Tutorial Tuesday: Making a Draw-string Baggie!

Good evening everyone!

Today' tutorial is a brief walk through of how to make a draw-string baggie! I just learned it in my sewing class today (it's the 2nd class, so I'm not very advanced). It's super cute and easy to make, even if you don't have a sewing machine.

I didn't feel comfortable recording video during class, so I don't have any video footage to show you. So I will just have to talk you through what we did, with the help of some pictures.

On the left is the finished product. You will need a rectangle piece of fabric (long side twice the length of the short side, so a 1:2 ratio), solid color or patterned, it's really up to you. In class we were provided with white fabric and choice of ribbon (I chose green of course!).

If you use a patterned piece of fabric then you won't have to sew decorative stitches across like mine. For white or solid color fabric, and if you have a sewing machine with a variety of stitches, definitely sew some decorative stitches on.

With rectangle piece of fabric, draw a line 3.5 inches from the top of the short side. For horizontal stitching, we marked 3 more lines, below that line, each 1.5 inches down. The markings were made with markers that could easily be wiped off with a damp cloth. There are other markers that fade over time.Then sew the decorative stitches along those lines. You can see some of my decorative stitches on the left.

From this point, you can leave your edges raw, or you can sew some zigzag stitching along the edges to keep them from fraying. I sewed zigzags along all 4 sides of my rectangle piece.

Then fold your rectangle up in half, wrong side out. Sew the two sides down with a straight stitch, leaving the top open.

Next, still with the wrong side out, fold the top opening down to meet the 3.5" line you drew (and/or sewed a decorative stitch). Pin and sew along that edge, then sew another round half an inch away from that towards the opening. This will create the path for your ribbon (observe image on the right).

Turn your bag right side out now, and observe the sides where the stitching is. Between the two lines you made earlier, rip that bit of seam on each side using a seam ripper. This will create one opening on each side for your to slide your ribbon through.

Cut two pieces of ribbon of the same length, and the length should be about 5-6 inches longer than the width of your baggie. If you don't have one of those special sewing gadgets to snake the ribbon through the hole, you can use either a bobby pin (tie the ribbon on the folded part of the pin and use the other end to snake it through) or a long safety pin (pin down one end, close the pin and snake it through).

For the first piece of ribbon, snake it in and out one end, so you make one full circle and come out the same place you came in (observe image on left). Then tie a knot to keep it from slipping out. Next, do the same for the second piece of ribbon but enter and exit from the other hole you created.

That's it! Your baggie is done! If you made it small,it can be a cute little coin bag, travel make-up bag or anything else you can think of. If you make it bigger, there are even more possibilities on the uses!

If you decide to make one, please do share! Until next time!

<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: Understanding Color

Good afternoon Lured Ones!

I hope your week is off to a good start and are on your way to happy Halloween tomorrow!

Today I had a tutorial planned and began filming it for you. Then half way through painting it, migraine hits and that was the end of that tutorial for now. I get frequent migraines that sometimes get so bad that I can't do anything but to lay down. So that's what I've been doing. I will post a picture below to give you a sneak-peek into what I had planned for today, however, I won't tell you what I am planning to demonstrate:

I realized that there's no way I can finish a tutorial for you today in time, so I decided to muster up some energy to find a good tutorial to show you all. After a bit of searching, I found a good video discussing color mixing and making a color wheel. It's a video on YouTube by Jerry Yarnell. He does a great job describing how colors interact with each other and also gets into describing color composition for different moods for a painting with examples from his studio.

I am posting a this video (that has no affiliation to me, I just really liked his explanation) in place of my own today, but keep in mind that I will finish this tutorial when I can and still post it for next week's Tutorial Tuesday. So be sure to check back for that! I think you will really like what I have planned.

So with that said, I shall leave you in the good hands of Mr. Yarnell.



<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: Priming the Canvas

Good evening everyone!

I can't believe Tuesday is almost over. But it is still Tuesday, nonetheless, and that means it's time for another Tutorial Tuesday. I actually was uploading it earlier today in the morning and I got really sick and was in bed all day, so I wasn't able to put up a post until now.

For this Tutorial Tuesday, I am showing you how to prime the canvas as a follow up from the last tutorial. In this one, I am showing how to prime the canvas board we made. You are not limited to the canvas board as you can prime pretty much any surface in preparation for painting. I hope you like it!If you were wondering, music is again by my friend Eric, so be sure to give his Sublunary band page and Facebook page some love.


See you on Factual Friday!

<3 Kara

Tutorial Tuesday: How to Make a Canvas Board/Panel

Good afternoon everyone!



Today features the first installment of Tutorial Tuesday! I've decided to do a tutorial on how to make a canvas board. I've stretched canvases before, but have yet to make a canvas board. There was a simple How To in one of the books I owned and thought it would be a fun first tutorial for this series. I also did a bit of research just to see what others are doing out there to make their canvas boards, and adjusted a template of how I would do it.

As you are watching this video, please keep in mind that I am doing this tutorial for the first time with you. I have never done this before, so I will be making mistakes as someone doing something for the first time might. With that said, enjoy! And don't forget to come back for the first Factual Friday on Be Lured on... you guessed it, Friday!

<3 Kara

DIY Lace Trimmed Shorts

Good evening y'all!

While visiting Seattle last month, my best friend Elyse and I worked on a sewing project and I wanted to show you what we did!

Many people were pinning and re-pinning these cute lace trimmed shorts and I wanted one so bad! The only problem: I didn't have a sewing machine. But I knew that there was one at Elyse's house, and she was more than happy to help me with this project. We had a blast hanging out, talking and doing crafty things. She helped me with the shorts and also she crocheted these super cute headbands that I will blog about it another post! She is so talented, she could probably make good money selling her stuff. Furthermore, she is so generous for letting me use some of her lace from her stash, the sewing machine and also helping me sew it. I was quite incompetent at the sewing machine (something I plan on fixing) so she had to step in :)

So we started by going to Goodwill to find a pair of jeans to cut up. That day I left Goodwill with an awesome pair of boot cut Banana Republic jeans that fit me perfectly all around. They were even hemmed up to the perfect length for me. After going through Elyse's lace collection together, and choosing potential lace pieces, we agreed to meet another day to sew.

The next meeting, I really didn't have the heart to cut up such a perfect pair of denim. The funny thing was that Elyse mentioned on the first trip to Goodwill, "What if you liked these so much you didn't want to cut them up?" So we made a second trip to Goodwill and felt pretty hopeless when I saw a pair of destroyed Hollister jeans hanging on the discard rack. Those also fit me perfectly and I didn't hesitate cutting off the legs because the knees were too destroyed to my liking.What a lucky day!

Step 1: The lace I decided to use is pictured in the top right. Notice the cute piggies embroidered on it? I was so excited when I noticed it way late. Think about it: who puts piggies on lace trim? So cute! Anyway, the bottom right image shows the Hollister denim that I decided to use. We started by marking the line where we wanted to cut on the leg. I chose it to be just above mid-thigh because I am not a big fan of short-shorts.

Step 2: We turned the shorts inside out and sewed up the hem about half an inch. Elyse started the hem and I tried to finish. The key word here is "try" because I failed miserably. I couldn't keep the hemline straight, so Elyse took over. Isn't she so kind? She actually ended up sewing the rest of it. She doubled sewed the hem to ensure that it was sturdy since this is denim.

Step 3: The finishing step was to sew on the lace along the inside of the denim. We made sure the lace would overlap on the inner thigh so that the lace would be uninterrupted around the rest of the leg.

The finishing of finishing step is to try on the shorts and see how it looks.  And I think it looks pretty cute, don't you? They are so cute I  wore these shorts the rest of that day :)

We went to her backyard to take some pictures for this blog. She also let me use her Buddy scooter for the pictures and they turned out great! Thanks Elyse for helping every step of the way. I had such an amazing time with you ^_^

I hope you enjoyed this post about the process of making these shorts. If you have questions about this process or would like to make a pair for yourself, please let me know! I I would love to see what you came up with. Until next time!

<3 Kara

Sowthistles and Grasses Speed Painting

Happy Sunday!

For most of you, I'm guessing you have another day off, so hooray for that!
The good news for me today is that internet is back online! Woot! A couple of days without internet and I feel so disconnected. When did I become so attached to the web?

So, with internet available, I am able to share with you the second video for the painting Sowthistles and Grasses. I did mention that I am making a speed painting clip, and it's here! It's about 2 hrs of footage, sped up by a lot of times hehe. I hope you find it enjoyable.

Have a great afternoon!

<3 Kara

Sowthistles and Grasses (oil painting)

It's Friday! And it's Labor day weekend! So I hope yours is off to a good start!

Yesterday I finished a painting and I'm so excited to share it with you all :) It's based from a tutorial painting by Brian Bennett from the book How to Paint by Angela Gair and Ian Sidaway. So this is definitely not an original, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.

The medium is oil paints; this was my first experience with oil paints and it was very interesting. It took me a bit to get use to mixing paints with a medium, and also cleaning up with a lot more care. Furthermore, this tutorial was to practice palette knife painting techniques and that's a challenge in itself. The brushwork was minimal, which meant that I had to suggest certain details based on how I lay paint down with the pallet knife.

To learn more about my experience with this painting, please watch this video below! I am also making a bonus video showing about 2 hours worth of live painting, sped up 16x, and will be available soon! Have a fantabulous weekend!

<3 Kara