Pincushion How-to with Leftover Fabrics

I made this pincushion for my Mom with leftover fabric scraps, leftover buttons, and recycled ribbon. It's a great little gift for a seamstress, and it's easy to make--with a few tips.

First, you can use three different fabrics, all the same fabric, or two, like I did. You need two pieces of square fabric five by five inches, or four by four inches. It's easier to work with more fabric than less, but if you're an experienced seanstress, by all means, make a smaller pillow.

Ingredients:

two 5" square fabric pieces (same or different fabric)
one 2" by 10 inch piece of fabric (or several pieces sewn together to make that length)
two yards of narrow ribbon
two buttons (matching, or not)
one large-eyed needle (like a doll-maker's needle)
poly-fil
sewing machine (of course)

This is the important bit: set out your 2 x 10 inch fabric below your 5 x 5 inch square. Mark a dot 1/4 inch in from each corner (evenly) of the square. Then, place your square above the MIDDLE of the 2 x 10 fabric. Now, make dots on the 2 x 10 inch fabric that correlate to the 5 x 5 inch fabric. This will be where the corners come together, so it's important to be accurate. Work from the inside out, matching dots, so that you end up with four matching dots on each side of the long piece. Now, snip into the fabric with sharp scissors from the fabric's edge up to the dot (but not beyond) so that it can create a neat corner.

Once you have your fabric marked, you're half-way there. Sew one square to the side piece making sure to line up your dots, and leave a 1/4 inch seam allowance (or more if you like; just be consistent). Then, sew the top piece to the die, leaving a one-inch opening to turn it inside out and fill it full of poly-fil. Sew closed with a needle and thread in a matching color.

Now, take your ribbon and thread it through your large-eyed needle. Punch it straight through the center of your cushion, and pull it through, leaving a tail of about three inches or so. Now, loop the ribbon up around one side, and send it through again. You'll do this four times. Leave another little tail at the other side of the pillow. Cut your tails down to on-half inch, and fold in half. Sew them to the center of the pillow. Now experiment with a button that will look cute. You can use two different ones, or two of the same. Sew on the button, and look what a cute little pin cushion you made!

How-to: Hand-made Ornaments

My grandmother, Ladybug, made so many gorgeous hand-made ornaments that we now have two huge boxes labeled "Ladybug's Ornaments" at the house. And it wouldn't be Christmas without those sparkling treasures. Although hers, and now mine, involve both recycled as well as new elements, you can make your own ornaments using almost all recycled materials.

You'll need:
recycled narrow ribbon (several pieces of about three yards)
one round or egg-shaped styrafoam form (you can find these used, or at Michael's)
a box of straight pins
glue gun

Begin with narrow ribbon you have (of course) saved from prior gift-giving. In the photo, you can see the color-coordination--in this case green and yellow--but you can do multi-colored for a more playful look. Other ideas are silver and white, gold and brown, or bright mixtures, like orange and turquoise. And, red is always appropriate for the holidays.

Fiddle around with the ribbons; I like to pin one end of a ribbon, and begin to wind it around the form just to see where it goes. See how it would be if you did one loop, or two or more. Add another color and see how they look together. Each time you made a circle, fasten with a strait pin. This way, you can take it out and start over until it looks right to you. Wrap the ribbon so it overlaps slightly with the loop beside it. Wrap with ribbon unitl the entire globe is covered. Once it is, add whatever decoration you like: sequins, beads, and ric-rack work well. Once it's done, make a ribbon loop and attach to top with a glue gun AND a pin or two.

My other ornaments now involved beading, left-over or recycled trims (find some good ones at Green Trims on Etsy) and the occasioanl glue gun use. Most end up about sixty percent recycled materials. Not too bad, for holiday gift-giving.

How To make a BOX WREATH -Part 3

A note on this series: I will make a single listing after all posting are completed with all photos.

Part 3: Get out your pins and your glue gun. Clear a large space, and set down your wreath form, surrounded by the large size wrapped boxes.
Angling each box so that one short end touches the table on the outside of the wreath (see photo) attach large boxes all around with long straight pins. Then do the same with the boxes touching the table on the inside of the wreath. Each box corner should touch on the inside round. You should have a base when completed.

Now, begin to layer the presents going largest to smallest. Place each one and then glue it. Make sure the distribution is even. Don't be stingy! (See close up-photo). You want to have quite a build-up of presents. It looks best on present-overload.

You may run out of boxes... make more.
Then once all the boxes are on, add some toys and little festive elements. See the photo for some examples. But, good additions are miniture wooden toys, little gold or silver instruments, tiny wooden alphabet blocks spelling out names or greetings, and jingle bells.

When it is complete, it should look something like this! More pictures and a full blog entry with complete instructions to come.

How To make a BOX WREATH -Part 2

Are all your little boxes wrapped and the smallest of them ribboned? Takes a while--don't do it all in one day.

After you have many (about 100 boxes in various sizes) wrapped, separate them by size. The largest of your boxes will be the base, and the medium the second layer, on up.

Now you will need:
one round styrafoan wreath form (any size) covered with ribbon (so that it looks pretty and will last a long time)
a box of silver small-headed straight pins
hot glue gun
extra boxes (wrapped or not)
little decorations (such as tiny jingle bells, little alphabet blocks, or decorative "toys")

To wrap your wreath form in ribbon, use a solid color, like white or red. I think plain, inexpensive non-wired ribbon of about 1 inch thickness works best. Using a straight pin, fasten one end of your ribbon to the form. Then wrap the ribbon around the form, overlapping with each roatation. (See photo--this is a aquare form, but the idea is the same). Once you have wrapped the entire form, secure the last pice with another pin. You should only have to use two or three pins to wrap the wreath--the fewer the better.

I suggest leaving a ribbon tail for hanging. Fold it back and forth and secure it with another pin to the back of the form.

Next week we'll be ready to build the wreath!

Crazy Quilts

Crazy Quilts aren't recycling, in that you're not usually using post-consumer products. But you do use the scraps of projects that you would otherwise throw away. Inspired by a piece of one of my great grandmonther's crazy quilts that has been framed, I kept all the scrap pieces from the wedding purses I have made over the past year. Now, I have made a crazy quilt wedding purse. (Perfect for a green bride).

Have scraps? Have embroidery thread? You're all set.

You can use a backing fabric (and sew each irregular shaped piece to the backing fabric) but I did without. Using a machine or handstitching, piece your scraps together. (It's OK if they don't fit exactly together, you can cut them down, or sew them with uneven seam allowances). One way to make a "pattern" is to group your pieces by similar color. Mine is all white and cream colored pieces. You can also simply go "crazy" and sew them together any which way. Once you have a large enough piece of quilt, add interfacing or a backing--a perfect place to use recycled fabric (such as from a dress that has had too many wearings). The next step is to embroider.

Although many machines have decorative stitching, true crazy quilts are hand-embroidered. Simple patterns will do, but change your color or your pattern with each turn of the quilt. This is what makes it a true crazy quilt. Some beginner pattern ideas are: stars, small flowers, zig-zag patters, swirls, or overlapping loops. My first ideas for my own embroidered designs came from textiles. Look to your fabrics for great embroidery ideas. And, if all else fails, you can find books on embroidery at www.Etsy.com. Go crazy!