My last picture post for today. I made these 2 charm bracelets for the cute little girls. They are made mostly of plastic beads, crocheted elements and flower sequins, to keep them very light for the small wrists  

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541chrmgrl.jpg

And here is a little more of what I have been doing lately.  There is a little of everything there as you can see, I love to make (and of course to wear! ) jewelry, so I do lots of it.

++ Edited: the pics were too small, I am giving it a try and post a little bigger pictures, I hope it works!

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541mix10.jpg
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541mix11.jpg
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541mix12.jpg

It has been a while since the last time I posted pics, so today I am posting pics of some of the things I have been doing lately.
Here is a set of charm bracelet, long earrings and ring.  They are made mostly from nature elements (wood, coconut beads, stone, etc) I like them very much!  I hope you like them.

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541mix9.jpg

[PLUS another half of that measure]

***Edited -- somehow the pics were gone and I don't know when or why. Thanks to the fellow Crafter that told me abut it! I uploaded them again, hopefully it is all working fine now... ***

Thank you for all your nice comments about my first babydoll top posted here http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=36090.0

I did a second one and as promised, I pictured the process so here is the tutorial :-). It can be adapted for the beautiful pregnant bellies. The parts that need to be adapted are marked in the text (in red).

You will need:
- 2 rectangles of stretchy material for the top part. It can be done with the fabric from an old T-Shirt (that is what I did). I used for this top 2 different colors, one for the back side and one for the front. The rectangles should be big enough to cover the breast part plus seam allowances.

- 2 longer pieces of fabric for the straps. I cut the pieces double wide because I made them double layered

- Another rectangle of a different, very light and flowy fabric for the bottom part. If you want it transparent (like I did on my first top) you can even use a silk shawl. For the measurements: the length you wish and important: the width must be the circumference of your waistline PLUS another half of that measure,plus seam allowance. For make it easy with the tutorial, I will call this the 'skirt part' of the top.
* For pregnant bellies: the width should be 2 times the circumference of the waistline

- A few extra straps of scraps or trims or ribbon for wrapping it at the front part.

An now the steps:
1. Cut all your pieces



2. Take the rectangle for the front part and hand-stitch it at the middle to give a little kind of drape effect. Once it is done, sew your 2 rectangles together (right sides together, wrong side up). These 2 steps will be looking like this:



3. Stitch every side of the big rectangle (the 'skirt part' of the top) to finish and stop from fraying. Mi fabric was actually a mini beach-skirt that I did not use and it has a fringe at the bottom. I left it with fringe and all, so I just stitched the top and the sides.  Once stitched, pin the 'skirt part' to the top part (to the bust part that you did before). To pin it, have the bust part right side up, and the skirt part should be wrong side up, so the right sides of fabric will be actually facing. *IMPORTANT:   Start with the pins from the BACK side of the top, starting from the middle and going to the sides. I wanted to add a piece of a different color at the front, so I left at each side about 2 inches without pins. If you don't want to add any extra scrap with different color, simply pin all until the end. When you come to the front part and you finish adding pins all around, you will notice that on each side you will have lots of fabric left. Don't worry, you did not do anything wrong, it is ok like that, so leave it like this. This extra fabric is actually what will give this flowy effect to the top once it is done.
Look at the pic to get the idea.



*If you want the top to be open and show the belly, leave the 'skirt part' like it is now, then you are ready with that part (I left my top open). This is how it looks by now:



If you want it to be closed, now just take the right and left side of the 'skirt part' fabric (they are somewhere 'flowing around')  and stitch them together.
* For pregnant bellies I would recommend always to stitch the sides so the top is closed, then the belly is protected :-)  but of course you can keep it open if you wish.


Now the top is taking shape! we are almost done, by now it is looking something like this:



4.Time to add the straps. I did mine double layered, you can make them plain. Just measure the length you would need and stitch them to the front and back side of the top.
and now the last part: cover the first stitches to the middle of the top (the ones from step 2) by wrapping around a strap, trim, lace or whatever you like. You can make it as long as you want, it will add 'flowy effect' to the top if you make it long.  And if you opted for leaving the front open and adding a piece of a different color (like I did) now it is the time to add that extra piece. I did a rectangle in aqua blue color and stitched it at the very front, where I left the 2 inches opened in step 3.



5. Ta-daaa, it is ready! You can add embellishments or leave it just as it is.




I liked how it turned out and the best part: this time my husband liked the top very much! so now I am happy :-)

I hope that you understand the tutorial and that I used the right words (english is not my mother language). If you have questions feel free to ask.

I hope this tutorial is useful :-)

Here are a few of the new things I did yesterday. I LOVE bold bracelets, so I made me 2 of them to match some clothes I have  , plus a necklace made from glass beads a 2 pairs of very simple earrings. The pics are not very good but you get the idea, I hope you like them.

Excitement and sadness came together when I finished this top. After a long time of sewing only other items, I decided to give clothing a first try and this is the result. It is a light top for hot summer or the beach (I REALLY hope that the sun and the warm days come soon, I am so tired of the cold days!).  It is not perfect, but I am happy with it.
The top part is a stretch material (a scrap from an old shirt that I never wore because I did not like it) and the other part is silk with floral print. At the back I added 2 little 'wings' of silk.

I was excited about finishing it and when my husband came home I was showing him the top and he did not like it :-(  First he did not say anything, so I asked: You don't like it? and he answered in that funny tone of voice that men use when they lie: 'Yeeees, iiiis okay, it is not too bad, it is maaaybe just a liiittle too...light?' Who understands men? they like to see ladies even lighter dressed but when it is about their wives we need to dress very covered, lol.  It made me a little sad but well, it is my first project and with the time will get better, and anyway I like it and I will wear it when the warm days come and we go to the beach  

Sorry, the pics are not too good, the camera took them alone and I could not see what it was taking :-) but you get a better idea with the mannequin pic

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541topor2.jpg
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541topor1.jpg

So yesterday finally I could have the chance to do some long sewing session without interruptions!  
based on the great tutorials from here (Jordys squared bag, glorianas messenger bag and starlenes reversibe cutout bag) I made these 3 bags:
1. A little bag with angel fabric and the back is a pink velvet. The lining is light pink
2. A messenger bag with Little Twin Stars, for the sides I used another textil with stars and hearts in pastell pink, in the front I added a glittery band
3. A tiny cherry bag with a red white dotted lining.

They are not perfect, but I am happy with them, I hope the pics work!

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541angbag.jpg
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541messngr.jpg
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541chrr.jpg

Here are a few pics of some other of my jewelry, it is a little bit of everything mixed and with different styles because I work according to my daily mood  .  I hope the pics work and I hope you like them!



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[1.]

As promised, here is the tutorial for the flower choker that I was showing some days ago.
I make the chokers mostly with felt because it does not fray, allowing it to look nice and to get done easy and very fast, and they have felt in many nice colors 
So here we go:

1.   Cut little squares of felt. I used here 2 inches squares. Use more or less squares depending on the number of petals you want to have. Here I used 8.



2. Take a square, take the right and left corners and bring them to the front, in other words, fold slightly the square on the middle (do not mark the fold).



3. Now take the corners and bring fold them to the back



4. Now cut the remaining felt to make a clean cut on the bottom



5. By now iit will be looking like this:



6. Sew the petal with a very simple stitch, just enough to keep it on shape



7. Continue steps 2 to 5 with all the squares. At the end you will have all the little lose petals and they are ready to be sewn together...

Once all petals are ready, sew them together with simple small stitches at the bottom


8. Now the flower is ready! at this point you can fix a little the petals with your fingers to make
them look nicer...



9. It is time to attach the flower to the choker. For the choker you can use
a piece of felt, a ribbon, an organza ribbon or whatever you feel like. I used a kind of vinyl
ribbon that I had and used velcro at the back to open it and close it.  I attached it with simple stitches.
And now embellish the flower: glue somethig to the center of the flower. I used a glue gun and
attached a little plastic brown marble, but you can add whatever: buttons, sequins, beads, fabric...


10. And ready! This is how the choker looks like.  The blue one is made with another fabric (a fraying one)
but it was moree time-consuming to make, I prefer the ones with felt



Hope that I was clear enough and that you understand my english. Feel free to ask is something is not very clear

So, I have the problem that when I am stresses, I do 2 things: I eat chocolate (or anything sweet) and I craft    That is the way I beat stress, and yesterday was so stressful, that I could manage to do many new pieces of jewelry. They are simple and I think they are self explanatory, but if you have questions feel free to ask. Hope you like them!

http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/27541mix5.jpg