I Blame My Mother

If you follow my "profitable" sewing adventures on my Facebook page, you've probably seen the pictures of my most recent project.  I made my mom a purse for Christmas and she loved it so much she asked me to make one for her friend.  I was flattered!  (No, I would NOT accept pay!  She is my mother, after all!  I owe her up until I have to change HER diapers!)  And found it hilarious, as I mentioned on FB.  This is why:

This is my mom.

Die-hard sewing addict, crafter and do-it-yourselfer. 

I blame genetics for my addictions in these areas, so she's the woman responsible.

My mom started sewing much earlier in life than I did.  She made a large quantity of my clothes when I was a child. 

In fact, I don't think my parents ever had to buy me church clothes until I was a teenager. 

(The little Fluffies were kind enough to model my dresses!)

My dresses were the envy of all my childhood friends. 

And they were fantastic!  Ruffles and puffed sleeves and ribbons and lace and lovely little buttons!  Obviously I still have many of them, loved beyond reason by myself and my younger female cousins, who had the great fortune of wearing them when I outgrew them.  I occasionally bring them out and my little Fluffies have a ball trying them on while I tell them how their Gran-Gran made them for me when I was little like them.

My mom made clothes for my baby dolls and Barbies, baby quilts for most of my numerous younger cousins, clothes for herself, and quilts.

But she didn't stop there.  My mom crafted all kinds of wonderful things when I was a child.  She used to make salt-dough figures and ornaments, 3D paper pictures, exquisite wreathes, and hand-painted alphabet blocks for my cousins.  She completely re-upholstered the couch she inherited from her grandmother, which was NOT a simple piece of furniture at all!  She's crocheted and starched hundreds of snowflakes over the years and given them away as gifts.  I can't begin to describe all the props and accessories she made for the children's class she taught at our church for so many years!  She can also knit, garden, and can enough food to fill a pantry for an entire year.

My mom tried to get me interested in sewing when I was younger but I had this weird idea that I liked painting and drawing better.  I actually did start sewing a little for myself after I got married.  I found myself burning through a lot of minutes calling my mom with sewing questions and wishing I'd learned all this when I had the chance.  When the Fluffies came along, that dormant sewing addiction gene was activated and I've been sewing like a crazy woman (like my mother!) ever since.

The majority of my mom's sewing now is quilts.  She loves making them.  These are the ones she made for my oldest three...

(This is just a close-up of the frogs)

(Little Stinky's is still in the works!)

She says there's something very satisfying about the cutting and piecing and machine quilting.  I can't quite share her enthusiasm for that yet, but I know it's quite possibly another dormant addiction I may be carrying.  Quilting hasn't stopped her from turning out dresses for her favorite granddaughters from time to time, but it's her  niche.

Here are the Christmas dresses she and my grandmother (who obviously was responsible for my mother's addiction) made for the Fluffies...

Pattern look familiar?  :)

Yea, and my Grandmother!  That woman sewed for FOUR girls!  I think sewing for two is a challenge!  And my mom wasn't the only one to have picked up her addiction.  At least one of my aunts is also nuts about it!  My grandmother sewed THESE dresses (my aunt with the sewing addiction supplied the fabric!) for the girls and their dolls in addition to the ones she collaborated with my mom on!

At some point, one or both of the Fluffies will most likely struggle with the addiction I inherited from my mother, who inherited it from her mother.  It would be interesting to see just how far this goes back, wouldn't it?  Ah well.  Generations of well-clothed children run strong in my family! 

Anyway, my POINT is that my mom is fully capable of sewing ANYTHING and doing a very good job at it!  Thus my amusement at her order.  But seriously!  I was honored that I have "arrived" enough as a sewer/seamstress/whatever-you'd-like-to-call-me that she asked me to sew something that she intended to gift!  My mom!  My sewing hero!  What a compliment!

***Pinterest Tip for Today!***

If you have long hair and you haven't tried the sock bun yet, you totally have to!  I have not curled my hair in literally years and I used to do it all the time before I had kids.  I spend so much time doing munchkin hair before leaving the house that I'm lucky if I get my make-up on.  The sock bun takes no time and produces gorgeous results!  Check this out!

Super Simple Curly Ribbon Clippies

Super Simple Curly Ribbon Clippies

***Pinterest Tip!***

You CAN use tinfoil in place of dryer sheets!  I ran out of dryer sheets over two weeks ago, and since I'd just read that random idea on Pinterest, I tried it.  And I haven't bought dryer sheets yet!  If you haven't seen and pinned this incredible pin, you at least have to try it!  It DOESN'T soak your laundry in luscious scent (which is fantastic if you have allergies), but it totally takes care of the static!

So back to our topic at hand...  If you have little girls, you are familiar with the sometimes obscene prices of such necessary evils .  Those prices are especially unfriendly when you have to buy two of everything.  I've been buying spools of ribbon for years and just tying them in my little Fluffies' hair.  But clippies are SOOOO much easier, and after browsing around the internet for a while, I determined that I needed to make some myself.  And several months later, I actually got around to it!

Here's what you need:

1/4" wooden dowels

Ribbon (Grosgrain or regular)

Plastic hair clips (I found mine at Michael's, but I think Joann's carries them, too)

Hot glue gun

Straight pins (or bobby pins or clothes pins)

Lighter or lit candle

Fabric Stiffener thinned 50% with water (Optional, but feels necessary for maintaining the curl with regular ribbon)

Cookie sheet lined with tinfoil

Note: If you have to pick up any of these items, keep the outfits or general scheme of your daughter's wardrobe in mind.  I didn't and had to just grab from my ribbon box... in which I have a lot of great colors that don't really match the majority of the Fluffies' current wardrobe.  Hence my rather boringly colored curly ribbons!  Also, buy more than one dowel!  I only bought one so I had to put several "batches" in the oven and it took forever to bake enough curly ribbon!

So the first thing you want to do is cut your dowels into 12" pieces.  If your husband has a saw in the garage, that is helpful, but mine has all his tools at his shop now so I used a serrated knife and a cutting board.  Then secure one end of your chosen ribbon to the dowel (here is where wooden clothes pins would be SUPER helpful -  questioning my validity as a crafter since I don't actually OWN any wooden clothes pins!) and wrap it around the dowel until you reach the other end. 

Note:  If you're using regular ribbon, I'd recommend painting it with fabric stiffener at this point to give it a  little extra support.

I used parchment paper as "supports" to keep the dowels off of the cookie sheet, which would totally be unnecessary if you have clothes pins!

When you have all your dowels wrapped in ribbon, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes at 250 degrees!  After you take them out, let them cool, then carefully remove your ribbons.  You'll have these really cute ribbon ringlets.

I cut my ringlets into thirds.

If you haven't melted ribbon ends before, it might be easier to use a stationary lit candle to melt your ribbon ends.  This is necessary to keep them from fraying out.  Hold the cut end of your ribbon close to the flame, but DON'T BRING IT INTO THE FLAME or you'll light it on fire or brown your ribbon.  Do this carefully and slowly and you'll see the cut edge of your ribbon melt.  You don't need to melt it a lot.  Melt all of those ends!  

Next, grab one of your plastic clippies and put a little glue on it.

And apply a ribbon strip!  Put another small amount of glue in the middle of that ribbon and apply your next ribbon.  I did mine in a fan pattern so all the ribbons would stick out in different directions.

I used nine ribbon ringlets for each of my clippies.  You can use more if you want them fluffier!  My girls are pretty tiny and have fine hair, though, so I didn't want to overwhelm their little heads.

Believe it or not, the glue holds REALLY well to those plastic clippies.  (And I would know because I messed up one of the first ones and had to pull it off.  NOT an easy task!)

And here's Fluffy 2 modeling her new curly ribbon clippy!

These really ARE easy to make and definitely more budget friendly than buying them in a store!  Also kind of fun to make if you enjoy this sort of thing!

As a little aside, Fuzzy is still LOVING his monster patched pants.  Fabric paint is holding up as well as can be expected with being scraped around on the floor pretty much all day!