Starting my duvet cover on fire....

So about 2 moths ago I was making my bed a ripped a hole in my 9 year old cover for my down comforter (yes I sleep with a down comforter in the summer). I decided I would make a new comforter cover. As usual with every step of this project there have been disasters. First my mom and I failed to do correct math on how much fabric we would need and ended up buying almost 6 extra yards (our conversion from feet to yards failed us). I was annoyed with that for about 2 weeks but I got over it. About a month and a half  ago my mom and I spent the afternoon cutting the fabric for the duvet cover. Then I threw the fabric in my closet for the next month and a half because to be honest...I have not been in the mood to do crafts, or sew or even blog.

But finally my mom grew annoyed with the fact that I was ignoring this project and offered to sew the duvet cover for me. Yes please! I was so excited when I arrived at home on Sunday evening to find all I had to do was sew the final hem and put snaps along the bottom hem and it would be complete. I spent the last 4 days whenever I had free time, sewing on 14 snaps which took about 6 hours. I hate hand sewing, most of you know that by now. But I wanted these snaps to last, so I sewed them on so they could survive the end of the world. Last night after getting home from work at midnight (yes, I am finally working as a nurse), I was so excited to actually use my new duvet cover. I put the duvet in, snapped the bottom, so proud of my work....and then I couldn't figure out why the cover was twisted. Then to my horror I realize that when I was sewing on the snaps, I thought the center seam was the side seam and when I straightened the cover to how it was supposed to go, not ONE snap matched up. NOT ONE! I was so tired at this point, I almost started to cry. I was so mad I wanted to start the duvet cover on fire. Instead I just crawled in bed and went to sleep, hoping things would look better in the morning.

This morning I called my mom to tell her about this and her first response...endless giggles. She could barely stop laughing. But then my lovely mother told me to bring the duvet cover to the cabin and she would help me tear out the snaps and re-sew them (I am really hoping this is code for "I will just do it for you"). So that will be my weekend project, having a cocktail, staring at the lake and finishing this duvet cover, even if it is the last thing I do.

And next time you are thinking of making a duvet cover...just take my advice and buy one!

Peace out,

A

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I will post one when it is complete. :)

Where does the time go?

I know, I know it has been months without a craft completed. About once a week I feel a little guilty about not blogging (or crafting) but never enough to actually blog. ha. Anyways I have graduated, passed my RN boards and I start work next week. Now that my life is going to be crazy again I think it is time to start crafting again.

Tomorrow I have a crafting date with one of my friends so that will be posted by the end of the week. I just went to Jo-Ann Fabric and spent way too much money on fabric for a new duvet cover so that project will be coming soon as well. That one should be plenty entertaining as it involves no pattern, and buttonholes, oh goody!

Hope you are all enjoying the summer, I know I am. And I promise, this winter this blog will be full of crafts (hopefully).

As always if you have any crafts you are dying for me to attempt, leave me a comment.

Peace out,

A

Quick Mini Wallet

I was loving the fabric that I picked out for the clutches, and I wanted to make something quick for myself out of it. I scoured my pinterest boards and came across this tutorial. I had the fabric I needed and I dug through the sewing supplies and managed to find a snap to use for the closure. 

I originally was going to use the elastic and button for the closure but the elastic was too large so I switched to the snap.

Here are some photos of the finished product, I think it turned out pretty cute. As usual if I would take my time it would look better but I get too excited to see how it is going to turn out (which is also why there are so many disasters in my projects). 

The best part of this project? No hand sewing!!! I am pretty excited to experiment with some different variations of this soon, I would love to add additional pockets. I think it would make a nice addition to the cute clutch from last week's post. 


A

Cute Clutch!

Last week during spring break I was able to complete these cute clutches to give to my old roommates. 

There was an easy to follow tutorial found on my pinterest page. When I went shopping for fabric I was loving the color gray (which I always am, I currently own 5 gray cardigans and 2 gray sweaters). 

There is a pattern to print out to use, but I think it is easier just to cut the fabric in a 11" x 15 " rectangle.

The only frustration happened when I read the directions wrong and sewed the right side of the fabric to the wrong side of the lining and ended up spending 30 minutes ripping out stitches. The first clutch took me about and hour and a half to get done, but the second one I whipped up in 30 minutes. 


 I think they turned out pretty cute! 

I want one for myself. Check back next week for one more craft I was able to sneak in before heading back to school. I was hoping to get more completed but I got sick instead. :( The good news is, only 58 days until graduation and a summer full of crafting disasters!! 

A 

The Bow Pillow Tutorial

The Bow Pillow which won the poll last week, was the only option that did not have a tutorial. I didn't remember this until after it won, and I went to look at the instructions to make it. After staring at the pictures online for a while, I decided it was best just to give a whirl and see what happens. It wasn't that much of disaster and I actually finished it in about 4 hours (experienced sewers could probably whip this out in an hour or two). 

So now I am going to attempt to write my first tutorial. 

Supplies: 

- 1 yard of 60" wide fabric (you could probably get away with 3/4 of a yard if you cut carefully, but I always like to have a little extra).

- Coordinating thread

- Pillow form (I used a 16"x16") or polyfill 
- Scissors, rulers, sewing machine, etc. 

Directions: 

1. First, my least favorite task. Cutting the fabric. 

Main part of the pillow- 2 pieces 16.5"x16.5" (or a half inch larger than your pillow form)

Top of the bow- 1 piece 10.5"x 20"

'Legs' of the bow- 1 piece 10"x 26" 

Center of the bow- 1 piece 3.5"x5"

I will not give any suggestions on how to correctly measure etc. because I have no clue, I just wing it (Any by wing it, I do measure at least 3 times before cutting). 

2. Sewing...my favorite part (and at times the most painful part). 

- First begin with the center of the bow. Fold the right sides of the fabric together, so it is in half the long way (see picture below). Sew the 5" edge closed and turn it right side out. Now iron it so that the seam you just made is in the center of the back. Finally top stitch down both of the 5" sides, don't worry about the other edges, they should still be open. 

Fold fabric in half and sew along the long edge.

When you iron it flat, place the seam in the center of the back.

Top stitch around the long edges, here are two samples. I did the one on  the left while I was talking on the phone, so I redid it and went with the one on the right. :) 

- Next sew the top of the bow, using the same process outlined above. 

- For the legs of the bow, i used a slightly different process. Fold the fabric in half (right sides together) the long way so you have a piece that is 5" wide by 26 inches long. Sew one of the 5" sides closed and the 26" side closed. Turn your fabric right side out. Hand stitch the last 5" side closed. Iron this piece flat (but don't put the seam in the back this time). Finally top stitch all the way around the edge of the bow 'legs' (I love this term, I made it up). 

Hand stitch the bow edge closed.

All of your bow pieces.

3. Next it is time to assemble. First take the front of your 16.5"x16.5" pillow fabric and place the 10" side of the bow fabric about 1/2" down from the front of your pillow (see the picture below). Make sure you are looking at the right side of both fabrics before you start sewing (I hate using the seam ripper). Sew both 10" sides to the front of the pillow. 

Pin the bow front 1/2" down from the top of the pillow (you need room to sew your pillow sides together)

Next pin your bow front tight so it will not interfere when sewing the pillow together. Pin the right sides of your pillow together and sew around the top, and 2 sides with about a 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance. If you are using polyfill, you can sew half of the bottom of the pillow closed as well. If you are using a pillow form, leave the entire bottom of the pillow open. Turn the fabric the right way and insert your pillow. You can now sew the bottom closed however you would like. I ended up top stitching the bottom of my pillow closed because I absolutely HATE hand stitching but it is up to you. 

The front of the bow pinned tight so it doesn't get caught when sewing the rest of the pillow.

Sewing around 3 edges of the pillow

Next gather the bow front, and the add the bow legs, then place the bow middle around both of these pieces (see picture below). You are now going to hand sew the bow middle shut. You will want to sew this tightly closed so that the bow legs will not move easily. Rotate the seam to the back when you are done sewing.

Now you should have a lovely bow pillow. 

I know the instructions are somewhat hard to understand, hopefully the pictures help to make it clear. Let me know if you have questions.

A 

The Bow Pillow

Yesterday, I successfully made the Bow Pillow. Not to say there weren't disasters. 


The first disaster occurred when I discovered there was no tutorial to make the pillow. It was just a picture of a pillow sold on Etsy.com. Not super helpful. 


I guessed on the amount of fabric, created my own pattern out of tissue paper, and somehow came out with a pillow that looks pretty close to the original. :) 

My tissue paper creation!

Trying to figure out how many pieces I needed to cut out...

The only huge disaster was trying to sew the bottom of the pillow shut. First I didn't leave a big enough opening to put the pillow inside the pillow cover and I ripped a hole in my fabric (not pleased). I spent 10 minutes ripping out half of my sewing to get the pillow inside the cover, and then decided that I was not sewing the entire bottom of the pillow cover shut by hand. I opted for machine sewing, which could have been good, but it was a disaster. I needed about 6 hands to hold the fabric in place, feed it through the machine, etc. Eventually after about 6 tries and a mom-intervention, we got the pillow cover sewed shut and it looks pretty good! 

This may come as a shock, but you cannot shove a 16" pillow through a 3" opening. 

The terrible stitching on the bottom of the pillow, this was try number 3. 

The finished product!

I am going to post a tutorial (a first for craftingdisaster) tomorrow or Wednesday. Warning...I have never had sewing lessons, so my tutorial may not make any sense to you, but give it a whirl! 


A

We have a winner!

Well the votes are in and it looks like the Bow Pillow was the winner by one vote. 

I am going to get the supplies this week, and if I have time, I might attempt the T-Shirt pillow as well. I am looking forward to crafting next week. My pinterest boards are getting full of new ideas, if only spring break was 5 weeks long like winter break. :) 


Hope you are having a great week, be sure to check back soon to see the progress on the spring break crafts!


A 

Let's Vote!

I am having one of those days, where nothing really went wrong but I am still in a bad mood. In honor of that, I decided to open up a bottle of wine, make pasta for dinner and blog! I really miss crafting regularly and blogging. I cannot wait for spring break, it is less than 3 weeks away. 


I have posted a poll on the side of the blog to vote on which craft(s) you would like me to attempt over break. I would love to say that I will accomplish more than one craft, but realistically it probably wont happen. I am supposed to spend spring break applying for jobs and studying, so depending on my motivation, more crafts may get done. :) 


Here are the choices for crafts from my Pinterest boards: 


1. Sweater Bag

2. Bow Pillow

3. T-Shirt Pillow

4. Crushed Ruffle Tote

Do you have a better idea, maybe something you would like to try but are a little nervous to try? Leave a comment with your idea and I will consider it. 


The poll will remain open until Monday February 27. Don't forget to vote! :) 


A

Leg Warmers :)

So this craft was completely inspired by my friend Katie. When she came over to create our felt flower scarves she was wearing leg warmers with her boots. They were super cute and she told me she had made them the night before from the sleeves of a sweater. I instantly wanted a pair.


My last day of break my mom and I went out to lunch, got pedicures and then we decided to hit up Kohl's to look for a sweater that was on clearance to use for the leg warmers. I really wanted gray leg warmers. For those of you who don't know me, I love gray, I currently have 5 different gray cardigans which I wear all the time. I scoured the racks in the juniors department at Kohls looking for a sweater (actually just sleeves that I liked) and after going through racks of skanky clothing, I found the perfect sweater. It was on clearance for $14 (still too much in my mind) but my mom had a couple of coupons so we walked out with the sweater for $3.74.

I was super pumped! So we got home from Kohls and I sat down to whip out some leg warmers. This was one of the simpler crafts I have done. First I cut off the arms of the sweater.

Then I carefully (not really) measured the leg warmers on my legs to see how much of a hem I needed to make.

My mom, always good for tip, suggested I zig zag around the cut edge of the sweater so that the whole arm didn't unravel.

Next I did my first hem. I tend to forget that there are basic things you can do on a sewing machine to make sure you are sewing in a straight line (aka use the guide plate). So on my first leg warmer my stitches are a little crazy. The second one, after my mom reminded me that I am capable of sewing in a straight line, went much better.

Really hard to tell in this picture but in the middle of the picture the hem makes an X. 

My second leg, much more even

Finally, my lovely mom, knowing how much I hate sewing on buttons took the leftover buttons I had purchased for my Awesome Bag, and sewed them on the end of the leg warmers. She did crossed hatch sewing to secure the buttons (If you are like me, you have no idea what that means but it looks cute) Thanks Mom!!


I really like them. I will admit when I am wearing them around the house I flash back to the early 90's when the only leg warmers I owned were pink with ballet shoes on them. My friends and I would wear them around the house when playing dress up.

Yes, I wear socks with the legwarmers, I just had to snap some quick pictures last night. 

Hopefully I will get around to doing another craft soon. I don't really have a lot of tools to do crafts in my apartment but I am sure I will figure something out.


A

Felt Flower Scarf

One last craft to close out winter break. Yesterday I began the Felt Flower Scarf with my friend Katie. We both purchased our 1/2 yard of felt (I used a coupon and it was only $2.00). Other than this, the craft utilized things we already owned. Katie picked this craft because it was not sewing intense, but both failed to realize how cutting intense this craft would be. First we cut out our scarves and scalloped the edges, Katie (tan fabric) is much better at scalloping than I am (gray fabric).

We cut the scarves first but I forgot to take  a picture until we were done cutting.

Next we began the tedious job of cutting out 65 circles. I dug through my mom's Tupperware cabinet to find circle shaped containers we could use for tracing. We needed to cut out 5 sets of different sized circles (13 of each size) starting with about  a 5" circle and working our way down. Katie started by cutting out the largest circle and I started out by cutting out the second largest circles (this was a mistake). We quickly realized that we weren't going to have enough fabric. If you do this craft I would recommend a full yard of felt to complete. Katie luckily had an extra half yard of felt in a darker tan that she used to finish her circles. I decided to make my circles smaller and by some miracle I ended up with just enough fabric. After we cut out 65 circles we had to scallop the edges of every circle. All of this cutting took us about 2 hours. My hand was screaming in pain by the end of the cutting.

Katie's beautiful scalloping!

You can't tell from the picture but my scalloping was terrible and yes, by the end  of the cutting session I was using children's scissors. 

We moved into making the flowers. The first flower I sewed was a mess. It wasn't bunched up at all, so I ripped it out and started again. Katie and I determined by tying knots after every stitch the flower stayed bunched up. We got a few flowers done, and then Katie had to leave to make dinner for her future in-laws :). 

My first flower- a complete failure!

Katie's first few flowers. 

Today I finished the flowers and sewed them onto the scarf. 

Edit: Here is Katie's finished scarf- I love the two tone. She managed to make something fantastic out of our cutting disaster. :) 

I also added a hook and eye to keep the scarf in place. 

The scarf turned out pretty cute. I am pretty excited to wear it! 


Craft-wise I had a pretty productive winter break, 10 crafts in 4 weeks. On Tuesday I head back to Chicago to begin my final semester of nursing school. Although I probably wont be crafting as often, I am going to try to do a few crafts throughout the semester.

Peace out!

A