DIY Modern Yarn Wall Hanging

My sister sent me a picture of one of these wall hangings she found on Etsy a while back and I was immediately swooning. I love modern home decor--especially of the hand-made variety. 

So when my 5 year old and I had a movie night together and she chose Disney's original animated Peter Pan (which I love, but could enjoy without my eyes glued to the screen!), I sat next to her on the couch and cut yarn for my wall hanging! 

What is fun about these is that no two will ever be the same--especially if you use a branch as your anchor! Many I have seen on the interwebs use a wooden dowel at the top. I don't have rustic style, but I do like adding natural elements where I can.  I definitely prefer the look the branch gives my hanging to a plain dowel. 

I will walk you through my process of making one of these hip yarn creations. Other methods exist, but this way worked well for me, and I think you will find it easy as well!

You will need: 

• A sturdy stick or small branch 
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Optional: Iron and spray starch

1. Cut yarn in several lengths that are double the length you want your hanging's height to be.  I won't give you a number here since it varies so much according to the size of your stick. 

*Tip: I pulled out 20-30 lengths of yarn at a time in long, even loops, then just cut the ends off one side to get several equal strings cut at once. 

2. Make a plan for how the colors will be arranged on your stick. I decided to do a bit of an ombre fade.  

3. Tie the yarn on the stick as shown in the pictures.  Push the tied-ends right up next to each other to really fill in the wood. 

4. This is optional, but is nice if you want your yarn really straight. With the proper heat setting for the type of yarn you are using, iron the yarn to get out any little unwanted wrinkles. Spray starch is also helpful for making the yarn nice and stiff before you cut it. 

5. Use sharp scissors to trim the bottom of the yarn to your desired shape. I found it helped to hang it the way it will go on the wall to make sure all the threads are in place. 

6. Tie another piece of yarn to each end of your stick to use as a hanger, and you are done!

These are great additions to gallery walls. They add nice natural texture to any room and can be made in whatever color and size you want! 

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Straight to Pencil Skirt Tutorial

I admit it--I'm a bit of a slave to style. Not to the point of selling my soul to the devil or anything, but I have worn shoes that are much more cute than comfortable; I don't always wear my hair in a ponytail; and I wear pantyhose. 

My latest cave-in in the name of fashion is the pencil skirt. I have a closet full of skirts from the last 15 years. If I wear a skirt at least once during a year, I keep it. Several of my skirts are knee-length straight numbers I bought in college--mostly from The Gap and Old Navy. But, alas, straight is out; pencil is in. Luckily, so is plaid; so this skirt (circa: 1999), was just updated to the tiny-step ways of modern fashion!

Here's how I did it:

1. Put on the skirt. Stand in front of a mirror and pin the amount of excess skirt around the knees you would like trimmed. Once it is pinned, walk around a bit to make sure you are allowing enough range of motion.  Leave the pins in and carefully remove the skirt.

2. My skirt has a built-in liner. This feature scares some people away from making alterations. It is no biggie, I promise. My liner is only attached at the top. If yours is attached on the sides at all, you may need to cut the threads holding it to the outside of the skirt. This isn't a step, so much as something to be aware of before you proceed.

3. With chalk, draw an angled vertical line from just below your pins to about halfway up your skirt. It is important not to make any abrupt changes in the new seam (you don't want Oompah-Loompah hips). 

4. Carefully cut along the chalk lines of just the outside fabric of your skirt. Then, using the cut lines as a guide, carefully cut the excess liner fabric. 

**Tip: Cut front, then back on both outside and liner. Cutting both can leave an awkward angle at the seam. (I learned this the hard way.)

5. Using a seam ripper or small scissors, rip out the hem about 2 inches on each side along the edges you just cut (of the liner and the outside fabric). I did this step first, which wasn't harmful, but I ended up cutting out most of what I had ripped out. You'll need the hem out when you sew up the sides in the next step.

6. Turn the skirt inside out.  With right sides together, sew up the sides of the skirt liner, then the skirt. Re-hem the edges. My skirt required an invisible/blind hem stitch. For a good tutorial on how to do this, go to this tutorial. 

Voila! You are done! Super easy, eh?

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