Sunday, November 15, 2009

Totes, Tights and Boxes, Oh My!

December meetings:
Thursday December 3rd Craft Night @ 6:30
baby legs/warmers, scripture tote/purse, exploding box

Friday December 11th DIY Night @ 6:30
Since we had such low turn out last week I will be doing the same crafts this week if you want to come and make them.
The purpose of this meeting is to give you the chance to finish
previous crafts that you were not able to complete or to bring
something you have been trying to get done at home and just can't
seem to find the time.  We are having this meeting so close to the last one due to the holidays but in the future the two nights will be two weeks apart.

Just a note on the tutorials:  I don't pretend to be photographer so I am sorry about the poor quality of the photos. 



Baby Legs

These have become popular to put on crawling babies to protect little knees but they are also adorable as tights and leg warmers on little girls AND adults can wear them to keep their arms warm.  So many possibilities! Everybody needs a pair!


What’s best is they are inexpensive and take only minutes to make!

Materials
1 pair of knee high socks (for babies and children) or
1 pair of above the knee socks (for tweens, teens and adults, arms or legs)
**I got my socks at Target and Walmart
Scissors
Matching thread
Needle
Sewing machine and/or serger (please bring if you have one, I will bring both of mine.  However, you do not need to have one or know how to use one in order to make this project.)






Directions for making baby legs

  1. Lay both socks out flat.
  2. Cut off foot of sock just above the heel.
  3. Cut off toe end of foot piece.
  4. Cut off curved heel part so that you are now left with a rectangle with two open ends.
    (if you are visual like me and none of these words make sense just see picture below)




5. Invert the rectangle piece so that it is folded in half and both unfinished ends are together.



6.  Turn long sock piece inside out.



7. Place the small folded piece inside the long sock piece so that all unfinished edges meet up.




8.  Using a serger or sewing machine, sew around the unfinished seams to secure the pieces together.  If you are using a sewing machine use a zig zag stitch to allow for stretching.
9.  Turn right side out and check for any missed edges.




You're Done!






I made a black pair for me using thigh high socks and I wear them on my arms.  I love wearing them when we are out and about so I don't have to wear a sweatshirt, that way if it gets hot out I can take them off and they fit nicely into my purse or diaper bag, unlike a bulky sweatshirt.  I will post pictures of these soon.





Placemat Purse
These purses are so cute and so easy to make, just a placemat, a few embellishments and a sewing machine.








Materials
1 Placemat (I got mine from Walmart, very inexpensive but also very basic. Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Anna's Linens are other good options as well.)
Coordinating ribbon
(1 yd if only doing accent, 1.5 yds if using ribbon for handles and accent)
Purse handles if you don’t want to use ribbon
(Joann’s sells these)
Embellishment – a button, flower, beads, charm, etc.
Matching thread
Needle
Scissors
Ruler or tape measure
Sewing machine (if you have one)


Here's how I did it.

The following directions will make a lot more sense when I get the pictures up in a few days.

1.  If you are sewing a ribbon embellishment on, do this first.  Determine where you want the ribbon to be placed and pin it down.  Now fold over your placemat so that the two ends meet and pin the ribbon on the other side in the same place.  Sew both ribbons down.  If you are not using a ribbon to embellish then proceed to step two.
2.  Fold placemat in half with right sides together and so the edges match up.  When I say right sides that means which ever side you want on the outside.  One of my placemats had two different colors, black and taupe, I wanted the black to be the outside and the taupe to be the lining so I folded the two black sides together.
3.  Sew up both sides starting at the top where the edges meet.  This way you can make sure that the edges match up perfectly.  Do this to both sides of the placemat.
4.  Next, take the corner at the bottom of your seam and bag and pull the sides apart, this should make a triangle out of your bottom corner.  Using a ruler or tape measure, mark off two inches from the corner and make a mark.  You can change how big you want the bottom of the bag by how much you measure from the corner, but for the black and red bags in the picture I did 2 inches.
5.  Using a straight edge, draw a line across so you know where to put your seam.  This is a little tricky because you have to make sure the sides are lined up or you will get a crooked bottom.
6.  Sew or serge across the line you made on both corners.
7. Turn bag right side out.
8. If you are using ribbon for the handles, measure out the desired length and cut two then pin the ends to either the inside of the bag or the outside.  When you pin the ribbon on be sure to turn under the raw edge toward the bag so that it gets tacked down and has a clean finished look.
9.  If you are using handles then cut four equal lengths of ribbon (about 4") and thread them through the handles then follow the directions above for attaching the ribbon to the bag.
10. On the red bag in the picture I added beads to embellish it and I did that at the end so I could see it on the finished bag before I made it permanent. 
Just a note: you could sew on the handles when you do the first embellishment but I chose to wait so I could center them on the finished bag and make sure they lined up well.  But either way would probably work fine.


**Pictures coming soon


Exploding Box

A scrapbook in a box!





Materials
4 sheets of 12 x 12 paper  (best if there is at least two different colors)
 Patterned paper/scrapbook paper to decorate the little tabs inside the box
Scrapbook embellishments
12-18 Photos
Scissors
Ruler
adhesives


If you have:

Bone folder 
Corner rounder


 


**Tutorial coming soon