Feature You Friday: Quick and Easy Wine Bags

December 30, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday.  I’m coming down off of a crazy busy month and I’m looking forward to resting and relaxing this weekend – with hopefully one small stop at a New Year’s Eve party that is!

As I was putting away my holiday fabric the other day, I noticed that some of the colorful scraps would be the perfect size for making into some quick, handmade wine bags to take to my hosts.

A few minutes later, I had these!

To make your own, take a piece of fabric that is approximately 13″ x 12″.

Fold the 13″ long side down 1″ and sew – to make a casing (this will be at the top of the bag).

Now fold the entire piece of fabric in half vertically (right sides together)  and sew around the bottom and side edge – but being careful not to sew the casing closed (be sure to reinforce the area right below though!).

Turn right side out, thread a ribbon, twine or cording through the casing (and then knot together at the ends) and there you go!

Very quick and very easy! This is also a great simple gift bag or storage bag (I make them with scraps for my children to carry their “treasures” around with).

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and can’t wait to share more with, and learn more from, all of you in the New Year!

Did you know you can share your projects, blogs, and businesses with us through our Feature You Fridays? Every Friday, we feature a different StitchStealer with all of our blog readers and Facebook fans. It’s a great way to showcase your talents, tout your business or charity or just plain toot your own horn (you don’t need to have a blog or business to show your stuff!). Send in your project photos, blog or website links to me at StitchSteals Blog today for consideration!

Feature You Friday: Scrap Fabric Christmas Trees

December 23, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

As Christmas nears, I am enjoying spending these cold days inside with my sweet little ones.  Back when I only had one child, I did a LOT of crafting with him – especially around the holidays.  Then once my second child started walking (and getting into the craft supplies), those times became fewer and far between.  Now that they are a little bit older (my baby turned four!), I can finally start getting back to fun craft projects.  I started last week with these Paper Christmas Trees.

As we were making them, I wondered what the project would look like with scraps of Christmas fabric.  So yesterday I pulled out some scraps, dug my pinking shears out of the closet and made this cute thing.

The materials:

  • Styrofoam cone
  • Strips of fabric cut about 2″ wide and 8″-10″ long: 1 that is pinked along one long edge (this will go all the way around the bottom) and about 4 other strips that are pinked on both long edges
  • 5″ fabric circle cut with pinking shears
  • Straight pins
  • Pinking shears

Take the piece with one pinked edge and pin one side of it to the bottom of the cone.

Wrap it all around the bottom of the cone and secure with a few pins along the way.

Now take the other strips of fabric and cut them into trapezoids (that is why I said to pink both edges – makes it easier to cut them – I didn’t figure this out at first :) ).

Pin these pieces all the way around the cone above the first(bottom) layer, making sure they cover the pin heads from the bottom layer.

Continue layering pieces and forming new layers until you get about an inch from the top.  Time to make the cone.

Take your fabric circle, and cut a slit in it from the edge to the middle (just the radius).

Use this to form a cone, by sliding one edge under the other, continuing to slide until it makes a cone shape.

5.  Pin the cone to the top of the tree.

My kids loved poking holes in the foam with the pins (ah, to be 4 and 6 again!) and I loved having the time with them.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, and find a little time to create and relax!

Did you know you can share your projects, blogs, and businesses with us through our Feature You Fridays? Every Friday, we feature a different StitchStealer with all of our blog readers and Facebook fans. It’s a great way to showcase your talents, tout your business or charity or just plain toot your own horn (you don’t need to have a blog or business to show your stuff!). Send in your project photos, blog or website links to me at StitchSteals Blog today for consideration!

Feature You Friday: Kitchen Towels

December 16, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

With all of the gorgeous holiday fabrics coming in (and flying out) of the StitchSteals warehouse this month, I had to steal some for myself of course and thought I would steal some show you one project I have been working on.

During the holidays, it seems like there is always a party going on – and when I go to a party I like to bring a little token for the host or hostess.  When I saw these fabrics, I thought they would be perfect – fun and whimsical – for kitchen towels!

I picked up some plain white flour sack kitchen towels, added some strips that were about 3″ wide and sewed them on to the bottom of the towel! It took about 20 minutes (including ironing the towels and seams on the strips), but I think they turned out cute!

If you want to replicate them, don’t forget to make your bobbin thread the color of the towel!

What other plans do you have for your holiday fabric? If you haven’t picked any up yet, head over to StitchSteals.com to check out today’s holiday steal! (And if you’ve got your heart set on the Riley Blake My Mind’s Eye fabrics I used on my towels, there is just a little bit left on the StitchSteals past steals page – hurry!)

Have a great weekend!

Would you like to be featured on a future “Feature You Friday”? It’s a great way to show off your skills, share your talents, or promote a business, blog or cause that’s dear to you. All you need to do is send us a photo (or photos) of a project to the StitchSteals Blog. If you are chosen, your work (and links) will be seen by all of our StitchSteals Blog readers and Facebook fans. Submit your photos today – we can’t wait to see what you have come up with!

Feature You Friday: Coffee Cup Cozy

December 9, 2011

Happy Friday StitchStealers!

This week on the CraftySteals blog, I’ve been sharing some ideas for simple handmade gifts – great for teachers, neighbors, friends and family.

Today, is a fun little gift that I made from scraps (always great to find ways to use up those gorgeous little leftovers) for teachers and coffee and tea loving friends: a coffee cozy that mimics those cardboard sleeves you get on your to-go coffee.

I have seen many variations of these on the web – the one I modeled my design after was on the blog: House on Hill Road.  In fact, she has an awesome tutorial if you want to take a look over there too – because as usual, as I do in every day life, I didn’t follow the directions EXACTLY (read: I usually just look at the finished product and figure out how to get there on my own).  So here is my tutorial based on her creation.

What you’ll need:

  • One cardboard sleeve (yes, you will need to go pick up that latte in order to do this craft project – darn!)
  • Scrap fabric
  • Batting or felt to use as insulation
  • Button
  • Thin hair elastic

When you get home, and after you’ve enjoyed your hot beverage (don’t throw away the cup yet!),  open up the sleeve at its seam.

Trace it onto a paper – making sure to add about 1/2 to 3/4 inches around all of the edges – to allow for seams.

Now take your scraps and use this pattern to cut out two pieces of fabric.        

Repeat with your insulation.

Now layer your fabrics to get ready to sew.  Put the two pieces of fabric wrong sides together.  Put the insulation on top of it.

Before you sew, take your elastic and sandwich it in between the fabric pieces on the right-hand short side – making sure to leave half sticking out – you can pin it in place, or just hold it there.

Sew around the perimeter — leaving a few inches (or one of the shorter edges) unsewn so that you can turn it right side out.

Now turn it right side out.

Tuck in the parts left unsewn, and then top stitch the entire cozy.

Wrap this around your coffee cup to figure out where you want to sew your button.

Sew the button on and your cozy is done! Get a clean cup from a coffee joint (hey, sometimes you have to make two trips, right?) and put your cozy on it.  Stick some tissue in and either add a gift card or some instant coffee packets or tea bags.  Who wouldn’t love to get that?

 

Have a great weekend everyone and be sure to share any fun handmade gifts on our Facebook page – I know you are all busy creating!

Oh, and if you aren’t up to sewing but still like the cozy idea – check out my “no-sew” coffee cozy on the CraftySteals blog!

Would you like to be featured on a future “Feature You Friday”? It’s a great way to show off your skills, share your talents, or promote a business, blog or cause that’s dear to you. All you need to do is send us a photo (or photos) of a project to the StitchSteals Blog. If you are chosen, your work (and links) will be seen by all of our StitchSteals Blog readers and Facebook fans. Submit your photos today – we can’t wait to see what you have come up with!
 

 

 

 

Feature You Friday: New life for old jeans

December 2, 2011

Good morning Stitch Stealers!

Now that the turkey roasting pans are cleaned and put away and the holiday decorations have started being released from their place in the attic, I’m turning my attention to a couple of projects that I started before the Thanksgiving rush but hadn’t quite finished!  More specifically a pair of jeans for my daughter.

My daughter is a skinny minnie – but she’s got long legs.  Which makes keeping her in pants very difficult.  If they fit in the waist, they are too short – and vice versa.  So, I decided to give some new life to last winter’s jeans (that still fit fine around the waist but are about two inches too short) by adding a ruffle to the bottom along with some appliques and bling.  This is a quick project with cute results and I was able to use up some scrap material (that I picked up at the StitchSteals warehouse). 

Here are the jeans before:

To make the ruffle pieces, cut two long strips that 3″ wide and 22″ long (your strips may need to be a different size – the 22″ was because I doubled the circumference of the leg openings and the 3″ gave me 1″ for seams and 2″ of length to add to the jeans). 

Now, take one strip, and along one long edge, fold and iron a 1/4″ hem, then fold another 1/4″ again and iron that.

 Sew the hem down. 

Next, fold, iron and sew another 1/2″ hem on the other long side of the strip - this time using the biggest stitch length and making sure to leave long thread tails on each end. 

Repeat the previous steps (to hem the sides) on the other strip of fabric.

To make the ruffle, pull opposite threads on each side (top thread on one side, bottom on the other and vice versa) to gather the material into a ruffle. 

Sew the ends of the ruffled pieces (wrong sides) together to form a circle.

Just a note: here is the step where most people would iron on the ruffles, but I cheated and used my Glue Glider Fabric Pro to adhere the ruffles onto the bottoms of the pant legs.

To make the flower appliques, I adhered Silhouette Fabric Interfacing onto some coordinating fabric and cut out flowers using my Silhouette SD.

I attached them with some strong adhesive (it’s called E-6000 and can go through the washer). I used the same adhesive to attach rhinestones to the center of the flowers. (Just make sure they are dry before you let your daughter admire them or you will have an off-kilter rhinestone ;) ).

 

I think they turned out really well, don’t you? My daughter loves all that girliness that the ruffles add. In fact, she asked me to put those ruffles on her shirt too. I guess it’s another project to add to my “to-do” list :)  

Have a great weekend, and if you are looking for some fun and easy gifts for teachers or friends, check out the series of projects I’m doing on the CraftySteals Blog - 7 Gifts for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Feature You Friday: The Care Bags Foundation

November 25, 2011


Good morning StitchStealers!

I hope you all had a great Thansgiving! It’s the last week of featured charities on the StitchSteals blog.  We have seen ConKerr Cancer (pillowcases for children with terminal illnesses), CureCaps, the Hat Project (donations of caps are sold to raise money for neurological disease research), and the Snuggles Project (blankets are donated to animal shelters).

This last charity came to me as I worked on decorating a tote bag for my daughter to take to school (which I shared a few weeks ago here!), I remembered this charity that was featured in a Family Circle article a few months ago.  The magazine hoarder in me had of course kept the article, and I went back to find all of the details to share with you.

The Care Bags foundation was started by 11-year-old Annie Wignall in 2000 to give displaced, disadvantaged and abused children something of their own – a bag filled with toiletries and other items like stuffed animals or blankets.  In the past 11 years, over 20,000 bags have been donated – what an incredible feat for a foundation that was started with the idea in the mind and heart of a compassionate little girl.

So, StichStealers, do you like what you have read so far? So did I, and when I researched how to help, I found this PDF from CareBags that details ways to help – with volunteering, hosting your own bag making parties (a great idea for a scout meeting!), monetary donations, donations of toiletries, and of course the part that made me think of our StitchStealers – donations of bags and blankets. Bags can be of any size and made with any fabric.

If you are interested in getting involved, you can learn more on the Care Bags Foundation website.  Below, is the address where you can send any donations.

All items used in care bags are donated by individuals, businesses or service groups or are secured through grants. Donations of any of these items, as well as monetary donations, are tax deductible, greatly appreciated and should be sent to Care Bags Foundation Headquarters at:

Care Bags Foundation
C/O Annie Wignall
2713 N. 4th Ave. E.
Newton, IA 50208

This time of year it is easy to get sucked into the hustle and bustle of the upcoming holidays, but this is an easy way to give a little bit love to a child who is less fortunate.

If you have a charity or cause you would like featured on our StitchSteals blog, please let me know! We also love to feature the work and businesses of our StitchSteals.com customers and friends.  Email to blog@stitchsteals.com a picture of your creations, your blog address, or your website for the opportunity to be featured on a future Feature You Friday.  We love hearing from you.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and don’t forget to keep checking StitchSteals.com for special holiday bundles – or to pick up a gift certificate to stuff in a stocking or two!

Would you like to be featured on a future “Feature You Friday”? It’s a great way to show off your skills, share your talents, or promote a business, blog or cause that’s dear to you. All you need to do is send us a photo (or photos) of a project to the StitchSteals Blog. If you are chosen, your work (and links) will be seen by all of our StitchSteals Blog readers and Facebook fans. Submit your photos today – we can’t wait to see what you have come up with!

Feature You Friday: Snuggles Project

November 18, 2011


Good morning StitchStealers!

This month we are featuring a different crafty charity each week on the Stitch Steals blog.  So far, we’ve seen ConKerr Cancer, and Cure Caps, The Hat Project.  This week, I’ve found one for the animal lovers out there – the Snuggles Project.

The Snuggles Project, is a project of the Hugs for Homeless Animals charity.  Volunteers create and donate warm blankets (“snuggles”) to animals in shelters.  It was started after founder Rae French visited an animal shelter for the first time, and her resulting desire to do something more to help those animals with no home.  She started making snuggles, and asked her crochet group if they wanted to help.  She was overwhelmed at the response – and the snuggles have been pouring in from around the world since then. You can read her story here.

There are some rough guidelines for the blankets:

  • 14” x 14” for cats and small animals
  • 24” x 24” for cats and small to medium dogs
  • 36” x 36” for medium to large dogs

They can be made from acrylic yarn or cotton – sewn, knitted or crocheted in any color or pattern.  Just make sure to double-knot the ends and fasten them off long and woven through to prevent unraveling during washing.  Also, the thicker they are the better -they will be more comfortable and warm!

Once you have a blanket finished, you can do two things:

1.  Send it in to headquarters of the Hugs for Homeless Animals (they will also take donations of yarn to distribute to places like senior centers where people want to help but have no materials):

Hugs for Homeless Animals
PO Box 231024
Portland, Oregon 97281-1024

2.  Find a local shelter and take it yourself! Here is a list of shelters that are already participating here (they are noted with a kitten icon).  If your shelter doesn’t have an icon or isn’t listed, give them a call and let them know about the Snuggles project and see if they would like to be a part of it! When you take your donations to the shelter, take in a donation form and also let the Snuggles Project know about your donation.  You’ll receive a tax-deductible receipt by email.

This is a FABULOUS project for any family or group to get involved in.  Make blankets for animals and take them to the shelter yourself.  You get to see where your donations are going and how they are helping.  It’s a win-win for you and the animals. 

For all the details – including patterns – click here for a downloadable PDF of the Project Overview for the Snuggles Project.  You can also see current needs for shelters and get updates on their Facebook page.

Have a great Friday!

Would you like to be featured on a future “Feature You Friday”? It’s a great way to show off your skills, share your talents, or promote a business, blog or cause that’s dear to you. All you need to do is send us a photo (or photos) of a project to the StitchSteals Blog. If you are chosen, your work (and links) will be seen by all of our StitchSteals Blog readers and Facebook fans. Submit your photos today – we can’t wait to see what you have come up with!
 

 

 

 

Feature You Friday: CureCaps Hat Project

November 11, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

Today is week two of our month-long effort to feature crafty charitable causes on the StitchSteals blog.  Last week, I shared ConKerr Cancer, which takes donations of handmade pillowcases to give to terminally-ill children.

This week, as I was going through my list of causes and doing more research, one cause kept coming back to me.  With everyone on Facebook posting what they are “thankful” for, and with this season about gratitude and abundant blessings (which I feel I have many), I felt like I had to feature it – the CureCaps Hat Project.  The CureCaps Project takes donations of knitted and crocheted caps and sells them (for $15-30).  That money goes into a fund that gives grants to fund brain research for various neurological disorders - such as Niemann Pick Type C, Fragile X, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons and more. 

This effort was started in honor of Addi and Cassi Hempel, who are twin girls afflicted with a disorder called Niemann Pick Type C – which is commonly called “Children’s Alzheimer’s” as it causes dementia in children and eventually leads to death.  neurological conditions.  You can see the twins and read about their story here.

There are no rules for the caps, no patterns to follow – here is a picture of some of the 3,000 caps donated so far…

Their goal is to reach 100,000 caps – to help fund more research. 

As a mother blessed with healthy children, this story really touched me.  Though I’m not a skilled knitter (I have an unfinished scarf from 2001 in my nightstand drawer), I still wanted to help, so I searched around for an fleece hat pattern and found this post on Tipnut that has 15 fleece hat patterns (cute!).  If you have a tutorial or blog post about a hat tutorial, feel free to post a link in the comments so that we can all get some great inspiration.

Have a great weekend everyone!


Did you know you can share your projects, blogs, and businesses with us through our Feature You Fridays? Every Friday, we feature a different CraftyStealer with all of our blog readers and Facebook fans. It’s a great way to showcase your talents, tout your business or charity or just plain toot your own horn (you don’t need to have a blog or business to show your stuff!). Send in your project photos, blog or website links to me at CraftySteals Blog today for consideration!

 

 

Feature You Friday – A month of ways to give back

November 4, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

Today starts a month of giving on Feature You Friday.  We thought with Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks, and the season of giving upon us – that it would be nice to share some of the charities out there that need donations from the sewing and crafting communities.  After you’ve finished knitting and sewing those gifts for your friends and loved ones, maybe you can take a few minutes to give some extra time or fabric to one of these great charities we will be featuring.

First up is ConKerr Cancer. 

ConKerr Cancer started in 2002 when its founder, Cindy Kerr’s son was diagnosed with cancer.  She wanted to brighten his hospital room and began making pillowcases.  Soon she was making them not only for her son, but for the other children in the hospital.

Their goal was to give each sick child inNorth Americaa pillowcase by 2015.  They actually just reached this goal in September of this year – 4 years early! Over 46,000 pillowcases have been donated – and more chapters are being opened in other countries like Canada, South Africa and the UK. 

It’s a great project for school or church groups, sewing groups, fabric and craft stores and has even evolved into in-hospital project days where sewing machines and fabric are brought in for a day of work at the hospital where the patients themselves can make pillowcases.

There are a few ways to help:

Make a pillowcase to donate!

  • There are EASY instructions available here.
  • After you have finished, find the coordinator in your area here.

Volunteer your hands and time!

  • Wash, fold or cut fabric for a work day at the hospital
  • Pick up and pack up pillowcases to send off
  • Become a coordinator for ConKerr Cancer for your local hospital

Donate money to help with fabric and materials for the pillowcases.

(each donation of pillowcases, fabric, materials or money is tax-deductible at this time)

You can also check out the ConKerr Cancer Facebook page to get the latest news and connect with some of the chapters on Facebook.

We’ll be back next week with another charity – if you have one that you are involved with and would like me to feature it, please send an email with information to me.

Have a great week everyone!

Would you like to be featured on a future “Feature You Friday”? It’s a great way to show off your skills, share your talents, or promote a business, blog or cause that’s dear to you. All you need to do is send us a photo (or photos) of a project to the StitchSteals Blog. If you are chosen, your work (and links) will be seen by all of our StitchSteals Blog readers and Facebook fans. Submit your photos today – we can’t wait to see what you have come up with!
 

 

Feature You Friday – Ruffled Tote Bag

October 28, 2011

Good morning StitchStealers!

Feature You Fridays are all about tooting your own horn, and sometimes I like to toot my own – especially when it is something easy and fun that I think you all will enjoy! Today, it is a ruffled tote bag that I made for my daughter.

A little background for you: every year, my daughter’s pre-school gives us a tote bag to use instead of a backpack. This year, I wanted to do something a little bit different, so instead of doing what I normally do (and pulling out the fabric paint), I decided to make a ruffled tote that I had first seen on our CraftySteals Pinterest board (thanks to Stephanie for your pin!). It comes from a tutorial from the the Fiskars blog (which is a great resource by the way!).   The best part about this bag, is that it allows you to use those long scraps that you just don’t know what to do with – but are too pretty to throw out!

I headed over to the StitchSteals warehouse and went through the “scraps”.  I came home with 5 pieces of fabulous fabric and got to work. A few hours later, I had this:

All you need for this project is:

  • a tote (which can be purchased at a craft store or made by you of course!)
  • 5 pieces of coordinating fabric (making sure that you have enough to measure twice the width of your tote)
  • and of course coordinating thread, scissors or a rotary cutter and a measuring tool

First step is to measure your tote’s width. My tote measures 22 inches across, so my magic number is 44 inches. Cut your fabric to that width. 

Then cut a strip 3 inches wide.  Repeat with the other 4 fabrics.

Next, you need to get out the iron, and fold down one long edge 1/4 inch, wrong sides touching.  This will be your hem for your ruffle.

Fold again 1/4 inch and iron. (You can stitch this before folding and ironing again, but I like to cut steps where I can, so I did not.)

Stich the hem.

Repeat with all 5 strips of fabric.

Now, to make the ruffles!  Put your stitch selector on the longest stitch possible (mine was 4).  Stitch all the way across the unhemmed edge – making sure to leave long thread tails on either side.  

Repeat with all of your strips.

Pull the top thread on one side and the bottom thread on the other – this will ruffle the fabric – you can adjust the ruffles to your liking. 

Once you have the desired length you need (so that your strip of fabric is ruffled enough to fit neatly onto your bag), you will need to sew hems on the short edges.  I folded the edges over 1/4 inch and then 1/4 inch again before stitching.

Repeat to make your 5 strips into 5 adorable ruffles.

All that is left is to sew those ruffles to the bag! Lay them on the bag in the order and place you want them to go (sewn edges on the bottom).  I used my trusty Fabric Glue Glider Pro to keep them in place - you could also pin them. :)

Sew them down, making sure to tuck under the rough edges on the top ruffle (the other rough edges will be hidden so you only need to do the top one). 

Finished!

Not too shabby for a fast project that will appeal to any ruffle lover – big and small.  It would make a great gift for a teacher or friend too! And if you love the fabric, the “Sweet Divinity” pink polka dots and stripes are available on StitchSteals.com today!

Anyone else have a project that you have just finished? Share it with us on our StitchSteals Facebook page or send a photo of it to me at blog @ stitchsteals dot com – you could be our next Friday feature!

Have a great weekend!