Monogrammed Applique Towels

About a week ago a friend let us use his beach condo for the weekend. It was an amazing weekend and the condo was perfect! We had such a good time.

When we returned I wanted to get something to thank the owner, like a gift card or something but B insisted that I MAKE something for him. I was at a loss. What the heck to you make someone who has a beach condo?

At some point I got the idea that I should make monogrammed beach towels. How hard could it be?

Well, not hard, I guess....if you are good at cutting things out or if you are more patient about the method you use to do that.

I used:

1 towel

fabric scraps

fusible interfacing

iron

sewing machine

scissors

The first thing I did was to draw my letter on the fabric. The smart thing to do here would be to use some sort of stencil and not just free hand it...but...I just drew a "J."

Then I pinned it to the fusible interfacing (I used stitch witchery) and cut out the letter from both of them at the same time so they would at least be the same.

I set the iron to wool as instructed on the stitch witchery packaging. Then I layered the cut outs on the towel where I wanted it. I used a damp cloth (a bandanna) to fuse the cloth to the towel. The package said to press down and not to slide the iron so that's what I did.

I REALLY pressed it on. I didn't want it to go anywhere. Then I flipped it and did the other side. I probably did it longer than was really necessary. (The package says not to do it too long....but how will you KNOW until it is TOO LATE?!)

Then I loaded up some contrasting thread onto my machine and set it to a zig zag stitch. I then proceeded to s-l-o-w-ly sew around the edge of the letter. Since I'm not so great at sewing, and I hardly ever sew curves, I really took my time on this step. I still messed up a little. Whatever. It's a design element. It's folksy. Plus, it was a J...it could have been much worse. I only recommend making towels for people with easy initials.

That was it. It probably took me about an hour to do both of them. They are obviously not perfect. I made a practice one and two real ones...and I think that if I made two more I'd start to get the hang of it! Luckily my initial is a "J."

I rolled the towels up together and tied a big pink grosgrain ribbon around them. They were well received. B heard the owner telling one of their co-workers that I was really crafty. :D


ETA: This just in! The wife of the owner flipped out and wants more towels! The owner said to B today, "SO when are ya'll going to the beach again?  My wife wants you to stay at our place and make her more towels!"

Come at me wreath.

Dudes, square wreaths are totally in right now and about a million craft blogs have a square, leafy wreath made from dollar store items. I used a picture frame, a hot glue gun, and 3 packs of leaves I got from Jo Anns at 60%. This wreath cost me less than $5. Ya boy.

All you do is take you picture frame and hot glue some leaves to it. You've got to be careful not to make it look too tidy (sorry my type A homies) so the best thing to do is just to open up those leaves and MAKE IT RAIN!! *

Then after you do that just kind glue em on all over the place.

I put a bow on it. That ribbon is from a comforter set my mom got me four years ago....and I saved half of it for something else. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I don't know why this is hilarious to me but it is.

* You don't know how to make it rain? Let me show you.

"Got a handful of snacks better grab an umbrella."

She's Crafty: I made a pillow!

Poochies modeling

This summer I went to bring home my friend Phippsy from the Outer Banks and I got to stay at the house she was staying in all summer. This house was owned by a lady she worked with and it was FAN-TAS-TIC. Everything was pink and yellow and covered with roses and peonies. She had found the plans for her adorable cottage in a magazine and it was a wonderful floor plan. It had a huge kitchen filled with light, a master suite upstairs, a homey porch and it was decorated with tons of vintage details. It was the epitome of shabby chic which is like my favorite thing ever but unfortunately I live with this guy who doesn't want our home to look too girlified.

I knew I wanted to thank our hostess with a little gift and peonies seemed like a good jumping off point. I looked on ETSY and looked for note cards, knick knacks and doodads for a while and then one day I realized that I had a bunch of fabric that would be perfect and I whipped up this pillow.

The back of it is this supersoft, white, nubbly fabric called, "minky" that is really nice to have on a pillow but kind of a bitch to work with. The back is not a pretty as the front.

Sometimes people ask me why I don't put my stuff on Etsy and the main reason is that even though I am crafty, I am not a perfectionist, and I tend to create what I like to think of as "mullet projects." A mullet project looks good in the front but it an absolute mess in the back. It looks professional from a distance but don't get too close.

This fascinator is a really good example of one of my mullet projects:

It is super cute in the front but it's mounted on the lid from a poster tube, smothered in hot glue and propped up with beads. All of that is hidden when it's on but I don't think anyone would want to pay for something like that.

It's cool though. I craft for myself and to make things I can use, not really for artistic purposes. It just makes me happy!