Archives for July 2019

When it comes to costuming, the magic is in the styling and the accessories. I know, I know! It’s hard enough to make the “main” pieces. Now we have to make the cherries on top? Well, never fear! Accessorizing can be quick and easy at the Dollar Tree.

When I was planning patriotic outfits for the kids, I grabbed these bows and hair barrettes at the Dollar Tree. (How convenient that the barrettes come in sets of three! Perfect for our three girls.)

Once I got a tube of Loctite Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Repair Adhesive, I had everything I needed to make patriotic hair bows for the girls! So, as you can see, the only thing holding these bows together is a twist-tie. I tied the ends in a knot to better secure the center.

Next, I trimmed the ends of the twist ties.

With the center of the bow secure, it was time to glue it to the barrette.

I popped a barrette out of its packaging and got ready to glue it to the bow.

I spread a wide swath of glue down the center top of the barrette.

Next, I pressed the bow onto the barrette and clamped it with clothespins to hold it secure while it dried.

The next morning, I removed the clothespin clamps, and ta-da! Hair bows!

Finished bows!

Now, it was time to use the same bows to make matching, patriotic bow ties for the boys! All I needed was another 2-pack of the patriotic bows and two packs of Headwrap headbands from the hair accessories section of the Dollar Tree. (Because I wanted to use the gold ones!)

All I had to do was to twist the twist-tie in the center of the bow around a headband!

In hindsight, I would have added a few dots of Loctite Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Repair Adhesive to bind the bow ribbons to each other and then to the twist-tie, at the center before securing it to the headband. This is because Elliott’s bow started falling apart whenever it started twisting off of the headband. (And, this happened a few times during the shoot.)

Other than that hiccup, I have to say, these bow accessories were super quick and satisfying to make!

Time to see the bows in action! First, the hair bows:

And the bow ties:

 

 

So, do you remember those patriotic bunting aprons I made for the girls? Well, I made capes for the boys, too!

Each cape was made from two pieces of bunting from the Dollar Tree…

…and red, grosgrain ribbon. Yep. That’s it!

After opening the bunting packages, I pressed the bunting on a damp towel and with an iron on low heat.

Then, I measured the boys’ “wingspans” and overlapped the two pieces of bunting for each of them, accordingly. I stitched the bunting together, along the top edges, at the overlap points. I stitched in a rectangle, since a larger stitch area provides extra strength.

All that remained was to find a way to fasten the capes onto Elliott and Oliver! So, I threaded the ribbon through the metal grommets that were already in the bunting and tied them to the boys’ arms.

This was quick to make, but rather cumbersome when it came time to dress them. Next time they wear the capes, I will probably stitch the ribbon onto elastic loops that can just slide onto their arms.

And, voilà! Capes!

Here are my silly superheroes in their bunting capes!

In my next post, I will share how I made the patriotic hair bows and bow ties. Thank you for reading!

 

 

 

 

Short on time and money and want to make coordinated patriotic outfits for your kids? I got you! (And so does the Dollar Tree!)

I am always excited to peruse the Dollar Tree‘s seasonal items. This spring was no different, as they started phasing into stocking 4th of July merchandise.

My eye was instantly caught by these packages of individual swags of bunting. I envisioned using them to make aprons for the girls and capes for the boys. This was all I needed to go into full, red-white-and-blue production!

Let’s start with the focal material: the bunting. They were very creased when I first popped open the cardboard packaging and unfolded them.

I was wary of ironing them, because I knew the plastic material could easily melt. However, I set the iron on a very low setting and hoped for the best.

I thoroughly wet a towel, (using a patriotic one seemed appropriate) wrung it out, and lay it on the ironing board. I placed the bunting on top and started to press.

The damp towel really helped the creases to disappear, and I managed to get most of them out. Nothing terrible happened to the bunting material, either. Whew!

The bunting was quite wet after pressing, but it dried in minutes and was soon ready for the next step: trim! I ransacked my stash of thrifted, vintage lace and found enough to stitch around the bottom edge of each of the three of the pieces of bunting.

Before sewing on a ribbon sash, I removed the three metal grommets that were along the top edge of each piece of bunting. They were very flimsy and came right out with a few twists of the pliers!

Now, I could stitch a ribbon sash onto the top edge of each piece of bunting. I used this red, grosgrain ribbon from my stash.

Stitch, stitch, stitch! I left plenty of extra length at each end for tying a bow.

Here’s a back view of how I stitched on the ribbon sash and the lace trim.

Ta-da! Didn’t it turn out cute? This is seriously one of the easiest and most satisfying things I have made in quite a while. (It’s really fun to use something that’s already cut and prepped.)

What’s better than one cute thing? How about three cute things?

And, here’s the aprons in action!

Emma:

Eliza:

Annika:

Next time, I’ll share how I used the same bunting to make patriotic capes for the boys!