DIY Knotted T-Shirt headband

I love working out but I also want to be stylish while I'm doing it. With these headbands, everyone will be wondering where you got it, but little do they know that you made it yourself. I've been seeing these all over and have been wanting to make them for a long time. They were so easy to make and only took about 10-15 minutes of my time. 

You'll need: An old tshirt 

                   Scissors/Rotary cutter 

                   Quilting mat 

*Just as a tip, for a smaller knot, you'll want to cut a thinner strip (1-1/2") and for a bigger knot, you'll want a wider strip (3"). Here's the difference between both.

I started off by cutting straight across right below the armpits of the shirt so I have a big rectangle of fabric like this: 

Then you're going to want to cut your strips and stretch 'em out. 

Once they're stretched out, take the first strip and put it so there's a loop at the tol and the right side is over the left. 

Now take the second strip and lay it on top of the first with the ends pointing up. Take the right side of the first strip and put it over the right side of the seconds strip. 

Super simple. Let's keep going by taking the left side of the second strip and putting it under the loop. Just like this:

This step and the next one are the most important parts because if you accidentally mess up, you won't get the knot that you want. You want to make sure that you take the RIGHT second strip that is pointing up and put it under the LEFT second strip. 

Now all you'll have to do is pull on all four corners and you'll have your knot. 

After you have your knot, cut another strip and cut one end so it isn't a circle and is pretty long. In the end it may be too long and you'll want to cut it shorter, but for now I kept mine because I'm going to stick it through both ends on one side and both ends on the other side like this. 

Now all you have to do is tie it however tight you want it when it is on. That's it! Super easy. And if you want, you can just connect all four ends and glue a piece of fabric in the middle so they're connected and will stay. 

DIY Wet Bag Tutorial

Whether you cloth diaper or simply have a need for a place to put wet clothes - wet bags are ABSOLUTELY a lifesaver! We use ours all the time for wet clothes after the water park or swim lessons, but they can be used for the gym, the beach, cloth diapers or even for kid accidents.

Today I'm going to show you how to make your own! Before we get started, let's familiarize ourselves with PUL fabric. PUL fabric is Soft, Breathable, Waterproof "PUL" (Polyurethane Laminate) is a fabric laminated with waterproof polyurethane on the back. It is popular and effective for cloth diapers, diaper covers, bibs, diaper bags, wet bags, changing pads and more. You can find PUL at many fabric stores, amazon.com and it comes in a variety of colors.

There are two sides to PUL fabric - a shiny waterproof side that is very slippery and a dull knit-like side. It's very important to make sure you are double checking which side is which as you are sewing this project, so in the end you have a wet bag that does it's job!

Since this fabric is waterproof (and we want to keep it that way), we need to make sure to not puncture the fabric with our needle more than necessary so we will not be pinning this bag as we piece it together. It will only be sewn together at the zipper & we will be using quilting clips in our photos, but you can use bobby pins or anything else you can think of to hold it together (anything that does not puncture the fabric.)

PUL can tend to be sticky going through your sewing machine, so there are a few options.
1. Use a walking foot if you have one, as it has extra feed dogs to pull the fabric through
2. Use tissue paper on top of the PUL, between the fabric and the foot
3. Sprinkle fabric with baby powder where you plan to sew

Materials:

- OUTSIDE: Two pieces 9” x 13” cotton fabric

- LINING: Two pieces 9” x 12.5” PUL (polyurethane laminated fabric)

- STRAP: One 3.5” x 18” strip of cotton fabric 

- Polyester Thread (Polyester thread is supposedly said to prevent wicking or leaking in your bag)

- One 9" coordinating zipper   

- Quilting clips, binder clips, bobby pins etc to hold the PUL together 

1. Cut out all your fabric pieces

2. With shiny side of the PUL up, lay one piece of your lining on your table. This is where the baby powder or tissue paper comes handy.  The shiny side of the PUL is tricky to sew on so you can either place tissue paper on top of the shiny side of the PUL, or you can dab a little baby powder over the shiny side where you will be sewing.

 
3. Place the zipper face UP on top of the PUL - even with the edge of the fabric. Place one of your outside pieces, face down right side of the fabric touching the zipper. Use quilting clips to hold these layers together. Once sewn, set aside.

4. Take your second PUL lining piece, shiny side up and put some baby powder down the side.

5. Now take your zipper sandwich from above, put the PUL on top of the other PUL layer on your table and have your outside piece be face up. Line up the zipper with the edge (as done in step 3) & place your last lining piece on top of all of these, face down. Use quilting clips to hold all layers together and use your zipper foot again to sew as close as you can now to this side of the zipper. Now, lets make the strap.

6. For the strap, fold the 3.5" strip in half long wise right sides together and sew 1/4” seam along 3 sides. Leave one side open to turn. Turn right side out, tuck in your opening, iron the strap & top stitch along all sides

7. Move all the layers over to the right side except leave one single outside layer on the left side. Line up the strap to the edge & sew the strap to JUST the cotton fabric, preferably on the side where you would start to unzip. 

8.  Take the two outer cotton layers and line up as evenly as you can, right sides together.  MAKE SURE YOUR STRAP IS INSIDE. Now do the same with the PUL layers.  Sew 1/4” seam around ALL sides, making sure to sew right on top of the zipper as you go around the sides.  Since you are sewing on the non-shiny sides, your machine should work fine on this part without tissue paper or baby powder. Leave 2 inches open on your outer layers so we can flip inside out!

 

9. Reach through the opening we left & turn the bag right side out. Iron your cotton layers with the PUL pulled out.

10. Topstitch the cotton outside layers closed & put the PUL lining back inside to complete your bag! 

Care Instructions

1) Turn wet bags with PUL liner inside out and wash on a Warm/Cold (or Hot/Cold) cycle, followed by an extra rinse. Use a cloth diaper friendly detergent. Do not use the Sanitize cycle as the water can get too hot. Do not use any softeners, bleach, or other cleaning agents that contain brighteners/additives.

2) You can dry your wet bags on LOW in the dryer or line dry. Do not dry on high, as this will delaminate the PUL layer. Do not use dryer sheets (such as Bounce) if drying in the dryer.

DIY Boxy Makeup Bag Tutorial

This adorable boxy makeup bag is perfect for your purse and can hold enough stuff for a quick touch up or a special event. If you are new to using a zipper or a zipper foot, it's a GREAT first project to start with. For my makeup bag, I'm making these for Christmas presents and you could switch up your fabric & do two different fabrics for the outside and lining - but in this case, I decided to keep it all the same so I'll do my best to label which is which in the pictures to avoid any confusion.

 

Let's get started!

Materials: 

OUTSIDE: Two pieces of cotton or upholstery weight fabric measuring 5.5" x 9.5"

LINING: Two pieces of cotton or upholstery weight fabric measuring  5.5" x 9.5"

Zipper foot

9" zipper

Coordinating thread  
Disappearing Ink Marker (optional)

1. Cut out all your fabric pieces and than we are going to make the FIRST zipper sandwich. Take one outside fabric and put it face up. Set the zipper face down on top, so the top of the zipper lines up with the top edge of your fabric piece.  Make sure that the zipper pull tab is to the left of an edge so it creates less bulk in seams and easier to sew together (see picture)

2. Once sandwiched, pin your pieces together, switch out your foot to your zipper foot (see this video here for help) and sew right along side that top seam, be sure to back stitch at each end. Ideally you can do a basting stitch before you sew that zipper to the top seam for good, but I didn't ;)

3. Than fold over your fabric so the outside is right side up and the raw edges meet. Set aside.

4. Take your second lining piece and place it face up on the table (ignore my selvage edge).

5. Place your zipper sandwich from step 3 on top of your lining piece of fabric you just set down, lining up the zipper's top edge with the top edge of this second lining piece. Than Set your second outside piece face down on top. Now you have the SECOND and final zipper sandwich.

6. Pin, baste (optional) & sew along the top edge again with your zipper foot (just like you did in step 2).

7. Once finished, open up your zipper sandwich and iron the fabric only (ignore my ironing board that got in a fight with Heat N Bond). If you have any edges that need to be trimmed up, now is the time to do it.

8.  Now fold it together so your outside pieces are right sides together and your lining pieces are on the outside, sandwiching them. Line up & Pin your raw bottom edges together. Sew.

10. Move your zipper to the middle, to sit on top of your bottom seam, unzip your zipper halfway and sew down each vertical side. Feel free to sew on top of the zipper but pinch the zipper together as you're going over it.

11. Stick your hand inside and pinch each corner. Measure 2 1/2" inches across and draw a line. Do this on all 4 corners.


 
12. Sew along this line and cut off the triangle end.

Do this to all 4 corners and yours should look like mine once you're finished.

13. Now Turn it inside out and you're all done!

DIY Flower Crown

I think flower crowns are absolutely so beautiful and I also might have a slight obsession with them. Looking through Pinterest, I found a couple tutorials on how to make them and that inspired me to get started on my own. 

For your own flower crown, you'll need: 4-5 sheets of felt 

One roll of vine covered wire           

A couple of different types of artificial flowers(I bought mine from the dollar store and Joann's in bunches. You'll want a variety of small a big flowers for the best result)

A hot glue gun, scissors, and wire cutters

Start by cutting a circle of wire a little bigger than the size of your head. The reason I cut it a little bigger is because I twist the extra around the back. Like this:

After that, you can start pulling the individual flowers off of their stems and cutting off the bottom so they look like this:

Now you'll want to start cutting a lot of small circles out of the felt. You'll need 2 per flower and each crown uses 8+ flowers. 

When that's done, start putting hot glue on the the bottom of the flower and sticking a felt circle on it. This is what it should look like. 

When all your flowers that you want to use have felt glued to them and are ready, grab your wire crown and an extra felt circle. What you're going to do is put hot glue on the felt and while you're holding the crown, stick your first flower against one one of the sides. 

While the glue is hot, quickly stick the extra circle on top and push and hold with your fingers the front and back of the flower. Now that your glue is dried and your flower will stay, keep going all the way around the front of the crown until it is completely covered. If there are little spots where you see felt, add small flowers in between the two big ones and glue them in. 

I had enough flowers and other materials to make a total of four crowns and I love them so much! Here is my end result.