DIY Bridesmaids Gift: Bridal nail polish earrings

 

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)This is a super simple but also super cute and personal DIY project for all brides-to-be!

I spend my hen do with my sisters and BFF at a spa hotel and wanted to give them a little something to say thanks. I also wanted the gift to be a little personal, something that would remind them of the fun weekend we had just before the big day.

Jewellery is always a good choice, and to add a personal and wedding-related touch, I chose to make the earrings in the colour of my bridal nail polish.

I wore “Worth The Wait” from Essie’s bridal nail polish collection, which matched my blush pink dress perfectly. DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)The project is super quick and easy. You’ll need earring settings (which you can order online on Etsy or Dawanda) and glas cabochons. I got mine from Average Pony and they’re really cheap.

I painted the back of my glas cabochons with two coats of nail polish and left them to dry. Once the colour was set, I used E-6000 glue to glue the glas stones into the settings. You really only need a tiny drop of glue. The glue dries within a few seconds. It’s very strong, so make sure you’re careful with the positioning.

Eh, voila! Done! It’s that simple.

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)

I used some wine corks and satin ribbon to have something to attach the jewellery to and it looked super cute! The ladies loved their gifts, and lucky me, all had matching dresses to wear that night.

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour.

So if you’re looking to make something personal for your bridesmaids or friends, this is the perfect project to try!

I’ve made other jewellery using glas cabochons before. For more ideas check out this post about how to use paper and prints to back the glas stones.

xx Charlie

 


Happy jewellery making!

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Wedding Accessories: DIY Floral Hair Comb

DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comOur wedding was almost 100% DIY, and so was my hair and make-up and some of the accessories. I did not want to wear a veil, but wanted some sort of bridal hair accessory matching our theme and my dress.

So today, I’m sharing a super quick and easy wedding DIY and will show you how I made a floral hair comb in just a few minutes. You can make one for yourself or your bidesmaids or one just to wear to the next summer garden party.

I did my hair myself, so I needed an accessory that was easy to put in/take out/adjust. The hair do is based on the “Double Gibson” – I found a really nice tutorial on The Freckled Fox blog. I had planned to take more time to practise the hair do properly, but as it goes with wedding preparations, there was never enough time to do anything properly, so I had to wing it on the big day.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comAll you really need for this is a hair comb (you get them really cheap at almost every drug store), some artificial (or real) flowers and some fine gold wire.

I bought artificial hydrangea, same as my bouquet flowers. It’s a bit tricky to find hydrangea that doesn’t look too tacky, but I noticed that it’s not that obvious once it’s in your hair. Here you can see the different colours I got, but I only used the ivory/green ones in the end.

DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comTake the wire and wrap it around the comb once or twice starting at one side to secure it in place. Separate the smaller bouquet from the plastic stems of your artificial flower. You can use the tiny holes at the bottom to pull through the wire. If you are using real flowers, leave the stems a bit longer so the wire can get a proper hold on them. I wouldn’t recommend using real hydrangea blooms because they need to stay hydrated and wilt very quickly.

I wrapped the wire around the comb once after each tooth and added a bouquet consisting of three blossoms after every second tooth.DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comHere’s a pic of the front and back. You cannot see either comb or wire once it’s in your hair. Feel free to add as many blossoms as you like and mix them up if you want to. I had to play around a bit until I got it right for my taste. Using a wire makes it easier to adjust things as you go and you won’t burn real flower as you would with a glue gun.

With artificial flowers you could obviously also use a glue gun, especially if the blossoms don’t come in small bouquet.
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.com

So quick and easy, but very effective. It would also make a nice accessory for your summer hair dos. What do you think? 

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Refashion it! Golden Vintage Dress to Embellished Crop Top

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hallöchen, ihr Lieben!

Hope you’re having a great week so far! I’m starting to get a bit stressed by the wedding preparations, especially with things involving the dress. A blog post was long overdue, though, so I’m trying to squeeze this one in between all the fittings and muslins and whatnot.

This is a really quick refashion project I wanted to share with you. It’s a loose-fitting embellished crop top I made from a dress that the Mr’s grandma gave me a little while ago. (scroll further down for before pics!).

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comIt was basically a rectangular, light-weight long dress that looked suspiciously handmade, but had some sort of label in it, so I’m not too sure about that fact. The dress itself had no shape whatsoever, the hem going way below knee-length. At first I thought it might be edgy and cool but when I put it on it simply looked horrible and I felt like wearing a potato sack.

As it so often happens, I forgot to take proper before pictures (which is really stupid when planning an before & after project, I know!), so this is all I have:vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe dress was too narrow to give me enough fabric for cutting out a whole new garment, so I decided to take the easy way out and cut the bottom off. Chop, chop!
vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comI overlocked the raw seam and hemmed it by hand using matching gold thread.vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The fit was ok-ish, but the top still lacked something. Since it’s a really simple shape, I thought I might add some embellishments to add some bling and make it a bit less boring.

I played around with different embellishments I had at home, like studs and acrylic diamonds.
vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I liked the studs best and started placing them on the neckline. Once I liked what I saw, I attached them using my pliers. I added more and more until I was happy with the end result.vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Since the crop top is very wide, I love wearing it with my pencil skirts. Since they have a high waist, my belly won’t show which makes this look pretty work appropriate. Also, I can wear a tank top underneath during the cold season which is neat.

Personally, I love the tight skirt – loose top combination which is quite flattering as it makes your waist appear smaller than it is!

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It’s amazing how such small changes can make a big difference to a garment. Take an hour and an unloved garment and turn it into something you love wearing. Instant happiness!

I would love to hear about your experiences with transforming your old or vintage clothes!

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Paper Ball Decor: Recycling Book Paper

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.comToday I thought I’d share a sewing-related craft project which is super easy to make. You can make these paper balls from different sorts of paper and in whatever size you fancy. They are very quick to make and perfect for parties or home decor.

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com1. For the book paper balls get some old book from the flea market or your own shelves. Draw a circle onto the paper using a glass/jar/cup and tracing it with a pencil.

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com2. Cut it out (you can cut through several layers at once to speed up the process) and repeat until you’ve got enough pieces for the amount of paper balls you want to make. You will need approx. 8-15 circles per paper ball, depending on the thickness of the paper and the size of the paper ball. For bigger ones I’d recommend using more.book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com3. Stack them on top of each other and stitch down the middle with a straight stitch and a wider stitch length. My standard machine had no problems tackling 12 layers of book paper. However, if you are using more than 12 layers and they get stuck in your machine, you can simply sew them together by hand or try using a stapler.

Leave long thread tails and knot them on both ends. Cut off the thread tails on one side. You can  later use the long thread ends on the other side of the paper balls for hanging them up somewhere.

4. Gently bend apart the layers with your fingers, distributing them evenly until there are no big gaps left. Now it’s time to hang them up!book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.comYou can also try and make them using colourful scrapbook paper or pages from old fashion magazines.

It’s also a great project to make together with your kids and for showing them how to use a sewing machine.

You can hang your finsihed pieces up in your home, make mobiles or decorate your garden with them for your next party.book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hope you enjoyed this post! I’ve started my new job last week and have been very busy working on my new pattern which I hope to release at the beginning of August. That’s also the reason why you probably won’t see too many new makes this months. Posting on le blog less frequently doesn’t mean I’m not busy 🙂 I regularly post pictures of WIP on Twitter and Instagram, so feel free to follow me there and check out what I’m doing in the meantime (link below).

I still have to figure out how to combine my new work schedule with my favourite hobby. Any advice? 🙂


Happy sewing!

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Make Your Own Soap!

Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comAhhh, our flat smells heavenly! One of the many benefits of making your own soap. I love making soap because you can create the perfect soap bar with your favourite fragrances and ingredients. And, believe me, picking up the finished soap bar for the first time and smelling it is such a bliss!

You can make soap-making as easy or hard as you want. I decided to go the easy way, inspired by the ladies over at A Beautiful Mess and bought a goat’s milk soap base. If you want to make soap the hardcore way you can create your own base; there are some fab recipes out there. But it’s much more complicated and you will need a lot more ingredients. If you are trying to make soap for the first time, I would recommend starting with a melt-and-pour soap base. Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comMake your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comMake your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com

How To Make Your Own Soap

First of all, some basic supplies and ingrediences you will need for making your own soap:

– bowl for melting the soap base (microwave/double boiling)
– grater (for orange/grapefruit zest)
silicone mould (brownie/cupcake molds are often cheaper than soap molds, but are the same thing)
– wooden spoon/cocktail stick for stirring
melt-and-pour soap base (You can buy containers in different sizes. I bought 1kg and used about 500g so far from which I got about 12 bars) I bought goat’s milk soap base and really loved it. I’m sure there are also some vegan alternatives out there.

Ingredients you can use:

– orange/grapefruit zest
– various essential oils (lavender, orange, grapefruit, mint, rosemary etc.)
– poppy seeds
– coffee powder or beans
dried lavender (also great for keeping your closet moth-free)/rosemary

You can basically use whatever fragrances you like. Using essential oils works best, as you only need a few drops to get a long-lasting scent. Dried herbs or blossoms are also nice. Using zest is fine, as the soap base preserves and keeps it from going moldy, but don’t go to crazy with adding fresh ingredients and don’t use more than a couple of teaspoons.

Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com1. Make sure your silicone mould is clean and dry. I placed it on a wooden board, so I could move it while the soap wasn’t completely hardened yet.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com2. Cut your soap base into smaller cubes with a knife and place them in a clean bowl.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com3. Before you melt the soap base, make sure you have all ingredients handy. The soap hardens quite quickly, so it’s better to zest the orange/grapefruit and open any plastic bags before you start melting the base.

If you want to make different soaps, prepare a few clean bowls you can use for the different soap mixes. I did not melt the whole amount of soap base at once but only melted enough to make 3-4 bars at a time, so I could try different recipes without having to hurry too much.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com

4. Melt the soap base by double boiling or in the microwave. For some reason double boiling did not work with my soap base, so I heated it in the microwave. It melts pretty quickly, so be careful. Mircowave for no longer than 30 seconds at a time. With either method, make sure you don’t burn the soap (or have it explode in the microwave – ask me how I know this!).

5. Once the soap base is melted completely, add your ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon before pouring it into your silicone mould. Stir the soap slowly, otherwise it might form bubbles.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com6. Let the soap harden. It only takes a couple of hours, but if you want to be on the safe side you can leave it in there over night. I put a piece of paper over the silicone mold to keep the soap dust-free.

7. Once the soap was hardened I put it in the fridge for a couple of minutes before popping the bars out of the mold.

Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comGrapefruit / mint / poppy seed: zest of half a grapefruit, 10 drops of grapefruit oil, 3 drops of mint oil, 1tbsp poppy seeds.
Orange / mintzest of half an orange, 10 drops of orange oil, 4 drops of mint oil.
Lavender / orange: 1 tbsp dried lavender buds, 10 drops of lavender oil, 5 drops of orange oil.
Rosemary / olive oil: 1 tbsp dried rosemary, 1tsp olive oil, 5 drops of rosemary oil.
Coffee: 1 tbsp of coffee powder.

Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comMake your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Grapefruit/Poppyseed/Mint (above) and Orange/Mint (below) are my favourites! I created the narrow white layer on the orange/mint bars below by pouring some clear melted soap base on top of the first layer after it was hardened.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comI wrapped the soap bars in recycled paper (I cut strips out of a shopping bag), which I taped together on the bottom.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comBefore I gave some of the soap bars away to friends and family, I wrapped them in music paper (which I had printed out) and attached small labels with twine.Make your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.comMake your own soap by thisblogisnotforyou.com


Happy soap making!

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