My first Zipper Project

A few weeks ago I posted about my zipper fails, but I never posted my final project!

I am NOT going to even post a how to make a little make up bag like this!!!! If you want to make one check out Pinterest, there are lots of great ideas on there!!

Because after all remember how this was a major fail sewing in the zipper!!! 

BUT I was happy with how it turned out. I gave this to my sister for her birthday and asked for an update if it was holding up, but she said she had not used it yet. So hopefully it holds up for her!!

I love gray and yellow together and this fun yellow pattern seemed like the perfect pattern for the inside of this little chevron printed pouch!

I have to admit I am sort of excited to give the zipper a second chance.... when I every have time!!! Even though this took WAY longer than it should have, I am so happy with how it turned out!!

How NOT to sew a zipper

3 hours before I was supposed to be at my parent's house for my sister's birthday get together I decided I should start sewing the little zipper pouch I was going to give her. (I would have started earlier but was dealing with a toddler who did not want to sleep in his new big boy bed....) This was my first time sewing a zipper EVER!!! I figured how hard could it be, I could figure it out by myself.....

My how NOT to sew a zipper!!!!

1. Don't try to teach yourself how to sew a zipper 3 hours before you need the item finished.

2. Don't try and teach yourself how to sew a zipper when you are already slightly stressed.... (taking 3 hours to get a toddler to take a nap....)

3. READ the directions on your sewing machine, the instructions that came with your zipper and maybe a few tutorials online!!!!

Don't ignore these directions!!! They are ACTUALLY useful!

4. Maybe an Invisible Zipper is not the place to start? It's were I started and it was a PAIN in the a$$!!!! Having only sewed one zipper I don't know if a regular zipper is easier, but it would have to be!!!!

5. When sewing an invisible zipper and using your invisible zipper foot, UNZIP the zipper. If you put the zipped up zipper through the foot bad things will happen.... (broken needle, jammed machine, lots of extra thread and just a whole big mess) Worst part, I think I tried this like 5 times and could not figure out why it would not work!!! Then I had a DUH moment.... I unzipped the zipper and it worked a whole lot better!!!!

Unzip your zipper!!! Or you will have a mess!!

Opps, I broke a needle, because I didn't unzip the zipper!

6. Even though at this point it might look pretty, when you have one side of your zipper sewed in place, its probably a good idea to test the zipper and make sure it zips... or you will be back at step 3 like I was.

Looks good, but does it work? NOPE!

7. READ the directions or you will be using your seam ripper a lot!! This was the first time I ripped the seam out on what I thought was a completed side only to have to get out my iron. I failed to read the step on the zipper directions telling me to iron my zipper..... 

My seam ripper was my friend.... or enemy, either way it was used too much!

Started over again!

8. Re-pin and PRAY PRAY PRAY that this time it will work!!!! And again test the side to make sure it actually zips!!! When it does, do a happy dance!!!!!! Sewing a zipper is easy right???

Sewed over the zipper, this time the seam ripper fixed it!

9. NOPE! Side two does not cooperate, and then its time to trouble shoot again.... 

I finally sewed my zipper, and man was in a pain!!! I wasted so much thread, broke one needle, had the needle pop out several times, used my seam ripper way too many times.... but I did it!!!

My mess!

I am confidant the next time can't be as bad!!!! BUT if I had read the directions and not just tried to figure it out myself I think I might have saved myself a bit of stress, (plus the unrealistic timeline for how long it would take and already being stressed)

I would love to share an actual tutorial on how to sew a zipper, but trust me Google it and find an expert on the subject :) 

And my finished product ACTUALLY looks pretty good!!! I will save that post for another day!! And with all of my hard work I kind of don't want to give it away... or I could make myself a second one, for practice of course!

Epic Room Makeover

I desperately need to win the Epic Room Makeover and Mandi's  help to make our living room an awesome functional room in our house!!! We have lived in our house for almost two years and its been pretty much empty the entire time.... AND of course it's the first room you see when you walk into our house, talk about embarrassing!!! I took the week off that we bought our house and the Monday I went back to work, I lost my job. Talk about stressful with a new mortgage, so it's left little in the budget for major decorating... or FURNITURE!!

The room is a blank slate for creativity!!! Look at this:

• No window coverings what so ever!
• A train table is pretty much the only piece of furniture in the room (not that my two year old minds that) 
• No over head lighting makes for a pretty dark room
• A confused lamp shade
• Seating is two ottomans.... that were moved from the family room because someone thought they were good for jumping on

Two comfy seating options!!

For my son's birthday party (in April) I painted clouds on the wall. They are still there with gray spots and red lines..... (I thought I would paint the wall right away, so it wasn't going to be a big deal)

My big clock and entry table. But again more messed up painting!!!

One of the BIG reason's this room has stayed empty since we moved in, is that it is right next to our "Family Room"(they are connected) and so this room is the room where we have our small couch and chair, and the TV. AND MORE TOYS.... if you can't tell my son has taken over the house!!! So because of the two rooms being right next to each other, I am not sure how to decorate the first room.... a "formal" living room??? (And by formal I think only a room with out a TV :) ) Some day I would not mind tearing down more of the wall that sepeates the two rooms and making more of a single room.

Our Family Room is not without problems though..... We had friends over stay with us for the weekend and our small couch and soon to be broken chair are not enough to sit 4 people, let alone when it's just my husband and I we can't both recline and lay down for TV watching.....

Too small of a couch...... and as our main couch it's really getting abused..... AND it's a sleeper sofa.... I am tempted to be really classy and use it as a sleeper in our Family room.... classy, right?

Tears in the leather that I try and cover with a blanket.....

I REALLY need this makeover!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE projects and know I would have tons of fun with Mandi and learn a lot from her!!!! We are hosting a Christmas party this Christmas and I would LOVE to not have an incomplete first floor this time around!!

Pluses to why I should be picked:

1. It's a blank slate!!!! Besides the train table, there is NOTHING in this room!!! = no prep work!!!
2. I am in desperate need to figure out what to do with this room and need the motivation to get it done!
3. I love color and patterns and love Mandi's style and would love to learn from the best!!! AND I WANT IT IN MY LIVING ROOM!!!
4. Without help it's going to take me at least five years to turn this into a living space
5. I NEVER win anything and this would make my YEAR!!! 
6. Living with two "boys" I need some alone time where I can relax... and let's face it the boys won't leave the TV so this would be my quiet space!!!!

Silhouette Craft Fail

I don't have a lot of craft fails with my Silhouette Cameo when I use paper.... but this time that was not the case... This was my fault in that I did not press the paper down enough onto the craft mat. One more run in and my project cut just fine!

St. Patrick's Day Onesie Vest and Bow Tie

I am on my 3rd try on this project! And it's going to work this time, right? My fails first!!

My first try! I made my vest sides - even sewed a nice white liner on the back! BUT my template was way off and these don't fit on a onesie. I am still trying to figure out something to do with these. I could try and turn them into an actual vest...

V2, I again lined my vest and this time we made it past the is it going to fit the onesie. It did! BUT I had a major fail on the sewing it to the onesie phase.... It was looking SO horrible!!

I even made a fake pocket for this one!
And THIS is what happens to a onesie when you try and remove the stitching. (Or at least what happens to me when I try and remove the stitching!!!)

So 3rd time is the charm, right? So this time I did NOT line my vest. I spent a significant amount of time creating my template for my vest. I used the onesies as a pattern. This time I used my new favorite friend - Wonder Under. I ironed the material using the directions on the package and then traced my template and cut it out!

My two sides of the vest....
The most important part.... is it going to fit on the onesie.... IT DOES!!! V1 passed!
Then I ironed the pieces together. And it still all fit together so well!!

I then debated for a while if I should attempt to sew the outline of this again.... Since it was working out, I did not want to ruin yet another....

I ended up sewing around the boarder of the vest. I took my time and was very slow and it worked this time!! You can't REALLY see this in the picture, but its there!! And it looks fabulous. I started to sew on 3 buttons, but decided that since this was for a newborn, I did not want to risk the button falling off...... so no buttons!

I then made and attached a Little Man Bow Tie to the top of the onesies.

Seriously can you believe it took my THAT long to make this onesie!!! But I love it and am so happy with how it turned out!!! This one is actually a gift, so I do still have to figure out if I am going to make my little man one like this or try and fix / use version 1!!

Craft FAIL to a fancy Silhouette design!

Before Valentines day I wanted to make a stencil for a heart shaped chevron pillow. Well the pillow was a huge CRAFT FAIL!!! But as I was removing the extra chevron pattern vinyl I decided I could not throw away all of that cute chevron cut vinyl..... (see previous posts on craft hoarding....) WELL that pillow craft fail turned into a new fancy design for my Silhouette Cameo!!

Isn't she so pretty! I just took my vinyl and directly attached it to the top of the Cameo.

Not my night!

Tonight has just been one crafting fail after another!!

I still have a love HATE relationship with my Silhouette Cameo. It has a mind of its own, and I am thinking that is how its going to be. I have learned tonight not to cut vinyl with very skinny letters and expect to stencil with them... ... my word became a jumbled mess. Most of the time I can't get the transfer paper to work and am finding it works better to NOT use it.... but again that's a hit or a miss....


My fault - not the Silhouette's fault - but I removed the portion I wanted to keep instead of the stuff I didn't want to keep... I am saving this, it might come in handy in the future, but it's not going to work for what I want it too now...

You can't really tell in this picture but I can't even sew a straight curved line right!

Then to top it off, I got paint on my laptop!

Tomorrow it will all work out and I am sure I can salvage most of these projects, but isn't it frustrating when it seems like none of your brilliant ideas want to work out the way they should???

Cutting Vinyl with the Silhouette Cameo

I was so excited, I ordered my very first cutting machine on Black Friday from Silhouette. I got the Cameo at a nice discounted Black Friday price! I was so excited for it to arrive because of all of the fabulous projects I saw out in blogland that I could not wait to try!!

Once it arrived I was sort of at a stand still, what would be my first project?? So many things to make, so little time, and to be honest the machine was a bit intimidating! And I am a crafty (previously worked for a major Crafting company), creative AND computer literate person! (I have a minor in Computer Science - little known, un-shared, nerdy fact about me!!)

I have now used my Silhouette Cameo a few times, so I am by no means an expert, and I still have no clue what would be a GOOD first timer project... Maybe printing some nice Holiday gift tags or something nice and easy with cardstock, because the manual you get with your Cameo does a nice job of explaining how to cut with cardstock. But I decided my first project would be to make a canvas vinyl board, because lets be honest that's why you get the Silhouette Cameo or any cutting machine in the first place!!!

I decided with help from my sister to make a board with the saying "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas". I designed it in Silhouette Studio (the easy part, and again pretty detailed in the start up manual information.

Then came the hard part, cutting the vinyl. I think I now have it all figured out, but it took WAY too much time, that I don't have with a toddler running around the house!

Setting up the Silhouette

First a huge step I missed for the longest time: Adjusting the Rollers for Smaller Media. I figured I was cutting 12" vinyl, I did not have to do any adjusting, but yes you do. The machine comes set up for cutting 13" to adjust for the extra inch on the cutting mat! So refer to page 8 of the Getting started with your silhouette Cameo to see how to do this.

Loading the vinyl takes a bit of adjusting because I always seem to get it bunched up a bit, so I have found starting with a straight cut helps. Line the vinyl up to the rollers and on your control panel of your Cameo use the arrow to select down to Load Media. Then hit the enter key on your Cameo. Make sure the vinyl is straight within the rollers as well.

Then follow the directions on cutting with your machine within the silhouette studio and HOPEFULLY it should cut your vinyl! Make sure to un-select cutting mat so it adjusts for the lack of thickness of the cutting mat. It says to use a blade thickness of 1, but I found 2 works better. I was having trouble with my blade not cutting well so maybe now that the new one is broken in a bit I will switch it back to 1 to see if it still works well.

Even after I thought I had this all figured out it still doesn't work perfectly. I was cutting a longer saying, and half way through it just stopped cutting it. I am not sure why but I finally got my saying cut after a few tries.

In my several communications to Silhouette I suggested they revise their printed materials that are included with the machine. So hopefully they listen to my suggestion, because this was really frustrating to figure out! They were very helpful, but I feel that if I am trying to do something that my product is advertised to do and I need to call the help line to figure out how to do it, there is a problem.

Like I said not an expert, and maybe I should have become an expert on cutting paper before trying vinyl... I cringe to think about how much fun cutting fabric or other different media is going to be!! But hopefully this can help someone else not waste and entire new role of vinyl trying to figure this out!!!

I am still working on the finishing touches of my first Silhouette Cameo project and will post it when it is finished!

Was this helpful, did I miss something important?

A FEW MORE THINGS - Added Feb. 1

So I have had my Cameo for 2 months now, and I am still by no means an expert!! I still have had times where I completely messed up my project using vinyl.

A few things I have learned:

1. Go and buy some contact paper from the store. I bought a clear roll from Target for something like 5 bucks. I just recently did this, and should have a while ago since so far I have only used vinyl as a stencil and throw it away. The contact paper has worked just as well and is much cheaper!! NOTE: make sure to put the right side up when you cut it, I didn't the first time and had to do another round of cutting! Opps...
2. Buy Freezer Paper! I still have not done this, but its supposed to work really well as a stencil on fabric! I have used vinyl on fabric before. The first time it worked REALLY well. The second time not so well... Google the Freezer Paper idea and check it out. AGAIN a money saver and you are not wasting your expensive vinyl.
3. Don't try and cut a "skinny" font! I tried to cut a very fancy, scroll font and it tore the entire thing. Maybe there is a way to cut a thin scroll font with vinyl... but I have yet to figure that out... and again wasted some precious vinyl!
4. Smaller sections work better than one large section. Pretty self explanatory!
5. Sometimes the transfer paper just doesn't help!! I am starting to find that if you are using the vinyl as a stencil it almost works better to not use the transfer paper and to just lift the vinyl from the backing and re-position it by hand on your background. Be careful not too stick the pieces together... and again the smaller sections work better.

That's all I have for now.... here's to fabulous projects with the Silhouette Cameo!

See all of the projects I have made using my Silhouette Cameo here. 

My Guest Room Fails

I have been working on my guest room for a while and I am not loving it!

I like the star burst mirrors but (besides it falling apart) I was not happy with how mine turned out! It needs a lot more. I also really liked the look at the CB2 cube shelves and was so excited when I found them at Target in black. So I bought 4 packs of them and painted them all white. Then I realized how difficult they were to hang. Combined with my DIY canvas art, I am not loving this wall.
Then, I spent a while using the new Martha Stewart stencils to update this IKEA lack shelf (that I spray painted gray). I again, don't love it. It took a lot of time, but I think the yellow paint is too bright even though it color matches the bed spread with the combo of the pattern.
Lastly, I love my glass lamp with the shade I covered in a gray fabric.... but....
I forgot to think about how you will be able to see the edge of it, and did not hot glue the inside nice enough and with a straight line.... so it does not look nice when you look at it!
Oh and I accidentally touched the hot glue when redoing the lamp shade. Now I have a nice welt on my finger that 4 hours later still hurts!
I have plans to redo the star burst mirror and change my art work out. I am looking for a new night stand but have not found what I want yet. I am hoping version 2 of my guest room will turn out closer to how I envision it in my mind!