fixin's, frill and frippery

It all started with a JoAnn's gift card {complements of Micah} which had $8 something on it. 

Or maybe it began before that... but we'll start there.

Elisabeth and I were on a girls date one morning & I said, "why don't we stop and see if I can use that giftcard." {"If I can"?!! Of course I could. JoAnn's is dangerous!!} So we went in, browsing the fabrics first, while I thought over projects I wanted to try and what materials I was needing.

I landed on one project that I was hoping to make using grey lace. I'd looked many places for grey lace but just couldn't seem to find it anywhere. Maybe JoAnn's would carry some.

Thus, we headed to the trimmings aisle. No grey lace. :( But mercy! What a marvelous assortment of other frippery!! Somehow in all my trips to that store, I'd completely overlooked that section! I had to limit myself to just that $8 or I'd buy the whole aisle so I chose a yard of this, a yard of that... 2 feet of this, a foot of that... creative juices already getting to work! I couldn't wait to get home!

Using the pieces I had purchased along with strips of scrap fabric, a few buttons, needle and thread {and sewing machine}, birch bark, and misc. ribbons, I had so much fun putting together these items.

Everything was extremely simple so I won't do a tutorial on each one but I'll add a few tips and if you have any other questions, just let me know!

Oh! And I've finally put together a rosette tutorial {if I'm going to be featuring them so much, I might as well share how to make them!} so look for that soon!

 I love how this book mark turned out! The colors, the textures, the rough edges...<3 I just ran each layer through the sewing machine to secure them to eachother.

 This headband I made as a birthday gift for Ellyn-- so easy!  Simply stitch a yard of lace to a yard of wide rickrack. Then make a rosette out of one inch wide grosgrain ribbon (tutorial coming soon!), attach a button and then stitch the rosette to the ribbon.

 As soon as the little girls saw this gray trimming, the immediately asked for bracelets:) I didn't have any elastic on hand so I cut up one of those skinny sports headbands and used 1-2 inch pieces to attach the ends of the bracelet and give them room to get the bracelet on their wrist without it being to large {see photo above}. Then I attached the rosette and yo-yo! {See yo-yo tutorial here}

Remember these rosettes from HERE?!  I had made them one day from two skinny ties I'd cut off of a shirt but since then, they'd just been sitting around! It was time to give them a family:) I just sewed 9 inches of this crocheted trimming to a yard of skinny rickrack and then attached the rosettes.

 Simple and funky way to dress up a vase. Just wrap the fabric around and clip!

For the band I folded about 2 1/2 inches x 3 ft of fabric in half wrong side out, ran it through the sewing machine and turned it right side out. Then I stitched on the rosette.

 Ahhh!!! I was so excited about this one! I brought back several pieces of birch from Michigan for projects but never did I think I'd be making a head band out of one of them!

The piece I wanted to use was bent the wrong way so I soaked it in water and then bent it the right way around a mug {see photo above} and fastened it with a rubber band until dry. Then I used a hole punch to make holes, cut a skinny sport headband to the size I needed and after feeding the ends through the holes, tied double knots. I used hot glue this time to secure the rosette.

And that's all for now! I had so much fun with these... I'm kinda on a headband making spree for some reason! Can't wait to share the rosette tutorial!

xoxo