DIY: peg dollies

hello lovelies! I'm Rosie from over at such stuff as dreams are made on, and I'm so happy to be doing a DIY-sney post for Kate today :-)

I am an avid crafter, and love knitting, sewing, crocheting, painting, and making all kinds of cute things. I thought that today I would share with you a fairly easy diy ~ how to make peg dollies. I find that in my hectic life style, sometimes I want to make something a little less taxing, a little more instantly gratifying, a little easier to enjoy doing without having to clear a good couple of hours to do...enter peg dollies!

There are several different options at each stage of the process; sometimes to acheive a different effect, or sometimes depending on how much time you have to spare ~ feel free to experiment a little!



What you will need:

- Pegs.
-Crayons/colour pencils/felt tips/paint for the faces and shoes
-Glue
-Needle and thread
-Pins
-Trims/ribbons/thick yarn



What to do:

Step 1: First of all decide on your outfit. This is a great use for any of the trims or ribbons you have been collecting or hoarding! You can either do a simple dress, or a top and skirt. (You can also use a thick yarn if you have one). Step 2: Once you know what clothes your doll will be wearing, you can decide on hair colour and shoe colour. I have tried various different ways of drawing these on and have actually found that crayons are the best, or paint if you have the time to let it dry. Colour pencils or felt tips work just as well, as does nail varnish which is what I used here. Step 3: If you're doing a dress go to step 4. If you're doing a top and skirt, here we apply the top. Apply glue thinly to your ribbon of choice, and carefully wrap it around the dolly a couple of times. Step 4: For your skirt or dress, just begin to wrap your ribbon around and layer it up to make it bigger and poofier. When you reach the bottom pin the ribbon in place. Step 5: Now thread your needle with a cotton that matches the ribbon and gently put a few threads few where your pin is.

Et voila!! For one of my peg dollies I even crocheted little flowers for the skirt : )

Hope you have fun with it, and thanks again to Kate for having me today ~ I hope you're having a wonderful time at disney!

Love
Rosie
xx

DIY: belt hanger

My name is Kate and I am a beltaholic. UGH. I have so many! For the longest time I had them just strewn about, laying on the floor or draped over the backs of chairs. But now they're all neat and tidy (and in rainbow order!) thanks to this handy dandy DIY project! ;)

You'll need: one piece of 1/2" thick balsa wood, a bunch of cup hooks and paint (optional)

This is kind of self explanatory, lol. Just mark out where you want your hooks to go, and screw them in. Put two cup hooks on the top, facing the opposite direction so they can attach to a closet shelf. Paint if you'd like... and that's it! :)

DIY: anthropologie landscape dress

When I saw this dress on anthropologie earlier this year, I knew I wanted it... but I also knew it was way out of my price range. And even if I could afford it, it's no longer available. SO. I decided to make one!

You'll need: a plain white cotton dress, fabric paint, brushes, water

I dampened the dress, then laid it out on my table with a board in the dress to prevent the colors from seeping onto the back. Then I just painted! I did it freehand (which is probably why it doesn't look *exactly* like the original lol) but you could always sketch out your design first lightly with pencil, or even trace it from a large scale landscape print-out.

As long as the dress stays damp, your colors will bleed a bit, giving it the watercolor look. I'd recommend ironing it really well before you try to wash it, to lock in the fabric paint and keep it from running in the wash. Give it a couple days to dry before wearing it or washing it. Mine was still a little damp after 2 days so I just let it hang out for a while.

I got my dress at Dorothy Perkins, but plain white dresses are really everywhere! As long as it's cotton it should work! :)

DIY: aristocat bow

Hello! I'm Libby, and I'm so excited to share this fun aristocat bow DIY with you today whilst Kate is off having fun at Disneyworld.

Hands down, my favourite disney film is The Aristocats--everybody wants to be a cat, right? And the cute bows that all of the cats sport were too lovely not to recreate in real-life accessory form. This DIY is so simple and quick, and is perfect for when you get that feline feeling and want to dress up as Marie, Berlioz, Toulouse, Duchess, or Thomas O'Malley.



materials: felt {or any non-fraying material}, needle & thread, pins ruler, scissors



Cut two pieces of felt {see size guide below}. Fold the larger piece in half and whipstitch the bottom edges together; you should have a tunnel, like you would use for casing elastic. Pinch the middle of the large piece and wrap the smaller piece around. Pin at the back, backstitch, and trim excess material.



Ta da! From this basic bow, you can use hot glue or super glue to adhere to grips, headbands, or safety pins. Or do as I did and try Kate's beehive and perch a bow on top.



See, it's easy! I call dibs on being Marie, by the way.

Thanks for reading,
xx Libby

DIY: cat skirt

Remember this post, in which I bemoaned the fact that even the largest vivetta cat skirt couldn't fit over my gigantic hips? Well, problem solved! I decided to fashion one of my own black skirts (about $5 on clearance at old navy last year!) into a cat skirt of my own! I can't wait to make Casey's cat clutch and wear them together!! :D

You'll need: a black skirt, black felt, two white buttons, one pink button and white embroidery thread

I'm not going to give measurements for the cat ears because they should really be unique to each girl. When I tried on the vivetta skirt (although I was unable to zipper it lol) I found that the cat ears were too high, and interfered with the girls. So for this skirt, I decided to put on the skirt and then measure from the waistband what would be a comfortable height for the ears. Mine ended up being 2" above the waist but obviously if you're blessed with a flatter chest you can make much more obvious ears ;)

1. Once you've found your measurement for the ears, cut out four identical triangles. Stitch two together, then repeat. Because they're felt, the edges won't fray but by joining two together they'll also be stiff enough to stand up on their own. 2. Attach the ears to the skirt. I sewed mine at the bottom, then added a small stitch to the tops of the ears to hold them in place. 3. Measure where you want the buttons to go, and attach them with the white embroidery thread. And that's it! =^..^=

ps. Once I finished I realized I should have done something to make the ears stand out more from the skirt. I did a little white outline in pencil (to eventually be replaced by embroidery) but I'd recommend sewing a piece of white felt onto the triangles before attaching them to the skirt :)

DIY: pumpkin pie body scrub

I love the holidays. The smell of pumpkin and cinnamon is my favorite part of fall. During the fall winter is when I do the most baking and cooking. Making the house smell like all kinds of yummy things. Everyone gets in on the smells of the season. Every year I try to make most of the gifts for the people on my list. I think that giving them something useful and handmade is much nicer. Especially because sometimes you can only spend $5 on that person. $5 goes a long way in the hand made world. When it comes to bath scrubs, it is so much cheaper to go this route. Normally a jar like this full of yummy smelling scrub can easily run $15 - $35.



Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Turbinado Sugar
3/4 cup Olive Oil or Almond Oil
1tsp Ginger
1tsp Cinnamon
1.5 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

Tools:
Bowl
Container that seals tightly
Wooden Spoon and/or Whisk



{Rachael Ray Style}

1. Combine all ingredients in a sm/medium mixing bowl.



2. Whisk well be sure to break up all the chunks of brown sugar. 3. Pour into Jar, seal, add a small spoon or scoop and tie with a bow. ALL DONE!

// You can visit Gracie on her blog, Betwixxt! :)

DIY: lonely sock holder

I don't know about you, but I seem to have a lot of single socks. Rather than have them hang out with the married ones in my sock drawer, I decided to create a little place where they can mingle until I finally find their mates.

You'll need: two pieces of fabric (size is up to you.. I think mine came out too small. You want it to be able to hold as many lonely socks as you have, and then some), ribbon or string for the draw-string and some lonely socks

1. Sketch out the shape of a sock on your fabric. Pin the two pieces together, and cut it out (allowing some extra room for the seam). 2. Hem the top of each piece, then put them together again with the good sides facing each other. Measure about 1.5" from the top of the pieces, and mark it. This is where you want to start sewing -- make sure you backstitch! 3. Sew the two pieces together.

From here on in I think it's easier if you just watch this video here on how to make drawstring bags. It's pretty much the same concept as this except mine is shaped like a sock! ;) I made this project at night & couldn't photograph as I went along... I didn't realize how hard it would be to explain it without pictures, lol :)

DIY: dream jar

Hey, everybody! It's Katie from over at Beautifully Pure. I'm guest posting for Kate while she's off at Disney having a blast. Today I've got a great, very fairy-tale-ish DIY to share with you all: a dream jar, inspired by this picture:

1. Fold your scrap booking paper into thirds or quarters depending on how big you want your rolls to be, and then cut them along the folded lines. 2. Cut your strips of paper into thirds/quarters - again, it depends on how big you want your rolls to be. 3. Write down one of your dreams on each of the squares of paper. 4. Roll up each square of paper and tie with a short piece of twine. Then trim the twine so it looks neat and tidy. Then all you have to do is put all of your neat little rolls into your jar, and screw the cap on!

DIY: gold-leaf oxfords

This project is really simple and while I've used the gold leaf to jazz-up a pair of old oxfords, you can really use it on practically anything!

You'll need: Something to gold leaf (in this case, old black faux-leather oxfords), a gold-leafing kit (really cheap at Michaels.. like $5 with a coupon!), a paintbrush and tape

1. Using the included adhesive, brush over the areas that you want covered with gold leaf. Be VERY careful not to get this on other parts of the shoe. The adhesive is really tacky, and if even the tiniest sprinkle gets where you didn't want it, trust me.. the gold leaf will find it, and stick to it.

2. Let the adhesive dry for about 30-60 minutes until it's completely clear and tacky. Now carefully lay the sheets of gold leaf over the shoe. Don't worry if a whole sheet doesn't cover the area, you can patch it together and it'll still look just fine! :)

With a *dry* brush, lightly pat the gold into place. Make sure to get all the nooks and crannies. If you miss a spot, you can add some more gold leaf and keep patting. Eventually it'll all stick where it's supposed to.

Brush away any excess gold from the parts of the shoe that aren't covered in adhesive. If you want you can finish it off with the sealant that's included in the kit, but I want mine to get a little scuffy and worn so I'm going to let them go au natural for now ;)

DIY: sorcerer's apprentice {inspired} outfit

Hello, I'm Andrea from Paper Sparrow. I'm really exciting to be guest posting on Kate's lovely blog while she is visiting the happiest place on earth, Walt Disney World. I'm a huge Disney fan! I spent 4 or 5 vacations in Orlando as a kid and lived in O-town for the past few years before moving to New York. I was even lucky enough to get lots of free passes while my sister worked in the park as a musician.

Being a fan of the Disney classics, I wanted to make and wear a Sorcerer's Apprentice outfit inspired by the 1940 classic, Fantasia.

To make the hat I used a blue cotton blend fabric and a vintage pattern, McCalls 8254, that has a mini brim and somewhat resembles a cycle cap. I hand-stamped a star pattern with a stamp I had leftover from a D&G star-stamped dress I made a few months ago. With a base coat of white fabric paint followed by gold on top, it showed up really well on the dark blue cap! Speaking of Disney inspired hats . . . some of my favorite WDW time-wasting memories are of trying on Mike Wazowski and Viking hats in the gift shops! It is a tradition to continue.





Here's a little Fantasia Mickey set I put together on Polyvore.

(source)



Outfit Details:

Hat: Self-Made

Dress: Asos

Cape: Vintage

Gloves: We Love Colors

Shoes: Vintage

Finally, I made a silly conducting pose which the musican in me is laughing really hard at! Ha, I have no idea what I was doing during this shot : ) Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Kate, and I hope you have an amazing vacation!! xoxo Andrea