No-Sew Ribbon Headband

A few months ago I saw some where that you can make your own stretchy headbands with a hair tie, so I thought I would experiment with it and this is what I came up with!

What you will need:

• Wide ribbon (I used a silky, flexible one, but I'm sure pretty much any ribbon with work)
• Elastic hair tie
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Small decorative ribbon (optional)

First cut a piece of your ribbon that will go across your head from just below the back of your ears.  I think mine was about 8 inches long.

Then, cut your hair tie (at the seam if it has one) so that it is a straight piece of elastic. Next, attach one end of your hair tie to one end of your ribbon with a bead of hot glue.

Glue and fold over one side of the ribbon, then the same with the other.  This will help the ribbon to fold neatly, and not curl, when you wear it.

Then repeat these steps on the other side of your ribbon and hair tie. If you don't have any decorative ribbon to wrap around the seams then you are finished!

If you do have small riboon, measure how much you will need by wrapping it around the seam between the ribbon and the hair tie and cut it to size leaving a little extra on the end.  Then put a bead of hot glue down the underside of the ribbon and attach it, folding the raw ends under before you glue them down.

Viola! I really love it, and the elastic hair tie helps it not to slip! I think this has to be my favorite blog project yet, what do you think?

Updated Pictures!

Be sure to go and check out the updated pictures on Fun with Ceramics!  It took me a while, but I finally remembered to do it...

Here's a preview:

Check it out!

Vase Paint

Have you seen those tutorials that are floating around about painting glass vases and other containers by pouring acrylic paint in the bottom and swirling it around inside?? Well I really wanted to try it for myself, and boy am I glad I did!

This is my lovely creation!  However, I suck and forgot to take a before picture....

I chose to use a pearly white paint on this one because it already had a frosted finish with a pattern in it, so I wanted to highlight that.  And it definitely worked!  I know its only August, but I think this will make a cute Christmas decoration... picture it: red ribbon, and some holly coming out of it, pretty perfect right??

Well the painting processes was a lot harder than I thought it would be...  I had to use A LOT of paint, like half of my regular sized bottle, and this vase if fairly small.  But I think a big part of that was because this was a strange shape for a vase and I was wanting to cover all of the inside and not just a portion of it.  However, aside from the massive amount of paint it took to be able to maneuver the paint around inside by just rotating it, it wasn't that hard to get the painting done.

The long process came while it was drying.  That excess paint all started to pool in the bottom once I got the whole thing coated, and I had to keep draining it all out back into the bottle.  I ended up having to do this every few hours for a whole day to get rid of enough paint for the bottom to completely dry.  But on the bright side now I have a much more full bottle of paint again to use on future projects!

There are many more variations on this project out there, have you tried any? Please share, I will always appreciate comments, or suggestions for future projects!

Zig-Zag Finish

Have you ever been really tight on fabric and not sure you have enough to do a proper hem to finish out your project?  I've definitely been there time and time again... you'd think I'd learn to get extra fabric by now!!

Well just this week I was making a couple curtain panels for my sister's first dorm room.  We were not 100% sure of the exact dimensions of the window so I didn't want to waste a single centimeter!  So, I came up with a solution, I finished the bottom of each panel with a thick decorative stich, instead of a normal hem.

I positioned the needle as close to the bottom edge as I could without risking it slipping or sewing over the edge.

We picked out a thick zig-zag stich, shown above in the diagram on my machine.

When I was finished, the stich was less than a half inch from the edge of the fabric, even at it's tallest points.  I saved a whole inch easily, and I was very pleased!

I did accidentally go over the edge of the fabric at one point, but I was able to undo the messed up section with a seam ripper and continue the stich from the top of a point seamlessly.  So I recommend going slow on this type of finish, definitely worth the extra time!

Then to finish it off I simply cut off the fabric below the stich as close as I could without cutting into the  thread.  This step can be kind of time consuming, but I think the result was well worth the effort.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Flat Iron Hemming

Do you hate having to press a tiny hem with a full size iron? Do you not want to have to invest in a small appliqué iron?  Do you have a flat iron for your hair? Then problem solved!

This is a travel size flat iron (though a full size flat iron would also work) that I now keep with my sewing supplies.  I first tried this out of laziness, but it has turned out to be the best way to press hems that I have ever found!

First I just measure and pin the hems.  I also do both folds at once.  This hem is a half inch, so I folded the fabric in a half inch and then over once more to cover up the raw edge.

Then I simply ran the hot flat iron over the hem.  The great thing about this is that it heats the fabric from both sides at once, so, no matter how thick the fabric, there is never a need to iron twice.  And, there is no need to lug out the ironing board!

Then you can take out the pins and sew up the hem in a breeze, with no need to stop to take out pins along the way!  It's great!