Fabrics & Supplies

I've already mentioned that Pixie has a birthday coming up and all the gifts I'm making for her have a rainbow theme. When thinking about all the little things I'll be crafting, I thought (dangerous past time, I know :) that I needed something to put them in. Back in the 80s I was really into using the upholstery cording to make all sorts of things. I haven't used it in years, so I decided, what fun! So, here are the directions for Pixie's Rainbow Coiled Rag Bowl. I'll be sharing my "stuffings" as I get them done!

Materials:
new or used light to medium weight cotton
(I bought 1 yard each of 6 rainbow colors and have tons left for other projects)
1/2" upholstery cording
(I bought 10 yards and used 9. Yardage depends on the size of the bowl you cover)
embroidery floss (2 strands) or quilting thread (needs to be heavy duty)
sturdy needle

BEFORE YOU BEGIN… IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT TACKING: As you start assembling your bowl, you will be asked to tack the cording together to form the bowl. When tacking, you must go through 2 pieces of cording; the piece already part of the bowl, and the new piece you are adding. The method I used was to go through the center of a new piece, and bring the needle out halfway through the cord below.

I would then push the needle back into the cord, close to where the thread came out, and angle my needle so it comes up through the center of the strip of the new cord that has not been tacked down yet. (Sounds much more complicated than it is. Check out the photo!)
Pull the thread tight enough so it holds the coils together but not so tight that it begins to dimple the cord. I then put a very small tack stitch where the thread came out to stop the threads from loosening up.
When tacking your bowl together, you want to keep the outside of the bowl stitch free. So as you form your bowl, think about how the next piece of coiling will be added to the bowl, and make your tack stitches so they will be hidden by the next row of cording. On my final row you will be able to see your tacks, but if you use matching thread, and evenly space your tacks, it will not detract from the finished bowl.

Directions:
Pick a bowl you want to use as a form. My bowl was 4" at the base, 8" across the top, and 5" high. Turn the bowl over so the bottom is up.

Rip your fabric in 1" strips. Again, how many strips you need depends on the size of your bowl. I needed 4 strips, 1 yard long of my purple, blue, green and 3 strips of yellow, orange and red. I suggest you rip as you go, so you only rip as many strips as you will actually use. You will also need a 2" square of the first color you use.

Begin by wrapping the end of the cording with the 2" square of fabric. I wrapped my matching embroidery floss around the outside of the fabric to hold in place before I tacked it to the cording.


Take your first color and place the end of the strip near the tip of the covered end of the cording. Pin in place. Begin wrapping the cording with a strip by wrapping on an angle, always overlapping the previous piece by 1/2". Continue wrapping the cord firmly, slightly condensing the cording as you go. Stop when you are about 3" from the end. Pin the strip to the cording so it does not untwist.

To start forming the bowl, begin coiling the covered cording, tacking as you go. (See note above about tacking.)

To add a new color, you can either sew the pieces together by simply overlapping and stitching, or you can tuck the new color under the old color by 2” – 3” and continue wrapping as if they were 1 continuous piece. The tacking and wrapping you do will hold them together, and since this is a rag bowl, some unfinished ends showing are acceptable HOWEVER, make sure any of the unfinished ends are in the inside of the bowl, not the outside, and you can trim back some of unfinished ends on the inside to “neaten up” the bowl when you are done.

To begin with, you can work on a flat surface. Periodically place your piece on the bowl bottom. When your coil is as big as the base of the bowl, continue wrapping the cord with the strips as you have been, but now, as you coil the wrapped cording, use the bowl as a form. Wrap the cord around the bowl, pinning the cording to the previous coils, on the angles the bowl is creating. Continue tacking in place as you build up your bowl.


When your bowl is as tall as you want, cut the cording. Then, taper the last 4” of the cording before wrapping it. Wrap in the same manner. The cording will diminish in height, but you should keep the width the same. Pin in place, and tack as before. You may want to put a couple of extra tacks in at the very end.

Materials:
Christmas Fabric (a pattern that cuts down to 4" x 5" nicely)
Pretty Card Stock (available at office supply stores)
Matching Envelopes (size 4.5" x 5.75")
Inside Greeting Layout (make your own or download ours)
Paper Cutter or Scissors
Pinking Sheers
Glue Stick

Get pretty colored card stock and matching envelopes. We got ours at Staples but any office supply store should have some. You will get two cards per sheet of paper.

Print your inside greeting on the card stock. Click here for our PDF or type up your own. You want the greeting to be centered on the right half of the card stock, with two greetings stacked. See the PDF for layout example.

Cut the card stock in half so that you have two sheets 8.5" wide by 5.5" tall.

Fold the card in half so that the greeting is on the inside.

Cut out your fabric with pinking sheers so that the image is approximately 4" x 5". You can use any fabric or get our Christmas Tree Block from Spoonflower (be sure to check their lead times to see if you can get it in time for Christmas).

Use a glue stick to adhere the fabric to the front of the card. Be sure it is centered.

Sign your cards.

I've been working on my Christmas cards this past week. I still have a handful to make but these are fun and easy and I'm hoping to be done this evening. These are the cards we will be giving to our friends and teachers. For this project I converted my mother's Christmas tree applique block into a fabric print that I ordered from Spoonflower. I plan to make some gift bags with the fabric as well. I sized the tree to fit perfectly on a quarter sheet of paper... but you can use any fun holiday fabric for this project. Check out the directions here or in our Free Patterns section.

This past spring my SIL sent me a suprise gift... a gift card at Spoonflower. So cool! If you are unfamiliar with Spoonflower it is a site where you can upload your own designs and have your very own... totally original... fabric printed. Ahhh... the possibilities here are endless. This just so happened to coincide with our website revamping that I was doing. The two designs of course ended up melding and I am now the proud owner of several yards of totally cool Wee Folk Art Gnomey styled fabric.

After seeing my new stash, I'm sure you're going to want some gnome fabric of your own ;) and guess what... Spoonflower now lets us offer our original designs to others. So you too can own some super sweet Wee Folk Art Gnomey Fabric. Just check out the Wee Folk Art profile at Spoonflower.

Large Tumbling Gnome Fabric (gnomes are about 5 inches tall on an off white background)

Gnome Stripe Fabric (gnomes are about 3 inches tall on the green mushroom print background)

Green Mushroom Background Fabric

The fabric has been sitting here for awhile, begging to be turned into skirts for the girls. I finally couldn't say no any longer. They are the perfect fall colors. Here is Fairy's new skirt (BTW - the tights and poncho are from Children's Place). Her new braided barrettes matched beautifully too. Pixie's skirt is yet to come. AND I have something in the works FOR ME! Stay tuned.

When doing any craft, there are some things we have to do that are more a groan than a pleasure. That's how I feel about straightening the grain of fabric. To be honest, I don't do it for most projects, but there are times when it is imperative that the fabric grain is true, and for those times, here are the steps to take to ensure your fabric is on grain.

On woven fabrics, the warp threads in the lengthwise grain are stretched on a loom. The weft threads in the crosswise grain are then woven back and forth the length of the warp threads. In a perfect world, these should be perpendicular to one another. This is called on-grain. If they are not perpendicular to one another, it is called off-grain, and it can cause completed projects to stretch out of shape or natural fringed edges to be uneven. To check grain, you will need to make a straight edge on one of the crosswise grain edges. There are three ways to do this.

How to create a straight crosswise grain edge:

1] Rip fabric. (See Rip and Tear Napkins for this How To.)

2] Cut along a line. To do this find a line near the crosswise edge that touches both selvages. Carefully cut along this line. NOTE: If using a true plaid or stripe, meaning one that has been woven with different colored threads, looking the same on both sides of the fabric, you can cut along one of the threads. If a plaid or stripe has been printed on the fabric, DO NOT cut along a line. The printing could be off-grain. Use methods 1 or 3 for printed fabrics.

3] Pull a thread. (See below.)

How to create a straight edge using Pull a Thread:

1] Begin by laying out the fabric and looking at a crosswise grain edge. Look at the weft threads going back and forth. Chances are the fabric was not cut evenly along a weft thread. Try to find the first weft thread that stretches from selvage to selvage. Follow that thread to either selvage, and make a snip in the fabric about 1/2" below that weft thread. Your snip should cut through the selvage. (The selvages are the tightly woven strips of the fabric that run along the 2 outer edges of the lengthwise grain.)

2] Remove one of the weft threads which will create a visible line that you can cut along, creating a straight edge. To do this, find one of the weft threads and begin gently pulling on it.
This will make your fabric start to gather.
Gently slide the gathers to the opposite selvage.
As the thread is pulled, it will create a line in your fabric.
If your weft thread breaks, simply cut along the line you are creating until you get to the broken thread, then grab the thread and continue.

3] When the weft thread has been removed, cut along the now visible line. You have created a straight edge along the crosswise grain.

Checking for grain:

1] Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, matching the selvages.

2] Look at the straight edge you created by ripping the fabric, cutting along a line, or pulling a thread. If the straight edge lines up evenly, then your fabric is on grain and you can proceed with your project.

3] If the straight edge is not aligned, there are 2 different methods for getting your fabric on-grain.

First, if only slightly off, you can iron your fabric to help straighten the grain. Do this by lining up the straight edge. Pin the selvage together. Smooth out the fabric so it lays flat. (Your fabric should still be folded in half lengthwise.) Iron your fabric. Your fabric should now be on-grain.

Second, if your grain is considerably off, firmly hold the short corner of the fabric then follow the bias (the diagonal line) to the other selvage. Gently tug on the fabric. The fabric will stretch on the bias. If you have a long length of fabric, move farther down the fabric and again tug on the bias.

Recheck the grain by folding the fabric in half lengthwise and checking to see if the straight edge is aligned. If not, pull along the bias again. Once the straight edge is aligned, you should be on-grain, and ready to start your project.

I just received a package with some fabric I ordered off ebay what seems like only moments ago. I couldn't believe how quickly I got it. THEN, on top of that, as a total and complete surprise, hey, we all love total and complete surprises, right, I received an adorable fat quarter! So, because I think nice jesters should be rewarded here's info about Jennifer. She has an ebay store and a website, Runner Girl Fabric. She sells great fabrics...major designers and Japanese imports. It appears she only sells in 1/2 yards but I suppose you could contact her if you needed more. Anyway... that's my way of saying, thanks for the fat quarter, Jennifer!

Okay... so now I have 6 half yards of fabric. My plan is to turn them into simple skirts for Fairy and Pixie. Although most of you may already know how to make these little elastic gathered skirts, I'll include a tutorial when I get around to making them... hopefully, later in the week. Here's the fun fabrics I got!

The fabrics are Kokka's Russian Dolls and Birds and Flowers, and Project Runway's Love Birds. The fourth fabric is the FREE fat quarter, Andalucia Mod Blooms. Cute, right? I'm thinking it will make a perfect gardening bandanna! Hopefully, I'll get to all of these...SOON!

Anyone want to guess what this is? Perhaps the inside of my wastebasket? Or the floor after I've finished a project? (Uh, no it isn't BUT this IS what my floor looks like after I've finished a project! Why aim for the wastebasket when the floor is so much more convenient?) Anyway, what you're looking at here is an honest to goodness compulsive behavior!

I'm constantly working with felt, and that means I create a ton of felt scraps. Sure, it would be easy to pitch a few little scraps here and there; some might even argue sane, but I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe it's the exschool teacher in me that learned most things have value to a creative mind, or my Polish ancestry that has a tendency to save everything "for a rainy day", but I see diamonds in this colorful heap. Somewhere, in the back of mind, behind this week's obligations, daily errands, and other interactions with humanity, I have an idea forming to turn these scraps into a work of art. The actual usage hasn't made itself known to me yet, but I'm sure one day while showering or waiting for a traffic light to change, or chatting with Tim, a scathingly brilliant idea will surface, I'll have an Eureka moment, and I'll know exactly what to do with them!

Right now I'm thinking a mosaic of sorts, made with pieces of fabric that others would deem worthless. When the final idea surfaces, I'll be ready to go with a virtual cornucopia of sizes, shapes and colors of felt at my disposal. So, for those of you that play with felt, if you're so inclined, tuck away your scraps. One day I'll have a pattern to share that is going to use that box of felt scraps I've been compulsively hording. And when I do, won't you be glad you started squirreling away your own stash?

BTW...I think I would be remiss not to tell you that my closet is also full of scraps of flannel and cotton, trims and buttons, tiny yarn balls and dissected silk flowers. A virtual trove of potential, each awaiting a moment of inspiration!      

This winter (after the Christmas rush) I am going to make the kids new quilts. Bug's baby blanket hardly covers him any more and the girls will be moving into a big bed soon. I think it is time to make them full size quilts.

While searching for fun fabrics I stumbled across a few fabric collections that any wee folk would appreciate.

Lightening Bugs and Other Mysteries by Heather Ross for FreeSpirit

Fairy Fabric Collection by Becky Kelly for Timeless Treasures

Alexander Henry Fabric - Tillbrook Collection

Critter Jamboree by Barb Tourtillotte

Today I was making a quick trip to my local craft store to buy crafting glue. I swear that is all I planned to buy. My pile of to do, already started, and near completion projects is stack precariously high in my sewing room. I’m well aware that one more project could topple the already shaky edifice. So, you have to believe that there were circumstances beyond my control, like a table of absolutely gorgeous prints that unfairly beckoned to me, causing my self control to vanish! I came home with corduroy and fabulous prints that will be made up into jumpers for Fairy and Pixie! Given everything else I have to do, I figure I’ll have to make these in my 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. time slot. Who needs sleep when there’s sewing to be done!

Material for Fairy's new fall jumper.

Material for Pixie's new Fall jumper.

Okay, I got a little carried away. There were so many pretty batik patterns I got a few more than I needed. It's okay. I ALWAYS can come up with ways to use them. I enjoyed making the treasure pouch so much I think I'll make a few to put in our store.