I offer handmade boutique children’s clothing, bows and tutus, fashionable aprons, baby and gifting products, and appliqué and monogramming services. All my products are made to order and special orders are welcome. Visit The Crafty Contessa on facebook for the most recent photos and information on my latest projects.
And it doesn’t hurt that I have such an adorable and willing model…
…she was so excited about her new outfit she said, “I love it, thank you mommy!”
You are so very welcome my darling. Ti amo troppo la mia piccolini contessa.
I recently stumbled upon a crafting/sewing blog Craftiness is not optional and I have quickly put her tutorials to good use. To make the scalloped mini barrette, the tutorial calls for the use of Rose of Sharon die casts, which run you around $60, plus you would need the machine that cuts them, and that’s another $100. So, being crafty and cheap, I had to think of another way to get a pretty felt scalloped flower; I need the uniformity of the die cast but, uhm, free. Then an Aha! moment. My great grandmother’s antique cookie cutters that hang on the wall in my kitchen. They have the perfect scalloped shape. So I quickly traced around the largest cookie cutter, followed the rest of the tutorial, and it looks just as good as the picture in the tutorial, if I do say so myself. For the second flower barrette, the rolled felt flower, I followed her tutorial fairly closely; I cut the length to 12″ instead of 18″ because my piece of wool felt wasn’t as long and the width to 1.5″ instead of 2″. Both flower barrettes took me less than 5 minutes to make. Hope you have great success and happy crafting!
This is a great project to do with your kids on a slow or rainy day. It does take some time and it isn’t a project you want to rush, so a little patience is needed. I recently acquired mine and my sisters’ crafting gear from our younger days and with that came a giant basket of loose crayons. And zing an idea came to me… chunky crayons. So when my youngest was down for a nap, my oldest and I pushed up our sleeves and got to it.
The first thing you need to do is decide what color crayons you want. This year for Valentine’s Day, I decided to have Roman give his classmates chunky crayons and fun shaped erasers instead of cards and candy. They get enough junk anyways. You can choose any colors and haphazardly pick them, but we wanted to make them special and chose our colors carefully. Different shades of blue/ different shades of green/ purple and white/ pink and brown/ mustardy yellows. You need to peel the labels off the crayons before you break them into pieces, I found this to be challenging. On my patience. So I got a vegetable peeler and peeled a line down the length of the crayon and then handed it to my 4 year old to peel off. This proved to work faster, although I ended breaking a few crayons in half. Still, worth it. Then I used a knife to cut the crayons up into bits. Most directions say to break them, but they weren’t small enough. Fill up a muffin tin, silicone mold, or even a cookie cutter set on a cookie sheet (I used a heart shaped silicone ice cube tray from the Target dollar section). If you want a nice chunky crayon, fill the tray heart sections up to the top, nearly overflowing them.
Have your oven preheated to 275 degrees and place in the oven on a cookie sheet for about 8 minutes. The directions said 6-7 minutes, but I kept adding a minute here and there. They go from still kind of solid to liquified in no time at all so stay near the oven and keep checking them. When you pull them out, don’t breathe in the fumes. Eck, I did. I couldn’t get the smell out of my nose for a couple of hours. If you want to, swirl the liquid around with a toothpick to give it a cool effect. I did. Place them in the freezer for 20 minutes to cool off and wait another 5 minutes to pop them out of their mold. Presto! Pretty chunky crayons. 
If you want to have a pretty layered look, cut up and melt one color at a time to make a rainbow. You can repeat from oven to freezer, just make sure the molds are room temperature before placing them back in the oven again. Happy crafting!
I have been wanting to make an A-line reversible jumper for more than a year now and I have just been putting it off. I had heard from a sewing friend that she had difficulty with it and this made me nervous. I finally got over my nervousness and purchased the “Perfect A-line dress” from Tie Dye Diva on Etsy. She is AMAZING. Her patterns/tutorials are very clear and she makes it easy to follow. I made my daughter the A-line reversible dress, one side for Valentine’s Day and the other side for Easter. I even went one step further and made her a reversible tote to match her reversible dress. Dresses it up a bit, don’t you think?! I decided to appliqué both sides of her tote and leave out pockets, and opted to not appliqué her dress. With the reverse side against her skin, I didn’t want the appliqué to scratch or annoy her. This doesn’t become an issue if the dress is worn with a short sleeve or long sleeve shirt underneath.
My daughter’s birthday was this past Sunday and for those of you who do not know, I do a “mommy made me” gift for each of my children’s birthdays and for Christmas. This year for my daughter, I found inspiration in some earth toned ribbon I had bought, green with chocolate brown polka dots. The ideas just went flying from there. I made her a brown corduroy and white with green dots skirt and appliquéd a sweet owl on it. Then in a contrasting green and small white dots fabric, I made her an apron to wear over her skirt, well equipped with a pocket and a temporary monogrammed patch that exclaims “Whoo whoo I’m 2!” to wear on her big day. I used the inspirational ribbon to make a bow and also made a detachable owl center that can be taken off or worn on it’s own. All her outfit needed was a top! And a simple peasant blouse was what I chose. Billowy and full on it’s own, or pulled back and tapered when tied back by the apron strings. Little ribbon ruffled socks made by The Crafty Contessa and my girl was ready to go!
I love you from bows to toes My little light you are so dear
With me everywhere you will go Next to me there is nothing to fear
Every day I love you more This I know to be true
From my little world that you are in I have the perfect view.
Happy 2nd birthday Mia Luce, my little light. You make us so proud.
So we are about to head to sunny California for our family vacation! We are starting off in San Clemente, staying with my cousin Amy, and visiting the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland. I am so excited for my kids to see Disneyland! They are going to flip! To help get them excited, I appliquéd coordinating shirts for them, Pirate Mickey and Minnie with a bow. After that, we will be attending a wedding in Rancho Palos Verdes and then heading back home to Alabama. Hopefully, my beloved Alabama won’t be as soggy as when I left it :/
I have recently purchased an embroidery machine and am now offering monogramming and appliqué services. I have many appliqués available and you can custom make a shirt or onesie with an appliqué and your child’s name if you wish. I almost exclusively purchase my appliqués from here, so if I do not have what you would like, it is not a problem for me to purchase.
As of now I have not established a pricing list on monogramming and appliqué services. I will keep my prices competitive with other shops. Please contact me for pricing.
