OoTD: Great Love

Psalm 89:1-2 reads:

"I will sing of the Lord's great love forever;

with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

I will declare that your love stands firm forever,

that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself."

This day I put on great love. Not because of my ability to love immersely, but because God loved me first!

And I wanted to share that love with you. He loves through "thick and thin" (as our society ikes to say).

He is faithful through my successes AND my failures. He sticks around and LOVES me when I'm a brat  to my parents, I resent someone, or I'm unforgiving. He loves me through my unfaithfulness, because He is faithful to his love for me AAAND YOU!

Sweater is from American Eagle, necklace from icing, velvet pants Vera Wang (kohl's).. And I don't remember where I got the lace tank top

Lace booties are from Urban Outfitters (got them 3 or 4 years ago) and the leg warders are DIY from a sweater and some gold buttons!

I made this headband last year.

I am no professional knitter, but I remember making a 12 stitch wide headband by whatever fit around my head. I made the bow in the same manner: a rectangle of 14 (purl?) stitches by about 45 rows (I wanted to make the bow slightly wider than the headband) .. the rectangle ended up being 20" by 10". I attached both of them with a narrower strip (12 stitches wide by 9 rows) which is stretched a lot and I also used a narrower needle to make it. I used a size 8 or 10 needle for the rest of the headband.. Sorry for the unprofessional tutorial, but I don't remember exactly what I did!

Honestly, I don't think there's a wrong way to make a bow headband because you can make the bow as big or little as you want!

Have a great day :D

Tutorial: DIY fabric flowers

Today I wanted to share a little tutorial on fabric flowers.

These are the flowers you will be learning how to make. I will be using these in another tutorial (for a garter!!) But I wanted to make a separate post you can reference.

Get your supplies..

Start with a square as big as you want your flowers to be (mine is 2")

Fold in half once

And again

And once more

Once you have your triangle, cut one, 2 or three curves like so..

I did one and two curves to show you the different looks you will get.

Open them up and that's what they look like

Fold them 3 or 4 times and you will get different looks (fullness).

Now just attach them from the corners using glue or a needle and thread (I usually string about 6 petals together, and then secure them in the place with some more stitches).

Here's a few of the ones I made and how I made them

Number 1: It took 5 organza petals (3" squares), and a ruffle of lace underneath. I also added some gold beads

Number 2: 1 small flower of 6 ivory petals (2" square), 3 petals of organza (2.5" squares), 1 layer of lace trim ruffled, 5 petals of ivory fabric (3.5" squares).

Number 3: 10 ivory ruffles (2" squares)

Number 4: 6 ivory ruffles and 4 organza ones (2" squares)

Imagine the endless possiblities for these. You could attach them to a headband for that adorable niece (or for yourself). Think belts, "bows" for christmas presents, brooches..

Stay in tune for another fabric flower tutorial! And a tutorial on how I used these for my garter :)

God bless,

 Aranza

DIY: Lace Skirt Tutorial

Hello everyone!

So a while back I found this picture and this picture on Pinterest

and I fell in love with the crochet skirt (And have been looking for a skirt like that for a couple of years now...)

Then I found this other picture of a skirt made out of LACE and I thought to myself.. "hey! I can do that!"

So here is my little tutorial (which, by the way, was written about 2 years ago):

You will need:

-Enough lace and fabric of your choice (for the underlinning) to go around your booty (and a couple of extra inches for seam allowances).. My measurement is 38", so I got 1 yard of both fabrics

-Enough elastic to go around your waist (or wherever you want the skirt to sit) (I used about 28" of 3/4" wide elastic)

-Thread!

PREWASH YOUR FABRIC!!!

Steps:

1- Measure around your hips (largest part of your butty) and write it down somewhere. (Mine 38")

2- Cut 2 rectangles of the lace (Making sure you dont cut the pretty edge because that's gonna be your "hem"). The rectangle should measure==> Desired Leght (+ 2inches for the elastic on top and hem on the underlining) x width (hips measurement + 1' for seam)

3- Cut 2 rectangles of the underlinning fabric with those same measurements

4- Hem the "bottom" of both rectangles of the underlinning fabric (we will do this before attaching them to each other!) by folding it 1/4" and then again 1/4" (That means you reduced the length of the underlining by 1/2" and the pretty lace edge will be 1/2" longer that the underlining)

5- Place one rectangle of lace on top of one rectange of the underliningfabric and topstitch the sides. Repreat with the other two rectangles. Make sure they lay flat, and that the lace pretty edge is about 1/2" longer than the alrady hemmed undelinning edge. Iron seams.

6- With the lace facing right sides together sew all four rectangles together on both sides (pin beforehand, trust me, you will want to pin EVERY step of the way when working with lace!) with 1/2" seam on either side. Press seams. This will create the "tube" form

7- Topstitch all around the top of the skirt (cut any fabric exess/unevenness). Then fold the top of the skirt 1/4" and topstitch. (Or if you are lazy like me use a hem presser foot)

8- Fold again 1 inch (or however wide your elastic is +1/4 inch) and sew over the first set of stitches.. Make sure to leave an opening on one side (to insert the elastic)!!

8- Insert the elastic through the opening with a safety pin.

9- Place one edge of the elastic on top of the other (forming a circle) and then sew the overlaping area with a zig-zag stitch 

10- Hide elastic and sew the opening shut.

And you are done!!!

You have made a brand new lace skirt ready to be paired with some cute tights for winter! This could also be a great Christmas gift for your sister, mother or best friend...

Love, Aranza 

E.T.A. You can check out the skirt in full action here!!

DIY: Awesome Christmas Basket!!

Hello!
I wanted to share a gift idea for the holidays.
Every year, my family and I want to give gifts to everyone we know, but... We don't always know what to give!!!
So, last year, we decided to make baskets for our relatives and friends and this is what one of them looked like



Here is the recipe for the marshmallows

I used a rotary cutter to cut little squares (for the hot coco, and snacking) and cookie cutters to make cool Christmas shapes!

 I put the cool shapes in clear containers that I don't know where I got from...
And the square ones in clear celophan bags..

The basket has a fabric stocking, a Christmas plate, chocolate flavored Twizzlers (my cousin's favorite), Hershey's bars, a box of varied chocolates, cookies in a jar, and a bag (and little clear container) of marshmallows.. I also added a container with hot coco mix and then covered the basket with clear shrink wrap (which was a failure! hehe)



And I had some of this left over (the odd shapes after cutting with the cookie cutters) My mom, brother and I ate them all within a day!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Aranza

DIY Friendship bracelet. What to do with an oversized bracelet

Hello everyone!

So, I like to go to garage and State sales during the summer because I can always find new jewelry (to me, at least) for very cheap!

My neighbors from across the street (yard? drive way?) had a state sale a couple of summers ago, and I found some treasures there.

First off, I bought 20 beautiful brooches and some other stuff for $10!

But I also found a couple of bracelets that I love.. The problem? They were too big!!!

The bracelet didn't have any jump rings that I could disassemble  cut and then reattach to fit my size, and I don't own a jewelry factory, so I had to get creative..

I grabbed a couple of tweezers (right? is that what those are called?), embroidery floss and got to work!

The pictures are pretty self explanatory

Here's what I started with (the bracelet on top fits me perfectly, so you can see the difference)

The second bracelet (for the bottom up) had three strands, so I took the bracelet apart on one end (leaving only one strand attached to the closing mechanism)

 Then, I tied the floss to the bracelet however I could and started braiding all the pieces together

I then knotted the ends and added a couple of drops of glue (super glue, not white/school glue)

 

Trim the ends.. 

And tadah!

Pretty bracelets that now fit like a charm..
For the pink bracelet, I just put 2 of the extra long bracelets together (pearls, and rhinestones) as well as some pink/peach floss...

What do you girls think? I love them!

Have a blessed day,
Aranza