My Own Towel

With a vain attempt at order..... we made some personalized towels this week. The theory is that if you have your OWN towel, then you will be responsible for it, not leave it on the floor (because Mom WILL know it is YOURS).
At any rate the kids love them and maybe that alone will help them to take care of them. I love new towels too. I let the kids pick out their towels which gave them some ownership in the project which is always a good thing. :o)

Here is the quick and dirty tutorial to personalized towels.

1- Print out (or draw) your initials. Very Fat, Chunky letters do a better job of showing up and showing off fun fabrics. Be sure to reverse the letters or they will end up backwards on the towels.

2 - Trace the letter onto the paper side of "Lite Heat 'n Bond" (my fusible web product of choice).

3 - Cut out around the letters, leaving a boarder of paper around the letter.

4 - Iron the letter the back side of your fun fabric. (follow the fusible web instructions)

5 - Cut out the letter on the lines and position it on the towel and iron in place (follow package instructions again).

6 - Stitch around the letter using a zig-zag or satin stitch.

7 - Add a tab for easy hanging (optional).

These make great party favors for kid's parties or birthday gifts. Use a picture like a crown, shield, car, cat, etc. and have a stack ready for spur of the moment birthday gifts for your kid's friends.

Scented Play Dough Tutorial

Play dough was one of my favorite things to play with when I was a little girl and I love making it for my children now. I love how home made dough feels. It is so smooth and has the right texture. I loved helping her make it over the stove and then helping her kneed in the color when it was done. I loved the feel of warm fresh play dough. It was so wonderfully soothing.
As a little kid, I had to attend many meetings and some night classes with my mom. She would pack a baggy of play dough and I knew that I was in for a treat for hours. I loved making sculptures and had all kinds of stories running in my head as I sat on the floor next to her or at the back of the room with a chair seat as the stage for my pretend play.

Well here is the recipe I use now for my kids. I switched over to scented dough several years ago. The one thing I hate about play dough is what it smelled like after a couple of kids had played with it. Now the dough has a nice fruity scent.
I bet you could also use essential oils and have herbal scented play dough. I might have to try that with lavender. Hmmmm.... Any way this is the recipe that always works for me.

Scented Play Dough
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkg fruit flavored drink mix (without the sugar)
1 Tbsp Alum
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup flour
2 cups boiling water

Directions:

Add flour, salt, flavoring, alum, and oil into a large mixing bowl.

Add the boiling water ....

.... and stir.

Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour if needed ....

..... and kneed by hand .....

..... until smooth, soft and definitely not sticky.

Now Play!

One Yard Half Apron Tutorial

OK so I don't know what to call this apron but I do love it.

It meets my criteria for a good apron - fast, fun and easy to make and only takes one yard of fabric.

This apron makes a quick gift for birthdays, Christmas, Swaps, or just because you love your friends. It works up in about an hour or less.



Materials



1 yard cotton fabric (the fabric I used is Morning Call by Hoodie's Collection)



4 yard ric-rack trim in a coordinating color





Cutting instructions



Apron:

Lower section - 13" by width of fabric

Upper section - 8 1/2" by 27"

Waistband - 4" by 19"

Ties - 2 1/2" by width of fabric



Pocket:

2 pieces 6 by 6 1/2"



Sewing instructions:



1. Take the lower apron piece and gather the upper edge of it.



2. Pin the top of the lower section to the bottom of the upper apron section. Stitch in place.

You can top stitch this seam for a more professional look if you like.

Be sure to press the seam toward the top to catch it in the top stitching. (by the way I finish all my seams with the serger or with a zig-zag stitch, nothing ruins a fun apron faster than ravelled seams on the back. It is just plain tacky!)

3. Make a narrow hem on the sides and bottom of the joined apron pieces.



4. Gather the top edge of the upper apron section.



5. Pin the apron skirt to the waistband and adjust the gathers. Be sure to leave 1/4" of waistband sticking out and each side of the apron. Stitch in place.



6. Fold the top edge of the waist band down 1/4" to the wrong side and press.



7. Sew up your apron ties. You can do this by folding them in half lengthwise and sewing down one long side and across the end and turning. OR... you can hem both long sides and one end of each tie by turn under a scant 1/4" and turning under again and top stitching. (sorry I forgot to take a picture)



8. Place the apron ties on the waist band right side down pointing toward the apron center and pin or baste in place.



9. Fold the apron waist band down toward the apron front with right sides together and stitch the short ends together. Turn the the right side out and press in place.



10. Top stitch along the base of the waist band catching the front and the back of the waist band making sure the apron skirt seam is inside the band. This will finish off your edges nicely.



11. Sew around the pocket piece leaving an opening at the bottom to turn.



12. Clip the corners and turn and press the pocket. Place 3 rows of the ric-rack trim on the pocket and stitch in place about 1/2" apart. Be sure to leave about 3/4" tails on the trim. Fold these under when attaching the pocket to the apron to make sure they are secure.



13. Position the pocket on the right or left side of your apron upper layer where it is comfortable for you. Top stitch around the sides and bottom of the pocket being sure to back stitch a few times at the top of the pocket to secure.

14. Sew ric-rack trim on the bottom of the apron in three rows about 1" apart. Be sure to leave tails and fold them under to the back side of the apron to secure in place. I am using just a straight stitch to secure the ric-rack.



You are now done and have a fast, fun, and flirty new apron.



This apron fits most. For a smaller or skinnier apron cut the waist band at 16". For a larger apron cut the waist band at about 22 inches and increase the upper portion to 30". The lower section can stay the same and will just have more or less gathers depending on if you are sizing up or down.

Scrappy Hot Pad Tutorial

This is the start of a group of tutorials I want to post this fall that are all easy gift ideas. I like to give homemade whenever possible and thought I would share some of my ideas with you.


I went into my sewing room yesterday to clean up after the Fall Festival madness and got very sidetracked. I grabbed a pile of hand dyed fabric scraps left over from wrapping my soaps and had the pile over the trash when I realized they could still be used. I dyed up this bunch of fabric using some hunter orange fabric I got from one of my friends. I had almost 70 yards of the stuff and only needed to make one hunter jacket. So I dyed it. I have been finding uses for it for years. Now what is left of it is used to wrap my handmade soaps.

Supplies:
Fabric strips 1" to 2" wide - just whatever you have
2 pieces of cotton batting or tight poly batting slightly larger than the finished hot pad you want to make
Backing fabric
thread
Binding fabric

To start with I just randomly sewed together the strips I had. They were about 9 inches long.



Then I used my rotary cutter and squared it up.


I cut it to be 8 1/2" by 9 1/2". The size doesn't matter. That is just how big it could be to get it all square. I have large hands and like a large hot pad when cooking so I don't get burned. I also like larger hot pad for putting a hot pan on the table.

Next I layered my top, batting, and backing. I cut the backing last to make sure it was wider than the other two layers. I do this so that if the thing shifts while quilting it, I won't find that the back is now smaller than the front or off center by a fraction.
Then I pin the layers together

Next you bring it back to your sewing machine and quit it. YES YOU CAN QUILT IT TOO. I just did stitching back and forth. Since I am no good and a straight line, I did wavy. You can do all kinds of fancy things but this is the easiest.

When I have enough quilting in it for me, I stitch all around the edge to make sure it is secure.

Then I square it back up again.

This is what the back looks like.

Then I bind it.

Sorry I won't show you how I bound it because I am a binding spaz but I will direct you to some great binding tutorials I used.
Sandi Henderson's Bias Tutorial
Angry Chicken's Bias Tape tutorial (all on the machine)
Heather Bailey's How to Bind a Quilt Tutorial