Guest Post from Michelle of Delicate Construction

Hello Monkey See, Monkey Do readers!!! I am soooo happy to be here!!

My name is Michelle and my blog is called Delicate Construction! I am a wife, mommy, full time caregiver and teacher living in San Diego, California. I blog about crafts, family, decorating, and kids activities in various features and linky parties; Made by Little Hands Mondays for the kiddies and Delicately Constructed Fridays for the Mamas! I also love to share tips in one of my favorite weekly posts; 10 New Uses Tuesdays! I would love to have you come visit!! I am also always looking for guest bloggers for my Sunday feature and interviewees for my Seven on Saturdays!

But back to the crafting, it is why we all gathered here right?!

I am going to share a tutorial for my 'his' and 'hers' pillow cases I made as a kind of cheeky little joke...cause I am like that. 

 

Cute right?! It is funny because of the drastic differences in my husband and my pillows... can you tell now?

 

Do you see it?! My husband is a self proclaimed pillow SNOB. LOL. He likes the expensive plush, good for your posture blah blah blah and mine is flat and dilapidated. I think it has a lot to do the way we sleep, he sleeps on his back and does.not.move. I sleep on my stomach and I am surprised I don't end up down the street from how much I toss, turn and change position, a big pillow would just get in the way. So needless to say when, on the rare occasion our pillows get swapped, he is quick to switch them back so I thought I would give him a little laugh and make some new, labeled to avoid confusion, pillow cases. 

(did I mention sarcasm is my second language, even in sewing, because it is...just sayin' lol)

And here is how I did it:

Materials:

• Pillowcase (I made mine using this tutorial from Made)


• Letters (any template you have, I made mine from word art in Microsoft Word)


• Steam a Seam or other fusible webbing or iron on seam


• Scissors


• Sewing machine


• Iron


• Pen

Here is the starting pillowcase I made, you will want to take into consideration which way you like the openings, we put them both facing out, some do it facing the same way. It matters when you go to add the letters and which direction they are sewn on. 

Cut out your letters or use a pre-made template, in Microsoft Word there is word art that is just outlined block letters and I typed in my words, enlarged them and printed them out. 

Next, (this is dependent on what you use, I am following my package directions for the next couple of steps) trace your letters on the steam a seam BACKWARDS, also make sure this is the side that webbing is connected to on the underside.

Since mine fit on one page, I then cut them apart. 

Next, lay out your white fabric (or whatever you are using for the letters) FACE DOWN and iron it to warm it up. 

Then, peel off the underside of the paper and lay the webbing/ second paper that you traced on, on top of the fabric. 

Then, carefully cut out your letters once again with the fabric. 

Now, you are ready to iron them on but I found it difficult to eyeball it with the pillow case laid out flat so I turned it over and folded each edge to the center, kind of like bias tape.

Then, flip it over, this was much easier for me to eyeball the center for the placement of my letters.

Then, arrange them how you want,

and iron them down in place. 

Last, all you have to do is sew very close to the edge as best  you can, just to make sure everything stays in place. 

Now, they are all ready for a laugh! 

I will do a lot to make that hubby of mine chuckle. 

Thanks Jennifer, so much for having me today!! I really appreciate it!! I hope to see all of you over at my little corner of the internet soon!!

Baby Blanket with Double-Needle Stitching

Told you I've been in full baby-prep mode lately. We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl. We didn't know with our first baby either, but I made a bunch of girl things I never used. Unfortunately, they're in storage with most of our other household things, so I just had to make a girly blanket on the chance that the baby is a girl!

My mom picked out the fabric and I love it! I love elephants and I love pink and green together. I used a new-to-me technique to finish the edges and emphasize the pink and green colors--double needle stitching.

I used the tutorial found here. Here are some highlights from my own struggle with double-needle stitching.

First, take both colors of thread and put them on top of your machine. You'll probably need to wind one onto a bobbin to make them fit on the thread post. (Note: you only need ONE BOBBIN--just like normal--to use a double needle.) Also note, you need a double needle. I don't think I mentioned that. They're super cheap; mine came with the last set of needles I purchased for my machine.

Next, I just threaded the machine like normal, even though I had two threads. I separated them at the end to thread through either needle at the double needle point (does that make sense??)

It worked really well. For a while. This is the result toward the beginning:

Then I started to struggle. The threads became tangled and would often just get stuck. Each color broke at least once. I'd have to stop, cut the thread, unthread the whole thing, and then re-thread. I probably had to cut and rethread about 6 times. But I got through it!

This is what the double-needle looks like from the back:

I added a little ribbon tag to the edge of the blanket. I thought it would be cute.

My conclusion on the double-needle: I think I'm missing something when I thread the machine. I don't know what causes all the tangling, but it was frustrating. I will probably only use this technique on short seams until I can find some guidance.

I do love how the blanket turned out and am super excited to find out if I will be using it for a little girl! I will say that not knowing the baby's gender prior to birth saves me money but not time. I think I do twice as many sewing projects to prepare for either option.

Toddler Flag Shirt

I made this shirt from scraps and sewed it onto a hand-me-down shirt. It was a last-minute effort to make patriotic clothing my little guy to wear on the 4th of July. It only took me about a half hour to complete.

Guest Posts Wanted!

If anyone out there in blog land would like to submit a guest post for Monkey See, Monkey Do! during the month of August, that would be fantastic.

I'm due in less than two weeks with our second child and we're moving into our new house the first week of August...and I really don't want my blog to be empty! Contact me if you are interested.

Guest Post from Abby of GouldThreads

This post is from my friend Abby! She has a great tutorial to share with you today on making crocheted flowers. I love that you can use yarn scraps for her project! Make sure you check out her Etsy shop and Facebook sites. Not only is she fantastic, she has such cute pictures of babies & kids modeling her creations!

Hello! I'm Abby Gouldsbarry from GouldThreads. I'm thrilled to be a guest on Monkey See Monkey Do! Today I'm going to show you how to create adorable crocheted flowers. They are so cute and easy to make. I use mine to make girls hair clips but you can use them for homemade bookmarks, appliqués, decorations--you name it!

I first began crocheting in college with some friends and later taught myself how to knit as well. This winter I opened my Etsy shop and began to sell some of my creations. Some of the items that you will find in my shop include hats, accessories for boys and girls, and newborn photo props. I also take custom orders. I just LOVE making new items and always aim to please! You can find me on Facebook by searching for GouldThreads or visit my Etsy site at

http://www.gouldthreads.etsy.com/

Happy crocheting!!!

One of the great things about these flowers is that you can use just about any yarn and any size hook. You can use 1 color or 2. I am using 2 for this tutorial (MC-Yellow, CC-Pink). The MC will be for the center of the flower and the CC for the petals. For this tutorial I am using Red Heart Super Saver size 4 yarns and a G hook (4.25 mm). Bonus: This is a great way to use up some of your yarn scraps!

To make a flower of your own: Using MC (yellow in my picture) Chain 2. 5 SC into the 2nd chain from hook. SL ST to first SC. Switch to CC (pink in my pictures) and pull up a loop (see picture above).

Here is what it will look like once you have your CC on the hook. Notice how you have 4 tails hanging (2 MC and 2 CC). I like to pull the tail of the MC tight to secure the CC. Once the CC is secure you can cut the MC from its ball leaving a 1 or 2 inch tail hanging.

With CC, *SL ST to next stitch. Chain 2. 2 DC in same stitch (I DC over the tail of MC that I just cut and the CC). SL ST again in same stitch. It should look like the above picture.

Repeat from *4 times for a total of 5 petals.

SL ST to bottom of first petal. Fasten off and weave in loose ends. TA-DA! That's it. What a simple and sweet little flower.

I like to use my flowers to make hair clips like the ones sold here on my Etsy site.

Here is a bookmark that I made using a crocheted flower and heavy cardstock! I just used a glue gun to adhere the flower to the cardstock. What a simple and unique gift!

Thanks for reading and trying out my tutorial!

Please remember to check out my sites on Facebook and Etsy!