Fairies in a Jar

  I found this on Facebook and thought this was the ideal place to share it!  I'm not sure who to credit but the photo was tagged with the name Donna Boling so I'll go with that.  If you know who originally thought of this, please share!

The recipe is simple:

• Cut the top off a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar
• Add a tablespoon of diamond glitter
• Seal and shake thoroughly

Can't you just imagine how little ones would love this?  

Make a Clutter Keeper for your Purse, Car or Diaper Bag

closed clutter keeper  about 5" by 9"

This one is more for moms and grandmoms of bundles and kiddles.

Open clutter keeper

I'm sure you will understand when I say I have way too much clutter in my purse!  I had been carrying around a zipper bag in my purse full of things I just might need: pins, floss, nail polish, allergy meds... you get the idea.

Thinking for months about making a bag that would hold it all and make it easy to access, plus easy to see, led me to this idea which I am calling the Clutter Keeper.

I made mine using the following supplies:

• 10" by 15" pieces of coordinating fabric and batting
• pony tail holder (you could use a 6 inch piece of elastic)
• 6 heavy duty zip top plastic bags  (mine measured 6" by 6.5")
• 10" piece of ribbon
• 2 buttons

Here are the steps,

1. Place fabric right sides together.  Place on top of the batting and sew a 1/2 seam around all edges, adding the elastic at the middle of one end, leaving an opening of about 3 inches to turn.

See the next few photos for illustrations.

2.  Trim corners and turn, iron and close opening by hand or machine stitch.



3.  Add trim if desired (I didn't add any to my clutter keeper).

4.  Place 3 bags one direction and 3 bags the other, overlapping in the center.  (You will cut the excess bottoms away later. )  Pin in place so they don't slip.

5.  Place ribbon over the overlap area of the bags.  Stitch along the sides of the ribbon, trimming the ends to suit your style.  Cut away the bag bottoms (3 on each side).

6.  Load up your clutter keeper, fold and mark the location of the button where the elastic will have a slight pull to keep it closed.  Leave some room for stretching and adding more items later!

7.  Sew both buttons on at the same time, the decorative one on top and the other on the inside. This will add strength.  Don't sew them so tight that the elastic can't slip over the button.  I like to wrap the thread around the stitches under the button a few times to raise the button and give extra strength to the stitches before knotting the thread off.

8.  Show off your new clutter keeper and make some for friends!





What could you put in your clutter keeper?  Here are some ideas.  I'd love to hear yours!

 rubber bands, paper clips

safety pins

extra pencil lead, pens and pencils, erasers

spare keys

'mad money'

emergency phone numbers

cards that don't fit in your wallet

receipts

wrapped candy/snacks

cotton balls

bandaids

medicine

wipes

floss

comb

tape measure

small notepad

nail care items

lotion

FYI: I bought the clear bags through U-Line shipping supplies because all of the bags I could find at the store had brand names on them.  If you plan to make a lot of these, U Line sells boxes of 100.

Dangly Heart Hat from a Sweater

While browsing Pinterest, I saw a knitted hat with a dangly heart and fell in love with it.  After wearing my thinking cap for a while, I came up with a way to make my own version using a sweater.  I hope you'll give this a try.  All you need is a sweater, a sewing machine and a scrap of fabric or fleece in a coordinating color, plus a small piece of ribbon or cord.

Choose a sweater made of cotton or acrylic.  These sweaters will not unravel easily and you can cut and sew them much like fabric.  One of the sweaters I chose was an almost new Tommy Hilfiger in a fun primary color stripe.
 
I cut the front along the side seams and about 12 inches up creating a square with a finished edge from the bottom of the sweater.

I folded the square in half and rounded the top.  You may need to adjust the width to the circumference of your child's head.  My sweater was 14 inches wide which is perfect for a baby.

From a piece of fleece I cut two heart shapes and sewed them together, inserting a cord at the top  (coil the end inside the heart while you sew).  Leave one side open about one inch for turning.  Snip the heart shape at the V of the heart before turning so that it doesn't bunch.  After turning, stuff with a small amount of fiberfill or even cotton balls.  Hand sew the opening.

Place the heart inside the folded hat piece, placing the other end of the cord at the top of the hat.  You will sew it in place while you sew the hat.  Sew up one side and across the top.  ZigZag the edges.
Turn the hat and tack the seam flat near the open edge.  Tah dah!  Dangly heart hat!

Below are photos of the finished hat plus another hat I made using the same technique.  On the second hat I added a button to the heart and used ribbon instead of cord.

Thumbprint Snowmen Ornaments

This week's great idea comes from Christy Rawls (KissyLiz.com) who happens to be mom to one of my grandsons!  

 For grandparents and parents of little ones, wouldn't this be a great way to chronicle your holidays together?

These are snowman thumbprint ornaments!  Here is Christy's description:

"Super easy to do. Just thick white paper (I put mine on wooden ovals that I picked up at [a local hobby store]), thumb prints, felt tip marker and some clear con-tact paper to cover it up with when it's done so that hopefully these will last a while. Then glued ribbon loops to the top. Wish I had thought of this when [my son]was itty bitty and I could have made one each year!"

Adding to Christy's instructions I would probably pick up a stamp ink pad if you don't already have one and try some decoupage glue on a few.  Even a snowflake stamp or some stickers might be fun!

Thanks, Christy! 

Upcycled Sweater Hats

In my previous post I showed you how to make a hat from an old sweater.  Here are some more examples of what you can make with a sweater and about an hour of your time!
To learn how easy it is to make a hat, scroll down to the tutorial.  If you make a hat, send me your story and photos. I'll be happy to post them for you!

Upcycle a Sweater into a Hat (or two.. or three)

I just made this stocking cap from a thrift store sweater.  I'm a thrift store junkie.  I love to browse through aisles of cast off items and imagine them repurposed and given a new life. 

One item I like to look for especially is an acrylic sweater with a nice finished edge and a woven design near the hem.  I can usually get two hats out of a sweater, sometimes three (depending on the size of the arms.) 

Acrylic knit doesn't unravel easily and can be cut and worked with with little trouble or mess.

I forgot to take a photo of the whole sweater before I started cutting away, but here you see that I've cut two square pieces, slicing down the middle of the sweater.  In this way, I can use a side seam as one finished seam to the hat.  I had also already cut off the arms.  I have enough here for two hats.

This is the website I use to determine how big the had should be at the finished edge: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/size-chart.html#hat  In this case the finished hat is 20" circumference.

The easiest hat to make is to turn a bowl upside down on the square and create a rounded top, leaving the bottom edge finished.  Just sew up one side and over the curve at the top and you have a nice ski cap!  In the photo to the left you see the wrong side of another hat where I'd rounded the corners.

From the sweater I bought today, though, I thought I'd use the arms as part of the hat and make stocking caps!  Let me show you how...

First sew up the side opposite the already finished side seam from the sweater.  Make sure to catch in any loose threads and finish the seam.  Sergers work nicely here.  I'd use one if I had one!  When you are finished with the seam, tack the seam down to one side to give the edge a more finished look.

Now you have the bottom edge already finished thanks to the sweater manufacturer and you have two side seams.  If you cut your square deep enough, you could gather the top  on the inside and add a pom pom and be done.  However, we are going to use the arm to make a stocking end of this hat.

Place the arm inside the hat, right sides together.  You may have to stretch it a bit to make it fit.  Sew and finish the seam.

Keeping that hat wrong side out, gather the edge of the stocking part (the wrist of the sleeve) and secure it tightly.

















After getting this far, I decided I'd like a little more thickness over the ears so I turned the edge to the inside about 4 inches and sewed it down.  Now whoever wears this hat will have very warm ears!

Turn the hat right side out and add a pom pom.  Voila! Stocking cap that looks (almost) like you knitted it!

Just in case you need a little reminder how to make a pom pom:

Wrap yarn around a card until very thick- about 35-50 times.  I used a card from a seam binding package.  The card should be almost twice as long as you want the width of the finished pom pom to be.









Carefully slide the loops off of the card and tie them tightly in the middle with the same yarn.

Cut the loops and trim about 1/3 of the yarn off of the pom pom until you have a fairly tight little ball.

Do you have any other uses for an old sweater?  Please share them with us!

Fabric Remnants = Inspiration

odd and ends

The other day I was looking for inspiration for my next project.

While rummaging through some fabric stashed in a drawer I found several red flannel plaid pieces I'd planned on using for newsboy hats, some corduroy left over from a pair of overalls I made earlier and some tulle from a Halloween project.  Later I also found a cotton print of red plaid moose scattered on a black field.

I played around with ideas such as a baby grab ball or some kind of moose in a tulle tutu  (which I may still do!).

However, in a box on a shelf I have some vintage patterns.  So I took down the box and flipped through the envelopes.  A 50's pattern for a crinoline caught my attention.  It had rows of ruffles on a full circle skirt, perfect for the quarter yards of fabric I had on  hand.

I ended up with this creation- a corduroy skirt with a moose ruffle and a flannel plaid ruffle, layered over 4" eyelet lace.

I'm going to take this skirt to a craft fair in a few weeks and see what people think.  What will you make from your left overs?  I'd love to see the result of your inspirational remnants!