String Scarf.

Would you believe in all my fabric stashes that I don’t have ANY green or yellow fabric AT ALL? I don’t wear yellow but  Isaac playing football for the Packers I had to have something green and yellow for all his football games.
Since I didn’t have a trip to a fabric store planned I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 tank tops at a sore for $4 each.

I had a scarf idea in mind, that way no matter what else I wore to Isaac’s games I’d still be wearing team colors.
I laid out the green and white tank top out flat and cut from left to right, 1’’ strips all the way up to the top of the shirt. Here’s a picture of the first strip cut.

Once you’ve cut out all your strips take one at a time and stretch them out until they roll inwards.
Here’s a picture of what the strip is before you stretch it: (The 2 pieces are laying on top of each other)

Now here’s what it looks like once you’ve stretched it just a little bit:

Neat huh? NOW, wrap this rolled fabric around your wrist like you would an extra long necklace that you wanted to wear as a bracelet. You can wrap it just a few times or you can wrap it until you can’t possibly go over your hand anymore.

I went for completely wrapped. This will make for a fuller scarf in the end. If you wrap fewer times and make bigger loops then you’ll end up with a longer scarf but not as puffy.
Once you’ve got it wrapped around your wrist, carefully take it off your arm and lay it aside while keeping it’s circular shape.

I wanted yellow on the end of my scarf so that’s why the next step shows a yellow circle as well as the green and white one. Just fyi.  Now cut thin strips from the green and white shirt or another color of fabric you have if you want that fun look. You’re going to tie 2 stacks of circles together, side by side.
Step one, lay two circles beside each other. Thread your thin strip in and under one circle and up and through the other one beside it.

Tie like you would for the first step in tying your shoe strings.

Double knot it and then clip the long ends down close to the knot.
Continue on tying the side of the next circle to the other side until you’ve used all your circles or your scarf is as long as you desire.
If you want little fringe things like I did on the bottom of mine then simply slide your scissors  to the end of the circle opposite where you tied your double knot and cut all the way through.

Cute and fun and ready for the next Packers football game!!!!!!

Daisy gives it her stamp of approval too!

Did you really think I was going to be able to make something, take pictures of it and Evan Grace NOT get in on it?

If you notice in the pictures I went back over the parts that I tied with yellow fabric strips  to help bring in more yellow. What a fun scarf!!!!

~Jess
       

Come on Fans it’s time to scream!

Come on fans it’s time to scream, all bow down to the football team!! Sorry, I’ve heard so many cheers the past 2 months I’m kinda stuck in the rhythm of it all.

Mackenzie came home from school Wednesday of last week, excited and dropped a bomb on me.

Mackenzie: “Mom, the JV squad has to make the spirit stick for the pep rally’s this year.”

Me: “Oh neat, what are you all going to do?”

Mackenzie: “Well Ms. Malosky (their cheer coach) said she wanted one they could use for every rally instead of the ones you make out of paper towel rolls that always fall apart and have to be made over and over.”

Me: “Ok. Makes sense. What are the JV girl’s going to do then?” (Can you sense I was trying to not offer my help?)

Mackenzie: “I told Ms. Malosky you were crafty.”

By now I could see where this was going and though I was happy that Mackenzie thinks of me crafty enough to mention it to her teacher I wasn’t so happy with the thought that I might have been volunteered to make a spirit stick.

Me: “I am kinda crafty. Do the JV girls want my help or something? Want me to see if I can come up with some ideas maybe?”

Mackenzie: “I told them (meaning the JV girls) you could make one for us.”

KABOOOOMMMM!!!!!!! Just like that I was screwed.

Me: “Oh….that’s…..great!!!!! When do you need the spirit stick by?”

Mackenzie: “This Friday.”

Keep in mind this was Wednesday at about 5 o’clock. And that I had Isaac’s football practice tomorrow night. And right after that we had to go straight to the football game Mackenzie was cheering at.  And that I wouldn’t be getting home until almost 10 o’clock.

So here’s what I came up with, on the fly, on the cheap but at a cost of about 5 hours Thursday night.

PVC pipe, cut about 18’’ long. PVC end caps, with a hole drilled into the middle of them all the way through (about the width of a pencil). There’s special spray pain that’s made to stick to plastic so I used that to spray the PVC pipe black. I didn’t spray the end cap for fear the black beads wouldn’t show up as well. I left them white.

I super glued all the beads to the end caps after my dad drilled the holes in the end for me. After the super glue dried I took Mod Podge and added a thick, thick layer over top of the beads and in between them as best I could to try and seal them in. After all that dried I cut black and orange ribbons and stuck them through the hole in the end cap, tied them in a knot and then used PVC cement to glue the end caps on.
After the end caps dried on I printed and cut out some mascot pictures and football pictures I found on the school website and then Mod Podge them onto the PVC pipe it’s self.  Here’s the RRHS Indian!!!!!!

Last summer someone in RR had an Indian carved out of a live standing tree. Chief Whispering Pine I think is his name. I thought it only fitting he was on the spirit stick as the school was involved in the naming process.

Then some odd and ends pictures of football, cheer spirit stuff.

Oh and then to top it all off I found some neat initial patches that I was able to stick onto the ribbons on each end of the stick. One end says RR the other HS. I think it was a nice touch to kinda bring the spirit stick all together.

It was spur of the moment and I’m glad I was able to pull it off. I’m just wondering how well it’s going to hold up with all the school spirit and crazy going on at the pep rally’s.
I never, ever want to have to make another one anytime soon!!!!

~Jess
 

Ripped T-shirt Tutorial

As promised, here’s the super short, very quick tutorial on one of the ways to rip up a short to make it a little more grunge, trendy looking.
Decide where you want your rips to be. If you’ve got a long sleeve you can do this on the sleeves, or the back or front of a shirt. Mackenzie’s shirt was a little big so we decided to do it on the sides to make the shirt fit better.
Once you’ve decided lay your shirt out flat.

Now take a pair of scissors and cut your way down the shirt. You don’t have to measure or be exact. Try and keep how far you cut into the shirt the same though.  I went in about 1 1/2’’ and my cuts were about 1’’ apart.

(If you do decide to do this on the sides of your shirt then start your cuts underneath the arm pit seam. If you cut into this seam then you’ll have a problem with the sleeves)
This part is a little hard to explain but it’s easy, I promise.
Pick up the first loop you cut and hold in one hand (left side of picture), and hold the second loop in the other hand (right side of the picture).

You’re going to push the 2nd loop (now on left side of picture) thru the 1st loop (now on right side of picture).

Let go of the 1st loop but keep holding the 2nd loop. Now pick up the 3rd loop and feed it thru the 2nd loop.

Continue doing this until you’ve used up all your loops. Remember, the loop you push thru the previous loop is the one you hold and use for your next loop.
Now that you’re finished looping your shirt, the bottom should look like this. One long loop.

Cut this loop in half and use each end to tie a knot into the loop above. This holds everything in place and stops it from unraveling.

Then cut off the tails, or leave them on if you like the look.
Now try on your shirt.

The knot looking thing in the middle of the loops is where I cut the loops out of the seam of the shirt. If you use this method on sleeves or the front and back of the shirt the knot thing in the middle will not be there. It’ll be more like a string.

I love how it almost looks like it’s braided when you look at it from the front.

~Jess

Candlewicks.

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Supplies needed for making candlewicks:

• Cotton thread
• Borax
• Water
• Salt
• Wax and something to safely melt it in.
• Wax paper
• Small bowl of cold water.

Cut your cotton thread the length you want your candles plus 2’’. I decided to dip both ends of the rope at once to make more candles at once so I cut my thread to 18’’. Each candle wick will need 3 pieces of thread so if you want to make 5 candles times that by 3 and cut 15 pieces of thread all measuring the same length.

Mix 1 TBS salt, 2 TBS boric acid and 1 cup.all of the borax may not dissolve so don’t sweat it.  Add in your thread and stir gently a few times, try not to tangle your thread.

Now walk away from it and let it sit for 12 hours.

When time is up, have something ready to hang your candlewicks up to dry on. I used a coat hanger so I could move the wicks somewhere out of the way once they stopped dripping.

Gently remove them and hang them up immediately, try not to disturb all the crystals on them as you move them around.

Let them dry for 4-5 hours, the longer the better.

Then take 3 strands and braid them, tightly, together just like you would someone’s hair.

Here’s a few of mine all braided up.

Almost finished. Time to prime the wicks. Melt some wax, soy or beeswax, whatever you’re going to make candles out of really, over a double boiler.

Lay out some wax paper, and grab a few sheets of paper towel as well a small bowl of cold water.

Dunk one wick into the hot wax at a time, wait for bubbles to release (I had a few wicks that released bubbles almost as soon as they hit the wax and a few others that took a little longer) See some bubbles below?

You can use a paper clip on one end of the wick to save your fingers from getting burned accidentally or if you’re making double  candles like I am just pinch the middle of the strand and dunk carefully.


When bubbles start to pop this means the wick is saturated with the wax and you can remove it and immediately dunk it in the cold water.

Dunk for just a second or two, take both ends of the wick and stretch the strand out tight before laying on the wax paper. (I didn’t have wax paper, so please ignore the aluminum foil under my wicks)

Blot any excess moisture off the wicks with the paper towel and move on to the next wick.

Once finished with all the wicks you can repeat the wax and water dunk a few more times if you feel like the first dunk didn’t cover enough or if you want a stiffer wick. Give the wicks enough time to dry in between dunks or else you just end up melting the wax already on the thread.

Now you’re ready to turn the wicks into taper candles or use them in jar candles as well.

I started on taper candles but ran out of time and had to put it aside for another day.

~Jess

Unique Window Treatment.

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Curtains. What an ugly word in my house. not because they are ugly but because I hate to buy them. I’d rather make what I really want on the windows then spend forever shopping around for what fits my taste and idea for the room

That’s one of the reasons I made Mackenzie’s Jean Curtains.

And another reason I sweetly asked Boy Toy if he could help me flesh out my idea for one of my kitchen windows.

We headed to Lowe’s and picked up:

• 1’’x6’’x6’
• 1’’ x 1’’ x 4’
• Any kind of natural fiber rope, not nylon. Cut 2 pieces of rope for each end with the length of tope equal to twice the distance from the top of your window to the bottom plus 6’’.
• 1’ 1/2’’ screws
• Round wooden pole to fit the size of your window.
• Pole brackets.
• Tools you’ll need for this project:
• Drill and drill bit to match the thickness of your rope.
• Tape measure
• Level
• Sand paper for the wood if needed.

Cut your 1’’x 6’’ x 6’ board into two pieces long enough to fit the length of your window. Mine was close to 36’’.  We’ll call this Board A and B.
Now cut four pieces of the smaller 1’''x 1’’x 4’ the width of the two boards above plus 2’’. These will be your end braces under the sides of each shelf.
Make the placement holes for the rope on the wide side of the braces about 1/2’’ from each end. Drill holes.

On the underside of the shelf, mark a line 2’’ from each end. This is the line where one of your braces will go. Place one of the braces against this line and screw into Board A or B 1 1/2’’ from the ends. The picture below is Boy Toy screwing the boards together, BEFORE he drilled the out holes for the rope.

This is how each end of Board A and B should look from the bottom. Screws on the inside hole and empty holes on the outside. Repeat for both sides of Boards A and B.

If you want to paint or stain your shelves, lightly sand them and then paint or stain away. Let it dry completely before moving on to the next step.
Attach your curtain rod to your window/wall however you like best and to whatever height you prefer.

A lot of this project is just putting this where you think looks and works best. (I didn’t mean to leave the fienial on the rod on the right for the picture, oops, you can leave them on if you like. I couldn’t because my curtain rod ended up really close to some of my cabinet doors and if left on would have kept them from opening)

Fold the 2 ropes in half. Tie each folded rope together by a simple overhand
knot near the folded end.
 
Leave about a 2 1/2’’ loop.

The loop Boy Toy is holding on the left side of the picture is the loop that’s going to hang around the curtain rod on the inside of the brackets.

Slide the wooden pole through the loops in the rope and if you decide to have finials attach them now.

Even though my picture shows the wooden pole already on the brackets don’t hand this up yet. You need too attach the shelves to the rest of the rope.
Once your loop is on the curtain rod you’ll have 2 ropes coming off the loop on both sides.

Take the back rope and thread it down through the holes of the brace on the back. Board A first, then Board B. Make sure you tie a knot underneath the braces as you bring your rope though, this is what makes the shelves stay in place. Here’s a picture of the top shelf.  
Do this for each side, decide where you want the two shelves to hang before you tie the knots. Place your level on the shelves as you tie them in place to make sure they are straight, not wonky.

Cut off the excess rope if you have any length left over, as short or long as you want it to hang.

I love my unique window treatment and can’t wait to plant some herbs in small pots to grow on the top shelf. 


~Jess
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