The Birdflock Creates

Valentine's Wreath #2

2011-01-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

The past couple of Christmases I have seen these ornament wreath's everywhere. I had wanted to make one, but didn't want to pay full price for ornaments. and couldn't catch them before they were gone, once they were marked down. The other day I saw this post and lamented that all of the good Christmas balls were gone when I had looked at Target earlier. Last week I happened to stop in to CVS for something random and found 50pk shatterproof balls for $2.50. I grabbed all of them. I saved 2 pkgs. of red and silver for next Christmas and used the 2 pkgs of all red to make this:

Love it!

Valentine's Wreath #1

2011-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

I saw this wreath last year, and thought how wonderful it was then, but I never really got around to trying to make one. So when my friend super crafty friend Sarah said she was making one, I decided to join her and a few other friends in a crafty morning. We pretty much followed this tutorial, but if you wanted to make your own, I have a few notes from my experience.

It took a whole yard of felt (tutorial called for 3/4 yard)

I found my wreath to look a bit stacky (is that a word?) and I liked it better when instead of folding my circles in half and then half again, I folded them in half and then into thirds (see pic). I think it gives it more texture.

Use a thimble. I didn't for the first 3/4 of it or so and my thumb was a bit tender:)

I had originally planned to hang this on the front door, but since the back is not done, it does not show so pretty through the glass. So, I have another idea for that, and this one is hanging nicely on my wall.

Fleece Hats and Scarves

2011-01-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

For my birthday, my sweet hubby helped me to upgrade my sewing machine to an embroidery/sewing combo. I scored a great deal on some fleece on Black Friday, so I decided to make some hats and scarves for the cousins. It was my first embroidery project and I love how they came out. The kids helped tie the scarves, so it was a great family project.

Christmas Neighbor Gifts - Sprite

2010-12-21T03:25:00.000-08:00

I these here and quickly whipped up a bunch. They came out perfect with no baking required!

Diaper Cake

2010-11-12T02:08:00.000-08:00

Mc's teacher had a baby this year. Some of the girl's in his class wanted to have a baby shower for her (so cute!). They planned the whole thing, but they were not able to bring food. What is a shower without cake? So I made my first diaper cake as a contribution. It came out so cute. All of the flowers are clips, so they can be worn with headbands, etc.

Monogram Necklaces and Wristlets

2010-10-10T01:38:00.000-07:00

CG needed birthday presents for her twin friends and she really wanted to make purses. So we came up with these monogrammed wristlets:

We also had fun with Modge Podge Dimensional Magic making these necklaces.

It wasn't intentional, but it all matched quite well.

Baby Gifts!

2010-09-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

Several of my kids' teachers are having babies this year. So I have been busy putting some gifts together.

Here are two from this past week.

Newborn Baby Gown from men's t-shirt and Ruffle Butt Monogrammed Onesie with matching headband.

Simple Shirred Dress for Barbie® Dolls Tutorial

2010-09-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is a quick and easy dress.

Items Needed:

1 Piece of cotton fabric 12" x 7"

2 Pieces of fabric 1" x 3" for the straps or you can use ribbon.

Sew on Velcro 1 ¼" x ½"

Sewing Supplies: Scissors, Sewing Machine, thread, iron, etc

Finish all of the edged of your large rectangle with a serger or zig zag stitch. I use an overcastting stitch that I love.

Press a ¼" hem on each of the longer sides and sew a 1/8" seam allowance.

Starting at the top of a long side, begin shirring lines about 1/8" apart. If you are new to shirring, Ruffles and Stuff does a great tutorial.

Shir approximately 10 lines.

Sew a basting stitch from the top to the bottom if your shirring on each side to keep your elastic from unraveling.

Pin short sides of dress together with right sides facing each other, making sure to line up shirring. Sew a ½" seam from the bottom of the shirring to the bottom of the dress.

Press out your seam.

Sew in your Velcro over the shirring.

Now for straps. Press in ¼" of each o the long sides of your strap pieces.

Fold in half longwise and press again.

Sew along the outside edge of the strap to hold it together.

Sew straps onto the dress. You may need to try the dress on to find the right placement for the straps.

Finished!

This one I added more of a sleeve by making some like those in this tutorial by Jess from Craftiness is not Optional.

Super Easy Peasant Top for Barbie® Tutorial

2010-09-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

What you need:

1 piece of knit fabric 3 ½ " x 14" - old t-shirts work great.
(you can use cotton if you choose. I like the knit because I can leave my edges unfinished. If you use cotton, make it 4" x 14" to allow for a hem)
1 piece of ¼" elastic, 6 ½" long
Marking pencil, disappearing ink or water soluble ink pen
Sewing Supplies: Scissors, Sewing Machine, thread, iron, etc

Note: If you have chosen to use cotton fabric instead of knit or if you want more finished edges with the knit, you will want to finish all of your edges (serger,zig zag stitch, etc) and sew a ½ inch hem on the bottom first.

Press up ½" on one of the longer edges of your rectangle. This will become the casing for the elastic.

Sew right along the edge of what you have pressed to leave enough room to pull the elastic through.

Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic. Start to feed it through the casing.

Just before the other end of the elastic enters the casing, pin it in place.

Push the safety pin out the other end.

Line up the shorter sides, pin and sew a ½" seam, making sure the elastic is stitched in.

Press out the seam and then turn it so the seam is in the back and press it flat with an iron.

Mark a line 7/8" from one side that end's 1 1/8" from the top. Then measure over 5/8" from the bottom of that line and connect it with the top of the first line. Repeat this for the other side.

This is what your lines should look like.

Sew right on the lines.

Cut right up the middle of the lines, but be careful not to cross the stitching.

This is after cutting.

Turn it inside out and press & dress.

It can be worn baggy or you can add a belt. Here I just cut a small strip of knit and tied it in the back.

10 Minute Knit Circle Skirt for Barbie® Pattern and Tutorial

2010-09-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Circle skirts are so fun and easy and using a freezer paper pattern, you can make a bunch up pretty quick.

What you need:

A 9" x 9" square piece of knit fabric (10 x 10 for cotton option listed below)

A 4.5" by inch piece of jersey knit for the band (I cut up old t-shirt scraps)

Pattern (Click here to download it)

Freezer paper

Sewing Supplies: Scissors, Sewing Machine, thread, iron, etc.

Step 1: Trace pattern onto freezer paper and cut out.

Step 2. Fold square of fabric in half, with wrong sides together.

Step 3. Fold in half again.

Step 4. Lay patter on with the folded corner peeking out the smaller side of the pattern and with the edges of the pattern lined up with the

edges of the folds.

Step 5. Iron it down.

Step 6. Cut around outside of pattern

Step 7. Peel the pattern off.

Step 8. Unfold the skirt

Step 9. When I make a circle skirt for my girls, I just pin the band around the inner circle, but this circle is too tiny for me to sew, so I make one cut for a back seam.

Step 10. Fold the band in half.

Step 11. Pin the band to the right side of the smaller edge of the skirt. (You may need to stretch the band to line it up right)

Step 12. Sew a ¼" seam .

Step 13. Press the seam out.

Step 14. Line up the side edges right side together, pin, and sew a 1/4" seam.

Step 15. Turn right side out, press and dress. Your Barbie® can wear it with the band up or down.

Repeat as desired.

I don't finish the edges on these skirts because the knit doesn't fray and it looks fine to me. You could sew a tiny hem if you chose to, but my girls would rather have a few skirts than one with finished hems.

You can also make this skirt with cotton fabric attached to a knit band. The pattern has an option for this. It has a bigger opening because the cotton doesn't stretch like the knit and it is a bit longer so you can do a ½" inch hem. I hemmed after I cut the back seam, but before I attached the band. I also finished my edges with an overcasting stitch. You could use a serger, a zig zag stitch or pinking shears. This skirt takes a little longer, but is just as cute, especially if you don't have access to cute knits and want to use up some cotton scraps.

Freezer Paper Patterns – Amazing!

2010-09-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

If you already knew about this, why didn't you tell me? If you didn't, it could change your life…or at least the way you look at patterns.

I have been working a lot with knit's lately and have found tracing a pattern can be difficult sometimes. I have also done a bit of freezer paper stenciling and I began thinking. .. What if I made my pattern out of freezer paper and ironed it on? Genius! The best part about this, is once you have used it, you can peel it off and use it again.

Here is a mini tutorial (it is probably self explanatory and therefore not needing a tutorial, but I was so excited about the concept, I thought I would post it anyways).

Trace your pattern onto the paper side of the freezer paper (Here I am using this pattern)

Cut it out

3. Iron the freezer paper to your fabric

4. Cut around the outside edges of the freezer paper

5. Peel the paper off

6.Sew your project

Repeat steps 3-6 as desired

You can get at least 5-6 (probably more) uses out of the pattern. It does start to get a bit linty after a while. I think knit may have more lint than cotton. I reused a freezer paper pattern on cotton 15 times and it still worked, I just needed to iron it a few seconds longer. It really helps making multiples of a project so much quicker.

Barbie® Clothes!!!

2010-09-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

My girls have several Barbies®. Most of them are usually naked, since most of the clothes they came with have fallen apart or been lost, etc. So we have had a box of Barbies® that have not been played with much. On one of our trips to CA, Grandma Bird and Aunt JoAnn got out their Barbies® and all of their clothes from when they were kids.

Tons of clothes handmade by Grandma Haney. I was kind of jealous and my kids were awestruck. I remember thinking, I bet my kids would play Barbies® if they had more clothes.

So, I was thrilled when I saw these tutorials from Jess at Craftiness is Not Optional. I became a bit obsessed and I tried out her ideas and then made up a few of my own.

My girls have had tons of fun with all the new options, mixing and matching. I hope to have a few tutorials for the ones I made up over the next few days.

Cupcake Smooshie and Neck Cooler

2010-09-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Cupcake Smooshie is a genius idea. I wish I had thought of it, but I stole it from Kelly at According to Kelly. The whole "Let's make cupcakes and let the kids decorate their own" idea was invented for people like me because when I frost cupcakes, they look like the kids did it anyways. The Smooshie idea is simple. Take cupcakes and frosting and smoosh them in layers into a mason jar and suddenly they are pretty, and as Kelly says "Everything tastes better when eaten with a spoon." I also whipped up a cool tie neck cooler similar to the ones I saw on Little Birdie Secrets and tied it around the jar for decoration. Since summer is still going strong here in Texas, it made a perfect birthday gift for a friend.

Weekender Tote

2010-09-07T03:40:00.000-07:00

Last spring, I decided to join Sew Spoiled's Weekender Tote Sew Along I was doing really well until the end of May, when things got really busy and then summer took over. So, this weekend, I finally sat down and finished off my bag. It was perfect to tote all my goodies to church with me.

Back to School Fancification Recap

2010-09-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Just a quick recap of all our shirts. We took 10 plain clearance tees from Wal-Mart

And turned them into

10 Fancy Tees

#1 Neckline Ruffles

#2 Tuxedo Ruffles

#3 & #4 Fluffy Flowers

#5 Fabric Flower Buds

#6 Monogram Appliqué

#7 & #8 Sparkly Tees

#9 & #10 Two Color Freezer Paper Paint

And now onto new projects:)

Fancification Tee’s #9 & #10 – Two Color Freezer Paper Painting

2010-09-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

This one was a bit more challenging for me. The girls each decided what they wanted. I had to cut out two separate stencils, one for each color.

Our Kadie-bug the ladybug.

Cami is playing volleyball this fall, so we made this shirt for her. The white paint was kind of difficult and required multiple coats. The freezer paper got a bit saturated and the white bled into all of the lines. Fortunately, I was able to freehand paint the black in to fix it.

It was a perfect way to finish up our fanicfying set.

Fancification #7 & 8 Sparlkly Freezer Paper Stenciling

2010-09-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this Simply Screen Glitter. My girls saw these in Family Fun Magazine and immediately wanted to do them for one of our Back to School Fancy shirts. Detailed instructions can be found in the September issue of Family Fun or here on their website. We made freezer paper stencils using the templates on the website, but since we have made them I keep thinking of all sorts of things we can make with this stuff. I am excited to do these again sometime.

Back to School Fancifying T-Shirt # 6 – Monogram Applique

2010-09-02T01:31:00.000-07:00

Ever since we made an appliqué onesie for cousin Zoie, Cami has been bugging me to do a shirt like that for her. We picked a super cute bird fabric that matched the purple shirt perfectly.

Fancificying T-shirt #5 – fabric flower buds

2010-08-30T03:01:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorites of the bunch of tees we have decorated. I cut up strips of the extra green t-shirt and twisted them into little flowers to adorn the neckline, similar to this technique on Fireflies and Jellybeans. So fun!

Fancification #3 and #4 – Fluffy Flowers

2010-08-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

I used Mia Moo's felt flower tutorial with some knit, to make the flowers. Cami also wanted to add the ribbon like she saw here at Fireflies and Jellybeans.

Kadie also loved twirling in the next circle skirt that I whipped up. Tons of fun!

Fancification #2 – More Ruffles

2010-08-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

For Kadie's tee we cut up the other pink shirt and sewed the ruffles down the front, similar to a tuxedo shirt in addition to the ruffles on the sleeves.

Back to School Fancification #1

2010-08-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to older, fashionable friends, my girls have plenty of clothes. They didn't need a lot for school, but I saw these shirts on clearance at Wal-Mart

They were so cheap I bought a few in each color and we decided to fancify them.

Our first fancification was ruffles. We cut up one green shirt and added ruffles on the sleeves and collars.

I also picked up this cute tulip knit super cheap when I was in Utah this summer. It matched so well, that I made my first circle skirt – So EASY. I am in love with these skirts now and will probably make more soonJ

Freezer Paint "Cousin Shirts"

2010-07-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

While visiting Nevada, we thought it would be fun to make "cousin shirts", so we set up some freezer paint stencils and let the kids paint their own shirts.

. The girls painted birds and the boys painted fish.

They came out adorable.

Independence Day Outfits

2010-07-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

We crafted some pretty festive outfits for the kids to wear to the Independence Day parade this year. The girls loved the ruffle-flag shirts we made.

Even baby Zoe, sported a flag.

The boys wanted nothing to do with ruffles, so we tried another route. My first attempt at freezer paint was a bit ambitious, but I love how these Uncle Sam tees came out.

Ruffle Butt Onesie with Matching Headband

2010-07-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

In Utah, I was so excited to have my niece Zoie around to create for, that I helped my sister make this adorable onsie and matching headband.