"Lace and Shine" Valentine's Hoodie and Yoga Pant Tutorial

 Hello!  I hope you are having a great Tuesday.  I am having one of those days where it has been a good day but super unproductive. I guess we all deserve those once in a while.  I was super tired today when I got up so I decided that I would take the advice so many people have given me, but I have never done  rarely done... NAP WHEN YOUR KIDS NAP!  We fell asleep at 9:30am with me thinking 30 minutes and I will be good to go.  

Guess what time I woke up?  

12:30pm.  

Yes, that is 3 hours.  

Yes it is unheard of.  

Yes it was awesome.  

But no, nothing got done at this house today!

Anyway, enough about that and on to what you want...

Warning:  Professional photographers and models were not in this $10 budget, so bear with us.

I have a fun and EASY tutorial for you all today.  Instant gratification! 

(That's the world we live in right?)

I bought these two materials in the remnants at Jo Ann, pretty gaudy and pretty awesome.

I used my Silhouette to cut out freezer paper hearts.  You can also just cut out hearts from the material or freezer paper by hand.

I then ironed them onto the back of the two fabrics and cut them out.  

I bought the hoodie above and the pants below at Wal-Mart for $10.  You could also use a set you have at home.

I then pinned the hearts on the clothes and played
around with the placement that I liked best.

Here is another one I liked, but remember sleeves and pant legs this little without
stitching by hand are kind of a pain to do.

My new BFF!  (It comes in a handful of brands.  I just get the cheapest.  Good coupon item!)
I seriously try to find ways to use this now because it is sooooo awesome.
It washes out, so if you make a mistake no big deal!.    I love it for this project because it is faster than Wonder Under and it requires no pinning for sewing these bitty hearts on.

After you have decided on a layout, remove all layers of hearts except the base layer.  Then spray the back of the heart with the glue and apply. (This is the first layer after applique, but you get the idea)

You are going to zig-zag or satin stitch around the whole heart.  Use a small stitch width and length.
 Take your time on the curves.
If you are doing pants make sure not to sew through both sides.  Get the needle in and then roll up the back side of the cuff as shown.  Check often that you aren't sewing both sides.. experience talking : )

Here is the finished pant leg.

On the hoodie I put multiple layers of hearts, so after the lace one was finished I glued the sequined one on and then stitched around it.

If you are wondering, I did use two different thread colors ... yes even on the bobbin.  Look how cute it looks peaking through the inside of the hoodie.

Finished product.
 Cute.  Simple.  Easy.

My model trying to escape.  I wish I had an after picture of that little yellow
candle there on the right in her hands.  Of course she popped the wick off and tried to eat it!
Why wouldn't she do that in a white shirt?

Silhouette Tea Towels for Grandparents' Day

I wanted to do something fun and unique for Grandparents' Day.  I know silhouettes  are becoming extremely popular, and I LOVE IT! 
I went with the freezer paper stencil.  I have actually never done them before, but I have a big ol' roll of freezer paper that has been sitting for months. 


Supplies Needed:

• Iron
• Linen or Linen look alike fabric (I bought 2 1/2 yards and it made 8 towels.  You can also buy them pre-made in the needle point section.)
• Freezer paper (I found mine on the bottom shelf at Wal-Mart in the aisle with the foil and baggies)
• Fabric paints (I used the Tulip soft fabric paint in a variety of matte colors)
• paint brush
• cardboard to put under the parts being painted

I didn't take many pictures, but they are really simple to make.


Step 1:  First Cut the Tea Towels out...
I cut the material into 20''x 23''.  I got this number because that is what I got when I folded the material in half the long way and then folded it twice in the opposite direction.  (I like to keep the cutting simple, so I just used all of them material I had to make the number that I needed, 8.)


Step 2:  Cut Stencil out...
Find or take a picture of  your child from the side.  My daughter is 8 months, so this was not easy fun!!! I ended up searching through pictures and used one where she wouldn't look at the camera!  I cropped the picture down to make it mostly of her from the neck up. I then made it into a 5x7 and printed it from my home computer.  I cut out the silhouette from the picture and put it behind the freezer paper, traced and cut it out again.  Repeat the cutting out of freezer paper for the number of towels you are making.
***I ended up cutting 4 stencils out and used the positive and negative for a stencil, which you can see in the final picture.


Step 3:  Iron the stencil on...
Almost done!  Iron the stencil onto the towel where you want it.  I put mine in the middle of the towel when it is folded in half.  Iron it shiny side down.  Make sure to get all of the facial details attached to the material or your face will look distorted.

Step 4:  Paint the stencil..
Slip cardboard under the stencil and PAINT THAT FACE!  The material may stretch when it gets wet from the paint.  (Mine did and when it dried it shrunk back down.)  If you are mass producing, this makes it go a little quicker.  For the negative image I ironed on the freezer paper of the face and then taped a square around it. (I used scotch tape and electric tape when it ran out, and both worked perfectly.) 


Step 5:  FINAL STEP... the REVEAL!!!
This is my favorite step, and most would say to wait until the paint dries.  Well, I don't work that way.  I have no patience when I have to wait to see the end result.  I wait until the paint is not shiny anymore and I pull off the paper and tape.  TADA!!!!


If you ironed well and finger pressed the tape well, you will have a perfect sihlouette!


You can use a 1/4'' seam on all four sides of the towel and be done.  You can also dress them up a little as well with a ribbon or strip of fabric.  Here are how mine turned out!! 


I know the grandparents are going to love getting these in the mail!!

Grandparents' Day is today, September 12, 2010!!!