In April I made some flip flop flowers and a friend of mine asked if I would make a couple prototypes for her to show her daughter. Her daughter is getting married so she gave me a few different colors to work with for possible gifts for the bridesmaids.

I did a few things different with these ones. First I added pearls to the center of the flowers, it seemed like they needed that extra little decoration. I also used flip flop glue which is stronger than hot glue. I also to make them even stronger, I sewed them onto the flip flops.

I started working on a collar yesterday, I was a bit worried about finding beads and such to add to the collar but a friend of mine told me about how you can buy large jars full of jewelry at the Goodwill. My daughter and I had a blast going through all the jewelry and cleaning everything. Well I think I made something work here, what do you think?

This is the collar part, still not finished.

The beads that I will be sewing in.

It’s a work in progress.

1. Find a flower template or make your own and cut out the desired amount of flowers for your headband.

2. Trace the flowers onto the denim and cut out.

3. Wet your flowers and wring dry, then stick them in the dryer for about 10 minutes, this is how you get the frayed edge look.

4. Now take your flowers and iron them with some starch to make them stiff.

5. Put a eyelet in the middle.

6. Pull the ribbon through, stick a button(like I did) or a bead or tie in a knot like I did on the last one. (Sorry blurry pic)

And wear it!

I have a few pairs of jeans that I was just going to toss when my dh came up with the idea to make flowers out of denim. So I started playing around with denim to see what kind of flowers I could make. I put an eyelet in the middle, was not sure what to do next when my daughter came up with the idea to pull a ribbon through and put a bead as the center of the flower. I did it a little different on this one because I didn’t have a bead that I liked. I just pulled the ribbon through and knotted it. Tomorrow I will walk you through the steps of how to make this.

Check back tomorrow for the tutorial!

I bought the latest issue of Altered Couture. I don’t know if you have ever seen the magazine but its pretty good. Its a quarterly magazine that is made up of clothes that have been made new by adding to or taking away from the original article of clothing. Its exactly what I love to do and has amazing and fun photos and ideas. I want to start getting the subscription but will probably wait a bit before I sign up, as its a bit expensive. They also have a magazine strictly for aprons called Apron.ology that I have enjoyed looking through. If you love to upcycle or alter your clothes, you can find this magazine at your local fabric store.

Some of what you will find inside:

This is the title of a blog from a fellow blogger friend who is quickly impressing me. Lisa, from Wicked & Weird, left me a comment asking me to give details on how I made the fabric dahlia for the clutch purse and thanks to Lisa, I did just that, I gave you a tutorial. Lisa took the dahlia and made it better, now I am changing mine to look more like hers.

Check it out:

Thank you Lisa for sharing your flower creation with us!

Go on over to Wicked & Weird and check out all the wonderful things that she is doing! It will quickly become one of your favorite sites to visit.

I found this fun green and white quilted skirt at the thrift store a while back and just got it out to see what I could do with it. I took the ties off and sewed them together and used them for this cute sash, or belt as some like to call them. I love the fun green colors. Great spring and summer sash. I added a flower I had made a while back to it to add that something special and I love how it looks. So easy to make! I will do this again soon and will take pictures during the process so you can see what I did but for now, here’s a photo – what do you think?

I was thrilled to find this great tutorial for an elastic waist skirt over at Freshly Picked because I had just bought the material and elastic for my daughter who wanted me to make her a skirt just like it. I was just going to fake it and put it together but when I ran across the tutorial, that made it even easier. You can use this for any size, from child to adult. Try it, its super fast and super easy.

Click here for the tutorial

The other day I posted a photo of a clutch purse I made and with a dahlia pinned to the clutch and I was asked how I made that little dahlia. So here you go……

Cut a 4 inch by 24 inch strip of fabric.

Cut sections out like the above photo, making sure to leave a 1 inch edge.

Using your sewing machine, set on the widest stitch, stitch all the way across, do not back stitch. Pull on the thread to make a gather, until its gathered all the way across the material evenly.

Roll the fabric together, making sure all the strings are coming out the bottom side. Tie the loose threads in a knot. Take a needle and thread and sew through the whole bottom section, and then back again and tie.

Pull the petals out to how you want it to look and your done! I usually secure the back with a piece of coordinating fabric. Hot glued or sewed on, your choice. And then add a pin and you have a dahlia ready to wear.

No I am not talking about Mother Natures handiwork, I am talking about the flowers of the fabric kind.

Here are some of those flowers I have been busy making lately.

This one

and these

and this one for my friends daughters birthday

Check out my tutorials for fabric flowers here and here.