guest post: Viewfinder pouch

This project might look familiar to you long time readers (hi, Mom)-I made one last summer for Sadie and promised a tutorial. Well...er...here it is! Almost a year later. Better late than never? Make sure and hop on over to Liberate Creativity to see the tutorial!

And also reposted here:

I have a fun little project to share today!

Introducing (for a second time) the handy dandy Viewmaster pouch!

  It's lined!

It has a pocket for slides!

 It ties up with a drawstring!

I made one of these last summer for Sadie, and we've used it ever since. It's fabulous for keeping all those little slides in one place, and easy for her to use also! However, the minute I saw this amazing fabric I had to have me some to make another pouch! Not that we need one, but I wanted to do a tutorial this time, and this fabric is perfect! So, would you like to make one? 

Click below for the how to!

20 minute grocery bag holder tutorial

I've needed a new one of these grocery bag holders for awhile now, and have been hanging on to the perfect fabric for one, so finally I just forced myself to sew it up. It was a quick sew (even with taking pics) so I put together a little tutorial for ya! There's french seams involved! Très chic. As chic as a grocery bag holder can be I guess.

I made it with some fabric by Robert Kaufman-the Suburbia line. The holder only needs a fat quarter of fabric, so it's perfect for those fat quarters you keep buying with no plan for. Come on, I'm not the only one that does that!

Click below for more details!

Limited Commercial License for Patterns/Tutorials

First off, I want to say that I absolutely love providing my tutorials and patterns here for free, and for you all to enjoy! I think blogs are a fantastic way to share information and learn from each other. They are a large part of how I learned how to sew myself. I also absolutely adore receiving photos of projects you've made using my tutorials. Sewing is a source of great joy in my life and I love sharing it with you, along with any tricks and tips I've picked up along the way.

I have been asked about selling items using my tutorials, and I've usually said no, but felt a little bad about it. After all, many of you are just like me-stay at home moms who are trying to help out our household in any way we can, trying to provide and care for our families. However, I do spend a lot of time working on my tutorials and patterns for you guys, and have been trying to think of a way to be fair to all of us in regards to selling items...

So, with that said, I've decided I can further help both of our causes by starting to sell a Limited Commercial License on some of my patterns / tutorials.

What this gives you...

You will have permission to sell items made with the tutorials / patterns found here on Craftiness is not Optional (handmade by the purchaser of course, no mass production).

One Limited Commercial License = One pattern / tutorial specified.

Also, one License must be purchased for each person who makes or sells the tutorial / pattern (although once you purchase you will not need to renew the license; it's good for as many products as you are capable of making by hand).

I still retain copyright on the tutorial / pattern itself (which means that you still may not copy the tutorial / pattern itself and reproduce or distribute without permission).

Lastly, when selling or listing the tutorials / patterns, design credit must be given to Craftiness is not Optional.

Please contact me at: craftinessisnotoptional AT gmail DOT com with any further questions. Thanks!

Of course, tutorials and patterns used for your own kids or gifts is totally fine!

$10.00

Pattern/Tutorial Requested

Patterns/Tutorials available:

The Bapron
Pleated Headband 
Whale Softie
Ice Cream Social dress
Pretty Easy Sundress
Anthropologie knock off dress
The Scallop shirt
Summer Lovin' top
Rachel Wrap
The Sadie shirt
The Lucky dress
The Leah tunic
Charlotte dress
Anna dress
Nae Nae Apron
Meat and Potatoes felt food
Felt Movie snacks (popcorn, bag, chocolate bar, and wrapper)
Utensil Stocking
Trick or Treat bag
BOO letters
Child's gathered apron
Fabric waffles
Barbie® dress
Barbie® cap sleeve top
Barbie® skirt 
Barbie® Froufy skirt
Barbie® Knit top
Barbie® Ball Gown
Baby T-shirt headband
Crib Book/toy Holder

Incomparable Buttons giveaway-20 winners total!

 I have an awesome company to share with you today! (and a giveaway, hooray!) 

Incomparable Buttons (blog here, website here) is a company based in South Africa, and they make-didja guess? Buttons!

Fabulous hand crafted buttons. Each button is handmade and then dried in the sun. They are then meticulously hand painted and then fired at a very high temperature.......making them washable and dry-able and durable.  Each button is completely unique! You can even see their thumbprints on the backs of some of the buttons. These buttons are made with love by the Sunshine team:

A group of dedicated woman, who in some cases, are the sole providers for their families. Isn't that awesome?

Jen Pascall is the founder of this amazing company and is so sweet to boot. (everyone at the company is so nice, they must do something to their water, hehe!) Jennifer hopes to see Incomparable Buttons grow larger so she can employ more of the local women who are needing employment.

Here is just a small sampling of what they have available and some ways to use their adorable buttons!

I love how they added some creatures to this cute embroidered scene-it really brings it to life!

These sheep are just flippin' cute.

Everyone could use some teeny tiny flower buttons! Perfect for clippies or baby dresses!

I love this embroidered grid with all the different buttons! The scissors are my favs! and the turtle...and the cupcake... and the....you get it. They're all cute.

Incomparable buttons are found in stores worldwide.  Check out their store locator here, to see if there are buttons available near you.  They also take online wholesale orders (here) and are more than happy to help you fill a retail order if there are no buttons available in a store near you, by contacting them through email (incomparableinc@msn.com).  

Oh, and did I mention they ship out orders to anywhere in the world?  yay! They have a few warehouses worldwide that they ship from, and you will be happy to know that their shipping prices  are very reasonable.  They are not out to make a profit on shipping. What a great quality to have in a company.  They are happy to help with any sort of questions.

So here's the fun part: Incomparable Buttons is giving away twenty winners of twenty button cards. That's right, 20 winners! The buttons they're giving away might look familiar-they are giving away 20 sets of these super cute flower buttons I used on Sadie's shirred top! (which includes one more lilac button by the way)  Ah-mazing! you lucky loos!

**Entering is a bit different than some of my past giveaways.......so take note.

Anyone from anywhere in the world can win, as well as previous winners.

Here's how to enter to win:

(**Please note: You must enter in a separate comment for each entry.)

• Head on over to Incomparable Buttons and leave a comment on this post of theirs here. You could tell them how you would use the buttons if you won! Then come back here and leave a comment here, letting me know that you did so.    
•  
• Head on over to Incomparable Buttons (found here) and "follow" their blog. (The "follow" list is on their left sidebar.)  Then come back here and leave a comment, letting me know that you did so.   
•  For one additional entry (you must complete the other ways to enter first) hop over to their Facebook page, "LIKE" them, then come back here and leave a comment, letting me know that you did so.
   
  

3 different entry possibilities.

20 winners! 

This giveaway will be open for a whole week (until Thursday, June 2nd) , giving you ample time to enter.

Good luck!

The Playdate dress: a tutorial

I've been getting better braver at sewing with knits, and I spotted this cute dress  and knew I had to make one just like it! I also just happened to have a tee shirt in my refashion pile that was the same striped print, and some green knit, sooo....I went for the whole she-bang with this refashion/knock off!

[inspiration dress]

[pretty darn close]

Just about the only thing that I did differently was to add some green to the pocket-it helped it stand out more. I wish I had been able to gather my flutter sleeves more but oh well. I was working with limited fabric.

Click below for the how to!

cute as a button party dress

So, Charlotte's first birthday is almost upon us. GASP! I am shocked at how fast this first year went, much faster than it did with Sadie. I've (of course) already been in full party planning mode for her (and Sadie's) parties, and so decided to knock out her party dress early. The theme is "Cute as a Button". Cute right?! (...as a button?...)

So obviously I went with a super button-y dress-polka dots on the bottom and lots o' buttons on the bodice!

Fabric is Pastel Polka Dots from the Hullabaloo line by Moda. From my awesome sponsor, Ribbon Retreat!

I laid them out on the bodice, took a picture, and tried to keep them spaced the same when I sewed them down, but it did turn out differently than I planned it, oh well.

Just know it was supposed to look a little bit better. (the perfectionist inside me is hollering, the lazy person won the fight though)

I still love it! (and so does Sadie, she tried to try it on herself, it probably would fit actually, it's a little big on C)

I still might go back and add a couple of buttons on here and there, but for now, I like it! (read: Sick of sewing on buttons!)

These are the colors for the party, bright and cheerful spring colors! I have found some cute ideas for decor and goodies, so I'm excited for this party. :D

fabric puzzle blocks tutorial

Sorry it only took me like 2 months, but here's the tutorial for the puzzle blocks I made for One Month to Win It!

You'll need:

wooden blocks (mine were 2" wide and I bought them here)
6 different fabrics (I go into detail on where I got my fabric and what designers they are made by here.)
 Mod Podge
foam brush
rotary cutter and ruler

It's pretty easy to figure out. Cut a 8"x8" square and then cut it into 2" pieces, keeping them lined up in order.

Then spread a thin layer of Mod Podge on one side of each block, and stick the fabric squares on the blocks, making sure to transfer it in order, row by row, so that it they don't get mixed up.

Then, let dry for a minute or two (doesn't need long), and then flip all your blocks over, the same way (to the right or left, or to the top or bottom) and start cutting and gluing  the next fabric. So on and so forth until you're done!



A few tips:

**Make sure to remove any stray threads before the Mod Podge dries. Otherwise they're not coming off!

**I used my rotary cutter to trim off any sides of the fabric that hung over, the blocks will not all be perfectly square, I found.

**I also put a coat of Mod Podge over the all the blocks to seal them.



Happy Puzzling!

another Boden knock off

Prepare yourself, that's all I have to say. I have so many kids clothes pinned over on Pinterest that I am dying to knock off. Such cute inspiration! Such as this adorable top.

I loved the shirred neckline, and since I had just found this video on how to shirr on a Brother machine (you who have Brother machines know it's not easy nor does it always work) so I decided to give it a try. I also had the perfect fabric for this top sitting around. (which, sorry, I have no remembrance of where or when I got it. lol)

So I cut out a peasant shirt pattern (Vanessa's to be exact, I love her sleeves!) lengthened it to be shirt length, serged, folded over, and sewed the top part, sewed on a faux placket (if you look closely at the boden shirt it has one), and tried shirring!

I've only tried it once before with horrible results. (bad Brother, bad!) so this time it went relatively smoothly. Except my machine made some nasty shrieking noises-I was afraid for her life at a few times, but she pulled through. I did 6 or 7 rows-and what really made it shrink up was steaming it with my iron-worked wonders and really tightened the elastic up.

Now how's about those buttons? Adorable right? They are from my sponsor, Incomparable Buttons. They sent me a bunch of fantastic buttons to play with and I'm having fun finding the perfect projects for them! These little flowers matched my fabric perfectly, so of course I had to use them!

Love!

guest post: the hedgehog top, a tutorial

Posting this tutorial on my blog, originally seen here.

First off, I want to say thanks to Jessica for hosting this fun Pattern Remix series! no, no, not me myself Jessica.......Jessica from Me Sew Crazy, of course! I was trying to think of ideas for my remix and made this quick top one afternoon. I even took pictures of it before I realized it was a great remix! haha. I'm nothing if not totally unaware at times.

So, why call this the hedgehog top? Why, because of that adorable button on back! (more info on that later) My remix is based on this tutorial of mine-basically...er...the straps are the same. lol! It's also got a button closure like the Sadie shirt, and is made with a bodice pattern like the  pretty easy sundress.

So it's pretty much the top that got made when all those tutorials got mixed together in the blender. I call that a good remix!

I also call that a CA-UTE face, but let's face it, I'm totally biased.

Oh come on! Those cheekies are amazing, no?

Back to the button (told ya I would) Isn't it the cutest button you have ever seen? AGH! It's from my sponsor, Incomparable Buttons. They make the most amazingly detailed buttons-in South Africa! They really are so adorable. (and totally washable!)

I also got my middle fabric (Heather Bailey Freshcut) from an amazing reader of mine-she sent me some of her scraps as a thank you. What a sweetheart!

So anyways, enough of me yapping, would you like to know how to make a top like this? It's fairly simple!

Click below for the full tutorial!

From the Red Kitchen giveaway!

***this giveaway is now closed***

 Today I have a fun store to introduce you to! (if you don't know about it already) My good pal Katie, who I met in person the other week, has an adorable Etsy store named From the Red Kitchen! She makes some darn cute buttons, bags, tags, and downloadables!

Like this set of her buttons-a rainbow of buttons, sah weet!

Like I said, her cool downloadables include math flashcards, and also letters, shapes, colors, and weather matching cards!

and I love this rain cloud pouch-adorable!

 These cute map tags would be adorable for scrapbooking or...labeling something!

Ok, isn't this bib the most awesome bib? Chalkboard fabric let's you write anything you want on it...muwahaha!

I really like these sweet lavender buttons. ;D

I've enjoyed playing around with some buttons she sent me, and I've used them in various projects:

clippy!

shirt!

whale eyeball!

So would you like the chance to get your hands on some buttons or other goodies?  Well, good. 'Cause she's giving away a $15 gift certificate towards anything from her shop!

She'd also like to offer a code for FREE shipping for the duration of the giveaway. yay! Just enter the coupon code "CRAFTINESS"  at checkout and get free shipping on all orders! 

To enter, hop over to her shop, and leave a comment on this post telling me what you might spend your winnings on! 

Please leave an email address in your comment so I can easily contact the winner.

Giveaway will run until Sunday night, May 22nd, and I'll pick a winner using Random.org. 

Good luck!