Summer Lovin' ReCap

I just wanted to thank all my wonderful Summer Lovin' Guest Bloggers.  They were all wonderful!  In case you missed any of them, here's a quick link list of everyone:

Heather from DIY Kinda Girl

Jill from Creating My Way to Success
Danielle from Blissful and Domestic
Jenny from Seamingly Smitten
Kim from Too Much Time on My Hands
Elizabeth from Sew Chatty
Christina from The Tattered Tag

If you haven't checked these ladies out, please do!  When you're done checking them out, hop over to EyeBuyDirect and check out their weekly specials.  A few weeks ago I snagged an awesome pair of blue glasses on deal of the week and I absolutely love them!  I don't know of anyplace else where you can get prescription glasses for under $20!!!!!!!

EyeBuyDirect.com has hot new Deals of the Week!

Peace be with you,

Summer Lovin' - Heather from DIY Kinda Girl

Please give a warm welcome to Heather!!!!!

Hey folks!  I'm Heather!

So excited to be here today!  I make my home over at diy kinda girl,

where I chronicle all my projects (which I have lined up one after the other, enough to last 'til the day I die, it seems).  I love the process of designing, planning and all around figuring out how to do something myself.  As a result, I have far too many hobbies, from papercrafting to crochet to jewelry making to sewing to making accessories to home decor to digiscrapping to home improvement.....

I'm also an avid reader, and do weekly (most of the time) book reviews on what I'm reading at the moment.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to share with you today, what would say Summer to me and to you...and it was a gradual chain of events that got me to this.

First, I promised my sister-in-law I'd make a couple headbands for her birthday present.

Second, my husband works with the youth in our church, and he came home from youth conference with a hot pink bandana.  (He was the leader of the hot pink group. Isn't he lucky.)

Third, I was admiring the spunky look of pinwheels.

And then it all clicked.

So today, I have for you my new Bandana Pinwheel Headband.

You need:

One bandana

A contrasting solid fabric (I used a black broadcloth I had on hand)

A rigid headband (mine was metal)

Heat N' Bond Iron On Adhesive

An iron

A hot glue gun

Okay, first you'll want to cut a 2.5 inch by 7 inch rectangle out of the contrasting fabric and a slightly smaller rectangle out of the Heat N' Bond.

Next, place the Heat N' Bond on the wrong side (if there is a wrong side) of the contrasting fabric rectangle you just cut out, with the paper side up.

Iron over the Heat N' Bond, paying particular attention to the edges.  The instructions say about 2 seconds per spot, but I found that wasn't enough.  I spent probably 30 to 60 seconds running the iron all around the rectangle (just make sure you keep the iron moving).

Let that cool for a minute, then peel off the paper.

Place the contrasting fabric rectangle with the adhesive side down on the wrong side of the bandana, over the portion of the design you want to have on your pinwheels.  Iron into place, making sure it fuses completely.

Let it cool, then cut out (1) 2 inch square, (2) 1.5 inches squares, and (1) 1 inch square.  (Make sure you cut the squares out one right after the other, right next to each other, or you won't have enough fabric.)

Next, take each square, and lightly mark the exact center.  Cut diagonally from each corner about two-thirds to three-fourths the way to that center mark.

Now fire up your glue gun.  Take the largest square (2 inch), and lay it down with the contrasting fabric facing up.  Put a small dot of hot glue in the center of the square,

then take a corner and fold it down, sticking the tip in the glue.  You may have to press it down and hold while the glue firms up a bit, but don't burn yourself.

Next, put another little dot of glue right in the center on top of the corner you just folded down, and fold down the next corner.

Repeat for the next two corners, and you have your first pinwheel.

Repeat these steps for the smallest square (1 inch).

Take the  two 1.5 inch squares, and instead of having the contrasting fabric facing up, have the bandana fabric facing up, and repeat the above steps to form the pinwheels.

Now that you have all four pinwheels, you can hot glue a button or bead in the center of each, to hide the hot glue and to look pretty!  Now put the pinwheels aside.

Next, we're going to wrap the headband.  Cut a couple half inch wide strips of fabric from the bandana.  Put a little bit of glue on the end of the headband, and stick the end of one of the strips to it.

My bandana was polyester, and therefore a tiny bit sheer, so to avoid being able to see the hot glue through the fabric, I glued only on the inside of the headband.

Put some hot glue on, and wrap the fabric strip around, pulling it up diagonally, but making sure it still overlaps with the previous layer.  Only put down about an inch of glue at a time, or it will harden before you are able to wrap the fabric around.  Continue until you are about to run out of fabric, then trim off the end of the strip so it is on the inside of the headband,

then glue the next strip on over it, so the seam is hidden on the inside of the headband.

Continue wrapping until the headband is covered.  Again, clip off the excess fabric so the end piece is on the inside of the headband where it won't show.

Time to glue on your pinwheels.  First glue on the biggest pinwheel.  I positioned mine like so:

Next, glue on the middle sized pinwheels, one on either side of the largest pinwheel.  And finally, glue on the smallest pinwheel, next to the middle sized pinwheel on the top of the headband.

And you're done!  You have a darling spunky summer accessory!

Thanks, Emily, for having me today!  If any of you want to come visit me over at diy kinda girl, I'd be happy to see you!

Peace be with you,

Summer Lovin' - Jill from Creating my way to Success

August???  When did that happen!  I can't believe how fast this summer is going.  Please welcome Jill...

Hi! I'm Jill and I'm very happy to have been asked to be part of Emily's Summer Lovin' series!

My blog is called Creating my way to Success. I fill it with lots of sewing tutorials - and also like to feature some of the talented bloggers and crafters out there in my weekly linky parties and feature interviews.

Today I have a tutorial for you to make a cute little summery, flowery wallet - like this:

First cut your materials:

You will need

1 piece outer fabric:  21cm x 18cm (8.5" x 7")

1 piece inner fabric:  21cm x 15cm (8.5" x 6")

1 piece inner fabric:  21cm x 10cm (8.5" x 4")

1 piece outer fabric (for flap): 15cm x 6cm (6" x 2.5")

1 piece interfacing:   21cm x 9cm (8.5" x 3.5")

1 piece sew in velcro 4cm (1.5")

scrap fabric squares for flower - approx 8cm square (3.5")

1 large button

Take your 2 inner rectangles and the outer fabric for the flap and fold in half lengthways.

The inner fabric right sides out - the flap piece right sides together.

Press.

Top stitch along the pressed fold of the inner fabric pieces.

Stitch along the length and one end of the flap piece.

Then using a chopstick or pencil, turn the flap inside out.

Press flat, then add one piece of the velcro at the closed end of the flap, and top stitch all the way around  both the velcro and the flap.

Next you need to make the flower embellishment.

Take one of the square scraps of fabric fold it in half diagonally - right sides out:

Then take a needle and thread, knot the end of the thread, and run a running stitch along both open ends of the triangle you now have, and pull the thread to create a 'petal'.

Now repeat this with a different coloured scrap square - and stich using the same thread.

Keep going with alternate scrap squares until you have the size flower you want.

Add your button to the centre of the flower to hide the raw edges.

And stitch the whole flower to the back of the flap where the velcro is.

Now you need to put all your pieces together.

Lay the pieces flat on top of each other like this - with the interfacing on the bottom.

Pin the velcro and the strap centrally to the top part and trim the end of the strap in line with the edge of the main part of the wallet.

Stitch all pieces in place around the edges.  Then run a line of stitching down the centre of the inner pockets where the wallet will fold.

Now fold the top part of the wallet down and pin around the edges.

Then stitch, leaving a gap to turn out through.

Carefully turn the whole wallet -right sides out, and press flat.

Then top stitch around the whole wallet:

And you're done! Ready to put in your store cards!

The material I used for this wallet was from Wholeport.

Thanks so much for having me Emily!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, I do hope you'll come and visit me over at Creating my way to Success, where I have LOTS more tutorials to share!

Peace be with you,

Summer Lovin' - Danielle from Blissful and Domestic

Can you believe it is the end of July already?  I still have so much I want to do before the kids start back to school!  Now I have this yummy recipe from Danielle to add to my to make list to:

Hello Domestic Deadline readers! I am so excited to be apart of Summer Lovin, over here at Domestic Deadline. I have a fun summer bread recipe to share today, but thought I would introduce myself first.

I am Danielle and my home is over at Blissful and Domestic. I love to blog about sewing, crafts, recipes,home-school, etc. Basically anything that allows me to use my creative gene. I love thrift stores and re-purposing. I love taking someone's cast offs and make them into something fantastic. I love home-made breads, cookies, anything edible. I mean if I am going to eat, I want to enjoy it and have it be super yummy! Having said that I now want to share with you my super yummy summer bread recipe. It is for an Italian Herb White Bread,and let me just tell you it is divine! It is simple to make, since it goes into your bread machine. Perfect for sandwiches, paired with a pasta salad or with dipping sauces. Perfect for the summer when you want light, oven free meals. This bread will make your dinner, but don't take my word for it, try it. 

Here is what you need:

3/4 cup water

1 tbl olive oil

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbl sugar

2 tbl Spaghetti seasoning

 2 1/4 cups white flour

1/4 cup gluten (optional)

2 1/4 tsp yeast

Put all ingredients in your bread machine in the order listed above. Remember you always start with your liquids first and always end with your flour and then yeast. Put your machine on dough cycle and let the bread maker do all the kneading and stuff for you. Once it is finished, punch down dough and put in a greased bread pan. Cover with clear wrap and allow to double in size. This takes about 40-50 minutes.

Bake at 375' for 16-20 minutes.

Your bread should be a nice golden brown on top.

Once cooked, pull out of oven and rub generously with a stick of butter.

You can serve this hot with butter and dipping sauces, or allow to cool and serve for a sandwich night, or pasta salad night.

I hope you all enjoy this recipe and get a chance to make and share it with your family this week.

And don't forget to come and say hi to me over at Blissful and Domestic. 

It would totally make my day:>

Peace be with you,