Mwahahaha James got a very early Christmas present from my Mum, it’s a portable microphone/recording thingy 😀 And I am borrowing it this weekend for IMATS/ABBW to interview and talk to everyone I can possibly find! It also means my V-Logs/videos will have better sound now and I can record decent voice overs.
I have decorated it so it’s fit to be an accessory for the outfits I’m planning ^_^ What do you all think? Pretty cute huh? I am pretty happy with how it all turned out, especially the crown wind shield! I’m going to experiment with other covers when I have time but for now I love it! It’s hard to see in the photo but the pink is actually glittery and it has diamantes spotted around the outside as well as my monogram in diamantes on the front. Then a flag box thing with the web address 😀
So that brings me to my question, is there anyone you guys want me to talk to in particular? Any brands or bloggers you want to hear from? Or do you have particular questions I should ask? I’m a bit nervous about being that out going but let me know and I’ll do my best!
I’ve always wanted a set of suspenders but I had no clue whether I would wear them. So, rather than waste money I decided to see if I could make some out of stuff I already had then I could test them out with my wardrobe.
What you need:
Ribbon
Paper clips
Scissors
Needle and thread
Decorations (I used little bunny appliques)
Metal letter clip things
First off apologies, some of the photos are pretty blurry because I tried to use James’ new camera without having any clue about the settings. Fail on my part! You can still pretty much see what’s going on though ^_^
The first thing to do is cut the ribbon into 3 pieces, 2 long and 3 shorter. The long ones should be enough to go from your waist, over your shoulders to the middle of your back and the short one goes from the middle of your back to your waist again.
Melt the ends with a lighter to prevent fraying, be very careful not to burn yourself. Depending on the kind of ribbon you have it might not be necessary.
Stitch the ribbons into the Y shape. The long ribbons at the top and the short one at the bottom.
Cover the stitching with something cute… like bunnies 😉
Fold the end of the short ribbon under and stitch it in place. You might want to fold it twice to seal the edge.
Taadaa…
These are the clips I’m using, they were 6 for $1.50 at a junk store and have a strong spring in them, you could also use bulldog clips or even pegs for a cute rustic look^_^
Sew the folded end onto the clip. If you want you could cover it with another bunny but I thought it looked ok like this.
From the back:
Now the other sides are a bit trickier, they involve making kind of a belt system out of paper clips!
Start by folding the edge of the ribbon up and stitching that in place.
Slide a paper clip on like this:
Fold the end of the ribbon up and slip the sewn loop at the end on to the bottom arm of the paper clip to hold it in place. Sure this probably won’t last through *heavy* wear but it worked for me all day.
Now we need a way to attach it to the clip without sewing it so it can’t adjust. So add another paper clip to the bottom loop like this:
And stitch the paperclip to the back part of the clip.
Repeat on the other side and you’ve got yourself some make shift suspenders 😀
I think I might deco the metal ends of these 😀
You would be surprised how well the paperclips work at holding it up, I think it’s probably a combination of the fact that I used thick ribbon and the fact that it’s made of cotton not slippery satin.
Now let’s see if I actually wear them much 😀
I’m totally one step away from getting some 80’s style piano key ones mwahahaha!
Another quick easy prop hat to add to my growing collection 😀 This time I wanted a uniform/70’s flight attendant/military-ish hat for my website introduction video! Again I didn’t want to put a huge amount of time/effort into something I would probably only use this once and maybe as a purikura prop so quick stitching and felt to the rescue!
I used:
Pink felt
White felt
Needle, thread, scissors
I cut out a football shape for the top out of white…
Folded it in half and then stitched up the fold to give it a seam.
Next I cut 2 squares of white and 2 rectangles of pink (half the height of the white) which were long enough to go around the sides.
Stitched the pink around the edges with the white football piece folded up like this:
Stitch up the sides too:
Flip it inside out and you should get something like this (but with the sides stitched up).
Fold the white squares in half…
And place them at an angle on the sides.
If you stitch it in place and then fold the bit underneath and stitch. Taadaa hat!
Seriously this is a pretty shoddy hat but it did it’s job! You’ll have just to wait for the project it’s being used in to see it on me though ^_^
Now if you want to see some awesome proper hat tutorials you should check out some of The Fashionate Traveller’s posts she makes some awesome hats!
Very simple headband modification today! I do like plain headbands but some times you can’t beat adding a little bit of detail and this is the easiest way I know how. While it’s very easy to do it also looks quite effective if you use the right colours.
Looks a little like they are a heap of tiny bows!
What you need:
Plain headband
Glue gun
Contrasting ribbon
Scissors
Glue the end of the ribbon to the inside end of the headband. Make sure you do it at an angle.
It needs to be around a 45 degree angle so you can wrap it like this…
You could just continue wrapping, that would be very cute too!
Ooor you could do something a little different! Instead of just wrapping you should twist it twice and then continue wrapping. The twist will form the middle of the bow.
Do it tightly so the bows hold their shape.
Make sure you smoosh down the edges around the headband so it lays flat and flares to make the bow.
Once you reach the other side just glue it down and that’s it… finished!
I imagine you could easily do one of these in a few minutes to match whatever outfit you’re wearing 😀
Want to download this tutorial in one handy portable file?
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a list of all of my downloadable tutorials? OMG so convenient! I know right?
Just sign up to The VLB monthly newsletter/magazine/awesome thing below and have the list delivered right to your inbox in the welcome message!
Another deco project where the pictures speak for themselves! I knit and crochet a fair bit and even though we must have at least 10+ pairs of scissors in our house I can never find them at the right moment so I usually resort to trying to break the yarn to avoid having to get up XD Bad Violet! Last week my Mum saw me doing this and came home with a thread cutter hahaha!
Of course I had the same problem with not being able to find it when I needed it. So I decided to deco it in the most obnoxiously bright way I could think of: rainbow and cake. The end result doesn’t remotely go together well but I couldn’t care less as long as I can find the damn thing! the cake was added as it’s a piece I’ll probably never use and here it provides function as a grippy thing.
See deco can be functional sometimes too!
So onwards to the pictures…
To go one step further I even added a bright ribbon and tied it around the drawer on my side table. IT WILL NEVER BE LOST AGAIN!
Problem solved 😀 How do you avoid losing important stuff? Or are you like me and can’t find anything unless it’s tied to you in some way? XD
Rings! This is another request from way back in the lost email pile. I think maybe this was requeted by Alina but I’m not completely sure! Whoever it was asked for me to show ways of making rings that don’t include those cheap metal resizable ones. Well this is my favorite way: crochet!
This is my finished ring, I wanted something soft, huge and forest-y.
You can see the inside part is a little crochet loop. It’s nice because it’s a bit stretchy, very soft and you can make it completely custom to your finger.
What you need:
Yarn
Fake flowers
Glue gun (or needle and thread)
Lace
Scissors
Crochet hook
So let’s make the ring part first.
Grab your yarn and crochet hook.
Cast on a stitch:
Chain long enough to wrap comfortably around your finger. If you want to learn how to crochet have a look over here at my beginners crochet tutorial.
Make sure it’s not too tight.
Join the chain to the start again.
Tie it off into the loop and you’ve made a ring!
Cute!
Now let’s cover it with pretty things 😀
I made mine using these cheap fake flowers. I needed 2 lengths of flowers: short for the main bunch and long for the bunch which falls down the hand.
For the short ones I just pulled some off the stems.
Long I cut the stems at the base:
To start the bunch glue 3 of the short flowers together.
Then I added another couple around the outside and dropped them down lower and lower using the long stemmed ones. Glue it all in place and you’re ready for the next step.
To soften the look up I made a simple lace bow.
I glued the bow to the back of the flowers…
Glued the ring to that…
and cut out a circle of felt…
Stuck the felt over the base of the ring to make it all nice and secure!
Taadaaa pretty and very comfortable to wear 😀
The best part about these is that you can push the crochet part flat, slide in a bobby pin and wear it in your hair too. Versatility for the win 😀
This particular ring makes me very happy because it can be worn with so many kinds of fashion!
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
To go one step further I even added a bright ribbon and tied it around the drawer on my side table. IT WILL NEVER BE LOST AGAIN!
