• Lace
• Thin ribbon
• Thin wire

First thing’s first, decide how long you want the usamimi to be and cut the lace to that length.

Lay it flat on a table and place the ribbon over the top in the center like this. If you prefer you can pin it in place.

Stitch down either side of the ribbon so it forms a tube with the lace. You want to get as close to the edge of the ribbon as possible so it looks neat and tidy. Sew one of the ends shut too but leave the other open as we’ll need to shove the wire in it.

You should have something like this…

Now cut a length of wire which is a few inches longer than the lace.

Fold the end of it over and twist so it forms a loop like the photo below. This loop will stop it poking out of the ends between the stitches.

Poke it into the tube between the lace and ribbon.

Thread it through all the way until you reach the other end of the lace.

Twist the other end of the wire into a loop as well.

Poke the wire in so it’s completely inside the tube and stitch it shut with some thread.

Taadaa! you have a very pretty and versatile usamimi which you can use in the traditional way or in so many other ways because it’s basically a bendable piece of lace.

I’m very tempted to make a bunch of these in different colours because they’re a really good way to top off an outfit :D

What you need:

• Fabric
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Wire

First thing you need to do is work out how long you want the usamimi to be and cut a rectangle of fabric to that size. Fold it in half on the long side (so it’s very thin and long) and cut the ends into slightly curved points. The photo below shows what the points should look like unfolded.

This is what you should end up with, two points on each end.

Fold it so the good side of the fabric is on the inside and start stitching at the crease. Go up to the point:

And back down the other side.

Continue stitching all the way down the side until you reach the end of the other point.

Tie off the thread and leave the other end of the point open.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole at the point.

If you need to, use something pointy like a pen to help push it all through.

You should have something along these lines:

Cut a length of wire a few inches longer than the fabric is point to point. Fold one end of the over and twist so it forms a loop. This will prevent it from poking through the stitching on the other side.  Push the piece of wire into the usamimi through the hole and all the way to the other point.

In the other tutorial I wrote the wire was stitched around the outside of the fabric, that works best if you have very thin wire, this technique works best if you have thicker wire.

Once the wire is all the way in, twist the other end in a loop too.

Fold the edges of the hole under and hand stitch it completely shut.

Test it out by twisting it together and you’re good to go :D

Very simple to do and super quick if you do them on the sewing machine too. If your fabric is very puffy you might like to topstitch the sides to flatten it a bit but I actually prefer the puffiness.

Hope you guys enjoyed, there’s a video version of this coming soon too!

• Black felt
• Thick velcro
• Other felt for the letters (I’m using grey)
• Needle/thread
• Ribbon or elastic to attach it
• Lace or more ribbon for edging
• Matching thick ribbon or more felt to match.

Now we need something to cover the edges and the rest of the backing. I had some pretty matching ribbon but you could also use some more felt. So cut a piece to go above and below the velcro like this:

The velcro makes it a bit harder to work with than regular fabric so pin it all in place.

And then cut it to shape.

To hold it all together you will need to edge it, I hand stitched some lace around all of the sides. If you didn’t want to use lace you could use matching ribbon or bias binding tape. Make sure you encase all of the raw edges in the lace so nothing can come undone later.

At this point you probably want to stop and have a bit of a giggle that you’ve inadvertently created a Kanye West style shutter glasses sleep mask XD If you’re into that kind of thing you could always just stop here haha!

Now you need a way of attaching it to your head, I sewed a piece of lace on each side to form ties but you could also use elastic.

Now cut out the words you want to spell from matching felt. If you want you could also cut out several options to use depending on your mood.

Press them firmly to the velcro and you’ve got a descriptive sleep mask!

Now if the mask actually said what my brain thought when people wake me up from naps it wouldn’t be suitable for the internet ;)

• Black felt
• Pink leopard print polar fleece
• Ribbon
• Thread, needle, scissors
• Decoration, I’m using a crochet flower

Start by cutting out the basic shapes. You want it to be as wide as the person you’re making it for’s face and tall enough to get from forehead to cheeks. The basic shape is straight along the top and then with two large curves along the bottom.

Cut one out of black felt and one out of the polar fleece. You will also need two triangles for the ears.

Cut some sleepy eye shapes out of the felt too.

The ears will be pleated so they puff up a bit.

This will be the layout for the final mask:

Stitch on the eye pieces with needle and thread.

Taadaa ;)

Stitch the pleat in the ears and then place them good side down on to the face area like this:

Put the black felt piece on top and stitch around the entire outside leaving only a 3cm gap at the start.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole.

And then stitch the hole up.

Add a little decoration to one ear like a flower or bow and it’s almost finished!

The last step is to add a ribbon or elastic to either side so there is some way to actually wear it ;)

And that’s basically it, you just need to find a willing model to try it out!

Shh nap time!

These are so much fun to make, I want to make lots of different shapes now :D

The easiest way to take in pants is to cut the side seams and stitch it back up smaller so that’s what I started with. These jeans had a bit of a flare to the bottom which I wanted to keep so rather than cutting the whole way I folded a wedge which left the bottoms of the legs the same and just took a chunk out of the middle and waist band.

From the inside…

Unfortunately because of the original shape of them the wedge that I cut out (which was basically like a big dart) made the butt part of it look bunchy. So to fix that I folded two smaller darts from the corner of the pockets to the middle seam.

Then I tried it on to make sure it was right and then stitched it together.

Lastly I decided to make the seams more of a focus point so I embroidered over them using a simple “Lazy Daisy” stitch.

And the side seam:

So there you go, $6 shorts and half an hour later and I’m pretty happy with them. I’m definitely not going to rush out to buy more but I do like these ones!

Quick and easy fix for the win!

• Plastic comb thingy
• Lace
• Hot glue or needle/thread
• Scissors
• Pearls or something dangly to decorate it with

Start by gluing the end of the ribbon to the back of the comb and pull it through the first gap between the teeth.

Continue winding it around the edge and between the teeth. As you go fan out the lace so it sits flat along the edge and covers all of the brown.

When you get to the other side glue it in place and cut off the excess!

Now you just need something dangly to hang off it. I had this pearl chain thingy which was left over from some other projects so I used that! You could string some pearls together or you could add some dangly butterflies etc.

I sewed it on at the ends and in the middle.

Done and ready for cuteness!

Sleek and swirly! I like this style for business dinners because it’s a little bit work-ish but still very stylish ^_^

Now that I have a couple of these combs I want to try some more styles with them! Do you have favorite hair styles using combs I should try out?