covered boxes

I know it may be hard to believe, but I actually think I am going to get both of my intended crafts done this week! Hopefully I will be finishing up number two before dinner.

I know that this is not new and I must be the last person to do it, but I decided that I needed to cover some ugly boxes in fabric. See, I have been storing momentos for years in this ugly box:

And it needed a new life. It was dirty and kind of falling in, but behold! it has new life! I just never knew how to easily attach the fabric before and after looking through Your Space, I was inspired and off I went to Joanns. I ended up getting some Heatnbond iron-on adhesive and let me just tell you, it is fabulous! So easy to use and now my box looks like this:

Weird fabric choices, absolutely, but I wanted to use what I had and I kinda like it. And it is still much prettier than it was before. Oh the possiblities! The things I can cover in fabric with this stuff! Man, I am so excited haha. Anyway, that is my first project for this week and maybe tomorrow I will put the other one up.

restart!

Alright, it has officially been forever since I posted any of my crafts. Tax season just kinda ate my life and I didn't get a whole lot done or have the time and energy to post about it. But, that is all over now and I am settling into a summer of crafts :) Hopefully there are a number of things I will get done this summer, but before I start on all that (the two projects already lined up for this week) I have two very important projects that I did manage to get done this spring.


The first is a set of curtains. We moved to a new place the end of February and I really wanted to make some curtains for the bedroom. They are huge and block a lot of light and it is delightful! I used 3 fabrics, a stripe one for the front, a plain brown for the back, and a blue and white design across the bottom that goes all the way around. I kind of made up the design from a number of things I had seen and just threw it together and I am really happy with them. I opted for tabs on the top and, while not the easiest hanging solution, I like the way they look although next time I think I would make them a little wider. The picture is a bit blurry, but you get the idea.

The other project is what I consider my first real quilt! Mostly because it involved actual quilting ha! Anyway, for my cousins baby girl, I thought it would make a nice blanket for her to play on the floor using an old snoopy t-shirt (they wanted a snoopy theme) as the center piece and I found a pattern that is basically waves of triangles. Let me start by saying that as cute as it turned out, I will definitley limit my work with triangles in the future, I hate them. I took a pattern for a single quilt square, and just enlarged everything so that it ended up about 40" x 40"....I say about because well....I'm not even sure how close it is. Have I mentioned I have a problem with measurements and exactness?? Well anyway, I am really happy with the result. My quilting was very simple and I just stiched in the seams to hold it together through washing. Good thing too since the batting did bunch a bit when I washed it. I also decided not to pre-wash the batting so it would get a slightly puckered look (I used 80% cotton batting) and I like it a lot. I thought it was a good start.

I have two other small quilts that I would like to make sometime this year, but I haven't decided exactly when or for whom said quilts will be made for. They also require minimal quilting, but I figure starting basic and small will help build my confidence up in case I ever get crazy. My project for this week has me using piping for the first time so hopefully that will go well. Hopefully there will be one, if not two, finished projects to post this week or early next week. I also have a wedding craft or two that I finished. Alright, that's enough out of me for now, but I promise I'll be back and it won't take 4 months.

Felt!

So this year for christmas, I started working with felt a little to make some things from a kit I got. The only thing I don't have a picture of is Manfred the pencil case who is adorable, but I forgot to photograph. Ah well. I still have many projects to show.

First up is a makeup bag that I made for my mom. Really it just reiterated that I should not hand sew, but overall it didn't come out too bad. It seems like it will stay together fairly well although I suppse that really remains to be seen.

Next up we have a laptop case, one of the projects that just didn't come out that well. They have you use two layers of felt with batting between them which really just makes it impossible to sew up the seams cleanly. Not to mention my sad attempt at argyle....made with love, that is the important thing to remember here.

Finally, I made a checkbook cover which I think came out the best out of all of them. I decided to use some of the bazillions of buttons I have to decorate it which I think is so cute. It may be a little less that functional if you put it in your purse and it gets stuck on things, but lets just focus on the finer points.

Stay tuned for the next installment which will hopefully not be another two weeks away.

needle holders

Finally I can post about the awesomely crafty gifts I made for people this year. I am trying to group them a little bit but I don't want to just put everything up at once. So I am starting with 2 knitting needle holders I made.

The first is for my future Mother-in-law and it holds needles from about size 6 to size 15 I think. It is for 14 inch needles so it is pretty tall. I made it out of some beautiful leftover fabrics that I had and had been wanting to use with a nice lime green as the lining. I also used elastic and buttons as the closure...it is the same pattern I made up for my chopstick holder earlier this year, but I decided elastic would be easier to use than the ties. It came out really well :)

The second is one that I made for double pointed needles for my dad. He picked out his fabirc and told me the basic design that he wanted- two layers of pouches for 7 inch and 10 inch needles in case his collection ever gets that big. The orange fabric for the lining is actually a thick canvas fabric which makes it a little thick, but I think it works. He requested the ties instead of the elastic so I put leather cord on in keeping with the manly theme :-P Each time I make something like this I get better which is a good sign.

I guess that is it for round one....more to come!

wedding goodies part III

The countdown continues! This month, I would like to showcase the cute little knitted favor bags we (meaning myself, my father and my future mother-in-law) have been making for the wedding. There are 4 colors and 5 patterns and they are turning out really well. They are all pretty simple/basic patterns, but they look nice and using 5 patterns keeps it from getting too boring. They are 4"x6" before they are sewn up so they make nice little 3"x3" pouches to hold things. We are going to put ribbon through and tie them up with something inside for everyone and get little tags to thank everyone and such. Anyway, there isn't much else to say about them.

After the new year I will post some of the gifts I made this year. They are all sewn and I am quite proud of them.....even the ones that didn't turn out so well :-P

Things I Like

Sometimes, I am just such a slackerific blogger. Currently I attribute that to my ongoing projects of christmas gifts which still can't be posted for a few weeks and really, I don't have a lot of time for other, non-christmas related projects. One of the wedding projects that I have been working on will be posted next week, but other than that, I just wanted to write about a few projects that I have been considering making for myself at some point when I have time.

The first is a knitting project. A few weeks back I saw an adorable cardigan type sweater on the front of the Jo-Ann fabric ad and of couse had to search for the pattern. I found it here and although it looks pretty difficult, I might be inclined to tackle it. I think it is really cute and it is absolutely something I would wear. I have never really knit something quite that big or with that much shaping, but I figure I would have to start somewhere. I don't typically like the idea of making clothes, but if I was ever to make a sweater, it would probably be this or something fairly similar. I guess we'll see. I figure if I start this summer maybe it will be done by the time it is freezing out....or maybe the year after haha.

The other is a sewing project. I signed up for the website burdastyle which has some cute free patterns and I found this dress that I think would be a fun and fairly easy project that would look really good. I don't know exactly how I feel about such a high neckline, but it is cute enough that I think I might try it. I am a little hesitant about using jersey fabric since I know from my t-shirt blanket how much more difficult knits are to work with, but it could be worth it.

More wedding goodies: save-the-dates

My, it has been a while since I posted anything. Lately I just haven't done anything that I could put up without fear of someone ruining an upcoming gift. Anyway, today is the day for another wedding craft installment. Today will feature the save-the-date cards I designed. We had engagement pictures taken with signs and picked out our favorites, wanting it to have a vague photobooth feel. The inspiration for the background for this and all of our wedding stationery came from a folder I got at barnes and noble a few months back that I just fell in love with. It is so cheery and I thought it would be perfect for a relaxed summer wedding. Currently I am working on the invitation that will be the same flower design but with the colors reversed. We decided that for quality and sanitys sake, I would design them and then we would go ahead and get them printed at kinkos which worked out great for the save-the-the dates. They are 3" x 6 3/4" and we made special 3.5" x 7" envelopes for them and attached a piece of cardstock with our contact information. Anyway, I love them and thought I would share. My photoshop skills are still not great, but I am still impressed by the things I can figure out. We shall see how invitations go.

Hopefully soon I will have some other crafts to put up, but in any case, the gifts will be given soon enough and then I will have plenty of things to put up :)