Thrifty Thursday: It's Chic to Be Cheap {19}

It's Do It Yourself Day over at Kimba's! I thought it might be fun to combine a DIY post with my own Thrifty Thursday: It's Chic to Be Cheap post. Please check out A Soft Place to Land for more inspiration!

One of the best things about having girls is getting to dress them up and fix their hair. Whether they like it or not. I have two of my own personal babydolls, even if the bigger one is cranky and the little one wipes her snotty nose on my shoulder.

We have a lot of hair bows in our house. A. lot. Poor T probably has nightmares about them. I cleaned out the tupperware bin that was holding most of the bows a few weeks ago and also found several hidden in Natalie's room. She sometimes likes to have impromptu beauty parlor sessions when she's supposed to be napping.

I decided that a little organization was in order, and I remembered that my mom used a hanging ribbon to organize bows for my sister and I when we were growing up.

I gathered my supplies:

~A pretty colored ribbon (I chose a standard pink because I wasn't completely sure that I wouldn't wreck this first-time project, and I didn't want to ruin a nice patterned one)

~ D-rings (can be found in any fabric or craft store with the sewing notions)

~Thread in a color of your choice

I cut a decent length and made a little fold at each end and pressed them both. Please pretend like you don't see the burn marks on my ironing board. Ahem.

Next, I stuck a D ring in one of the folds with the rounded part out and attempted to sew a tiny straight line to close it without crippling myself. This took me two tries because I am pretty new to sewing. Please stop laughing. You're hurting my feelings.

If you mess up, you can just cut the end off and start again. I love projects like that! This is what it looked like when I had it all lined up. You could totally sew that by hand, but I just wanted to practice threading my machine.


After sewing the other end closed (no D ring in that end!), I hunted for some fabric paint to jazz it up a bit.

I was going to paint something neat at the top, but Michaela Byrd started climbing onto the dining room table and attempting to turn the sewing machine on. Maybe she thought I needed another lesson. This is all I had time to do:

Then it was up to Natalie's room to hang it after it dried. I managed to hammer a small nail in the wall without maiming myself or a small child. I hung it behind her bedroom door so it would still be accessible when I'm getting her ready, but out of sight.



It appears I have a happy customer! I like this sytsem much better than stuffing dozens of hair bows into a cramped little drawer.


Close up:

The sad part of this tutorial? We still have a bunch of bows that need to be hung. I guess it's back to the sewing machine for me!

Maybe next time Michaela Byrd can teach me how to make a duvet cover.
But then she'd want her own blog and I don't like to share my lap top.

{Happy Thursday!}