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. 


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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! 


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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!


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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!


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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!

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