Flowers for birthday: Birthday ideas for kids, origami paper flowers

                 

 Flowers for birthday: Birthday ideas for kids, origami paper flowers

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Gift presents for mum and daughter: Best Band Ever tutorial

Headband that is. (I’m still working on the Bagsket tutorial…that thing is a beast. So here’s a quick something to tide you over.)

Sewing patterns

I’m seeing more and more headbands pop up so I decided to take a swing at it myself. I went through at least 20 prototypes before I finally nailed it. These fit perfectly! There’s a WIDE and a NARROW version. The WIDE version has an extreme taper so that you get the full pattern blast at the crown of your head, but it still fits comfortably behind your ears. The NARROW version is simple and easy to make and tapers nicely too.

Want to make your own? Read the full post for the tutorial.

Headband Tutorial

Materials:

• Templates: Headband Tutorial Template Cut out the one (wide or narrow) you want
• 4 inch piece of braided elastic (it’s better than the woven elastic)
• 2 x [4" x 20"] strips of fabric that you love. Use different fabrics so you have a reversible headband
• 1 x [4" x 20"] strip of moderately stiff single-sided fusible interfacing (I tried Timtex – it was too heavy)
• Pins, Iron, Sewing Machine, Coordinating Thread, Blah blah blah

Notes:

• These headbands fit most women’s heads. If you have a smaller head, use 1 inch less elastic.
• Templates include the necessary seam allowances
• I used 100% cotton on my bands, but you could use any ironable fabric you like. I would LOVE to see what you make.
• Stitching the elastic in can be a bit of a bear if your feed dogs don’t catch. Just use the tip of your seam ripper or something pointy and firm to help “guide” the ends under the needle.
• The interfacing is optional. It adds a nice stiffness and shape to the headband, but I made a few without any interfacing and they worked perfectly too.
• I am not a seamstress by any means. My “templates” are pretty amateurish but they work for me and I’ve used them at least 10 times now so I think they’re solid. But consider yourself warned.

Step 1: Gather your materials kids!

Step 2: Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fuse one strip of fabric (wrong side facing) to the interfacing

Step 3: Fold your strips lengthwise and align the “fold” end of the template on the fold of the strip. Trace and cut or pin and cut both strips. The templates include the necessary seam allowance.

Step 4: Fold down each end of both fabric strips (along the “crease” line on the template) and iron.

Step 5: With right sides facing, pin the strips together and sew along each LONG side using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Do not sew the short ends together. Make sure to reinforce at the beginning and end of each side and take care when you turn the curve when using the wide template. I find keeping the interfaced fabric on top makes the sewing go easier. 

Step 6: To reduce bulk, pink along each side taking care not to cut into your seam. Pink up to but not along the short ends. Alternatively, you can can trim the seam allowance to 1/8 inch (don’t cut into the seam itself).

Step 7: Turn your tube inside out and iron flat. The turning is the hardest part of the whole thing. Use a large safety pin to catch the end of the interfaced fabric (don’t go through both layers). Use that pin to help turn the tube rightside out. Take your time…it’s worth it.

Step 8: Stitch along the side of the headband using a 1/8″ seam allowance (or whatever you think looks pretty). When you reach one short end, tuck one end of the elastic about 1/2″ up into one end of the tube. As close to the end of the tube as possible, sew along the end to secure the elastic. Backstitch and then forward stitch to reinforce this join. Continue down the other side of the headband.

Step 9: When you reach the other end, tuck the other end of the elastic into the end of the headband and sew as you did on the other end. Make sure you didn’t “twist” your headband and that the elastic and headband form a nice smooth continuous circle. Reinforce the elastic join at this end too.

Ta-da! A completely reversible, comfortable and secure headband.

Source: foofanagle.wordpress.com

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Gift presents for women: Make-Up Bag Tutorial

Make-Up Bag/Mini Purse Tutorial

Sewing patterns

It also makes for a great pencil case or travel cosmetic case. (In the future I plan to add vinyl lining and I’ll show you how too when I do.)

Materials Needed:
-Basic sewing tools
-Zipper foot
-Optional Handles – I used ½” twill tape for this one, but you can use store bought bias binding or make your own by quadrupling the width so it would be 2” then fold in half lengthwise twice. (Learn more below.) Or obviously, you can use your creative license and run wild using ribbon or braided string or something…
-Printable pattern for small (here), medium/large (here) purse (You might have to resize them if your printer prints them funny. Mine worked well though. You can fiddle with the scaling with a copier that offers resizing. There is a 1″ scale guide to help. And all the measurements are given in case you want to draft your own pattern. For the medium and large, it’s the same pattern, just the large is 1 1/2″ longer.)
**UPDATE** I had to make a new pattern for myself and realized the sizing may be a little off and create a problem with the zipper ends. You might want to trim about a 1/4″ off the sides and bottom. ***

For the Small Purse:
7” zipper
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of lining fabric
2 – 20″ long handles

For the Medium Purse:
9” zipper
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of lining fabric
2 – 26″ long handles

For the Large Purse:
12” zipper
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of lining fabric
2 26″ long handles

Cut out all your pieces using the handy pattern and iron the fusible interfacing on the back side of the outer fabric. Use your judgment as to what weight, considering the fabric you’re using–medium weight is the most likely.

Next temporarily pin the zipper, face down along the top edge of one of the outer pieces.

Then layer a piece of the lining face down on top of that. Pin in place. If you don’t have a lot of experience sewing zippers, I recommend you baste it together so it doesn’t slip while you’re stitching.

Then, using a zipper foot, go ahead and machine stitch the seam. Use the edge of your zipper foot as a guide, that’ll give you a very scant ¼” seam allowance. Don’t stitch too close to the coils otherwise you’ll have an awfully hard time getting the zipper open smoothly, if at all.

Next, iron the seams open.

Repeat these steps for the other side.

At this point you add the optional handles. Obviously skip this if you don’t want handles.

If you’re using store bought or handmade bias binding for the handles, you’re going to need to stitch the two sides of the handley part closed. I’m going to divert toanother bag I’ve made to illustrate this step, so don’t get confused when the colors change. ;)
To make the handles, iron them in half lengthwise once. Open them back up and fold each side in half again. It should total a half an inch wide.

Next fold your binding in half. Measure 7” from the fold and pin both sides. (Measurements are for medium and large bags. For the smaller one, you should measure 6″.)

When you open it back up, you’ll see you have 14” perfectly centered sectioned off.

Using the pins as guides, sew in between them along the open side of the binding. This is the part of the handle your hand will hold.

We will now return to your originally scheduled tutorial…
Pin the handles on the outer fabric (NOT the lining!) 2” from the bottom corner. It helps to have a square edge to make sure you’re getting a perfectly perpendicular angle. Again, if you baste them in place, you’re bound to get better results because slippage will be less likely. As you can see I’ve got mad skills and only need one pin. ;) One inch down from the zipper, pin a pin across the handle to mark the stitching stopping point.

Now stitch up one side, then across at the pin placed one inch below the zipper then back down the other side. If you did the binding option, your stitches should match up nicely with the ones you made before.

Repeat for the other side and then for the other handle.

You can also add an embellishments or embroidery at this point too.

Now we will begin stitching the body of the bag together. You can go ahead and get really excited now. ;)

First of all, unzip the zipper. This is very important. Very.

Now you want to match up/line up the outer fabrics, right sides together. Pin in place. Do the same for lining fabrics. At the zipper seam you want to fold the lining towards the outer fabric and line up the top edges of the outer fabric nice and neat as seen in the picture below.

Sew along the four major sides. Leave an opening in the lining seam for turning inside out later on. When you reach the zipper on the side seams you should stop at your stitch mark from the zipper, lift the presser foot and pivot so you’re angled and ready for the 1/4″ seam allowance for the rest of the seam (see the third picture below for reference.)

Now, just like with a square bottom tote, you want to match up the seams for the bottom corners and pin in place.

Stitch 1/4″.

Turn right side out. Lastly stitch up the open seam inside.

And you’re done. :)

Source: lieslmade.wordpress.com

Sewing patterns

It also makes for a great pencil case or travel cosmetic case. (In the future I plan to add vinyl lining and I’ll show you how too when I do.)

Materials Needed:
-Basic sewing tools
-Zipper foot
-Optional Handles – I used ½” twill tape for this one, but you can use store bought bias binding or make your own by quadrupling the width so it would be 2” then fold in half lengthwise twice. (Learn more below.) Or obviously, you can use your creative license and run wild using ribbon or braided string or something…
-Printable pattern for small (here), medium/large (here) purse (You might have to resize them if your printer prints them funny. Mine worked well though. You can fiddle with the scaling with a copier that offers resizing. There is a 1″ scale guide to help. And all the measurements are given in case you want to draft your own pattern. For the medium and large, it’s the same pattern, just the large is 1 1/2″ longer.)
**UPDATE** I had to make a new pattern for myself and realized the sizing may be a little off and create a problem with the zipper ends. You might want to trim about a 1/4″ off the sides and bottom. ***

For the Small Purse:
7” zipper
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 5 1/2″ x 12″ pieces of lining fabric
2 – 20″ long handles

For the Medium Purse:
9” zipper
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 8″ x 14″ pieces of lining fabric
2 – 26″ long handles

For the Large Purse:
12” zipper
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of outer fabric
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of fusible interfacing
2 – 8″ x 17″ pieces of lining fabric
2 26″ long handles

Cut out all your pieces using the handy pattern and iron the fusible interfacing on the back side of the outer fabric. Use your judgment as to what weight, considering the fabric you’re using–medium weight is the most likely.

Next temporarily pin the zipper, face down along the top edge of one of the outer pieces.

Then layer a piece of the lining face down on top of that. Pin in place. If you don’t have a lot of experience sewing zippers, I recommend you baste it together so it doesn’t slip while you’re stitching.

Then, using a zipper foot, go ahead and machine stitch the seam. Use the edge of your zipper foot as a guide, that’ll give you a very scant ¼” seam allowance. Don’t stitch too close to the coils otherwise you’ll have an awfully hard time getting the zipper open smoothly, if at all.

Next, iron the seams open.

Repeat these steps for the other side.

At this point you add the optional handles. Obviously skip this if you don’t want handles.

If you’re using store bought or handmade bias binding for the handles, you’re going to need to stitch the two sides of the handley part closed. I’m going to divert toanother bag I’ve made to illustrate this step, so don’t get confused when the colors change. ;)
To make the handles, iron them in half lengthwise once. Open them back up and fold each side in half again. It should total a half an inch wide.

Next fold your binding in half. Measure 7” from the fold and pin both sides. (Measurements are for medium and large bags. For the smaller one, you should measure 6″.)

When you open it back up, you’ll see you have 14” perfectly centered sectioned off.

Using the pins as guides, sew in between them along the open side of the binding. This is the part of the handle your hand will hold.

We will now return to your originally scheduled tutorial…
Pin the handles on the outer fabric (NOT the lining!) 2” from the bottom corner. It helps to have a square edge to make sure you’re getting a perfectly perpendicular angle. Again, if you baste them in place, you’re bound to get better results because slippage will be less likely. As you can see I’ve got mad skills and only need one pin. ;) One inch down from the zipper, pin a pin across the handle to mark the stitching stopping point.

Now stitch up one side, then across at the pin placed one inch below the zipper then back down the other side. If you did the binding option, your stitches should match up nicely with the ones you made before.

Repeat for the other side and then for the other handle.

You can also add an embellishments or embroidery at this point too.

Now we will begin stitching the body of the bag together. You can go ahead and get really excited now. ;)

First of all, unzip the zipper. This is very important. Very.

Now you want to match up/line up the outer fabrics, right sides together. Pin in place. Do the same for lining fabrics. At the zipper seam you want to fold the lining towards the outer fabric and line up the top edges of the outer fabric nice and neat as seen in the picture below.

Sew along the four major sides. Leave an opening in the lining seam for turning inside out later on. When you reach the zipper on the side seams you should stop at your stitch mark from the zipper, lift the presser foot and pivot so you’re angled and ready for the 1/4″ seam allowance for the rest of the seam (see the third picture below for reference.)

Now, just like with a square bottom tote, you want to match up the seams for the bottom corners and pin in place.

Stitch 1/4″.

Turn right side out. Lastly stitch up the open seam inside.

And you’re done. :)

Source: lieslmade.wordpress.com

Read More