artsy-crafty babe

button flower tutorial

Here ya go, everything I know about making button flowers - enjoy!

To make a button flower, you'll need 5-6 smallish matching buttons, a larger button for the center, and if desired, a small button for the center of the big button.
The key to making these is the glue.  The three pictured above are some that I've used with success.  What did NOT work was hot glue, craft glue, and E6000.  Make sure the glue you use is meant for beads, glass, & plastics.

Make a ring out of your matching smaller buttons. Make sure the flattest side is facing up, this makes a better surface for adhering. Place a small dab of glue on each button.

Place the center button on top - flat side against flat side.  **You can make the flowers with the ridge side up on the bottom layer, but it holds better with the flat side up - it's your call.

Next, put a small dab of glue in the center, then place the small center button. Let glue cure for 24 hours.

If you want to make this into a brooch, you'll need a pin-back and a small circle of felt.

Glue the pin-back onto the back of the button flower.

To make things neat & tidy, glue the felt circle on top of the pin-back.  Once your glue is dry, your button flower is ready to use.  That's it!

Use your imagination to come up with all sorts of combinations!

Dishtowel Potholder Tutorial

For this project, I usually use 100% woven cotton dishtowels from the dollar store. It’s best to use something that isn’t too bulky.

1.Start with a standard sized dishtowel, preferably one that is not terrycloth.

   

2. Cut off the hems and any tags from the back of the dishtowel.

3. With the wrong side of the dishtowel facing up, fold over one long side towards the center about 1/3 of the width.

4. Fold the other long side towards the center about 1/3 of the width, leaving raw edge about ½” from the folded edge.

5. Fold end pieces of the folded dishtowel towards the center.

6. Fold over the dishtowel again, enclosing the raw end pieces at the center. You should now have a somewhat square (or rectangular) shaped folded dishtowel with no exposed raw edges.

7. Pin the folded edges in place and insert a loop of ribbon (or a piece of the hem that you previously cut off) at either a corner or at the center of the potholder.

8. Stitch all around the 4 sides of the potholder. That’s it!

At this point you can leave the potholder as is, which is nice if you have a pretty printed dishtowel, but if you’d like to jazz up a plain dishtowel/potholder, the possibilities are endless. Some suggestions are to add appliqué, a strip of patchwork, embroidery, or stamp a design. A great gift idea is to embellish a dishtowel to match the potholder for a complete set. This could be given in conjunction with your favorite cookie recipe or a cooking utensil. Have fun!

Be sure to check out more great ideas at Cotton Spice!

it's that time of year

Can you believe that Christmas is so near?  How did that happen?  I am determined not to wait until the last minute to make Christmas gifts this year.  Lucky for us, Sew Mama Sew has put together a whole list of tutorials this entire month.  There's some good stuff over there, seriously!  I'm not sure which day, but my fluffy flower tutorial will be included at some point.

Another resourse for gift making ideas is Cotton Spice's Last Minute Gift Countdown.  I was extremely honored to be asked to contribute to this project.  Cotton Spice blog will have gift ideas featured from Nov. 5-17.  I'm not gonna tell you now, but I've come up with something to share, which will be featured here as well as on Cotton Spice blog on Nov. 11.

Okay y'all, it's time to get busy!  Christmas will be here before you know it!!!

Pleated Tote Pattern

The pleated tote pattern is finally done.  You can download the pattern and instructions here or from the sidebar to the left.  I really wanted to do a tutorial with pictures, but there hasn't been a whole lot of crafting or sewing going on lately.  I blame it on summer, but I'm not complaining!  We have swimming lessons for the next two weeks, then we're off on vacation for a week, so it looks like I won't get around to much in the next month or so.

I must warn you, this is a pretty crude pattern and my drawings leave a lot to be desired.  I wish I had the skills to whip out a fancy pattern for you, but this will have to do for now.  Please let me know if something isn't clear or is just plain wrong.  Feel free to email me any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.  Oh yeah, one more thing - it isn't mentioned in the pattern or instructions, but you need to tape the top half and bottom half of both the exterior and lining pattern pieces together to get one full piece.  I hope that doesn't confuse anyone!

If you make a pleated tote and want to share, please add it to the flickr group.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!  Happy sewing!!

the purse project

Did you join in the Purse Project fun? The theme this time around was using a tea towel, which is right up my alley. I couldn't pass this challenge up! I even used one of my "good" Martha tea towels to make a little fun party bag.

Making this bag is pretty simple, but I'm sure I'll confuse the crap out of you with my directions.

First, I folded my tea towel in half matching up the short sides. I then measured up 9" from the fold and cut off the excess. What you're left with is an 18" piece that will be used for the body and two other pieces (the part you just cut off), which you'll use for the handles.

You don't have to line this bag, but you can if you want to. I did, but it made it kind of bulky. If you line it, cut a piece of lining 18" x whatever the width of your tea towel is. It should be the same size as the tea towel piece you're using as the body. With the fold as the bottom of your bag, stitch up the side seams, leaving about 1/2" unsewn at the top. To get that curve on the bottom corners, I traced a saucer, using that as my stitch line. Do the same for the lining.

Make straps out of the two pieces you cut off earlier.

For the top rectangles, I cut 4 pieces of my lining fabric 4.5"x 10". Sandwich each strap between two of the rectangles, right sides together, spacing them to your desired width, then sew up the rectangle on three sides - short side, long side (with the straps), short side. Leave the bottom open. Turn your rectangle right side out. Next, press to the inside 1/2" of the open edge of the rectangle. At this point, all the raw edges of the rectangle should be on the inside.

If you're using a lining, put your lining inside the tea towel body, wrong sides together. Gather the top, using your machine or a needle in thread (my preferred method). The gathered width should be that of your finished rectangle.  Now comes the fun part - shove your gathered top inside the rectangle about 1/2", use lots of pins to keep in place, the sew.  Do this for the front and back of the purse.  I found this part most challenging because my canvas lining made it all quite bulky.  That's it, you're done.

Please excuse my wonky sewing on the twill tape trim, it was an after thought. It was one of those things that I wasn't even sure I was going to keep, but I liked it, so it stayed. Then, I decided that a fluffy flower would be the perfect finishing touch. Lucky for me, I had the perfect fabric and button in my stash. Voila, my tea towel purse!

Fluffly Flower Tutorial

I know that there are about a bazillion flower tutorials out there, but I thought I'd share my way of making them.  It's really quite simple.

Start out with about a 4" square of fabric - this will make one petal cluster for a flower of approximately the same size.  You will need about 6-8 of these squares.  For this particular flower I used 7 squares.

Fold in half.

Fold in half again, matching short sides.

Next, cut out an ice cream cone shape, with the folded corner of your square as the point of your cone.  I used pinking shears, but this isn't necessary.

When you open it up it should look something like this:

Next, sew a circle around the center, just a simple running stitch.

 

Pull threads together, like a little drawstring, tie the two ends of the thread into a knot, then cut off the strings.  It should look something like the photo below.  I've learned that the bigger the circle, the more gathered the petal clusters become.

Repeat these steps for 6-8 petal clusters.  The more petal clusters, the fluffier the flower.

Once you get them all gathered, string them on some thread.  I like to use a double strand for strength.

Pull the thread together, like you did for each petal cluster.  Tie in a knot and cut thread.  At this point your flower should look like this:

The front and the back should look pretty much the same, so choose which ever side looks best to you.  If you're making this as a brooch, then sew a pin onto some felt.

Hot glue the felt onto the back of the flower, or you can sew the flower onto your project.

To finish, sew (or hot glue) a button to the front.  Voila!  A fluffy flower brooch.

I hope that was clear.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask!