These are my little gnomes!  sorry, I don't have pictures of their cute little faces.  I made them for several people this year.  They were quick and super easy to make.  There is a tutorial out there somewhere but I don't remember where and I made some slight adjustments. 




1) cut a 5x5" square.  fold in half and sew the two sides together.  grab the middle of both sides and fold in half again to sew the two sides together.  make sure to leave the top open.  It should resemble a bag.
2)  Stuff your little bag.  You can also put rice or beans in the bottom so it sits right.  I didn't.
3) get a good sized bead.  I had to grab a dremel and make the wholes bigger, well, my husband did. grab the top of the stuffed ball thing and twist it til you can shove it through the bead.  Shove it. i used needle nose pliers to pull the fabric through once enough came out the top.
4) I trimmed the top of the fabric and hot glued it in place on the bead.
5) using felt, cut a triangle big enough to go around the bead.  sew it into a hat shape, turn so the seam is inside.  Hot glue the hat onto the bead. 
6) draw some cute little faces using a fine point sharpie.

There you have it.  I made around 10 or 15 of these in just a short time.  they make great little gifts.  and did you know that gnomes are a symbol of luck.  so when you give them out make sure that people know that they are to watch over them and bring them years of luck! happy sewing!

Candy Cane dress

So, I have decided I love coming up with new ideas!  If you've been reading I have cut up a bunch of old t-shirts to make a quilt.  well, in the process, I ended up with a bunch of scraps.  I have taken a few of them and made myself a cute little dress. I didn't realize that it looked like a candy cane til after I made the dress.  all I did was take a few of the bottoms of the shirts, sewed them together into strips, and now I have a cute dress for christmas! I might add straps or something but here it is.....my candy cane dress:

christmas PJs!

I have finally got our christmas PJs done! I did a pair of pants for him, and pants and a dress for me! It was really quite easy to make them all. For the pants all I did was trace a pair of PJ bottoms I already have, cut it out, and sewed the pieces together.  There are tons of tutorials out there showing you exactly how to do it.  Most of them are for childs sizes but you can use the same technique for adults, I did! For the dress I used an old tank top and made it longer.  I also went with a square neck instead of a rounded neck.  I had fun making these.  I love seeing things come together!

His pants.....


<<close up
                                  far away>>>>














 showing off pants                                the whole thang                              the dress

Pet placemats

I made cute little place-mats for my pets.  I have a cat and and dog.  They are both christmas place-mats so I will need to make more after the season is over. I know its the norm, but I made a fishy for the cat and a bone for the dog.  I'm not the best at drawing so they are perfect but they turned out alright I think.  They do not have batting in them because I figured the pets don't need it.  Hope you like them!

just some accesories!

I've made a couple of things all of you readers out there might enjoy.  The ideas are not entirely my own, yet again.  but I made them me! The first is a wallet.  It is 90% jean, the lining is just a plain cotton.  I used a couple different shades of jean.  a darker on the outside and a lighter on the outside.  I'm thinking of adding an applique or some bejeweled stuff or something to spice it up a bit and make it less plain.  It was fairly simple, however between the layers and the thickness that is jean, it got very difficult at times.  The tutorial I used for my wallet is at THIS site! it's very simple to follow.  Here are a couple pics of mine:

 

The next item is a tote! completely jean! completely my pattern.  I used the whole top portion of some jeans.  I then added strips of various other colors and styles of jeans at the bottom to give it something different.  I also took the opportunity to practice different stitches to see what the look like. I also didn't seam everything the way everyone normally does.  for the panels i just overlapped them and stitched them together. the idea is to get a somewhat frayed effect over time.  I have already used this tote once.  I don't need it for everyday.  However, I needed something big because the movie theatre in town quit selling mountain dew and good candy.....therefore, i need a bag to sneak some in.  I used it to hold 2 bottles of soda, 2 bottles of water, and 6 packages of candy.  It was heavy as heck, but it held up very nicely.  I also made the strap way to long, so I knotted it and I like it, it added something different.  Here is a front and back picture:

 

 Well, I hope you enjoy my accessories! I love making them and I love working with jean! It's so much fun to tear up the jeans that laugh at me because they don't fit! It's so much fun to come up with ideas or even to used old ideas!

Halloween decorations---towels

 These were so easy to make, I think I'll make some for thanksgiving, christmas, etc. I love how they make my kitchen more homey too. These were cheap too. I think I paid less than $10 to make these.  Most of the stuff was 70% off at Jo-Anns. 

For this one the towel was too big.  So I had to cut it in half.  I then pleated the towel at the cut end and sewed it into the fabric.  I doubled the fabric so it was like putting a glove on a hand when i put the towel in the fabric. I added a button to hook it! so simple.

This was actually the first one I made and I didn't make it real tall. It was enough to hang the towel, but not as much as the other.  This towel was also the right length that I wanted so I didn't have to cut anything. super simple, super quick!

Halloween Creation (no sew)

I made a neat little Halloween creation that had no sewing involved.  It took a few hours because paint had to dry.  This was a really simple project.  It was also super cheap....I think it may have cost $20!!! First I'll talk about the base!

The base was way cheap.  I brought home two boxes from work, then covered them in a white vinyl table cloth.  We have a lot of wind and weather here in utah so I completely covered the boxes in case of wet weather and taped the table cloth to keep it from flying away.  I then wrote Happy Halloween with orange paint.  I taped the little scarecrows on and hot glued all the leaves on.  I bought two bags of leaves.  I didn't use them all so I can have some for next year.  So that's it.  boxes, table cloth, tape and decorations!

Next, the pumpkins!!!

This is my spider.  I started with painting the whole thing black with acrylic paint.  I did two coats.  I used hot glue to place the eyes and legs.  I used 4 pipe cleaners for legs.  I then used red paint for the mouth.....his tongue is sticking out lol. Very easy, however it took a while to dry.

My witch.  Take a pumpkin and paint it green! While it's drying, start the skirt.  I used elastic and tulle.  I tied the tulle to the elastic.  the amount of each depends on the size of your pumpkin.  I again did two coats of paint on the punpkin.  If you don't the orange will show through.  Once Dry, I glued the skirt and hat on.  I then glued on the hair and eyes, followed by painting on the mouth. 




There.  Simple, easy, and cheap!!!  Hope you like my creation and hope everyone has a Wonderful Halloween!!!!! 

Here is a close up of the creation: