Winging It.

I've been thinking that I need to come up with different templates for my embroidery pieces.  I always end up mounting it in a hoop.  It's great for some pieces, but I need to branch out a bit.  So I decided to make some blocks.

This is my first one.  I've never sewn this kind of stuff before, so I'm taking baby steps.

The corners took me forever since I had no idea that I was doing.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Ok, I'll admit it, I was thrilled.

You guys, I think I have my mojo back!  I've been a making fool the past few days.  More stuff than in the past few months.  I'm super happy about that and can't wait to share my new projects.  Maybe even a tutorial or two.  Told ya, I'm back!  Have a craftastic night, I will!

Christmas Cheer

Hi, guys!  How are you all doing?!  I'm pretty good.  Working my behind off, wish I could say literally, with tons of extra hours at my job to get ready for the holiday.  Although it's been decorated at my job for months now, I'm starting on the house now.  

This may not look like much now, but pretty soon all this stuff will be made into one of the cutest darned wreaths you've ever seen.  I can't wait to finish it!  Can I tell you that wrapping this thing is taking forever?!  Although Dillon did give me some advice that will probably make the next one go a little faster.  We'll see...

Besides being festive I've been busy stitching up a few things for my etsy.  This is a custom request I received, ready to head out to it's new home.

So, yeah.  That's pretty much what I've been up to lately, working and working on embroidery.  Exciting life, I know.  To make it a little more exciting, I think I'm going to give my blog a bit of a make-over.  Any suggestions?  I really want to change the layout so that I can share bigger pictures with you.  These seem a bit small for my liking.  I don't know, you tell me.

Be back soon, hopefully with a wreath!  (If all this wrapping doesn't drive me crazy first.)  Bye!

Sewing Case Tutorial!

The little case I showed you guys last time is pretty easy to make, so now I'll show you how!  Oh, and I'll just go ahead and apologize right now for the terrible photos.  I'm not sure if my photography skills have improved in the last few months or it's the new camera we recently acquired, either way these shots aren't so hot.
 

Materials you'll need:

* Plastic container- this can really be any type of container.  Even the clear deli take-out kind will work, (although I have a different method for that kind, I'll share with you later.) you just have to be more conscious of your jump stitches.

*Embroidery Patterns-  I used Sublime Stitching's Dress Up patterns. I also used a photocopy since I would be chopping it up and writing on it.

*Embroidery Floss and normal stitching stuff like needles- Duh, you already knew that!

*Drill- with a 1/16 drill bit (teeny tiny!)

* Tape- for your pattern and reinforcing your container if it's on the flimsy side.

*Scissors

*Pen/Sharpie

Optional Stuff:
*Beads

*Rotary Tool- Sandpaper will probably work just as well.

*Transfer Paper

*Felt (with hot glue)

*Scrapbook Paper (with glue stick)


Let's get started!
I wrapped the whole jar with masking tape to reinforce it while I was drilling.  I wasn't sure if the plastic would take it well.  It was probably unnecessary, however, it also helped with the transfer method so it wasn't a total bust.  I also taped my lid down so it was more secure when drilling. 

To transfer the pattern I used a scrap of Saral Transfer Paper.  (Most of my fellow stitchers know how much I love this stuff.  I carry on about it in our forums all of the time!)  I tape the pattern onto it and traced it with a ballpoint pen.  Easy Peasy.

 

*Tip- If you have a particularly sturdy container or lack transfer paper, you can probably just tape your pattern to the jar and drill right through it.  I just like to plot out my holes first.  You'll see.... 

Okay, so at this point I plotted out where the hole for each stitch would go.  I find this part helpful so that I can make sure that two holes aren't to close together.  (Notice how I crossed one out?)  Plus, I would probably just start drilling, willy-nilly, that usually doesn't end well around here.

 Notice on this one, I had to adapt the pattern a wee bit based on what the plastic would allow.  Keep that in mind when you're plotting out your stitches.

 

Now it's time to drill, baby, drill.  (Ewwww, did I just quote Sarah Palin?  Gross.  I'm sorry, it won't happen again.)  I didn't take a picture of this step, but I think you can handle it ;)  Just be sure to be safe- wear those silly looking goggles!  Also, hold the container securely, taking special notice to the placement of your fingers so you don't drill yourself.  You want those fingers to be ready for stitching in just a few minutes.

Here's where the rotary tool comes in.  On the inside, where the holes are, there were lots of little plastic burrs.  I sanded them down with the rotary tool so that it wouldn't snag my floss.

  *Tip- if your container is completely clear or you don't have a rotary tool, snip the burrs as close as possible with sharp, pointy scissors.  I don't think the snags will actually cut your floss, just makes it irritating.

 Since my container was frosted, my sand marks on the inside were visible.  So I did the outside too.  It's most evident in this photo.

Now, stitch!  I used all six strands of floss for the designs and just knotted it at the end.  When it was time to finish off a color or design, I simply ran the needle with floss back through a few existing stitches on the inside.  Since I was using the back stitch there is enough floss in the back side to keep it nice and secure.

 As for the optional stuff, it's really just to gussy it up.  I added beads to some of the designs.

To cover the stitches, I added felt and scrapbook paper.  

For the paper, I just made 2 tubes, one with the design on the inside.  The other with the design on the outside.  (The outer one is so there is a pinkish tone showing through the frosted plastic.  It looked better with the sanding.)  I put one inside the other, squished it up and let it open back up once it was in the jar.  Since I didn't glue the paper into the jar itself, since the glue would have shown on the sides, I added a circle of felt at the bottom.  This keeps the paper from moving around too much.

That's it!  Lots of little steps, but pretty easy.  I hope that this tutorial is clear, if not, please let me know.  Don't hesitate to ask me questions, I don't mind at all.  

So now that you know the secrets, I hope that you can find even more stuff to stitch around your house.  This ability is especially helpful when you're broke...trust me.   If you make something with the tips I've shared, I'd love to see.  Crafty geeks....unite!

Enjoy a craftastic day!  And don't forget to recycle :)

Where to start?!

Wow!  Time flies when you're...being productive.  Bet you thought I was going to say having fun didn't you?  Well, I'm doing that too!!

I've spent the last couple of weeks getting settled into my new job.  I really must say, I love it.  I get to work behind the scenes at one of my favorite stores!  Yay.  It's the fun, busy environment of retail mashed up with an office job.  Basically, perfect.  And it's almost like a reunion of sorts, I worked for this company before, years ago.  And now that I'm back, I get to work with some of the nicest people that I encountered the first time around.  It's great!

I am most definitely a note-taker, especially when learning something new.  So I whipped up a little notebook to jot down all the important info I need to keep track of at work.  Given my fashion forward new employer, my Project Runway fabric was the natural choice.  (Yes, I love me some Project Runway...But I assure you, it's the only thing I watch on Lifetime.)

 I used a piece of fabric slightly larger than the book when it was wrapped around it in a closed state. I coated the backside of the fabric with spray adhesive and placed it on the book.  The spray adhesive is nice because then you can just wrap the edges of the fabric around to the inside of the cover.  It sticks!  If you snip a bit in the corner areas it's easier to fold and less bulky.

I traced the shape of the cover onto some colored card stock and glued it on the inside to cover the edges of the fabric.  I also added a bit of ribbon, you know, just for fun.

Before I added the card stock to the back cover, I glued in a bit of elastic between the red piece and the original cover.  It stretches around to keep the front closed or can be flipped onto the back cover when not in use, make sense?  I used a headband that I had lying around.  (I've developed a bad habit of picking out the little contrasting stitches, as evidenced in the above photo.  Hmmm, how long will they last?)

And because I absolutely LOVE Tim Gunn, I had to get this part of the fabric on there somewhere.  Make it work, designers. 

So, are you a note-taker too?

I'll be back later with more stuff to show you.  I'm easily a month behind on sharing projects with you.  Isn't that terrible?!  Oh well, that just means lots of great stuff coming your way.

P.S.  I noticed a few new followers since I last checked in.  Hello!!  Welcome and thanks for reading.  Remember, questions, comments and rude remarks are always welcome :)

Craftastic Swap!

Becky of Strumpets Crumpets thought of the best idea!  A craft supply swap.  A quick and painless way to get rid of some of the unused supplies we have lying around.  You know, that stuff you bought when you had a grand plan for it...but it never worked out.  Or the goodies left over from past projects.

All you do is upload photos of your crafting supplies to the swap's flickr group.  Wait for someone to comment, first person who does gets it.  Easy no?  So go see what you have to swap.

I found some stuff.

Like yarn,

stamps,

scrap-booking embellishments,

oil cloth,

tiny hangers,

fat quarters,

and sheer fabric.

How about you?  Have anything you aren't using?  De-stash, it feels good.  Then trade it for something you can actually put to good use!

Official Footwear.

Besides barbecues and fireworks, I think that flip-flops should also be an official requirement for the 4th of July holiday.  I whipped up these two pairs before my vacation using a really easy tutorial from Alisa Burke.  I changed it a little for the green ones because I can't just follow directions.

These poor guys ended up getting a bit thrashed with all of the ashy soil up in the Sierras.  You can see it starting in the picture, thankfully I remember to get a shot of them in fairly new condition.

Based on the condition of the green ones after one day I had the good sense not to break out the orange ones for the rest of the trip.  These ones are beyond comfortable.  I used flannel on these ones....sooooo soft.

Everything I used came from my stash.  So besides the $5 I spent for both pairs of flip flops, I've got some custom footwear for mere pennies.  Yeah for being thrifty!  Go make yourself some, you'll smile every time you look down at your feet.

I hope that everyone has a creative and productive day.  For those of you enjoying the holiday weekend, be safe in you celebration.

My Bag o' Fun!

Last Thursday, April 1st, I filled up a bag with goodies and set out to beautify my neighborhood.  Armed with toy and flowers, it was a feel good kind of day.  The weather was gorgeous after raining on and off all week.  I figured a break in the rain was a good day for the flowers to come out.

I live in an historical neighborhood located near the local Junior College.  I love it because in spite of the flurry of activity going on a block away, our neighborhood is nice and quiet.  Walking across the campus, I decided that was where I would leave my flowers.

Don't get me wrong, most of the campus is beautiful and it has lovely grounds- check it out.  It's a great mixture of old and new, brick and tons of greenery.  It's a very lovely place should you make your way to Santa Rosa.   However, there are a couple spots on campus that aren't so nice to look at.  Thankfully there are very few, but they do exist.  So, that's where I put my flowers.  Like attaching a felt flower would really negate the ugliness before you but hey, it makes it more interesting to look at.  You'll see what I mean by ugly...  Their placement is random but you can only do so much with a staple gun.

So, you're walking along.  Pretty, pretty, pretty then BAM!  Ugly, gnarled telephone pole... I mean it doesn't even have interesting posters or stencils or anything.  It's in serious need of some yarnbombing but since I'm not that cool, I whipped out a flower.

Ugly brown wall that doesn't match any other place on campus.  

(Tune in later to see the awesome found object of the day.  It was located here.)

Hideous restrooms located near the baseball fields.  Even a flower can't help this one.

Okay, so now that I feel really bad about making my local school look terrible.  I'll show you some nice pictures of it because it really is a wonderful school with great teachers.

If you go the site that this one is from you can see other places on campus too.

The new library.

Burbank Hall- The Drama Department is located in here.

Ok, enough with the school. I'm not trying to subject you guys to an infomercial.

One more flower picture!

I used wire on the back to attach these.  I liked that method a lot and will do more of it next.  I didn't realize how limiting the staple gun would be.  There are a lot less staple friendly surfaces than I thought.  Oh well.

There is entirely way too much barbed wire on this stretch of the road.

So, yeah, I thought you guys would want to see where I put my silly flowers.  Hope that wasn't too boring for you.

Thanks for looking!  See you again soon.

Needle Book Madness! aka Felt Up. Part 3.

After the recent cookie incident I went on a sudden needle book binge.  I'm not sure why because I already have a million and one projects on my plate but I just couldn't fight the urges.  Besides, it feels good to be de-stashing and actually using all of the awesome stuff I have.  I already had everything on hand for this project.

I whipped up these-

This will give you an idea of the sizing-

(All of the stuff fits neatly in there, I just liked all of the bright pretties sticking out!)

I used Eco-Spun felt, it's made from recycled plastic bottles.  There are two pockets and two pages in each book.

I was really happy with the end result.  So was Mother Earth, because of the felt.  Due to the way they are constructed, with multiple layers on the cover and the felt, they have a soft, quilted feel to them.

In a moment of craft-happy induced delirium I decided to make a whole bunch more.  I'm also going to blame my man for this.  If it wasn't for the handy-dandy rotary cutter he got me at Christmas, I never would have had the patience to cut all of this stuff.

Want a sneak peak of the designs I'm using?

I was even brave enough to cut some vintage fabric I've been saving!  I was shocked and proud of myself all at the same time.  It's the lovely light green, blue and orange one with the psychedelic flower. 

I spent yesterday ironing all of the cut pieces of fabric and piecing together the 29 (!!!!) other books I had cut out.  I was surprised I was able to operate an iron for that long with out (seriously) burning myself.  The covers are all pinned up.  Now I just need to stitch in the pockets and pages.  I hope to swap and gift some of them but I hope to sell most of them in my etsy.

 By the way, have I mentioned that I love the blanket stitch?

Any projects you taken into the realm of over-kill lately?

Besides a ton of needle books, I'm excited to have a lot of other stuff to share with you.  I've been a busy gal lately.  So, see you soon!  Thanks for looking.