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  

Awesome Bag Complete!

The bag in finally complete! I successfully created the buttonholes on the strap:

The buttonholes aren't quite perfect, but I created them finally!

After I created them, I showed the buttonholes to my mom and after she admired them she said "You still could have just sewed the buttons to the bag". She still isn't convinced about the buttonholes...I don't get it!


I carefully sliced open the buttonholes with a razor blade. Next I spent a lovely hour sewing the buttons on the bag. I opted to only put 3 buttons on each side, so the strap would be longer. This was a little more challenging just sewing a normal button as I was sewing buttons on both sides of the bag- so sewing 2 buttons at once. My fingers are bearing the abuse from this as usual...my finger tips are currently numb, but at least they have stopped bleeding. :)

The buttons aren't exactly sewed evenly but close enough!

Amazingly the buttonholes lined up with the buttons!

The buttons inside the bag, so it can be reversed. 

So it may have taken over a week to finish, but the "Awesome Bag" is finally complete!

At least one more craft before the end of break!


A

Christmas Morning!!

Well- I successfully made a buttonhole. Who would have thought it was possible? This afternoon I was about a half second from just sewing the strap on the bag and forgetting about the buttons. Let me catch you up on how this miracle happened! (There is a lot of rambling coming up without pictures...feel free to skip to the end)


On Sunday evening my mom was in a particularly good mood and offered to walk through the instructions for creating a buttonhole with me. Keep in mind, my mom has never successfully made a buttonhole and kept telling me it can't be done. So regardless of the fact that I had a migraine, I took her up on her offer to walk through the steps. We googled the manual online, and found the FAQ page about creating the buttonhole. For the record the directions SUCK! They might be helpful to people that have been sewing for 20 years but for a person who is 'self taught' in sewing, these instructions are not helpful. My mom I attempted and made half a buttonhole but then the fabric would get stuck and create a huge knot. After about 45 minutes, both of our patience was shot, so we gave up for the day. After staring at the directions angrily, watching youtube videos (not helpful) and reviewing what we have been doing, I had no new ideas.


On Monday I couldn't get the energy to attempt the buttonhole. Instead I watched Weeds all day, and thought about how I should be finishing the "Awesome Bag".


Today I woke up watched the last 2 episodes of Weeds on Netflix streaming and decided it was time I pulled myself off the couch to make the buttonhole, or sew the strap on the bag, and just finish this project. My mom suggested I contact Brother customer service to see if they had any pointers. First I attempted to online chat with the customer service people, it was pointless, they sent me a link to the directions I had already looked at 20 times and said that if that didn't work to call customer service.


I called the customer service line, and they listened to what was going on, and told me to bring my machine in to be looked at. Super customer service-NOT! She told me to go to the Creative Sewing Store location closest to me and have them see if it was a machine problem or a user problem (meaning me)...ha! The lady on the phone told me the closest location was 45 minutes away, but I googled it and there was actually a place 5 minutes from my house.


I called the Creative Sewing Center and told them what was going on and they told me if I brought in my machine they could see if there was a problem. So I loaded up the sewing machine, even though I felt like dropping it off the deck, and drove the store. The lady at the store didn't think that the buttonhole foot looked correct but after fiddling around with the machine for about ten minutes, she successfully made a buttonhole and showed me how to do it. Just so we are clear- it is not at all laid out in the directions, nor is it 'automatic'. She showed me about 5 extra steps that were nowhere online, not mentioned in the manual, but in the end there was a buttonhole. I went home, tried a few times and eventually made a successful buttonhole! WooHoo!

2 Successful Buttonholes!

Now I should finish the bag tonight, but I am exhausted and sick of attempting this. Tomorrow I am finishing the bag- it has become the project that never ends.


In addition, as many as you my winter break is coming to an end.  A week from today I will head back to Chicago and begin my final semester of Nursing school. YAY! Like a 4 year old, I decided to make a paper chain to countdown the days until graduation. So today I sat on the deck to soak up the over 50 degree sunny weather and cut out all of my paper strips for the chain. I am not actually assembling the paper chain until I get back to Chicago.

My Supplies

I don't remember ever seeing the grass in January in MN. 

It seems far away now...

Only this many days in the semester!

A

A few updates!

Here are a few updates on some projects:

1. Necklace: 

The necklace I made my mom may have not seemed like too much of a disaster at the time but it has slowly turned into one. As my mom wore the necklace more and more, a bead would fall off here and there....and finally a whole cluster of beads fell off while she was at the movie theater last weekend. 

The beads that fell off

Later this afternoon I am going to try to repair her necklace since she has managed to find all the beads that have fallen off. :) 

2. Coasters: 

Last weekend Anna came over and we finished putting the felt on the coasters. They turned out really cute, and have already become very useful at my house. 

3. Awesome Bag:

So I last left you with the machine taken apart, and the project on hold. On Thursday I ended up taking out all of my stitching on my lining material and trying to make the lining about a half inch wider. After I did this I successfully sewed all the layers of the bag together. 

Finally looks like a bag!

I have to say besides my meltdown on the machine last week my sewing skills are getting much better. My ironing skills- not so much. I used interfacing as my lining fabric for the strap because I ran out of the material I used for lining for the bag. My mom luckily had extra interfacing that she let me use. I went to iron it because it was really wrinkly and I melted the interfacing onto the iron (not so awesome). So I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get melted interfacing off the fabric. 

My iron mark on the interfacing

 I successfully machine sewed the strap of the bag pretty easily, but it required about 12 inches of hand sewing once it had been turned right side out. My hand sewing looks exactly the same as it did in 4th grade- terrible! I started hand sewing it but then I conned my mom into finishing the hand sewing (THANKS!) because my disastrous sewing was just ruining the look of the bag. :) 

It looks almost finished...but one large hurdle to go!

I know my measurement are not always accurate, in fact I realized I cut the strap a whole inch shorter than it was supposed to be (This was really due to my lack of reading directions, not really my measuring). Once I finished the strap I realized if I attached the strap to the bag how it instructs in the tutorial, I will not be able to even fit my hand through the strap. So instead I have decided to only put 2 or 3 buttons on each side and make the strap only go down to the middle of each side of the bag. 

On Friday I attempted to start making the buttonholes. First, my mom and I spent an hour pulling apart our house to find the correct parts for the machine to make the buttonholes. We finally found them in the bottom of a bin in my closet under my John Mayer t-shirt from a concert in 2003 (Obviously we are super organized around here). After this, I was super excited to attempt to make buttonholes. I made a little sample swatch of fabric to practice on, I read the directions 4 times (which is a lot for me) and started the attempts. I know this will be shocking for you, but every time I  followed the directions, I ended up with a big ball of  thread that looked nothing like a buttonhole. I have to be skipping a step, or missing something but I have decided it is something that is not included in the directions because I have followed those exactly. Later today I am going to spend some time looking on youtube and google for more complete instructions for the buttonhole. I am still pretty convinced that I am going to be able to make a buttonhole even though my mom is convinced it isn't going to happen. I will admit every time I try the buttonhole I get super excited that it is going to work, like a kid on Christmas morning, and then it fails and I feel like I got a lump of coal. 

My sample fabric for testing buttonholes.

3 attempts...3 knots of fabric, 0 buttonholes

4th time was not the charm either...

Hopefully it will be like Christmas morning around here soon. Look for some other craft attempts this week in addition to finishing the Awesome Bag. 


A

Don't HIT the Machine...really?

Well, I have done it again. I have created an absolute disaster. This one ended with me shaking the sewing machine, hitting the machine, taking it apart, etc. But I am getting ahead of myself, lets start at the beginning. 


First, I spent an hour trying to figure out how to make a basting stitch on the machine. I tried just messing with dials on the machine (not a good idea, I don't recommend it). Then I had to read the manual for the machine which is written by people who think I actually know something about sewing. Ridiculous. I actually learned what all of the dials on the machine were for, so that is a plus. Finally, I just googled the sewing machine model and the words "basting stitch" and the first thing that popped up was "Cons of this machine are that it does not have a basting stitch function". So, I decided to skip that step. 

Trying to find a basting stitch while using a rag as my practice material. 

More importantly I found some advice on how to make the machine last longer. The manual instructed the user to not drop or hit the machine. I am not joking. It actually tells you that you shouldn't hit the machine, which means the makers of this machine realize that it is awful and will make you want to hit it. 

I cut the squares in the corner of my fabric pieces to create the "boxed" bottom, and then started sewing. It actually went pretty smooth and I was thinking in my head: "I actually like sewing, this is kind of relaxing. Maybe I should buy a sewing machine. I love when my project goes smoothly. The blog readers are going to be so disappointed". 

Lovely corners

My marking tool of choice a pen, and while it may be permanent it works was better than any of those "Mark B Gone" pens. :)

My successful sewing!

I got all of my pieces of fabric sewn and it was time to put them all together and sew around the top of the bag. Well first off, my lining was slightly smaller than my other two pieces so I wasn't exactly sure how the sewing was going to go. But again, I was on a roll, feeling good about my sewing skills so I thought, why not, lets just go with the flow. Not a good idea in retrospect. I got halfway around the bag and the fabric got jammed in the machine. I try bringing the needle up, it was jammed (and I may have failed to put the heavy duty needle that I purchased for this project in the machine before I started... oops). I eventually got the needle out. I shoved the foot of the machine up. Then I took the foot of the machine off. I yanked, I pulled. I turned the machine upside down, I laid it on the table. I got a screwdriver to try to take it apart, but it wouldn't fit, so I got a penny and unscrewed the screws, which did absolutely nothing. I even hit it a few times for good measure (at this point I may have been cursing at the machine as well).

It's stuck

The machine laying down...I am sure this a no-no in the mannual

Upside down and still stuck

Somehow the foot came off...

My tools. :)

Finally, I just cut out what was stuck in the machine. By some miracle it was just a bunch of thread and I managed to not cut a hole in my bag (Thank you Jesus). I calmly put that machine back together, but I haven't tested it to see if it still works. Mom if you are reading this, I promise to buy you a new machine if I broke it. 

My thread disaster!

Needless to say my patience is long gone, and I am done crafting for the day. Hopefully my saint of a mother can figure what is going on with the bag when she gets home. I have a feeling it will be pretty entertaining when she sees what I have done. 


A