How To: Beaded Garland Christmas Card Holder

One last tutorial before I take the week off to enjoy the holidays and recoup thereafter. I have had this done or some time but every time I would go to post it, I would create something much more fun that I wanted to share with you!

 

Doncha love the card!

Seriously though this is almost as easy as the stocking pillows. And here is proof:

Gather Ye Materials

Wooden clothespins

Mod Podge (I used Sparkle Mod Podge.)

Large wooden beads. (I think mine were about 3/4" in size) They were also from an old beaded garland from Christmases past.

String/yarn

Begin at the beginning...

Step 1: Cut paper scraps to size of clothespin front.
Step 2: Adhere paper to clothespin with one coat of Modpodge on Clothespin and then give paper one top coat of Mod Podge. Let dry.
Step 3: String beads (I used ten) in between clothespins. Simply put string through coil in clothespin.
Step 4: Hang and ill with cards from your loved ones.

This will be the last tutorial from me until the new year. I might pop back in with something shiny and fun or New Year's Eve but right now I just plan on finishing my Christmas prep and then recuperating from the holiday madness.

Happy holidays!

How To: Repurpose Stockings to Throw Pillows

Well, this isn't so much a how-to as a go-do! I had been meaning to make some felted-sweater-stocking-pillows for a couple weeks now but you know how things get this close to Christmas. Thankfully, I had a light bulb moment and decided that filling extra stockings with fabric scraps I have hoarded saved or just this purpose would be even better! Pretty freakin' adorable right?



All I did was fill and sew. See the seam at the top? Looks like it supposed to be there doesn't it? Well, almost. You could even hand sew it. Machine not required for this one. In fact a blanket stitch would probably look lovely.

They are surprisingly comfortable, even two stacked in a wing back chair.

I was just happy to have a use or some of the extras we had. We have a total of nine stockings. Nine. We are only three people. But A friend made Wednesday's stocking and machine embroidered her name on it so we keep that one out. I mean, how often do you think Wednesday will receive personalized items? I have the black and white denim patchwork one you see in my header. It is just too pretty not to hang, and it is kinda small so Ron doesn't go broke trying to fill it. Finally, I made Ron a new stocking this year out of two felted wool sweaters. He loves his wool socks so I mimicked one for the stocking. (I had in previous Christmases used a wool sock or his stocking but they are just too small for things like movies, cds or novels.) His ace lit up when I showed him his new stocking, I was so proud.

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Sew What! Holidays Challenge Three Reveal!

This is going to be super fast! I am in the middle of moving and due to being sick last week I didn't get any scheduled posts done up. But I did get my stocking done and photographed weeks ago, thank goodness! Wanna see it? Here we go!

The challenge was a stocking and a toy if you had the time. Well, I ran out of time for the toy but I finished the stocking!I made it from recycled denim! The white jeans I turned into a skirt for  week one challenge plus some black denim from a pair of jeans I was given for the fabric. I could not be happier! Seriously, with every stage I was more and more impressed with how it all came together.

I lined it with black felt and added a vintage brooch I bought at a yardsale for a dollar. Pretty yes?

I'm sorry if the pictures are not awesome, I just didn't have time tweak the levels in Photoshop.

I hope you love it though. And if you want to make your own, stick around, sometime this week I will have the tutorial posted!

If you would like to see what Cynthia created click the button!


Okay, thanks for your patience guys! I'll be back as soon as I have internet access, or access to the internet! ♥

Sew What! Holidays Challenge One Reveal!

Challenge One : Gift For Him
So, true to form I made this one right before all my time was up. Cynthia emailed me asking what time I was going to make this post and I hadn't even made the project yet! But, I got down to business and thanks to both nap time and Daddy distractions I got it done!

It started off as an idea for the spring when I was doing my Denim-Stravaganza. But because The Mister kept forgetting ot bring me home the wrenches for proper measurement it never did get made. Well, when Cynthia suggested a "gift for him" as the first idea I thought she was a genius. But I also thought that now was the time to make the tool roll. Again I waited and waited for the wrenches. Finally two days before the reveal I just went ahead and made it. I even took process photos for a tutorial this Tuesday.


I made the roll from two legs of jeans and a chunk of upcycled canvas. (I bought it at a charity shop and I am pretty sure it was a curtain panel in it's former life.) With no real plan except the basic dimensions (Which I gleaned from a tool catalogue.) I made this in about two hours. I love it. I will be making more. Just think of all the paint brushes, art pencils, knitting needles and crochet hooks that need storing! Also, scissors I have a nice scissor collection and I think this is a great way to both store them and have (all of) them ready when I need them.


To see what Cynthia The Sewing Dork made for a man in her life click on the button below!">If you are playing along, all you need to do to submit your creations is one of the following:

1. Upload a picture to your flickr account and add it to The Sewing Dork Showcase
2. Leave a link in a comment on this blog or at The Sewing Dork's
3. Email (I have a button on my sidebar) us with the photos or a link to the photos or blog post.

We will be doing reader submission posts through the next month and a half. And please Do Not Fret if you can't make a deadline, we are happy to share your work whenever you finish it. I think I showed a readers work a full month after the last edition.

Okay, now to reveal this week's challenge! A Holiday Outfit!

This outfit can be for anyone! You, your little one or your mister, it is up to you to whom you dedicate your time to.
Also, as a reader asked me earlier, it can also be for Halloween. We are not rule crazy here. If making a costume fits better into your schedule than something sparkly for Christmas or New Years by all means have at 'er!
I do believe that is all she wrote folks! So tune in on Tuesday to find out how to make the Denim Tool Roll pictured above, and come back on Thursday for the first Reader Submission Showcase! And, if you don;t have one, would like one, and feel like sporting one on your blog here is a button just for those purposes! (Well that and they are just fun to make!)


<center><a href="http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/search/label/Sew%20What%20Holiday"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/5012749178_d42442af5a_o.jpg"></a></center>

My Crafty Weekend : Sew What Holidays Edition!

Because I dropped the ball yesterday I am using My crafty Weekend today to announce the commencement of Sew What Holidays!



Week one project is : A gift for HIM! And bonus holiday garland if you have the time!

Once your project is done, upload your photos to the Flickr Sewing Dork Showcase group to show them off. It is super fun to browse through all the great ideas and submissions!



<center><a href="http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/search/label/Sew%20What%20Holiday"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/5012749178_d42442af5a_o.jpg"></a></center>
OK! Now with that being said how about you show me all the super duper things you have been working on? This counts for recipes, sewing, scrapbooking, gluing, building and so on and so forth! Remember, the golden rule: visit the link before you and leave a note of encouragement! And with that I am off to catch a bus to mail out all the great giveaway prizes from September! Happy Monday folks!      
<a href="http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20crafty%20weekend"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/4843128219_973a9796bf_o.jpg"></a>            <a href="http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20crafty%20weekend"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4857490807_b522563c65_o.jpg" /></a>

I know that I said I would have a tutorial today, and I would have. Except I really wanted to make this instead. In retrospect I should have finished the tutorial. Can I just say that designing accessories is a lot more fun than actually making them sometimes. This was much nicer in my mind. Don't get me wrong, it is pretty and really for my first bib necklace ever I shouldn't be down about it. But it was so much prettier in my head!

Also, can I just say how much I detest working with hot glue on wearables? Next time I am using Mod Podge and Aileen's Tacky Glue. Ugh, I really don't like seeing any glue anywhere and if you smear some good luck getting it off. Ugh. Somehow, I managed to get this one without to many disasters probably due to the fact that I hand sewed as much as I could. But those darn buttons had shanks that were not working for me so when I cut the shank off I had to first glue the black to the silver and then the set to the flowers. Ugh little bits of glue were oozing, just enough to drive me crazy! And then, when I got antsy to have it finished and realized that the denim was in fact not heavy enough to keep the bib laying flat, I decided to hot glue a piece of felt to the back of the bib. How I managed to pull that off without giving myself a third degree burn I don't know.

But it is pretty right? Make me feel better about making more and maybe I'll make you one? In the mean time, don't forget to enter Week #2 Giveaway if you haven't and I'll see you tomorrow for Wednesday On Wednesday. ♥

How To : Vintage Halloween Garland

Before you say anything I know! I know that Halloween is months away. Two to be precise, and to celebrate I thought I would post my first Halloween tutorial! I love Halloween, I love the costumes, the parties, the trick or treating (Which I did off and on until I was twenty!)the decorations and of course watching Wednesday get excited about it is wonderful as well.




Pretty sweet right? Sorry if the photo is kinda meh, but I have yet to learn the finer art of garland photo taking. Moving on. The images were all courtesy of The Graphics Fairy. I found her site when I was searching for Alice in Wonderland Images but hadn't been back to it. When it popped up in a search for vintage Halloween images, it was a match made in heaven. I didn't need to look elsewhere because I found all of the great images. I recommend visiting her site if you haven't already.

This craft is great for many reasons. The first being it's nearly free-ness. And if you have all the materials on hand like I did; it pretty much is. The other awesome thing is the recycled content. The graphics can be printed on scrap paper and upcycled box board is used to back said images. Plus tea and jute, very natural. Okay, enough talky talky, let's get to the crafty crafty.
Materials:
Paper
Vintage images (I do provide some but you can always google more)
Recycled box board
Mod Podge
Jute twine
Black and orange ribbon
Tea bags
Black embroidery floss
Scissors
Embroidery needle




Click here for the first image and here for the second in a larger size that prints on letter size paper.

First things first, collect your clip art and re-size accordingly so they print out on letter sized paper. For your convenience I have shared the two sheets that I made up. Click on the links to take you to print sized copies.


Once you have printed your images, cut them out.


Collect your box board.


Glue images to cardboard,but learn from my mistake, glue to printed side of boxes so that your painted side isn't slick.


Steep tea bags.

Squeeze tea out of tea bag and dab it on the image.


If you have the patience to do this in layers, it looks really good when you're done.


Once the tea has dried cut out the images.


Turn images over and paint the reverse side black. This took two coats for me because I glued them to the wrong sides.Don't worry if some paint end up on the front of the image, it lends to the aged look.


Once paint has dried, apply one coat of Mod Podge to front of image.


When the Mod Podge on the front is dry, apply a coat to the painted side.


This is after the Mod Podge has dried. See how the black ink has popped out a bit and the black paint splotches look awesome. What a happy mistake.


Cut three pieces of jute twine roughly six feet long. Loop together and knot at one end. I made this knot big enough to fit over a doorknob to aid in braiding.


Once you have braided the length of twine and looped the other end in a knot for hanging, you can add your ribbon now by wrapping it around the twine. I waited until after I hung the images though.


To hang images on the twine and knot, thread your needle with black floss. Insert needle through back of image.


Insert needle through front of twine and tie to the knotted end of the image.


Knot thread tightly.


Trim.


Close-ups of the images. I think they look fab-u-lous!
That is all she wrote! Have fun crafting!

Linking to some of these parties as well as:


And I just discovered Iron Crafter @ Fireflies & Jellybeans and it just so happens the round five secret ingredient is cardboard boxes! How much of a super awesome coincidence is that? So I am adding the Iron Crafter button to my post to be considered for judging!

How To : Denim Barrette and Flower

Hello there! I am just pleased as punch to show off what I made last week!This post has been like money burning a hole in my pocket!



You might recognize the fabrics from a little outfit I made?



Well, the colour combination of lemon yellow and over-dyed blue denim was just, well memorable. And when I was contemplating what hair accessory to make to go with it, it was a natural choice of the same denim and yellow.



So I scrounged, and I mean scrounged for the last remaining pieces of those blue jeans. And let me tell you, toddler size skinny jeans do not render much scrap fabric! But, I managed to find two pieces big enough to cover a few barrettes. And they really do look wonderful don't they?

I looked around at some tutorials, but nobody seamed to make their barrettes the same way I did, so I am posting my process photos as a tutorial. Seriously, I love these and I couldn't be more happy with the result.

Materials:
Snap clips (I used 2")
Scrap fabric (I used denim and a vintage sheet)
Buttons
Coordinating embroidery floss
Mod Podge
Hot glue








And there you have it folks! Pretty and simple one of my favourite combos! But, I do have a couple things to add as a kind of afterward.

• Stitching through wet Mod Podge will gum up your needle a bit but it is a little easier than stitching through hardened glue. You can try to use hot glue in place of Mod Podge but I cannot tell you how easy (or not) it is to sew through.
• I did add a piece to the back with Mod Podge, I added it as an after thought right before I stitched it, that is why it has a flower on it in the photo, I didn't take a picture of it until the end.
• If you need bigger pictures with bigger print you can always either click on the photo to be taken to a larger size or you can visit the Flickr photo set here, also done as a tutorial.

Thanks so much for taking a look! I hope you like it as much as I do. Cheers and happy crafting!