that the repeated stabbing of needle felting is good for getting the stress out ;D

It’s really so simple that I don’t know if this counts as a tutorial.

Step 1. Needle felt some balls.

Step 2. String them together using needle and thread.

Step 3. Find a pretty place to hang them

Here’s a slightly more detailed video tutorial I did which covers all of the basics including how to actually shape the balls:

Yay! A seriously easy and stress relieving craft ;D

Now I’m thinking of possibly doing this on a bigger scale all over the house, what do you guys think?

How To Make A Tulle Pearl Collar

by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 17, 2014 | Craft, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

I’ve had “Some kind of big frilly collar” on my craft list for ages but I never could think of the right design for it. I had a left over string of pearls from another project and they finally gave me the idea for this tulle version!

You need:

Tulle
Needle and thread
Ribbon
Pearls

You will need very long strips of tulle. I used around 1.5m of it but honestly, the more the better because the frills will be more impressive.

Fold it in half length-wise and then fold the crease so it sits around 1/3rd of the way in. You can see what I mean below:

Thread your needle and tie it securely to one end of the tulle at the folded edge. Start a very small running stitch from there to the other end. Gather it as you go by pulling tightly to create the ruffle.

You should have something along the lines of this when you reach the other end:

Decide how long it needs to be to go around your neck and then tie off the thread. Measure out some ribbon which is as long as the gathered tulle but also has enough on either end to tie into a bow. This is how we will tie the collar on.

Stitch the ribbon to the tulle around 5mm from the folded edge.

Once you go all the way around it, you will end up with something like this:

You won’t be seeing this side so it doesn’t matter how neat you are.

Now cut a length of pearls which is as long as the tulle. I’m using pre-strung pearls but you could just sew them on individually.

Sew the pearls on to the non-ribbon side of the tulle.

I find it easiest to get them perfectly even by putting one stitch between each pearl.

Done!

Now just find a cute shirt with a round neckline and tie it on!

Cute!!

Looking good! You can use the same technique with just about any fabric for a variety of collars. You could even cut the tulle into a Peter Pan collar shape for another version!

Hope you found it useful and let me know if you give it a try 😀

Want to download this tutorial in one handy file?

Sir Reginald Bunnikins Finds Bergamot Bunny

by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 5, 2014 | Craft, Inspiration

Once upon a time, Sir Reginald Bunnikins was a very lonely bunny. Sir Reginald, or Turnip as he was known to his very close friends, had a very good job as the owner of the world’s largest tea factory. He had a sprawling manor house in the country side to spend his weekends at and a delightful city flat just near his club to enjoy during the week. Sir Reginald had all the tea he could possibly drink and some very lovely bunny friends but something always seemed to be missing.

You see, Sir Reginald had been blessed with a very good name and character but as his nickname suggested, he wasn’t so full in the brains department. In fact he had received his nickname as an homage to his best friend Violet’s most treasured romantic hero: Turnip Fitzhugh. Also his head kind of looked like a turnip.

But that was just the problem wasn’t it? Sir Reginald wasn’t much in the way of a romantic hero, he had no Arabella to rescue or eat pudding with! As a proper Victorian gentleman with no formal introductions it was rather hard for him to meet an appropriately chaperoned young bunny lady in this day and age.

The whole issue made Sir Reginald’s brain box hurt.

And so it was one day after discussing the problem with Violet, that Sir Reginald set out to find a solution to his rather larger problem. Rather!

He climbed the highest shelf he could find and grabbed some supplies.

Surely if he couldn’t be introduced to a young bunny lady, perhaps he could make one?

Sir Reginald worked tirelessly all night, only stopping for 6 tea and pudding breaks. He made a rather comely bunny body…

And a delightful bunny head…

The ears of course were the most important part, how otherwise would one be able to have a delightful chat over tea and sandwiches. And Sir Reginald really did like sandwiches.

Sir Reginald worked continuously adding all of the appropriate elements…

Hands, feet, a fluffy tail, a really big brain (because one of them ought to have one don’t you know!).

He sourced a bow from the finest couturier and added the finishing touches to his new best friend.

But what could he name her? A beautiful bunny like this without a name just appeared a bit unseemly, how would the staff be able to announce them at balls if she had no name?

After a long think, Bergamot came to mind… It was of course the key ingredient in Sir Reginald’s favourite kind of tea.

Bergamot Bunny awoke with a start and looked into the eyes of her one true love!

“Oh! Er… Hello there Miss Bunny!” Sir Reginald stuttered awkwardly.

Luckily somehow Bergamot Bunny, who had managed to acquire both a brain and a decent idea of true love, saw her opportunity and went for it!

*kissing*

How very improper! Without a chaperone and everything!

Sir Reginald was highly shocked and had to hide around the corner for a bit. Bergamot was left to roll her eyes. That was kind of a feature of their relationship from that point on.

And they lived happily ever after or some such nonsense!

Needle Felted VLB Patch Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 28, 2014 | Craft, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

Today’s tutorial is a request from members of The VLB 😀 The VLB is my monthly *cough*most of the time *cough* newsletter which includes all kinds of awesome things and the logo is a crest representing everything we’re about.

The original crest itself is a little complicated for a quick and easy needle felting project so I’ve just made a simplified version that hopefully you guys can follow along with and make your own!

You’ll need some yellow felt and other general needle felting supplies.

First cut the general crest shape out of the yellow felt.

Apply light green wool in the shapes shown below:

Fill in the opposite corner with pink wool.

Cut out a little crown from the yellow and needle it to the top of the crest, add a little red heart to the middle. My heart looks more like a circle… but whatever >_>

Now add some big fluffy white wings behind it.

Lastly use some light purple wool to write the letters VLB in each section. The last section has a heart in mine but you can add your own initials.

Done! Now you can needle felt it to a piece of clothing or put a pin on the back so you can wear it anywhere.

Cuuute!

Thank you so much to the members of the VLB for this awesome idea, make sure you send me some photos of yours so I can put them in the newsletter! If you want to sign up, just check out the page here.

How To Make A Triple Headband – Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 24, 2014 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

Today’s project is making a bunch of thin headbands into one super headband. MEGA HEADBAND, ASSEMBLE!

You will need:

3 thin headbands
Embroidery thread
Hot glue gun
Tooth picks

Snip off the ends of the toothpicks, this is how we will keep the headbands apart so they don’t touch.

Hot glue a little piece of toothpick between each headband at the end.

You can vary the angle of the headbands depending on how thick the toothpicks are and how they sit.

Now wrap the ends in embroidery thread and glue it in place.

See now the tops sit apart:

And it looks adorable on!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, let me know if you give it a try!

Want to download this tutorial in one handy file?

Subscribe to the VLB newsletter for a full list of downloadable tutorials!

Email Address:

Click here to learn about the VLB.

Make Your Own Needle Felt Hat

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 21, 2014 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial

Ok it’s the time of year where I get really into hats again. It’s probably because I’ve been watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and I want ALL THE CLOCHES.

So… I decided to give making one a try. It didn’t turn out too badly actually and now that I know how much the felt shrinks I think I’m going to get a bit more adventurous next time and make something more impressive.