halloween fabric trick-or-treat buckets

I made the kids some fabric trick-or-treat buckets for Halloween this year. I was so happy with how they turned out! I found this fabric bucket tutorial which inspired me to do the contrasting fabric turnovers, they look great and help them hold their shape, I used fusible web between the two fabrics which also helped. They are quite a bit smaller than the ones in the tutorial, I just worked out the dimensions for the size I wanted.

I picked out fabrics to go with the kids’ bat and pterodactyl costumes. I bought a fat quarter of the purple bat print, the other fabrics and the ribbons for the handles were from my stash.

I had a fat quarter of the orange and black dinosaur print leftover from the fabric party bags I made for Oliver’s dinosaur birthday party a couple of years ago. It’s actually a Jurassic Park fabric, which is not readily available anymore. I was saving it for something special.. which turned out to be Halloween!

I had an Etsy customer last month who ordered some party bags and favors for her little girl’s 3rd birthday, and she had mentioned that her daughter’s favourite dinosaur was triceratops, and that she was dressing as one for Halloween. What fun!

I don’t think I would have thought of dinosaurs for Halloween if not for this. It then occurred to me that the dinosaur ribbon I use for party bag handles would make cute hair-bows, and that the orange one was perfect for Halloween! So I made a couple of hair-bow-clips to send with her order as a little thank-you..



This led me on to the idea of making dinosaur trick-or-treat bags, and other Halloween related ideas which I didn’t get to this year, but I have a year to work on them now, and hopefully I will list some Halloween related goodies in my Etsy shop next year..

first week of school and hair accessories roundup

With my daughter Cyan starting school for the first time, I decided to document this first week, with a photo of her each morning, all ready for school; and I crafted a hair accessory for her each evening, utilising my lovely stash of green (our school colour) ribbons, all from the fabulous craftyribbons.com..


Click the title for each day to read the full post, with tutorials for each hair accessory..

Monday.. interchangeable bows for hair clips..



Tuesday.. ribbon hair bun covers..



Wednesday.. hair ribbon streamers..



Thursday.. ribbon covered hair clips with buttons..



Friday.. embellished hair bands..



Well Cyan certainly enjoyed her first week at school, and big brother Oliver had a good week too (once he got over the cough he was suffering with earlier in the week), he is now in Year 3 which is his first junior year.. so exciting times for both my kids!

We are all worn out (especially me, I won’t be writing daily blog posts again for a while!) and looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.. we are off to our local museum tomorrow for a Japanese themed family craft event – making card samurai swords and helmets – that should be fun!

Sharing at the fabulous link parties on my sidebar, go check them out..

fourth day of school and ribbon covered hairclips

Day four at school for Cyan.. she is loving it! Wearing her green and white striped summer dress today.. Striped school summer dresses are not so common as gingham ones, we do like to be individual!

We were given a book from school with pages for Cyan to fill in about herself, she drew this picture of herself today, with her striped dress – and hair accessories!



I really wanted to use the grosgrain polka dot ribbon on something, it didn’t work on any of the accessories I made so far, and I also found some lovely green velvet ribbon with a striped texture while going through my stash of ribbons.. so Thursday’s hair accessory is..

Ribbon covered hair clips with buttons

You will need:
Ribbons
Buttons or other embellishments
Hair clips
Craft glue
Hot glue gun
Sharp scissors



Cut ribbon lengths to fit around hair clips..

Apply craft glue to half of ribbon reverse, snap into place in clip..



Apply craft glue to the remaining half of ribbon reverse..



Fold up around front of clip..



Wrap round to the back, the end should line up with the other end trapped in the clip..



Pick out some fun buttons or embellishments..



Use hot glue gun to stick on the buttons..



These were really simple and a lot of fun to make, and they are completely different to Cyan’s other clips with bows that I made on Monday..

third day of school and hair ribbon streamers

The next installment of Cyan showing off her school uniform..

Grey tunic dress paired with a white blouse with cute flower embroidery on the collar (the blouse is another of my mum’s charity shop finds)..



You can see her hair in buns with the bun covers I made last night, which almost worked.. they were just a little too small to stay put :(



Onto today’s hair accessory, this is the most simple hair accessory to make with ribbon, we have made them before with various different colours and lengths of ribbon.. so Wednesday’s hair accessory is..

Hair ribbon streamers

You will need
Assortment of lovely ribbons
Hair elastics
Sharp scissors



Cut lengths of ribbon.. for these I used 6" lengths..
(I didn’t end up using the grosgrain polka dots in the above picture, they don’t hang right, the organza and lighter weight ribbons work best)

Tie each ribbon tightly onto the hair elastic, and pull into shape.. done!



Seriously these are so easy, and little girls love them.. I kept these fairly short for school.. I have made them before with much longer lengths, so they are like proper streamers, and Cyan called them ‘princess hair ribbons’!

second day of school and hair bun covers

Second day of school for Cyan.. Oliver unfortunately is trying to kick a cough, he was just well enough for his first day back yesterday, but the day took it’s toll and he was up coughing in the night again so he’s been at home with Daddy today.. (How is it they have a 6-week summer holiday and Oli manages to get a cough the week before school starts?!)



Cyan’s first day went really well yesterday, sounds like she had a lot of fun; and she is so excited about making new friends – and catching up with her old friends who went to the same pre-school. She came down the stairs this morning from brushing her teeth at 8am saying “I’m ready, can I go to school now?” (We live very close to the school and don't normally leave until 8:30-8:40!)

Today Cyan chose to wear her proper ‘big girl’ ensemble of grey skirt, white blouse and tie! She was most insistent that she wanted to wear her tie today, and is loving the fact that I am letting her choose a different uniform outfit each day this week! (Usually I like to get a few days wear out of clothes to reduce my laundry commitments! And yes, this does sometimes cause arguments..)



With the green cardigan.. This cardigan is labelled as age 3-4 and is still too big for Cyan, she’s not even so dinky anymore after this summer’s growth spurt, and she just turned 5! The cardigan stayed on just long enough for me to snap a photo, Cyan is a warm child, doesn’t like wearing extra layers (except for princess dresses/cloaks and the like!) and she won’t really need to wear it until the weather gets a lot colder.

And the hair accessory craft of the day.. I was thinking.. what other (practical) styles could we do with Cyan’s hair, apart from the obvious plaits, pigtails, ponytail etc.? I thought it might be fun to put her hair in two little buns, but her hair is quite fine and thin, and very slippy so it won't stay in a bun without a bun cover (like the crochet ones you wear for ballet)..

I don’t crochet, so for Tuesday we’re going to make..

Ribbon hair bun covers

You will need
Organza ribbon and/or lace type trim



Before you start you will need to put your girl’s hair roughly in a bun and work out the length of ribbons you will need.. With Cyan’s hair in two buns, the length I needed to fit across one bun was approx 3.5". Add 2" for casing allowance. I cut 2 x 5.5" lengths of polka dot organza ribbon (from my school colours ribbon collection) and 1 x 5.5" length of this cute cotton lace type trim which I found in my stash.. I used 3 lengths for each small bun cover, for a single bun cover or if your girl’s hair is thicker than Cyan’s you will probably want 4 lengths or more..



Fold the ends and sew to make the casing for the ribbon tie, check your pieces will end up the right length before sewing..

Then sew the lengths together in the middle.



Thread ribbon tie through the casings..



Tie in a bow to secure onto bun.



Quite simple really, although it took a bit of trial and error to find a method which (I hope) works..



the next morning: Here are the bun covers in action, they do work in principle, unfortunately my measurements were a little on the small side (either that or Cyan’s hair grew thicker overnight!), so they don’t quite stay put.. Another inch on the lengths I used would probably fix this.. whether it’s worth remaking them I don’t know.. or perhaps I’ll just ask my mum if she would crochet some for Cyan ;)

What do you think?



Brushing up on her alphabet before school this morning.. Thank you Aunty Arwen for the alphabet jigsaw puzzle birthday card ;) You can see the ribbon bow hair clips she picked to wear from those I made last night..

first day of school and hair bow tutorial

It was our first day back at school today.. first day ever for Cyan!



The school colour is green, which I love..

I had bought hair clips, and a whole selection of lovely ribbons in green and white.. gingham, striped, polka dots, organza..
The ribbons are all from craftyribbons.com



I am planning to craft a hair accessory each night this week, to go with Cyan’s uniform..

Tonight I decided to add some bows to the hair clips.. so on Monday we have..

Simple interchangeable bows for hair clips tutorial

You will need:
Assortment of lovely ribbons (see above!)
Hair clips
Fray-check or craft glue
Sharp scissors

Take a length of ribbon, about 8" worked out well with the 10mm ribbon..

(For wider ribbon you would need a slightly longer length, for narrow ribbon slightly shorter.)



Snap the hair clip onto the centre of the ribbon length..



Tie in a knot, twice, pulling tight each time, this means the bows can slip on and off the clips later..



Tie bows, according to this method for simple bows on the crafty ribbons blog.. keep adjusting and pulling tighter until bows look the right size and shape, then trim the ends with sharp scissors..



I fray-checked the ends and also added a dab of glue under the bow knot, top and bottom..



I made five pairs of bows with different ribbons..



They can all be swapped onto different clips..



They turned out so cute and they are really so simple to make  – I think I may have to do more in non-school colours, I have a HUGE stash of ribbons and Cyan has LOADS of hair clips which we could slip bows onto..

Why don’t you make some really simple interchangeable hair clip bows..





After all the comments on the uniform, I added this photo crop where you can see the detail on this dress more clearly – it really is a lovely one (click photos to enlarge). Gingham dresses in the school colour are standard summer uniform for girls here, you can buy them from a variety of retailers and the style does vary a lot. This particular dress is one my mum picked up in a charity shop a couple of years back and we’ve been saving it for when Cyan started school.