It always happens that in the midst of a sewing or craft project that neat stack of materials and supplies that I have gathered becomes scattered all over the place: thread in one spot, notions covered by fabrics, pattern packet and instructions separated from each other.  Sometimes I feel like more time is spent searching for the pieces I need than actually sewing.  Here is a simple way to be stylishly organized.

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Time: less than an hour

Materials:

• Chunky Picture frame 11” x 14”
• 4 -2-1/2” finish nails
• 4 cup hooks
• 2 clothes pins & 2 1″ finish nails to attach these
  
• Spray paint

Step 1: Clean the frame

Step 2:  Figure out which side will be the top of the frame.  On the sides of the frame, screw in cup hooks, two per side on short sides of frame, 2 per side, place 1 one each side about an inch down from the top a corner and couple of inches from the bottom corner.  These can hold scissors, buttons, safety pins or anything else you might have to organize.

Step 3: Nail 2-1/2″  nails along bottom edge of frame at an angle, you may want to pre-drill so the frame wood doesn’t split

Step 4: Spray paint.

Step 5: Attach clothes pins, by taking them apart and nailing one side into the frame and then assemble again with the spring, this takes a little fussing about but they will be secure.

Step 6:  Hang frame in craft room and add your current project notions, pattern and tools to all the hooks and clips and be a little more organized for your project.

TaDaa!

Finished Sewing Square

First Communion is coming up quickly, only two weeks away, and I just finished the dress over the weekend.  Now it is time to make the veil, a fun and quick project that could also be adapted to make a wedding veil for a little girl’s dress-up box.

• 1 yard tulle 45″ wide-  the finer the tulle the nicer it will drape
  
• 1/4″ satin ribbon (5 yards)
• thread
• fabric padded headband
• assorted millinery flowers -optional

Step 1: Fold in half width-wise to a size 45″  x 18″ and then fold in half again to have a square 22.5 x 18.”  Lay this on a cutting mat and with a rotary cutter cut a gently sloping quarter circle to give the veil shape.

First fold to 45 x 18

2nd fold to 22.5 x18

cutting of veil shape

Step 2: Machine sew 1/4″ satin ribbon to edge of tulle.  Start sewing at the widest point (at edge of 45″ width point.)  It will be gathered at the headband and hidden.

It might be a little difficult to start in the machine, so begin with an inch of ribbon under the presser foot.  Trim excess ribbon prior to making the full circle to overlap the ribbon.  Continue feeding the ribbon over the edge of the tulle and stitch all the way around the tulle.

Step 3: Fold veil to the position where you would like the tiers to hit, about a 6″ difference gives a nice look or keep them even.  Baste along the folded edge.  This will be where the veil is gathered.  I did this by hand but you could quickly machine baste.

Step 4: Evenly gather veil and hand stitch to the headband.  This is most time consuming step (still only about 15-20 minutes).  I found the easiest way to evenly gather was to tack the veil to the headband at the end points and center point and then distribute the gathers between them hand stitching in place. Be sure to stitch evenly in place to the back edge of the head band to conceal stitch and leave a nice edge.

Step 5: Optional additional millinery flowers may be hand sewn to the headband to cover any stitching and add some pop to the veil and customize it to match any details of the dress.

To make a wedding veil the same techniques apply, just with loads more tulle, for example use 60″ wide tulle and 1.5- 6 yards, depending on length and number of layers.

TaDaa!

Finished veil modeled by a very silly girl!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

With the long winters in Ann Arbor and the inevitable snow days, I’ve had plenty of time to do some kid crafts. This felt board has been a big hit with my son who loves to have me tell him over and over the well-loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and the story of The Three Little Pigs.

1.  We covered an old bulletin board with some batting to make it even and then stapled green felt for the ground and blue felt for the sky to the back of the board. I sewed the two colors together first so the horizon line would lay nice.

You could also cover a sturdy piece of cardboard or a light-weight piece of wood to make the board. Mine measured 20” h x 16” w.

2.  Then, we bought TWO paper-back books of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Since you will cut into the pictures on the back page, you will need two books to ensure that you can cut out all the main pictures.

3.  After cutting the pictures, we glued felt onto the backs of them. We could then have fun telling the story as it reads in the book and make up our own versions of the caterpillar’s adventures.

4.  After playing with the board, we put the pieces into a zip-loc bag and tacked them to the back of the board so they would not get lost.

It was easy to collect two books of each story, since in paperback they were fairly cheap at the bookstore and our story of The Three Little Pigs found at a second-hand book store.

We also made our own stories by drawing on white card stock then cutting them out and backing them with felt. In this way, we made The Clock Story that tells what we do at each time during the day, complete with four-year-old illustrations.

Of course, there are many options for stories and even for the felt combination. Other ideas we had were:

to make one story board with two different colors of blue for The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

blue for water on the whole board with a brown “island” in the center for pirate stories

or brown felt on the bottom for a floor with orange felt on top for our own family version (complete with photos of family members) of The Napping House by Audrey Wood.

Hopefully the snow days are behind us, but now I still have a  project to take out for all those rainy spring days.

I am always perusing the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel catalog for design ideas.  I look at the pillows and think, I could make that for way less than the usual $75+ price tag.

So after noticing the tone-on-tone and textured pillows were drawing me in, I tackled this ruffled pillow design and I am loving it!

I made it up a couple in a variety of colors to spice up my family room, then decided it would make an excellent kit for all my crafty friends out there.

With this modern craft kit, all the materials are pre-cut (and the ruffle basted) and ready to start sewing as soon as you receive it.  We can install an invisible zipper ahead of time for you, if you prefer.  Red isn’t your style?  We have felt available in slate gray, cream (straw), relish green, and grassy meadows green too.  If there is another color that you like shoot us an email and we will put it togetehr for you.

This a great kit for making a handmade gift when you are short on time and it has a great “Wow, you made that?” punch.  Watch out though, they are addicting to make and soon you’ll be making them for everyone on your list, including yourself.