Archive for the ‘sewing’ Category

Sewing for Sanity

December 4th, 2011 by zoe 5 Comments

I like to keep my boy’s room pretty organized – for the sake of my sanity. Everything has a home and it can all be put back together in a super human tornado speed clean.

After dreaming about it for months I managed to make a pattern & sew up some toy storage containers. My idea was that they would fit perfectly into our cubbies.

This one was a bit big so — here is round two.

With felt cars stitched on the front because that’s where the cars go!

Thanks to Marsha for the quilted lilac polka dot fabric — circa 1982?

Make a Elf Hat

November 29th, 2011 by zoe 2 Comments

This sweet little elf hat is made from upcycled wool sweaters!

It’s pretty darn simple, all you need is some scraps from an old T-shirt, and a shrunken wool sweater.

First print your pattern pieces and enlarge them using the inch guide. The hat fits toddler to youth.

After cutting your fabric match hat bottom pieces and hat bottom lining pieces with right sides facing in, pin and stitch along bottom edge with a 1/4″ inseam. Unfold the stitched hat bottom piece, match the lining and wool sections with the right sides facing in pin and stitch. Turn the hat bottom piece right side out and try on, adjust sizing now. Iron bottom edge.

Top stitch bottom edge around hat bottom.

With a 1/4″ inseam stitch hat top around the curl, leaving bottom edge open. Turn the hat top right side out.

Making sure to properly line up your seams and fabric facings pin and stitch hat top to hat bottom. Turn right side out and admire your creation. I like to add polka dots!

Pop your little elf hat on the closest cutie around!

To print pattern, click photo, save to file and print. Enlarge pattern pieces to recommended size in inches.

Make a Braided Rag Rug!

November 14th, 2011 by zoe 34 Comments

My love of old T-shirts just keeps on growing!

See this stack of old T-shirts – they are going to become a fabulous rainbow rug!

Begin by collecting a colorful pile of old t-shirts. To make a 36″ round rug you will need about 10 to 12 shirts.

Cut the shirts into lots of strips, I made mine  1 1/2″ wide and that seemed to work great. You will now braid your strips together to make one single extremely long braided rope.To begin, take three t-shirt strips and sew them together at one end. Start braiding!

I used a curtain rod clip to hook one end of my braid to a chair to provide tension while braiding. A clothes pin is also helpful for holding your braid tight. As you come to the end of your first length of strips you will need to add more length. Connect strips together to add more length – cut a small slit in the ends of all your strips. Thread new strip through the hole, loop it’s end through on its self and pull tight. 

You will now have extended your strip! It is important to stagger your strip extensions so that they are not all lumped in one spot on your braid.

Now you are ready to braid and braid and braid!

When you get tired of braiding it’s fun to coil your rope and see what kind of progress you are making.

When you have finished your braided rope it’s time to begin stitching.

Set your sewing machine for the widest zig-zag stitch,tightly coil your braid, stitch round and round. When stitching push the two braids together tightly with your hands, watch your stitches carefully to ensure they are connecting the seams.  Your hands will get tired from all the pushing, I found it was easier to set my adjustable chair higher to get better leverage while stitching. Try not to stretch your rope too much while stitching because it will cup like a bowl. But don’t fear a hot iron can correct the cupping. Every so often your bobbin will run out of thread, this is a good time to iron your rug flat. Set the iron to hot, start and the center and iron out toward the edges. Repeat on both sides.

This rug currently measures 34″ across and took me a day to make. I haven’t finished the ends off yet because I think I want to make it a bit bigger – I just found a pile of gray shirts that I am hoping will bring it closer to the size I was dreaming of. I will take another picture of it finished and in place next week. I just had to share it today because I was so excited stitching this together. I love the colors and weight of this rug. I am already dreaming of the next one!!

Maybe ocean colors?

Sewing This & That

November 7th, 2011 by zoe No Comments

I have been puttering around sewing a few random things here and there. The shift of seasons always throws me for a loop. Getting into the groove of low light, shorter days and more time indoors. That cold weather groove.

I made a quilted laptop sleeve for my computer last week from pink waterproof pack cloth. The inside is a funky vintage canvas and it’s padded with batting scraps from this quilt project. I could have bought one but where’s the fun in that!

I sewed this cute cap, pattern found here. Oliver is modeling it but it became a birthday gift for an adorable little friend of ours.I used recycled fabric reclaimed from a pair of old corduroys which made the hat nice and soft and we lined it with hot pink cotton from the scrap pile.

Lastly we have been doing lots of freezer paper stenciling. Now I thought pretty much everyone had heard of this technique but everywhere the kids go wearing their newly customized shirts folks are asking. So if you havent tried this super fun stenciling technique —– check out tutorials here and here for the how to. So much fun!

ps. I don’t use fabric paint, just straight acrylic paint because that is what I have on hand and it seems to work just fine.

Oh and I don’t let the paint dry because I am too impatient, we just carefully peel the paper stencil off after painting and it always seems to come off just fine.

Oh and you know that freezer paper is kind of hard to find, just ask the local butcher for a bit of it, they are usually happy to oblige. A little goes a long way!

 

 

 

Halloween Redux

November 4th, 2011 by zoe 2 Comments

I know  Halloween is old news but here in New England we got such a damaging snowstorm in many communities —- cover the ears of your small ones — Halloween was …CANCELLED!! Downed electrical lines all over the place just didn’t make for safe Trick or Treating.

So Halloween is being rescheduled well into November.

In our little hamlet we were lucky (if you call trick or treating in 2 feet of snow lucky) and actually got to run through town shivering and begging for candy on the 31st.

This year I made three fake fur animals hats – Skunk, Dog and Unicorn. I hate sewing fake fur but the hats were actually pretty fun to make and read pretty well in the cold darkness of the evening. Stinky skunk had great fun spraying everyone with his giant tail bobbing up and down as he ran from door to door.

Bat Dog was a little under the weather and lost his voice telling everyone “I’m not BAT Man, I’m BAT DOG, see I have a tail”.  Bat Dog opted out of his dog hat and went for his favorite Bat Man mask at the last-minute.

Note to self – don’t get too attached!! But, man did he look cute in the dog hat!!

Oliver thought we should put all the candy in a pinata and have a party – I thought that was a good one to remember for next year. Emmett had the idea that we should eat it all in one night!!


We Do Cloth

October 16th, 2011 by zoe 5 Comments

Around here, we do cloth. Don’t even get me started about how much I love cloth diapers especially these!!  My sister actually packs her own paper towels when she comes to visit, which kinda cracks me up. Cloth napkins at the table are lovely. BUT, setting the table with a new round of napkins for each meal was proving to be a washing CHORE.

This post from Amanda over at SouleMama proved to be just the sort of big family table advice I needed to find  balance. Napkin rings — huh, not something I would have ever thought of…. but you know when each family member has their own special ring they can use a napkin for more than one meal and it really cuts down on the washing. Plus, children love rituals and jobs.  I love having them be part of the household by setting the table and helping prepare the meals. Win Win!

I had a bit too much fun finding antique napkin rings on Ebay. After way too much computer lusting…  Oliver my jumper has a kangaroo and Emmett my little bird has a chick. Big Dada has a very plain classic napkin ring,  just they way he likes it. I am still on the hunt for my own napkin ring identity —- out in the studio I have a bit of silver that might evolve into something perfect, someday.

Oh, and I did not make these napkins, I splurged and bought them at Target. I really hate ironing and the thought of making all those mitered corners makes me cringe! I am a big fan of no sew fringe edge napkins made with Kona Cotton fabric which can be found at just about any fabric store. Elmers our local breakfast joint uses single layer raw edge napkins and they work just great.  And if you missed it, here is a little tutorial I shared a few weeks back for a super quick school lunch napkin using the same technique.

Click the Captain Crafty project sheet, save to file and print.