Scissors Fobs and Blanket Stitch

On my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, I am currently in the middle of a challenge to sew one heart every day for a year.  I've been scouring the internet and wracking my brain to come up with new hearts, and last week I had an idea:  scissors fobs.  They're small and cute and useful and relatively quick to make; but the best part is that they can be decorated a million different ways (and I only need about 200 more!).  They are made of wool felt, embroidery floss, baker's twine, and polyester stuffing, and they are finished with a blanket stitch around the edges.

Here are the 8 fobs I've made so far:

The lovely Lime Riot, who is an amazing crafter and embroidered, actually asked ME if I have any tips about the tricky part of the blanket stitch edging:  finishing the last stitch.  Since I do have a standard method that I always follow, I am happy to share it with her, and you.

This is the fob I am using for this demonstration:

Oh, I should mention...I am left-handed.  So if anything looks backwards or upside down to you, that's probably why.

Okay.  I always start sewing the back to the front in the same spot:  midway on the right-hand side, and I work counter-clockwise around the heart.  In the picture below, you can see that I have started the first stitch by putting the needle into the inside of the back piece, and pulling the thread through.

Next, I insert the needle in the outside of the front of the heart, and push the point right into the first hole you made when setting the knot (above).

That's your first stitch.  For this stitch only, I run the thread under the stitch, and pull it out on the right-hand side.

Now I continue sewing the blanket stitch in the regular way all around the heart.  (I just noticed that there's a long, stray filament of the stuffing material right in the middle of the picture!  Please try to ignore that!)

When there's only about an inch left to sew, I stuff the heart, then continue sewing.

When I have sewn the last stitch, I pull the thread through the first stitch I sewed, and tie a small knot there.

Then I tie another knot about 1/4" from the last stitch and pull that inside the stuffed heart to anchor the thread.  Pull the needle up anywhere on the back and trim the end of the thread flush with the felt.

All done!  (I can't believe that stray filament is still there.)

I don't know if I shared any new information, but I know it can be helpful to see how someone else does things...there may be some small detail here that is new to you--and possibly eye-opening.  I hope so!

Storage Jar Labels with Tutorial

Here's another one of the projects I made for the Master Craftsters campaign on Craftster.  The very last picture shows the wonderful new cubbyhole shelf I had just gotten from The Pottery Barn--I had seen it in the background of someone's post on Craftster, and I HAD TO HAVE IT!!  I ordered it online, and I just love it to pieces!  Coincidentally, a month or two prior to that, I had bought a case of canning jars at the grocery store with the intention of filling them with goodies to add to swap packages; but when I tried it out, the relatively small size of the jars, combined with their weight, made them a poor choice for a fun extra in a swap package, so I scrapped that idea and they were just sitting on the floor of my living room, taking up space.  As soon as I had the shelf set up in my sewing room, the lightbulb came on over my head:  Canning jars would fit in the cubbies!--The jars needed labels!--The Bernina 380 sews words!--I know what my next project will be!!!!

If your sewing machine doesn't sew words, you could make labels similar to this by either hand embroidering onto the felt; or, using cotton fabric or linen, you could rubber-stamp the words.


Storage Jar Labels using the BERNINA 380

     

I have a new cubby-hole shelf in my sewing room, and I'm using pint-size canning jars for storage there. I wanted some labels for the jars, and the BERNINA 380 just happens to be able to sew letters and words--this is a perfect project to experiment with that!

     

For 12 jars with a 10" circumference, you need 12 fabric strips cut 1 1/2" x 11", 12 pieces of 1/4" wide elastic cut 10" long, and wool felt in two colors.

     

Start by making the straps to hold the labels in place: using a 1/4" seam, sew the fabric strips in half lengthwise, right sides together, then turn them right-side-out. Thread one piece of elastic through each fabric tube. (I used the turning tool in the picture above to do both.) Then overlap the ends of the elastic 1/2" and sew the overlapped area securely on the machine.

     

You don't have to finish the ends of the fabric, since they will be covered by the label.

     

Now it's time to make the label! The manual for the BERNINA 380 gives easy-to-follow instructions for selecting the letters you want to sew. You scroll through the alphabet and make your selection. 

   

     

Then you step on the pedal and the machine sews the word! It's so cool!

     

I sewed my words onto white wool felt, leaving spaces in between for cutting.

     

Carefully cut the words apart, leaving 1/4" of the felt on each side. Then, cut along each edge with pinking shears.

     

Measure and cut the gray felt 1/4" wider and longer than the white felt. Pin the word to the gray felt, and sew it on the BERNINA.

     

Beautiful!

     

Cut a second piece of gray felt (for backing) the same size as the one on the label, and layer a strap between the backing and the label. Pin them together and sew close to the edge of the gray felt, all the way around all four sides with the machine.

     

This is how the finished labels look, front and back.

     

Slip a label onto each jar and you are done!

     

Here are my jars, all neatly labeled. This was a fast and fun and practical project--I love it!

Happy Cloud: Tutorial and Giveaway

How cute is this happy little cloud?!  This is one of my favorite projects that I made for the Master Craftsters series on Craftster.  The cloud is on the front of a reusable notebook cover, an it is very easy to make.  I wrote a tutorial for it that I will share with you below.  If your sewing machine doesn't sew letters, you can add "happy" by hand-embroidering it, or stamping it with rubber letter stamps directly onto the linen.  (You can find I great tutorial about rubber stamping on linen on Lime Riot's blog.)

I made this one, "Notes", for my mom for Mother's Day.  She loved it!

This little bird picture is actually a felt badge like those we swapped on Craftster.  It is made of wool felt and embroidery thread, and is all hand-sewn, except for the outer boarder, where I machine-sewed it to the notebook cover.

One thing I quickly realized is that when choosing a fabric for the cover, it has to be fairly plain, or it will detract from the felt badge.  That's why the cloud is on natural linen, and the bird is on a narrow, light-colored stripe.

Regular readers will know that I have recently started a new craft:  hand-carving rubber stamps.  I had the idea to make a stamp of the happy cloud, and then I had to think of something to use it for...and I remembered that I recently posted about my button-making machine, and I showed you the pin-back buttons I made to take with me to the Craft Gossip Fork and Talk event last month...and I mentioned the possibility of a button giveaway...and it all came together for me in the form of these uber-cute buttons, which I want to give away!!

I stamped the cloud onto white paper, then added the word "happy" (some I wrote by hand, others I stamped with a set of alphabet rubber stamps) and then added the blue color with a Copic marker.

If you are a follower of my blog, and would like to have one of these happy clouds appear in your mailbox, just do two little things (you can become a follower by clicking on the "Join this site" button on the right):

1.  Leave a comment at the end of this blog post. (I live for your comments!)
2.  Send me an e-mail (leslieandersen4@gmail.com) with your name and mailing address.  Even if you have sent me your mailing address before for another giveaway, please send it again, just in case it has mysteriously disappeared from my well-organized filing system.

This giveaway may close unexpectedly if I become overwhelmed with making buttons!

Now, here's the tutorial I promised:


Happy Cloud Reusable Notebook Cover Tutorial
I needed a small gift for a friend, something that was cute and easy to mail. After MUCH thought, the lightbulb came on over my head, and I whipped up this cute little notebook cover! I will send a couple of refill notebooks with it, so she can switch the cover to a fresh book when the first one is full.

I started with one of these Moleskine notebooks, in the 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" size. Moleskine notebooks are really good quality, which enhances my gift!

I opened the covers and traced the outline onto cardstock, then added 1/8" to the width and length (so the cover will have a little wiggle room to ease it onto the notebook) and then traced the cardstock shape onto a piece of linen. This will be the front of the cover.



Next, I prepared the decorations for the front. I have used the alphabet program on the BERNINA 380 in another project, but this machine has TWO alphabet fonts, and I wanted to try the second one, which produces larger, outlined letters.



I programmed the words "happy" and "notes" into the BERNINA, then stepped on the pedal and watched as the machine sewed them onto pieces of white felt. I really like the way these words look! I will save "notes" to use later.



I trimmed the felt so there was a 1/4" margin around the words, then used the pinking shears to give them a decorative edge.



I sewed the word "happy" onto a piece of dark blue felt, cut just a little larger than the white felt.



I'm not including a pattern for the cloud, because I know you can draw a cloud! I cut out my cloud drawing and traced around it onto white felt. Then I stitched the eyes (French knots) and the mouth with black embroidery thread.




I cut out two ovals of different shades of blue felt, and stitched them together as you see in the picture. The BERNINA 380 can sew through several layers of thick canvas, so these three layers of felt were a piece of cake for this awesome machine!



I wanted to center my cloud and word decorations on the front of the cover, but my sewing line (which I wanted to use as a guide) was traced onto the BACK of the front cover; so I marked the four sides with pins and flipped it over. Using the pins as a guide, I centered the decorations, pinned them down and sewed them in place.



To finish the cover, I trimmed the cover fabric so there was 1/4" seam allowance all around. Then I cut two pieces of linen for the flaps (which hold the cover onto the notebook) 6" x 6", folded them in half, and laid one along each outer edge of the front cover, with the fold toward the middle, as in the picture below.




On top of that I placed a piece of linen (for the lining), cut 1/2" larger than the cover fabric, and pinned them all together.



I sewed all around the edges, leaving an opening at the bottom. I trimmed the excess fabric, and turned it right-side-out with the help of a pair of hemostats. I pressed the cover, topstitched the opening closed, and I was done!




To get the cover onto the notebook, it's easiest to bend the book covers back like in the picture below.




This is so cute, I can't wait to try a few more! 

Chococat Pouch

The "I Love Cats or Dogs Swap" is just winding down on Craftster, and I made this cute little zippered pouch for my partner.  She has two black cats, and she loves things that are kawaii, so I immediately thought of Hello Kitty's friend, Chococat!

I make the Chococat patch by printing an image from the computer, cutting it out and tracing the different parts onto wool felt.  I hand-sewed all of the parts of the cat, then machine-sewed the patch onto the front panel before assembling the pouch.

My partner's favorite colors are hot pink and turquoise (hey, me too!) so I gave the pouch a turquoise lining.

I finished it off with a kitty charm for a zipper pull.  My partner loves it!  On Wednesday I'll show you the dog-related items I made for her (yes, she loves dogs too!)

Felt Badge Obsession

I've signed up for the Felt Badge swap on Craftster, and now I'm seeing ideas for badges everywhere!  I really want to stop doing everything else, and just sit in my chair with my felt and scissors and thread!  In the past week I've pulled out some things that I had started a while ago and finished them into badges, and I've made a few new ones to "practice" for this swap.  Here's my collection so far:

I made the little cloud (below) into a pin for my friend Susan last year, and I came upon this one, partly-finished, in a box of assorted projects; I finished it the way we are doing them for this swap:  flat (rather than stuffed) and with a finished, felt back, but no pin or magnet or anything else.

These four (below) are the ones I was inspired to make this week.  The carrot design came from a cookie I saw online.  The cat came from a piece of fabric; I looked at the fabric while cutting the felt (without tracing of the design onto the felt)--and by the fourth try, I had a cat I liked!  The cat badge is 2" square; the carrot is 2" x 1 3/4", and the birds are 1 1/4" square.

The bird and leaves were so small they were hard to hold onto while cutting and sewing them!  I love how they came out.

Cats are a common theme with me, and so are hearts.

I want to have a huge collection of these!  If anyone wants to swap one (or a few) with me, please send me an email!

When my collection is bigger, I plan to display them all together somehow.  I will show that to you when it happens!