Looks pretty bad huh? And I promise that I made them all nice and neat less than a week ago and didn’t make it more messy just for a picture! When you go to get one bobbin out, the others just unravel more making an even bigger disaster!

I searched online for bobbin clips to purchase. The only ones I found were for a pack of 10 for almost $10 on Amazon.They included the bobbins too, but they were for Brother machines. I sew on a Janome… Although they use very similar bobbins I didn’t want to pay $10 before shipping for it.

I knew there must be a better way. I needed something clear (so you can see your thread colors), flexible (to accommodate the different amounts of thread on each of your already wound bobbins), and cheap.

Enter my local home improvement store. Surely I could find something clear, flexible, and cheap there! I did! I present to you:

DIY Bobbin Covers

You’ll need just two things:

Clear Flexible Tubing (Found in the plumbing department at your local home improvement store. I got the kind that was 3/4″ on the outside with a 1/2″ diameter on the inside.)

X-Acto Blade

Ready to get going?

Being careful with the sharp blade, slice off some 1/4″ rings from the tubing.

Then cut down one side of each ring, opening it up.

Wrap up your bobbins and slide the ring on top of your thread.

Place back in your storage container. That’s it! How easy and cheap was that? I’m thinking this would make an awesome little gift for the sewer in your life, quilt group, sewing swap, etc.

I love that they are useful no matter how full or empty your bobbin is. You don’t need a different size of tubing, it works for all your bobbins!

Happy Crafting,

Erin

What you’ll need to make one pouch:

Print the PDF pattern pieces from here. (Make sure that the 1″ box on the pattern actually prints at 1″ square.)

1 Fat Quarter (or 1/4 yard fabric) per pouch front

1 sheet coordinating felt

1/2 yard lightweight fusible interfacing (I used Pellon SF101, my favorite!)

1 – 12″ (or longer) coordinating polyester zipper

EDITED:

You can also use scrap fabric for the front and back, and fusible fleece instead of the Pellon SF101. Pictures are from one of the first ones I made, but everything is the same. If you use the fabric on back instead of fleece, just be sure you attach fusible fleece to the back of this piece also.

Cut out the following pieces:

Heart Top – 1 Main Fabric, 2 Interfacing

Heart Bottom – 1 Main Fabric, 2 Interfacing

Apply Interfacing:

Following the directions on your interfacing, iron the pieces to the back of your main fabric. By adding two layers we get a good thickness, without using the super firm interfacing that’s more difficult to sew with.

Attach the Zipper

Lay the zipper, right side down, with the pull on the right, along the top edge of your bottom heart piece.

Use your zipper foot on your machine and attach the zipper to this piece.

Fold the zipper up and press the seam flat.

Place the heart top face down, on the other edge of your zipper.

Attach this side of the zipper to your heart. Press this side up as well.

Top stitch on your machine (or do a running stitch by hand) along the top to hold this seam down.

Cut the Back

Zip the heart up and use this as a guide to cut the back felt piece.

Make the Arrow Pieces

Cut out the arrow tip pattern piece. Place small edge along the fold of your felt. Pin the pattern in place.

Stitch around the pattern.

After you’ve stitched it, go ahead and cut closely around your stitching line. (It’s easier to stitch this way!)

Repeat the process to make the arrow zipper pull.

EDITED:

After making this project with my after school group yesterday we found it easiest to attach the pattern to the felt,

sew directly on the lines,

remove the paper,

then cut out your shape. (If you use this method, don’t worry about placing the pattern piece on the fold, just sew along that line instead.)

Finish Up

Unzip your zipper half way. (Don’t forget this step, otherwise you’ll be stuck with a pouch that’s inside out!) Place your front, right side up, on your table.

Place your arrow tip piece lined up on the edge where your zipper is on the left side of your heart. Pin.

Place your felt back on top of this.

Pin.

Stitch 1/4″ all the way around the edge. Clip off the extra zipper ends. Finish your edges with pinking shears or a zig-zag stitch on your machine. (I forgot to do this on the one pictured.)

Clip the bottom excess fabric and snip around the curves. Turn right sides out through the zippered opening. Press flat.

Attach your arrow tip to the zipper pull. I used a little jump ring on the one above. Needle and thread works just fine too!

Happy Sewing,

Erin

You’ll need:

Blank coir welcome mat (I got mine from IKEA, Target and other stores should have them too.)

3 cans spray paint  in various Valentine’s Day shades(I used a combination of both flat and shiny paint textures. It didn’t seem to matter and you can’t tell which were which on the coir. The darkest pink was a shiny finish and the lt. pink and white were matte finish.)

white contact paper

masking tape

Scrap paper

Tape around the edges and then divide the center into 3 equal horizontal lines with your tape. (Masking tape works best for this, blue painter’s tape doesn’t have enough stick to work well. From your contact paper, cut out your X and O shapes (Or try heart shapes!) and apply them to the mat.

Place scrap paper over the parts of the mat you don’t want to paint just yet.

Paint the exposed part.

Come back in a few minutes when dry and move your paper to another section. Paint. Repeat with the last section.

When dry, remove all the tape, paper, and contact paper shapes.

Place in front of your door and enjoy!

Happy crafting,

Erin

Taught 6 lovely ladies how to make their own slippers. Despite losing power in the studio for 20 minutes, we got everything done! Above are two of the shoe/slipper sets completed! Aren’t they fun? (We used this GREAT pattern from Shoeology.)

Made two little heart and pom pom garlands based off this fun tutorial from Betz White on Craft. (They took NO time at all!) These are headed to two special family members who share birthdays today, my mom and aunt! Happy Birthday Ladies!!

Taught a lesson to my 3-4 year old class at church. (Aren’t they cute?) The topic was on being able to speak to the Lord through prayer, so I whipped up these little “Pray” pillows for them before church. They are to go on their beds to remind them to say their prayers. After the lesson they got to color the front and then stuff them. I think they had more fun stuffing the pillows than they did with the coloring. One of them said they were having ” SO MUCH” fun, so I’ll count that as a success! (Edited: Just got a message from one of the parents who told me that their child actually remembered what the lesson was about because of the pillow, double success!)

Tried my hand at a little wire wrapping. Aqua ring turned out alright, though the stone is pretty big for me. The little birds nest I made into a ring and wore on Sunday. Probably my favorite. I’ll have to do some more wire wrapping soon though!

How was your weekend? Do anything fun? I’ll see you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Happy Crafting,

Erin

You’ll need:

Dish towel (I get mine in a 4 pack from Home Goods. Less than $10.)

Scrap fabrics

Pencil, Scissors

Heat’n Bond Heavy – paper backed fabric adhesive

Ready to get going?

On the paper side of your heat’n bond, sketch or trace your image. (Remember that if your image has a direction, like a letter, make sure you trace it backwards so it will be the right way when we’re done. Some XOXO’s would be cute on the towel too!)

Roughly cut around your image.

Then iron it to the wrong side of your fabric scrap. (The plastic side of the Heat’n Bond should be placed down facing the wrong side of your fabric.)

Cut around the shape and remove the paper backing.

Place your fabric images where you’d like them on your dish towel and iron them on.

Let them cool and they are ready for use!

(If you’d REALLY like to add some stitching, use the Lite Heat’n Bond and then add hand or machine stitching around the shapes. If you used the Heavy Heat’n Bond it’s a permanent adhesive and there’s no need to sew. Light washing will be just fine for your finished towel.)

Happy Crafting,

Erin

This is a fun color wheel clock I made for my mom’s sewing room. It’s a great intro into hand embroidery too if you want to give it a try!

You’ll need:

7″ Embroidery Hoop

1 Clock Kit

1/4 yard linen (or other fabric) I used linen because I liked the texture, but a plain cotton would work fine too.

1/4 yard extra firm fusible interfacing

Embroidery needle

Various colors embroidery floss

Fabric transfer pen or pencil (My favorite is the FriXion Gel Pen. Draw on your fabric, then erase it with the heat of the iron. As with any fabric marking tool, test in an inconspicuous area first!)

Clock Number Pattern (Download the PDF here for free.)

Ready? Let’s begin:

Start off by printing the number pattern. Make sure that it’s printed at 100% and is not scaling so that it’s too large or too small. The little red box in the center should measure exactly 1″.

Place the pattern underneath your linen and use your fabric transfer pen/pencil to trace the numbers onto your fabric. Also mark the center. The center is where the cross hairs are in the red box. We’ll use this marking later to determine where our clock hands will be. (I had to tape mine to the window to make my own light box so tracing was easier.)

After tracing you’re ready to stitch away. Layout your floss colors to make sure you like how it looks before you start. Use your embroidery hoop and fill in the numbers with the floss however you’d like. I used a variety of stitches (including the backstitch and satin stitch.) Try this website if you need a refresher on your stitches. On the left column is a directory to a large variety of embroidery stitches.

When you’re finished punch a small hole in the center where the cross hairs are. Remove it from the hoop and press your clock front to get out any wrinkles left from the embroidery hoop.

Cut out a 7″ circle from the interfacing, center this over the back of your embroidery and iron in place. Poke a hole in the center of the interfacing circle.

Place your clock front into your embroidery hoop and tighten. Trim your extra fabric off . (Leave about 1″ all the way around.)

Tuck the extra onto the back and glue into place.

Insert your clock kit.

I hope you enjoy this!

Happy Sewing,

Erin

First up for January is a vinyl covered zippered pouch. This project came about because I wanted to laminate some cute fabrics that aren’t available in oilcloth or laminated cotton. (There is an iron on vinyl product but I tried it and really didn’t like how it turned out!) So this is my fix! Hope you like it!

Gather the Following:

1/4″ Wonder Tape

(1) 14″ or longer coordinating zipper

Small binder clips (We’ll use these instead of pins.)

Cut the following for the Large Bag (Finished size is: 10″H x 9″W):

(2) 11″ x 4 3/4″ rectangles for top part of bag

(2) 11″ x 6 3/4″ rectangles for bottom of bag

(2) 11″ squares Pellon SF101 Woven Interfacing

(2) 11″ squares 12 gauge clear vinyl

Cut the following for the Medium Bag (Finished size is: 7″H x 9″W):

(2) 11″ x 4 3/4″ rectangles for top part of bag

(2) 11″ x 4 3/4″ rectangles for bottom of bag

(2) 11″ x 9″ rectangles of Pellon SF101 Woven Interfacing

(2) 11″ x 9″ rectangles of 12 gauge clear vinyl

Notes:

Follow these instructions for either sized bag. (The pictures in the tutorial are for the Large Bag but the Medium bag will look the same and be sewn up the exact same way!)

Sewing Machine Settings: For sewing with this thicker vinyl I used a size 16 needle and set my stitch length to a 3. Your machine shouldn’t have a problem sewing through everything with the right needle and stitch length.

Step 1: Making the front and back

Attach rectangles. Use a 1/4″ seam and attach one smaller rectangle to one long end of the larger rectangle. After sewing, press seams towards the bottom piece.

Using a hot iron, press your 11″ square piece of woven interfacing to the back of the front piece. Repeat for the back piece.

Step 2: Attach Vinyl

Using your Wonder Tape, attach the vinyl to the front of your fabric piece. Tape as close to the edge as possible. This will be our way of basting the vinyl to the fabric as we sew it up. (We can’t pin the vinyl because any holes from the pins will be stuck in there permanently.)

Once you have your tape on, peel off the tape backing and attach your vinyl to the front, making sure it’s adhered around all the edges.

Step 3: Attach our Zipper

Don’t sweat! It’s easy, I promise!! See how my zipper is longer than the top? It’ll make it easier to sew because our zipper pull won’t get in the way. We’ll trim it off when we’re done.

Clip it to the top with the right side of the zipper facing the right side of the fabric.

Stitch down the side using your zipper foot.

It should look like the picture above when you’ve sewn on one side of the zipper. (Sorry about the glare…the vinyl can be a bit shiny!)

Unfold the zipper, finger press the vinyl down and topstitch along the edge.

Now take the piece with the zipper attached to it. Turn it right side down, facing the other piece of your bag. Line up the top of the zipper with the top of this piece. Clip in place and sew the same way we did the first piece.

Unfold and finger press the other side open.

Topstitch along this edge. (Congratulations on your zipper!!)

Step 4: Sew it Up

Unzip the zipper half way. Unzip the zipper half way. Before you clip the sides and bottom, please make sure that the zipper is half way undone. Yep, I know that I included that instruction a few times. It’s because I don’t want you to curse me later when you realize that you’ve sewn your bag shut because you didn’t leave the zipper half way open to turn it right side out when it’s time!

Clip and sew around the sides and the bottom. Use a 3/8″ seam. This way the Wonder Tape will be all the way in your seam and won’t show from the outside when we’re done.

Remember your long zipper? You can trim it off the extra pieces handing off the side now!

Step 5: Gusset the bottom

To make the bottom we’ll need to make a gusset on each corner of the bag. With the bag unzipped all the way and turned inside out, squish the corners down so that the side seam and bottom seam are lined up. You may have to look inside the bag at the corner to make sure the seams are lined up.

Clip each side once you have it in place. (A & B) From the corner, use a ruler and measure 2″ up both sides and mark it with a fine tipped pin or fabric marking tool. (You can see my little black marks inside the red circles.)

(C & D) After you have each mark, use your ruler or another straight edge to connect the two lines. Repeat this process on the other corner.

(E) This line will be your stitching line. Stitch directly on the line. Don’t forget to backstitch at either end! Once you’re done stitching, trim off all your extra threads. (F) Then clip off the corners. Turn right sides out and have a look at your finished bag!

I use these all over my house. They make great storage containers, reusable gift wrapping for birthday gifts, and storage for cosmetics in the bathroom! If you make one, be sure to let me know in the comments! I’d love to see it!

Happy Crafting,

Erin

I’ve already learned tons about how cheeses are made and the different ways of acidifying them. (Some are acidified with bacteria while others are acidified with vinegar or lemon juice.) Wikipedia does a great job explaining a little bit about each kind. Anyway, on to the actual taste test:

Week 1: Moroccan Spice Cheese

We chose this because it sounded, well, spicy. According to their website it’s a sharp cheddar cheese with harissa mixed in. Harissa is a seasoned paste made from chilies and oil that’s popular in Tunesian cuisine. We loved it although it is a super sharp cheddar cheese. It came in wedge/block form but was slightly crumbly as we ate it. The super sharp cheddar almost seemed to overpower any spicy that may have been in the cheese. We both had a few pieces the first time, then every time for the rest of the week we wanted some we only ate 1-2 tiny cubes. It was an extremely flavorful cheese and that little amount was enough to whet our appetite for it. Overall, it was a good one to try, but I don’t think I’d buy it again on a regular basis.

Week 2: Beemster Graskaas Cheese

I chose this one because the sign at Central Market said this cheese is only made once a year. I figured I’d better get it or miss my chance for a year. (Which I’m sure is exactly what they wanted…what a way to make a sale!) I have to say that this one did not disappoint! It was an extremely soft and creamy cheese and we will definitely be getting it again next year! I did decide to look up to see the story behind this “special” cheese that’s made only once a year. The story goes something like this: this cheese is made from the first milking of the spring once the Dutch cows are let out to pasture. They eat the delicious, fresh, spring grass which gives it a super creamy texture. I had no idea it made a difference, but this was one delicious cheese! Beemster even made a video of the cows being let out into the pasture after staying the winter in the barn. It’s rather amusing.

Happy tasting,

Erin

Want to make one (or a few)? Download the illustrated directions here! All it takes is a 1/2 yard of ultra firm double sided interfacing and two fat quarters!

Happy Sewing,

Erin

This weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of visiting with some of my relatives in the Oklahoma City area. We had a fabulous time just hanging out, crafting, playing games, watching movies, and enjoying delicious food! We attended a small town parade where I got to watch one of my cousins march, as well as see super patriotic things like:

Darth Vader and an Imperial Guard…(I guess he’s wearing red so that makes him patriotic?)

and cows pulling a wagon?

Well, I did enjoy cheering on the soldiers and vets in the parade!

Best part: our trip only took 1 full tank of gas. My grandparents happened to be visiting as well. I feel SO blessed to have been able to see them again. The last time I saw them was at Christmas and even though it was a short visit, I loved catching up. Between my mom and grandma I learned how to sew. I stitched my first blanket/quilt with my grandma one summer. I might be biased but the fruits and vegetables that came from their orchard and garden are still the best I’ve ever tasted!

I noticed at Christmas that my grandma seemed to be a little frail. This time was much different. Not only was she having more trouble getting around, but Alzheimer’s is most definitely setting in. My uncle estimated that she’s already at stage 5 of the 7 stages. She was definitely not at that stage over Christmas. It was so hard seeing her and being able to tell that at times she was truly confused as to what was happening around her. It was also so sweet to see my grandpa and his patience with her! The amount of support and love he showed my grandma was overwhelming and inspirational!

Not only was it hard seeing her struggle with what should have been simple memory issues, but even harder knowing that it runs in the family. One day it’s highly possible that my mom will have trouble remembering me and how to do simple tasks, but it’s also highly possible that I’ll have trouble with Alzheimer’s. While it’s far off, it was definitely something I started really considering on a more “real” level this weekend. While no cure is currently known, it seems that eating healthy and exercise (both mental and physical) seem to be the things that help the most. Even if I never run a marathon, I’m definitely more committed to getting a healthy amount of exercise every week!

{photo from Snippets of Thyme, mine wasn’t photo worthy, but it was delicious!}

On a more up-beat note: I made creme brulee and it turned out fantastic!! I used this recipe from Snippets of Thyme and followed it to the letter. (Except for the vanilla sugar. I didn’t have enough for all of the recipe, so I reserved it for the top of the dessert. My dad had sent me some from Germany and I was saving it for a special occasion, and this was it!) It was my first time EVER using real vanilla beans. I split them and was surprised at the inside. I had fun, and boy was the flavor delicious! I got to buy new ramekins, and my husband got to break in the blow torch. I was surprised at how relatively easy the recipe was. I’ll do a bit more of a recap in the next couple of days. The recipe turned out exactly like what I’ve had at restaurants, so I’d consider it a big success. That’s one thing to check off the 30 before 30 list!

Erin