GIRLS SHARED BEDROOM STYLE SHEET

My girls room is entered in the Apartment Therapy's Room For Color contest. Please help me out with a vote by clicking on the ad to the right or here. It's such a sweet little, fancy room and I'm happy to see it getting some play on the fabulous Apartment Therapy.

This is the style sheet I used when planning it. I really wanted to have quilts made but alas, that is a cost for another day. It has come together nicely, even though there are a few things I'd love to add. There are ALWAYS things I want to add. I've come to learn this about myself. I'm never finished with a room.

Wall Color - Behr "Ballerina Pink" (130A-3), MS Home Depot "Pencil Yellow" (8185)
Wallpaper - Ferm Living "Dotty"
Bed - Walmart
Mirror - Vintage Find
Pillows - Home Goods, Pier 1 Imports, Target
Mini Suitcases - Amazon
Arm Chair - Vintage Find
Artwork - Handmade and Vintage Finds
Crystal Lamps & Swag Light - Vintage Finds
Dresser - Tai Pan (I gold foil'd that mother)
Curtains - Country Curtains
Plushies - Handmade, BlaBla
Bedding - IKEA (although I wanted PB or handmade from vintage chenille bedding)

PASTEL RAINBOW TUTU DIY

SUPPLIES
Pastel Tulle Netting - 6" Rolls (pink, peach, yellow, mint, aqua, lavender)
1" Elastic Piece - about 24" per skirt
Fabric Scrap - roughly 6"x24" I used a pale blue

Interfacing - cut about 5"x24"

Thread (to match fabric)
Straight Pins

Scissors

Safety Pin - 2 Large

Sewing Machine

1" Ribbon - 4" long

PROCESS
1. Cut a 45" strip of each of the tulle colors x3.
2. Cut the Fabric and interfacing strips.

3. Cut the Elastic strip.

4. Lay out the fabric strip on a large, flat surface with the right side down. 

5. Lay out each tulle strip in order of the rainbow, side by side and overlapping each other about 2". Keep the center of the tulle strip over the fabric strip. The easiest way to do this is to fold a piece of tulle in half and place the folded edge in the center of the fabric strip's height, then unfold the tulle. You may have some left over pieces by the time you get to the end of the 24" strip of fabric. 

6. Place the interfacing strip on top of the tulle layer right over the fabric strip. You won't need to fuse it (iron it) to the tulle.

7. Pin a large safety pin to each end of your elastic strip and place that on top of the interfacing. 

8. Pin the outer left end to the edge of the fabric, interfacing and tulle layers.

9. Carefully fold the entire thing in half, keeping the elastic inside. This is the tricky part because it can't be done all at once, but rather sections at a time. The top should be the fabric outer layer with the fold at the top edge.

10. Then carefully fold under the fabric and interfacing layers and straight pin along the width of the skirt every few inches.

11. Once that side is pinned, gently flip it over and do the same on the other side, but use the same straight pin from the other side. You don't need double pins, but you do need both edges tucked under.

* This is where my non-sewing skills shine through, this is probably not the most effective way to do this but it works for me and my crafting-sewer skills. 

12. Sew along the pinned line, just 1/8" in from the folded under side. It won't matter which side you sew on, but choose one, and sew one big long straight line, taking out the pins as you go. Make sure you don't sew into the elastic. I sew about 1/2" away from the elastic to avoid that problem.

13. When this is complete, you can fish the elastic through, if needed. The interfacing keeps the path smooth and the pin makes it easier to fish through. If the elastic is long enough, and already shows through, proceed to gather the waistline by pulling the fabric band toward the left pinned edge.

14. When the waistband is at the desired width, bunched to create some fluff, take out the pulling pin side and pin it to secure the elastic to the skirt. 

15. Cut the excess elastic.

16. Sew the elastic to that edge and repeat for the left edge. Now you should have a bunched tulle strip with elastic inside and a fabric waistband.

17. Connect the ends by meeting up and sewing the two ends together, keeping the seem inside the waist. I finish it with ribbon folded over the ends and sewn (see bottom photo).

* See how I'm not really a seamstress? I am SURE there's a better way to do this but I have tried making tutus before and this has been my most successful one. The knotted one and full sheets of tulle were both a fail. I suppose you could say this DIY is for the non-sewer. It's really not too hard though. If I can do it, so can you.

18. Cut off the bottom to the desired length of skirt. Mine are cut to about 14" long. 

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!

How fun is this?!? Modify Ink has made it to the Martha Stewart American Made 2014 Design Finalists. Please vote, and vote again. You can vote 6 times each day! It's such a fantastic creative resource and they really do deserve the praise!!

P.S. That's my house in the video.

Thanks in advance ;)

RAINBOW DASH PARTY HEADBANDS

I made pastel pony headbands and tutus for the party girl and her sister... and look at the giddiness! They were so excited for their friends to arrive and show off their fluffy rainbow outfits.

SUPPLIES
Pastel Tulle Netting - 6" Rolls (pink, peach, yellow, mint, aqua, lavender)
Covered Headbands - I found a variety pack of 4 at the dollar store
Felt - I used blue for rainbow dash and purple for twilight sparkle
Needle & Thread (to match felt)
Straight Pins

PROCESS
1. Cut a 12" strip of each of the tulle colors.
2. At the top center of the headband tie a pink 12" strip into a knot. Followed by a peach, then yellow, mint, aqua, blue, lavender... whatever colors you find, do them in order of the rainbow.
3. Gather them all into the center, and cut them evenly at about 4".
4. Cut two felt ears (see template below), wrap around the headband on each side of the tulle and pin.
5. Hand sew each ear with simple stitching keeping the knots inside the ears.
6. Cut down the tulle to the desired height. I cut mine to 2" long.

FREE TEMPLATE PDF

PASTEL PLASTIC STRAW WREATH

I made a plastic straw wreath a while back. They're not terribly hard to make. My lovely friend Meg taught a bunch of us to make them from a tutorial she found. I'm not sure where, but there is a tutorial here. All you need is wire and plastic straws. Knock yourself out, you're sure to find a use for one!

It stayed white until I was party planning for the PASTEL RAINBOW DASH PARTY and wondered about spray painting it lightly with rainbow colors. Pastel of course. I already had pink, yellow and aqua so I found a baby blue, peach and green. The only color I was missing was a lavender but guess what?!... Once you spray the blue in one area, and the pink slightly over it, there's your lavender.

The over all trick to this is to lightly spray in one area at a time, holding the can a bit farther back than you normally would. Making your way all the way around the wreath with each color in order: blue, pink over blue (to get lavender), pink, peach, yellow, green, aqua. I did two coats and let the colors overlap slightly to get an ombre fading effect.

Very cute in the end. And rainbow decor always comes in handy for St. Patrick's Day.

PASTEL RAINBOW PARTY DECORATIONS

SUPPLIES
Tissue Paper
Packing Tape
MS Fringe Scissors (or scissors, but trust me, these fringe scissors are a worthwhile purchase.)

PROCESS
1. Lay out three pieces of tissue paper, open on a flat cutting surface.
2. Fold in half, and half again.
3. Cut along folds to equal fourths of the whole sheets.
4. Repeat for all your tissue pieces. *You can cut the desired amount for where you're hanging it up in the end. My tissue fringe is the width of the tissue paper and waterfalls down 16 rows to cover our counter height.
5. With three pieces at a time, cut fringe about 4" tall (about 1/2 of the height of your pieces of tissue).
6. Repeat until the desired amount is fringed. If you cut too much, you can always use this for future projects.
7. Put a strip of packing tape along the top edge (no fringe) and flip it so that the sticky side is UP.
8. Carefully lay the next piece on top of the taped edge so that the fringe is the only thing you see and the solid edge is on top.
9. Repeat, adding layers on top until you reach the desired height.
*If you used shorter strips of tape, flip the whole thing over and cover the empty spaces with tape. This adds strength and keeps the back from snagging on things.

PASTEL RAINBOW DASH PARTY STYLE SHEET

My littlest adores Rainbow Dash. The My Little Pony that is BLUE... that's the one for her. We don't watch the cartoons, but the toys don't sass, so they're allowed. As her 4th birthday approached, we knew we would be creating a rainbow party.

We've been to other rainbow parties and My Little Pony parties with a real pony to ride... but we of course wanted to make this party a wee bit new = PASTEL Rainbow Dash Party.

I'm over baking, so I ordered cupcakes once the color palette was decided. Then I started creating and purchasing items for the party favors. Because I work on several projects at the same time (a little bit here, a little bit there until it's finished), I was making decorations and party favor items for the next month or so. And the biggie, I made a pinata for this party. My first one. It was a 4. Aaaand it's smashed to smithereens now. That's a bit hard to watch ;)

PARTY FAVORS
White box with pastel yarn wrapped around and a name tag hot glued to the top of the box with each child's name. Contents: Pastel Pony, Pastel Mini Slinky, Ribbon Ring, Ribbon Barrett, Pastel Personalized Bracelets

FOOD
Fruit Skewers, Pastel Marshmallows, Marshmallow Pops, Cupcakes, Apple Juice

DECORATIONS
Rainbow Taped Wall, Dyed Bottles, Dyed Cake Pedestals, Pastel Paper Garlands and Drops, Name Banner, Crepe Paper Fringe

ACTIVITIES
Face Painting, Pinata

I'll pass along a few DIY projects and things soon.