LoftyLou Giveaway over at Shwin&Shwin!

Today My shop LoftyLou is being featured over at the fabulous blog Shwin&Shwin http://shwinandshwin.blogspot.com/ Go Check it out! I am offering a $15.00 gift certificate to 1 lucky reader and a 20% discount to all their awesome readers! You can find the offer over at http://shwinandshwin.blogspot.com/2011/05/lofty-lou-giveaway.html Take a look at their blog it's full of AWESOME sewing tips, tutorials and projects!

Hair Bow Holder Tutorial

I'm sure you have seen tons of these picture frame hair bow holders and many tutorials for them but since I was in the middle of making one I decided I would share my process with you! They are very easy to make and literally took me 3 simple steps.
Here is what you will need:

A Picture Frame

Ribbon, Lace or Fabric Strips

Staple Gun

So 1st off I found a frame that I had already had but really didn't like the print in. I simply took out the picture, cardboard and glass inside. You might want to save the glass for another project, not sure what but I am sure I will think of something :)

2ndly I got out my husband's trusty staple gun along with a huge bin of vintage lace that I found at a thrift store yrs ago and started laying out the strips of lace where I would like them to go. I did no measuring or anything for this project- really unnecessary. Once I had the strips where I thought they should go I stapled away.

I think that it turned out great and now I have a spot for my ever growing collection of hair clips!!

Mustache Bash!

Taking a little break from sewing to bring you my latest project: my 1 yr old's 1st birthday! I decided to go with a Mustache Bash/Little Man party. It was loads of fun. Loads of fun planning and loads of fun attending! To save on money my husband and I decided to make pretty much everything at the party, which is generally the case for us anyways. My hubby is an amzing crafter lol! He doesnt know it but he is! For this party he designed and created our birthday invitation, a totally awesome mustache pinata, and a photo backdrop! For everything else I pretty much just threw a 'stache on it :) I made Mustache props, mustache crayons and mustache chocolates, mustache straws, water bottles labeled with mustaches, and of course cupcakes with mustache toppers. Everyone had a fabulous time and it was so fun to see all the little people running around with mustaches on.

For my daughter's 3rd birthday we had a Peter Pan theme and my husband created an amazing life size pirate ship! It was so much fun to use at the party but we did end up selling it on etsy.com We are thinking of selling a few mustache pinatas as well :) If you are interested in one feel free to comment me! Enjoy the baby's in mustaches- Arent they just adorable!! And a big happy birthday to my favorite little man!!

Harajuku Lovers

I found this very cute "Harajuku Lovers" thermal shirt at the Goodwill a few weeks back and I really liked it but thought that I would probably never wear it other than as a pajama shirt. But I just couldnt pass it up. So I decided to refashion it into a quick, simple and easy elastic skirt for my little girl. All I did was cut it into the shape I wanted it, hemmed it under and sewed in an elastic band. I really wanted it to have a pocket (because my little one loves ANYTHING with pockets) so I cut an extra piece off the sleeve and simply fashioned it into a pocket. It turned out perfect and she loves it. It's light and airy and great for running around outside in :)

Will you be Mine?

I was just dying to make a refashioned Valentine's Day dress for my little girl so I went over to the local goodwill where I found myself a pretty awesome early 1990's slinky contempo dress that we both thought would work fabulously! Once I called it a "slinky dress" she was ALLLL over it! Once I got home and really started to think about how I wanted it to turn out I thought I would really like for it to have a big red bow on the front and since the slinky material wouldnt work for that I looked in my big box of scraps and luckily found a piece of fiery red material I thought would work perfectly. Sadly my little girl is sick this weekend and I just wouldnt feel right asking her to get up off the couch to try on my work of art and then model it for some cute pics so right now it is just hanging on a hanger waiting for someone to try it on. Soon Soon I am sure. Oh, I also made a Heart hair clippie (its clipped on the sleeve) for her to wear in her hair :)

Refashioned Shorts and Dress!

Well after looking at my ever growing pile of clothing that I refuse to get rid of but could no longer ever wear again (either because of 2 kids later or if I wore it I would be trying to look 15 again) I decided it was time to take the pile down by at least 2 items. And of course being inspired by my little girl- I wanted to make a fun new outfit just for her. You see for Christmas she received in her stocking (from Santa of course) a pair of glasses that is a disguise (good ol' $ store) and they have turned out to be one of her most favorite things. She in fact insists on wearing them nearly everywhere we go and really enjoys the looks and laughs that she gets from almost EVERY person that passes her by. So anyways I came up with what I like to call "my strange little man" outfit. Because whenever we are out in public and she's wearing her disguise people always comment "who's this strange man following you?!"