DIY No-Sew Bows

In the midst of preparing for moving, I've been in a very DIY house happy mood. As I was packing up (or more correctly, pulling everything out and thinking about packing up) my craft room things, I found a bunch of old scrap fabrics. Now I always keep my scraps and sometimes feel a bit like a hoarder because I really like recycling my things, especially if it ever cost a pretty penny. That being said, I tried to decide what to do with some scrap fabrics...and with a one year old girl running around with a big pink hat on her head, what better than to make big bows for her head too.

So here is my DIY no-sew bow tutorial, and I am very happy to report how lovely I thought these bows came out.

What You Need (or what I used) :
-Craft glue
-Hot Glue
-Scrap Fabric
-Scissors
-Toothpicks (optional)

Sorry some pictures decided they want to remain sideways

So pick your fabric ...

And cut out a chunk of it. The bigger you cut, the bigger your bow. I live the floppiness of this fabric and thought it would make a neat large floppy bow, so I cut mine larger than the rest I made.

I put some glue into the cap and had a toothpick to smear the glue on the fabric. More accuracy and less globs.

Depending on if you cut a square or a rectangle, you're going to glue down the raw ends. Basically hemming the ends so it has more of a neat finish. I cut this one in a square-ish shape, so I smeared three spots of glue on two opposite edges...

And then folded them over, only about 1cm so its only an edge.

Now both sides have smooth edges

Flip the fabric so the two raw edges are vertical, and find the center between both finished edges that should be horizontal

And add a dab of glue to both sides.

Fold the bottom and place the raw edge on the dabs of glue

Add a little more glue

And do the same to the other raw edge end.

Now you can scrunch the middle and it starts looking like a bow.

Make sure the ugly end (the end with the seams showing) is facing you and make a little pinch fold.

Add a little glue between the fold you pinched.

Pinch and glue a few more and it should hold like a bow now.

Cut a bout 2in long piece of fabric. This goes in the middle.

Now I use my hot glue gun to make sure the middle holds together tightly. Add a dab of hot glue to the center of the bow

And press one edge of the new cut fabric strip onto it.

Wrap it around and around until your out of fabric and hot glue the end.

Now you have a bow!

Now if you want to make hair clips, get some plain cheap hair clips. These snap ones I like most when using them for my daughters curly hair.

Open the clip and on both sides add a dab of hot glue

And press it to the bavk /ugly end of the bow. If you opened the clip, it makes this part easier so it sits better.

Once its dry you have a lovely bow.  This is my daughter wearing the big bow. She was watching a Disney movie and couldn't be bothered with me taking a picture ;p

I love these little things. I especially like the polka dot ones and use then to hold my hair back while cleaning! Don't think you can ever get old enough to not wear bows. Unless of course you're a guy :-) 

~peace and crafting!~ 

Yin-Yang Life

There are times that really try your spirit. There are situations that make you winder why on earth would this happen. There are other times that make life seem meaningful. Life will try to break you.

I mentioned that I was looking into buying a house to move into and make my own and really start my life, my family. It was hard. Every house that seemed to have potential, especially the ones I really liked, all ended up having horrible problems. One had a landslide problem, one had foundation problems, one had the floor breaking away from the walls inside, one had termites and foundation problems and broken beams and septic failure and bad wiring. After that, it just started to seem like there was just no point. After many many weeks of discouragement, there was finally a house. I'm not settling down in a house any time soon,  maybe not ever, so this was the perfect house to call ours for the next five years. The owners even excepted our offer not even an hour after putting down the first offer. And it just seemed meant to be.

That's when everything started getting harder. I always have believed in a yin-yang universe. With every good thing there is a bad. Its always happened to me, even in the best situations. Sometimes the bad happens first and I have something to look forward to after the bad happens. When our house was being foreclosed, my grandma passed, and everything was very tough for my family. But it opened up the possibility for us to move in with my grandpa who didn't want to live alone. After my daughter was born, and it is was amazing bringing that miracle into  this world, we had moved back into the old house, and it was great. But my grandpa then passed suddenly not long after my daughter was born. Not only that but my daughter's father's family decided to HATE me. That is a long story in itself. But after all that, we got engaged. That's always how its been. With every good there is a bad. When I decided to leave the nest, there were too many bad things that had happened to mention. So it isn't much of a surprise that after getting this house, and everything started falling into place that I started waiting for something bad to happen. But nothing came. And for a moment I thought my yin-yang theory might be wrong.

But something bad did happen. I already had a lousy roommate, so it wasn't surprising that he decided to get very dick-ish (pardon the language) after realizing he would be the only one without a new place to go. If that wasn't enough, me and my best friend were having issues. So social matters were tough, but not horrible. But that's when I found out the really bad news. 

I've tried not blogging about it.  I have for other posts I've saved as drafts but I don't have any desire to finish them any time soon. I'm in a very depressed state of mind and I'm trying my hardest to get out of it. Maybe blogging about what is really on my mind is easier than ignoring it and trying so damn hard to imagine it away. But I can't. It's always there, the thoughts, the horrible horrible dark dreams. 

I had a miscarriage. I hadn't really known I was even pregnant, except for being three months late, and having that gut feeling. The week I decided to make a doctors appointment, I had the miscarriage. And the thought that keeps running over and over and over in my head is that I neglected the little life I had growing inside me  until I killed it. If I hadn't tried to deny the fact I was pregnant, maybe things would have been different. If I had gone to the doctor and not been so scared if what would happen if I was pregnant, it wouldn't have happened. There is a horrible sickening feeling inside me now that won't go away. I try so hard to listen to things like "it wasn't your fault, it happens to a lot of women". The thoughts of knowing my body let a baby die inside me are overwhelming me. My body wasn't good enough to let a baby grow, meaning something is wrong with me. Or I neglected it and killed it. That thought haunts me every moment. I go and get a house to start my family, start our lives, in our own home, and my body won't let my family grow. I don't know how to cope with this, but I still go with the motions. I'm still here, even in this sadness. I'm not sure if there could be a yang happy enough to come from this yin. 

Life tries to bring you down. Way way down.