. . . a.k.a. Stencils

I bought a set of these stencils for a beach bag project and have gotten quite a bit of use out of them. Two years ago, we rented a beach house with two other families. In anticipation of the toys that would soon be all over the rental, I wrote each child’s name on a tote bag using the stencils and fabric markers hoping that it would make it easier to organize their stuff.

The organizational aspect of that project was a total failure, but the kids were excited about seeing their name “in print.”

Recently, I used the stencils for a treasure box a la Amy Karol for a special girl’s birthday present.

The letters are cut out of scrapbook paper, glued onto the box, and covered with several layers of varnish.

And here, finally a work-in-progress. When I visited my parents in Hamburg last summer, I saw all these army surplus canvas bags with lettering at different craft markets.

With my handy-dandy stencil set I traced a certain little girl’s name on fusible web, ironed it on some scrap fabric and fused the letters onto the bag. Now they just need some blanket stitching and other decorations and Elizabeth’s handful of Pokemons will have a fashionable and comfortable mode of transportation to Grandmother’s house.

I grew up in Germany and advent calendars were always a big deal in my family. I remember this beautiful embroidered calendar my mother made for my aunt with all kinds of interesting little packages attached to it. My brother and I would discover calendars made out of matchboxes and walnut shells or just wrapped up little packages tied together with string. Last year, my mother even put together a calendar for my brother’s dog. So in the spirit of the season, I went online to browse for some inspiration for this year’s calendar.

Paper Calendars

Kids Craft Weekly explains how to put together a cute origami cup calendar. You could also make little origami boxes as explained by Lisa Lam from U-handblog, or just simple cones and fill them with goodies.

Another fun idea from Kinder Stadt is to use toilet paper rolls and to turn them into snowmen, Santa Clauses, or penguins.

If you have the space you could create a whole village of 24 houses. Marilyn Scott-Waters of The Toymaker has a great template for a house complete with chimney.

Fabric

Jenny B. Harris of Allsorts just reposted instructions for her felt pocket calendar. I think you could also re-purpose her elf shoes. You could make 12 pairs of shoes and hang them from a clothesline.

Last year, Susie of Susie’s Country Garden made a garland of little stockings.

Eldrid Røyset Førde from Bremanger, Norway has English instructions for a different stocking type calendar.

I also like this quick calendar by Shizzyknits.

Other Materials

Splitcoaststampers has a tutorial for a calendar using little favor tins.

Miniature terracotta pots are another popular starting point for advent calendars. Turn them upside down, add a Styrofoam ball for a head, and paint them to make Santas, elves, snowmen, etc. Then either glue them on top of the box that will contain the gift, or cover the bottom with felt and/or cardboard to hide the gift in the pot itself. Here is a German tutorial from Creadoo with pictures of “potty” creatures to give you some ideas.

I’ve finished my calendar what do I put inside?

If you are still recovering from a Halloween candy hangover and are worried about lead levels in gum ball machine toys, you may want to consider filling your calendar with different activities. Kiddley has a list of activities you could use. You could also put pictures of friends and family in your calendar and put together a progressive collage, or collect or make some ornaments to hide in the calendar and then hang off a branch or your tree.

For more inspiration, go to flicker and search for pictures in the adventcalendar cluster.

I know I may be way behind the times but I still keep finding gadgets and ideas at the craft store that amaze me. This week I tried out the fabric button makers I had bought 6 months ago. They were very simple to make and now I want to look around the house and see what keepsakes I could make buttons out of. I am considering: an old, favorite shirt or baby shirt, vintage towel or handkerchief, old ties, prom dress, etc. to make a button for a bag or pillow that would be better used there than thrown out. What a sweet memory to carry a bag with a peice of baby’s first clothing! I can’t wait!

So, first, using the pattern on back of package cut out pattern. I cut my circle out of the paper so you can perfectly center and choose the picture that you want.

Cut out fabric circle and center around button half with teeth. Press around the circle, catching the fabric on the teeth all the way around.

Next, put the flat button half down on top of your fabric button and press into place by pressing down with a spool. Be sure to put the side down that sticks out farther.

All done! 2 minutes! And now you have a button that perfectly matches what you have sewn!

This was my favorite example of this- a bag I received in our Summer swap. LOVE it!

A few tips:
Be careful, you can hurt your fingers on those teeth!
If you fabric is too thin, use iron-on interfacing so that the silver button cannot be seen through the fabric.

First of all - I want to thank the girls of Crafty Daisies for inviting me to guest blog this week! I don’t get the chance to blog about crafting very often, but I love to craft/sew/knit/etc! So I’m looking forward to sharing some of my projects with the readers here at this great creative space!

As an avid reader of Crafty Daisies, I have noticed a lack of quilting posts thus far, so I thought I would post about some of my quilting projects. I started quilting about two years ago, teaching myself out of a book - Quilting 101: A Beginners Guide to Quilting (one of the current reads on this blog!!). I highly recommend this book for beginning quilters. If you do not have a lot of sewing experience, it gives you a rundown on how to use your machine. It is spiral bound and opens easily for use while sewing. Also it is full of some great and easy quilting projects to get you started.

As usual, when starting a new hobby, I had to get all of the equipment. Quilting requires you to buy quite a few things that I, at least, did not have on hand in my sewing materials:

Cutting board, special ruler, special pencils and pins, rotary cutter, book, tons of batting, and fabric!!!!!!! One of my favorite things to shop for.

Since I already knew how to use my sewing machine, I skipped a lot of the easier projects, like quilted pillows and potholders, and jumped right into my first quilt - a flannel lap quilt. And I fell in love with it! It is such a fun project. The whole thing can be put together in just a couple of days. Also, when you buy the fabric the first time, you end up with enough for the top of two quilts, which is great!

I started off making a quilt for myself:

I fell in love with all of these great, pretty, pink and red flannels. The quilt is really warm, cozy, washes well, and looks great on my couch!

I loved making this so much that I made several as gifts for others. I made one for my Aunt for Christmas, in reds, greens, and whites/creams (edited to add that I am not in that picture - my Aunt and Cousin are holding up the quilt):

And one of my favorites, a baby quilt with a barn animal theme:

Hard to see in the picture, but there are patches of pigs, lambs, frogs, and ducks. So cute and the baby now drags it around, which I love to see!

So that is my first adventure in quilting. I recommend trying something out in flannel - it is really cozy and there are a lot of fun prints you can use. Plus the fabric is pretty forgiving! Puckering around seems is part of an old-fashioned looking quilt, especially in flannel, so minor mistakes just add to the charm of the quilt. I hope to work on some more complicated projects in the future, but I think this was a great first quilting experience!!!

Emily

I’m a thrifty shopper and crafter, so I’m always looking for a good bargain. This always leads me to the remnant / discount section of my local fabric store. Unfortunately, they are all labeled as remnants, with no indication of the fabric content listed on them anymore.

I had bought a few really cute prints that I wanted to use as outers on fitted diapers, but I had no idea if they were cotton or polyester or a mixture of the two. A quick internet search led me to this great page, and I was able to identify my fabric contents in no time at all!

How to determine fabric content by using the burn test.

Snip a piece of fabric equivalent to 1″ square. Using a butane lighter and holding the fabric with a pair of tweezers ignite the fabric over a non-flammable surface in a well ventilated area.Examine the quality and color of the flame, the odor produced, and the quality of the resulting ash or cinder. Use this table to help determine your fabric’s content.

FABRIC	FLAME QUALITY	ODOR	ASH QUALITY	COMMENTS
WOOL	orange color sputtery	burning hair or feathers	blackish turns to powder when crushed	flame will self extinguish if flame source is removed no smoke
SILK	burns slowly	burning hair or feathers	grayish turns to powder when crushed	burns more easily than wool but will self extinguish is flame source removed
COTTON	yellow to orange color steady flame	burning paper or leaves	grayish, fluffy	slow burning ember
LINEN	yellow to orange color steady flame	burning paper or leaves	similar to cotton	takes longer to ignite than cotton but otherwise very similar
RAYON	fast orange flame	burning paper or leaves	almost no ash	ember will continue to glow after flame source removed
POLYESTER	orange flame, sputtery	sweet or fruity smell	hard shiny black bead	black smoke
ACETATE	burns and melts,sizzly	acidic or vinegary	hard black bead	will continue to burn after flame source removed
NYLON	burns slowly and melts, bluse base and orange tip, no smoke	burning celery	hard grayish or brownish bead	self extinguish if flame source removed
ACRYLIC	burns and melts, white-orange tip, no smoke	acrid	black hard crust	will continue to burn after flame source removed

A couple other sites I read noted that if you have a blend of fabrics (ie 50/50 cotton polyester) then you will see a combination of both types of flames / burning properties. While this wont tell you the exact percentage, at least then you know that it is a blend.

I thought this was a great resource, and I hope it can help someone else identify their unknown fabrics!

Before Lucy was born I was a sewing mad woman. Things have *ahem* slowed down since then. The desire is still there, just no time. One of the things I HAD to finish before she came was a diaper bag. I put this little ensemble together for our diapering needs. A diaper bag, a changing pad and little bag for my stuff. The changing pad was a towel that I died to match the fabric and quilted it sorta. If you can call that quilting- adding some batting to the back and sewing fabric on the other side. I love it when she’s on it cause it seems so comfy, but it’s too big and takes up most of my space. I’m also afraid to wash it cause the color might bleed into the fabric.

The bag has tons of pockets, I like that but it’s a little too floppy. I made it from some left over ikea curtains we used for our craft room at church and some floral fabric I found at Walmart. I also made the straps so I could remove them and just slip the bag into another bag and still have all the great pockets. Yeah that didn’t work so well. Again, too floppy. darn. Oh, the detail on the pocket is from an old shiny head band I had. You know me, gotta have my bling!

The little pouch for my things is the only thing I’m really in love with. I carry it with me everywhere. I even made a little side pocket for my “business” cards. Brian made me some Bloom cards so I could give out my number when I met a new crafting friend. I also love the bead on the side. It just gives it a little vintage somethin’. I am already designing a new bag in my mind with some Anna Maria Horner fabric that will be bigger and better! We’ll see when I’ll actually get to that…

I’m constantly searching for my crochet hooks, so as a part of my quest to organize my craft area, I decided to sew up a crochet hook case.

I cut two pieces of fabric 12″ x 18″, and a third piece of fabric 6″ x 18″. I cut the third piece of fabric on a slight angle along one long side, so accommodate for different lengths of hooks (this will be the pocket). Take the smaller piece, and iron the edges in approximately 1/4″ to finish the pocket.

Place the two larger pieces right side together, and sew around the edges using a 1/4″ seam allowance, leaving one side partially unsewn to turn the pieces right side out. Turn it right side out, and pin the pocket to the front of it. Ideally, if the same 1/4″ seam was used for the sewing and ironing, the pieces should fit together perfectly. Also attach ribbon for tying the case when its finished.

When I took the above picture, I had placed the ribbon wrong…you want to have both ribbon pieces on the same side of the case, not one on each side. Topstitch around the case to attach the pocket and for finishing. Then you will want to mark lines for the pockets that hold the hooks. I marked them at 1″ spacing, and then stitched over the chalk lines.

I added snaps to my case, so that the top stays put when folded over and the hooks don’t fall out. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, except that I used a stretchy fabric, which didn’t sew up too nicely, my case isn’t exactly square But that’s fixable with adjusting the tension, and I just didn’t take the time to do that. Otherwise, it does its job and its cute too!

I decided to make a bag for my mom for her birthday. I found this great fabric and thought what a pretty bag it would make, so with no pattern or ANY clue on how to make a purse, I began cutting, sewing and assembling. The whole thing took about two hours, mainly because I didnt know what I was doing so I was having to stop every few steps and draw a diagram.

I had some trouble attaching the straps because I did them next to last, when I should’ve sewed them to the lining before attacing the lining to the outter piece. But hindsight is 20/20 and my mom loved it anyways.

I had a good time doing this, and I can’t wait to make some more bags. I found this tutorial for quilted patchwork bags and will be attempting this next week, so hopefully it will turn out just as perdy as hers.

Ok, I am so excited right now. I have been dying to tell you about Anna Maria for a long time! I am soo obsessed, addicted and crazy over her stuff. There are few blogs you really want to read every word and go back to posts and look at the pictures again and again. This blog is just like that. Watch out if you’re not careful you’ll spend hours there! I feel so privileged to tell you about this amazingly creative woman. When I get this excited I have trouble sharing my thoughts. My mind goes faster than my hands can type so bear with me here.

Thing is I totally want to be just like AM when I grow up. She has 5 kids and still finds time to craft! Be sure to take a look at her bio, for I am sure to leave something important out. Her daughter Juliana who just turned 15 is adorable. She helps her with all of her big craft projects. My favorite is the younger kids play room they designed together. I can’t wait to be able to do stuff like this with Lucy! So fun!

She is a fabric designer among other things. Take a look at her home studio. She has her own line right now called Bohemian. She just came out with a new line called Chocolate Lollipop, which will be out in April or May. I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Oh my gosh super cute!!

some of her fabulous pillows. (she has made so many her husband has threatened to put them in storage!)

Be sure to check out her great technique for making super circles. It’s so great I want to try it right now!
and a few more reasons why I love Anna Maria….

It’s not chocolate, or some icing-covered treat. It’s fabric! I can’t get enough of the stuff and I think about it all the time. When I’m not looking on the internet for it, I’m wandering up and down the aisle’s of JoAnn’s fighting the urge to throw a hundred bolts into my cart and race towards the cashier.

I think this is the most fun part of sewing - picking out your fabric. Trying different color combinations, different patterns, textures - it seems to please all the senses. With the way fashion and trends are today, there really are no rules and you can go with whatever looks good to you.

I got this sewing book awhile back called Simple Sewing with a French Twist and have finally gotten the opportunity to crack it open and read it and I’m addicted to it. The projects, the pictures, the style of writing - it’s all so great. I highly recommend it no matter if you’re new to sewing or an old pro.

After flipping through it I see a lot of projects I want to tackle, but then I saw this rad purse. Of course, this isn’t one of the projects, just a prop for the photograph, but how hard can it be, right? Now I just have to choose my fabric…