DIY Arrow Tote

I don't know about you guys, but all summer long I've been dreaming up a tote bag project. I thought about stamping one, dip-dying one, you name it and the idea has probably passed through my head. Simultaneously, I've been really drawn to arrow motifs (perhaps my inner 12 year old Hunger Games/Katniss Everdeen fangirl talking?) and eventually decided to make a tote bag that would have some sort of an arrow on it!

The day I finally figured out the How of it all, was a slow day at work, so there was a some extra time to chat with my co-worker. That obviously led to extra time for yours truly to just think out loud about this project (I gotta work on that whole thinking out loud, thing...), and after doing a couple of sketches I decided on a plan of action: I would draw up a pretty arrow template, paint it on my tote with fabric paint, and then do some simple embroidery to outline the shape and add the details!

If you'd like to make one for yourself, here's what you'll need:

Supplies!

- 1 large tote bag (or more if you're feeling ambitious!)

- Fabric paint, not puff paint, in the color of your choosing

- Awesome gold metallic yarn, or embroidery floss/yarn of your choice

- 1 large embroidery/tapestry needle

- Scissors

- A thin paint brush for the outline and a thicker one to fill everything in

- Arrow template, printed and sized to fit your tote

- Transfer paper, OR if you're like me and always forget to buy one thing at the store, you can use a soft lead pencil and a hard lead pencil

Ok, buddies! Let's get started! First things first, you're going to want to transfer your template onto your tote! Actually, scratch that. First things first, iron your tote. Mine was ultra wrinkled. After you're tote is relatively wrinkle free, then you can transfer your template.

If you have transfer paper, have at it! Otherwise, let's talk about the pencil method. If you need to transfer a pattern to something that isn't transparent, such as a tote bag, and otherwise have no transferring materials, grab thyself a soft lead and a hard lead pencil and your printed template. Now, turn over your template, and shade the back of it with your soft lead pencil.

Then, find a good placement for the template on your tote. If you're lucky, your cat will help. Once your template is down, have your cat hold it in place, or if you don't have a cat, or your cat is unwilling to do so, you can hold it in place yourself, and then trace over the outline of the arrow with your hard leaded pencil. Skip the details for now! Tracing the outline from the top of the paper, will transfer the lead marks on the back the paper onto the tote in just the areas you went over with your pencil.

See? Pretty cool, huh? If your pencil marks are faint, you'll want to draw over them with your pencil just so it's easier to see.

Next up, use your thin paintbrush to paint the outline of your arrow with your fabric paint.

Then, use your thicker brush to fill in the arrow, and let dry. I actually did two coats, so once the first one was pretty dry, I applied the second coat of fabric paint and let that dry.

Ok guys, now this is the point at which my project, that I had planned to do in an evening, got slightly derailed. Ya know when you use something new and decide you can just figure it out and then later read the directions and find out there's a little more to it? Yea. That. This was my first time using fabric paint, and I had not realized you are supposed to let it dry for an extended amount of time, and then wash your item and let it hang dry. 

Now, when I say extended amount of time, I mean 72 hours. I am not that patient. So, I decided to partially follow the rules and throw my tote in the wash after it had dried for 24 hours. I washed my tote in cool water with a small amount of mild detergent, then hung it to dry. Once it was dry, I ironed the crap out of it (it had gotten super wrinkly AGAIN in the wash.) and got back on track!

So the next step is to transfer the details onto the pattern using the same pencil or transfer method. If you'd like, you could also free-hand the details.

Now it's embroidery time! You'll be using a backstitch to do the embroidery work, so thread up a needle and have at it! 

I started by embroidering around the whole perimeter of the shaft of the arrow. Then I moved onto the outline of the arrow head, then the outline of the feathers, and then I filled in the other details.

Once you've finished your embroidery, you should have something that looks like this:

Super cute, right? I have to say, because I had a few set backs with this project, I was a little skeptical of how it would turn out, but once I saw the finished project I was SO happy with the outcome. I'm really pleased that the combination of the embroidery and the fabric paint give this a really cool geometric quality that I've been crazy about lately.

I'm really looking forward to bringing this tote just about everywhere this summer!

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!

Til next time!

-Becca

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DIY Embroidered Tea Towel

Hey friend-os! Today I'd like to share a DIY for embroidered tea towels. I know, the picture made you think we were talking ice cream today, but no. We're talking tea towels!

I had picked up a couple of plain tea towels earlier in the week and knew I wanted to embroider them, but didn't necessarily have a good plan in mind for what I wanted to embroider. So, as I was sitting in the kitchen with my head in the freezer (seriously. My place was swelteringly hot.), I started thinking about rainbow sherbet and how awesome it sounded. Then I started thinking about how awesome rainbow sherbet colors were and decided that would be a great color scheme for my project!

So I had the colors figured out, but still no idea what to embroider. I thought I might try out using this cute ice cream cone stamp I got recently, but decided it was too small. Around this time, I realized how ridiculous it was to be in the kitchen with my head in the freezer, and went into the bathroom to get a cold washcloth to put around my neck. That's when the inspiration struck! My bathroom has darling hexagon tiles for the flooring, so I decided to borrow from that motif and create a cute little hexagon border on my tea towels.

Here's how to make them!

First up, supplies! You'll need:

• A tea towel
• A hexagon template
• A pencil or sewing marker. I used a ballpoint pen, but this is not a good idea. I was just too hot to search for my one remaining pencil that has likely been stolen by my cats.
• An embroidery hoop
• An embroidery needle
• Embroidery floss in 3 colors. Preferably rainbow sherbet colors, but you do you.
• Scissors 

Begin by tracing hexagons into a honeycomb formation onto your tea towel. You'll be making a border, so I suggest having the hexagons 2-3" up from the bottom edge. Rows 1, 2, and 3 were constant, but I occasionally left out the hexagons in the row 4 to create an interesting pattern.

When you're done tracing, you should have something that looks like the picture above.

Next, put your tea towel into your embroidery hoop and start embroidering! You'll want to backstitch around the perimeter of each hexagon.

Backstitching is real easy. You can get a decent sense of how it works from looking at the picture above, or you can check out this tutorial to learn how!

When your first hexagon is complete, you should have something that looks like this! Keep going!

Look at all those cute little guys. I did my top and bottom most row in orange, the second row down in mint green, and the third row down in pink. That way, you won't have two hexagons of the same color right next to each other and you get a nice mix of them all together.

Once you've made it through all your hexagons, give your tea towel a good press.

And hey, if it's too hot to iron, forget it! A few wrinkles never hurt anyone. Particularly not when there's rainbow sherbet to be had!

Til next time!

-Becca

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Happy Birthday Katie!

Yesterday was my friend Katie's birthday! Since I love gift giving, I decided I should whip something up, so I put together an embroidered pendant necklace for her.

I'm in love with honeycomb patterns right now and decided to choose reds since Katie is in obsessed with red right now! She loves it enough to feature the color on a recent post on her blog, Katie Marie V, which you can check out here.

If you are interested in putting together your own embroidered pendant, check out my DIY post here.

When I tried to make the hexagons with a ruler, i found it was pretty tough to make them even, so if you are interested in making one yourself, I would recommend investing in a template like this one. 

I'm also in love with gift wrapping, but was strapped for time, so I rustled up a box from a votive candle, a doily, a little piece of cute paper, and some seam tape to get it all wrapped up. I also couldn't find my tape anywhere, so I improvised and used some glue dots! Gotta love the adorable things you find around around the house!

Katie loved her gift, and we all had a wonderful night eating awesome food and sipping on delicious cocktails! I was so glad to be a part of a celebration for such a wonderful lady.

Happy birthday, Katie!

Til next time!

-Becca

DIY Embroidered Pendant

Alright guys, so some of you may know that in the last year or so I've become slightly obsessed with embroidery. I've been collecting (and making!) embroidered art for my hallway, buying more clothing with embroidered details, and have even started making embroidered jewelry.

Today I'm going to show you how to make an embroidered pendant.

In the past, I've made a couple with chevron stripes, but this time I was inspired by my new favorite skirt. Guys, it's gingham and has peacocks embroidered on to it!

We won't be getting thaaaaaat fancy, but here is how you to make an embroidered gingham pendant!

Embroidered pendant supplies.

To get started, you will need some supplies: a small embroidery hoop, some fabric (I used a linen meant for cross stitching), an embroidery needle, a 3 piece pendant setting (I got mine from the awesome Etsy shop, Kailea), a pencil, double sided tape, embroidery floss, snips, and a clear sewing ruler.

      

         Trace.

Draw in your design.

Begin by tracing around the middle piece of the 3 piece pendant setting using a pencil to get your work area. After it's traced, you can draw in your pattern. In this case, I drew vertical and horizontal lines 1/8" apart to get a checkerboard pattern.

First round of squares.

Put the fabric into your embroidery hoop, tighten it up, and begin! You'll be using a satin stitch for this whole piece, which makes it pretty simple. For the gingham pattern, you'll need a dark colored embroidery floss, a cream or other light color, and then a color in between. I found it easiest to make the dark brown and cream blocks first, alternating between the two line by line, so I could be sure I was getting nice sized squares and was able to keep things even. I recommend doing the squares from top to bottom so you can keep a running stitch.

Checking colors.

I was a little nervous that my in between color wasn't a good match, so I decided to do a trial run before I got too far into the project. I was a touch skeptical at this point, but I kept with it anyway!

Completed with the in between squares.

Dark and light squares complete!

Once you have all your dark and light squares stitched, stitch all the remaining squares with your in between color. Once you're done with those squares, then the embroidery portion of this project is complete!

Cutting to size.

At this point, remove the fabric from the frame and cut around the pendant. I usually leave about 1/2" around the edge.

Next, put strips of the double sided tape on the front and back of the middle piece of the 3 piece pendant setting. Center the embroidery on this piece and place in the frame piece of the setting to check that it lines up nicely. If it doesn't, just unstick and adjust! When the placement looks nice, tightly fold the edges to the back of the middle piece of the setting and adhere.

This last bit is the trickiest part. You'll need to sandwich the embroidery/middle piece between the frame part of the pendant and the backing. Since this is an embroidery heavy design there will be a lot of bulk, so I recommend starting at the bottom. When you get the bulk pretty well set in, bend the bottom prong to secure the back. I just use the edge of my snips to bend it in place. Continue around the other sides of the pendant until all the prongs are secured, and the edges of the fabric are well contained.

Don't worry if it's not perfect at the back! People will only be looking at the front where your lovely stitch work is!

Pendant complete!

See? Look how cute! To totally 100% complete your project, put your pendant on a chain and wear it to your heart's content.

The best part about these pendants is that they are very inexpensive to make once you have the supplies so you can experiment all you like with other designs. You could do some multi-colored french knots, chevron stripes, flowers, or you could even get fancy and embroider your initials. The world is your embroidered oyster!

I'm excited for the next sunny day to come so i can wear my favorite gingham skirt and my new matching pendant.

Til next time!

- Becca!