Green Horned Unicorn

For the Love of Fabric - Part 2

On Sunday I posted Part 1 of For the Love of Fabric. Today, I'm here to share my second fabric project - a cute sleeve for my new iPhone. Side note: I’m a loyal Verizon customer who waited patiently all these years for the iPhone to finally arrive. So happy to finally be a cool kid :)

This was a very simple project that didn't take much time at all. To start, I fused some bright, geometric Heather Bailey fabric onto soft wool felt. Next, I trimmed the case to size and fused on the strip of ribbon. Then, I measued the location of the closure and sewed on some Velcro. Finally, I pinned and stitched, and added a cute button to finish it off. Simple and sweet! 

Cute, right?  The case was purposely sewn to be a bit roomy for the phone. This way, when I finally get around to purchasing a bumper case, it will still fit. Until then, my phone will remain protected in my lovely little case!

I'm happy with the look and it seems to be holding up quite well. Plus, it's super-soft to touch :)

Next up in my For the Love of Fabric mini-series, an old noteboard gets a facelift. Thanks for stopping by!

For the Love of Fabric - Part 1

This past week, I found myself on a bit of a fabric frenzy. I completed four projects using fabric, one of which I will share today.

For those who know me (or have been reading my blog for a while) know that, while I love fabric, I really do not enjoying sewing. I have no patience for measuring. Or cutting patterns. Or ironing. Or pinning. Or really any of it for that matter. However, when it comes to hack-and-sew projects, I’m your girl!

The first thing I set out to do was create some curtain panels for our cat/guest bedroom. I found a lovely Balinese Floral Curtain panel at Urban Outfitters on the clearance rack for $20. It was just the type of print I had been looking for to finish off the room, which is decorated in a kitschy, vintage style mixed with a few modern pieces.

Unfortunately, there was only one panel and its 84"l X 52"w dimensions weren’t quite the right fit for my 50”l X 60”w window. Even with the panel rotated on its side, it was still short by a few inches. 

But, it was a problem easily solved. Leaving the panel rotated on its side, I cut it in half to make two panels. I hemmed all of the raw edges, and then, added some turquoise corduroy to the top of the panel to create the pocket for the curtain rod to slide through. I really like the contrast that the turquoise adds. I just wish I had made the corduroy pocket a little bigger to add even more contrast. I’m considering adding turquoise ruffles to the bottom, but left it as is for now since the desk/hutch covers most of it.
Disclaimer: Please don't hold the poor photography against me! I don't have yellow walls, but I do have very poor lighting in this room. I was too lazy to pull out my studio lights to photograph it properly with the DSLR, so I used the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone instead. 

I'm quite happy with the way they turned out and how the mesh with the rest of the room. Next up, a custom iPhone case. Check back to see a simple, but adorable case :)

A Challenge to Myself

Sometimes you feel stuck. In a rut. Lacking inspiration. This is exactly where I found myself this weekend. I felt like creating, but I wanted to deviate from my comfort zone of patterned paper backgrounds, splattered paints (or mists) and ribbons. I wanted something visually clean and uncluttered.

So, I decided to put myself up to a little challenge. I set a couple of guidelines for myself, and off I went! Here is what I was trying to accomplish:

• Solid background
• Lots of white space (negative space)
• No mist/paint
• Use machine stitching (which, believe it or not, I have never done on a page before!)

This is the page I came up with:

The page is fairly simple and basic but was actually REALLY HARD for me to create! But, I did it...a clean kraft background, with no paint and the addition of machine stitching! It's hard to see in the photo above, but I did a wavy stitch on the side with the red patterned paper. It looks pretty cool in person. 

While it isn't my favorite scrapbooking layout of all time, I'm very happy with the results. I challenged myself and won. Sometimes it's hard to step out of your safe-circle, but when you do, it feels exhilarating :) 

Happy Monday!
 

Where does the time go??

I can't believe we are already a few days into February...whew! Between work and school and visitors, Nate and I are keeping quite busy. And, there is no end in sight as we have another visitor, my sister Molly, arriving tonight. I'm not complaining, I LOVE having guests. I'm more apologizing to my family and friends who read my blog for updates on what I'm doing...I know I haven't been good at them lately. I'm hoping I can figure out my schedule a bit better and manage to throw in a few updates about life instead of just craftiness. 

I know you all remember me bragging about the new sewing machine I ordered. Well, it arrived on Tuesday!! Nate took me to Ikea yesterday to buy a bookshelf (no pic of that yet) and a pretty red computer cart to put the sewing machine on. I LOVE how it looks in my room! Someday soon I'll actually do a little photo tour of the house and my craft room. (Sorry for the bad lighting, that's the "dark side" of the room as we never open the shudders since they open to the street side of the house.)

I have never threaded a machine, or really even used one since I was age six, so I had absolutely no idea what to do. So, I sat down and went through the first part of the manual (aauughh! I HATE reading manuals). I figured out how to put thread on the bobbin, load the bobbin and thread the machine. I also figured out enough to choose a stitch. Then I picked up a random piece of felt and tried it out. 

After I had stitched a row (at a VERY slow speed) I stitched a second side. Then I realized that it made a nice little pocket. I hate to waste fabrics, felt or anything for that matter, so I thought, "Hmmmm. I could make something with this!" 

I looked around and sighted my new Palm Pre Plus that was laying nearby. I grabbed it, and it was a pretty close fit. I decided to turn the practice stitching into a phone case. I completed it by stitching the third side and the stitching on a little felt "strap". I hand stitched on a Diva Baby Bloom (baby blooms are coming to the Green Horned Unicorn shop soon!!!). I used some sticky back velcro to close it, and ended up with this:

Now given, I could have done a lot of things better, but I wasn't even planning on actually making anything when I started. I'm SO HAPPY that it actually turned out to be something functional! I'm thinking down the road, when I get better, I might throw a few of these in my shop and maybe even make a little tutorial to post here on the blog.  

I don't know what I was thinking...

When I ordered this today:

A Brothers CS6000I Computerized Sewing Machine. It has 60 built-in stitches, auto-thread, auto-bobbin, auto-button hole and about seven different feet for different purposes. Plus it does a slew of other crazy, fancy things that I've never heard of. The reviews are phenomenal and my mom is jealous. Plus, I got a killer deal on it. So, why you might wonder, am I questioning my purchase?! That's easy.

I don't know how to sew!! 

I love fabric, in fact, I have a whole box of pretty fabrics from Moda, Heather Bailey and others that I've collected, but never been able to use (except for making yo-yos and putting fabric strips onto layouts). Now I guess I will FINALLY be able to put it all to good use!

Anyone want to volunteer a few lessons?! HA :)