Hemming Jeans

The other day I scored a deal that I couldn't pass up. I was at the Gap and found a pair of 1969 jeans in my size for $6.80! The only problem was that they were extra long and while I'm tallish and wear high heels, they still dragged on the ground. I did some Googling and learned the secret to modifying your own jeans while keeping the original hemline.

 

It's almost preposterously easy and took me about 15 minutes. 

 

Here's a basic rundown of the procedure.

 

1) Find the shoes you'll be wearing with the jeans because they will be dictate how much to shorten them.

 

2) With your  trusty shoes and long jeans on, turn up the hem (the rights sides of denim will be facing each other) until you reach the proper length.

 

3) Measure the "cuff" that you've turned up from the bottom of the leg to right under the original hem (don't include the original hem in the measurement) and divide this number by two. For example, I turned mine up 2.5" so the new number I needed to work with was 1.25".

 

4) Take this new number and very accurately turn up, press and pin the cuff in place based on that measurement.

 

5) Using a zipper foot carefully stitch around the leg opening (the right sides of denim will be facing each other so you'll be stitching on the wrong side) as close to the original hem as possible.

 

6) Turn the freshly sewn line into the inside of the leg and press the new seam on the outside well. 

 

7) Once the new hemline is pressed you may want to tack down the extra material inside on each side seam (I did this so the extra fabric didn't flop around). If you took a lot of length out you may want to serge the extra material off instead. Either way, you're done!

 This is a before/after shot. On the left you can see how they drag on the ground and after they are the perfect length.

 This is what the hem looks like when it's all pressed and ready to go. You have to look really hard to see the line when they're actually on.

This is the inside shot after they are stitched and tacked down permanently.

Secret Jewelry Box

The first thing I usually do after getting home from work (after playing with the dog) is remove my jewelry. My poor husband is very tolerant because I tend to leave piles of bracelets, rings and necklaces piled all over the house in no particular order which is a bad habit that I can't seem to break. I think part of the problem is that my jewelry box is overflowing and I don't have anywhere else to store my stuff except for the nearest available surface.

 

In the effort to try to keep my clutter out of sight, I decided that I needed a secret jewelry box or boxes to stash throughout the house. A few Google searches later and I found ideas all over the place to make my own book box.

 

I had a Shakespeare collected works book sitting on a shelf and while I do love reading Bill's sonnets and plays, it was gathering dust (hello Kindle) and I needed a quick fix.

 

 The process is simple...

 Mark off the interior lines of where you will be cutting your pages...

 Take a cutting knife and chop within your lines as far down into the pages as you want. This may however take awhile, hurt your hand and break a few blades...but keep at it!

 Once you've cut to your desired depth (mine has two levels with a divider) use 3+ layers of Mod Podge to bind it all together.

 Let it dry and YAY...you're done and have a fun, new, secret receptacle for whatever you want!

...and it still looks like a regular book when it's closed! 

Birthday Bunting

This weekend was my husband's birthday and at the last minute I decided to make some bunting to be extra festive. It was so easy to make and used up lots of scraps. Basically, all you do is cut the triangles (mine were approx 9 1/2 inches at the base and 10 inches from the middle of the base to the point), sew 2 triangles together (1/4 seam allowance, clip point seams then turn right side out and press) and wedge them in between a long piece of double fold bias tape. Then all you do is sew one long seam down the bias tape to lock all the flags in. EASY!

Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial with French Seams

I don't like using plastic bags for everything so I finally decided to make my own reusable bags to try out. I used a heavier weight quilting cotton but you could also use ripstop nylon or oil cloth depending on how messy your snack is. You can make them in any size you need too and since these are cotton they can be easily washed.

TO START: Cut 1 - 15 x 7 piece of fabric

Now you're done and can flip the bag right side out and stuff it with your favorite snack :)

P.S. You could also add velcro or a button if you want Fort Knox secure snack storage!

Ruffled Clutch Tutorial

Ruffled Clutch Tutorial
(Other Examples Here)

Begin by cutting out the following:

Main Fabric: (1) 9.5" by 17", (1) 9.5" by 22"
Ruffle: (1) 3" by 20" or equivalent length of ribbon
Interfacing: (1) 9.5" by 22"
Batting or Fusible Fleece: (1) 9.5" by 17"

Apply interfacing to the back of the longer main panel. If you are using a lightweight fabric, you will want to go with a medium weight interfacing. For a heavier weight fabric, choose a lightweight interfacing.


Sketch a curve at the bottom of the longer, interfaced panel. Generally, you would like to leave yourself about 2.5" on the short side, and about 4" on the high side. Cut along your curved line.


Working with the longer portion, press up 1/4" (make sure to get a nice sharp crease). Set aside for now.


For the fabric ruffle, press in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Run two rows of gathering (long) stitches along the raw edges. (Do not backstitch!) Pull gathers until the length of the ruffle is just longer than the curved edge. Knot gathering threads. If using ribbon, simple gather one edge of the ribbon. (In my experience, the ribbon was more difficult to work with)

Pin ruffle along curved (pressed) edge, leaving a bit at the sides for ease. (If you are into basting, this is where you would baste before you sew....I hate basting so I live on the edge and avoid basting like the plague!)

Overlap the ruffled edge approximately 1/2" over the short end. At this point, you should take care to make sure that everything will remain square once you stitch the two pieces together. As you pin them together, make sure that both sides remain straight and square. Once pinned, top stitch along the creased edge. (Keep as close to the edge as possible...about 1/8")

After stitching, trim ruffle and square up edges as needed.


One the opposite end of the ruffled panel, center one half of a magnetic snap 1.5" in from the bottom edge and install. On one end of the plain panel, center and install the other half of the magnetic snap 4 1/2" from the edge. (I installed the snap through both the panel and the batting layer for strength. Alternately, you could iron on a scrap of interfacing.)


Sandwich both panels together, right sides facing. The snap on the plain panel should be at the opposite end of the snap of the ruffled panel. (At this point, if you didn't already attach the batting via the snap, lay the batting on top of the plain panel side of the 'sandwich'. (I hope that makes sense!) So, you should have the following layers: ruffled/interfaced panel and plain panel (right sides together), with the batting layer on top of that. Pin all around.

Sew around using a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving a 3-4" opening on the plain end (not the ruffled end).


Trim batting close to seam, clip corners, and trim batting along opening. Turn right-side out and gently press the whole piece, taking care to press up the seam allowance up at opening.


Top stitch along this edge, taking care to line up edges at opening. (Alternately, you could hand stitch the opening closed)

Fold up the bottom portion of the clutch, and pin. Before you stitch, fold down the flap and adjust as necessary to make sure that the magnetic snaps will match perfectly. Once you have it lined up just right, pin and stitch both layers together, close to the edge. You may have to adjust your stitch length here, depending on the weight of the fabric, as there are a lot of layers.

Voila. Pin a fancy brooch on there, or add a nice vintage button and you're set to go!

Sparkly Jack-O-Lantern Tutorial

We received several jack-o-lantern pumpkins from our CSA share. I knew that if we carved them, they would be gone long before Halloween. I decided to do something different (and less messy) with them. To make these sparkly pumpkins, you will need a small piece of contact paper, white glue, a paint brush, glitter, and of course, pumpkins.

Begin by drawing your jack-o-lantern's features on the back of your contact paper.

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut out your stencil.

Peel the paper backing off and apply stencil to the pumpkin. Rub the edges down with your finger to make sure that there are no gaps. (You may have to 'pleat' the stencil a bit to get it to lay flat)

Using a paintbrush, spread glue over the design.

Sprinkle a generous helping of glitter over the glue. (Make sure to do this over a sheet of scratch paper to catch the extra glitter) Tap the pumpkin a few times to remove excess glitter.

Gently peel away the stencil and remove any stray glitter with a dry brush. Repeat for other features. (I used the same stencil for both eyes)

*You could spray the finished pumpkins with a sealer if you plan on keeping them outside.

Now you have yourself some sparkly, happy pumpkins!

Quick and EASY Project (Seriously!)

Supplies:

E6000 glue (or other hefty glue)
Cheap colored hair clips
Buttons
Pliers

Choose your buttons. If they have a shank, cut it off with your pliers. Glue button to hair clip. See, I told you it was easy. I am going to be making a bunch of these for Christmas (or her birthday.)

Silhouettes

I wanted to jazz up my living room on the cheap, so I took the frames I already had, took out the outdated pictures and made silhouettes of the kids. They are really very simple:

• Take a few digital pictures of each child's profile
• Crop the images you like and print to desired size
• Trace image onto fusible webbing (such as Wonder-Under)
• Fuse webbing to black fabric and cut out silhouettes
• Fuse silhouettes to desired background fabric (make sure if your fabric is directional to line it up nicely)
  
• Trim fabric to size, leaving an extra inch or so around each side
• Use double sided tape or glue to secure fabric (I didn't use secure mine since the frames are pretty secure, but I think I'll have to go back and add a little glue later)
• Hang those babies up and you're done!