Prairie Bonnet Tutorial

Hello,

It's been an unusual, but enjoyable and full summer. We have had so much company and have been away quite a lot. My husband has been at his job for years and has a lot of vacation time to use. While my son and his family were here, his daughter asked me to make her a 'prairie bonnet.' As she is only six years old, I thought it a strange request, but I guess it's because they watch Little House on the Prairie. I was more than happy to oblige and actually made her one right away, which she has taken home now--but I promised I would make her another one that was more in the fabric style of the era.

There are not many free patterns available for a prairie bonnet online, but this is the one everyone seems to be having good luck with.

I used a pattern by Given Moments. She gives you the measurements she used, so you have to draw it up yourself. Here is mine for reference. I cut out rectangles for both first, and drew in the curves freehand. It's easier than you think, and if you use a pencil, you really can't go wrong.

The crown piece is 7 inches by 14 inches. (fold on long side). You cut one.

The band is 3 1/2 inches by 7 inches. (fold on short end). You cut two plus the interfacing.
(I used a medium weight fusible interfacing)

The ties are 2 inches by 18 inches. You cut two.

Cut an 8 inch piece of 1/4" elastic for neck portion.

My next step was to iron the interfacing onto the backside of one of the band pieces. 

Then I ironed a seam on both pieces of the band and pinned them face to face, before doing any sewing - as seen below. This is a step that will save you time later and make it easier. 

Next I sewed along the curve of the band, clipped the curved portion and pressed it. Do not do your top stitching yet.

Next let's move onto the hat piece. 

I ironed a seam in place along the straight bottom piece. I folded this one twice as it will be a casing for an elastic band. I folded it about 1/2 inch twice, so an inch altogether. The seam folds were about a 1/2 inch each fold.

Next I sewed two lines of long stitches from the bottom to around the curve of the hat so I could gather it later. You can do just one line if you want, but I did two. Be careful not to sew over the casing. 

I then sewed the casing at the top of the fold, about an 1/8 of an inch in.

One of the things I did differently was to use the whole bottom of the hat as a casing for an 8 inch elastic so that the whole neck part was gathered with an elastic. It was easier for me to do it this way and it looked neater and made for a nicer fit, in my opinion. 

Once the elastic was part way in, I tacked it in place on one end and proceeded to pull it the rest of the way through, tacking it in place with a few stitches at the other end as well.

Both ends done.

Now I was ready to gather the curved part of the hat. The gathered curve of the hat will need to match the opening of the band. 

Like so......

Pin the band onto the hat, or rather, pin the gathered curved portion of the hat in between the seams you created on the band with the iron earlier. You will have to play with the gathers a bit and make it all fit right, but it's not hard, just a bit finicky.

Then stitch it all in place. As you can see, the stitch line is close to the seam, just make sure before sewing that the front and back of the band line up well. I did two lines of stitching here too. 

Top stitch the curve of the band at this point. It gives a nice finished look. 

Now you're ready to do the ties. As you can see below, I've also ironed the seams on both ends here. It's much easier to do that at this point than later.

Now fold each one lengthwise, right sides together and stitch along the long edge. It's kind of hard to see, but you can see the start of the stitching on the seam in the photo. Turn them inside out. Finger press, iron and stitch along the edges of all sides of the tie. 

When that is done, you can sew one end of the tie onto the band. Check placement below. Make sure that the band is overtop the tie (the tie is sewn on the inside of the band). I just stitched over the stitching that was already in place and made sure I went over it a couple of time to hold the ties in place well.

It should look like this:

Here is the finished product. I'm using a ladies size foam head, so it's a bit tighter. 

A close up of the neck portion for the inquisitive.

Okay, that's about it. I hope that my instructions are fairly clear for you. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have them.

If you do use this tutorial, please remember to thank Sara over at Given Moments. She is the one that drew up the original pattern for all of us to enjoy. I just wanted to show you how I put it together.

Have a great day! 

Blessings, 

Carmen

Rice Bag Eye Pillows

Hello,

My sister in law called me the other day and said "remember those eye pads you made for me about 20 plus years ago?" I didn't...but when she had sent me a picture, things began to get a little clearer and I vaguely remembered. So I looked up a pattern and made some more. 

These are kind of great because you can put these in the microwave (1-3 minutes), or the freezer. I prefer to make the rice bag removable so that my outer shell can be of any material. I used 100% cotton for the rice bag. 

They don't look like much, but hey, they work great! Wonderful for sore eyes, headaches, or even for swollen or sore body parts. You can easily make these larger and in a different shape.

This photo is showing you that I used velcro to close the top of the eye mask so that the rice bag can be removed to be heated or cooled. Notice those clips? Expensive little things, but so worth buying the good ones! 

Here they are ready to go. The white rice bags still have to be filled with rice at this point! 

I think I used 1/2 to 2/3 cup of rice in each. You will have to decide how much you want to use. You can use flax and you can also add herbs or essential oils. 

If you'd like the pillow pattern I used, click on this link to Sew4Home. I would suggest that you leave the top of the pillow flush if you'd like to use velcro to open and close it. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Blessings, 

Carmen

Father's Day Cards 2019

I love going to Craft Garage Sales! Where else can you get gently used card making supplies for a fraction of the cost? I picked up some Stampscape stamps for ridiculously cheap money, and lots of other items. For someone who really doesn't like shopping, I had so much fun!

It's Father's Day this weekend, so I thought I'd make some cards with a motorcycle stamp set I picked up there as well. These were simple cards since I was stretched for time. I'm hoping they get there before the weekend. 

The first two are very similar. I just want to point out the little wrench brads on the sentiments. Both of these were made using the same paper pack as well. 

The third card is a bit different. I used a Bo-Bunny black and white paper pad, a few black brads, and a couple of silver wrench brads. I did up the sentiment digi myself...it's easier than finding one. There's nothing really special about the sentiment - it's simple and that's what I wanted.

Well, that's all folks, have a great Father's Day! 

Blessings, 

Carmen

Using Up Cardstock Leftovers

Hello,

I started a new category under 'Cards & Tags' on Pinterest called 'Cardstock, Use It Up!' It's kind of nice to use up leftover cardstock in a card. Here are a few of my pins to show some fun ideas! 

Paper Crafter's Library had this card to offer. I see about five different cardstock being used here! 

This one is on Splitcoast Stampers, made by Kylie Purtell. I love this card because it looks so elegant. You can add stitching instead of the spaces, or use ink.

I like the technique used in the following card. She has used circles of cardstock, glued them down and then used an embossing folder on it. This was made by Yellow Bear Stamping.

Here's a cute one from  As the Ink Dries, using a butterfly punch. Unfortunately, when this card was originally pinned, it wasn't pinned to the actual page, but I did leave a link to the blog. 

This is actually one of my pet peeves. You have to go to the actual post on a blog in order to link it properly. Most people just link to the blog home page, which changes every time they make a post.

This next one comes from an Australian blog called CCundy that has been removed, but the card is still on Pinterest. This card would be great to make for people who love to play with inks and have leftovers lying around. I thought this was a great idea and I may make a couple of these cards myself to have around. I will have to splatter a bit of acrylic paint on them because that's kind of what I like about these. Cute right?

Well, head on over to Pinterest and see if there's any more you can find. It's a fun way to use up leftovers! 

My Pinterest

Have a great week, 

Blessings, 

Carmen

Easter = New Life!

It's almost Easter!

I have family coming for Easter dinner this weekend, so I wanted to make something to put at each place setting. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on stuff like that, and I'm not really into the bunny thing. I love bunnies, but I wanted to focus more on the meaning of Easter being new life. So I went to my trusty Pinterest and found a cute idea. 

I went to the Dollar store and found some little peat pots, some chocolate eggs and some Easter grass. It cost me about $5.00. I had the bakers twine and glue at home. 

I trimmed the top of the pots then turned the pots upside down and put a bead of glue around the rim of the pot. I just tied the bakers twine around it, making sure it sat in the glue and let it dry. Then made a bow. 

Turn them right side up, add the grass and the eggs and walla! 

I could have put another egg in them, but I ran out. I may just pick up some little chicks and add one to each pot. 

I would say that's representative of new life! 

Well, have a great week,

Blessings,

Carmen