Handmade Christmas Stockings

Well I know that it is after Christmas, but my holiday season has been crazier than usual, so I since I didn't even get these finished until about a week before Christmas it’s not surprising that I'm not getting a blog post about them up until a few days after Christmas has passed. I still want to post them though, so that you all can see how adorable they are!

My sister asked me if I thought I could make stocking this year. Our mom made the stocking that we used growing up, and that my mom still displays. My sister wanted that tradition to carry on in her home. So we hit the fabric store. She wanted something a little more modern so we didn't go with straight red and green. The fabrics we picked have purples, and turquoises, along with the reds and greens.

I attempted to make the first one after some brainstorming, it was going okay, but after looking around on Pinterest I found this tutorial for making stockings. It made it so easy! She really did a great job and it creates a clean beautiful result!

Source: sewlikemymom.com via Leanne on Pinterest

I used regular cottons and muslin. No quilting or batting involved at all. The appliqués that I chose to do are defiantly what took the longest. If I hadn't been doing them these would have come together even quicker than they already were! It was an easy to follow tutorial and came out just the way I had hoped. The hardest part for me was figuring out which way to sew the band fabric on so that the words were the right way on the finished project.

Other than that brain teaser it went perfect! My last pinterest inspired project was a fail but this one was pinterest perfection! Here is how they turned out:

                                     ornaments applique

reindeer applique                 and              christmas tree on top of a jeep 

Christmas Dog Collars

I sewed up some dog collars, assembly line style for the pups! I got my claps on Etsy but they are available at your local fabric or craft store as well.


I essentially made a wide double fold bias tape. I did put iron on interfacing/wonder under type stuff in between for some stability. Then just weave it through the maze of plastic clasps. Sew well. I stitched and back stitched about a million times to make sure that they were super strong for my beasts lol.


My 75lb golden chow mix has been wearing it for about 2 weeks and it is still holding up well.


I love the way they came out. I chose a fabric with a small pattern on it do that you could really get the christmas pattern on the one inch thick collar.


Although it will be kind of depressing to slip the slip on bandana over it lol.

Pinterest Fail: headphones pouch

I've gotten so much inspiration from reading blogs and surfing pinterest. They make me want to do better, create more, and strive to be an impeccable sewer. However it doesn't always go as planned...

As a dog lover I've been on the Dog Under My Desk blog before so I knew she makes cute stuff, but when I saw this pinned and followed the link I was glad to see that she had been busy since the last time I had been over!

I have made many little pouches and lined pouches so when I saw this I was pretty sure I could tackle it without a problem, boy was I wrong! It had nothing to do with the directions, unless you count not following them! Ha!

Looking back I think that what I did wrong was a seam allowance issue. Also I used really shaggy stretchy minky that I had never worked with before. So all those played into me messing this up. I am planning to make another one once I get another zipper. Check out the pictures to see just how badly it went. So much for making these for Christmas presents!

Interchangeable iPhone Case

This is amazingly simple! I use scrapbook paper as an insert in a clip on clear iPhone case!

I found a clear iPhone case at target for about $3 on sale. You can get them on eBay too for just as inexpensively. I have also seen them for older models at the DOLLAR STORE!

When I bought my case it had a paper iPhone inserted into it, so I took that and took and exacto knife and cut out the camera hole.

Then I traced that onto the back of my pretty scrapbook paper. You can also easily trace your phone or the case to get the camera slot right. Then just slip the paper in and click the phone on top and you're good it go! I change mine about once a week sometimes more sometimes less but it keeps it fun and lets me control what I looks like.

I have so much scrapbook paper and no longer scrapbook, so it's nice to have a little project to put some of it to work. I have thought about using glitter paper but I worry about loose pieces getting stuck in all the nooks and ports of my beloved white iPhone, so we'll see.