The Fabric Floozie

Last week my husband went out of town for several days, and I got a wild hair to make a toilet paper holder while he was gone. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know if it was a serious lack of anything better to do with my time (could that possible be it?), or maybe my inability to focus on projects I SHOULD be doing, when there are projects I COULD be doing… or it possibly could have been the anxiety i feel when I’m digging through stacks of toilet paper under the sink in any of the 3 bathrooms we have in this house. Ugh. Yeah, it was probably one of those things…

Anyways, this toilet paper holder can also be used to hold paper towels if you’d like to make something fun that matches your home decor.

My plan started out at Home Depot which, while functional, did not produce something as pretty as I’d hoped for. Nor was it easy finding what I wanted.

First I purchased a dowel to use as the actual holder. The dowel I purchased was 1″ in diameter (perfect size) and 3 feet in length (also perfect size).

I then purchase a 1×6 piece of wood, and utilized some 1″ wood trim I’d had left over from a recent project.

**see below for how to make this without 1×6 and trim**

First, cut a square off the 1×6. My husband says that a 1×6 is actually 5.5″ wide, so in that case, make it a 5.5″x5.5″ square.

Using a Miter Saw, cut trim that will fit around all the edges (this is just for looks). Using a nailgun, attach the trim pieces along all 4 sides.

Cut the dowel to a 12″ length (I cut mine into 3rds so I could make 3 of them).

Paint dowel and trimmed square.

Using coordinating scrapbooking paper and mod-podge, cover the top of the base and the entire dowel with paper. Consider spraying with Rustoleum Gloss Coat when it’s dry, to stop any tackiness the mod-podge might have. Using a 2″ (or longer) screw, and the coordinating drill bit, drill a hole into the center of your base and into the center of the dowel bottom. Run screw up through the base from underneath and into the dowel. Tighten down. I predrilled a little too much on mine, and it was still turning and not quite getting tight. If you have this probablem, a dab of wood glue onto the threads of the screw and onto the bottom of the dowel will help.

Apply no-slip sticky furniture pads to the bottom of the base to keep it from getting dinged up, or dinging anything else up.

All done! Just slip on some TP or Paper Towels and enjoy the decorative holder you just made for under $5.

Lemmi tell ya, that’s HARD. TO. FIND.

* as a side note, if you care to bypass the wood cutting, just hit up your local Hobby Lobby and go to the wood section. You can get decorative circles or squares (with pretty curved edges) for under $1.50 each. I went and got 2 to use on my next 2 I’ll be making, b/c the trim work was more than I cared to do for something so small

And totally off topic, and a little personal, but I’d like to ask my readers to say a little prayer for my Brother in Law as he prepares for a 6 months deployment.

Now, let me start by saying I don’t YET own pinking shears. Notice the Yet. So while my Ravioli do not have the fancy little pinked edges, they will whenever I get around to buying a pair.

The other day I used this tutorial on Frugal Family Fun Blog to make some ravioli that the kids could use with their new kitchen. I used some extra pillow stuffing I had, some gold-ish felt I had on hand, and cream thread.

But since I’m a bit anal about toys being contained most of the time, I had to find some kind of packaging for them. That’s when I realized we had run out of Nestle chocolate powder. I quickly checked it for size and sure enough, all the pasta fit.
So I headed up stairs to make myself a label for the Nestle package that would make it look more pasta-ish, and less rabbit-ish.

What you will need to make the matching label for these cute little pasta pieces is:
1 Nestle Container (10.2 ounces was the size I do believe)
1 sheet of printer paper
colored ink cartridge
mod podge

Just print out the template provided here:

Fold on the grey lines
Mod podge the front and sides of the nestle container
line up the label and stick down
mod podge the back of the container
apply rest of label.
LET IT DRY.
Then apply a light coat of mod podge to the front/sides of the container as a “clear coat”.

Now, yours will look different than mine. While I did measurements for the sides thickness and the fronts width, i did NOT take into account the curve of the container. So yours will be lined up much better than mine, and will be without grey lines

So all in all, yours will be much cuter than mine

Enjoy!

Yesterday I posted about that pretty little craft supply organizer I made.
Today I’m going to tell you how to make one of your own

Since I hadn’t intended to do a tutorial, I’m going to break it down step by step for you, but there will be no photos of each part. If you’re confused, ask a question in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer within 24 hours.

So here we go:

You will need:
Sewing Machine
Scissors or rotary cutter
Stiff sewable interfacing
A durable fabric for the main panel.
Print fabrics for the pockets (you could do ll 1 print, or even up to a different print on each pocket). Each print you will need less than 1/4 yard.
Solid for the insides of the pockets.
Crochet hook*
Dowel*
Cuphook*

* indicates an item that is optional, but necessary if you want to make yours the EXACT same way I did.

First, let’s make our pattern:

1.) Measure the wall space that you want your organizer to cover. Mine was 14″ wide by 33″ long.

2.) Add 1 inch to the width, and 1 inch to your length. Using these new dimensions, cut out one piece of interfacing and one piece of your main panel fabric. (this inch will be your seam allowance)

3.) Using your original measurements (ie: 14×33 in my case) subtract 2 inches from the width measurement. (ie: it’s now 12″). This will be the width of your pockets.

4.) Consider how many pockets you would like to use. For the sake of discussion, we will say you are going to use 4, just as I did. Take your original length measurement (ie: 33″) and subtract 3″. This will allow a 2″ space at the bottom, below your lowest pocket, and a 1″ space at the top, above your highest pocket’s space. (notice that in the image, the grey area is what we have determined will remain unused)

5.) With your 33″ – 3″, you now have 30 inches to work with. If you are planning on doing 4 pockets, simply divide that by 4. 30 divided by 4 is 7.5.  So each pocket space will need  approximately 12″x7.5″

6.) With 7.5 inches of space for each pocket, you will need approximately 2 inches of space between each pocket. This leaves you with pockets that are 5.5″x12″. (again, the grey areas are unused space)

Now let’s actually MAKE it:

1.) If you have not yet cut the interfacing and main panel, so do now. They will be the measurements provided within the first 2 steps earlier in this post.

2.) Cut 4 pocket pieces that are 13″x6.5″. This will give you a 12×5.5 pocket, plus a .5″ seam allowance on each side.

3.) Cut 4 pocket pieces out of the “pocket insides” fabric at the same sizes.

4.) pair each pocket outer with a pocket inner. Place pieces right sides together, and stitch all the way around, leaving an opening for turning. Repeat with each pocket, then turn all pockets.

5.) Select a fabric to use for the loops the dowel will attach to. Cut 2 pieces, each 2″x5″. Fold longwise and stitch up the longest side. Using a safety pin, turn right side out. These are your “dowel loops”

6.) Place main panel fabric face down on the interfacin. Starting half way down one long side, stitch down the rest of that long side, across the bottom, and up the other long side, pausing before sewing the top.  Take 2 dowel loops, fold them in half and pin them in place for sewing. Be sure the loop is hidden, sandwiched between the 2 panels, and the tails are facing out towards you. Continue to stitch across the top. When you get to the corner, turn and go back down the first side. Be sure to leave a space for turning. Turn

7.) top stitch the main panel, sewing the turning hole closed.

8.) Using the measurements above, pin pockets into place (with turning holes pinned shut) and sew in place.

9.) Using a straight edge and a washable fabric marker, mark where you would like your pockets to be closed. My pockets are as follows:

Top: Small, wide, small.

2nd: Extra wide: small

3rd: Wide, wide

last: small, small, small, small.

This allows for lots of different sizes of gadgets to be held securely.

Sew along the lines you’ve created.

10.) Insert dowel

11.) cut 4 long pieces of fabric that are approx 1/4″ wide (doesn’t have to be exact) using one of the pocket fabrics. Using a zigzag stitch, sew them together, end-to-end. Using  large crochet hook, crochet through this fabric as if it were yarn. This will provide you with a sturdy “rope” to hang the organizer.

11.) Tie “rope” to ends of dowel and hang using a cup hook

Be sure to post photos of your proect on the TFF Showoff Flickr Group

Here is the tutorial you asked for: How to make a Super Hero Cape

Last night I started working on Lily’s. Overall, these capes take just a bit less than the length of the average football game. How’s that for precise?

What you need:

3 Colors of Satin (* indicates which color I’m referring to on the images below)

Primary Color: 2 yards (*yellow)


Circle/Accent Color: 1/3 of a yard – 1/2 yard depending on how big the kid is (*lt pink)


Decoration Color: 1/3 of a yard (*raspberry)

3 colors of thread to match satin color

Sharp scissors

Lots of pins

sewing machine

washable ink fabric marker

Measuring tape

Spare Fabric for design template (felt works best!)

Directions:

Measure from the nape of your childs neck, down to where you want the cape to end. Start with something around 20 (for small toddlers) to 22 (for bigger toddlers) inches and adjust as needed. This will be called distance A. (For Reference: Lily’s was 19.5″)

Measure around your childs neck from the throat, around the back, to the throat again. This is so you know how big to make the neck opening.

Lay out your primary color satin, right sides together. Place a pin 2.5″ from the bottom of the fabric panels.

Measure up distance A. Place another pin.

Take your measuring tape and place the 15″ tick on the bottom pin in your fabric. Mark at the 1″ tick with a pin, and the 30″ tick with a pin. This give you an approximate width for your cape. You can make it smaller (for smaller kids) or wider (for bigger kids) as necessary. (Lily’s was 29.5″)

Measure up  from top pin, 5-6″ (depending on how large you want the neck opening to be. Mark with pin.

From halfway up that small section, measure across the same distance and pin on each side.

Sketch a circle with your fabric marker. This is the neck hole opening.

At “nape of neck” measure across 15-16.5″ inches based on cape size. mark with pin.

Measure up 1″ from very top  pin. mark with pin.

Using pins placed, sketch out the overall shape on the cape using your marker.

Move pins to inside the lines to hold 2 panels of satin together. Stitch along sketched line, except for a opening at the bottom, big enough for turning. (red area shown)

Now on to the real photos

Now that you have your cape edges sewn, go ahead and trim off the excess fabric, leaving 1/4″ seam allowance.

Turn

Topstitch

Now for the design.

For the circle, decide how big you want it. Brendan’s was 10″ exactly. Lily’s was about 9.25″ I used a cake pan for Brendan’s

Outline the cake pan

Sew, leaving an area for turning

Turn

Set aside.

Using some scrap fabric (I like felt, it’s sturdy) sketch out the design you want for your cape. We had to do this 2x with Brendans, so I made 2 designs for Lily’s to see which I liked better.

Cut out the shapes and place them on your cape to be sure you like the shape/scale.

Place 2 pieces of design color, right sides together. Place template over fabric and outline

Stitch, leaving an area open for turning

Cut out and trim on curves

Turn

Place both smaller pieces on cape to check for placement

Pin circle down

*Load machine with accent color on your spool and primary color on your bobbin. (ie: Light pink on top, yellow on bottom)

Sew circle down

Pin design down

*Load machine with design color on your spool and primary color on your bobbin. (ie: raspberry on top, yellow on bottom)

Stitch the design down

Option: Using primary colored thread (yellow), do a decorative stitch all the way around the design. I did this on both and it adds a nice touch.

The reason for the primary color on the bobbin is because it will blend in with the main panel, and not show very much on the underside:

Add velcro to neck tabs

Wrap it up and place it under the tree

If you love this tutorial, please take a moment to utilize the “share” button to post it on facebook, twitter, or whatever social site you use

If you USE this tutorial, please send me a photo when you are done (or a link to your blog post about it). I’d love to share it on the site

Thank you so much!

Back on October 3rd, I hit up a garage sale in a affluent neighborhood near us. It’s one of those beautiful areas where everyone has 10 acres of land, and no one has a mortgage payment under $4k a month. Where your backyard either houses your guest quarters, your RV and boat, or your pool that is designed to look like you live in a tropical rainforest. It just also happens to be where friendly and relatively wealthy middle aged women sell their well cared for clothing for $2 a pop.

So while out, I picked up these capri pants for Lily. Not something I would *ever* buy for myself – not my style at all – but I LOVED the embroidery on each leg, and knew I could turn it into something fabulous for Lily. Only a few days prior, my mother and I had been at Old Navy combing their sale racks for clothes for the kids (and holy cow did we score that weekend!) We found  beautiful white-with-black-embroidered-flowers dress for Lily, but of course since it was clearance, they didn’t have her size. Bummer. Enter stuffy looking capris. YAY! Perfect match.

First thing to do was decide how long I wanted the skirt to be (since I already knew what cut/style I wanted the dress to be). Once that was decided, it was time to cut. I cut the legs off about .5″ longer than I had intended for the skirt to be. Then I carefully cut up the inside leg seam on each leg. I did the same on the lining too. Then off to my serger to turn the 2 pieces of leg fabric into one big circle of leg fabric. I did the same with the lining.

I used the existing waistline (not stretchy) as the neckline of the dress, and utilized excess fabric from the back of the pants for the straps. I added a zipper in the back for opening it big enough to slip over her head, and the black band was some excess black fabric I had lying around.

ETA: Her dress has some extra loft b/c I cut a row of tulle out of a wedding dress I have lying around and put that in between the lining and the skirt.

This dress was actually done in Mid-October, but being my lazy self, I decided to not take pics right away. I finally remembered to do it today and figured I better post before I put that off for entirely too long as well.

Here is the final product

Overall project time: probably 6ish hours max, but i did it over the course of 2 weeks.

Difficulty: difficult. No pattern was used, so it was all off measurements and eyeballing. I also didn’t use a RTW item as a template, so that took out some of the simplistic nature that most of my recon’s have. Also, since I was working with a smaller item, you have to be careful how you utilize fabric… there isn’t much to spare. Zipper went in a little fussy, but not enough to bother me.

So this is pretty easy, but for anyone who isn’t quite sure how to make the own bows, I put together a photo tutorial for you.

First you want to start with all these materials:

Tacky Glue (clear drying)
Hair Clips (can find them at Hobby Lobby)
Ribbons in your choices of colors/designs
scissors

And here are the steps:

1.) Cut a piece of ribbon several inches long

2.) Make a line of glue about as long as the hair pin on one end of the ribbon (be sure it’s on the back)

3.) Using the curved side of the hair clip (the flat side goes against the head) open the clip, slide the ribbon in and close the clip down. The glue will bubble out through the opening on the hair clip and that’s okay.

4.) Fold ribbon over the tip of the clip and back over the top of the hair clip. Use 2 or 3 other hair clips to hold it down while it dries. Allow it to dry a bit. You can start another ribbon and that should be enough time.

5.) Put a dab of glue on the inside and outside of the press-tab closest to the ribbon

6.) Wrap ribbon around the press-tab and secure with another hairclip.

7.) Do the same on the opposite press-tab and secure with hairclip. Allow some time to dry.

8.) Cut another piece of ribbon a few inches long. Fold one edge to center of ribbon. Fold other edge to center of ribbon, overlapping opposite edge. Hold with finger so you can squeeze 2 tabs of glue down into the center to hold it, then hold with a hairclip at center. Allow a moment to dry.

9.) Place a small dot of glue on the underside of the ribbon.

10.) Center on ribbon-covered hairclip and secure with another hairclip. Allow a moment to dry.

11.) Cut a small section of ribbon, long enough to wrap around the center of the bow. Place a small dot of glue on the top center of the bow.

12.) Place small piece of ribbon down on glue and secure with clip. Allow a moment to dry.

13.) Put 2 small dabs of glue on the under-side edges of the small ribbon piece

14.) Open main hairclip, wrap ribbon edges tightly around bow and secure by closing hairclip.

And that’s all it is
Hope this Tutorial was helpful. Be sure to post links in the comments section to blog posts if you use this tutorial. I’d love to see your creations

This is one of my favorite patterns and I’m about to start working on one for Lily this week.
It’s a LARGE Advent Calendar Pattern. Great for putting small toys (think mini playdoughs, stensils, stickers, hot wheels, etc) into during the 25 days before Christmas.
The pattern is now available for Download on Etsy!
Purchase your pattern here!
Here is a digital example of the calendar:

And here is the one we made 2 years ago for Brendan:

I have a 4.5 year old son, so we are CONSTANTLY reviewing colors, shapes, sizes, letters and numbers. I had priced out the sets of magnets for my kids to use on the fridge while learning all of these subjects, but wowwee, they were pricey! So, as I always do, I thought “I bet I could make that for way cheaper. And off to Photoshop I went. I created 8 shapes that my son would learn during his first step of shape-learning (circle, square, triangle, etc). I labeled them so that he could connect the spelling of each of those shapes with the shape itself. Then I made them bright colors so we could also work on our basic color learning.
I then printed them out on my computer and used some sticky-back magnets I had on hand to adhere them to a magnetic surface. Using sharp scissors, I cut around the edges and voila! I had some shaped magnets for the kids! I’ve also done this with numbers and letters, though those take way longer.

So today I wanted to share my Shapes
These are made large (they will print 1 set per page), but you can easily size them down prior to printing if you want to use them on a business card magnet.
If you want them bigger, like I did, visit Magnet Valley’s Adhesive Magnet Sheet selection page to purchase.

Here is set one

Click here to download Set 1

Here is set 2

Click here to download Set 2

Enjoy! And be sure to comment on this post if you blog about your experiences with this project! I love to see when other people try what I share

courtesy

We hung our flat screen tv awhile back, and while we love that it’s mounted, we didn’t love all the nasty, ugly cords hanging down.
Before we mounted, our Flat Screen was a safety hazard, just waiting to topple over onto an unsuspecting house guest. Not to mention, it took up a lot of space since it had to be on an angle b/c of the large TV stand and the fireplace.

After we hung the TV, all the cables necessary for the TV to function draped down our fireplace. Not a pretty sight.

So we ran the cables along the mantle over to the shelf where the Cable Box and DVD player are.

Then we took down the TV and drilled a large hole in the wall in an area that we knew would be hidden by the TV (have the vacuum handy, b/c there will be lots of paint and drywall dust)

Do the same on the side wall of the fireplace (over by our brown shelf) or whereever you want the cords to come back out.

Straighten a wire hanger and make a hook on the end of it. Grab a skein of yarn and a heavy bolt. tie the end of the yarn into the bolt (do not cut the yarn off the skein, just leave it all attached), chuck the bolt through the hole by the tv. It will hang down into the wall. Going in through the other hole, use your wire hook to snag the bolt and pull it back out the other end.

When you are ready to thread the cables through, you might want to consider doing them in sets of 2-3 at a time. Tie the skein end of the yarn to the ends of the cords and carefully pull the bolt end until the cords come through the other side.
Untie the cords, plug them in, pull on the skein side of the yarn to thread some of the slack back up towards the TV and start again with the next set.

You can purchase outlet covers that are basically a big circle so that it’ll look nicer. That’s what we did

Here’s our after, and no, we had not yet dealt with the cables of the left of the fireplace yet

I went to the Tutorials page today and saw that some of the images weren’t working. So just so you know, they are all back up and running

TUTORIALS PAGE