A Case for the Nook

This lucky girl got a Nook (electronic reader in case you're like me and had to look it up the first time you heard about it) for this past Christmas. I've been needing a case for it and decided to sew my own instead of drop $30 buying one from the store.

I just adapted that good old reversible pouch tutorial (again) to fit my new favorite gadget. 

See that? I'm sewing a zipper. After that first zipper, it's all gravy. I was intimidated by zippers and then I sewed one on a bag. Sure, you have to pay attention when you're doing it, but I already do that to avoid sewing over my fingers--hey, it's a totally real possibility; I've come pretty close a few times over the years. Don't get me wrong. Mistakes are still made, stitches are still pulled, and swear words are still uttered.

But zippers aren't as scary as I originally thought they were.

From start to finish, it took me about 3 hours to complete with my somewhat proficient sewing skills and my should have been tuned up 5 years ago sewing machine.

Here's what I came out of the whole deal with:

The hard case for the Nook pictured above was gifted to me with the Nook (minus the mushroom sticker which I added to make it more my style), but I wanted something soft to protect my precious in addition to the hard case. This fits those wants quite nicely.

Don't be scuurd. Try it out for yourself! Then stop by here and share your creations with me. I'd love to see them!

Things that start with the letter P

The theme of today's blog is: Things That Start With the Letter P

And I haven't even been watching a lot of Sesame Street lately. :) Just a strange theme of my life lately.

Let's begin...

Patches

The boy is rough on his clothes. He's 2 years old and wears holes in the knees of his jeans like they're made of paper. The jeans are perfectly good otherwise, so I wasn't willing to throw them away. Not with a perfectly good stash of fabric to use for patches!

So, Bubba and I raided the fabric stash and he came out with a totally awesome new look for his previously holey jeaned self:

And I came out with 4 hours less of my life (who knew patches took so long to sew on pants!?!) and a couple of holes in my fingers. But he loves them so I think it's totally worth it.

Puckerooms

Mushroom shaped candy. Apparently they're even sort of good for you what with being made with natural ingredients and 25% real fruit juice and all...

Why have I not heard of these before!?! These bad boys are right up my alley. My dentist will be rich!

Purse Pick-Me-Up

My sister gave me a lovely purse for my birthday. She's the purse queen and takes her purses very seriously. So imagine her heartbreak when she realized the zipper on it was off center after I had torn open the wrapping paper on the big day.

I, on the other hand, was perfectly happy. It was a sweet gesture and I had a fabulous idea to make the purse look like there was no defect at all. My sister was skeptical, but she has faith in my crafty abilities.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm working on a small mushroom and some flowers, too. That way I can switch them out when I feel like something a little bit different. Thanks, sis!

So those are a few projects that I've made in my free time lately. What have you all been up to?

Chore Chart Leads to Sewing Project

My kids are 2 and 4 years old.

The 4 year old wants to be a big kid who gets allowance.
The 2 year old wants to do everything the 4 year old does.
They both want to buy toys.

So we instituted chores and allowance for completing chores at my house last week. Why should we parents be stuck paying for all of their toys with nothing for us in return!?! We shouldn't, I say!

Our method for logging the chores is a dry erase chore chart. That way we can modify it however we want (like to add more chores MUAHAHAHAHA) and it's eco-friendly because it's reusable.

I hung our eco-friendly dry erase chore chart on the wall at kid height and called it good.

But it wasn't good.

The dry erase markers that I bought for this didn't come with a pouch and I had no place to put the markers near the board. So I slapped them in a sandwich bag and tacked them to the wall next to the chore chart.

It looked hideous.

We can't have hideousness all out in the open for anyone stopping by to see! No, no, not when I can sew.

So I drew up some plans:

Wow, I really need to get a better eraser...and scanner...

And went about the business of modifying my reversible pouch tutorial to make it!

As you can see, I changed the shape of the pouch and added a rivet to the top for hanging.

Here is the finished pouch:

Funny story about the rivet on this pouch...
So this was the first time I've ever put a rivet on a project.

I used the little hand riveting tools that you can buy next to the rivets and a hammer (as directed). Yeah...the directions on the packs aren't very good. Or maybe I need to work on my reading comprehension skills a bit. I don't know what, but whatever the problem was with the directions, I used the tool wrong and the rivet tool got stuck INSIDE of the rivet. And I couldn't get it out.

I had to make some delicate maneuvers involving a chisel, hammer, and flat head screw driver to get the tool off. So I'll be posting a how-to on riveting soon. Or maybe a how-not-to. I haven't decided yet.

I'm thinking in the future that this bag could be given to a certain little boy to hold his pens or treasures of some kind. All he'd need is a piece of rope strung through the rivet to close it with.

And that's how a chore chart lead me to a sewing project.

What have you been making lately?

Project Completion - Crochet

I finally finished the mushroom bag!!


<--Head banger mushroom here is supposed to represent how happy I am right now.


Actually, the whole family is pretty excited and that even includes my husband. I'm excited because it's done and pretty much what I thought it would look like. My kids are excited because it's for them. And my husband's excited because he thought it was "a cool idea." And because I was so excited about this last night that I took pictures so I could share the completed project with you.

With that I present to you--in all of it's glory--the mushroom bag!!

This is the bag all closed up:

And this is the bag open with some of the contents pulled out:

And here is a view from above:

Now I have received a request to make dragons for at least two people. And I still need to make a purple ninja for L and a pair of ninja heads for my mom's mother's day present. (Yeah...she's that kind of mom.) So it looks like I will be posting more crochet projects that I made in my free time very soon! Hopefully some more patterns and tutorials, too.

Oh, woe is me...

I've lost my F sized crochet hook.

Well, actually, I know exactly where it is. My evil couch ate it.

Normally I would not mind because I have plenty of other craft projects to keep me busy until I find it again. But this is not normally!

Right now, as I type this, I am midway through my mushroom bag project from the Work and Ideas in Progress page. I'm really excited about finishing this bag so I can show you! It's going to be so cool (at least I hope so, anyway) but we won't find out if I don't find my hook!!

Oh, woe is me...

Nothing small and crocheted will be made in my free time until my couch gives up that F hook!

It's on, now. This is my house, couch! You will not take my stuff from me!!

What have you made in your free time lately?

Reversible Pouch Tutorial

I made reversible pouches for my kids recently and thought that I'd share the pattern.

They are super simple and take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

This pattern is very versatile for a couple of reasons.
1) The pouch can be made to virtually any size.
2) The pouch can be made with a drawstring close, snap close, zipper, and I'm even thinking about putting some rivets in one someday so a caribeaner can be used to attach it to belt buckles or a backpack.

The tutorial that I'm doing today will feature a basic open pouch.

Materials Needed:
Fabric
Thread
Pins
Scissors or rotary cutter
Sewing machine
Iron and ironing board
Needle

How to Make the Reversible Pouch:

Click on pictures to see a larger version

Choose your fabrics and iron them flat before trimming to the desired size.

Cut the fabric to about 2 inches larger all the way around than you would like the finished bag to be. I cut and then iron--do not make this mistake as I had to go back and straighten my edges after I got done ironing.

Flip outside pieces and inside pieces facing the rights sides together (pictured left) and pin 3 of the 4 sides.

Note: I had to cut all 4 sides of my fabric because I was using a print that had a top and bottom. If you don't care that one side of your bag's pattern will be upside down (or you are using a fabric with no distinguishable top and bottom) then cut a long rectangle double the length of your bag's desired size plus 2 inches. That way you won't have to sew the bottom shut because it will already be closed. Save yourself some work.

Sew the outside pieces together leaving one of the sides open. This will be the top of the pouch.

Sew the inside pieces together leaving one of the sides open and a 2 1/2 inch gap in one seam for turning the bag out in later steps. My gap was smaller than that and it was tough to turn the bag out. Don't make my mistake!


Once the sides (and bottom, if applicable) are sewn, turn the inside pouch right side out and work it into the outside pouch. Pictured below left.


Line up the seams as pictured above right. The orange arrow points to where the seams are lined up. Pin the pouch so that it doesn't twist while you sew the top closed.

Sew along the top of the pouch. You may need to stop a couple of times to adjust the fabric so that it doesn't twist as you sew. I've found that the smaller the pouch, the more it twists.


Once you've stitched all the way around the top, pull the inside of the pouch out as pictured above.

Find the opening that you left in the inside fabric (pictured above) and pull the whole bag through it so that the right side is on the outside (pictured below).

We're almost there! Hang in there. Oh, and...

That's right. Fold over the edges of the hole in the inside fabric (iron them down if they won't stay on their own) and sew it shut. You can sew it shut the easy but visible way: via sewing machine. Or you can sew it shut the more time consuming but less visible way: by hand. I've done both and they both work well.

Push the inside of the pouch into the outside of the pouch and stitch about 1/2 to 1 inch away from the top edge of the opening. This is the finishing hem that will show on the outside of the bag, so take care to make it straight! If you're really worried about it, then I've found that using a zig zag stitch sometimes helps to camouflage my inability to sew in a straight line.

Sidenote: Do you ever have days like this where no matter what you do, you can't sew in a straight line to save your life? I certainly do...


And there you have it! You've got a reversible pouch. Perfect for little hands with little things or big hands with little things. Protect your cell phone or Ipod, a book, anything really.

Here are all of the pouches I made that day

These were made in my free time. Imagine what you can do in yours!

Happy sewing!

A bag and a pillow

I made a couple of things for my kids earlier this week.

One of them had to stay home sick, so what better time than then to make something to make them feel good?


My daughter got a reversible butterfly bag with pockets. Her brother got the dragon pillow.

They are both happy campers!

The bag took about 4 hours to complete. The pillow took about 15 minutes. They are both basic designs that you can find patterns for by typing "pillow sewing tutorial" or "reversible bag tutorial" into any search engine.

I made these in my free time. I know you could do so much more with yours!