Up-cycled Napkins

In June I did a tutorial on up-cycling a vintage/antique linen into the pincushion on a Mason Jar sewing kit... but I never said what I did with the beautiful lace cornered scraps from the linen.

 

Well, I turned them into pretty little napkins! When I made the sewing kit, all I did was cut the "P" out of an antique monogrammed linen. When I was finished, I had a near-perfect condition linen - with a 4x4 square cut out of its center - left over... and beautiful lace trim on it's corners!

To make the napkins, all I had to do now was to cut off the excess center strip (an act I didn't feel bad about because it was slightly damaged with moth holes anyways), roll and pin the hem...

... and stitch them on just ONE side. It only took me about 30 minutes to trim, pin, and hem both scraps.

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO simple, and I got beautiful napkins without wasting a thing!

What have you up-cycled lately?

-- A Victorian Cowgirl <3

Oops! (Well, better late than never...)

I can't believe how much I forget :P Okay so, I meant to post these pictures the day after my pincurls post, and TOTALLY forgot... yipes!!

This is how it all turned out the next day :)

This is right outside my house. I am wearing a Vintage strapless dress w/ floral hem, and my favorite navy blue cardigan.

The sun was in my eyes & I just couldn't keep them open long enough. But, this turned out to be a cute pic :P

And, this one was taken inside our lovely home!

Do you find blogposts or tutorials that inspire you?? How'd they turn out??

Have a blessed week,

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Sweet Little Dress Photo's

Here is the process of making my little dress. The lighting wasn't super fantastic because I took them in the morning, and it has been raining all week:

The pattern drawn out on the shirt. Now, I don't have a daughter to borrow a dress from for a pattern, but I do have dresses of mine that my momma saved.

So, I used one of my pink easter dresses.

Detached Pocket



Goodbye sleeve...



And, there went the other one.

Close-up of the back, right before I cut the neckline for the dress.

From this photo you can't really tell but, I cut the neckline directly under the two buttons shown in the photo before this.

Side seam sewing :)

Belt loops, which I made from bits of the sleeve.

Attaching the belt loops

As you can see, I kept the pocket. I had plans for it!! I took more fabric from one of the sleeves, folded it in 1/2 and gathered it up, then attached it in a sprial to the pocket.

Ta-da!! It's a flower :D

It's almost finished.

I re-attached the pocket to the front of the dress where I felt a little girl could easily use it for hiding all her dainty little things, like a flower for mommy, or a card for dad.

Then I hand-stiched a button from my sewing box to the center of the flower, making sure not to catch the dress. Turns out, the button I chose was a larger version of the buttons already attached to the shirt.

Close-up of the flower on the pocket.

C'est Fini!!

(This photo was taken by momma later in the evening, hence the color difference.)

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

A cutesy little dress, for a cutesy little girl

I found a tutorial a while back (okay, like WAY back in the Spring) on how to turn a large sized men's shirt into a dress for a little girl. Now, usually I try and at least post the tutorial video if I can, but tonight I am just going to post a link (I'm just THAT tired) : http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-shirt-dress.html.

Well actually, the way I did my little dress is from a memory of looking over a few different posts/tutorials on how to do this, when I saw them last... so I just kinda went at it with a general idea of how it worked. I wish I had a little girl sized white belt to add to it in the photo's, but I don't :( I used a Blue & White striped men's shirt that was given to one of my brothers, but ended up being too big for them.

Here is a similar one (I have yet to try, but maybe next week??? Looking forward to a new skirt, hopefully) on how to make a belted woman's skirt, using a similar technique: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/44969/how-to-make-a-belted-skirt-from-a-mens-dress-shirt

More pics to follow :D

--A Victorian Cowgirl

Casey's 50's Tutorial in practice

So, I said I tried the style out the next morning, and here is how it looked! (These pics were taken about the middle of the day when I finally got around to it)

Left side twist

(And, a sweet little over-the-shoulder pose.. very Vogue)


Rear-view


Right side twist

Front view

My general silliness.. such a poser :P

It turned out very nicely as you can see. And, I'm sure by now you've noticed I decided to go with a chic bun as opposed to the ponytail.. love it!!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

50s style faux bang and ponytail tutorial

Thank you SOO much Casey for having such a wonderful blog!! I found this video VERY helpful, and I tried it the next morning. I also have been applying my make-up w/ a 50's style look (it only added one more step surprisingly.. eye-liner .. go figure it's the one thing I never could get right, until I had a reason to practice daily) and have loved it ever since. Your tutorial on applying it was extremely helpful for a few extra tips as well.

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Shared Tutorial in Practice...

So, I worked on it a little while and made 3 flowers. I made more through out the day, but only wore just the first 3 in my hair :)

...The flowers, & twist...

I have one little one off to the left side of my twist...

and to the right...

I have one larger one, coupled with a smaller one.

All of my flowers have 3-5 Swarovski Crystal beads at the centers.

I hope you enjoy making yours as much as I have enjoyed making mine, and sharing the photo's!!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Sharing a Link for a Tutorial

I read an article this morning about the common misconception that girls who stay at home either just sit around twiddling our thumbs while we "wait for our prince charming" or that we only know how to cook and clean. Those are good things to know, by the way, but if I only did that I'd be bored stiff. Anyway, that isn't the purpose of this post so I'll move on.

The author of that post is Emily Rose Brookshire of Simply Vintagegirl. I love all things vintage and beautiful so I just HAD to go visit her site when I saw the name of her blog :)

I found this lovely tutorial for fabric flowers and wanted to share. The post is at http://www.simplyvintagegirl.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/29/tutorial-how-to-make-lovely-fabric-flowers/

I have known how to make different sorts of fabric and ribbon flowers for a while but I never thought of using a tealight to crinkle the flower edges. They remind me of old english roses or peonies (which I love!!). I am making some of these today... how about you?!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl