Cone of Shame - A Tutorial

Image Via Daily Classic Disney

SQUIRREL!!!

Pardon me while I laugh for a bit... You know you loved UP too so whatevs...

Anyways... As promised, I figured out how to DIY the Pew Cones...

To start out I bough a few yards of Burlap at Joann's.... My store had a few different shades available... and was priced at $4/ yard (less if you use a coupon!!)

*Point of clarification - I am NOT an expert sew-er... one day I decided that I wanted to make some yellow bunting {which I never did} and went out and bought a $150 Singer sewing machine... I followed the instruction guide to get it threaded and ready to go - it was a lot easier that I thought it would be... I have made 2 and a half swim robes via this pattern, but that it pretty much the extent of my sewing expertise... 99% of the time I am just winging it!

Anywho...

My Pew Cone Tutorial

#1. I cut the burlap into ~1ft by 1ft squares... the burlap I bought was 24" wide so I got 6 squares per yard - which is $.66 per cone if you paid full price for the burlap.

#2. - I ironed 2 pieces of the burlap flat as best I could - note this will get a little messy - RESIST the urge to clean as you go! Just wait until you finish for the day and then you can clean... P.s. Burlap STINKS... in case you were unaware....


#3. - I used a Dixie paper plate {we get ours from Costco} to trace a circular pattern on the burlap... again -I just wing it... it's not life or death, it's a pew decoration!



#4. - I made sure that I had at least 1/2" between my drawn circle and the edge of the burlap. Oh, and the green kinda shows through, so maybe yellow or orange, or something else all together for tracing....

#5. - I got my sew on... I set the machine to do a zig-zag stitch (a very basic stitch that almost every machine will have) and I set the stitch to be slightly closer together in the length of the stitch... Burlap is an interesting fabric with it's loose weave, so the tighter zig-zag stitch should help it hold together better. Oh, and make sure you are doing your reverse stitching when you start and when you finish to keep everything from unraveling.


#6. - After sewing, I trim the excess burlap off - turning it from a square to a circle. I try to leave no more than 1/2" of excess fabric on the edges so that it will lay flat when it turn it right side out via a hole I left un-sewen. If you forget to leave the hole, just cut one close to the circle you sewed - you can patch the hole afterwards or toss the square and start over... I may have done both of those things...


#7. - Once right side out I will iron the cone again to help the edges lay flat. At this point the cone resembles somewhat of a whoopee-cushion...haha

#8. - Pin the hole closed as best you can to make a circle - you can see that mine has a bit of a wonky corner going on... oh well! It's a handmade pew decoration - no one is judging you!!!

#9. - Sew the hole closed - I try to keep the edge of the cone as close to the edge of the sewing foot as possible.

#10. At this point you can sew around the entire cone, keeping the edge close to the edge of the sewing foot, or you can choose to stop after the hole is closed. I really could not tell much of a difference with or without the extra stitching... I thought it would make the whole cone more uniform, but again - I didn't notice the difference really.... try it once and decide for yourself!

#11. - I rolled the burlap circle into a cone shape and pinned it... to be honest this is where I've stopped.... I haven't decided how I want to secure the cone together yet. I think I will probably do a few quick stitches by hand since it would be difficult to use the machine at this point.

So for now I have snagged a few Sunflowers that I bought at Michaels - The Ashland florals have been on sale for half off during September so I got this $6.99 bunch of 10 for only $3.50 OR $.35 each... and they all have 6-8" stems so its a pretty good deal for me. I originally thought that I would like baby's breath or fresh flowers, but these sunflowers really don't look overly fake at all... and to add color to our isle they will be just perfect!

I put 3 in a cone to see if I liked it.... and since my house is fresh out of pews, standing the cone up on my bar stool will have to suffice for now....

And here is a picture of a group of cones...



Overall I am completely in love! I need to sew them together... and add a ribbon bow to the front.... and then add a wide ribbon to the backs so that I can place them on the pews, but really I think half the battle is over!!



And for $1.75-$2.00 each that is well within our budget!




Have any of your DIY projects turned out better than you imagined?

Pew Cones

Remember our pretty little church.... and all those pews???

Personal Photo

Our church does have some pretty strict rules about the amount and types of decorations
we are allowed to have....

No isle runners... no candles... and NO messes!!

And while I am sure we will have some type of alter floral arrangements, I have had a hard time imagining what the isle might look like... it NEEDS something... and until I found burlap cones I didn't know what could complete the overall look I wanted.

Image Via Weddingbee

Image Via Lost in Relocation

Look at that eye candy! Are those not just the prettiest burlap cones you have ever seen?

Okay, okay... I exaggerate sometimes, but really they do have very nice visual appeal... and will tie nicely around our church's pews...

I have decided this weekend will be spent trying to DIY these babies... and although I have yet to find a pattern I am pretty sure I can wing it!

Wish me Luck!!

Have you figured out all our ceremony decorations? Are you limited by your venue too?

DIY Mason Jars

Image via Style Me Pretty

Seems like every wedding site or blog I visit has photos of pretty blue mason jars.

And while these are totally drool worthy and I love them, they would stick out like a sore thumb at our wedding.... blue is just not one of our colors...

I had seen a couple tutorials for how to do the blue coloring and figured if blue can be done, why not yellow??

Turns out it is ridiculously EASY to do.... here's how:


First you need to get the glass paint....

I got mine at Michael's.

All photos are personal unless noted

YOU.SHOULD.NEVER.GO.WITHOUT.A.COUPON!

Seriously, you can ALWAYS get 40% off - even if you have to bring a competitors coupon, please don't pay full price.

I got Pebeo paints in the Clear Thinner, Lemon #30 (frosted) and Sun Yellow #01 (glossy)... each were less than $3 after coupons.

I also picked up half a dozen jars - since this was a test run I didn't get too many, just a few to test out different combinations of thinner and color - the color paint by itself is STRONG... My fave mixture was about half and half of each....

The great thing about mason jars is that you can usually find them at your local thrift store - ours were just a quarter a piece!! SCORE!

To apply the glass paint I used a *cheap* sponge brush and an old {clean} lid from a tub of butter as my paint holder...

I placed my hand in the mouth of the jar, and applied the paint in streaks from bottom to mouth of the jar to keep the inevitable streak lines consistent. And let them dry on a sheet of aluminium foil to protect my counters. The paint drys to the touch quickly, but you should let them sit overnight.

The photo does not really catch the shine of the Sun Yellow jars or the awesome frost look of the Lemon jars, but this project really did turn out neat.

Here is a quick picture of the 'streak' effect I saw... nothing off-putting or anything.

I figure the total cost to make 25 jars would be about 61 cents per jar!! Not bad if I do say so myself!

Oh, and there are instructions on the glass paint to Bake the jars once they dry - if you bake them they become dishwasher safe... how cool right?

I think ours would look great with a large bunch of white carnations.... but I imagine there are tons of uses - like to hold fancy straws or ribbon wands.... etc

Plus there are thousands of color options!