DIY FABRIC BABY SANDALS

I’ve made all kinds of projects with my Silhouette and I figured it was time I tried out some shoes.  There is an adorable pattern for some little Mary Jane shoes for babies that I bought a while ago from the online store.  But since its summer I thought…why not try making a pair of sandals!  It did require a little bit of editing but it wasn’t too crazy.  Here’s what I did…..

• Open the shape and delete everything but the soles.
• These are made with a seam allowance so you need to remove it.  I did an internal offset of .25″ and used that new shape and deleted the original sole.
• I made a line that was .5″ long and duplicated it so I had 6.
• I decided where I wanted the straps and the ribbon to go through and placed the .5″ lines in those positions about 1/4″ away from the edge on just one of the soles.
• Group these lines with the sole.
• Select the pattern or color that you want for that sole.
• Now do a mirror duplicate of the sole and you will have two soles that are identical.  This is way easier than trying to do the adjustments to both soles and trying to get them to match.
• With the other sole that you have you will cut this out without the lines for the straps (it is the bottom of the shoe.) Make sure to mirror duplicate it as well.
• I made a rectangle for the straps that is  .5″x 4.75″.  You will need to cut 8 of these.
• Using the sole that doesn’t have the strap lines on it, make one more internal offset that is about .125″ in.  I cut this out of adhesive cardstock and put it between the two sole pieces to make it a little sturdier.  Mirror duplicate this shape too.  We need a left and right for all of the sole pieces.

• Cut the souls and the straps out of the printable cotton canvas.  Cut the inner sole out of adhesive cardstock.  You can use regular cardstock also, I just figured the more adhesive the better!
• I stuck 2 straps sticky sides together and top stitched the edges.  This leaves you with 4 straps.
• Poke the straps and ribbon through the cut lines on the top sole and hot glue them in place on the back.

• Cover the ribbon pieces with the inner sole.
• Stick the bottom sole on that and top stitch around the edge.
• I added some puff paint for traction to the bottom, but really these sandals are more ideal for babies that don’t know how to walk yet.

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Shapes used:

• baby shoes 6-12 months
• fourth (pattern)

PANTS REFASHION

Happy summer!  By now most of the schools are out and there are happy little kids running through the neighborhoods.  I love summer time and this project is perfect for the beginning of summer!  My niece had a pair of pants that she had loved and worn out during the school year.  Her mother was about ready to throw them out when I asked if I could create some Silhouette magic with them.

• I cut off the pants and hemmed them for shorts.
• I wanted to try out the stamp material on fabric with fabric ink.  I was going for a grunge/faded look and it worked perfectly!
• I also had to add rhinestones to dress it up a bit so the shorts didn’t look too old and worn.

Here are the before and after pictures…

Here is a product shot so you can see the stamp block I used and the rhinestone template. (I always cut several designs on the rhinestone fabric to save on materials.)

How will you recreate your kids old school clothes into fun new summer clothes?  I’d love to see it!

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Shapes used:

• flourish swirls (rhinestone)
• chevron (it was a free shape that came with the Portrait)

SIDEKICK SHIRT

Father's day is coming up!  This is my husband's first year as a dad so I wanted to make him a fun gift that I knew he would love.  He likes superhero shirts, so I thought it would be fun to make him a custom shirt.  He has shirts for quite a few superhero's but no sidekicks.  As parents I feel like we are both superhero's and also each others sidekicks.  So yep, that's how I tied it all together.

• I cut the black shadow using a dull satin.  I was interested to see how well the Silhouette CAMEO would cut satin.  With the sewable fabric interfacing it did great!  I did a double cut just to be safe.  Even though it was a dull satin I didn't want it to look too feminine so I used the wrong side as the right side of the fabric.  I was afraid that it would fray a bit after it went through the wash so I used a lighter to slightly melt the fraying edge.  (Be safe when melting edges!  I always do it over a sink full of water.)
• I used the silver heat transfer material for the R.  Remember to mirror the image for heat transfer material.

My husband and I have never been good at waiting for the actual holiday to give gifts.  So I asked him to model the shirt for me.  He loves it!

DIY FACE PAINT STENCILS

Free shape of the week!  Yay!!!  I LOVE getting free shapes.  For this project I decided to use the flower from the free shape to create makeup stencils.  What kid doesn’t love getting their face painted?  In our small town they have a face painting booth every year at the 4th of July.  My cute nieces here love getting it done but hate trying to get it off.  I decided to create a stencil that we could use over and over again all year long and the designs could be more personalized than the few designs every kid has at the park on the 4th.  Bonus…They don’t have to scrub hard to get it off!

These were so easy and fun!!!

• Select the free shape.  Ungroup the design (right click, ungroup).
• Delete the parts you don’t need.
• I sized the designs between 1 1/2 -2 inches wide.
• Helpful hint: If you draw a rounded rectangle around each design you won’t have sharp corners sticking next to the child’s eye!  Make sure to leave 1/2 -1 inch of space around the whole design to give you good stencil space to keep your makeup or paint from getting on the wrong part of the face.

I made a kissy lip design too.  Remember that if there is an “island” on your design you need to connect it to make a stencil.  I just used my knife tool to cut out a little line.  It worked great!

• Cut the design out of stencil material.  I found it helpful to use the double cut function when I use the stencil material.  If you are ever using new materials and you aren’t sure if it will cut right, use the test cut feature.  This will cut a tiny square and triangle on the top left of your media.  Then you can test out your settings to see if you need to adjust them before you cut out the whole design.  This is an awesome feature!  It can save you lots of money.

• Weed out the design so you have your stencil.
• Stick the stencil on the face and fill in with makeup!  Easy and done!!!

I have an airbrush makeup kit that I used to color their faces.  You can use any kind of makeup or face paint you like.  This was a huge hit with the nieces!  I am so glad that you can rinse off the stencils and use them over and over again, because I’m sure that they will want it done every time they come to play!!!

What fun ways have you used the stencil material?

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Shapes used:

• banner, flower & frame {free shape of the week}
• 4 hearts
• assorted lips
• assorted butterfly shapes

FLOWER PEDAL SKIRT TUTORIAL

 

My little brother got married this month so I made a skirt for my daughter for the wedding.  I was thinking flowers, flower girls, and pretty ruffle teared skirts when an exciting idea came to my mind.  Why not make a flower petal ruffle skirt!  Here is how I did it…

•  I cut 12 x 12 inch squares out of sewable fabric interfacing and ironed it to my fabric then trimmed off the excess fabric.   Make sure to peel off the paper backing before placing it on your mat.  Note: Do not re-iron the fabric after the the paper has been pulled off.  I forgot and tried to iron out a little wrinkle before cutting it and ironed the fabric to my ironing board.  That was one of those brilliant moments for me.  

• I sized the flower as big as I could on my CAMEO mat.

• Next I drew lines on the skirt where I wanted to sew on the petal ruffles.  I did them 1  1/8″ apart.
• I started on the bottom of the skirt and sewed on each layer of petals.

• I overlapped the first and last petal of each row.  The spacing on this skirt worked out perfectly so it is just the gap between the petals that overlapped.

I had left over petals when I finished the skirt so I decided to do a matching headband.  I LOVE how versatile the 3d flowers are!  What have you made with 3d flowers?

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Shapes used:

• 3d rolled spiral flower

PRODUCTS USED:

• 

WEDDING PILLOW

My little brother got married last weekend.  I made him this subway art pillow for a wedding present. I had so much fun making this pillow.  I used Fabric Ink for their names, Glitter Heat Transfer Material for the temple and hearts, black Heat Transfer Material for the other words, and Rhinestones for "love".  I love mixing media!  I love this pillow so much that I may just make one for myself too.

LEATHER HAIR ACCESSORIES

I am a true girly girl.  I LOVE bows and flowers!  I have been crafting a lot lately with leather so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make leather hair accessories.  This was so super easy with the Silhouette!

• Select the shape you would like to use and size it to your liking.  If you aren’t sure what size you want, cut it out of paper first to test it out.  This can save you a bundle when working with leather.
• Cut a lambskin leather scrap big enough for your design.  I used clean cut fabric interfacing on the back of my leather to protect my cutting mat.  I was a little nervous ironing leather. I used a lower setting on my iron and did it as quickly as I could.  Remember to use a pressing cloth to help protect your fabric (or in this case leather.)
• The best Silhouette settings for lambskin leather are:thickness 33,  speed 1, blade 10, and double cut.
• I have one blade that I only use for leather.
• After you have it all cut out, assemble the designs and attach to headband elastic or clips.

I also had some calfskin leather that is really thick.  I didn’t dare try it in my machine, but I really wanted a bow out of it.  So I used the Silhouette to cut out a paper pattern and I cut the calfskin by hand.  I think most of the time I expect the Silhouette to cut EVERYTHING for me.  It’s good to remember that it can also cut patterns for you.  Just don’t use pins with the leather.  A little piece of tape on the back side of the leather holds your pattern on quite nicely.

I added some polka dots to one of the calfskin bows with a Sharpie.  Just to make it a little more girly.   I love the way they all turned out!

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Shapes used:

• 3d bow
• 3d lori whitlock flower