Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The Story of the Pink Painted Glittery Pine Cones

Pinterest sent me a notice that they were removing one of my pins for copyright infringement or something of that sort.  Fortunately, they also sent a photo of the pin.  It was pink painted glittery pine cones in a glass bowl sort of like these.
just imagine them in a glass bowl

I can't believe anyone has the rights to pink painted glittery pine cones.  The photo was nice, but just in a crafty photo--look what I did kinda way, not in a professional photographer can sell this way.


The point here is the the pink painted glittery pine cones were about to disappear from my life.  I could not let this happen.  I liked those freakin' pine cones!  I wanted to keep them on my Crafty-Things-I-Want-To-Do-Someday board because my memory isn't worth the powder to blow it to hell.  I would definitely forget them if they were not pinned. 


This project was supposed to be done when I could find the perfect pine cones that would be painted outside on an eighty degree summer day with no wind.  Instead, I picked up some leftover pine cones while out walking on Sunday.  Then today, I was out in 30 degree weather with high winds spray painting in order to have something to pin on my board.


So that is the story of the pink painted glittery pine cones that had to be made and blogged about so that they could be pinned.

The End

String Storage

Still reorganizing the kitchen, and I was about to throw out these cutesy little glasses with tops and straws.  When I bought them at Michael's last year I was absolutely sure that I would use them.  They were going to keep bugs out of my drinks.  Never happened.  If it's that buggy outside, I go inside.  No need for these things.


But those little holes...where did I see that before?  It was a Pinterest pin where someone put grommets on something to hold string.  Here I had two perfect little string containers and two kinds of string sitting in the cabinet.  


These are so freakin' cute!  Justifying my frivolous spending habits is probably not a good idea, but it's nice to have one of these  dumb purchases work out after all.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Kitchen Reorganizing - The Knives

I've been on a reorganization binge in the kitchen. My idea of making fabric boxes for the silverware did not work at all--too floppy, but I kept going with some store-bought things.  My drawers are oddly narrow making this simple white plastic organizer a HUGE find!
This and the most of the other items worked out. Like this
 and this

Everything except the knives.  I was too cheap to pay for a nice wood holder when my lovely husband has workshop tools up the wazoo.  I sent him downstairs with a mission and got this piece.

The fat one in the middle is for the ceramic knife because I refused to give up the cover that came with it.

All the other knives fit in the other slots,


and it all fits right in the drawer.
On to the junk drawer!




Monday, February 29, 2016

Pinned It - Did It - Pants to Skirt

Finally!  I've been wanted to try this for years.

After reading and/or watching the tutorials on my Pinterest board, I took a few ideas, tweaked a few things, and got to work. First thing:  lots of seam ripping to open the center seam.

 There are tutorials for mini skirts, straight skirts, and pleated, but I wanted to do a simple one with the triangular inserts in the front and back.  Most tutorials I saw for this insert bent the center seam to the side and sewed it down like this:
 
 
I don't like that look.  Instead, I made a small cut on each side of the center seam and sewed it under. So, from this:

to this:
The long seam piece was cut down once it was turned under and sewn in.


I serged all the inside edges, turned up a half an inch twice for the hem, and it was finished.  I'm looking forward to try it again on some jeans next week.

The back


Thursday, February 25, 2016

Gift Wrap Transition

I'm in the midst of trying to transition from expensive wrapping paper and ribbon to less expensive options, preferably reusable.  That is not as easy as it sounds beginning with the fact that it is hard to know what size packages one is going to have for gifting.  This year was a mix of old and new wrapping options.  It was a combination of regular wrapping paper, brown craft paper, cloth, wire-edged ribbon, satin and grosgrain ribbon, tulle as ribbon, and decorative holiday picks.  Here's what worked and did not work.


The brown craft paper that many said would be less expensive was okay.  I couldn't find any great buys on it, though.  So, while it was less expensive than the stupid-expensive wrapping paper I had to buy, it was not nearly the deal I was expecting. The craft paper is also harder to fold around packages and required more tape.  I guess it could be reusable to some extent as wrapping paper or for pattern tracing, but that would be a pain.  I did like that I could write on it eliminating the need for a gift tag. I guess another plus would be that it can go in the paper recycle bin.  In the end, however, I have decided I will not use it again.  Other options are easier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.


The tulle as ribbon was a win.  I bought it by the bolt and cut strips.  Can't beat the price which comes down to about a dollar a yard without a coupon.  It's 54 inches wide at Joann's.  That makes lots and lots of easy-to-cut tulle strips.  It was a fun look and easy to use.  Since it doesn't hold the wrinkles, it can be reused.  Downsides will be storing it and keeping track of the different lengths.


I've used picks before and love them.  They are easy to tuck into the ribbon (or tulle) on the package and give a nice pop.  After unwrapping gifts,  I poke them onto the tree as a decoration.  The picks get packed away with the ornaments for use the next year.  They can be bought for a pittance either close to Christmas or right after.


I love how the wire-edged ribbon looks and the ease of use.  Downsides are that it isn't as forgiving with the wrinkles as tulle and saving it for reuse has the problem of keeping track of the different sizes.


Using plain old fabric worked well.  It's a bit hard to see in the above photo, but I wrapped that rectangular package up like a piece of candy--bunching each end and using grosgrain ribbons to tie the ends up. That was one of my favorites.  Sometimes I fold the fabric to hide the unfinished edges.  Sometimes I serge it.


I like the simplicity of using squares of fabric.  Not one of my giftees sews, so all the fabric goes right back into my stash--another plus.  Only downside is that I sometimes have to cut the fabric.  I don't think I'm the only sewer who has trouble cutting into a piece of fabric.  I might want to use it for something else someday that will require a large piece of fabric, right?  I have somewhat solved this problem by buying fabric remnants at Joann's. 



One last things that worked out this year was buying little inexpensive name ornaments that I used in place of gift cards.  LOVE this idea.  It's a gift on a gift cuz they get to keep it for their own tree.  I picked up a few of these when they were down to 70% off just before Christmas.

I am slowly heading in the right direction with this wrapping stuff.  We shall have to see what next year brings.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Lemonade from Lemons

When my son came back from visiting his Peace Corp volunteer fiance in Mongolia a few weeks ago, he brought back a bunch of men's ties for me.  Sweet Melissa had thoughtfully decided to ask a local woman to make ties for all the guys.  They were beautiful!  Honestly, there is not one photo that shows the glory of the fabrics.  "Kyle, why are you giving me all these ties?"  Then he put one on.  It came about mid-chest.

Okay!  What to do with a bunch of beautiful wee ties?  Pinterest to the rescue.  Anyone else remember seeing the apron made from ties?  Here's my version.



This was the first time I've tried butting fabrics together with a zigzag stitch.  I didn't think it would be strong enough but figured that it would hold the pieces together for backing.  It held them together tightly.  No need for any backing.  Wish I had tried this method long ago.  I can think of a dozen projects that it would have worked on.


Piecing for the top and ties required taking remnants apart and some fancy piecework.


All ready to go back to Melissa.  I hope she will like their reinvention.







Thursday, February 18, 2016

Not Quite What I Imagined, But....

While looking for scarf patterns a few days ago, I came across a bunch that I wanted to make.  Once again, like the scarf I did a few days ago, I've tried to turn a knitted pattern into a sewing pattern.


It's not bad, right?  Even though it doesn't look like the inspiration scarf below, I am pleased with the way it turned out. 



Love it--the fabric, the design, the versatility!  The biggest problem was trying to figure out what fabric I could use to achieve the look.  While I would love to buy some awesome wool fabric, I need to start using the stash.  Decision, decisions!  I didn't have anything light and drapey that I could use as a single layer.  I decided to go with the lightweight Shao mist pink interlock that had been sitting in the stash since, well let's see.


Wow, this one is practically new! Barely over a year of sitting on my shelf.  (Did I mention that this would be my first attempt at working with knit fabric, too?)  I was hoping the interlock would achieve those nice, deep folds, but that didn't work out.  In retrospect, I think a narrower top section might have come closer to achieving that look.  Here's a quick look at how I came up with the pattern and put it together.

First, the knitting pattern gives no finished size.  There are a couple of diagrams like this one from the pdf:


I chose to interpret each of the jagged lines as an inch.  Now, I think the top section might work better if it was narrower by a couple of inches.  I'd also probably drop a couple of those slits.

This one required the dining room table for cutting.


It may look like isosceles triangle here with the two long sides being even, but it really drops 5 inches from one side to the other on the small end,  making the other two sides uneven as well.  I'd like to try making a larger drop from side to side next time. 

I chose to make buttonholes for the slits in the top.


I basted some light-weight interfacing where the buttonholes would be, serged the edges leaving a few inches open for turning, turned it out, top-stitched the edges, and spaced out six buttonholes at the top. Took out the interface basting and it was done!

Once I got over my initial disappointment that it is quite different from the inspiration piece, I started having fun with it.  The more I played with it, the more options I found for wearing it.







Taking a short break from scarf making to put together something special from an unusual fabric source.  Hope it will be ready to show you in a couple of days.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Perfect Weather for Making A Scarf

I'm in a scarf-making mood today. That may be the result of our temperatures.  This is the information for our area from weather.com.

Clifton Park, New York Weather
Observed at 3:45 pm EST
Wind Chill Warning Until 1:00 pm EST, Sunday February 14
0°F
Feels Like -20°F 
                                                                    

 On the bright side, I now have this:



The inspiration came from this knitted scarf on Pinterest.  I dearly hate it when the ends of my scarves are continually falling forward.  No matter what method of wrapping them around I use, the damned things don't stay in place.  I like the idea here in the knitted one, but I don't knit.

try to create a sewing pattern:

My few forays into knitting were neither fun nor pretty.  I chose to attempt a sewn version.  I was a bit obsessed with getting the ends to look something like the knitted version which proved to be the hardest part for me.  In retrospect, simple rounded or squared ends would have been fine.

The rest of the project was quick and easy.  It's two long strips of flannel sewn leaving a couples of inches open for turning right-side out. The width was chosen from a scarf I own that I like.  I chose the length by wrapping it around and deciding where I wanted it to end on each side.  I also used this same method for deciding where I wanted to put the band that would serve as a fastener.


The yo-yo is on top of the band of fabric you pull other side of the scarf through.


I free-handed a piece for the PITA end, folded in half
 And voila!

If you have any artistic talent, coming up with a fancy shape for the end will be a cinch.  This took  me forever and was not worth the simple shape I ended up doing.  Next time, I'll trace something round and be done with it.  

To keep the bottom piece from lying flat (which did not look good), I made a pleat that is held in place by the yo-yo band.


You can see that in the photo below.  Both edges of the band catch the pleat to hold it in place.


And it matches my headband from a week or two ago!

I do love it when a sewing experiment goes well. 
 

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Clover Wonder Clips vs. The Other Brand


I love my Clover wonder clips, but they are so expensive.  I decided to take a chance on the off brand and ordered a package of a hundred Urbest clips by iauto from Amazon for $9.99.  The lowest price for the same number of Clover brand clips would have  been $25.

No plastic box with Urbest Wonder Clips, but I never liked the box anyway. 
 Both sets are exactly the same size.



The plastic parts seem to be identical in shape, thickness, and quality. There is a difference in the metal piece in that the Urbest brand seems a little stiffer.  I think that translates to a need for slightly more pressure to open the clip.  If you really have a problem with your hands, they might not be a good buy for you. For me, this is not a problem at all.  The difference between opening the different clips is minimal. 

Both brands hold onto fabric well and open sufficiently to get around the number of layers needed for quilting and binding.  Since some reviewers said there were broken clips in their packs, I tested every single clip.  One of the clips was off kilter making it unusable.  The rest were fine.  For a savings of $15, I am glad I went with the cheaper brand. 

I like my new storage container, too.