Leather Obi Belt with 3D Flower

When I was making the belt for my high school reunion outfit I was rushing that day to get it finished in time to wear to the reunion. It was a little rough so I wanted to give it another shot, this time with a bit of a variation (also made using pieces of a former leather jacket). I altered the pattern for the petals and made them into a 3D flower.

I started out by making the petals of the flower. I altered the original petal design to be wider so I could fold it over and glue (using E6000 -- I'm sure there's some sort of leather glue that would be better, but I just wanted to stick with what I had on hand this time).

I altered the direction of the fold so the petals wouldn't all be exactly the same. Hint: Only use a tiny bit of glue, using too much will interfere when sewing them on to the belt.

I clamped them and let them dry overnight. Bonus = I finally found a use for the cute, tiny clamps I picked up on impulse one day -- I'm glad I did, they were exactly what I needed!

I cut out the other pieces in the same way as the previous obi belt, except with wider ties and added seam allowance around the edges of the main belt pieces.

I sewed a triangle piece to each side of the rectangular piece, making sure right sides were together, opened the seam allowance on the back side, top stitched on either side of the seam and clipped some of the excess away at the edges.

I folded over 1/2" around the outer edges and top stitched.

When transitioning from the triangular to the rectangular piece there was some excess bunched up, so I cut a small slit, close to, but not touching the edge, overlapped the sides and sewed.

Then I sewed the ties to the ends of each triangular piece.

I arranged the petals for the flower and secured them with just a tiny dab of glue. I used a spice jar (the perfect size!) to hold them down until they dried.

After the glue was dry I sewed the inner corners of the petals onto the belt.

And I had my new belt!

I really love this version of the belt. I ended up breaking three leather needles making this one, but I think it was worth it!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Make it Great Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 1

Most of the time when I put the kids [and husband] to bed at night my plans of staying up later washing dishes, working on projects and writing blog posts disappear rather quickly as I fall asleep myself. So sometimes I get up in the middle of the night to do those things, or just to enjoy the quiet and a few moments of quasi alone time. Although blog posts written between 2 and 4 AM can be rather... interesting. We'll see how this one turns out!

I love flowers! I have heard it's been clinically proven that flowers make people (including men) happy. I wouldn't doubt it! I love the look, the smell, the feel. It's a multi-sensory experience.

I first got started in "proper" floral design when I got married. I bought a book from the craft store I worked in at the time and, with the help of my mother-in-law's business license, bought fresh flowers from the local wholesaler, made my own bouquet and boutonnieres for the my groom and the groomsmen. I loved it and surprisingly it helped me relax [a little] the night before the big day.

After that I started doing floral design at the craft store, but moved out of state after a few months for my husband's school. While there I took a floral design class just for fun at the local university. I loved it so much and took the class twice so I could do different designs for the holidays during each semester. From there I got my own business license and started arranging flowers for small weddings. It was so much fun but got rather difficult after having kids so I've only done a couple weddings since then. I still love it and jump at every chance I have to arrange flowers.

Now, on to the arranging.  Unfortunately I wasn't too good about getting photos of each step.  I usually work fast with flowers and want to get them back in to water as soon as possible.  Hopefully everything will make sense anyway!

My husband brought a huge bag full of flowers home from work one day. If I had ordered the flowers myself and planned what I was going to do before hand it would have been a little bit different, but this time I just used what he brought.

We’ll start with a simple arrangement of peonies in a low glass vase.

Use water-proof tape (found at craft supply stores) to make a grid across the top of the vase. [You can also use a floral "frog" or foam for fresh flowers if your vase is not clear.]

Add some foliage first, if you have it. The peonies I received had long stems of leaves so I cut those off (at an angle) and crisscrossed the stems in the vase to create supports for the peonies.

Then add the flowers, cutting the stems to the right length and spacing them out fairly evenly. [Odd numbers of flowers generally look more pleasing to the eye than even numbers, but I had four peonies so I used them all.] Add a little more foliage to fill it out.

Next, Part 2, arranging with a tall glass vase.

Part 3 - a one-sided arrangement using floral foam

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I'll be linking to all these fabulous linky parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

PDF Pattern How - To

I have been thinking a lot about PDF patterns lately.  I've been wondering how people make them, how they digitize them, how they ensure they print out the correct size, etc.  And now I know!  It turns out the website Sew, Mama, Sew!  had Carla Crim from Scientific Seamstress do a series of three posts describing the full process of creating PDF patterns.  She even reveals some resources she uses to make things easier and the very basic software she uses to digitize the patterns. 

Part 1 - Pattern Drafting and Grading

Part 2 - "eFormat" Your Pattern

Part 3 - Writing Instructions and Marketing Patterns

I'm so excited!  I just may end up creating some patterns and selling them on Etsy.  I'll probably start with some childrens patterns while I get the hang of it, then try my hand at womens patterns.  It's also a good way to give away freebie templates for craft projects.  Oooo ideas, ideas!  Happy day!

My 100+ Followers Giveaway and Some Big News

First you get the big news.

We're moving!  Soon.  I get to move back home to the San Francisco Bay Area in California!  I am so excited (and a little stressed) mostly because it will bring us back close to family (both of our mothers, my dad, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles).  Family makes all the difference when raising small children!  Plus I get to be back in the state I love and which I will forever call my home.  I am a California girl through and through!

We will be moving on March 23rd.  Yes, 9 days from now.  Yikes!  And to make matters even more complicated, we will not be able to finalize jobs and living arrangements until after we get out there.  So, most of my sewing/crafting supplies (along with most of our other belongings) will probably be in storage for a while.  What will I do??  [But I will be doing the toddler shrug tutorial before we move]

So, before everything gets packed away into storage for who knows how long, I will be doing a giveaway in honor of bypassing 100 followers.  I am so excited and honored that so many wonderfully creative people have chosen to follow my blog (and not to mention the subscribers in readers as well!).  I want to say "thank you" and so I'm offering a giveaway for a...

$40 gift certificate to any/all of my Etsy shops

catonalimb.etsy.com

catonalimbaccessoriz.etsy.com

textilesnaturally.etsy.com

(you can mix and match products from my shops)

And if you don't want to wait for the giveaway to end I will be offering a 15% discount to everyone.  Just enter code CALIFORNIABOUND at checkout.  I will be putting my shops on "vacation mode" on Saturday night, then will reopen once we get settled. 

To enter (leave a comment for each one you do): 

1.  Become a follower/subscriber of my blog (or if you are already let me know)
2.  Like me on Facebook (see the sidebar)

3.  Post on Facebook about the giveaway and link here

4.  Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter with link here

5.  Post on your blog about the giveaway and link back

This giveaway will remain open until Thursday night, March 17th at 11:59 pm MST.  The winner will be announced Friday morning. 

Good luck!

Oh, by the way, I'll be starting a linky party on Tuesday.  Be sure to come by and link up!

Why I Love Photo Editing Software

You can go from a decent snapshot....  to a wow piece.

With very little time and effort. 

Okay, maybe I'm a little biased (this is my daughter), but I love it!

This was done with both Adobe Lightroom (cropped, applied "antique" preset, adjusted light/dark balance) and Adobe Photoshop (used heal and clone tool to remove brownie remains and stray strand of hair).

Make Your Own Fresh Evergreen Wreath - Tutorial

Every year we get a fresh Christmas tree and I make a fresh evergreen wreath.  Here's how I do it...

Acquire bunches of evergreens.  {Boy do I love that smell!  Nothing brings Christmas memories and spirit to me like the smell of fresh cut evergreens.}  The most common greens are Douglas fir, noble fir, princess pine and cedar.  You can use any one alone, or combine them.  This year I just purchased two bunches of cuttings ($4 each) from the Christmas tree lot where we got our tree.  As it turned out I had to trim some branches from the bottom of our tree to get it into the stand, so I only needed to buy one bunch.  You can also use any evergreens you happen to have in your yard, although you tend to need more than you think you will. 

Get a wreath form of some kind.  Sometimes I buy a wire frame from a craft store or floral wholesaler (since I used to be/still kind of am a freelance florist).  Last year I bought a wreath from the dollar store, and this year I'm using a grapevine wreath I picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents.  You also need hand clippers (floral or garden), and wire (usually green, but I had silver on hand so that's what I used). 

Cut off sprigs of greenery varying in length, mine were about 4-6 inches long.  Gather the sprigs, lining up the bottom edges and wrap with wire.  (As shown above)  I usually wrap the wire around once, then twist the ends together like a twist tie, and wrap the rest around so it doesn't stick out. 

Repeat many, many times.

I ended up needing 3 or 4 times this many bunches.

Secure the beginning end of a very long piece of wire to the frame (I like to use the paddle wire from craft stores for this).  Lay the first bunch on the frame and wrap the wire around the frame, securing the bunch to it.  Lay another bunch down, overlapping enough to cover the wire around the first bunch.  Repeat going around the whole frame, angling some bunches towards the inside of the wreath, and some towards the outside edge to completely cover the frame.  Wrap the long piece of wire around each bunch, securing it to the frame.  (Although when I put down the first bunch I really liked the way the evergreen looked against the grapevines, so I may do some kind of variation in the future.)

Lay the bunches down pointing in the same direction and continue in the same direction on the wreath. Keep going around and around until you get to the beginning.  Lift up the first few bunches and tuck some more in underneath to make sure the wreath is complete.  Tie off the very long piece of wire and...

Voila!

Back view

You can trim it a bit if there are any sprigs sticking out too far for your liking.  Then it's time to decorate!  I gathered up some things I have used in years past for various decorations.  I had a bow and a couple glittery gold snowflakes I used on my wreath last year, some mesh garland I got from the dollar store years ago, and some pine cones, a wooden bird ornament and gold bead garland, all of which I purchased from Michael's this year.  The gold bead garland came with six strands, and was four feet long, but I pulled it apart so I got 24 feet instead of just four.

Total cost $8-15 (or less, depending what you have on hand)

My four and a half year-old son also made a wreath, almost entirely on his own.  He was very proud of it.  I thought it was pretty impressive for his age, too. 

We hung his wreath on the front door since mine wouldn't fit between it and the storm door.

Does anyone else use fresh greenery in their decor?

Love... In the Form of a Chair

I've been browsing the local online classifieds (as well as thrift stores) trying to find some beautiful furniture for my home.

We have furniture that works, and is in decent condition (except for light colored fabric with kids... crayons, pens, spills just never seem to come out!), but it's very modern, stiff, straight line kind of stuff.  That may all be well and good for some people.  I know many people pull off beautiful, very modern homes.  But that's not my style.  I like curves.  Not entirely, of course.  I love the straight lines of molding, pillars and multi-paned windows.  But with furniture curves just seem much more inviting, warm and comfortable. 

So one day in my browsing I came across a photo of four antique chairs and instantly was drawn to the one in the back (I should have saved the photo).  The others were plain wood, but the one in the back was upholstered, carved and gorgeous.  Now, keep in mind I had also recently been to several antique stores and saw some very beautiful chairs similar to this one for $200-$300 (no thanks!).  This one became mine for $35! 

Here she is!

She will be my chair in the room I call my studio.  I have plans to paint the frame white and use a lavender/purple upholstery fabric (if I can find one... so far not much luck).  I have to strip it all the way down to the frame since the webbing is stretched out and falling down, so it will be a lot of work, but I'll post some step-by-steps along the way to help out anyone else who may be tackling a similar project.

It is not only beautiful but very comfortable as well.  You really can have it all!

(With my daughter jumping on it)