written by marieann

I am kind of in love with this purse. I used this easy peasy tutorial (click receita-pleatness bag.doc to download). I bought this lovely pink fabric a few month ago and was zealously guarding it. I love it paired with this burgandy. The zipper was easy to put in and the handle is the perfect length. I am making Caro one for her birthday and offering one for the Public Interest Law Auction at my school. I see more of these in my future.

written by marieann

I used this tutorial to make a bitty toddler dress from an old adult botton up for my swap partner. The tutorial was really easy to follow. It’s especially easy because you just need to know the baby’s chest size. My shirt didn’t have a yolk as she suggested but I don’t think that it mattered. I added the lace on the bottom and tie straps to be sure that it fit the little girl. I hand sewed this design in felt scraps. I’m a bit worried that this won’t wash but I’ll just tell mommy to gently hand wash.

Felt Motif Tutorial

Materials:
Felt scraps
Thin paper (I used tissue paper)

Tools:
Some design to trace/or drawn
Needle
Embrodiery floss
Fabric glue
A “base object” to sew your motif on

Directions:
1. Choose your design. I chose Deery Lou from the makers of Hello Kitty because my partner loves kawaii and it’s a forest friends swap.

2. Trace each part of the design that will be a different color on thin paper.

3. Glue the felt pieces to your base (whether it’s a dress, purse, pillow, etc.). Don’t put glue near the edges but rather just in the center to hold it in place. Let the glue dry.

4. Using the floss and needle, sew around each piece (thru all layers) with a coordinating color. You could use a blanket stitch but I thought it looked cool with just sewing a straight stitch thru the edges.

5. Adore with buttons, ribbons, etc. for extra cuteness.

In this photo I hadn’t finished all the hand-sewing around the orange but I had really good light so I shot it anyway.

written by marieann

I have long adored the t-shirt recons that I see featured all over craftster.org and flickr. The girls usually say that they use a shirt to make a pattern. I’ve never really understood what this means because I don’t want to cut up the shirts that I like. I’ve also been afraid to sew tshirt material because I don’t have a serger. This weekend I tried some stuff and came up with a really easy way to make t-shirt recons. This is almost certainly not the best way to do it but it worked for me.

Materials:
Two t-shirts; one must be too big for you (so that it’s wide enough to fit around your butt) to use for the skirt and one can fit you already (this is for the bodice)
Remnant lace
Remnant t-shirt material (or other white fabric scraps)
Very light weight interfacing (it doesn’t need to be iron on but that would probably work better)
Piece of thin paper (like tissue paper)

Tools
Sewing machine
Pins
A shirt with a bodice that fits you snuggly and comfortably

Instructions:
1. Pin the thin paper to the shirt you like. Be sure to stretch out the fabric as you go if there is stretch in the original shirt. Cut the interfacing the same size as the shirt (don’t leave a seam allowance). Be sure to go all the way up the shoulder (I left a little extra for wiggle room) and go all the way to the side seam (again, make the interfacing a bit bigger so that you have some fabric to fit the bodice to you).

2. Fold the paper in half and pick the better side (no matter how carefully you cut it’s not going to be perfectly symmetrical. Pick the side that looks smoother or bigger). Cut the paper pattern in half and pin that onto your interfacing. Cut around the pattern then fold the pattern over and cut the other side. The reason for this step is to clean up your pattern because it’s really hard to cut it perfectly when your paper is pinned to a stretchy shirt. I didn’t use thin paper in step 1, I used some interfacing then realized it was asymmetrical so I made another one with the method described in this step.

3. Pin the interfacing piece to the t-shirt that you want to be the top part. Cut out the piece leaving about a 1/2″ seam allowance all around.

4. Fold the edges of the t-shirt over the interfacing around the top and armpits (I actually had already done that in the photo in step 3). Leave the shoulders and the sides free. Here’s a closeup.

5. Sew the edge you just folder over down with a 1/4″ seam. Trim the extra t-shirt material in the inside close to the seam (otherwise it will roll out and you can see it in the front).

6. Repeat steps 1-6 for the back of the shirt.

7. Sew the front to the back at the shoulders with a small seam. Try it on. Check to see if it hangs where you want on your boobs. If not, sew a bigger seam.

8. Pin the sides together while you’re wearing it. Be sure that it fits snuggly. Sew the sides together.

9. For the lace part, I just cut a triangle out of white t-shirt remnant then sewed a piece of lace over it. Then sew that to cover up the v-part of the top.

10. Okay the bodice is done! For the skirt, cut the tshirt just below the armpits straight across. If you have a design that you want to feature (like I did) that starts above the armpit, then cut from the top of the design to the bottom of the t-shirt with an A-line. Then you’ll have to sew the sides shut again. Then, decide whether you want pleats (like I did) or gathering (the better method; I was just lazy and too excited because my bodice fit). If you want to gather, then sew along the top of the skirt piece and then pull those stitches to make it gather. If you want to pleat it, just fold some pleats into it. To determine how much gather or how big of pleats, pin the bottom piece to the bodice (right sides together) first lining up the side seams (if your skirt piece doesn’t have a seam, then line it up where the side seam would be). Then pin the excess as you go around. If you have extra skirt fabric, then add a pleat or pull your gathering stitches tight.

11. When it’s all pinned in place, sew the skirt to the bodice with a 1/2″ seam.

12. BAM. Pair with leggins and rock out.

written by marieann

I used the pattern featured in this post again to make a scarf to match the coat I featured in this post. This pattern is seriously such a breeze. It’s all double crochet in a stitch called front and back post (maybe you can find a tutorial online; my mom taught me how to do the stitch). This was the first time that I weaved in loose ends and it was actually pretty quick. This is why I love making scarves — you can make them to match your winter wear perfectly.

written by marieann

I found a really cool photo blog called Things That Look Like Things. The author posts photos she’s found around flickr that look like each other in unusual ways. She showcases a lot of great photography around the world and has a clever eye for resemblances. It’s a quick daily read that I strongly recommend.

written by diynamite

Yay! We’ve finally settled on a basic new site design but we’re working on some new header image(s).

We’re still hoping people take our survey to give us a little feedback (this expires on 2/9/08).

Click here!

written by threadslinger

I have recently re-discovered my love for granola. But, at the grocery store you can spend 6.95 on 10 ounces of granola and that is just crazy. So, I found this super easy recipe to make granola and I am pretty sure I will never purchase it again.

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oats (not the quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 T dark brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1 Cup alternative ingredients (you can add whatever you want, I added 1/3 cup coconut, 1/3 cup walnuts and 1/3 cup raisins)
3 T vegetable oil
1 T water

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl except for dried fruit. Simmer together liquid ingredients on low. Pour over dry ingredients.

2. Place ingredients in a glass casserole dish and bake at 275 for half an hour. Then add raisins and continue to cook for 15 more minutes or until golden brown. Have fun with substituting different kinds of ingredients!

written by marieann

I designed these journals from scratch — literally. I made the image in Photoshop then added the journal prompts (50 in all) to the pages. I think the idea of a pre-printed prompt journal is stellar because sometimes you want to write but you don’t know what to write about. These pages are highly customizable and you can add additional images or your own prompts like I did to make these pages.

Materials:
Paper — both pretty scrapbook paper and typing paper
Cardboard scraps

Tools:
Printer
Photoshop
Scissors (paper cutter would really help)

Instructions:
1. Choose which pages you like best. If you don’t like my final product, then you can choose one of the other images and customize as you’d like. Click on the images to get the full size for downloading.

2. Personalize the pages as you wish in Photoshop. Here’s a couple of examples of what I did.

3. Print them. Be sure you print the full size as I made them fit the pages perfectly. Also, you need to print them landscape style.

4. Trim the pages. I trimmed the pages so that there was 1/8″ to the right of both pages. This leaves you with a thick enough white space to the left of the right page that prints so that you can bind it. This definitely takes awhile if you want to do it nicely.

5. Use the cardboard scraps to make a front and back cover. Wrap the cardboard in pretty scrapbook paper.

6. Take the journal to your local office supply store to get it coil bound. At Kinko’s it’s about $6.

7. Write in your own personalized journal!

Alternatives! I made one of these for my mom too and I made her planner pages — like calendars, lists, etc. I would post them but I made them too low of resolution so they printed up kind of blurry.

More images of my finished journals –

written by marieann

I had this clear plastic box left over from candy. I thought it’d be perfect to cover to store crafty supplies.

Supplies:

Magazine cut-outs
Plastic box

Tools:

Glue
Clear varnish
Paint brush

Instructions:

1. Cut out lots of magazine pictures that you like.

2. Layer a thin layer of glue all over the box. Attach the pictures. When you are applying pictures to the edges, you need to either cut the paper a bit or else fold it about so that you can fit it to the curves.

3. When the glue is all dried, using a brush, paint a layer of clear varnish over the entire box.

Caro has some more modge podging tips located <a href=”http://diynamite.com/2007/09/09/modge-podge-journal/”>here.</a>

written by marieann

We’ve just past the first birthday of this crafty blog. Caro and I would like some feedback about why you readers visit the site and what you’d like it to shape up to be in the future. Please take less than a minute to take our four question survey (this expires on 2/9/08).

Click here!

Also we’re trying out some new design ideas for the layout, sorry for the construction around here!