Monday Musings

Lady in White Reading By: Emilie Caroline Mundt

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time making this decorative dress form for a doll dress. I had seen dress forms in antique stores that were covered in pretty fabrics and decoupaged in shabby chic style prints and papers, so I wanted to make something like it.

I have also seen these craft dress forms that are merely decorative, but did not want to pay the price. I saw one at Goodwill, but while I hesitated, someone else bought it. I decided to try my hand at making one, just for fun.

A few weeks ago some of the crafty bloggers participated in a link-up to show all their ideas of what to do with a dollar store glass candle holder, and this is one of the things I used it for, even though I did not link up. It made a good stand for the dress form.
I covered the dress-form in fabric, using white glue and then painting over it again with white glue. It could also be decoupaged.
To make the bottle stick securely to the glad candlestick, glue a piece of paper or card stock to the bottom of the bottle and the. Use tacky glue or hot glue to attach it to the candle stick. The bare plastic of the bottle does not stick well unless it has paper on it.

This detergent also comes from the dollar store, and the empty bottle serves as my miniature dress-form.

The top of the detergent bottle resembles the hardware on top of the antique dress forms.

This is an antique dress-form, used to get a good fit when making clothes. To make the miniature dress-form, I used an empty detergent bottle. First, I traced on fabric around it to get the shape, adding a few inches to wrap around the bottle, making clips in the fabric to fit it. Then, I painted the bottle with liquid glue and pressed the fabric on to it. I had a front and back piece.

My first attempt was using scrapbook ing papers with white liquid glued such as as school glue or Elmer's. It would not be necessary to cover the bottle at all, but I liked the look of it.

Before I determined what kind of dress to make, I roughly sketched a few possibilities, as you see, above, but then made something completely different.

I am not the only one with this idea. After I finished the project I did a search for images using detergent bottles, and there were a lot of people already using these materials, but this is my version.

Using a small amount of white muslin and some narrow lace, I sewed a 1910 garden party dress for the dress form. I now have the dress form sitting on a shelf in my sewing room.
This is the pattern I used, but a pattern is not necessary if you want to cut and drape and tie the garment with ribbons.

This was quite a bit of work, and had some difficult corners and things to stitch on in small places so I would not recommend it to an impatient sewer.
As I was assembling this pretty shabby project, I was thinking about a hymn we sang yesterday in church. As you know, no one could get their cars out of their snowed-in driveways last Lord's Day, and the meeting house was cold and dark, with no electric, so there were only two families there. This Sunday the whole congregation was present and, after the previous quiet Sunday in the snow, the worship sounded very loud, like a great throng of angels.
One of the songs was "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." This is a song alluding to a light house that beams brightly in the darkness. While there is an upper light that is very string, there are lower lights that are cast across the ocean to guide the ships to shore. The song says that people are the lower lights that guide struggling people to safety.
Ladies who labor at home seemingly doing the same things over and over, occasionally creating some little thing, may wonder if anyone cares or notices, or if it will amount to anything in the long run. I don't think they know how much of an impact their home activities have on the world around them. The family may not appear to notice, but they know there is so,etching different at home, that is more stable than the world. It is a combination of order, beauty, and comfort that makes it so.
Just being there and being who you are with the love you feel for your home sends a message and sends a beam across the wave. You do not have to be accomplishing a lot and you do not have to be an expert in everything. You just have to be there caring for things that pertain to a happy home.
Some of these little things I show on my blog do not matter at all in the scheme of things, but they satisfy my need to sit down and create. So even if you do not think anyone will care, do something that pleases you and makes your home more enjoyable to be in. It is a small reward for the work you do to make a home.
The song says that God's light is very bright from his lighthouse, but to us, he gives the job of keeping the lights along the shore. The lower lights are for people who are closer to home, to guide them to safety. The higher lights on the lighthouse are for those afar off to show them where the land is.
Your light sends its rays across to the people you know, and some you do not, and straight to the ones you serve daily.

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Decorating Led-Lite Pillar Candles from the Dollar Tree

Timeless Grace by Stefan Alix

Decoupaged and glittered led-lite candles: click on for a larger view.

I have often used  the little votive led-lights from Dollar Tree, which come two in a package for a dollar, and I have discovered that Dollar Tree stores are now selling the pillar size led-light candles. Since these used to be obtainable only at really exclusive stores and catalogs for $6.00 to $12.00, more or less, it was quite a thrill to find them in the dollar stores. They are plastic, coated with a layer of scented wax, and use three AAA batteries, also available at the Dollar Tree, in a package of 8.

 They look really nice simply put up on candlesticks of varying heights, and left plain white, without decoration.

The pillar candles are also available in the shorter size, as you see on the left.

When turned on by the little switch underneath the candle, it looks like a real flame, which glows beautifully from the outside.


These candles look lovely left plain, on a nice candle stick. There are no doubt hundreds of ways to decorate these, and for now I will show you one way I have trimmed the ones I bought.

 I used a pretty rose napkin made by Ideal Home Range, (IHR), but printed tissue wrap could also be used. You have to pull apart the napkin and separate the two layers, removing the white part, which you will not be using.

 You can cut out the design, and if the back ground is white, it is okay to leave a lot of the white showing.

 Another way, which is easier, is just to size up a portion of the print to fit the candle, and cut it to fit., then paint the entire candle with decoupage, and  apply the whole square of napkin that you just cut, to the candle.

Using Modge Podge, or a thick white glue, paint the candle. Then, carefully lay down the applique or the square of napkin you cut to fit the candle.

 Gently tap the outer edges of the paper,

and then, dip the brush in more modge podge or glue, and paint carefully over the top of the picture.

I did not have good success with the liquid white school glue, such as Elmers, as the candle was too slick for it to stick. I found the Modge Podge brand of decoupage glue worked better.

While it is still wet, if you wish, sprinkle some coarse clear/white or crystal glitter on it.

The pillar candle on the right and the little half-size one in the middle are glitterized, and the one on the stand on the left is not.  One dollar each, plus a napkin and some glue, is not a bad price to pay for something so elegant.  These candles are selling very fast at the Dollar Tree.

Just put a number of those stick-on gems (about a dollar a package) on to the candle, for a quick and easy decoration.

The picture below is a printed label, applied to the candle with an ordinary glue stick, with added gem stickers.

This next one is something I tried using a little print (Picking Flowers for a Posy, by Charles Haigh-Wood), which looks good just applied with a glue stick.

The image was printed on regular printer paper, from my pictures, then cut out and glued onto the candle. The lit candle glows through the picture.

Tissue paper sheet music print, decoupaged onto candle, and tied with sheer ribbon.

K & C brand scrapbook paper, with added old-fashioned pen nibs.

This one is decorated with an interesting sticker. You have to use a glue stick with some stickers, as the candle is too slick for them to stick. Try this with an added tie of some kind: rafia, or fancy wire.

This is just one of those printable house rows,  made by Lillibeth on her blog, The Pleasant Times. They were colored with crayons by a child and then decoupaged onto the candle.

Done with fabric, tissue wrap, and a water slide decal.

An antique metallic length of gift-wrap ribbon is decoupaged on completely around the candle.

Decorated with a large hydrangea sticker, sent by a reader.

Decorated with a seasonal card, applied with a glue stick, sent by a viewer.

These make great seasonal gifts inside the home, that do not plug in. Get a basket of them ready for spur of the moment gifts, or unexpected gift-giving.  These also look great used in church fellowship rooms for banquets.

Here are some a reader just sent me, that she decorated with stickers. This is even easier than the one I shared in earlier pictures. You might be able to find those large specialty stickers that you buy by the piece which you tear off on the perferated line, at craft stores. Roses, scenes, and more, could be put on these candles, and involve a lot less mess than the decoupage glue!! You might also try clippings from thin pages of magazines applied with a regular office glue stick.