Tutu Bow Holder Tutorial

So my little one has a plethora of bows, and the little bow holder I made her when she was born was getting too small. I wanted something super cute, so I went with the one that looks like an adorable tutu. You can find these on Etsy for somewhere between $45 and $60, but if you already have the basics (hot glue gun, scissors,etc) then this little project should only cost you about $20. So with that, here's what you'll need:

• 1/2 yard to 3/4 yard fabric (depending on how big your bodice will be)
• Batting
• Scissors
• 6 yards tulle
• Hot glue gun
• Ribbon of your choice (for a list of the ones I used, scroll to the bottom)
• Cardboard

I read through some tutorials before I started, but they all made this seem way more complicated than it is, so I'm trying to keep this simple. First you'll want to decide how you'll want your completed bow holder to look. I suggest that you don't go to the craft store to buy your ribbon and tulle until you have decided on a design, because if you're like me you'll come out of Hobby Lobby with five different projects in your cart. I drew a quick messy pick of how I wanted it to look and headed out to buy everything.

The first thing you'll want to do is draw the template for your bodice. Fold a piece of paper lengthwise, draw and cut.

Trace your bodice out on the cardboard twice, cut and hot glue together. You'll want to double up on the cardboard because without doubling your bodice might start to bend over time.

Hot glue a sheet of your batting to the front of your cardboard bodice and cut the excess. Hot glue one more sheet of batting to double up the batting and once again, cut the excess.

Now for attaching the fabric - definitely the hardest part. If you get through this, you're good. Lay your bodice over the fabric to see where you want the fabric to lay, especially if your fabric has a pattern. Mine had the damask, so I wanted it to be centered perfectly. Next cut out your fabric with excess on all sides. You can use a fabric pen to trace around, but I just held the bodice in place and cut.

Place the bodice on the backside of the fabric with the batting face down. Start cutting slits on all curves - basically everything minus the bottom and the tops of the shoulders of the bodice. This part is not easy, but if you pull and check as you go, you'll be ok. Don't cut to far, or the slits will bleed through to the front, but you'll see that if they're too short the fabric won't fold up and over the the back properly. Hot glue as you go, while pulling tight - the neck is where you'll definitely glue your fingers together =] Simply fold the excess on the shoulders and bottom and hot glue.

Yay - now we're on to the tulle. You'll need to get the tulle by the yard instead of the 6 inch rolls that you would use for regular tutus. The tulle comes folded, leave it folded. Bunch up the tulle and tie with 1/8 ribbon, measure and cut (I do mine about 20 inches long). Repeat until you have enough for the tutu part. I did 4 white and 5 pink strands.

Next glue your tulle to the bottom of the bodice, making the two outermost strands on each side tilt slightly out.

Next get your ribbon that will actually hold the bows. You won't want to get chincy with the ribbon you get for this - get good quality grossgrain riboon. As you can see in the top left corner of the above picture, mine are all glued and ready to be glued to the tutu. I used the 5/8 inch pink glued to the 1 and 1/2 damask ribbon. I did three of each of these, however, you could also use a 3/4 ribbon and do 5 strands.

Once you have your bow holder ribbons glued on, glue a piece of 1 and 1/2 double faced satin ribbon over the tops of the tulle and ribbon at the bottom of the bodice. (Sorry - I got a picture of this step and my daughter deleted it) Finish up the final touches - any bows or flowers that you'll want to place on the bodice or tutu. Also, cut a piece of ribbon to glue to the shoulders to use as a hanger. I did two bows at the bottom of the bodice and one on the top left. At the very end I also cut and glued a piece of felt to the back of the bodice, just so it covered up all the cardboard and glued ends.

And that's it! All done and beautiful! Below are some extra tips and tricks as well as the ribbon that I used on my bow holder.

Ribbon I used:

• 1 and 1/2 inch Grossgrain (damask)
• 5/8 inch grossgrain (pink polka dot)
• 1 and 1/2 double faced satin (black)

Tips & Tricks:

• Get a newish glue gun. I have a newer one (really cheap that I got at Hobby Lobby) it works really well, but halfway through I ran out of glue and had to use my mother's glue gun from like the 70s - they get super hot and I burned my fingers like crazy because the glue got so darn hot.
• Make sure all your tulle is the same length after it's glued to the bodice. The easiest way to do this is to sit on the bodice, pull the tulle with your hands, bunch it all together at the ends and cut away.
• Have Fun!

St. Patty's Day Treats

I've been totally sick and out of commission since Sunday, but I came back to the land of the living just in time to do my Saint Patrick's Day treats. The hubby was helping my brother-in-law move last night, so when I got home from work I had the rest of the night to finish these beauties. I couldn't decide between making cake pops or cupcakes, so I did both, and the only casualty was my pointer finger that was badly burned on an oven grate. Good times.

I decided on doing a green velvet cake with cream cheese frosting for both my Shamrock Cupcakes and Pot of Gold Cake Pops. Here we go.

I bought cake mix and ready made frosting, but when I got home I just decided to do everything from scratch since I would have the time. When I make red velvet cake I always use Martha Stewart's recipe because it always comes out moist, light and deliciously perfect. Other recipes I've tried have left my cupcakes dense and dry, so I stick with Martha. You can find her recipe here

Of course since this is for Saint Patty's Day I used green food coloring instead of red. And yes, you'll need the whole bottle, so pour it all in.

So after mixing up my batter, I poured half into a 9 inch round cake pan and poured the rest into cupcake tins. Her recipe says to bake for 20 minutes, but everytime I've done it, it's taken more like 25. I pulled everything out to let it cool and started on my cream cheese frosting. I also use Martha's recipe, which can be found as a link at the bottom of her red velvet cupcakes recipe I posted the link to. Once my frosting was all ready, I dumped the 9 inch round cake into a mixing bowl and began crumbling it. I started mixing in some of the cream cheese frosting, you'll know when you've got the perfect ratio of cake to frosting. I started rolling them into balls and placed them on parchment paper. I heated up some of the green coating chocolate, dipped the cake pops sticks in and stuck them about half way into the cake balls. I threw them into the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes, so while they were chilling, I piped my cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes and topped with shamrock sprinkles. Adorable and done.

I was afraid of the cake pops coming off of the sticks while dipping them in, so I took each cake pop out of the freezer one by one. It about killed my back since my freezer is on the bottom of my fridge, but oh well, no cake pops fell to their death, so I guess it was worth it. I put the cake pops upside down on parchment paper so they would get that little lip, making it look like a pot. I let them all dry and then brushed on a little extra coating chocolate on the top of the "pot" so my gold sprinkles would stick and I am quite pleased with the results.

St. Patty's Day treats - check. And they were delicious. The cupcakes were moist and fluffy and the cake pops were pretty much to die for. I took them to a family dinner at my mom's house and they were a total hit. Yum!

Shampoo, Lotion, and Soap, Oh My!

The entire time I was pregnant I swore up and down that my child would never be allowed to sleep in my bed. Fast forward 19 months and here we are with a little one sleeping in between us every night, that was up until three nights ago. Halllujah.

And how did I do it? Let her scream it out for three nights? No, although I'm not denying it might have had to come to that. A week ago I switched her from the all-glorified Johnson and Johnson baby products to California Baby, and that is just too big of a coincidence to refute.

She's never had major skin problems like exzema or weird rashes, but she has scratched herself up pretty badly. I really could not figure it out because I used the right detergent for her and didn't even think her soap might be doing it. I realized that all night she would be scratching her arms, right above her diaper and all around her neck. The doctor noticed how bad it was getting at her last appointment and suggested that I get the hypoalergenic Johnson & Johnson products, however when I started to basic research I found other kids that had the same problems.

I picked up some California Baby Calming Shampoo and Body Wash at Target. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty expensive, but hey anything that's going to make my princess feel better is all worth it.



While I was at it, I also picked up the Calming lotion as well. She's been bathing with it everyday and I lotion her up about twice a day. Even though the smell isn't as enticing as Johnson & Johnson lotions, it's still pretty glorious smelling. It has made all the difference and it was totally worth the price. She is no longer scratching and PRAISE JESUS, she is sleeping in her own bed all night; once again I say Hallelujah!

Honestly I had never linked the two concepts in my brain. I thought she just needed to be with us every night or she really liked our super comfy mattress better than hers. Either way, we are all sleeping beautifully now. Thanks California Baby!

What the heck is this blog anyway?

Hello there! You've stumbled upon the ramblings of me - Stacy. I am a wife to the most amazing guy, a mother to a precious little girl and I love to write about the things I love and the things I enjoy doing. I live in a small hick town, work full time, youth pastor and lead worship part time and in my minute spare time I like to craft, bake, read and shop. So on this blog you'll find lots of stuff about all of those things - enjoy!

Xoxo
Stacy