Are there any Mizzou fans out there?

Awhile back, my roommate and I went to one of those crazy free-for-all garage sales where heaps of clothes are strewn about and you fill a garbage sack with as much as you can get your hands on.  I ended up purchasing a sack of stuff for 60 cents an item!  My roommate loves all things Mizzou, and she stuffed this t-shirt in the sack hoping it would fit.  When we got home, she realized it was too small and was all upset about it.  

I decided to sneak it away and make something useful out of the too-small t-shirt.  This pillow is the end product.  Well, will be the end product when I get around to finishing the back.  It's going to be 24" x 24" when finished.  

A post not about sewing!

Maybe that surprises you.  I do other stuff too!


I had saved an empty Pringles can because I feel like I have to reclaim almost everything...  I also have a ton of jute that needs to be used up.  I started hot gluing the jute around the base of the can, made it up a couple inches, and decided it shouldn't go all the way up to the top.  I grabbed some scrap muslin and hot glued that on above the jute.  Just to be sure the can didn't peek through, I wrapped some more jute around where it met the muslin.  I also wrapped the jute around for about an inch at the top of the can.  Viola!  A vase.


I'd been seeing wonderful arrangements of budding or flowering branches and thought that would be great with this vase.  I grabbed a few dead branches from outside and made some pink flowers from tissue paper laying around, then hot glued them onto the branches.

French memo board in, you guessed it, houndstooth!

I have this French memo board that I made a long time ago when I was in the zebra print fabric phase.  It's not really my taste now for my new apartment, so I decided to jazz it up with that green houndstooth fabric that kind of reminds me of the temple oil lamps that never ran out of oil - I may never use it all up!  


Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, but here's the after.  Same technique as the necklace holder, but I crisscrossed and stapled ivory grosgrain ribbon across the front to hold stuff.  The ribbon was on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1 for 15 yards - awesome!  To keep the ribbons crisscrossed just so, I screwed in those little plastic and metal Dritz Twist Pins.  

I hung it up in the kitchen. Don't mind the mess!

Can I get some more houndstooth please?

It's been a busy weekend for me working on a bunch of different projects.  Ideas just flew into my head as I was planning the things I needed to do!  

So I'd been having trouble keeping my necklaces orderly and out of an untangled monster blob in my jewelry box and I'd been keeping my eye out for tutorials on making something to keep them in line.  I contemplated a picture frame with window screen mesh, but that stuff is wicked expensive for how little I wanted.  I thought about ribbons and snaps and that just sounded way too complicated.  

Before

Ultimately I went with what I know...fabric!  I bought a picture frame with a decent design at the thrift store for $1.62.  BTW, I chose a paint color for the desk project and thought, hmm, I should paint this picture frame to match.  So I did.  I removed the glass and was left with a few pieces of cardboard.  I didn't have batting, but I do have some polar fleece that I saved from the trash (don't ask) that I stapled to the cardboard.  Then I stapled another piece of beautiful preppy green houndstooth over it.  Popped it all back in the frame and thought, now what?  Well I wanted it to be an effective but simple solution, so I used those pearly glass topped pins stuck into the fabric to hold the necklaces.  Heavy pieces like the one in the middle needed a couple pins.  I alternated white and green pins, because I have a type A personality.  So far it seems to be a good project, and it didn't come crashing down in the middle of the night like other things I've hung.  Now if I could only get Carlton to stop jumping up at it to play with the pretty chains...

After!  Sorry you can't tell the size of this, but I think it's about 10x14...

Nobody puts Carlton in the corner!

Vanity Mirror Turned Fireplace Screen

I'm not really sure how this idea popped in my head, but last weekend I decided to turn this vanity mirror I bought for a quarter at a garage sale into a fireplace screen.  My fireplace is a little blah so I thought this would do wonders at sprucing it up.  Plus, it's probably the cheapest project I've ever done.

The trifold mirror was 25 cents because one of the pins was broken, so I stuck a nail in it and viola! fixed (duh).  The fabric was on clearance at Joann's and since I heart houndstooth, I had to have it for $4 for almost 2 yards.  I used Elmer's spray adhesive which is about $4.


First, I made a paper pattern of the mirror pieces by tracing along the trim.  Then I cut out the fabric and messed it up by first making two of one side.  Oops!  (There are a lot of oopses when I craft).  

Next, I took it outside.  That spray glue reeks!  I chose the temporary tacky option since I may change it someday.  So you spray both surfaces and wait 5 min before you put them together.  

Rub out the bubbles and trim up any excess.  There ya have it - a shabby chic fireplace screen! 

Vintage Sheet Swap Project #1 Completed!

Hello!  I know I'm sort of sporadic about my posts.  I've moved for my new job and had training and all, so I've been busy decorating and learning etc. etc.  I have managed to finish my first project from my lovely stash of vintage sheet fat quarters.  


I stumbled upon the lovely Pink Penguin blog awhile ago after I had purchased the Spring 2010 issue of Stitch magazine.  The author, Ayumi Takahashi, had a plastic bag dispenser featured in the magazine.  She has great tutorials on her blog too.  I decided the Quilted Placemats Tutorial would be a perfect way to showcase some of my vintage sheets in my new apartment.  I say perfect because, frankly, I was scared to cut big pieces out of my fat quarters!

I finished 2 placemats and am pretty happy with how they turned out.  I did make a few mistakes that should make the next versions come out improved.  I skipped the spray on basting step and after I was finished quilting the white center, the placemats were a little more like a rhombus than a rectangle!  I think next time I'll quilt the white before sewing the patchwork strips on the edges to make sure it's straight.  I guess I had a mental block when I was sewing the bias tape on.  I used purchased double fold bias tape and machine stitched it to the back of the placement.  Duh - now the front has hand stitching showing instead of a nice straight line!  Oops...  

The patchwork edge is an assortment of vintage sheets.  The white fabric in the center is Kona linen that was 50% off at Joann.  I bought a ton to make a cathedral window quilt - to be continued later.  The bias tape is Wright double fold bias tape.  I used leftover light loft batting and the back of the placemats is a purple cotton I found in the remnant bin super cheap.  

There's more in the pipelines for my vintage sheet stash.  I actually have received my box from a second swap I participated in.  I think my new kitten, Carlton, likes them!  I should probably make something for him soon!  He's fascinated with trying to help me type :/  

Green Coffee Sleeves

For my sewing project last night, I decided to try something new - coffee sleeves for your hot coffee cup.  They're green for a couple reasons: 1. It's reusable.  2. It's made entirely out of scraps i.e. recycled material.  

My overflowing box of shirt scraps!

I have a lot of scrap material from making my aprons (see my etsy shop!) and the vintage sheet swap I participated in, plus I still have that "found" lime green polar fleece, which I used for batting/insulation.  I tried out two different methods, and I'm not really sure how I feel about these prototypes.  The blue one is made from men's shirt scraps and the yellow one is made from vintage bed sheet scraps.  I was hoping more of the flower print would show, but I think I made it too small.  I did try to quilt the yellow one a little bit with triangles.  After sewing these, I think the polar fleece will be fine insulation, but I didn't like sewing with it and may switch to insulated fusible batting if I pursue these as a potential money maker.  I'd also probably leave it open with Velcro or elastic and a cute button on the end to make it mutli-sizable.  

coffee sleeves (sorry, no coffee cups to fill them with yet!)

Ever heard of nervous crafting?

Here it is, 4 days until the most important test of my graduate school career, and what do I do to prepare?  I shove all the notes under my desk and craft something, of course!

I told you that the ironing board cover pattern might show up again.  I made a quick little craft out of a few scraps of fabric I had laying around.  Sitting next to my computer, sewing machine, and various other places of my room are scraps of folded up paper that serve as coasters.  Sick of the ink-stained crinkly papers, I decided to make coasters!  This project took me about an hour to make 4 coasters.

For this project, I used more bits from the striped sheet from Goodwill, some lime green polar fleece I found somewhere I'd rather not mention :) and a couple of button down shirts given to me by a friend that I couldn't sell or wear.  

First, I cut out 4 squares of polar fleece in the size I wanted my coasters.  Second, I cut the 4 squares of sheet and shirts about 5/8" larger than the polar fleece.  I pinned the right sides together and sewed 3 sides together.  Third, I turned it right side out and made sure the corners were nice and crisp before stuffing the pocket with the polar fleece.  Turn the open edge inside, pin, and topstitch the opening shut.  For my quilting design, I sewed about 1/4" from the edge of the fabric in a square.  Then I sewed the remaining middle section into 9 squares.  Pretty easy, and totally cute!  I think you might be able to make around 2,394 coasters from a flat full size sheet :D

I'm in a relationship!

It's official - I'm in a relationship with my sewing machine.  I realized this when my friend from school called yesterday and asked me how the dating scene was panning out around here.  I said, "Beats me, I've been pretty serious with my sewing machine lately."  I can't really cuddle with it, but Bernina makes me soooo happy, and never lets me down!

Today I cheered myself up slash avoided studying for boards (7 days away - eek!) by crafting a jazzy new ironing board cover to brighten up my makeshift bedroom/home office/craft studio.  My ironing board already had a nice padded cover, but it was really ugly.  Earlier this week I picked up a cute full size sheet from Goodwill and my mind's been swimming with ideas for it since.

Here's how I did it, in less than an hour and a half to boot!

What you need:
- a piece of fabric that'll cover the top of the ironing board, plus 3" overhang
- 3 yards of 1/2" wide elastic

Before:

Wash, dry & iron the sheet.  Lay it out flat, and set the ironing board face down on top of it like so, and draw a line 3 inches all the way around the perimeter of the ironing board.  Cut it out now.

Make a casing all the way around the edge by folding the fabric 1/4" (wrong sides facing) and then another fold 3/4" wide.

Baste the curved edges along the 3/4" fold and gather the fabric so it lies flat on top of the ironing board and it's gathered on the underside.

Now sew the casing closed along the edge, leaving enough room for 1/2" wide elastic and a 2-3" opening to insert elastic.  Put a large safety pin at one end of the elastic and pull it through the entire length of the casing.  This part takes the longest, keep it up!  Make sure the cover fits tight over the ironing board, mark where the elastic ends should be sewn together, and tack them together well.  Cut off the extra elastic.

Sew the casing shut, shimmy the elastic around if needed, and viola!  A bright, happy new ironing board!  Much better :D

Total cost of project: $5.00

sheet   $3.75    and I still have a ton left over, watch for this fabric pattern again!

elastic  $1.25   JoAnn had a 50% off notions wall sale today, lucky me

Oh and I got the ironing board at a mission store for about $5 too.  It's definitely coming the 1000 miles home with me now!