Crafting 101

Well, here it is the last day of July and we’ve had one whole month all about sewing. Did you learn anything new? Was I any help to you? I hope that you learned at least one new piece of information and that I could help you out some. If I did, let me know! Leave me a comment!

Well, the schedule calls for us to spend the month of August concentrating on Knick-Knacks. Now just for fun, I looked up knick knacks just to see what others defined them as. This site summed it up: “Knick knacks are items used to decorate the home. Typically, they are small and in the form of a particular object, with animals and angels being among the most popular designs.” (Wisegeek.com) Neat, huh?

So for August, I want to show you different things you can make for the house, gifts for friends, family and the like. These can also be things just for you! These might be things that I make and show you how to make or they are really neat things that I’ve found on the internet or in magazines. The possibilities are endless!

I hope that you’ll stick around and tell your friends. I’d love to hit the 1,000 mark this month for visitors, July got really close, but not close enough! Leave a comment and show me anything you’ve made from the different tutorials. I’d love to see what you’ve been making! TTFN!

Here’s a neat video on making the bean bags! I threw it together pretty quick. I plan on making a better one later where maybe I can put some dialogue to it. Enjoy!

Okay, so I was brain storming today and wanted to find something you could make easily out of plastic bags. I surfed the internet to see what other people were doing, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. So I created my own pattern! Good thing is, it’s pretty cool, my kids love the idea. Bad thing is, it’s a lot of steps and I took a ton of pictures and it’s about an hour long project from start to finish. So I want to make a video tutorial and I am going to put it together tonight, but won’t be able to post it until tomorrow.

So what is this item, you’re asking? It’s cool! It’s a bean bag made out of plastic bags! Not only is it a bean bag, but you can make at least eight out of twenty plastic bags and then on another day, I’m going to teach you how to make the tic-tac-toe board to go with it! The tic-tac-toe board will take a couple of hours, just a heads up. But I will try and do a video tutorial with that one too. Some thing different for you guys!

So, as a heads up, you’re going to need about fifty plastic bags, the ones that are from Wal-Mart and other grocery stores. You can use all one color or all different colors for the bean bags.  For the tic-tac-toe board, you’ll want to use one color for the board, preferably white, and you’ll need one color like brown, red, blue, etc for the lines on the tic-tac-toe board. Might as well get creative! You’ll also need some wax paper, some sort of beans (a one pound bag should be enough), thread, your sewing machine, your ironing board and iron, scissors and a funnel for putting the beans into the bag (it’s optional, but makes it much easier!). I believe that’s all the supplies that you’ll need.

Tune in tomorrow for the video tutorial on making the bean bags and then the following day I’ll show you how to make the  tic-tac-toe board. You’re kids will love it and other family members will just think you’re crazy!! LOL! TTFN!

I’ve always wanted to make something from those juice boxes that my kids drink out of constantly. I’ve seen people with purses and I thought those were the neatest thing! Since I wanted to start out on a small scale (and I only have six right now), I decided to try out making a coin purse. It’s pretty simple, it took like five minutes to sew. Enjoy! And remember, you can be totally creative here!

Juice Box Coin Purse

Supplies: 2 juice boxes (Capri Sun, Kool-Aid, etc.), thread, sewing machine, scissors, velcro (stick on kind)

To begin, you need to clean the juice boxes out. Cut a slit in the bottom of the juice box. I cut the entire bottom out, just making sure you don’t cut the sides. Wash them with soap and water, put them standing up on a paper towel to dry.

Some people say you can put them in the dryer for about 20 minutes, never tried it so have no clue if it works. I sort of opened these up so they’d stand up and mine were dry pretty quick.

Next, take one of the boxes and fold it over about 1/3 of the way. This is going to be the pocket.

I went ahead and sewed across that seam so that it won’t come open on the inside.

I used a zig-zag stitch on my entire coin purse though my zig-zag doesn’t work just right so I had to go over it a couple of times for stability. But once should be fine, just remember to back stitch the beginning and end to keep the stitches down.

Now take your pocket piece and you’re going to lay it on the backside of the other juice box. This picture shows them before you lay it totally on the backside.

Now that they are lined up, you are going to sew down one side, across the bottom and up the other side, remembering to backstitch the beginning and end. I used the zig-zag stitch again, though it messed up a bunch, but it was still sewn together.

Time for the velcro! I chose the sticky back kind, if you’d like to sew them on, you have to do it before joining them together. I took the velcro, stuck it together, then laid it right above the line I sewed on the pocket. I then close the top over it and it stuck to the other side!

Congratulations! You have yourself a recycled juice box coin purse! I chose grape juice boxes because I’m making myself a green and purple purse and it’ll go great inside it!

Show me your coin purses! I’d love to see all the different kinds you can make! I have more juice boxes to use and I plan on making a purse towards the end of the week. I might have to buy some more at the store and make my kids hurry up and drink them! TTFN!

So for today’s pattern, I found it here and it’s cool! It’s for a square pin cushion that you can make out of scraps. I just used one color, but went ahead and cut it as if I was using several different types of fabrics just to show you how to make it. I think it turned out pretty neat. I didn’t have enough polyfill to finish it tonight, but I’ll make a trip to the store soon for more and fill it up. It’s very neat and you can have all sorts of different ones.

So for next week, we are going to be learning how to sew things out of unusual fabrics and textures such as plastic. Ever sewn something made of plastic? It’s totally cool and easy! I have made several bags out of plastic. I’ll see you tomorrow for more sewing fun!

I found the coolest thing to make while surfing today! I’m super excited! My second daughter, Megan, has the longest, straightest hair imaginable. She always wants to curl it, but a curling iron won’t work and I haven’t had the time to go from store to store pricing hair curlers and doing lots of trial and error.

A friend of mine curls her daughter’s hair with fabric curlers that she got from somewhere, but they were a tad expensive for my tiny budget. Anyways, I was surfing and came across this - a hair curler sewing tutorial !!!! I’m pumped!

Overall, it seemed easy enough. The fabric I am using is very thin so I doubled it over first before following with her instructions. The instructions were very clear. The only thing that slowed me down was making the buttonhole. I’ve never done one before and had problems getting it to work, so I haven’t made the hole yet.

How do you like it? I plan on making about 11 more to have a set of 12 for the girls to use. I think they are pretty cool!

For today’s pattern, it’s one that I found online, but I can’t find it anymore! It was for a cute little stuffed bear. I found a pattern here for the bear and then just did my own thing. Here’s how it turned out! I think it’s cute! It can be a little bear for a baby or I thought of using mine as a pin cushion. Make the bear bigger and it can be for a toddler. Enjoy!

Supplies: 1/2 yard of fabric, coordinating thread, stuffing

(Pictures are below.) First, I printed out the pattern and cut it out. I then laid it on my fabric. I forgot about leaving extra, like a 1/4″ for seam allowance, so if you’re following these directions, please do that. Once I had both of them cut out, I laid right sides facing each other and pinned around. I then sewed about an 1/8″ in from the edge all around, leaving a hole for stuffing. I then turned it right side out, stuffed it with the stuffing and used my machine to sew the hole up. You can hand stitch it and do an invisible stitch too.

Another variation is where you can cut it a bit larger and if you cut very well, you leave the outside edges nice and pretty and stitch on the outside about 1/4″ in and then stuff it and sew your hole closed. Depends on how well you cut!

That’s it! Took less than 30 minutes to do and it’s a cute project that you can do with scraps and vibrant colors. It’s fun! TTFN!

For today’s project, I found something simple and something that each person with a sewing machine needs - a sewing machine cover. I found the pattern here at Love to Sew (they’ve got some great stuff!) and I think it took me roughly an hour to cut, piece it together and sew it.

As far as anything I’d do differently, I had a hard time matching the rounded corners to the one strip that goes across the top and sides. I’m not sure how to do it differently unless you cut the strips into threes and round those corners off, but not sure if that’s easier or not!

Overall, I had no problems with the pattern and it’s super quick. I didn’t embellish mine, I looked through my fabrics and didn’t have a bunch of stuff that matched. So I took some random fabric and made it.

Send in pictures of yours and be sure to give Love to Sew a shout out!

So for today’s project, I wanted to find something I could use some scrap fabric for. I found this quick and easy pattern for a windsock over at Love to Sew.

It only takes a piece of fabric that’s 10″ x 8″ and some ribbon. Here’s a photo of the one I made, let’s see, I think it took me about 30 or so minutes, maybe 45 minutes.

I used some cloud fabric I had laying around. I have enough to probably make two or three more. I used skinny white ribbon, six strips about 12″ long. I did use the pipe cleaner that it suggested, but didn’t require. The only problem with the pipe cleaner is I accidentally hit it while trying to sew the handles on so I broke my needle. But luckily, I’m stocked up on needles so I just grabbed another one.

I ended up tying my handles on since somehow I made a hole when I hit the pipe cleaner so I just did the same on the other side. I might use a zig-zag stitch around the top and bottom seams for some flair and I might add the ribbon at the bottom when I’m sewing the bottom seam just so I only have to go over it once.

Overall, this project was simple, the instructions easy to understand and I liked it. Go try it out! Be sure to give them a shout out! http://www.lovetosew.com/makewindsock.htm

So, I enjoy visiting YouTube and if you haven’t made it there yet, you should! I decided just to watch some videos of people making bags or purses and found oh so many to watch! All you have to do is search for videos of people making bags and you find a bunch of things out there.

So during my search, I saw a bunch of people making bags out of jeans. Now, my kids are notorious for getting huge holes in their jeans. Since it’s summer, I figured I’d cut the legs off where the holes were so they’d have new pairs of shorts. But I didn’t want to throw the legs out and create more waste. So, I made a purse tonight with two of the legs.

So this is what I made tonight. Took me less than three hours. Actually, the main part of the purse, everything but the embellishments took less than 45 minutes to complete even if that long. I think it turned out super cute! Here’s how you do it.

First off, you’ll need the bottom of one pair of jeans legs. Basically the part from the knee down. These jeans are size 5 jeans (they were my six year olds jeans). You also need some scraps of fabric. Also, if you can get your hands on some Blue Jeans needles, those work the best for getting through the demin. You’ll need some thread, I used white just for some pop.

Now, the leg that you cut the top and bottom off of, you need to turn it inside out and sew across the bottom edge about 1/2 an inch in. You’ll then trim off the excess material. You sew this far in just in case the leg isn’t perfectly straight across. You know how kids are! These legs weren’t straight at all after all their wear and tear.

Now you turn over the top of the leg to create a nice clean edge across the top. You might have to take off part of your sewing machine so this small of leg might fit easier on the machine and go around. I used a zigzag stitch for some flair. I went around once across the top for the hem.

Before turning it inside out, you’ll need to add the handles. Take two strips and tie two together with a knot. Tie it tight so it won’t come out. Then you are going to sew the handles onto the bag. One handle for each side. I took one end of the handle and placed it with the inside out with it’s edge flush with the bottom of the inside hem along the top. Hope that makes sense! Then I stitched a box around the edges and them put a “X” in the middle of the box. I then stitched across the top again, reversed it and did it again for strength. Turn the bag right side out.

Now to make it cute! I decided to add a flower to one side. I took some flowered fabric and cut a heart out. I cut two leaves and a stem out of some green fabric and placed it on the bag to make a flower. I then took white thread and hand stitched this on the bag with a zig zag stitch. This is what took awhile, if I could trust myself to make those curves with the machine, I’d machine stitch it.

Voila! The bag is complete! I think it looks really cute! What do you think? Can you make your own? Show me what you’ve made! TTFN!