Antique Clothes

Aren't these dresses and boots so pretty?  I just had to take photos and share!

Neat Antiques

Aren't these items so neat?  I saw these in an antique store they are a mini sewing machine, sewing scissors, bobbin lace pillow with bobbins and lace in progress.

Flower Pin/Hairclip: Hailey

I made this flower with black cotton, black lace, and a shiny silver fabric.  In the center I put a rectangular jewelry part.  I thought that would make a great unusual look and feel.  I love it!  To me it reached "rock star" status!

Vintage Postcard

Isn't this postcard so sweet?  I got it for $1.50!

Yummy Lace

 

I recently got to go shopping in a town called Orange which is known for having all kinds of special shops!  I found all this delicious lace there!

Frayed Edge Fabric Flower

 First select fabrics that you would like to use.  I keep a bin of scraps just for making these flowers.  Even tiny pieces are useful for the centers.  I'm just showing the steps I took to create this flower but I vary how I do it each time I create a flower so there is no set steps to take just a basic overall way of creating them.

 I like to take a stack of fabric that will act as my back layers of the flower.  This also varies in amount and size depending on the look and feel I want to end up with.

 I cut out a round-ish scalloped flower shape.  I don't use a pattern or guide I just eyeball it and cut scallops out in the form of a sort of circle.  You can always fix it as you go if a "petal" is too big or out of wack.

 This doesn't have to be exact in fact I like it to be imperfect or oval because as I stack them I can offset and rotate each layer a little different from the others.

 Crumple the cut out flower shapes and roll them in your hand like you would a piece of dough.  This helps fray the edges.  If they need extra fraying just pick at the edge with the tips of your finger.

 I start stacking, rotating, layering to form the flower.  I sometimes cut one flower shape a little smaller, and I always graduate the size from large to smaller towards the center of the flower.

 From here I go by how it looks and feels.  It's constantly changing as I add pieces of fabric.  I like to use triangle pieces too or long thing scraps sticking out of the layers.

 As you can see I added a couple of triangular bits and putting them under a layer of flower shaped fabric.

 I'm constantly adding to this stack and adjusting to create the flower.

 Here I cut out some smaller lighter pink flower shapes.

 Crumpled and rolled them to fray the edges.

 Now they are ready to layer.

 I added another triangle of fabric behind those as well.

 I realized they were a bit too small so I off set them to take up more space.  See it's not an exact science but just going with the flow.  If something doesn't work you don't have to use it.  Just put it back into your scrap bin for another project!

On top of this I add random bits and pieces some are rectangular some are pieces that were leftover from cutting out flower shapes.  You can add lace bits too or yarn, thread, anything to fill in the middle.

 I added in a larger light pink flower shape to the back layers since I felt it needed it.

 At this point I felt it was ready to be sewn together.

 I slide it under the foot of my sewing machine to the center of the flower.

 Lower the foot and sew a little line, reverse, forward and stop at the center with your needle down.  Lift the foot and rotate.  Lower the foot and sew forward, reverse, forward again.  To create an X in the center of the flower.

 The X is to sew all the layers and keep them in place.  Once you have that finished you can trim the thread tails off!

 As you can see it doesn't have to be perfect just functional.

 I then ruffle and crumple to puff up all the layers!

I then add a little something to the center, this time I used a large pearl, but I've used all kinds of things!  I've used buttons, a tassel created from metallic thread, lace, charms, sequins, beads, pretty much anything you can imagine or thing would look pretty in the center.  I've also attached feathers or leaf shaped fabric to the back too.  The possibilities are endless!

From here you can use it any way you'd like, sew it onto something or make it into a pin or hair clip by attaching findings to the back.

I hope this inspires you to create some flowers!  It got me saving all my tiny scraps, but you know it's neat to actually use those scraps instead of throwing them away!

Cell Phone Pouch

 Lilla has a tutorial on her blog for how to make a folded fabric pouch so I learned how to make it and then created a pouch for my cell phone!!!  I just got a new phone for my birthday and I don't want it to get scratched in my purse so this was a great solution...and pretty! ;)

I used my own measurements for the pouch though so that it would fit my phone well. I used a 25inches long strip by 4 inches wide. The finished size is 5x3.5, my wonderful hubby helped me figure out the math! LOL

 I added a liner of microfiber.  I didn't know any other way other than just sewing up a liner and then blind stitching it into place.  I used a microfiber cloth bought from the 99cents store and cut it up.  I figure this way it's a soft cleaning lining that is a little cushion too.

 Here is the back you can't even see the tiny stitches to sew in the lining.  I wish I had lined up the print better so it would be seen on the back too but I'm not good at guessing those things and it was my first time sewing something like this up.  I'll need practice to be able to do it better.

 On the front I added some vintage laced to the flap as I sewed it up.  Then as a closure I used a bracelet toggle clasp set of a hummingbird and a wreath.  It's perfect not too much trouble to use and it doubles as a pretty embellishment too!