Stocking Gift Card Holder

I've kinda thought that gift cards are a bit impersonal when it comes to gift giving. However, it's very convenient, and generally well accepted, so it works. This gift card holder gives a bit of personality to the gift card you give. This holder would also work well for a small gift.

1.  First create a template of the size of stocking you will be using.

2.  Fold a bit of fabric, right side together

3.  Trace your template onto the folded fabric and pin fabric together.

4.  Cut the folded fabric.

5.  You should now have two pieces of stocking shaped fabrics with right sides facing together, and pinned. Fold down (into the wrong side) the top of each fabric by about half an inch and pin (see image).

6.  For each fabric, sew down the folded top.

7.  If you've unpinned the fabrics, pin them back right side together.

8.  Sew around the stocking.

9.  Turn the stocking right side out.

10.  Put your gift card or small gift in, and give it away. :)

Quilted Christmas Card

For me, this is the time of year when I finally decide on what I actually want to do for Christmas cards.    Here is an easy homemade card to sew up.

What you need:

- felt

- ribbon

- fabric

- tape (I used painters tape, but masking tape would work well too.  Not sure about scotch tape.)

- card stock

How to:

1. Cut a felt triangle, it doesn't have to be perfect, but make sure it fits the envelop you want to use, if you plan to place it in an envelop.

2. Cut a fabric triangle about a half inch larger (all around) than the felt.  Place felt on top of the wrong side of the fabric.

3.  Starting with the corners, fold fabric over the felt.  Tape down the corners with a small bit of tape.  Try not to tape on to the other side of the felt.  Fold in the edges.

4. Cut some card stock roughly larger than the size of the triangle.  You can cut it the size of the felt, but I found that it was difficult to sew it in place.

5.  Sew the card stock onto the back of the fabric/felt triangle.  On the very top corner, stick a ribbon loop in before sewing.

6.  Trim the card stock to the size of the triangle.

7.  Glue a piece of ribbon around the card to cover the sew line. 

8.  That's it.  You can write your message on the card stock and send it away.  

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Wine Glass Coasters

September is National Sewing Month.  For the last day of the month, I thought I should post a sewing project.  (just barely made it -- Thank goodness I'm in PST) So here goes.

These are sewn wine glass coasters.  This is a perfect project for some coordinating fat quarters.

Materials:
- fabric square (8"x 8")  (This worked for all but one of my wine glasses - for that one, I could have used a 9"x9" square).

Here's how to make them:

1.  Fold the diagonal with the wrong side out.
2.  Sew mostly around the diagonal, leaving a small opening in the middle of one of the sides.  (I find it makes a more perfect straight edge when your opening is in the middle.
3.  Turn it inside out (or right-side out), using a pen or a dowel of some sort to make crisp corners.
4.  Iron the triangular piece.
5.  Sew a line along the long diagonal edge.
6.  Fold the 2 corners up to make a square.  If necessary, you can iron it down like this.
7.  Sew around the square.

That's it.  Your coaster is complete.  Remember to make coordinating fat quarters in a set, rather than the same fabric.  That way, it can work as a marker too (so you know which wine glass is yours).

 

Cooling off with Neck Coolers

These little things really do help cool you off on hot days.  I made them on a couple of 100+ degree days to see how well they may work.  I was pleasantly surprised by how fast it helped cool you off.  It does take a bit of time to activate the beads.  Okay, so let's get you cool.


What you need:
- Aqua-Gems (liquid marbles) or Water Beads for Plants
- fabric (about 4 inches wide and from selvage to selvage).

First, a bit about those aqua beads.  These little beads, that are probably about 1/16th of an inch in diameter, grows to be 1/2" when activated with water.  It takes a couple of hours for the bead to take in the water to grow to it's largest size.  If I remember correctly, it took a couple of days for the bead to go from 1/2 " to it's original tiny size.  This little package sold for about $4 at Joann's and a gallon of full size beads.  Here are some pictures of the beads from when I first put them in the water, somewhere halfway through, and full size.

Here's how to make the neck cooler:

1.  Start by adding some aqua gems into a bowl of water.  Over-estimate a bit because it does take some time to fully activate.

2. While the beads are activating, cut a piece of fabric from selvage to selvage in a 4 inch strip.

3.  Fold the fabric in half with right sides together, so you have a long thin 2 inch strip.

4.  With fabric folded, sew along the long side where the edges meet, about 1/4" from the edge. (Tip: do a reverse - forward sew on the ends to help secure the ends for the next step)

5. Turn the strip inside out (or right-side out).  This will take a bit of time.

6.  Fold and mark the strip in half and sew a line right through.  I suggest you fold that the first long sew line is in the middle of the strip, not on either edge.

7.  Dry the aqua gems so it doesn't wet the fabric.  Put about 20 -25 beads in the tube.  Sew another line to close those beads in.  Do this 2 more times on this side of the tube.  Do this 3 times on the other side of the tube.  You should have something like this now (red line is the middle).

8.  Now all you have to do is clean up the ends.  I cut the ends in a diagonal, folded it in, and sewn. If it's easier, you can make this a straight fold.  Or even easier yet, and especially if it's just for use around the house, just leave the ends undone.

Stay Cool! :)

Reusable Sandwich Wrap #2

 
Way back a year or so ago, I made / posted another reusable sandwich wrap. Since then, I've looked into and came up with another design that I think is much easier to make as well as to use.  I also made the size of the wrap bigger, allowing for larger sandwiches, and actually even burritos or subs could be wrapped.

 Here's what you need:

1 - fabric for outside of wrap.(14 in x 14 in)
1 - table cloth fabric with flannel backing (14 in x 14 in)
1 - piece of elastic (~ 8 in)

Now, here's how to make it:

1.  Put the two right sides together and pin together.
2.  Sew around the fabric, leaving one corner unsewn (about 2 - 3 inches on each side of the corner).
3.  Cut the corners off of the sewn edges (up to near the sew line).  This is to give the corners a bit more room when you invert the fabric.
4.  Invert the fabric thru the unsewn corner, right side out, and fix the corners.
5.  Fold in the unsewn corner as shown below.

6.  Pin together the unsewn corner.  Slip in the both of the elastic ends in the middle, and pin down.
7.  Sew to close up the unsewn section, and to attach the elastic.  Sew back and forth when you get to the elastic to secure it better.

That's it.  You can fold it up, and keep it til it's ready to go.  See pictures to see how to wrap up a sandwich.  You can use it as a place mat while you're eating your sandwich. When you're done, you can wipe it up via a sponge and you're ready to go again. This beats all of those ziplocks and paper towels that I ended up using in the past.  And, you don't have to deal with sewing velcro.

:)

Reversible Square Giftbag/Purse

Happy New Year!  Thanks for being so patient with my lack of posts.  Hope this year brings you many great blessings.

A while back, my sis found came back from a shop with a cute little square bag that cinched on top.  She then tasked me with trying to figure out how to replicate it.  Anyway, I came up with this.  I think it's cute and pretty close to the original. I can see it as a nice gift bag or even a small purse. So, here's how I did it.

Materials:
- 2 pieces of coordinating fabric (I used 9" x 17" but it really depends on the size of the bag you want to make)
- ribbon for the loops and ribbon to cinch the bag.
- small cardboard (depends on what size you need for the bottom)

How To:

1.  Fold one of the fabric pieces together with the right sides together (wrong-side out), and sew the edge farthest away from the fold. Repeat with the other fabric.

2.  Sew the bottom edge of the fabric (note, the importance of which edge, if the fabric has a definite direction.)

3.  Fold down the corners as show, and iron it down.  Do the same to both corners and both fabric pieces.

4.  Put the bottom sewn edge of each fabric face to face and pin together.

5.  Make a straight mark perpendicular middle sew line, where it meets from fold to fold with the length of about 4 inches. Sew on the line.  Repeat on the other side.

6. Cut a cardboard square out, about 4" x 4". (but really, cut the cardboard to the length between the sew lines as the width, and the length of the sew lines for the length of the cardboard).

7. Slide the cardboard square, in between the sew lines.

8.  Put the fabric together just past the unsewn edges of the cardboard, and sew the edge together as close to the edge as possible.. Do the same to the other unsewn edge.

When you flip over to the right side of the fabric the bottom should look like this.  Flipping on either side right side of fabric should result to the same look.

 

 9. Cut the 8 pieces of ribbon about 2-3" long.  These will be the loops for the bag.  It might be helpful if you fold the ribbons in half and iron them down.

10. Make 8 marks equally spaced, around the top edge of the bag. Sew each folded ribbon on the right side of one of the fabrics, with the fold of the ribbon down and using the marks as placement guidelines. (see picture)

 

11. Fold the top edge of both fabrics, wrong side in, about 3/4" from the edge and iron down.

12. Line up both folded edges, and pin together.

13. Sew the top edge together.

 

14. Thread a corresponding ribbon thru the loops.  Make a knot to tie the ribbon's ends together.  Voila, it's done.  If you have any questions feel free to comment, or email me and I'll try to answer them as I can.

Simple to Sew Reversible Table Runner

This past Thanksgiving, we decided to splurge a bit and grow up a bit by buying a new dining set to put in our dining room, where our pool table use to be.  Anyway, the weekend just before Thanksgiving, I was browsing around Joann's and found this fabric that I liked and decided to make a table runner with it.  I also found another fabric that was plain but I liked how it looked with the first fabric.  However, I didn't really know how long my table was when I bought the fabric (we hadn't assembled the table yet) so I only bought 2 yards. Incidentally, this turned out to be a good mistake. :-)  Instead of making it a solid fabric all the way across, I decided to cut it in half and put a small amount of the second fabric in the middle (like shown in the picture). Along side that, I also decided to make it reversible because I wanted some variety.  Anyway, here's what I came up with.

1. I ended up using about 1 yard each of fabric (2), but it all depends on the size of your table or how long you want the table runner. to be. Cut the fabric so that there are 2 fabric pieces of each design with the size of 12" x 1 yard, as well as a 12" x 6" piece of each design.

2.  Make each side of the table runner, by putting the the right side of Fabric A of the long fabric, with the right side of Fabric B with the short fabric on the 12" side.  Sew the 12" side together.  Put the other Fabric A long piece's right side to the same Fabric B short fabric piece, right side with the free 12" side together.  Do the same with the remaining fabric. Something like this.

3.  Put both the right sides of these fabrics together.  Line up the short piece center fabric of each side, together. Pin them together so they don't move

4. Sew nearly all the way around, starting near the middle area, to ensure that the middle fabrics line up. Leave a 6" hole.

5. Iron on some fusible interfacing (optional) to make the runner more stable.Also, I actually did this earlier on (before step 4), but I think it works to do it here instead.

6. Going thru the 6" hole, flip the fabric outside out and iron the edges down.

7.  Sew around the table runner to close up the 6" hole and to give it a sewn finish.

That's it... you're done.  You now have a reversible runner. It's simple and it works. :-)

 

Easy to Sew Tote Bag

I found/bought this cute fabric at the store with the intention of making a tote bag for groceries. Well, I finally decided to make the bag and share it with you all. It's simple, fast to make, and mighty handy to have.

What you need:

- 1 piece of fabric 1 yard by 22 inches (tho, this depends on the size of bag you want to make)
- 2 pieces of fabric 1 yard by 3 inches (for handles, you can also buy belt like fabric for the same purpose).

How to:

1. Once you've cut all the fabric, we'll make the handles first. Take one of the 3 inch pieces, fold and iron each side down about 1/4 inch, then fold and iron in half width-wise. Sew close lengthwise, and fold down and sew in ends and repeat to the other 3 inch piece of fabric.


2. Fold the 22 inch piece in half lengthwise and inside out. I ironed it folded just to make sure it was straight and it makes it easier to work with.

3. Sew each side down.

4. Make a mark 2.5 inches from the fold and 2.5 inches from the sewing line on the bottom of the bag, both left and right side and both front and back.

5. Fold open the corner, so that the fold lines hit both front/back marks on the left side of the bag (you'll repeat the same technique on the right side. Draw a line using a pencil to connect the marks together. Sew down the line. This makes the bottom of the bag rectangular in shape.


6. Fold the top part of the bag down twice. I ironed it down to make it easier to work with. Sew down both the top part and the bottom part of that folded band. (See picture)

7. Pin down the handles. (I placed them 6 inches away from the side seam). Once pinned, sew them down, and sew on an x for a stronger bond.


That's it. Easy, simple, and quick. Now, time to go to the market. :-)

Reusable Sandwich Wrap

I ran into this idea a long time ago... (maybe mid last year), and have wanted to try it out since. The idea is that you'd save the paper towels that you'd usually wrap your sandwich in by using and reusing this instead. When you've eaten your sandwich, that side can be easily wiped clean and/or washed with a sponge, and it's ready for use again. Oh, and it can also be used as a placemat. Just nifty!

So, here's how I did it. First off, I tried to diagram the shape for you guys. If you're curious, I used Inkscape, an open source vector drawing program that I just recently discovered. Pretty cool, and the price is right. :-)

Diagram is not to scale but should give you a good idea, should you want to give this a shot.



Materials:

Velcro (small strip of maybe 2"-3" long)
Vinyl fabric with flannel backing - like those table cloths.
Cotton fabric of your choosing

How to:

1. Cut vinyl fabric and cotton fabric like the diagram. I put the diagram onto an open paper bag then traced the diagram to the fabrics.

2. On the right side of the cotton fabric, sew on the fuzzy side of the velcro, positioned as shown. (I sewn this on the bottom area of the fabric)

3. On the right side of the vinyl, sew the prickily side of the velcro, as shown. (I sewn this on the top area of the fabric)

4. Pin the two fabrics together with right sides facing each other. The velco should be on opposite sides as well (one on top and on the bottom)

5. Sew around the whole thing, leaving a decent size hole for you to invert the whole fabric. It's very important to make the gap big enough for the next step.



6. Invert the whole thing so right side is out. Be extra careful here because the vinyl can be easily torn. Clean up the edges using a capped pen, or something like it.

7. Fold in the opening so that side is nice and straight, and sew all the way around the whole pattern.



That's it. You're done. Wipe it up, make your sandwich, and wrap it as shown. Mmmm... PB&J, my favorite.


By the way, Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!