How to make a cuff

Cuff Tutorial
" 

Ok this is not the prettiest cuff I can make but it was a quick one I put together.  They are so easy peasy to make.  
1. Measure your wrist size and add a half an inch.


2. Choose a couple of fabrics for the cuff and what ever you want to embellish with.


3.  Cut the fabric the length of your wrist plus a 1/2 inch.  I like mine only an inch and 1/2 wide because I like to embellish so much.

4. I chose burlap and a soft cotton to make as the cuff.  I then sewed them together on my sewing machine but you could easily do by hand.

5. I chose to make a ruffle with a vintage piece of velvet.

6.  I then sewed a couple of pieces of lace on the top and bottom of the cuff.  I hand stitched all the buttons and ruffle onto the cuff.

7.  I then hand stitched some snaps that I bought at walmart onto the cuff.  Now my friend Ellene McClay (who makes incredible cuffs and has joined our swap!) said you can also use a button on one end and a small pony tail holder on the other side.

8. I covered the outside snaps with a little velvet bow.

Voila!  You have an easy peasy cuff:)

Ok this one is more my style and it was easy too.

1.  I cut out a cute embroidered patch off my daughter jeans and a strip off my sons jeans to be be the base of the cuff.

2. I then channeled a little Ruth Rae and zig zag stitched on scrap silk and just made it look like a mess.  (which was my goal!)

3. I made a flower for the center.  I stitched on a few beads and lace.  I also stamped "art girl" (which I bought at Red Lead) on a piece of cotton and attached it with a few French knots.

It is soooooo easy!  You can do it if I can:)
Thank you for all of you who have joined our swap.  It is not to late to join!!!
Grab our button if you haven't yet:)

Cuff Swap Announcement

Victorian Cuff Swap

Maybe a little tattered and torn?

Sign up now for

 the Victorian Cuff Swap!

The fun begins September 1st.

 Hosted by Hungry Hippie and Honey Lamb and I

All participants will make a cuff to wear, then send it to their swap partner by Oct 1st. Pleanty of time to get inspired and make something unique.

Info needed: Name, Address, Email, wrist size in inches or cm.

Email Natalie with your info:  hungryhippie@live.com

Entries due by August 30...

c'mon and join in the fun!

A tutorial is coming soon:)

Trying to Sew

Sew we tried.

Leslie and I decided to try and sew a scraps and threads bag last night. 

 We drug everything out on my dining room table.  We opened the        pattern and saw that we needed plastic mesh, muslin, batting and      velcro.  We had none of that! lol!  All we had was our fabric.

So instead, we decided to use our fancy new feet and make stitches and  ruffles.

  

Don't we look cute in our new reading glasses? LOL!  

I love my new Ellure Baby Locks machine:)

Sewing Class

SEW IN LOVE WITH SEWING!

Back in the Spring I went to the Mary Engelbreit event and got the chance to meet Amy Butler.  When I got back home,  I bought a great pattern at a local store of one of her bags.  I bought the fabric, brought it home, open the pattern and felt overwhelmed!  I hadn't sewn in years and forgot everything!

There is a Be Sew Inn nearby me and I went in to look around.  They sell Baby Locks! The lady working there told me that they had sewing classes (which is the hook to get you to buy a machine from them).  

We went on vaca and I kind of forgot about it.  When we got back, I saw the pattern laying on the table and decided to just go sign up.  So, I did and then called Leslie (one of my partners in crime ) and told her she had to sign up too.  She thought about it for and hour and then decided to do it too. I called another partner in crime, Misti and she already had a busy summer schedule.

So far Leslie and I have made bags.

My bag

Me sewing my handle.

Leslie working away!

Leslie's, mine and Kim's bag

......and YES Leslie and I bought a machine!!! LOL!

We are sewing up our aprons next week:)

My Tart is back:)

My Embroidered Tart

This it the tart I posted about a couple of months ago that I had finished.  I sent it back to Audrey from The French Knot where I bought it in Savannah, GA so she could finish it up.

It is a Raymond Crawford design.  You can find the rest of his designs if you friend him on facebook.

This is my next project that Audrey sent me (she collected all the flosses and ribbons) from her Savannah store.

It is a piece of cake.

Below here is a picture of what it will look like when I finish it.  Check out all the beads!

I can't wait to get it started!

Jill swap

Jill can pack a box!!!!

Last week I received a wonderful stuffed box from my very awesome blog friend Jill at Bucks County Folk Art.  Jill and I comment and email each other constantly and thought we would do our own special Red, White, and Blue swap.

Jill carved.....yes I said carved this patriotic Santa spool for me!  I mean who carves?!?!?  Jill does!! Amazing!  I love him and he is one of my favorite possessions now!  Love him!

All kinds of goodies that I have many   plans for.  

My petticoats and parasol friends from Savannah wheels will be turning    when they see this pic of a tiny      parasol  and fan:)

Jill knows that I have a fettish for all laces!  These are gorgeous:)

Love all beads:)

Sorry Jill, I did not get as great of pics as you did.  This is just the 3rd time I have tried to post it! lol

It is always fun to connect with someone in blog land and Jill has been such a sweet friend.  I love you Jill and all the great goodies!  If you want to see better pics of our swap, check Jill out.  She just finished sculpting a gorgeous santa.  The girl has skills!

Needles Book

Over the last couple of days I have been working on my needles book.  I found the book idea in Sommerset's Sewing magazine.  I loved it and went straight to find the creator of this awesome book.  It was Penney at Farie Acres.  I emailed her and she was quick to get back to me with pointers.

I embroidered each of the titles.  Penney wrote it out with her sewing machine and that looked really cool.  I just need a lesson on how to do that.

I still need to look up what exactly crewel means!  Lol!  Penney just had it on hers so I put it on mine!!!

It is meant to have strings hanging off and have a Ruth Rae tattered look!  I love it and had so much fun making it!

I made this ruffled rose with a hand died velvet ribbon that I bought in San Diego from Paper Tales:)  If anyone knows a good site to get hand died ribbons please let me know!!!:)

Edward, Jake, Bella, Margarita's and Bloody Mary's

OOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was sooooooo good!  My heart is still racing.  Eclipse was so wonderful and true to the book.  I know I always made fun of all the Star Wars people because I am not, but now I am a Twilight person and I get it!!!  Kasey (a regular on here) and I went to the 5:00 show yesterday.  Now I have read  all the books and I will not even tell you how many times Kasey has read the books (3 X's shhhhhh:).  Anyway, in her expert opinion it stayed 99% true to the book.

Yes we are wearing our "New Moon" wolf girl and vampire girl shirts from walmart!

Me and the gang hanging out in front of the theater.

Kasey goes to the theater as soon as tickets go on sale and gets us our same seats in the balcony.  We ordered wings, pizza, bloody mary's (surprisingly great at the theater) margaritas and Dr. Peppers!  So fun!

I love when the theater gets into it and cheers and claps. So fun to be part of the craze. 

 If you "don't get it" or you "are not into vampire's," then I totally agree.....you don't get it! lol  It is such a great love story. I think everyone making fun of us women who LOVE IT forget that when men are so into all their  movies (star wars etc.), golf tournaments, video games, fights, football, etc. and they get all excited that that is ok.  So, give us girls a break if we want to get excited about something that doesn't matter once in awhile!! ;)  I am sorry for rolling my eyes honey when you have to watch golf tournaments and I get annoyed! 

It was awesome and I had so much fun with Kasey!!!!