January 20th, 2009
I found the fabulous princess on theTwo Peas in a Bucket forums, her amazing crafts have just been recently featured in Brides Local Magazine’s Check them out if you live in one of these areas: Maryland/DC, New York, New Jersey, Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Florida, Northern California, Southern California, Colorado, and Michigan.
Princess Lasertron makes the most beautiful projects with buttons that I’ve ever seen. On her blog you will see beautiful button-embellished bouquets such as these:
- Alice in Wonderland Bouquet
All Button Bouquet
As you can see, PL is very very busy and she really loves buttons! The best part about her work is that it will last a lot longer than real flowers!
So if you have a few minutes check out her blog www.princesslasertron.com , I’m sure you’ll be inspired, I know I was!
January 16th, 2009
As I was cutting out squares for my pincushion, I realizes that I would be making a cute stuffed cube. And so I thought it would be really cool to make a “soft ABC baby block”. I wanted to make it slightly smaller and without the raw edges showing. So It was a bit of a different process. Here are the steps I took…
Cut 6 3″x3″ squares. I recommend wool.
Next you’ll want to embroider letters on the pieces. There are a few choices for embroidery. An embroidery machine (which I used), embroidering by hand, and some sort of iron on transfer.
Since I had already cut out my squares, they were too small to fit in the embroidery hoop. So I stretched some thin cotton and pinned them in the center of the hoop
square pinned to cotton in embroidery hoop
Then I just set the embroidery to do one letter, in the middle of the field as big as I could — which was 40 mm. I would have loved to do them bigger, but I only have the stock designs that came with the machine.
embroidering the "A"
After the “A” was all embroidered, I trimmed the cotton backing that it was attached to. I just trimmed fairly close to the letter, It doesnt have to look perfect because it will be hidden.
backside of the now-embroidered square
I followed those same two steps on each of the squares, embroidering A-F. You could also embroider numbers or images. I think embroidering by hand would give you a lot more flexibility… however it would take much much longer!
I went through the same steps as my first project. Sewing 4 squares side-by side, then to each other, followed by attaching the top and bottom:
4 sewn side-by side. This would be extra cute if it spelled baby.
sewn into an "open cube"
Now you’ll notice that I have the wrong side facing out. On this cube, different from the pincushion, I want to hide all the raw edges. So I’m sewing the whole square inside out and then reversing for the final soft block. You could do it with the edges showing like yesterday — it saves a bit of hand stitching in the end.
sewing on the top square
the bottom square is sewn on 3 sides waiting to be turned inside out & stuffed
Once you have sewn the bottom square on three sides, you will need to turn your cube inside out. As you turn it inside out, you will have to push the corners out as much as you can so it does not look sloppy. Then go ahead and stuff it really really full! You’ll need some thread and a needle to finish the cube up nice and clean.
Once you have your needle threaded. You’ll need to fold the raw edges into the cube and start stitching. You can pin them along the way, but this was such a small edge that I just held it in place as I stitched. I used a “baseball” stitch to get a smooth corner. That basically means that I sewed from the outside of one square to the inside of the stitch and then sewed from the outside of the opposite square again to the inside of the stitch. This makes a pattern similar to a baseball stitch.
the completed stitched side
And there you have it! My completed Soft ABC baby block next to my cute pin cushion! I think the baby block would be so cute as a set – you could do one with numbers and one with pictures and give them at a baby shower. Such a sweet handmade gift!
January 15th, 2009
My First Project! And hopefully the first of many.
I did something unthinkable to me just 6 months ago… I set out to start AND finish a personal project and I actually did it! I do so many projects for work and if I do have any free time, I usually spend it on facebook or surfing the internet. So first of all, I’m so very proud of myself. Secondly, I can’t believe I successfully used my sewing machine! About 13 months ago I bought an amazing sewing/embroidery machine and have yet to sew something completely by myself on it.
So I wanted to start with something fairly simple… ya know a good warm up to this uncharted territory of actually completing a project. About 6 months ago I bought a sewing project kit by Amy Butler. It has patterns of neat stuff AND even came with some fabric.
The box that I bought from Barnes & Noble
This is what the pattern shows is the "Final Product"
What you’ll need for this project:
1. Fabric – The pattern specifies wool. In my project closet I found 1 fat square of wool and a few bits of felt. I think this project would be fun in all felt — and no frayed edges.
2. A few basic sewing items: scissors, ruler, chalk pencil, seam ripper, thread, needle, pins . After having completed the project, I would recommend a rotary cutter for the squares.
You can see why I need a new pin cushin...
3. A Sewing Machine
4. Apparently it is necessary to have an iron to sew… But I don’t have one… So I used my Flat iron to get the fabric flat.
After you have wrinkle-free fabric, you need to measure and cut it. I couldnt find my fabric ruler, so I used a tape measure… My mother would be mortified, but it worked! I marked 3.5″ along a straight looking edge of fabric and then cut the whole strip.
After I cut out one strip, I layed it on top of the fabric and cut out an identical strip.
I then layed the two strips on each other but at a 90 degree angle to get the perfect height for my pieces. Once I had a 3.5″ x3.5″ square, I layed it on the other 3.5″ fabric strips to cut squares.
You will need 6 squares for this project.
Once you have the squares, you pretty much start sewing. If you are using a loose wool, you should sew a “stay stitch” which is basically a stitch close to the edge so that it does not frey.
After you have done the stay stitching, Start with 2 squares and sew the 4 squares to each other in a row. Keep the right sides facing inward/toward each other, because you’ll want the raw edges showing on your pin cushin.
After you sew the squares to each other, you’ll want to sew the row ends together to make an “open” cube like this:
Okay now for the tricky part… The pattern instructs you to pin the remaining squares on the top and bottom of your cube. So i pulled out my trusty pins and started…
This proved fairly difficult and after sewing the first square, I found it fairly unnecessary so I took out all the pins and just held one edge to another while sewing. Please note that all raw edges are on the outside of the cube.
sewing with the annoying pins
Next I had to do the same thing to the bottom — but only on 3 sides. This I did completely without the needles and it worked just fine.
the bottom sewn on three sides… waiting for stuffing
So I don’t have any stuffing in my closet, so when I got to this point I thought I would just walk 2 minutes to the local quilting shop… Well I walk in and ask for batting and they are all sold out! What was I to do?? I had to get this post out for my readers! So I did what any crazed crafter would do…
I found a pillow!
and some scissors!
Hehe I totally cannibalized a pillow… hopefully Mr. Project won’t mind! I don’t recommend it, but I had no other choice!
The pincushion with incriminating pillow stuffing. Note: you'll need about 2.5 times more than you think you will
stuffed!
Okay to the hardest part… sewing the last panel while smooshing a 3.5″ cube through your sewing machine:
But… once that part was over! I had a fabulous cubic pincushion! Just trim all the loose threads and stick in some pins!
Sooooo… there’s my new fabulous pincushion! However, because I am crazy, I couldn’t stop at just a pin cushion… tomorrow I’ll post the other very cool item I made from this same pattern!
This week’s featured craft blog is Princess Lasertron