A Month of Tutorials and Giveaways

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  With presents to buy, gifts to wrap, food to prepare, decorations to hang, songs to sing, friends and relatives to visit, and traditions to share, the next few weeks will be some of the busiest of the entire year.

In the Christian calendar, the period leading up to Christmas is known as Advent, a time of preparation for “an arrival that has been awaited”.  The season begins on the 4^th Sunday before Christmas (this year, November  28^th) and lasts for four consecutive Sundays.  To celebrate and prepare for the Christmas holiday, each Sunday of Advent I will be posting a tutorial for a simple Christmas tree ornament, some of my favorites from years past.  And, since this is the season of giving, I will be giving away the ornament each week as well.  Simply leave a comment on the Sunday post or tutorial and I will randomly pick a winner on the following Tuesday. 

I also have some special Bags of the Week to share with you, in keeping with the Christmas spirit, and another tutorial for a Santa-inspired tote bag.  I will be posting lots of gift ideas as I make my list and check it twice, as well as another giveaway or two.  I am going to be a busy little elf in the month of December and I am planning to share it all with you.  Check back often.  Or even better, subscribe to my RSS feed which will send you an email each time I post something new.  Click on the link on the right side of this page to subscribe.

Bag of the Week 46

Grip It

Each year my American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group (we’re called Sharing Threads) has a challenge.  The topic is announced at the beginning of the year and the results are presented at the November meeting.  This year’s challenge was an ugly fabric challenge.  Everyone chose a piece of fabric from someone else’s stash (that had been deemed “ugly” by the owner).  The new owner then turned that fabric into anything they wished.

I wasn’t around for the fabric exchange but I wanted to participate in the challenge so I found a solution that fit the spirit, if not the letter, of the event.  A number of years ago I participated in another ugly fabric challenge and I had a piece of that fabric left.  This is a great example of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” because I think the teal cotton twill that was ugly to its previous owner is just lovely.  At the time, I was interested in discharge dyeing so I took the fabric and, using a stencil and Soft Scrub cleaner, discharged a design onto the fabric.  The piece you see above was another piece I dyed at the time but didn’t use in my final project.  So I used it in this years’ challenge.

I used Nancy Ota’s Grip It pattern but changed the dimensions to fit the fabric piece I was working with.  I used a coordinating stripe to bind top and bottom edges of the fabric before topstitching it onto the screen panel.  This pattern was so fast and easy.  I made this bag, start to finish (including time to gather all of the materials) in less than two hours.  It is a handy size for carrying books and papers.  It also felt good to use up a scrap that’s been hanging around my sewing room for years.

Unfortunately, a sudden illness kept me from going to the meeting this week where everyone presented their finished projects, and I was so disappointed to miss seeing them all.  I’ll have to take my bag to next month’s meeting where we will be planning all of the programs for the coming year and choosing the topic for our next challenge.  Can’t wait to see what that will be!

Pretty Pantry Gifts

It’s that time of year when I start hoarding all of the gift ideas I come across.  This beautiful package caught my eye while surfing around on Save-on-Crafts website so I ordered one.  It contains a recipe book and all of the wrapping essentials needed to make beautiful edible gifts.  This set would also make a lovely gift itself, especially for a friend who loves to cook.  The $14 price tag at Save-on-Crafts is the lowest I’ve found, though this is available from a number of other online sources including Target and some of the large chain bookstores.  You might save yourself shipping costs and check those bookstores locally to see if they carry this set.

For a DIY project, cut 6” circles from cotton fabric with your pinking shears, and add some purchased hair elastics and cellophane bags.  If you have a die cutting machine you could cut some tags and add a little stamp that picks up your chosen theme.  You could also include some custom printed stickers (search “canning labels” on www.etsy.com for a large selection) or, if you really want to take the gift up a notch, you could include a custom-made stamp like this one I ordered for myself.

I ordered this stamp from Expressionery; they run sales periodically on these stamps which really makes them an affordable gift.  There are a number of appropriate designs available. 

Stay tuned over the next weeks for more gift ideas.  I’m working on some tutorials right now for the upcoming holiday season.  Check back often!

Bag of the Week 45

Asian Portfolio

I started this portfolio during a class at The Sewing Expo at the end of September.  All supplies and the instructions were provided, and I felt lucky that the fabrics selected were so lovely and to my liking.  The first step was to embroider a crane on dark brown velveteen; this piece became the back panel. 

Next, I strip pieced the various printed cottons to make the body of the bag.  The flap’s Courthouse Steps design was pieced from leftover strips and more of the velveteen.  The three elements were sewn together and the entire piece interfaced with iron on interfacing.  Next came a layer of canvas that was basted to the wrong side of the resulting panel.  The side seams were sewn and the bottom corners boxed.  A lining was added and the raw edges bound with a bias strip.  The scariest part was cutting the hole for the grommet; I proceeded with baby steps, gradually increasing the size of the cut hole until it was right.  I found it helpful to stitch around the opening before cutting to ensure the three layers could be cut as one unit.  The strap, which is edged with a serged wave stitch, was attached last.

I really love this bag and think it is very reflective of my style and taste.  I plan to use it to carry books and notepads to my various sewing events and meetings.  It can also hold a laptop.  I had enough scraps left over to create another little bag which I featured a few weeks ago.  All in all, a nice class with a beautiful finished product.

Gift Enclosure Cards from Moo

I've posted before about how much I love my Moo cards.  I had a set of mini cards made and use them as promotional material for my blog.  Everyone I give them to loves them and wants to know where they can get their own.  Today I received an email from Moo telling me about a 30% off sale on their products going on through Sunday night.  This is a great price on a great product.  While browsing this morning I came across one of their stock designs that I love.  Wouldn't this make the cutest enclosure card for gifts that you make?  You can customize the cards with different graphics (including your own images) and different text.  Don't miss out on the great sale this weekend.