A glance at my world

Baby Sleeper Bag

2012-02-17T14:08:00.001-06:00

After lots of requests I put together a baby sleeper bag pattern and tutorial!

The patterns are located here.

This video will help with assembling the pattern.

And here is the actual tutorial.

Medieval Monday Week 2

2012-02-13T16:06:00.001-06:00

Fabric Fortune Cookies

2012-02-09T16:54:00.002-06:00

Medieval Monday Year 2

2012-02-09T15:28:00.001-06:00

Valentines!

2012-02-05T20:47:00.001-06:00

January Viewer Showcase

2012-01-31T14:07:00.001-06:00

Scrappy Bustle

2012-01-28T16:29:00.001-06:00

ThayerRags

2012-01-25T19:17:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I got to go to a new fabric store! I've been wanting to go for over a month now, but it's too far from my house. So on the way to Texas to see my new nephew we (me, mom and dad) stopped. We loved it so much! Here's a video showing what I got :)

Reverse Applique

2012-01-17T23:14:00.001-06:00

Medieval Faire on the Mind

2012-01-13T21:49:00.001-06:00

I'm already looking forward to and planning for the Medieval Faire! Here's something I made in my spare time to add to this year's outfit :)

Dino Hoodie

2012-01-11T15:48:00.003-06:00

My second tutorial posted on Threadbanger!

Tee to Halter DIY

2012-01-09T11:34:00.001-06:00

No Sew Tee Wall Art

2012-01-06T17:16:00.001-06:00

HAIR!

2012-01-01T16:04:00.001-06:00

Hehe :)

No really it's a video all about hair...

Recent Projects

2011-12-30T20:49:00.002-06:00

ISpy with My Little Eye...

2011-12-30T20:48:00.003-06:00

T-Shirt Resize...Redo

2011-12-18T21:01:00.001-06:00

Beaded Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-13T15:08:00.001-06:00

Lined Baby Hat

2011-12-07T17:33:00.001-06:00

Sewing Pattern Markings

2011-12-07T16:53:00.003-06:00

Handmade Holiday Gift Guide

2011-12-03T18:11:00.000-06:00

Video I made giving some tips and ideas for handmade gifts you can make for Christmas gifts (or any other occasion).

Chosen Few!

2011-12-03T18:09:00.002-06:00

I don't have the time right now to explain how much Chosen Few means to me...they have been a huge part of my life since 1997. I only like music because of Chosen Few. During middle school and high school all my book covers had pics of the group tapes all over them.

In other words- I LOVE CHOSEN FEW.

Last Sunday was the 20 year celebration concert in Branson. Me, Mom, Dad, and my friend Danielle went and had a great time. We drove 4 hours each way...but it was worth it (in my opinion!) Here's the last song from the concert and some pics I took at the end. Hope you enjoy :)

Heated Rice Bag

2011-11-30T17:43:00.003-06:00

November Viewer Showcase

2011-11-29T21:13:00.000-06:00

Button Necklace Tutorial

2011-11-21T15:55:00.002-06:00

Sewing on a Budget Projects

2011-11-21T15:52:00.002-06:00

Update from Annie

2011-11-10T20:51:00.001-06:00

Saving Money Tips

2011-11-10T20:50:00.000-06:00

If you know me then you know I'm all about saving money! Why would I pay more then necessary when I can easily save money??

Being so ~~cheap~~ thrifty is one reason why I do so much sewing and have my etsy store. During my last year of college I really wanted a newsboy hat but didn't want to go out and spend $20 on one at Wal-Mart. So I learned how to make them myself :)

About 50 newsboy hats and a ton of other projects made out of sheets and recycled clothing later and here we are...

I wanted to share some of my money saving, budget friendly tips with you all.

1. Shop at thrift stores/charity shops. You can find sheets, lace, clothing, curtains, etc to use for supplies. You can get lots of yardage for a low price and some pretty awesome prints as well!

2. Google to find fabric outlets in your area. Simply type in your town name and fabric store. You may end up finding an outlet where you can get great supplies for a low price!

3. Sign up for store newsletters. You can get coupons almost every week from stores like JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Hancocks. When there is a supply you need often (like interfacing) you can plan ahead, use the coupon and save quite a chunk of change.

4. Shop yours and friends closets. Look at unwanted items for the material and supplies they can provide. A pair of camo pants and that pillow case with a stain on one side can turn into a cute newsboy hat!

I hope you like these tips! Feel free to share some of your own. Here's a video that goes into a little more depth on each of my 4 tips.

Zipper Headband Project

2011-11-10T20:32:00.002-06:00

Halloween Parade

2011-10-30T12:42:00.001-05:00

Blazer ideas for Halloween

2011-10-30T12:26:00.002-05:00

Styling a Blazer

2011-10-30T12:25:00.001-05:00

My first Threadbanger tutorial!

2011-10-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

Need a costume, but don't want to go all out and buy something you'll never wear again? Check out this DIY project that can be made in about an hour!

Hood pattern- http://whitneysews.blogspot.com/2011/10/animal-hood-patten.html

Hot Diggity Dog Tutorial

2011-10-22T21:38:00.001-05:00

Perfect for the Holidays!

2011-10-16T22:03:00.001-05:00

Owl Plushies and Other Projects

2011-10-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

Owl Templates- http://whitneysews.blogspot.com/2011/10/owl-templates.html

Sewing with Paper

2011-09-30T09:42:00.001-05:00

Fashion Week #5

2011-09-30T09:41:00.000-05:00

Fashion Week #4

2011-09-17T10:50:00.002-05:00

Fashion Week Inspired #3

2011-09-17T10:48:00.002-05:00

Fashion Week Inspired #2

2011-09-17T10:46:00.000-05:00

Fashion Week Inspired- #1

2011-09-07T23:02:00.001-05:00

Have You Heard the News?!?

2011-09-07T23:01:00.001-05:00

New Type of Pillow Sham

2011-09-07T23:00:00.001-05:00

Gatsby Flower

2011-09-07T22:59:00.001-05:00

Memories...

2011-08-10T14:09:00.000-05:00

The traffic outside my office sounds a lot like rain. It got me busy thinking back to chilly rainy days when I was younger. I remember coming home from school on chilly, rainy days and finding my mom in the kitchen baking cookies. In my mind it happened almost every time it rained. *In actuality this probably only happened a few times but it's just something I remember. (BTW I don't even eat cookies that much). Even though I'm older, married, and have my own house when I think of comfort I think of mom in the kitchen baking cookies while I sit on a kitchen stool talking to her snuggled up in a sweatshirt. Good times :)

I hope when I have kids I can create similar comforting memories with them!

Craft Tutorial

2011-07-26T23:36:00.000-05:00

Leather Journal Tutorial

2011-07-24T22:57:00.001-05:00

Card I Made Today

2011-07-16T23:31:00.002-05:00

I'm still new to card making, but I really love how this turned out! I will be working on some more soon :)

Isn't this the Cutest?!?

2011-07-16T23:29:00.001-05:00

Stay-Stitching

2011-07-16T23:28:00.001-05:00

Paper Piecing

2011-07-07T11:23:00.003-05:00

Working with Curves

2011-07-07T11:10:00.000-05:00

Appliqués

2011-07-07T11:09:00.002-05:00

Meet Annie

2011-07-07T11:08:00.002-05:00

Cutting Tools

2011-07-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Paintin' on Some T-shirts

2011-06-17T20:02:00.001-05:00

Sunburst Sham

2011-06-17T20:01:00.001-05:00

Hemming Basics

2011-06-06T22:20:00.003-05:00

New Tutorial!

2011-06-01T22:56:00.001-05:00

Pretty Flowers

2011-05-19T23:38:00.000-05:00

Quick video I made to show photos of the flowers growing in front of our house. I saw them and wanted to practice up on my nature photography :) Hope you like!

*Well it's not letting me embed videos so here's the link*

Pirates!

2011-05-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

The new Pirates of the Caribbean movie comes out tonight! I'm so excited because I love the movies :)

So in honor of the movie I created a Pirate themed tutorial for this week.

Threading a Sewing Machine

2011-05-19T11:42:00.002-05:00

New New New

2011-05-13T21:59:00.002-05:00

Jeremiah and I have gotten (mostly) moved into our new house! We now need to finish unpacking and then decorate.

However that is now the only new thing...

Today I started a new blog! It's not going to replace this one in any way. The new blog is going to track my journey through learning and researching 'fun' history. I'm a firm believer that history (and learning in general) should be fun. I'll be covering topics ranging from old Hollywood actors, sewing history, Native American culture, and lots of other topics I'm interested in. I'll also be taking suggestions for topics. Sometimes I'll just post a quick fun fact and other times a more in depth look.

So far I've only posted an introduction...but go check it out and click follow if you're interested :)

Faux Feather Earring

2011-04-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

Sewing Basics- Bobbin

2011-04-27T23:14:00.000-05:00

Pretty Notions

2011-04-25T19:16:00.004-05:00

I had challenged myself to blog once a week...but missed the last two weeks. I'm been busy with packing, family coming into town, practice for the Eater drama, and several other things. So instead of doing much text blogging today I am going to leave you all with a photo I took today. I pulled out the camera, arranged some wooden spools of thread, and snapped some pics. I really love one of them...so here it is...

Stuffed Bunny Tutorial

2011-04-20T23:15:00.001-05:00

Sewing Basics- Finishing Seams

2011-04-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

Ruffled Necklace Tutorial

2011-04-14T13:35:00.001-05:00

Sewing Basics- Zipper

2011-04-14T13:34:00.000-05:00

-Joy-

2011-04-10T22:36:00.007-05:00

Today was the first time in a year that I've sang in a Sunday church service! It was wonderful.

Right at one year ago I quit the praise team at my old church to finish planning our wedding. Jeremiah and I got married and spent the summer here, there and everywhere. Then we moved to a new area.

On September 26th we walked into our new church. From that very day we could tell it was a special place. HCC is like no other church we've been in before. About a month in we attended a new members class and fellowship. We played a finish the lyrics type game. The music minister, Alan, heard Jeremiah sing a line and that's how he found out we sing. Anyway, long story short we finally got past the holidays and started attending some practices and sang a Wednesday service and Saturday event.

Which brings me to today...Jeremiah was working media (another ministry he's getting involved in) and I sang. I was nervous at first because I had to leave last week's practice early, but once we got started it just felt right! I love being able to worship God and use the talents that He gave me to draw others to Him. Also while singing I could see Jeremiah up in the balcony singing and it put a smile on my face :)

For the entire rest of the day Jeremiah and I have (as Lawrence would say) kept a song in our hearts. We've been humming and even sang 'It's a New Season' as we walked down the grocery aisle in Wal-Mart!

All day today I've felt such a sense of joy. Not the jump up and down, huge smile on my face kind of joy...the subtle type of joy that just causes you to breath easy and feel as though you are exactly where God wants/needs you to be. It's a really nice feeling...I recommend it.

**Side note- I was also thinking today about when I first started church choir ten years ago. I have a neat story about how incredible God's timing is. Someone leave a comment reminding me 'Friday football- choir practice' and I'll try to post it soon.**

Keyhole Tutorial

2011-04-07T11:13:00.003-05:00

Medieval Monday Wrap-Up

2011-04-07T11:13:00.001-05:00

You Don't Know if You Don't Ask

2011-03-31T15:37:00.005-05:00

This has seperate paragraphes but blogger is messing the formating up...so anytime you see [---] that means new paragraph :) --- I've been reminded several times lately of the old saying 'you won't know unless you ask/you won't know if you don't ask'. It is so true! I used to never ask for 'extras' or 'specials' but I'm starting to learn that it really doesn't hurt to ask. I know this is sounding rather vague, but here are a couple of examples. --- A couple of weeks ago I was watching an old Threadbanger episode where Corinne used Threadless shirts for a project and she mentioned that they were damaged tees Threadless had given to TB. So I started thinking...I know TB is much larger and more known then Whitney Sews, but I decided to ask Threadless anyway- because remember, it doesn't hurt. I contacted Threadless and explained my show, that T-shirt recons are my most popular projects, included a link and asked it they had any damaged shirts I could use. By the next day I was contacted back and they said it sounded great, just make sure to mention Threadless sent them, and some shirts were headed my way...just because I wasn't afraid to ask. --- Two days ago Jeremiah and I were looking at a house and decided to put in an offer. The walls of the house were decorated, there was a couple of cases, and curtains on all the windows. We liked the decorations so we wrote into the offer that all those items would be included (along with the brand new appliances)...and it was accepted! Just because we bothered to ask we get to keep some really beautiful items. --- Don't be afraid to ask when situations arise. I'm not saying to be annoying- be respectful and ask politely. Of the answer is no, then just accept it and don't whine, but I think you'll notice the answer is yes more often then not.

Tutorial Thursday- Tea Dying

2011-03-31T15:36:00.000-05:00

Medieval Monday Part 6

2011-03-28T17:04:00.001-05:00

Newsboy Hat...Finally

2011-03-24T13:22:00.001-05:00

Taking Care

2011-03-21T19:07:00.003-05:00

Let me start by saying I have an addiction...and no this isn't an online AA meeting.

My addiction is to Wal-greens brand cherry Chap-Aid. Anyone who knows me in real life probably already knows this. So now that that is out of the way, on to the real point to this post.

I've been thinking a lot lately, reminiscing a little. (I blame being able to think straight for the first time in a year...but that's a different story.)

While cooking dinner just now I was thinking about preparing for our wedding. I was going through books and looking at the recommended To-Do lists. One list stated that 6-8 months before the wedding the bride and groom were to pick out there gifts to each other o.O I told this to Jeremiah and we agreed that getting married was gift enough for us. So when Jeremiah handed me a gift bag at the end of our wedding rehearsal I was a bit surprised. He told me that he know we agree to not do gifts for each other, but this was just something he really wanted to get me.

I opened the bag and inside was 25 chapsticks! Jeremiah said he wanted to give them to me to show that he would always be there and take care of everything I need. I thought that was really cute and sweet!

So here we are more then 10 months later and I am still using those 25 chapsticks and Jeremiah is taking wonderful care of me :)

Medieval Monday Part 5

2011-03-21T18:41:00.000-05:00

God WILL Provide

2011-03-17T10:27:00.003-05:00

I was in the shower just a few moments ago thinking about what has happened recently because I wanted to do a blog update (because I'm challenging myself to blog at least once a week). As I was pondering I began to see a trend...God has been so incredible in providing for us as we are faithful to Him.

For the past month or so Jeremiah and I have needed a couple more bookcases. However we kept putting off buying any new ones. One day last week Jeremiah came in from work and said there was two bookcases sitting next to the dumpster. We walk down and took a look and there was two five foot bookcases in great condition! So we carried them back to the apartment...they are exactly what we needed. I know that's not a huge thing to most people, but to us the two bookcases were a big deal.

I haven't mentioned it on here (except in a video), but we are in the process of buying a house. Monday we went in with a contractor to get an estimate on some work and found out that the house had been broken into. The dead bolt was gone, the copper pipes under the kitchen sink was stolen, the cabinet doors in the laundry room were ripped off, and every wire going to the fuse box was cut. At the time it hit me hard emotionally, but now that I've had a few days it doesn't seem as bad...because the same day we found out there was a mistake and our original bid price was accepted. This saves us $3,557 from what we were expecting to pay! Repairing the damage from the break in will be less then $3,557...and who knows, maybe there was some bad wiring and having the box rewired may be preventing something worse that could have happened. So even though something bad happened to the house, God took care of us financially.

This is just two situations where God has provided for us recently, but there are so many more I could share! What has God done for you?

Sewing Pattern Tip

2011-03-17T10:01:00.000-05:00

Medieval Monday Part 4

2011-03-14T23:03:00.000-05:00

Tutorial Thursday- Lace and Buttons

2011-03-10T10:48:00.001-06:00

Medieval Monday Part 3

2011-03-09T17:23:00.001-06:00

**This is the first time blogger has let me sign in since Sunday o.O

Anyway, here is this week's Medieval Faire update

One of Those Days...

2011-03-06T18:03:00.006-06:00

Today was 'one of those days.' Not the bad kind...the kind of day where things click into place and everything is great!

It started when I woke up this morning. Most mornings I don't like getting out of bed; I want to stay there for that extra 5-10 minutes. Today I got up early and even had time to sit down and eat breakfast.

Then Jeremiah and I head off to church and it was an awesome service! The praise and worship was amazing and everything said just made sense. At the end of the service we were both in tears- mine was a happy cry just think about how wonderful God is and thanking Him for His goodness.

We came home for a quick lunch of leftovers and headed back to church for our first praise and worship practice. We are so excited about getting involved and getting back to singing! The practice went really well. I liked how we started practice with some general info and announcements and then we played a taboo type game which got everyone involved and having a good time, and then we got down to business.

Right now I'm sitting on the couch catching up with emails and things and Jeremiah is back at the church getting started with helping on the media team.

Jeremiah and I have talked a few times over the past week or so about how much we love our church (Heartland Community Church- HCC) and how it's really the first time that we've 100% clicked with a church.

HCC is doing servolutions in the community like adopting a school- we donated coats for the kids, took food for the teachers, and this coming weekend we will be repainting and working outside to make the school look better. We love how involved the church is with the community and there is the right balance of serving outside the church while still ministering to the needs of the people within the church.

Anyway, just felt like sharing that I'm having 'one of those days' that puts a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

*Here's the chorus of the song that was sang at the end of service today and it popped into my head again this afternoon.

I'm not going back, I'm moving ahead.

Here to declare to You my past is over in You

All things are made new, surrendered my life to Christ

I'm moving, moving forward.

Tutorial Thursday- Easy Lollipop Flowers

2011-03-03T11:10:00.000-06:00

Blogging Portraits

2011-02-28T19:18:00.006-06:00

I've found a lot of great craft blogs lately and wished that my blog was as awesome as them...or awesome period. Thinking about that reminds me of how much I neglect this blog. So I'm going to try to make this better. To start things off I'm going to try to make at least one post a week that doesn't have a video in it. The post can be all text, all photos, or a mix. Then if I can get back to posting once a week I'll try to bump it up from there.

Last weekend Jeremiah's mom came up to visit and for an her early birthday present we all went and got portraits taken. It was the first time Jeremiah and I had ever had professional photos taken and I love how they turned out! I hope sometime we can go get pictures taken with my parents too :)

Medieval Monday Part 2

2011-02-28T18:22:00.000-06:00

Tutorial Thursday...

2011-02-26T23:05:00.001-06:00

...really late because of embedding problems...

Here's the link to this week's tutorial. :)

Medieval Monday Part 1

2011-02-21T16:44:00.001-06:00

Cookin' Some Cookies

2011-02-18T10:26:00.000-06:00

Geek Week Tutorial

2011-02-15T10:24:00.000-06:00

Vintage Patterns!

2011-02-10T22:56:00.001-06:00

Tutorial Tuesday- Valentine TIme

2011-02-07T23:42:00.000-06:00

2011-02-05T12:46:00.000-06:00

Is It the Weekend Yet?

2011-02-03T20:49:00.000-06:00

SNOW!

2011-02-01T18:37:00.001-06:00

Now I'm headed to the kitchen to make that snow ice cream :)

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-02-01T15:38:00.001-06:00

Crafted (E)ase

2011-01-30T14:47:00.003-06:00