Inexpensive Mini Witch Hat Fascinator

I have been drooling over all of the stunning mini witch hats I’ve been seeing on etsy. I would LOVE to buy one, but it’s hard for me to justify spending a lot on something that I’m going to wear for an hour or two while the kids trick or treat. Today I’m going to share how I made my own inexpensive version (please note, the hats I am inspired by are a bit more advanced than this version).To make this project super easy you’ll need a base hat, I found mine in Hobby Lobby. Check over by the safety eyes and dolls supplies, it’s a hat meant for a doll, Cost $2.99 (less if you use a coupon).
Supplies:

• Doll sized felt witch hat
• polyester satin, scrap
• vintage buttons
• a variety of other fabrics, scraps
• water color paper and watercolor paint
• a Sakura glaze pen
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• head band or elastic cord
• coordinating ribbon

I made a variety of embellishments for my hat, I wanted a rich, layered look. I made three fabric flowers (like these) from orange polyester satin, using vintage buttons for their centers. I used some metallic platinum colored fabric to make a gathered band, hand stitching it to gather it up.  I made a orange watercolor back ground, once it was dry I drew a design on it using the Sakura glaze pen and when that was dry, I washed over the whole thing with black watercolor for the center of a gather fabric rosette. I also picked a couple extra buttons to use. Then I started hot gluing everything to the felt hat. The platinum band was glued first. I added a ribbon over the gathering stitches and the rosette with the paper center to cover the seams. The three fabric flowers were tucked in next to that and finally I added a ribbon bow and the extra buttons. To finish I stitched the finished had to a head band. I really had fun making this project, I might have to make one or two more, they’re great for decorating too!
Linking with Terrorific Tuesday!

The 80’s Called and Said Make Barrettes

Too bad the 80’s didn’t check the stores first to see where I could find the special barrettes.  For the record I went to W-mart, Dollar General, Hobby Lobby, Walgreens, Russ’s Market (grocery store) and Ben Franklin’s, the only place that had this particular style was Ben Franklin’s.  I followed this tutorial from Wrights ribbon, nice and straight forward.  I have two tips to make it go a little faster:  first use darning needles on the ends of your ribbons to make the weaving through easier and second, on step 3 arrange the ribbon across the bar before you pull it through the center, this helps keep it nice and flat.  I also tried gluing the ribbons together, I wouldn’t recommend that, it was a sticky mess and really didn’t make it any easier.
This project was a hit with Little Miss and with all the “hair bling” I’ve been seeing I’m sure these will fit right in.  I think I might need to add some beads to the ends of the ribbon (that’s why I’ve left them longer).  I also think that shaped beads for holidays would be super cute, like red, white and blue stars for the 4th of July.  What do you think? 

New Hair Clips for a New Hair Do

I finally got a hair cut, I had been waiting, trying to hold out until I could go to a salon, but I just couldn’t make it any longer, I caved and got a $10 hair cut.  I like it, it’s pretty short, but still cute and to make it even more fun I colored it a dark red.  Now I really need some cute hair accessories.  All of my stuff screams teenage girl (from the ‘90s), little butterflies, plastic bows, weird little claw clips, hair springs(?!?), and even a banana clip!  Luckily I found this great flower clip tutorial on Yards and Yards and I had everything on hand already. I tried several different types of fabrics: knit, lining, satin, metallic, and tulle and got good results from them all.  I wish I could figure out a way to use cotton, but it’s the melted edge that I love so much.  I love how Anna made the backs for these flowers, I can’t wait to put them on everything! The fabric with the metallic thread is my favorite (the rose colored one, bottom right and the yellow and white one, center left), I got it from my friend Kelly and there are a rainbow of colors.  I LOVE these, I MUST make more in more colors!
The only thing different about my flowers is my largest circle is only 2 1/2” across.  That’s as large as my circle template went and I didn’t want to search through the house to find some bigger circles to trace.  These were really quick and easy to make, about an hour and a half from “oooh, I want to make those” to “wow, these flowers look awesome in my hair”.  I’m thinking they would make great last minute gifts.
No action shots this morning, I've been up with the baby since 4:30 and trust me, I'm not looking too cute.  I'll post some photos on Facebook later today, after I take a little nap.

Fabulous Felt

I think I may have mentioned my love of inexpensive craft felt before, but I’ll say it again, I love this stuff!!!  As I was checking in with some of my favorite blogs this week I saw these adorable felt hair clippies on Treasure for Tots and was dying to give them a try.  FYI, hair clips are on sale this week at Hobby Lobby, I got regular sized ones and extra large one. 

I ended up just experimenting with the larger ones, my embroidery skills are very basic and having a bit more space to work on made it easier.  This is a little, quick project and bonus, I had all the supplies on hand except for the clippies!  Note the squares on my cutting mat are 1” to give you an idea of the size of these things, I think one will be enough hair decoration.

Okay, the clippie on the top center, with the sequined sugar skull may be a bit much, but I got the idea in my head and had to see it through! 

I really like the purple one and it perfectly matches one of Little Miss’s sweaters, so yay!  I have also used felt to cover other things, like bottle cap pin cushions and fabric tape measures, can you tell I was going for a Halloween theme?  I would like to make little sets that include a pin cushion, tape measure, and needle book, it’s on the never ending list.

The real question is what else can I cover with felt and primitive embroidery? any suggestions would be appreciated :)