Stuff I Make

It sounded good at the time.

March 17, 2010

This is probably my longest running WIP ever. I think it’s been six years since I started this dang project.

I thought it was the coolest idea – knitting with plastic lanyard to create a waterproof bag. How perfect for a beach tote! I think I saw it on Carol Duvall, but the person demonstrating it said that it was a perfect project to take to the pool because it couldn’t get dirty and as it got warmed by the sun it became easier to knit. She failed to mention that when it’s not warmed by the sun it’s like knitting with rebar.

I sit in the sun so rarely that this project has hardly seen the light of day. This is its year. I’m going to finish this dang thing or just chuck the whole lot.

Filed Under: Are you kidding me?, Stuff I Make

Beehive Headband

March 11, 2010

Last year, when I was just in charge of the 16 – 18 year olds, I came up with this little headband to welcome the girls who turned 16 and entered my class. Now that I’m over everyone, I wanted to come up with something for every girl who advanced into a new class.

The girls who are 16 – 18 are called Laurels, so I made them a laurel wreath. The 14 – 15 year old girls are called Mia Maids (which doesn’t make a ton of sense because it refers back to an old program that doesn’t exist anymore) and their symbol is a rose. So I took one of my little organza flowers and hot glued it on a headband to crown them with roses. The 12-13 year old girls are called Beehives.

Beehives are right on that cusp where you can still get away with something pretty cute. Which is a good thing, because I could not come up with a way to make a beehive fashionable. Versions of this ribbon bee are floating around the internet all over the place, but here’s how I made mine.

Start by cutting four pieces of 1/2″ wide ribbon. 2 yellow pieces measuring 4″ long and 3″ long, and 2 black pieces measuring 3 1/2″ and 2 1/2″.

Using either a needle and thread or glue, secure the ends together perpendicularly. Glue the right side of one end to the wrong end of the other, turning one side so the the ends make a square. This will make your ribbon form a loop. Do this with all four pieces.

Line all your loops up and glue or sew together. Take another piece of your black ribbon and wrap it around the tip of your loops to make a little bee head and cover up any seams. Glue or sew the ends of the black ribbon to the underside of the bee.

To make the wings, cut another piece of ribbon to 4″ long. I used a sheer cream ribbon, but anything white or cream will work. Mark the center of the ribbon, and bring the ends in to that middle point in the same way you made the loops for the body.

Glue the wings onto the top of the bee body.

Tie a little bow out of a coordinating ribbon, and hot glue it onto the headband. Hot glue the bee onto the bow.

My only problem with implementing this new tradition, is that all the girls who’ve already advanced in the classes want the headbands too. I may have assigned myself a whole lot more work than I meant to.

Filed Under: Matters of Faith, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

Fabric Covered Wastebasket

March 5, 2010

Sometimes I can be so dang cheap about the silliest things. Since we moved into this house three years ago I’ve needed to get wastebaskets in all the bathrooms, but I could not bring myself to spend $25 on something that no one will notice except when they need somewhere to put a used kleenex.

I’ve searched and searched for a cheaper option. All the usual places – Ross, Marshals, etc. – cost just as much as Target for a lamer selection. I stalked Linen’s and Things when it was going out of business and they never got cheaper than $20. I even looked for something at the dollar store and didn’t find anything that wasn’t disposable. For all the money I’ve spent on gas while on the quest, I probably could’ve just bought the dang pricey trashcans three times.

Finally I found these cheap black plastic trashcans at a discount store, and bought them out of desperation, figuring I could do something to make them work.

I used a special spray paint for plastic to turn the awful black plastic into a color that would fit in in the bathroom. I planned to only cover the outside so the inside could still be wiped clean when necessary.

I cut a piece of fabric to fit the outside of the trash can. If your trash can is shaped like mine, you need to allow for it to be wider at the top than the bottom. A 1/2 yard of fabric was plenty for this project, so I just cut the fabric several extra inches taller than the trashcan and that was enough to account for that curve. Spray a spray adhesive over the trashcan a few inches at a time and smooth the fabric over.

Cut the fabric flush with the top edge.

Fold the raw edge under and glue down using a fabric glue.

Fold the fabric onto the bottom of the trashcan and glue in place. This is easiest if you cut slits into the fabric and then fold those pieces on top of each other. Then I covered the whole mess with a circle of flannel.

I cut a stip of fabric 2 inches wide and made some bias tape out of it by ironing the raw edges in towards the center. A bias tape maker makes this job a breeze. Then I just glued it onto the rim of the wastebasket with fabric glue and used binder clips to hold it in place until it dried.

Each wastebasket took about 1/2 a yard of fabric, but for one of the trashcans I used fabric I had left over from another project in that room. So at $3 for each can, $4 for the spray paint, and $4.50 for the half yard of fabric, I made two wastebaskets for the grand total of $14.50. That’s a whole lot better than the $50 everyplace else was charging.

Filed Under: My Dreamhouse in Progress, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

Long Overdue Presents

March 3, 2010

I so have the best of intentions whenever a present comes due. I have these grand visions of even getting ahead one day, keeping a drawer with handmade presents I can choose from to send out the week of the special day.

Yeah right. It’s the curse of the crafter to always be chasing these deadlines. But as of this particular moment, right now, as I post this, I am caught up on presents I owe to friends.

My dear friend Stacy had her first girl after three handsome boys, and she requested a rustle bag like I made for Atticus, but in “slightly girlier” fabrics. Her baby was born in November, and I hadn’t even gotten a card out yet. Embarrassing.

Then I owed my dear friend Pela Via a birthday present since the beginning of the month. Bad form. Especially when she absolutely spoiled me on my birthday. So I had to make it a good one. I knew I’d have no time to make something really ornate, so I thought I’d make a whole bunch of cool little things.

I found a microscopic leather skirt at the thrift store for $2, so I cut it up to make a cuff. I just used some pearl snaps on the end to close it. I couldn’t resist making one for myself, too.

I made a little makeup bag like I made for my friends at church, but for Pela’s I added a handle. I wish I had that idea earlier. Now it could be used like a casual little purse, too.

I only had one pair of these earring findings, so I can’t tell you how hard it was to give these earrings up. I’ve got to find another pair somewhere, if only I could remember where I got them from in the first place.

And then, since Pela is a writer, I thought some customized moleskins would be appropriate. I just used some stamps and embossing powder to make them special.

Over the years I’ve cut back on the number of people I give homemade gifts to. A lot of people just don’t appreciate the amount of work that go into them, and it really is a lot of work. But when you find a friend who gets it, I just want to spoil them. I just wish I could do it in a more timely manner.

Filed Under: Stuff I Make

Superhero T-Shirt Quilt

February 26, 2010

When my cousin Karen was going through the bags and bags of clothes her kids had grown out of, she set aside a bunch of shirts that held sentimental value. The shirts the kids really loved the most. And every single one of them turned out to be a superhero shirt.

Her boys love to play dress up, to come up with complicated scenarios where they save the day, and everything they own has some heroic emblem of one kind or another on it. So when I saw the pile of shirts she was creating, and the enormous pile of clothes she was giving to me, I knew I had to return the favor with a T-shirt quilt.

OK, it’s not my best quilting work. I realize now why all the T-shirt quilts I’ve seen are tied. Oh how I wrestled with this one! The softest jersey I could find also had some spandex in it, so I had to choose between quilting perfection and upping the coziness. Coziness won.

Being two small boys, I didn’t have enough fabric to do a straight ahead patchwork, so I bought a ton of that infernal gray spandex jersey and set about patching it all together.

I fussy cut each T-shirt to get as much of the image as possible, cutting the back of the T-shirt the same size at the same time. I laid them out on the floor, spacing them out how I wanted them to appear on the quilt top, then I sewed a strip on the top and bottom as necessary so that each piece measured 11″ high. I just changed how thick the bottom pieces and top pieces were so that the images would be staggered across the row.

Then I measured the space between each T-shirt as they were laid out across the floor, and sewed in another piece of gray jersey at that measurement.

I used the back of the T-shirts to make the back of the quilt, so I made the back and front of the quilt at the same time by just duplicating all the pieces I was cutting out.

I sewed the rows together, sewed on a big border, and then sewed the back and front together, right sides together, leaving an opening for turning. I stuffed the batting inside and rolled it out flat, then sewed a line of topstitching all the way around the outside to close it up and disguise the opening.

Doing this again, I would tie the quilt in a few places because those knits do NOT want to stay where you want them to stay. But this time I machine quilted a few squares around the quilt.

It really is remarkably cozy. It’s almost enough to make it worth all that wrestling I had to do. I think these two little boys will just be excited to sleep with all their favorite heroes protecting them through the night.

Filed Under: Stuff I Make

Fancy New Bags for my Fancy New Job

February 19, 2010

I have to carry a ton of stuff back and forth to all my Young Women meetings. Along with my regular set of scriptures, I carry a big binder with all my planning information in it, plus my own set of keys because Bear and I usually have to drive separately now, my cell phone I can suddenly never be without, and then before I leave I often have clipboards with new assignments, handouts, all manner of stuff that’s way too much for a set of arms that are already holding a toddler and diaper bag.

But trying to gather stuff together every time I had a meeting was no good either, so I decided I needed to have a designated church bag.

This bag started with the pattern for tote bags that’s in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts [amazon associates link], but ventured off when I needed to use measurements that went with the fabric leftovers I had on hand, and when I decided that I needed a really deep bag, so I had to make it box shaped. So I guess all it really has in common is the contrasting top and bottom fabrics. Anyhoo, here’s how I did it.

For the bag exterior:
2 pieces for the top – 13.5″ x 11″
2 pieces for the bottom – 13.5″ x 9″
2 pieces for the sides – 4″ x 17″
2 pieces for the handles – 3″ x 24″

For the lining:
2 pieces for the front and back – 13.5″ x 19
2 pieces for the sides – 4″ x 17″

Sew each of the top pieces to one of the bottom pieces. Then sew the two bottom pieces together. Line the side piece up with the top of the top piece and sew down to the bottom. Repeat with the other three side seams, starting each one from the top.

This will leave you with an open section at the bottom of each side. Flatten the bottom piece to line up with the side piece, and sew across.

I like to reinforce those corners by going back over them from the top of the side seam to the bottom. This also makes the corners lay nicely.

Repeat from the beginning with the lining fabric.

Iron the top of the bag exterior, and the lining, over, wrong sides together, about an inch. Fit the lining inside the bag exterior and pin around.

To make the handles, fold the handle pieces in half and sew down the long side, making a tube. Turn right side out and iron flat. Pin the handles in between the layers of bag exterior and lining, making sure to line up the front and back handle so they’re positioned the same on the bag.

Sew a couple of lines of topstitching around the mouth of the bag, one right up near the edge to keep the lining in place, and another about a 1/2″ down to reinforce the handles.

Because I am also super anal retentive, I needed to have a special pouch just to put things like receipts that I must not must not lose. I didn’t make a tutorial for it because I was completely winging it as I went, but I really love how it turned out.

Isn’t it funny how just having a special place where things go make you feel so on top of things?

Filed Under: Matters of Faith, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

Mason Dixon Handtowels

February 4, 2010

More time ago than I’d like to admit, I started knitting the handtowels from the Mason Dixon ladies’ first book. This is one of those projects that I don’t have to hide away in my studio to work on, or worry about keeping things clean, so I have it tucked in a basket I keep next to my couch so that I can pull it out whenever we’re having family together time, otherwise known as watching television.

Unfortunately, because there’s no rush to get them finished, no deadline waiting or birthdays to be missed, they’ve been languishing in the basket for years. With the new year, and spring that arrives at about the same time here in San Diego, my thoughts are turning to sprucing up the house and finishing up some projects that have been on my mind for ages, so it’s time to assign these towels a deadline.

The towels I have in the downstairs bathroom, the bathroom off the living room and therefore the one that guests are most likely to use, are rolled up and arranged in a ceramic bowl. It looks nice enough, but no one ever uses them. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen someone come out of the bathroom wiping their hands on their pants because they didn’t want to disturb the arrangement.

My new thought is that these handtowels, knitted up in a simple cotton yarn, will look nice enough on their own that I can just stack them up on a cute little table, and when they’re not arranged in some complicated design someone might actually be brave enough to take one off the pile and put it to use.

Filed Under: My Dreamhouse in Progress, Stuff I Make

Finally!

February 1, 2010

I made these little makeup bags from this tutorial as presents for the outgoing presidency. I filled them with fancy soap and lotion and told them they all deserved a rest.

Eight weeks ago I was asked to serve as the Young Womens President, and yesterday it all finally happened. Eight weeks! For eight weeks I’ve been sitting around biting my nails and obsessing over everything I had to get done, but without being able to do anything about it. It’s made my anxiety go through the roof, but it’s also made it really hard to blog about what’s occupying my mind, because I couldn’t talk publicly about the only thing I could think about.

Young Womens is the organization at church that is over all girls 12 – 18. We teach them on Sunday and have youth group one night a week, and then there’s also a whole host of other activities and responsibilities that go with it. I’ll have a group of about 8 other women who will be working with me to get it all done, so that means planning meetings and phone calls and emails and a whole lot of work. I’ve been told by people who know that it’s a similar work load to being a PTA president. It’s slightly overwhelming.

I have been so anxious about how I’m going to fit everything in. Atti has this new therapy so he now goes to therapy four times a week, I’ll have meetings at the very least twice a week for YW, and I have the two different careers I’m juggling that I can’t bear the thought of giving up. Bear and I have talked about some changes we can make to make everything work but it’s a whole lot to manage.

Every time I look at what I’ve got on my plate, I just can’t imagine letting anything go. I can’t cut back on the blog, it’s my connection to the world. I can’t cut back on the work I’m doing in the Mormon Studies world, it keeps my brain engaged and keeps my faith in tact. I can’t do less for Atticus. And I love these girls. I can’t say no to them.

I had an old bishop who used to say, “A change is as good as a rest.” He used to listen to his kids whine about doing yardwork, so instead of letting them quit, he’d send them inside to fold laundry. He used to say that using different muscles was just as restful as using no muscles, and 100% more productive. So I’m clinging to that. When my toddler gets to be too much, I can go hang out with a bunch of teenagers who love me and tell me how great I am. When I get tired of writing, I can go make something. It will all just take some careful planning and a whole lot of discipline.

And ice cream. I think I’ll need a lot of ice cream.

Filed Under: Are you kidding me?, Grand Schemes and Other Plans, Stuff I Make, The Good Life

2010 Christmas Cards

January 14, 2010

When you go as ridiculously overboard as I do every Christmas, you can’t do it all in a month. It takes a lot of careful planning. So every year around this time, I make my Christmas cards for the Christmas up ahead. I only came up with this plan a few years ago, but Holy Cow is it the best idea ever. All the Christmas papers and stamps are on sale, and I have more time in the week after Christmas than I could ever hope to find throughout the rest of the month.

When I’m done, I just pack them away with the rest of the decorations. Then when the decorations come out, I just have to worry about getting a recent picture and sticking them in the mail.

Here’s 2009‘s card
and here’s 2008‘s.

Last year’s card was a little too labor intensive. I got a little carried away. So this year I’m keeping it more simple.

Here’s what you’ll need:
Cardstock that is printed on both sides, cut down to 6″ tall by 9″ wide
Cardstock in a solid contrasting color cut to 4″ wide by 1/2″ tall
Stamped and embossed center image (I’ll explain)
Stamped and embossed interior image (ditto)
Tulle cut off the spool about 4″ wide

This style of card is called a gate card, meaning the sides fold in and meet in the middle. So the first step is to score 2 1/4″ in from each end. I love the scoring blade on my paper trimmer, but you could also use a bone folder.

When you make as many cards as I do, you have to keep your costs down however possible. Adding even one brad jacks your cost up like crazy when you have do it 100 times. So I try to stick to paper wherever possible, and stamping is really cost effective when you’re talking bulk.

You’ll need two embossed images. One is for the front and center of the card. It really doesn’t matter what stamp you use, but something with a greeting makes sense. Mine is about 2″ x 3″ which worked out really nicely. I stamped it on a shimmery cardstock, embossed it with glittery red powder, and then cut the paper out to the size of the stamp.

The other image is for the inside of the card, to add a little something once the photo gets put in place. You’ll want to keep it on the small side so it doesn’t compete with your family pictures. Mine is about 1″ x 3/4″. I stamped it on coordinating cardstock and then cut around the outline. Tape it to the end of your 4 x 1/2″ cardstock strip.

The rest of the interior stuff will be done in photoshop when I get our family pictures done. I envision this little decorative strip separating the photo section from the newsletter section.

Now back to the front of the card.

Bunch up the long side of the tulle, and staple it to the right side of the gate we created earlier.

Then take your center front embossed image and glue one side of it down on top of the tulle, arranging it so that it’s centered when both gates are closed. I used a liquid glue for this. Any other adhesive I tried wasn’t strong enough to make it through the tulle. The liquid glue may warp your paper, so I’d recommend using a thicker cardstock for your embossed image, but anything else and the embossed piece will just fall off in the mail.

There’s nothing like feeling like you’re on top of things. It doesn’t happen often to me, but every year when I pack these cards away I relish in a little gloat, feeling like at that moment, I am ahead of the game.

Filed Under: Over the Top Christmas, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

Quilt of Hate no more

January 13, 2010

Nearly three years later, I’ve finally finished it. My almost disastrous satin quilt project.

All my fears about the unintentional swastika pattern (that isn’t *technically* as swastika pattern because it faces the wrong way, but whatever, try explaining that to every person who walks in your home) has receded into the background now that I’ve got everything pieced together and the machine quilting done.

I finally just finished sewing up the binding, and now it’s all done. This was one of the longest projects I’ve ever worked on. I rarely let something go on this long without finishing up or developing a nervous tic.

We tossed it on the bed last night for it’s inaugural sleep, and it’s wonderful. I don’t think it will be my last satin quilt. It reminds me of the silky robes and nightgowns my mom used to wear, before one of us girls (ahem, Traci) claimed them for ourselves.

Now the only problem will be the first time a cat decides to sink their claws into it. I may shortly have a few less kitties wandering about the place.