DIY Flower girl dress or Tutu dress

Flower girl dress or Tutu dress never go out of fashion. They are so cute, adorable and make you say aaahhh pretty! I made this pretty little one as a birthday gift for a cute angel, Aditi. 

Isn't it just awesome that you don't need any kind of sewing equipment or sewing skills to make one like this? I know, at this point you are getting impatient and shouting just show us the procedure!!! Okay, I am coming to that.

Supplies you need.

• 100 yards Tulle fabric roll. (I got mine at hobby lobby)
• Crochet band or crochet tutu top (Lined or unlined)
• Soft fabric flowers
• 1.5 inch wide Ribbon
• Glue gun
• Rhinestones to stick on flowers (optional)
• Scissors

Let's get started! 

1. Measure your girl's height from waist to toe. Double the height and that's the length of tulle strips you would need. ( Aditi's height from waist to toe is 15 inch so I cut 30 inch pieces.) I happen to have a plastic container lid that measures approx 15 inch so I wrapped my tulle around the lid and cut at a single spot to get 30 inch pieces of tulle fabric. Nice trick, isn't it?

2. Put the crochet band around a cubical or cylindrical box such that your band stretches a tiny little bit and makes finding the crochet holes easier.

3. Now take a cut piece of tulle, fold into half and insert in one of the holes on 3rd row from down of the band. Make a loop and pull through the rest of the tulle piece such that it knots on itself to the band. 

Proceed doing same all around the crochet band in same row and leaving alternate holes.

4. It should look like above picture, once you finish the first row. If you look closely, you can see little gaps between every two knots. Don't worry about those, we are going to cover them with next layer of tulle.

5. For the second layer, choose third row from the earlier worked row on crochet band. Repeat to knot tulle pieces around the chosen row. Try to knot the tulle pieces in between tulle pieces of earlier worked row so that you cover those gaps between earlier tulle pieces. 

5. After you are done knotting tulle pieces around the second layer, your dress should look like above.

6. For the sleeves: Bring the satin ribbon through 3rd or 4th hole from the right side in the 2nd row from top of crochet band knot it to crochet band. Bring it under the crochet band to left side and knot it again at 3rd or 4th hole from left on the same row. Make sure you have enough ribbon to tie a bow at the back of dress.

7. Bring both ribbon ends to the back and slide them through corresponding holes from the front side. Do not knot the ribbon here, just bring the ribbon down under the band and get the ribbon out at which ever height you like to tie a bow. This makes the straps adjustable and doesn't let the sleeves to slide off the baby shoulder easily.

8. Tie a pretty bow and cut v shape at ribbon ends. 

9. Using your hot glue gun start sticking fabric flowers on to crochet band row by row. Always be careful while using hot glue gun.

10. You can get creative and stick flowers in random fashion or form a heart or do it diagonal. I decided to fill entire arena with flowers.

11. If you are doing the same design like mine, make sure to go back and fill the little gaps in between flowers. 

That's it!!!  Now, go do a happy dance. Just make sure to close windows in case you do crazy dancing like me :)

Aaaahhhh isn't it pretty??? I wish I could fit into this little dress. LOL :)

Don't forget to make matching hair clips. Stick same flowers on plain hair clips to match the dress. Oops!!! I forgot to take a picture of the clips I made. Will update you with a picture, when I visit the little girl next time.

I hope this tutorial helped you. Thank you so much for joining me in making this pretty floral dress or tutu dress. I love to hear your comments. Thank you for stopping by.

P.S: Make sure you like my Facebook page Let's Make it Lovely to stay connected.

Have a good day :)

Simple Valentine's day Decor

Today, I am going to share with you a simple and romantic background decor that works great for your valentine's day dinner or photo booth. I did this decor on valentine's day 2 years back. I was thinking to post this from a while but never got around it. Finally, here it is on time for this valentine's day.

It is so simple that all you need is Red card stock paper, pencil or pen, scissors, white thread and invisible adhesive tape.

First draw a heart shape on a cardboard piece or cardstock piece, cut it and use it as a template to trace hearts on red cardstock paper. Trace as many hearts as you would like.
Cut the paper hearts one by one using a pair of scissors.

Cut the thread at the lengths you would like to hang from ceiling. (Mine were about 8 feet.) Stick the backside of hearts to pre cut white thread pieces using invisible adhesive tape leaving equal distance of space between the hearts.

That's it! Hang the strings of hearts from ceiling using adhesive tape.

Add flowers and candles for a romantic touch and you are done :)
Have a good one. I love to hear your comments and thank you for stopping by.

Valentine's day Special - Chocolate dipped Strawberries

Want to impress your valentine on this valentine's day or just treat yourself with something sweet and delicious? Try these gourmet style chocolate dipped strawberries. Be it kids, friends or family, everyone will love them. They work wonderful even as a romantic dessert for your husband or fiance ;)

They taste so delicious that I don't need a reason or occasion to make them for myself. Here is how easy it is to make them.

Things you need:

• Fresh strawberries
• Chocolate chips of your choice 
• Microwave or just a double boiler on stove top
• Vegetable oil (optional)
• For toppings: White chocolate, your choice of nuts finely chopped and mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Wash and thoroughly dry strawberries. If your strawberries are wet, chocolate won't stick to them. 

2. Get ready with your toppings in advance. ( I used finely chopped cashews, mini dark chocolate chips and white chocolate.) Melt the white chocolate and put into a ziploc bag or parchment cone.  

3. Cover a plate (or cookie sheet ) with parchment (or wax paper).

4. If you have microwaveable chocolate go ahead and melt it according to directions on your package. 

If your chocolate is not microwaveable, then use a double boiler on a stove top and melt the chocolate. Don't have a double boiler either? No worries many of us don't and here is a tutorial on how to make a double boiler at home. It just takes seconds :) 

Tip: If your melted chocolate looks thick, add little unsalted butter or vegetable oil and mix thoroughly.

Once you melt the chocolate, dip your berries 3/4th way using a circular motion, wipe the excess chocolate that is dripping from berries on to the bowl side wall and place them on parchment paper covered plate. 

To add toppings, as soon as you finish dipping the berries in chocolate roll them in your favorite topping before you set them on parchment paper covered plate. 

Randomly drizzle white chocolate (that we melted earlier) on to chocolate dipped berries.

5.  Now leave the berries at room temperature for about 15 mins and then put the entire plate of berries into refrigerator for about 15-30 mins. 

6. Lift chocolate dipped strawberries off the parchment paper on to serving dish and enjoy!!! Don't they look irresistible?

Hope you will give it a try. I am sure once you try them at home, you will never buy them from store again.

Happy valentine's day :) Thank you for stopping by. I love to hear your comments. Have a great one.

DIY Star Themed Birthday Banner

One of my friends decided to host a star themed birthday party for her son's first birthday and as we started planning about birthday decor, she said she wanted to make a 3D star banner. And here it is

We are so excited to share it with you because its unbelievably easy and less time taking than you would expect. 

Here is how to make a 3D paper star.

1. Draw a star on paper or print out a star outline from google images. (I did the latter. Come on, who wants to put extra efforts.) Cut out the star using a pair of scissors.

2. On the backside of your star, join the opposite corners with pen or pencil as shown in the picture.

3. Now crease along the lines. (This task will be a lot easier if you happen to have a scoring board with you.)

4. Once you are done creasing all the 5 lines, your star would look like this on the front.

Tip: To get all the stars in same size we cut a star out of a cardboard and used it as a template to trace all the stars on my cardstock.

5. After finishing 3D stars, stick the alphabet stickers at the center of each star. (Even tough the stickers had good adhesive, we went ahead and hot glued them so that they don't fall or come off during the party.)

6. Punch small holes at left and right wings of every star. Tie each star to the next with a thread or thin ribbon.

Here is a snap of the banner at party. Sorry for poor picture, that's from my phone and the cake was yet to arrive then :)

Doesn't it look twinkly on the gold shimmer fabric? Let me know what you think.

Thank you for stopping by and have a bright day. See you around again soon.