Halloween Scarf!

On Friday night I wanted to de-stress so I opted to make a scarf.  I bought a couple yards of this orange and black fabric over a month ago and have been putting off making this, but tonight was the night.  No tutorial, just a few pics.

I love this Halloween themed jersey knit.  And although it's super thin and lightweight, once I stitched the two panels together it made it sufficiently weighty.  I think it's going to be quite warm :)

Most people put on make-up and do their hair for pictures.  But this is what you get when you sew at 11:00 at night!

Typically skulls aren't my thing, but they definitely work for Halloween!!! 

Simple & Sweet!

On Sunday, we celebrated this amazing autumn weather by barbecuing hot dogs and making smores in the fire pit on our back porch.  The temperature was just right for wearing a favorite sweatshirt, or donning blankets as the girls did here.  Since I'm always touting the simple things in life, I couldn't let this evening go by unreported:

Three of my favorite people!

Smores!  I like them best withOUT the marshmallows or graham crackers :)

Cayla enjoying hot chocolate in the cool air!

Autumn, wrapped in her blanket and sipping cocoa, cozied up next to me on the swing.

This picture makes me laugh.  Look at those ears.  He was soooooo fascinated by the pieces of ash that floated in front of his face.  He kept trying to bite at them.  It was hilarious!

Autumn and me on the swing, staying warm together!

He got some hotdog, graham crackers and marshmallows as his post-dinner treat :)

Cayla prefers to be the photographer instead of the subject!

Happy autumn everybody!!!!

Ruffles!

Here's my first ruffled tote.  Read on to see some of the steps involved in making it.

After seeing numerous ruffles and ruffled items from curtains, to skirts to bags on the internet, I was determined to create a ruffle project of my own.  With my insane bag obsession, I figured that would be the best place to start.  Here's a quasi-tutorial, but be forewarned, when it comes to crafting/sewing I don't use patterns or measurements, I just jump in with both feet, go for broke and learn from my mistakes.  So...... 

I started by selecting some fabrics to use for ruffles.  I wanted a fall/autumn bag that I could carry from September through Thanksgiving, so I chose hues in brown, tan and orange.  How much fabric did I use to make the strips?  I have no clue.  I just started cutting strips :)

I created a small hem down one side of my fabric and then began a basting stitch roughly down the center of the piece.

A basting stitch is a loose and wide stitch with thread leads on both ends and no back stitching.  See the thread under my thumb?  That's the bottom thread that I pulled on with my left hand while pushing the fabric  to the right with my right hand.

Once the fabric is gathered, it looks like this.  When I was pleased with how ruffly my fabric was, I tied off both ends so it wouldn't unravel.  Because I didn't use a super long piece of fabric I ended up with a shorter ruffle, widely spaced.  For a tight ruffle I would have needed a piece of fabric probably twice as long.  But this was trial and error so I worked with what I had.

Here are all three fabric pieces ruffled and ready to attach to my bag.

I had some oatmeal colored duck cloth (basically it's a light weight canvas) that looks white in this picture, but it's not, it's cream, that I knew would make a cute bag.  I cut my duck fabric just a little wider than my ruffles and started stitching them together, beginning by pinning my ruffle onto the canvas.

The orange fabric was my first ruffle and I'm wondering if I should have started with the bottom ruffle first, but since I didn't, I had to get the top ruffle out of the way so I could attach the second ruffle, so I just pinned the top one out of the way.  I then pinned my second ruffle on and stitched it into place.  I continued until all three ruffles were attached.

Here's the back of the canvas bag with the top edge ironed and pinned, awaiting the handles before sewing. 

Handles are fun because they're sooo easy.  I cut two, even lengths of canvas, folded the edges together, ironed them down, pinned them and sewed all the way around to create a nice, even top stitch.

In case you're thinking, "I thought she was done with ruffles, this photo must be out of place," let me assure you, since it was a work in progress, I analyzed it with the three ruffles and decided it needed a fourth one. So here is the photo of the other three ruffles pinned out of the way and a fourth ruffle being added.

Once the ruffles were finished, I attached the handles (yep, by eye balling them instead of measuring like I probably should have :) turned the bag inside out and double-stitched the side seams, then turned it right side out and voila!  My first ruffled project.  What do you think?

Check out the links below to find my project and inspiration for much more:

September Craft 1 of 3!

THREE posts in one day.  Can you believe it?  I've labeled them September Crafts 1 of 3, 2 of 3, and 3 of 3 so I hope you take time to check them all out and leave a comment or two......or three :)

This was a simple project but I loved how it turned out.  Cute fabric goes a long way.  I had some  adorable fall fabric in my stock and, like every year, I love making holiday pillows to add a little flair to my decor.  While shelves, tables, mantles and desks frequently receive all the decorations, the poor couch is often overlooked.  Not anymore.  These little gems bring fall right into my living room.

To make them, I cut pieces of fabric in coordinating  patterns and stitched them together to resemble the lay out of, you guessed it.....candy corns.  I top stitched the pillows, stuffed them with batting and sewed them shut.  The rectangle was added just to mix it up a bit.  Everything can't be about candy corn.......or can it?  :)

Here's a close up of the adorable vintage looking Halloween fabric I've had for a couple of years.  The scrap at the top and bottom came from a remnant I happened upon at Wal-Mart and fell in love with.  The clerk told me it wasn't even supposed to be on the floor.  She assumed it was left over from their old stock from a few years back.  But she sold it to me for next to nothing and I have been loving it!  Happy Fall, Happy Harvest, Happy Halloween or Happy Whatever You Celebrate this time of year!!!

I'm linked up at:







Check it out and enjoy all the fun projects, crafts and yumminess!

September Craft 2 of 3!

When Autumn found out her grandparents were having a sale, she was determined to bake something to contribute.  They turned out really cute and quite festive for fall.  She sold them all :)

We made a big batch of double chocolate brownies, cut generous sized squares and wrapped them in plastic bags, tied with candy corn fabric.

She wasn't content to just have one baked good, so she insisted we make chocolate chip bars as well.

 

After they were wrapped and tied off, we crafted cute little tags to adhere to the outside of each one, and we placed them in a Longaberger to enhance the 'cute factor.'

Here's a close up of one of the tags.  The cookie bars' tag was striped cardstock with 'Treats by Autumn' printed on coordinating green paper.  So there you have it.  Super easy, super cute and super 'Autumn.'

September Craft 3 of 3!

It's always cold in my Sunday school class.  When the weather outside is nice, people always want the air conditioning on in the classroom and some of us get a bit chilled, and while I own numerous hoodies, I don't have many sweaters.  I could have purchased one, but where is the craftiness in that?  So, after checking out some blogs on upcycling tired clothing.......behold:

Right out of the shoot, I cheated.  I didn't  previously own this long sleeved tee, I bought it at a thrift store.  That's right!  I bought it for.......wait for it.......$1.00.  I wear a lot of solid colors so a striped shirt was the perfect accessory.

I laid the shirt out flat, and measured to find the center of the neckline.

Then I cut the neckline all the way to the bottom hem.

A V-neck shirt would have been much easier to work with, but I didn't realize that until AFTER I had purchased this and began cutting it.  So instead of sewing some simple bias tape down the front of the shirt, I had to deal with the neckline as well.  I could have left it as a scoop neck, but trust me, it looked ridiculous.  The V-neck updates it and makes it much more wearable.

After cutting the front and shaping the neckline into a V, I pinned the matching cream bias tape into place........

......and stitched it around the neckline.

I then aligned the bias tape to the front of the shirt and stitched from the neck to the bottom hem.

To keep the sweater closed I sewed some velcro onto each side and attached a button so it looked more finished.

 

And here's the completed project.  It didn't take very long and I think it will be pretty cute with a coordinating short sleeved top underneath.  In true Pacific Northwest fashion, layering is essential.  That way I can stay warm in 'the freezer', but remove the sweater to be comfortable during worship service - where it's a normal temperature :)

Shirred Scarf for Fall!

I have been completely obsessed lately with jersey knit fabric, specifically tee shirt recycling, or the latest and greatest term: upcycling.  In short, it involves taking an item with a specific purpose, like a tee shirt, and turning it into something amazing.  This project however is NOT an upcycling project (but I do have more of those to come) because I bought a couple of yards of jersey knit fabric specifically for this scarf.

Having also recently learned about elastic thread, I could not wait to try it out.  Per the instructions on the thread, I loaded my bobbin by hand, and used standard thread on the top of my machine.  Then I measured and cut two pieces of knit 70" long by 8" wide.  I lined up my fabric pieces wrong sides together and began to stitch leaving approximately a 1" seam allowance to create the ruffled, raw edge look I desired.

This is the 1" allowance.  It doesn't really look like it.....but it is.  Part of the raw edge has already started to roll the way jersey always does :)

The wonderful thing about elastic thread is there's no gathering to achieve the ruffled look.  I just sewed like normal and the elastic did all the work.  The above photo shows what the fabric looked like exiting the back of my machine as I sewed it.

After sewing both lengths of fabric down each side, I was pretty happy with the look, but I did think it needed a little more.  So I sewed a third stitch right down the middle, which added the perfect amount of ruffle.

Finished product.  Because it's knit, the edges are left raw and unhemmed and I love the way they curl in.  So with only three straight lines I created the scarf I envisioned in my head.

No, I wouldn't wear it with this shirt, but I wanted it to show up clearly so I chose a dark colored top to display the lighter scarf.

Side view.

One of a zillion ways to wear the scarf.

And yet another way to show it off.  So that's it.   Super easy, super quick and super cute.  It doesn't get much better than that!

My little photographer insisted I take a picture of her wearing the scarf.  She's so adorable she'd make a paper bag look good.

This post is linked up at this amazing site: