Perfect for DI-Why Not!
The supplies needed, according to Once Wed, are: fabric, hot glue gun, and Chinese lanterns. So simple!
Off I went to find the Chinese lanterns. There were none at AC Moore. Awesome. In a flash of inspiration, I walked over to World Market where they had a bunch. However, the only white ones they had were huge. Then I spied a lone, battered container of cherry blossom printed lanterns on the shelf for $12.99. They came with Christmas lights to hang on. It felt wasteful knowing I would not be using the lights or even the lanterns, but I was desperate.
When I got to the register, I noticed that two of the lanterns in the package were trashed and asked for a discount. All kinds of drama and eye rolling ensued. Then I was in a pissed off, stick to my guns place, unwilling to leave until the cashier was able to determine if she could mark down the price. She also asked if I needed a discount on my jelly beans in case they were damaged. Nice. Anyway, 20 minutes later, my lanterns were $9 and I was out the door.
Next up, fabric. Hmmm. AC Moore had quilting fabric, but it was expensive and I was cranky. Luckily, G Street Fabrics was not far and, by the time I got there, the Jelly Bellys had chilled me out, and I was ready to get crafty!
I headed to the remnant section since most regular fabric was no less than $10 a yard. There were four vast, bewildering tables with mounds of choices. I searched for colors that were pretty and found a cool green and white print, along with a light green and patterned white. Once Wed's directions supplied no information on what kind of fabric to choose. Velvet? Cotton? Damask? Jersey? I figured a light stiff-ish fabric would be good, and went with what I found. Ready to buy, I went to the cutting table. The woman asked me how much I needed. No clue. Once Wed's directions were lacking in that area, too. Unsure, I went with two yards of each fabric. 6 yards, $20.
Back home, I sat on the floor to figure everything out. First, Once Wed instructs me to cut circles out of the fabric. Well, how big? How many? The directions were silent. Hmmm. OK. Deducing from the image supplied by Once Wed, the circles were about the size of the lantern, and the quantity looked like a few. Which didn't seem right given the amount of ruffles on each pom pom. I went with a lot.
Making the circles was what I was afraid of. I knew mine would be as varied as snowflakes, and Once Wed's looked so...perfect. Eh. Who would know? With no further circle details, I was on my own. First, I tried placing one of the lanterns on the fabric and cutting around it. That took forever and looked like crap.
Then I cut some by hand and was bored after a few. I sat back, listened to Jill Scott, and contemplated my options. Wave the white flag and delete the challenge off the blog? Get my crafty pal Kori to do it? Write a post about how it was so hard that I couldn't go on?
Before long, my laziness sparked an epiphany. I folded strips in half, laid them on top of each other, and cut half circles. When I was done, I had a whole mess of unevenly cut and mostly oval pieces of fabric! Bravo!
Now, the part I had been waiting for. The glue gun.
This post is long enough, though, so check back tomorrow and hear all about why glue guns are not toys, and just how many circles it took to cover the lantern!
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