Tag: DIY

How to Make Simple Sewing Pattern Weights

When I was a teenager my mom taught me how to sew. I always had the hardest time getting the pattern to line up with the straight of grain. I would lay it out, pin it, measure, unpin and adjust, measure again, etc. until the pattern piece was straight. Then the whole process was repeated for the next pattern piece. I hated the cutting process because it always seemed to take so much effort to get everything laid out properly.

After college once I was out on my own I started sewing again. For a while I used the pinning method, hating every second of it, then I read something online and realized I could weight my pattern pieces down instead of pinning them. The heavens opened at that moment, and the angels sang. My life would never be the same! Since that time I have been using a random assortment of items to weight my pattern pieces: books, figurines, my phone, an extra pair of scissors … you get the idea. It was frustrating to never have quite enough weights of the right size to hand. So in true DIY fashion, I decided to fix the problem.

In researching solutions to my weighty problem I found several blogs that used small ceramic tiles to make pattern weights. I went out to Home Depot and bought a package of hexagonal tiles (I like that they almost look like EPP shapes), then I bought a few sheets of cheap felt from Walmart. Some other materials I used that I already had were a hot glue gun, hot glue sticks, scissors, and chalk to mark the felt with. All told, I spent less than $20 on my project.

Step 1: Remove the tiles from the backing. I planned to cut through the mesh holding the tiles together, but they actually peeled off pretty easily. I used a pair of scissors to clean up any glue that marred the sides.

Step 2: Trace around the tiles onto felt, then cut the pieces out.

Step 3: Adhere the felt to the tiles. I put a circle of hot glue in the center of each tile to hold the felt in place, then glued down each side as close to the edge as I could manage.

Step 4: Clean up the edges. A quick snip on all sides leaves these pattern weights looking just about perfect.

My sister helped me make a dozen weights, and we spent about 20 minutes on the project. It was fun to make, and I’ve already started using them in my sewing projects. If you’re tired of pins, give pattern weights a try. They might just change your life!

Making a Tree Skirt (from Stash)

I love Christmas. It’s my favourite holiday of the year, and I get so excited about it. For me, the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving when we set up our tree. This year we put our tree up a little early, and my husband remarked that we needed a tree skirt, specifically a red one. I am always happy to show that my crafting skills are practical, so I told him I could make a tree skirt. Now I just happened to have about half a yard of red knit velvet left over from making my Renaissance Gown, as well as a similar amount of thick grey felt that has been in my stash for several years. I did some measuring and drawing and then cut my fabric.

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Since I was working with scraps (or “cabbage” as couture sewists call it) I did have to piece both the inner and outer layers, but this meant that I was able to use all but the smallest bits of my fabric. If I was making this again I would have paid more attention to the grainline of the velvet. You can see that the texture of the pieced section reflects light differently because the grain is perpendicular to the rest of the fabric instead of parallel. In the end it doesn’t matter much as the piecing hardly shows when the skirt is on the tree. (Please forgive the cat hair – my cat has decided that velvet is her new favourite texture.)

pieced 2

I originally meant to sew everything on this tree skirt, but after a while I got tired of sewing, and I realized that the hem was massive and likely to shift, meaning that the more time I spent on the hem the more likely it was to become distorted. In the end I pulled out my trusty hot glue gun and glued the hem down – this way I was able to lay the whole skirt flat to minimize distortion while I worked on the hem. Normally I wouldn’t use hot glue on a fabric project, but this won’t ever be worn by a human and it will only be used for a month out of the year, so it’s not likely to have a lot of wear and tear.

pieced 1

With the hem sorted, the last thing I needed to do was to attach closures. I had some “Merry Christmas” ribbon in my stash, so after sealing the ends of the ribbon I glued it onto the back of the skirt, and then tacked it on with needle and thread for good measure.

ribbons

With that sorted, I felt that my crafting was proven to be a life skill and I was ready to move on to my Christmas knitting.

P.S. Speaking of Christmas knitting, if you’re in the market for an awesome hat, I highly recommend the Drosseln hat. I may be a bit biased, but I think it’s a really fun knit, and you can get it for 25% off until Christmas with the code, “LoveMyLYS” Happy Knitting!

DIY Decorated Binder

I have been meaning to start a wedding binder to keep myself organized and sane less crazy over the next few months. As we have discussed before, I am cheap, and the idea of spending $15 or more on a sparkly, pretty binder made me sad. I was sure I could do it myself. And I did.

Materials: 1 used 3″ binder (black), 1 worn out t-shirt (complete with pretty flowers), 1 Velcro tie thingy, leftover fabric from a previous project, lots of hot glue, tatting.

Time: 1 hour (ish)

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As you do

So I’m working away steadily on my Farrah Fawcett sweater (which is coming along beautifully, thank you for asking) when I realize that the sweater is growing. Like, a lot. Now this is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but I need something to carry this baby behemoth around in so it doesn’t snag on things in my purse. Like keys. And pens.

I am also cheap (We’ve talked about this before. It’s not going to change). So instead of buying a bag made by some fabulous individual, I had a rummage through my fabric stash and decided to make a bag myself. I came up with less than a yard of this beautiful butter yellow…stuff. It’s synthetic and lightweight, but I love the colour and it doesn’t cost money, so that works for me.

I sewed the bag by hand because:

  • My sewing machine is not working correctly
  • I have free time at work when I can work on personal projects
  • I actually enjoy hand-sewing

The fabric is really tightly woven, which made my hands hurt a little, but because it’s synthetic I heat-sealed the edges so I didn’t have to do any more sewing (Yes, I like playing with fire. No, I don’t think this is a problem).

So here’s what I came up with:

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Doctor Shoes

Do you remember that time when I tatted the Doctor’s TARDIS? Well, that was almost two years ago (how time flies!!), and my fetish with all things Doctor Who has only grown and matured since then. So when I saw these shoes on Pinterest I knew I absolutely had to make a pair of my own. I decided not to use high heels because I don’t have much opportunity to wear them in my day to day life. And I knew these would be shoes I would want to wear all the time, shoes that would show off my geekery and general awesomeness.

So off I went to Hobby Lobby and found some knockoff brand Toms (because why would you pay full price if you don’t have to?). Painting is one of my satellite hobbies, so I knew I already had what I needed in that department. Several layers of paint, a bow (because bow-ties are cool), and a few days later, look what I’ve got! The most adorable Doctor Who shoes ever! I love them so much and they make me feel like I am a completely cool and awesome person. Really, they do. You should make some yourself so you can see how awesome they make you feel.

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I took them for a little ramble in the woods, and I honestly think that the mud they gathered makes them even more charming and happy. Long live the Doctor Shoes!

 

Wildflowers

What’s an obsessed knitter to do when she has a growing assortment of knitting needles and nowhere to store them? Make a knitting needle case, of course. I had a few small pieces of fabric sitting around that went together reasonably well. Anyway, how hard can it be. All you have to do is sew straight lines! Well, it turns out that sewing straight lines is a little harder than I thought, but I’m happy with the result. It seemed a little plain when I was done, so in keeping with my floral print, I added some colourful wildflowers swaying in the breeze and finished it off with a lovely green ribbon to tie it closed.

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