DIY Stuffed Animal: Horse Information

My nephew turned 2 a few weeks ago, and all he talks about is how his favorite animal is a horse!!!! So for his birthday, I sewed him a handmade horse stuffed animal that he calls Bullseye to go along with his Toy Story action figures ;)

I did a tutorial on the basics of making a stuffed animal a few months ago that you can find below

http://theiincreativity.blogspot.com/2016/04/stuffed-animal-part-1.html

http://theiincreativity.blogspot.com/2016/04/stuffed-animal-part-2.html

To sew a horse stuffed animal, you have to have some sewing experience and an eye for how the seams will come together, because this is a challenging project, and I just make up my own patterns. 

Basically what I did was cut two ovals for the body, but on one oval, cut four circles (one where each leg would be). Then, I cut four rectangles that when folded and sewn up would be the legs, but before that, I sewed a little rectangle of a lighter color brown fabric for the hooves. I cut a light brown circle out and sewed it as the bottom of the hoof, but this was like the hardest part, so if necessary, just sew the bottom of the leg closed, instead. Sew the opening of the leg to the cutout in the body. I cut out a large rectangle and sewed a piece of furry fabric to it, then stitched up both sides, so it's the neck with a mane. I sewed a U shaped piece of fabric as the head, with the light brown as the mouth of course, and hot glued googly eyes on. I sewed little triangles out of the lighter material and sewed them in between the neck and the head to be the ears. Now is the part where you sew it all together, leaving only one hole, so that you can flip it right side out. I kept the tail open so that I can hide the hand stitching underneath the tail. Stuff it full of stuffing, then cut a rectangle of the furry mane material and sew the sides, then sew it into the hole we left open. Lastly, hand stitch the opening closed. Since the neck will probably be droopy and head will stick straight out, tack it into place by hand stitching back and forth just in one little spot to hold it up. I embroidered my nephew's name on the hooves with a needle and embroidery floss.

That's basically all in a broad way, but if you have any questions, comment!!! This was really fun to make and the supplies cost like $7 I think when using coupons, but it is time consuming.

I also made a miniature horse with the excess fabric, but the bigger it is, the easier. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!!!! And check my Instagram for some cute videos with the horse!!!

French Rope Twists into Flower Bun Hairstyle

Sup folks of the internet! Today I will be showing you guys how to do a fancy hairstyle that could be worn for any occasion even as a bridal hairstyle.

The tools you will need are bobbypins, two tiny elastics, and jeweled spin pins (optional but holds the hair great!).

To start, just part your hair from your normal part line all the way down to your neck. Even if it's off center and the sections aren't even, just do it like that anyway. Now French rope twist each side starting at the part line down to about an inch above your neck (be sure to add in all the hair in that section by then), then just continue with a regular rope twist as far down as you can go (adding in no more hair). I did a blog post on just a simple rope twist, so to find out how to do it if you're unaware, click here.

Once you have finished "the rope twist pigtails," take the braid on the light side of your head, (the side of the part line with the less hair) and bobbypin it in a small circle, continuing to go around the circle with that entire braid. Be sure to make the center a VERY small circle, and remember to pin every step of the way. Now take the thicker braid, and pancake it if you'd like (that means to pull on the sides of the braid to make it appear thicker) and wrap it under and around the perimeter of the circle and bobbypin again. If you'd like, now is when you add your spin pins. I put one in the center of the circle, so it looks more like a flower, and then I put a few on the French twists.

That is all! I hope you enjoyed this one!

Hair Wrap

This past week I went to girls camp, and my favorite activity was when we all have eachother hair wraps (obviously that's my favorite #hairstylist). They were actually a lot easier than they seem, and we had so much fun doing them, so I decided to share it with all yall. Also, it's perfect for a summer vacation to the tropics, and will save you about $50, by doing it yourself.
You can do this to just about any thickness of hair. It actually looks better with a thinner wrap, but if you have thick hair, just use a smaller section (you'll understand how to use the section later). For length, it just needs to be long enough to do a simple three strand braid.

All you need is embroidery floss/embroidery thread in as many colors as you want in your wrap. You can get them from any craft store, such as Joann's, Hobby Lobby, or Walmart, for less than $1 per color. You might need a tiny hair elastic. We didn't use one for my hair wrap, but get one if you'd like extra security or have slippery hair. You also might need a TopsyTail, if you end up running out of string while doing your wrap.

To start, decide where you'd like your hair wrap. I put mine at the top of my head, but all of my friends did it low behind their ear. Once you decide, pick up a small section of hair in that area and divide it into three pieces and braid all the way down. You have to go down as far as possible until it gets super thin. Remember that the bigger the braid, the even bigger the wrap will be, so take that into consideration. I braided the section by myself, and then had a friend help me with the wrap part, but you can have a friend do the braid, too, if needed. When you get to the bottom, secure the braid with an elastic.

Now, cut your string. The majority of my friends and I used about 3 times my arm length, but one of my friends used the whole package of string and still ran out, so just guess, and then you can add more in if you use it all. Cut the same length for all of your colors, then hold them together and pull them through the top of the braid until the length of the colors are even on each side. It should appear as if you have two of each color. Now take both sides of your first color and hold them together and begin tightly wrapping both of them around your braid and the other colors that are hanging down with it. Go down about an inch, then drop those pieces, and tightly wrap the next colors, being sure to hold the previous color in place.

By continuing this, you will get just a simple wrap.  If you would like a knotted version, take your string and cross it in the shape of a 4 around the braid and hanging colors, then pull the string around and up through the center of the four. This is the same method you'd use for a embroidery floss bracelet. Continue with that color for about an inch as well, and over time it will twist into a spiral knotted wrap. There are many other cool ways to do this, like wrapping two colors together at a time, etc., but these are the basics.

If you are running out and need to add more string, just poke another hole though the braid where the old string is short, and pull the string through like we did at the beginning. This is where you might need the topsy tail because it is tighter than at the beginning where there was no string in the way.

To end it, you can add a few beads (just make sure to tie them on with the string), or just leave it plain, then just knot the left over embroidery thread a few times and it should stay in. It is fine to get wet and could stay in up to a few months. I really hope you try this one because it looks cool, but once you do it, you'll be obsessed and you'll want to give hair wraps to everyone you know! Enjoy!

Wrapped Headband Hairstyle

Today's blogpost is the Wrapped Headband Hairstyle! This has been very popular lately, and it's actually pretty easy, so here we go.

For this hairdo, you will need a headband that has an elastic around the back, like where the neck would be, so that there is something to wrap the hair around. They make headbands specifically for this hairstyle, where there is a thick, foam part to wrap the hair around, but you can do it with a regular headband too. I would recommend the special headband if you have really thick hair, so it will have something to support all of it, but also if you have really thin hair because it makes it appear like the twist is fluffier. 

All you do for this style, is part your hair where you would normally, whether it be in the middle or a side, and PLACE the headband on your head, but make sure the back of the headband is on top of the hair. Bobby pin it in place if necessary.

Take a section of hair closest to the front of your head and wrap it over the headband and through. If you want, you can twist it before you wrap it to add a more elegant effect. Then, pick up another section of hair and add it to the section you just wrapped, and go over the headband again. Continue these steps of adding hair and wrapping it around until you get to the center back of the head. Then begin the same steps on the other side of the head until they meet in the middle. Combine the ends from both sides and wrap them around as many times until they run out of length, then bobbypin it in place, between the headband and head.

As this style is very cute, I know that some people prefer half up half down styles. To do this, do the same steps as before, but don't add in hair. If you run out of hair from the front section, pick up a small piece under where you left off and continue that way, repeating on both sides of the head. 

That is the end of this hairstyle! Enjoy! I wore it to church today, and got a ton of compliments! They said it looked like a princess hairdo, an angel hairdo, etc. I think it sort of looks like a cuter version on the Snow White hairstyle ;)

US Flag Hairstyle

Happy 4th of July to all you loyal blog readers! <3

In honor of Independance Day tomorrow, today I'll share a cute hairstyle that s based off of the United States flag. There are 2 ways this hairstyle can be done: a simpler, more everyday look (which is my favorite of the two), or if you want to go all out tomorrow, you can spruce it up with red and blue beaded necklaces!

For both hairstyles, you will need many bobbypins, and jeweled swirl/spin pins. If you add the beads in, you will need one red beaded necklacd, one blue beaded necklace, and more bobbypins.

To start, part your hair on one side, then section a little less than an inch down. Make the length however long your part goes back. It should be just a few inches. 

Take that piece and, starting at the hairline, twist it all the way back horizontally to the end of that section of hair. Take a bobbypin, and slide it in with one side of the pin on each side of the twist, starting at the end of the twist, and pushing it all the way in. Let the ends hang down. Then, part another section below that, and do the same thing. Continue this for as many twists as you'd like. I did four twists.

Now, add in the spin pins. This part is pretty self explanatory. All you do is place the spin pin on where you want it to be, and spin it into the hair as if you're screwing in a lightbulb. I placed mine in a square pattern, next to the twists, as if the twists were the stripes and the jeweled spin pins were the stars. 

Now, you can be done if you are satisfied with this hairstyle. I prefer it like this, but if you want to go over the top, you can add beads for some color. If you want, it would be easier to cut up the red necklace and pin it with each twist, but if you want to save your necklace, just fold it in half, and bobbypin it around the twist going in an S shape to get to all the twists.

To add the blue beads, I just pinned it in a square around the twists and let the rest of the beads hang down, while I pushed some hair over to cover it.

It sort of looks like it reads OS, so that'd be a cool thing to do, make it look like it says US! 

This is a fun hairstyle, but even if you don't use it for the national holidays, the twists would be cute for an everyday look as well.