Author: megan

Things have been a little hectic lately around the shop because we are trying to promote our summer camp program that begins on June 21st. It’s starting to feel a little more urgent, as our camp was waaaay more full at this time of year last year. This is WAY stressful to someone that doesn’t get a weekly pay check…

Obviously there are probably a lot factors are contributing to this. I am sure the economy is a huge part of it and people are feeling a little more strapped then they felt at this time last year. But what I am thinking (and hoping) it may be just that parents haven’t yet started thinking about what is going to go on in their kids lives over the summer, as they just returned to school from spring break.

But in this frantic-ness of these last couple of weeks, promoting the heck out of our summer camp and trying to get the word out in every possible way, I was able to step back and reflect on the summer camp itself.

This little card helped me to remember that even though I am a business owner and one of my major goals has to be making money so I can stay in business. The other major and more important goal of my job is being the best teacher and educator I possibly can. I am able to teach kids my passion of sewing. I get paid to inspire and create and for that I am the luckiest girl on the planet.

I am good at what I do and kids LOVE coming and creating with me. This camp is going to fill itself, as it does every year and I am not going to stress about it anymore!

Here is a great project I just found while browsing one of my favorite design blogs Re-Nest.

I’ll admit, it doesn’t look like the safest form of keeping the bugs away/lighting up your backyard, but I kinda wanna give it a try…

Here’s what you do :

What You Need

Materials
1/2″ x 3/8″ copper coupling ($0.97)
Tiki replacement wick ($1.54)
Nylon thread seal tape ($.97)
Recycled wine bottle or beer bottle (Free!)
Tools
Citronella torch fuel (price not included)

Instructions

The construction is pretty simple:
1. Wrap the pipe wrap around the copper reducer many times. The opening on our wine bottle required about 15 times around so that it would stick and we actually inserted the smaller 3/8″ side into the bottle as the 1/2″ side didn’t fit (as compared to the original How-to). In the future, we’d also want to try it in beer bottles for smaller torches to place around the yard.
2. Insert the wick into the reducer.
3. Fill the bottle with Citronella and insert wick. Let the oil be absorbed into the wick before lighting.
4. Light, enjoy & be careful!

We had another great meet up last night where we created our black a-line skirts together! I didn’t take photos (like a doofus) but then again, they all kinda looked like black A-line skirts.

At the end of the meetup, as planned, we exchanged our 1 yard of cotton fabric that will be used to embellish our skirts. I don’t think anyone really had terrible fabric to try and embellish with (although I did end up with a pastel colored frog batik print that I am not quite yet sure how I am going to get to match to my black skirt, but dyeing the fabric, I guess is not out of the question…hmmmm….)

We decided for the next meetup, we would all wear our newly embellished skirts to the meetup. We also decided that instead of meeting at the store, we would switch our location to a nearby neighborhood restaurant and grab a drink and some snacks.

So – even if you didn’t make it out for the meetup last night and create a skirt with us, we would LOVE for you to join us in two weeks to see what everyone created, as well as just get to know you!
Become a member of our sewing meetup group for all the details:

http://www.meetup.com/fashionlab/

For those of you who did make the skirt and are looking for some crafty ideas to wow all of us in two weeks, here are some cool embellishment ideas I found.

Check ’em out:

http://www.cutoutandk…

http://www.cutoutandk…

http://tinyurl.com/yb…

http://tinyurl.com/ya…

So we have just created a great new class here all about “Green” sewing!  In this four week class you get to create clothing and accessories made from things you already have in your closet. One of the best things about the class is that you don’t really need to buy any supplies! For example those old T-Shirts you have been keeping in the back of your closet for a while can be made into a cute T-Shirt shrug.   The first Green Sewing four week class starts on April 7th.

So I was looking for some more fun “green” projects to share and saw these instructions for a skirt.  Craftstylish shows you how to turn a mens dress shirt into a belted skirt.  The instructions are pretty easy to follow and the finished skirt looks really cute.

*Project by Christine Haynes at CraftStylish
 

What you’ll need:

• One men’s dress shirt with a straight hem, wide enough to be gathered at your waist, long enough from the armpit to the hem for the skirt
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Sewing machine and thread
• Pins
• 1/2-inch elastic about 30 inches long
• Large safety pin

1. Lay your shirt down, folded in half lengthwise. Following a ruler, cut straight across the shirt, from under the armpit to the buttons. This bottom piece is your skirt.

2. Using other pieces from the shirt, cut two waistband pieces, about 5 inches tall by the width of your hips. Cutting from the rest of the shirt, cut pieces to combine together to make two belt straps. These pieces should be 5 inches tall by as wide as you can get.

3. Combine the belt pieces to form two strips that are roughly 24 inches long by 5 inches tall. Press the seams flat where they were connected. Fold one strip in half with right sides together and sew, forming a long tube. Stitch one end closed and repeat on the other strip. Turn the tubes right side out and press flat.

4. Lay out one waistband piece face up. Lay the two belt pieces on top of the waistband piece, on each of the two short ends, about an inch from the bottom. Lay the other waistband piece on top of the first one, matching sides. Pin the two short ends together, including the belt pieces. Stitch each side, capturing the belt in the side seam. Fold the waistband in half, wrong sides together, and press flat.

5. Baste the top of the skirt and gather to fit the width of the waistband. Pin the waistband to the skirt, right sides facing and with the belt pieces toward the front of the skirt, with the raw edge of the waistband lining up with the top raw edge of the skirt. Stitch together, being careful not to sew the belt pieces into the seam. Leave a 1-inch opening in the seam when connecting the waistband to the skirt.

6. Cut a piece of 1/2-inch elastic to a comfortable width for your waist, plus 1 inch for overlapping. Pin a large safety pin to the elastic and feed into the waistband casing. Once you’ve gone all the way around, pull the pin out the hole and overlap the two ends of elastic about 1/2 inch. Zigzag-stitch them together and release into the waistband. Stitch the hole closed in the skirt.

7. Press all your seams crisp, and slip on the skirt. Tie the belt pieces in front and go!

So after posting yesterdays blog I am still thinking of fun projects to do with a pound or less of fabric.  I have been wanting to create a new ipod case so I came upon this tutorial from the Crafting A Green World website.

This site has tons of project ideas for creating something from less than a yard of fabric, as well as “green” sewing ideas.   You can make this ipod case unique by adding embellishments such as buttons or fabric cut outs.  You can even make a button closure using ribbon or a skinny piece of fabric.  If you want the case to be a bit thicker try using felt or a scrap of fleece for the back piece.  Its super easy to make!

Here are the instructions:

What you need to do is lay your iPod, mp3 player, or camera down on a piece of scrap.  Using a sewing pencil or a marker, draw an outline at least 1/2 inch away from what you’re making the cover for.  You’ll need two pieces of fabric, so be sure to have two sides.  Place your scraps with what you want to be the outside facing each other and the backs facing out.  From here you can either machine sew, or blanket stitch, them together.  Leave the top open.  If you want to hem the top, a simple way to do it is fold it over, iron it, and then machine sew it around.  For something so small, though, it may be easier to hand stitch.

*Photo taken from Claire’s Crafty Blog
*Project instructions by Lenore MacLeod-Bickley from Crafting A Green World

One pound of fabric doesn’t seem like much but you would be amazed at how many projects you can actually make!

In our next sewing meet up group we are going to have a “Project Runway” type challenge.   Each person has been coming by and picking up a pound of fabric from an assortment of beautiful sample squares and remnant pieces.  Each  person will then have to create an item of their choice using only this pound of fabric.  This project can basically be anything from clothing, accessories, home decor, or anything they wish to create.  Then at the next meet up we will all show each other the cool projects we came up with.

So I thought it would be fitting to share this project I found from this great blog Elle Belle that has some fun project ideas.  This project in particular only only requires about a pound of fabric.  This is where I found the tutorial for these awesome fabric covered cork boards. In the tutorial they used 4 pieces of 12  by 12 cork, to create four different boards.  But you can pretty much make it whatever size you want.  Its a great idea for a present, or to add a little something unique to your home.  You can use it to tack up pictures, grocery lists, or as an inspiration board for future sewing projects. Take a look:

*A project by Elle Belle
http://ellebelleblog.blogspot.com/

Supplies:
Cork (I picked up a package of 4 12×12 cork tiles at a big box store for about $8), scissors, spray adhesive, a stapler (if you have a mini one that uses smaller staples so they don’t poke out the other side of the cork tile that might save your fingers in the long run), some ribbon, the little adhesive thingies that come with the cork tiles to mount it to the wall, and fabric.

Step 1 – Cover the cork: Cut your fabric about an inch and a half bigger than your cork tiles (mine was smaller because I working with scraps). Lightly coat one side of the tile with spray adhesive and lay your fabric over the tile. Smooth the fabric out with your hand to remove any wrinkles. Flip the tile over and staple the excess fabric around the back.

Step 2 – Embellish: I laid the three covered tiles on the floor in the order that I wanted to hang them and laid pieces of coordinating ribbon on them in a pattern that I thought made a nice over all design and would also be functional for holding notes and such. Staple the ribbon onto the back of the tile.

Step 3 – Finish: If I were giving these as a gift I would cut a piece of card stock about half and inch smaller than the tiles and glue it onto the back to cover all the staples and rough edges. Apply the adhesive squares that come with the tiles (I only needed one in each corner and one in the center). Get out your level and stick away! Or, tie them up with some string and add a handmade tag!

*A project by Elle Belle
http://ellebelleblog.blogspot.com/