Bow Tie Headband Hack

ok you guys... I think I forgot I had a blog. Ready for the first post in a long, long time? I'm going to start things out right with an awesome project idea that I have had for years. And that, of course, is Bow Tie Headbands, or to be more appropriate for 2014:

go ahead and pin it

I originally got the inspiration when I saw a picture of this bow tie:

It's a pretty awesome looking bow tie, and all I could think of looking at it was how cute it would be as a hair bow. And then of course I had my A-HA moment where I decided I could totally make that.

Fast forward a few years later and here I am, having decided it would be a great craft day project for my friend, Jessica, and me.

The supplies are simple. You will need the following:

° hot glue gun and glue sticks

° finger guards

° scissors

° plain headbands

° pre-formed bow ties

The reason I chose these specific bow ties is because not only are they inexpensive and come in a pack of 5, but also because they are "fake" and pre-formed. This means that you not only don't have to tie your own perfect bow, but also the fabric that would normally go around a person's neck when wearing the bow tie (I'm going to call that the strap) has already been sewn into a tube and therefore makes this project SUPER easy and fast. This is the set of bow ties that I chose:

Cause they're super cute and I really like the rainbow and the stars...they reminded me the most of the heart bow tie that gave me the inspiration for this project.

So this entire project maybe took 30 minutes. Seriously. And I think this could easily be done with kids, provided that they have help with the hot glue gun. 

So here are the steps:

1) After unpacking your bow ties, cut the metal clasp off of one end of the strap (to be honest, you can cut both clasps off, just be sure to not cut too much fabric off of the strap...I waited to cut the other end to make sure the bow tie was long enough to cover my headband).

2) Slide the bow off of the strap (another good reason to use "fake" pre-formed bow ties).

it's hard to see the black clasp, but here is the strap sliding out from the bow

 here's the underside of the bow without the strap

3) Slide your plain craft headband into the strap's open end until it's fully covered by the material. (A note about the headbands. In my supply list, I link to whimseybox's store for your convenience. However, when I created this project I used plain headbands that I bought from a drugstore, they came 6 to a pack and were inexpensive but comfortable. I got those because I wanted to try some on in-person as I like a loose fitting headband. You can get any kind you'd like, any will work with this project though I wouldn't go for something really thin or super thick (circa style in 1992). You can see in the pictures the thickness that I used.)

slide the headband into the cut end of the strap

 

work the strap around the headband until the headband is fully covered

how your headband should look so far

4) Using a hot glue gun and finger guards (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) put a small dab of hot glue inside the open end of the strap so that it glues closed around the end of the headband. Using finger guards on your thumb and forefinger, pinch the end to flatten the glue. Don't worry if the glue seeps out, you can trim that in a later step.

hot glue the end so the fabric stays put
(the headband is farther along in this image but the process is the same)

 [with your finger guards on] pinch the glued end to flatten the glue

5) Pull the fabric taut and then trim the strap on the other end of the headband. (The side that still has a clasp.) Then repeat step 4 for this side of the strap.

6) Let the glue cool and harden (I started other headbands while I waited), then use scissors to trim the ends of the headband cover into a rounded shape (for comfort). Make sure to trim any hardened glue that seeped out.

cut the excess glue off

 use this step to make comfortable rounded edges

7) You should now have a covered headband and a loose bow. Slip the bow onto the headband, keeping it off-centered to one side. I kept my bow unattached so that I can change the position should I ever want to. It doesn't slide around so I find no need to attach it. (Optional: Once positioned where you like, secure bow with hot glue onto covered headband.) 

slip the headband back in through the bow

 slide the bow in place (gluing is optional)

There you go. That's it! Super easy and quick and produces an inexpensive cute headband with endless possibilities.

they are so quick and easy that we made all these in about 30 minutes

me trying out my brand new headband :)

Jessica modeling her super cute polka dot headband

Just remember that nothing is what it seems, just because something was invented for one thing doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Enjoy this bow tie headband hack. Thanks for reading, and special thanks to my good friend Jessica for the help and the fun craft day.

° victoria °

The Couch Part 3: The Finishing Touches

So after a long hiatus, it's finally time for part 3... I swear I sat down to post this at least 5 different times, each time getting called away to do something else, and in-between I had plenty late nights at work, a vacation, and an illness to keep me from posting, and in the rest of the time I was mostly sleeping. There's my reason. Not an excuse. And here is the proof:

This is the final part to the three-part custom couch cushion and cover story. The story has been pretty gripping so far; the finale you've all been waiting for is finally here. Are you ready for this?

To re-recap:

My brother, Dr. Lou Feurino, has just opened a private practice. He is a Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and working towards becoming an analyst as well. His practice specializes in combination treatment with talk therapy and medications, if needed, for help with problems relating to mood, anxiety, substance misuse, impulsivity, attention, interpersonal relationships, self-harm behaviors, and other issues. Dr. Feurino is trained in cognitive-behavioral, dialectic-behavioral, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, along with the use of medications and the detection of general medical problems that may mimic psychiatric disorders.

My brother needs a comfortable couch, but the cushion that came with his was THE WORST EVER, so I made him a custom and extremely comfortable cushion. I then made a wonderfully soft micro-fiber suede cushion cover. Then I went on to make a few final pieces to really make this couch the best thing ever. 

First, I made a protective plastic cover (which I like to call the Italian Furniture Protector). There is a pretty solid reason for having this cover, seeing as my brother's patients may potentially be reclined on this couch, having come in from any weather and may have wet shoes, or just shoes that have ever touched the ground and are therefore dirty-ish. This plastic only covers the foot portion of the couch and will protect the fabric against damage and untimely wear.

To make the protective cover, we picked up a yard of vinyl. I only ended up using about half. I basically just wrapped the end like a present, then tucked in the ends, pinned, and sewed. That easy. Then I matched up the other side and did the same thing. It was one of the simplest things I did for this entire project.

Here's how the plastic cover came out:

The Italian Furniture Cover

side detail of stitching on the vinyl cover

Finally, I made my brother a custom little pillow for the comfort of whomever is laying on the couch. This was made of some the leftover fiber-fill comforter fabric found in this post, as well as some of the leftover micro-fiber suede that I used for the cushion cover, and a little bit of elastic to keep it in place on the cushion.

I made the filling of the pillow with a bit of the fiber fill, sewed it up and made sure it would be comfortable to lay on. (Is that the proper version of that word? That one ALWAYS gets me. I'm pretty sure "lay" is for the physical position, while "lie" is for the act of not telling the truth. Correct me if I'm wrong.) Once the pillow itself was made, I made a rectangular cover to go over it with the blue micro-fiber suede. I made it in the simplest way, by facing right sides together, and sewing 3 sides together, sewing the corners of the 4th side together, then flipped it right-side-out. Then I inserted the pillow, and hand sewed the fourth side the rest of the way closed. Simple.

a nice little rectangular pillow

I then cut some elastic to size (the parameter of the stuffed couch with cover-on, minus a few inches to account for stretch in the elastic) and then cut a length of the blue micro-fiber suede at about the parameter and a half to allow the elastic to stretch when putting the pillow onto the couch. I made a tube out of the long narrow piece of fabric, and put the elastic inside of it, making it into the strap that will keep the pillow on the couch. I attached the strap to the pillow and then was finally done with everything. It all came out nicely.

Here's the final pillow:

pillow with elastic strap

And here are the final pictures of the couch in my brother's office. It is pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself (and it's my blog, so I do say so).

this couch looks great in my brother's office

even if you don't need psychiatric evaluation, doesn't this just make you want to
go lay down in my brother's office for a bit? I'm not sure what he charges for that.

Thanks for reading and you can expect a more timely post from me very soon!

If you, or anyone you know, would like to be in contact with Dr. Feurino, please email him at LouFeurinoMD@gmail.com.

The Couch Part 2: The Cushion Cover

This is part two of a three-part story. Again, too many pictures for one post, and a lot of explanation...three posts will make life easier.

To recap:

My brother, Dr. Lou Feurino, has just opened a private practice. He is a Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and working towards becoming an analyst as well. His practice specializes in combination treatment with talk therapy and medications, if needed, for help with problems relating to mood, anxiety, substance misuse, impulsivity, attention, interpersonal relationships, self-harm behaviors, and other issues. Dr. Feurino is trained in cognitive-behavioral, dialectic-behavioral, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, along with the use of medications and the detection of general medical problems that may mimic psychiatric disorders.

My brother needs a comfortable couch, but the cushion that came with his was more uncomfortable than the floor, so I made him a custom and extremely comfortable cushion.

the finished cushion

Now on to how I made the nice, soft cushion cover:

Like the rest of this story, nothing really went the way I had first intended for it to go. I was teaching myself how to do a cushion of this magnitude, and was researching daily to make sure I was giving my brother the best possible solution, all the while learning new techniques and tricks. This is why I love doing things that I have never done before, though there may be frustrating setbacks, the challenge and excitement of doing/learning something new is so fun to me.

For the cover's material, we had originally picked out a cotton fabric. However, as I continued my research I realized that this wasn't a very sturdy choice, and probably wouldn't hold up in the long run. So I ended up picking a sturdy upholstery-quality deep blue micro fiber suede (made of polyester) that my brother approved. I bought 5 yards of that material which, even on sale, was not cheap. I knew that working with this fabric was going to be a little difficult and tried my best through this process to not mess up with this fabric. I made sure that I had a little extra fabric, just in case, though at that price I wasn't going to get a whole bunch more (not even an extra yard).

five yards of a nice deep blue micro fiber suede

I decided on making a boxed cushion cover, again this was something completely new to me. I understood it in theory (I'm the kind of person that can look at at finished piece and pretty much figure out how it was made) but I had to do a little research just to make sure I was on the right track.

Once I had figured out my plan, I had to make templates for the seven pieces that I had to cut. In my original plan my pieces were a little thinner because I didn't yet know what the size of my cushion would be. This is my original sketch (drawn before the cushion was made, thus why some measurements are missing):

my original plan of the cushion size and the seven pieces to cut (minus a few measurements)

However, when I took the original measurement of the cushion, I came up with 29" W x 82.5" H x 5.5" D. This meant that my original sketch was a bit off, so on I went to make the template based on these new measurements. The first pieces I made were the top and bottom, which I made 30" x 83.5" each, the next two pieces were the long sides, which I made 6.5" x 83.5" each, then one short side piece I made 30" x 6.5", and there were two pieces for the other short side (because it has a lapped zipper), which I made 30" x 3.5" and 30" x 6.5". Originally I had planned on having a .5" seam allowance, but it became apparent on my first fitting that I had allowed for too much depth on the cushion, and I had to take the seams in additionally to a total of a 1" seam allowance at each seam. This is because when I took the first measurement of the cushion, I allowed too much room for the edges' curves, and in reality the cushion ended up being more like 27"W x 82"H x 3"D.* Because I had already sewn the long sides I took in the seam like I mentioned above, but I hadn't yet sewn the short sides, so I was able to trim them down to 28" x 2" and 28" x 3.5".

*I had anticipated something like this happening, so I chose to err with bigger measurements rather than taking them as small as I thought they should be, just in case I was wrong, which is why my measurements kept changing. Now that I have done it, I know where I could have tightened my measurements a bit, but I still live by the saying MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE! I swear I'm going to get that tattooed on my body somewhere.

this is what the template looks like on the cushion (as you can see, it's a bit loose)...and yes I made it with
newspaper, no it's not the "funnies" section, oddly enough it's made of multiple "Career Builder" papers

When sewing, my first steps were to sew the top piece to both of the long sides, right sides facing each other. Then I sewed the bottom side on.

the sides sewn on, connecting the top and bottom pieces

the first fitting proved that I had to take in the fabric by using 1" seams on all sides

the second fitting was perfect and snug

Inside of the cushion, I tucked the seams and sewed, giving a nice side detail to the cushion to keep the flaps of the seams out of the way.

detail of the long sides, the stitching makes the cover look fancy

I then started on the zippered end. The reason that I started with that end is because I could unzip the zipper and still flip the cover inside out, therefore allowing me to easily finish the sixth end, and not needing to leave out any seams. And it's easier to be able to work with my hands on both sides of the zipper to make sure everything is laying correctly. Zippers can be tricky. To sew the zipper, I first prepped the pieces by folding the raw edge over and sewing, then folding over a second time and sewing again, this way when the flap covering the zipper is lifted, no raw edges will be seen. I did this to both pieces, however I made a larger fold on the piece with the flap seeing as it would have to be long enough to cover the zipper. Then, with the zipper zipped up, I centered it on the non-flap piece, and pinned and sewed, moving the zipper to an unzipped position to get my machine to sew around it (which you totally understand if you have ever sewn a zipper). If you haven't sewn a zipper (and especially a lapped zipper), check out this quick little video to see what I'm talking about:

The fabric I used was thick, and the zipper head was huge, so I had a little more trouble than the girl in the video, but it wasn't horrible. I might have cursed a few times.

After sewing the lapped zipper, I now had a unit made up of the two pieces of fabric and the zipper, which I then sewed to the first short end of the cushion cover.

lapped zipper

showing the opening and function of the zipper

I then sewed the other short end of the cushion cover (with the zipper un-zipped so that I could turn the over inside- and "right side"-out.

The cover was now completed! The explanation seems a little more simple than doing felt, but that's only because again, I had never done anything to this magnitude before (especially not with such heavy fabric).

Stay tuned for the third and final post to this trilogy, where I'll show how I made the plastic cover and the custom detachable pillow and then I'll show you how it all came together. :)

If you, or anyone you know, would like to be in contact with Dr. Feurino, please email him at LouFeurinoMD@gmail.com.

The Couch Part 1: The Cushion

This is going to be a three-part story. Not only did the cushion and cover take me a while to complete, but I have a ton of pictures and there is no way that they can all fit into one post. So this post will describe how I made the cushion for my brother's office couch.

A little background:
My brother, Dr. Lou Feurino, has just opened a private practice. He is a Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and working towards becoming an analyst as well. His practice specializes in combination treatment with talk therapy and medications, if needed, for help with problems relating to mood, anxiety, substance misuse, impulsivity, attention, interpersonal relationships, self-harm behaviors, and other issues. Dr. Feurino is trained in cognitive-behavioral, dialectic-behavioral, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, along with the use of medications and the detection of general medical problems that may mimic psychiatric disorders.

This of course means one thing above all else: He needs to have a very comfortable couch.

Like the wonderful sister I am, I undertook the task of designing and making him a custom cushion for his office couch. Additionally, I designed the cushion's custom cover and custom detachable pillow. My brother paid for the cost of materials as well as labor, so really I'm only sort-of-wonderful. But the cushion turned out really nice and is very comfortable to lay on.

Making the cushion:
The couch's surface area measures 27" x 82". If this seems long to you, think of it as more of a chaise...or even, think of a typical analyst's couch. It is however a really large cushion size. The template is a basic rectangle, but all of the template and pieces are my own design.

The reason I had to make a new cushion was because the cushion that had come with the couch was ridiculously uncomfortable. So when picking out the material for the cushion, I (and especially my brother) tried out multiple solutions. We came up with a combination of materials to make up the cushion. The base is made of 2" foam, followed by a store bought fiber-fill mattress topper from Target, cut down to the size of the foam. This was followed by two layers of a store bought fiber-fill comforter from Target, again each layer cut to the size of the foam. I used spray adhesive to keep the fabric pieces laying nicely on each other and so they won't bunch up when people sit/lay on them. The cost was pretty high but my brother was committed to making this cushion something that people would feel very comfortable laying on.

the foam and a layer of the mattress topper 

the foam, a layer of the mattress topper, and two separate layers of the comforter

the cushion with layers adhered together 

Then, I covered the cushion with batting to hold everything together. My mom helped me hand stitch the batting onto the cushion. Typically, you wouldn't need to sew the batting much (or at all) but because I needed something to tightly hold the cushion together, I needed the stitches.

top, bottom, and side of cushion with batting sewed on

Later on down the line, as I was making part of the cushion cover, I was taking it on and off of the cushion for fittings so many times that I realized the batting wasn't going to hold up to much more abuse. So I went to Jo-Anns and bought 5 yards of sturdy (yet inexpensive) muslin to make a permanent gusseted cover for the cushion so that it will last for a long time. This muslin covering will allow the cover to go off and on without any problems or worry that anything will fall apart. I cut two pieces (the top and bottom) at 27" x 82", purposely not including a seam allowance, because the muslin needed to be tight. I pieced together the rest of the fabric so that I could make sure that the grain of the fabric was going in the same direction as the top and bottom, and this piece became the gusset (this won't be seen, so piecing together wasn't an ugly option). The width of the cushion ended up being about 3", so I cut this gusset piece to 4", thus having .5" of seam allowance on each side. The length ended up being roughly 220". I laid down the "top" piece of muslin (there was no "right" or "wrong" sides for this fabric) and, starting about 1/4 down one of the long sides, I pinned the gusset along, making an overlapped fold at each corner. The reason I started a little farther down the side was so that the gusset would have a nice gathering at each corner (it would be hard to make the corners look nice if the gusset started at the corner).

maybe this drawing will help you visualize

first stitches sewn of muslin cover, side and "top"

I sewed this, did a fitting which was perfect, and then sewed the "bottom" layer to the other side of the gusset, again making sure to make a nice fold at each corner.

pinning the "bottom" of the muslin cover to the side (notice the pieced together seams)

I left one short end un-pinned except for the corners, then sewed, leaving that end open for me to put the cushion into.

the created muslin cover with end open to slide cushion in

I flipped it right-side-out, and put the cushion into that cover, then hand stitched the cover shut at the short end. The cushion was finally done!

Here's how it turned out:

the finished cushion with fitted muslin cover

I know this was a long post, I hope it was somewhat informative. Read about the making of the cushion cover in my next [long winded] post, soon to follow!

-Victoria

If you, or anyone you know, would like to be in contact with Dr. Feurino, please email him at LouFeurinoMD@gmail.com.

iPad protective cloth cases

So, the boyfriend and I got iPads about a week ago. I'm so very happy that I finally got an iPad, but that's another topic altogether. We went to Best Buy, because while I love Apple, I get serious Reward Zone points at Best Buy (1.25% for being a Silver whatever member + 4% for using my Best Buy credit card with standard financing x 2 iPads = Ü ) which makes BB my retailer of choice. Now, being an Apple-drone I of course am primarily concerned with the safety of my iPad, so furreal I did some researching on cases and found that Apple has come out with the new smart case (aka the smart cover + shell backing) which I've decided to purchase. It looks like this:

photo credit

And in action, is the same as the smart cover, except now it protects the back as well.

photo credit

Sweet, right? And though it's $50, my BB Reward Zone coupons should easily cover John and me each getting one. There is a downside-turned-opportunity here though. My coupons won't come in for a month, and Best Buy doesn't sell this case yet. So in the meantime, I still need to protect my iPad, like any Jobs-fearing Apple owner should. So I came up with a solution. I made my own protective iPad case. And I figured, while I was at it, I might as well make cases for our Nook Simple Touch's as well. The best part is, making the 4 cases only cost me a grand total of $3.58 (before coupons) for the elastic cording from Jo-Ann's. The fabric is remnants/repurposed from what I already had, and I always have a plethora of buttons so it was fun to be able to pick out some that matched perfectly.

So after finding the right fabric from my stash for 3 of the covers, I was really at a loss for what to make my iPad cover out of. And then I remembered some fabric that I had made into a [really bad] drawstring bag when I was about 13. I mean this thing was horrible. I had recently learned how to sew at the time and made the bag out of material that had sentimental value (it was fabric from my Grandma Zola's dress). I likened this situation to giving a 16 year-old driver an expensive antique car to play around in. The fabric was pretty wrecked.

This is the bag when I started (notice the gray cat tail):

See that thick white line? That's a tight zig-zag stitch with almost no spacing whatsoever. That's what ALL of the stitches on this bag were made of, inside and out. Apparently I feared the mythical stitch-ripping gnome would pay me a visit.

Then I had to rip out allllll of the stitches. I had way over-stitched the bag originally (seriously a hurricane couldn't have pulled it apart) so it took me around 2 hours to rip all the stitches.

The material was pretty beat-up, but the template I made allowed me to trim off quite a bit of the bad parts of the fabric. Once the fabric was prepped, making the case was quick and easy. I made a liner and then cut some bubble wrap to slip inside of the two layers. Then I sewed it up. The other three cases went together without much fuss. I had to run to the store a few days later to get the elastic, but once I started with that, it took less than an hour to add the buttons and elastic to all four cases.

Here's how my iPad case turned out:

























 Here is John's iPad case (we picked a nice brass-style button that works well with the fabric):

John is pleased that it doesn't look girly

Here is John's nook case:

























John's case was made out of a very thin remnant that just barely fits the sides, so I could not turn the fabric back to the "right" side. Since the liner was made of the same fabric as the outside I was able to make it work with the rough edges showing. I gave the edges a nicer stitch and let it have a little bit of a controlled-rugged edge look. But that's why the inner top folded edge doesn't quite match up (See the photo on the right). I've learned that when working with remnants you have to be able to roll with the punches. This is me going with the flow. John and I love how it turned out.

Finally, here is my nook case. It reminds me of the beach and beach towels and mostly, it reminds me of Aunt Gloria. I think this was another of my Grandma Zola's fabrics (not sure), but either way it reminds me of Fire Island in NY and all of the colorful towels stacked in Aunt Gloria's closet that we would choose from before heading out for a day in the sun. And that makes me happy.

























Here's a picture of the four finished cases (the lighting is bad since the dining room is my makeshift sewing room and I was in a hurry). They look pretty nice if I say so myself.

I'm thinking I'll start selling these and taking custom orders. If you're interested in a protective bag for your electronics, leave a comment or email victoria@ibvictoria.com and let me know.

Okay. That's the end of today's post.

-Victoria :)