Repairing Holes {SC#13}

Nothing fun (again).  Just repairing a hole in a pair of pants.  But its done and out of my "to sew" pile!

Darning Jammies {SC #12}

Nothing exciting, just trying to get through the piles of clothes I have to fix.  That's what happens when you have lots of kiddos...they tend to wear and break things! :)  I don't mind though, because as I'm sewing up toes, I think of the little girls who wore them, and of the last one that I'll get to put them on.

"DREAM" button pillow {tutorial} {SC #11}

This was a fun little twist on my Button Heart Canvas, but this is on a pillow.  I didn't take pictures as I made it only because I just kind of wung it (that's a technical term...really! :)

Supplies:

Drop cloth

Gross grain ribbon

Buttons

Embroidery thread to match buttons

Pillow stuffing

How To:

Cut fabric into a rectangle.  Mine is approximately 24" x 18" (finished is 12" x 18").  I hand stuffed mine, so didn't need a specific size.  

Fold in half right sides together, and sew up about 4" into the bottom on both sides.  I sewed the ribbon in true Miss Mustard Seed style. Pinch and pin,  Pinch and pin, all down the sides then sew together.  I folded the top and bottom of my ribbon to the back of the pillow and then fray checked it once I was done.

Right side out your pillow (or as my kiddos say "inside in"). So now you have your pillow shell done and its on to the buttons.

I played around with the buttons to see how the spacing would work.  Then I took a disappearing blue fabric pen (the kind where you spray water and the ink disappears) and sketched out the letters.  Nothing fancy on my first try....wanted to see if this would work before I tried a fun script...which I will do! :)

I hand sewed on each button.  I'm not going to tell you this went quickly.  In retrospect, I would have drawn and sewn on the button with my machine before I sewed the pillow together.  

    

  Once you finish the word, then whip stitch your pillow closed.

Next I think I'll do a giant "G" on a pillow for our living room.   

Document pillow {SC#10}

I am WAAAAY behind on my sewing challenge for the year, so I must get busy.  It is in part because we took a 3 week vacation and then returned home to tax season.  Not that I'm making excuses....

I put a 1" flange on it because I love flanged pillows.  I have always had a soft spot for this fabric and the rest will be used (soon, I hope) to recover a lampshade.

Baby shower favors {quick tutorial}

A candle!  

One of my co-hostesses found this wonderful little poem, which is printed on the front.  It says...

"Here's a candle for you today,

to light when baby is here to stay.

When you light its flickering flame,

say a prayer in the baby's name."

I made these to match the invites, which I made to match the bedding.  Change the poem and these could be made for teacher gifts or thank you gifts.

Supplies:

Card stock and cutter

Ribbon and sharp scissors

Hole punch

Candle 

Cello bag

How to:

Punch or cut your mat.

Print and cut your poem.

Adhere poem to mat and punch a hole in the corner.

Cut ribbon to approximately 10" pieces, but cut on an angle.

Drop candle in cello bag.

Tie ribbon around, but don't knot.  (Just tie it like the first step in tying your shoes.)

Put the two pointed ends of the ribbon together (this is why you cut on an angle) and poke them through the hold that you punched.  Much easier to grab and pull through.

Pull ribbon through until tag is at the base, then tie another single knot.

Cut the ends at an angle.

Tip on tying ribbon: If you tie it upside down (this goes for bows or knots) they always look prettier!)  I sat the candle in my lap, tag facing out and tied.

Making your own party Invitations {tutorial}

First off....the orange is really not that bright!!!  Its more of a burnt orange.  As usual, I'm working on these at night and taking pics with a flash.  I can never get oranges and reds to be true.  Any hints from you photographer types???

I know it would be so easy to just pull up a site that prints invitations, insert your information, type in your credit card information and hit send.....but not for this crafty gal!  I always make my own invitations, baby announcements, and cards.  I even volunteered to make my sisters wedding invitations....all 300+ of them!

These are for a friend of mine who is having her third boy.  She is decorating the room with grey, orange and white, so that's what we're going with for the party theme.

Instead of making every invite the exact same, I usually go with a color theme and vary the card stock.  I use the same "template" but different card stock.  In this instance, I was making about 50 invites.  It was just as cost effective for me to buy an entire pack of patterned card stock (on sale) as it was to buy just the individual sheets I would need...and I have a lot left over!

Supplies:

Card stock, colored and white

Paper cutter

Paper punch or die cut (or scissors)

Adhesive

How to:

Cut your base card stocks (12x12 size) into three 4" strips, then score them at 2 3/4" and 8 1/4."  This is so you can fold the edges in and the top flap hits directly in the middle.

I have a wonderful cutter (Zutter Dreamkuts) that I use all the time!  But a paper cutter works just as well.  I also have a scoring board (Scor-Pal), but if you have a dry embossing stylus, you can use it on your paper trimmer in the little gully where the blade cuts.

I type up my own invites using Publisher....and that's a whole other tutorial.  I use it for the invites, the saying on the front and the directions.  Then print and cut.  If you have a square paper punch it makes the cutting much easier...and exact!

I die cut my antique squares, but you can make a template, trace and hand cut if you need to.

Cut your band strips.  I made mine 9 inches by 1 inch.  Make sure to make them long enough to wrap around the card plus overlap a little so you can adhere it together. 

Here are the supplies for one invite.  Once everything is cut, its a really simple assembly.

Fold up your base on the score lines and adhere you invite info.  I put some adhesive on all four corners of the back side of the invite, plus a little strip in the middle.

Make sure you get the right side up.  You want the bigger flap to fold up first.

Add a line of adhesive to one end of the back of the band.

Set your invite (right side up) on you band (pattern side down) with the adhesive at the top.  I leave about 2 inches of overlap on the top.  Fold up your band, then fold down the top and put to secure.

The reason I put the seam in front is because I'm going to cove over it with the die cut.  It leaves the back clean and looks nicer.

Add your die cut and then your quote to the front.  Instead of a quote you can stamp a picture or layer another die cut.  Options are endless.

That's it!

For under $0.50 per invite (including the envelope!) I'll take that considering just a quick search on the internet was coming back with anywhere between $1.19-$3.85 a piece!!!

New projects in the works...

I seem to go from one big project to the next, or it seems like *big* because I try to fit it all in between kids,  MOPS, house, hubs, life, etc.  We went on vacation for 3 week and catching back up from that was busy.  Then I went straight into tax season, which is over {almost} and now....

I'm helping throw one of my dear friends a baby shower.  I'm responsible for the invites and decorations (which you will see) and on top of that....

...my gift to her is sewing all of her baby bedding and room decor.

Which means.....

LOTS of projects and lots of posting.  

All to be done in the next 3 weeks.

So...I must go and get to work.

Tax Season

Among other things, I am an accountant.  I know, shocker....first born, type-A, anal structured...bean counter fits right in!  I actually quite enjoy it.  Cleaning up number messes.  Getting systems in place for businesses (and people).  Reconciling, to the penny, every month.  The nice thing about accounting.  1+1 = 2. There is an answer.  You might have to dig and dig and dig, but there is an answer. 

Anyway...its tax season and we are getting towards the end, so I'm going to take a small break from projects until the 15th (or 18th this year).  

I just might start posting some financial organizational tips to helps some of you....uh...less organized types. 

So, in the meantime, I hope you are all out there crafting while I'm 10-keying.