written by marieann

I love Reese’s. Like really love them. I have eaten as many as four King Sized packages at once before. But I hate how expensive all the Reese’s gear is online or in the Hershey’s store. So I made my own! (PS: My mirror is really dirty in these pictures, that’s not paint on the shirt).

Supplies
Acrylic paints
Fabric medium (purchase in your paint section)
T-shirt
Packaging tape

Tools
Stencil brush
Fine point brush
Xacto knife
Cutting pad

Directions
1. Resize the design in Photoshop to get it the size you want for your shirt. It is okay if the design gets fuzzy because you’ve made it bigger. Print out the design.

2. Cover the entire design with strips of packaging tape. You could also use contact paper but I find that makes my blade sticky.

3. Cut out the solid BLACK parts with your Xacto.

4. There is an important trick, however. Some parts like the black part of her eyes would fall out if you cut the whole thing out. Thus, you need to keep “bridges” still intact. For example, in the following illustration you would NOT cut where the pink dots are.

Cut the black circle part of the eye out just until you reach the pink dots. This ensures that the large circle doesn’t fall out of the stencil.

5. If you make a mistake, just use scotch tape to tape the piece back in. If you find that you should have made a bridge somewhere and you didn’t (you will know you messed up if the stencil is really flimsy and something won’t stay in place) then use tape to make a bridge.

6. You should print a SECOND copy of this design and cut out the Reeses words in that separate stencil. Cut out the entire package to make the Reeses on your first design but don’t worry about the words. Do the words as a completely separate stencil.

7. When you’re done, tape the stencil to your shirt.

8. Mix 1 part acrylic paint with 1 part fabric medium. This makes the fabric softer so it will fit to your body instead of being stiff.

9. The trick to stenciling is to make sure you barely have any paint on your brush. Yes this takes longer but the brush must be very dry of paint or else it will bubble under the stencil.

10. Once you’ve stenciled everything, peel off the stencil. It will originally look strange because paint didn’t go in all of those bridges spots. Using a small brush fill in those holes.

11. This is also where you add color if you’d like it. I painted her hair yellow, her teeth white, and added a white eyeball center.

written by marieann

I actually used a pattern for this originally but it’s so easy to make. (Thankfully I bought the pattern for $1 in a pattern clearance sale). I am not gonna lie, the bias tape is hard to sew on. Everything else is a breeze. This is great to make your machine look cute AND protect it. Please read all the directions first before you begin. It’s pretty intuitive once you understand where the project is going but some parts might be a bit difficult to get in isolation.

Supplies
Fabric remnant (see below for dimensions)
One package of double-fold 1/4 bias tape
Batting remnant (see below for dimensions)

Tools
Measuring tape
Scissors
Sewing machine

Directions
1. Measure your sewing machine. Don’t forget to measure the machine with a spool of thread on top if you don’t want to unthread the machine whenever you put it away. (However, this does make it look a little awkward so think about this first).

For example, my machine is 16 (width), 13 3/4 (height) and 6 3/4 (depth).

2. Cut two pieces of your main fabric that is a rectange ((width + 1) by (height +1)) inches for the front and back. (So for me that is rectange that is 17 inches by 14 3/4 inches).

3. Cut two more pieces this same size for the inside lining fabric. Also, cut two this size out of batting.

4. Cut one piece of your main fabric that is a rectangle (depth + 1) by (double the height + width + 1) inches. (So for me 7 3/4 by 44).

5. Cut one piece this same size for the inside lining fabric. Also, cut one this size out of batting.

6. Curve the corners of the front and back pieces. Be sure to pin all five layers (two lining pieces, two front pieces, and the batting) and cut them at once so they are the same. It makes a nice curve if you trace around a bowl.

6. Baste the batting pieces to the matching pieces of the lining fabric with a 1/4 inch seam. Baste just means sew so that they stick together but they don’t have to be that neat. Do this with all three pieces (the cover front, sides, and back).

7. Baste the front to the lining fabric (the batting is already sewn to the backing fabric) WRONG sides together. It is IMPERATIVE that you catch both layers and make this neat. (Do this with all three pieces).

8. Now, this is one of the hardest parts. You need to pin the front cover to the side piece WRONG SIDES together. The side piece has to curve around with the curve on the front piece. The best way to work this is to clip around the curve toward the basting stitch and just work it around. You may have a bit of ruffle in the fabric but make that smooth so it looks like a gather stitch.

9. Repeat with the back cover.

10. At this point you have a cover sewn together. Put it on your machine to test the size. If it’s too big this is the time to take it in. When you turn your cover inside out (to expose the lining fabric), the seams will be turned in. When it’s turned the right way, you will see the seams. That’s okay, we’re fixing that now.

11. Trim close to the seams. You don’t want very little fabric still attached outside of the basting seams.

12. Pin the bias tape around the seams and sew along the edge. This is the hardest part. Be sure to use a LOT of pins because you don’t want the bias tape to slip.

13. Turn under the ends of the bias tape to give you neat edges. Put this along the where the side fabric connects to the front and back to cover up all your seams. Also put the bias tape around the bottom too.

14. BAM! You’re done! And it’s double sided!

15. Note! If you don’t want this double-sided or don’t have the double-fold bias tape and are a cheapie, then just pin the front RIGHT sides together but otherwise follow all the same directions.

Check out the sewing machine cover made by one of our readers here.