Will You Be my Valentine Update!

Oh me oh my! There was a lot of love made in the studio today! I don't think I've been so excited about a creation in awhile (ok maybe not that long ago since Christmas wasn't that long ago!)

A week or so ago I posted about wanting to make my own version of the PBK Envelope ... see old blog post here.

Than I decided that I liked the Mailbox version too ...

So after a little working of my own and some major pinterest-ing I found so great tutorials that were already matching what my little mind was coming up with! The saying must be true, great minds think alike!

First I found this tutorial from Family Fun Mag, its just a picture of the instructions from their February issue and you can find the printable here Keepsakes: Special Deliveries Envelope (you can choose to open or save it).

It was pretty easy, one big cut of fabric and either glue (or like I did) sew it together. I also stitched on the ribbon nicely in the back, and embroidered a name and closure patch.

Here's the final product ...

Not bad for my first attempt! I also added some stiff stabilizer, this one seemed really floppy otherwise.

Here's another "envelope" style one from Create Kids Couture ...

It was super simple and leaves TONS of room to customize.

I left it pretty blank so I can add it to my "Ready To Ship" stock and include a design that customer chooses.

The final one, and also my favorite, was inspired by the PBK Mailbox design. You can find the tutorial over at Our Scoop ..

Since this one has a bit more structure to it, it wasn't the simplest of projects but still very easy. And again leaves plenty of room to customize or modify.

For mine I ditched the "backpack" stapes and used ribbon, I also didn't use any of the buttons. You'll also notice that the PBK one has a slot, that wasn't in the tutorial and I didn't think to add it, but I also think with the flap not secured you really don't need a slot on mine.

And to make them even more special for my boys I used the Valentine Puppy Alpha from Planet Applique.

 

These were definitely my favorite ... I don't know why I just LOVE how they came out! 

All of them are super cute and I can't wait to get some more done for some other little loves!

Head over to The Tiny Hiney Business to see more! 

Are you Game Day Ready?

Who will you be cheering for this year? We're not super big football fans here; maybe it's because the games usually air at 8am or because we just don't have a team we follow. But my family is from Washington state, so my default is always the Seattle SeaHawks and this year we're Superbowl bond! WooHoo! So I will definitely be breaking out my blue and green!

And I just picked up these awesome designs from one of my favorite designers East Coast Applique.

I also got these from Blue Moon Applique to add to the designs to make them perfect for this year!

 

I'm going to be making some of these sweet decorations for our Superbowl Party next weekend. I'm also going to open it up for the FLASH sale!

For those who need it shipped, you must order & pay by Saturday Jan 25 at 12pm

For those that are local, you have until Monday Jan 27 at 12pm

I know it's super quick, but I JUST got these designs today and I want to make sure that I have enough time to ship! Next year we'll have plenty of time!

So lets get our team colors flying and have some fun!

Visit me on Facebook or email me at tinyhineybusiness@gmail.com for questions or to order!

Will you be my Valentine?

February is one of my favorite months ... every one seems to love the main holiday season, but I LOVE all the holidays! And February has a bunch! We start the month off with my birthday (who doesn't love a day for themselves!), than there's Valentines (love is in the air!), and Mardi Gras (fun party and bright colors! Although this year it falls in March but we'll ignore that for now).

All these holidays just means more decorating and fun projects for me!

This year since the boys are older we're going to be making Valentines and sending them out to all of their friends. A great way to stay connected to all the friends we've meet along the way no matter where we've all moved! And I wanted to make them something to keep all the Valentines they'll (hopefully) receive . If not some place I can put little treats throughout the month. So I'm going to attempt an over-sized envelope that will fit on the back of their little chairs at their table!

Pottery Barn Kids

Know I think this has to be the most reasonably priced item at Pottery Barn, and while I love it I'd still prefer to make it! Plus I can change things up and personalize it a little more!

I'll make sure to update tomorrow with the finished results!

Making a schedule ...

Another big Christmas I got from my Sewing Santa was some new feet! I can not WAIT to test these out and post my reviews! They're also making my New Years Resolution to do more equipment review posts pretty easy! 

All my new babies!

Here's the break down ...

Walking Foot ... great for when you're sewing layers! Instead of just letting the fabric get pulled through with the teeth this foot literally "walks" them through to keep all layers moving together! I'm really excited to use this on some minky and PUL. No more pulling or stretching or sticking!

Hemming Foot ... 99% of the time I use rolled hems. I think they look so much cleaner than a serged hem. Unless you change the color of your serger thread to make it match the outfit, and that NEVER happens since threading a serger is no fun party! This foot will do a nice small rolled for me! How nice is that!!

And last ... the Ruffling Foot ... yes you can ruffle/gather without this foot and I'll go over all those techniques in the blog post. But this foot does more than just the simple ruffle. It does super small gather to full pleats! I mean come on, who doesn't want to skip the hour of measuring, folding, and ironing!

Also I think I'll be dusting off the serger for a post too ... that one will definitely be one of discovery! I never fully learned the machine before we packed it up to move and certainly haven't used is since opening again!  HAHA!

So keep an eye out, I'm hoping to have one of these tutorial/review blogs out soon!

Any requests for which on I do first??

Some Bolt Action!

One of my Christmas presents to myself was some bolt boards. They're really comic boards but from what I've read on a lot of crafting blogs or even the reviews on Amazon, they are great as bolts too. So I gave them a shot! Now we all know that I'm a fabric hoarder, so I made sure to order extra boards, 200 to be exact! 

Current Comic Book Backing Boards

Not only did I want to bolt my main fabrics, but I also wanted to clean up my scraps/small pieces drawers! Here's what my my large bolts and drawers looked like before ...

 

 My large bolts organized by color, and within the colors solids and tone on tone first. Or at least it's suppose to be like that ;)!

 

 Holiday fabric, they're in order but they REALLY need to be bolted!

One of my scrap/small pieces drawers.

Not too bad if I say so myself, but things could always use improving! I cut the boards in half since these were small pieces and because they'd fit better in the drawers. And I bolted, bolted bolted ...

and bolted ...

I needed 230 bolts to be exact!! I can't believe that I used a WHOLE packet of boards  and than some! I mean that just makes me feel like an even bigger hoarder now!

And I didn't bolt everything, I was good and got rid of a bunch of scraps too (things that were too small, weird unusable shapes, or patterns that I couldn't use for appliques). When I was done I had stuffed one and a half bags full of unusables! 

But the end result was the best, I love how clean and organized it looks! And small pieces that I use lot that always seemed to get lost (like the ivory/peach color I use for faces) can be found with ease! 

The large bolts and holiday fabric looks fantastic as well! There's even some room left to add more!

 Large Bolts, back in the right order!

LOVE me some holiday prints!

This one seemed to go a little faster since they were large square pieces and there wasn't much organizing that needed to happen just folding! Here's where I got to see how the boards really worked, and for the most part I like them! They're a great size, but they are a little on the flimsy side. I definitely can't bolt more than 2 yards! So I'll still be using my cardboard pieces for the large or thick fabrics, plus its a great way that I can recycle all the boxes from my fabric deliveries.

Of course because I have too much fabric I ran out of boards and still have 2 small piles of un-bolted fabric sitting on the floor! HAHA! Fabric hoarding at it's finest!

I'll definitely be buying more boards, one day there will never be a pile of folded fabric on the floor! But for now it's onto the next big project! I'm re-arranging my studio, building a closet desk, and building a new sewing desk!