Sewing | Lounge Pants

This isn't really a tutorial because Merrick from Merrick's Art already created a stellar one that you can follow along here. Merrick (and Joanna Gaines) is basically my spirit animal.

I used a nice Hacci knit from Girl Charlee, which I think was the best decision ever because it's basically like a sweater for my legs. Not even kidding. They ran out of the black and white stripe that I used since I bought it probably over a year ago, but I am in LOVE with this mustard, red, and brown striped option!

0

Tutorial | Slouchy Beanie DIY

The following statement is 100% true: Slouchy beanies are the reason I wanted a baby boy. ;) That's not to say that girls can't wear slouchy beanies, but there's just something so juicy about a baby boy in a slouchy beanie, amiright?

As soon as fall time rolled around, I was more than ready to buy him one online, but then I do what I normally do and decided to make it myself, and you know what? It was SEW easy! And now I'm going to share how I did it with you so you can make the world a better place for anyone who sees your adorable babe wearing one of these!

*if you're not a sewer, stick around, because you're not going to want to miss the announcement at the end!

Basically, I used a fitted beanie that I already had and lengthened it a couple of inches. Just have confidence and be grateful this isn't a HUGE investment in fabric money!

For this tutorial, you will need...
Fabric (about 1/3 yard)*
Scissors
Coordinating thread
Pattern beanie

*The key to making these slouchy beanies is the type of fabric you use. Find a nice, thick, soft, stretchy knit. I'm pretty sure I used a cotton spandex knit.

 Step 1 - cut

Use your pattern beanie (the one you already have) and lay it out on your fabric. Cut around the bottom and sides of the beanie with a half inch buffer (this is called seam allowance). If you're using a regular sized beanie, extend a couple of inches (about three or 4). Shape the top of the piece you're cutting out like in the picture above. Find the center of the beanie piece and cut a 2-inch heart-point, like in the picture above. Cut out four of these pieces.

Step 2 - sew

Pin two beanie pieces together around the sides up to the peaks at the top with right-sides-together. Use a straight stitch with a 1/4" seam allowance to stitch the sides*. Next, bring the side seams at the top (peaks) together to pull the opening closed. Pin in place, and sew the opening closed with a 1/4" seam allowance. Repeat with the other two beanie pieces.

*to promote good stretch in your beanie, lower the tension of your thread in your machine.

Step 3 - attatch
Turn one beanie piece-duo right-side-out, and slide it inside the piece-duo that is right-side-in, aligning the side seams. Now the two-piece-duos are right-sides-together! Pin around the opening of the beanie and sew with a half inch seam allowance, but leave a 1 or 2 inch opening! So you can turn the beanie right-side-out! Anyone getting dash-sick? AH! I did it - again... ;)

Step 4 - sew opening closed
Reach into that tiny opening  you made and pull all the fabric out so that the whole beanie is right-side-out. Tuck the interior of the beanie inside the exterior, pin the opening closed and sew.

FINISHED!

A N N O U N C E M E N T !

One of my lucky Instagram and Facebook followers will receive not one, but TWO of these 6-9 month size beanies for... FREE!!! That's right friends! One for you and one for a friend! So hop on over to my Instagram and/or Facebook to see how to enter!

instagram

facebook

___________________________________________________________________

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

0

Rope and Circle Mirror DIY | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

Have you seen these mirrors around? I discovered it first on Amazon and loved it, but $36.00? Eeeeeeeeeee... that's a bit of a stretch for me.

I thought it would look amazing on my wall with a boxwood wreath (I ended up buying a boxwood tile topper that was WAY cheaper) and my clock, but kind of gave up on it until an idea trickled into my brain. I knew that Hobby Lobby sold circular candle plates and rope, but I just had to think of something to make a brim around the mirror. That's when the embroidery hoop just popped into my mind!

The whole thing cost me about $10.00 and it was REALLY easy to make. Get ready for a tutorial!

You will need:
Circular mirror (like this one from Hobby Lobby that I used my 40% off coupon on)
Embroidery hoop (same size as the mirror)
Natural Rope (I purchased the same rope trim for this as my rope + wood frame and picked the stitches out to separate it from the lip)
Glue gun
Super Glue
Sand Paper
Stain
Foam brush
**I thought I wanted to use the screw eyes/cup holders to attach my rope, but decided that it would end up looking too much like Mickey Mouse. So ignore those pretty gold cup holders in the pic above.

Step 1: sand and stain hoop
Use the foam brush to apply the stain and follow the directions provided.

Step 2: Glue

Set the mirror face down on top of the back side of the embroidery hoop and use your glue gun to glue the hoop to the mirror. Glue around the outside edge so that none of the glue seeps to the inside of the brim.

Step 3: Rope

Trim your rope to just the right size and super glue the ends so it won't fray. Use the glue gun to glue the rope to the mirror.
**I also hammered the ends of my rope to make them lay flat**

Step 4: Hang
Easiest tutorial ever, right? And I LOVE the end result!

So give it a shot and let me know how it goes! Share a picture and tag @suesnews. I'd love to see how yours turns out!

click here to see the rest of the nursery!

___________________________________________________________________

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

0

DIY Rope and Wood Frame | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

When I saw this artwork from Amy Hamilton for the first time, I KNEW I had to have it for Barrett's room. The only problem was that I wanted it in a fairly large size and my budget wasn't accommodating the larger art prints. So I had decided to buy a poster and just display it in a poster frame when I found this way of displaying art instead!

Favorite. DIY. ever.

I love it because it's a modern and elegant way to display a piece of art and you don't have to worry about finding the right sized frame because you can make it with just about any size of print, including poster size, which is WAY cheaper than a regular art print of the same size, and exactly what I did!

So let's get started!

You will need:
Art print
Natural rope (found mine here and used a stitch picker to pick off the lip)
Wood square dowel (I used two of these)
Sandpaper
Stain (I used this stain)
Foam brush
Cardboard (same height, but not quite as wide as your art print)
paper clips (or tape)
Staple gun
2 Gold screw eyes (I used these)
White Oven Bake Clay (here)
Super glue

Step 1: wood dowels
Your first step is to prep the wooden dowels. Have them cut to be about 1-1.5 inches longer than the width of the art print. Sand all sides and ends of the wooden dowel, clean off with a damp rag, then use the foam brush to apply the stain. Follow the directions on the stain to finish this step.

Step 2: staple gun
Lay out your art print on top of the cardboard. Use paper clips (or tape) to secure the print to the cardboard. Turn the cardboard and art print upside down and lay on top of the wooden dowels, one at the top, and one at the bottom. Use the staple gun to secure the cardboard and print to the wooden dowels.

Step 3: screw eyes
Decide where you want the screw eyes (about 1.5-2 inches in from the ends) and screw them into the top of the wood dowels.

Step 4: oven bake clay
Work the polymer clay to make two big beads that your rope will fit through and follow the directions on the packaging to bake the clay.


Step 5: rope
Slide the beads onto the rope, weave the rope through the screw eyes and tie them in knots around the eyes (or cup hooks in my case). Trim the rope, and use the super glue to glue the ends of the rope where you cut so that the rope won't fray. Also glue the knot so that it won't come undone.

Step 6: hang
Your artwork is complete, and it looks beautiful!!!

click here for more pictures of how my baby boy's nursery turned out!

Let me know how yours turns out! Share a pic on Instagram and tag @suesnews I'd love to see!

Good luck! 

___________________________________________________________________

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

0

Mountain Ombre Curtains | Barrett's Nursery Tutorial

Wow! It's been a little while since I've written a tutorial! Feels good to be doing it again, and I have been so excited to share this one!

Inspiration behind these curtains came when I saw a picture on Pinterest of an AWESOME nursery with an ombre mountain mural on the wall. Obviously I loved it and knew it would be perfect for Barrett's nursery, buuuuuuut... I really don't like painting, and you can't take a wall with you and eventually we're gonna outgrow this house.

But instead of just choosing any 'ol mountain range, I chose Yosemite because... well, we love Yosemite.

So let's get this tutorial started!

You will need:
Sketch pad + photos of Yosemite and/or mountain skylines
White curtains (or fabric for curtains)
3 shades of blue cotton fabric 2x the width of one curtain panel
3 spools of thread to match each shade of blue fabric
Double Sided Fusible Webbing 6x the width of one curtain panel (I purchased mine at Jo-Ann)
Iron
Large cutting space/ironing space
Large quilt
pencil
scissors
sewing machine
measuring tape/ruler
etc.

Step 1: draw

Draw out your mountainscape, just the way you want it to appear on your curtains. Fold the paper in half so you can see where the separation between the two panels will be.

I did some math to help me see how my drawing on paper would transfer to my curtains. You can do the same by making a mark every half inch on your paper (height and width), then divide the height and width of the curtain panel (in inches) by how many half inches are on your paper, or you can eyeball it.

Make sure you flip your drawing over and retrace so that when you draw it on the double sided fusible webbing and iron it on the blue fabric, you can flip it over and it will be going the right way.

Step 2: transfer drawing to double sided fusible webbing

Draw each separate piece of the mountains on the matte side of the webbing being sure that you're drawing the mirror image of how you want the curtains to look. Then cut them out, starting with the mountain range on the bottom.

Keep the webbing that you're cutting away from the top edge of the bottom mountain range and use it for the bottom edge of the middle mountain range. Same goes for the top edge of the middle mountain range for the top.

Step 3: Fuse|blue fabric

Lay out your darkest blue fabric, wrong side up, on your large quilt. Lay your cutout webbing for the bottom mountain range with matte side up. Following the directions on the webbing, iron the webbing to the fabric, then cut the fabric along the edge of your webbing! Do the same for each piece of the mountain range.

Step 4: Fuse|mountain ranges to curtain

Once you've fused and cut out all of your mountain range pieces, lay them out on the curtain panels, lining up the edge of the curtain with the edge of the bottom mountain range, then follow the directions on the webbing to fuse it to the curtain panels!

Step 5: button stitch

Now you need to stitch along the edges of the mountain ranges, so use a button stitch, or find one that looks like the one I used (I actually don't have a button stitch and I can't remember what the stitch is called that I used. Sorry!) Change the thread color to match the mountain range.

Step 6: hem
If you're making your curtains from scratch, fold under the bottom edge, the side edges, and the top edge a couple of times and hem. If you're using pre-made white curtains, just use the button stitch around all the edges of the mountain ranges.


Step 7: hang 
Hang those babies up!

opt. if you ever want to wash your curtains, I highly suggest sewing little tiny knots in a few random places all over the mountain ranges to prevent the fabric from bubbling up. I haven't done it yet because I'm secretly hoping I'll never have to wash them.

Thanks for stopping by and go ahead and check out the rest of the nursery here!

I've got lots more tutorials to make decorating your home easy and a lot less stressful on your wallet. If you give this a try, I'd love to see how yours turns out! Send me an e-mail or post a picture and tag me in it on instagram (@suesnews) If you have any questions or just want to tell me how much you love these ;), feel free to leave a comment!

Good luck! 

___________________________________________________________________

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

0