Peg Bags!

Hi, I'm Tabatha from Thread Carefully and this year I've made a few people peg bags for Christmas. They are really quick and easy to make, and they're a good thing to give to the person who seems to have everything, or to someone you have no idea what else they might like.

Here's how I made mine. You will need 1/2 metre of fabric, bias binding to match, thread and a child-size hanger (by this I mean a hanger for children's clothing, not a hanger the size of a child!).

Step One - Cut two rectangular pieces of fabric, about 18"x14" (approx. 45cm x 35cm). Place your hanger at the top and draw along its edge. Cut along the line. (Tip: I overlocked the very top edge of each piece of fabric too, because you have to leave a gap for the hanger to go through, and I wanted to finish the raw edge, even though it ends up being tucked in). At the bottom, cut the corners into a curve. You should end up with two identical pieces of fabric looking like this:

Step Two - Take one of the pieces of fabric, and about a third of the way down from the top, draw and then cut the peg bag opening. It should measure at least 7", so that you can get the hanger in at the end.

Step Three - Use the bias binding to bind the raw edges of the fabric at the peg bag opening. I used ribbon because I couldn't find bias binding in a complementary colour, and I didn't have enough fabric to make my own. I pressed my ribbon in half lengthways (as you would also do with bias binding), and stitched it over the raw edges:

Step Four - Lay your front piece and back piece right sides together, and stitch together, remembering to leave a gap at the top where the hanger will go through.

Step Five - Clip the curved edges.

Step Six - Turn inside out, through the peg bag opening. Insert your hanger, and you're done! If you like, you can now add some decorative ric-rac, buttons, embroidery, applique...whatever takes your fancy! The peg bag I've shown here is for my grandfather-in-law, so I'm leaving it plain!

Baby quilt

I've just finished this quilt, made for my baby niece. It's made with a selection of super soft Cloud 9 flannels which were in a quilting pack, complete with simple instructions for the faint hearted, that Saints and Pinners kindly sent me to test out. It took about three evenings to make, not bad for my first quilt. I did take a hefty short cut though, topstitching the edging on the machine rather than slipstitching by hand, which resulted in some rather wonky stitches... but hey, it's "charming"! It's so soft and snuggly - I can't stop cuddling it. More details on my blog.

Gifts for the Navigator

This is one of my favorite projects to date. I am a bit of a map enthusiast myself and I think this turned out really nice.









Do you want to see some more ideas for gifts for the navigator?

Check out my new Pinterest board with ideas.

Christmas Market

I haven't started on the gifts yet, my son goes to the coolest elementary school and in order to pay for their surfing lessons, yes, you have read me right, surfing lessons amongst other cool things they do all year, they have a Christmas Market/Bake Sale and I made a series of colorful Christmas placemats for them to sell. 

With the leftovers, that's what happens when you buy yards in the States and then find European matching fabric in meters, I made little gift bags for small items.

You all sew so well, tutorials are moot right?

Beautiful napkins. The perfect gift. And a tutorial too.

I wanted to create the perfect bordered napkin.   I think I succeeded.

I did a picture heavy tutorial on my blog if you would like to re-create.

Napkins are ALL about the fabric.  So make sure you get something lovely and soft for the main surface and then something pretty / groovy / funky for the outside.

lore
x

Another housewarming *ahem* Christmas gift: plastic grocery bag holder tutorial

So I dropped my peg bag gift around to my friend house the day they moved in.   I had a day off and went over with soup, bowls, spoons, ladle, drinks, glasses etc and gave them lunch.  I know what its like moving and no matter how well you label your boxes, you can never find what you're after.

I did notice however that they had unpacked a few things and there was a sad sorry sight of a plastic gocery bag holder - or 'bag bag' that was better off in the bin bin. 

So I had to make them another.

Luckily I had more cute fabric left over.

I kind of just straightened up what was left and made it out of that but I think the measurements are just right. 40cm wide x 45cm long.

Scientifically calculate the amount of elastic needed.   ie.   wrap it in a circle as big as you'd like your opening.

Mine turned out to be 20cms

You need two of these. One for the top and one for the bottom.

Interface your fabric if you want it a little structured, or don't if you prefer your bag bag baggy.  I used a lightweight interfacing so it wasnt a cardboard tube but had some shapeliness.

Turn the top and bottom in down oh, I don't know, 1.5 cms ?   and mark a halfway point on the top and bottom and mark a halfway point on your elastic as well.

Pop that sucker in there and pin it down at the halfway point.

now stretch it to about 1cm shy of each end thusly

Realise that this whole time you should have had the camera set to flash and remedy this. 

Go to the sewing machine and zig zag the elastic on, making sure you securely back tack the ends.
It will look like this now.

 French seam it - so wrong sides together first with a 1/4inch seam

Then turn it inside out and sew the seam again.   Make a loop and stitch this on the top.

Stand back and admire

Hang on something a little more aesthetically pleasing and admire more.

This fabric is so cute for these projects don't you think?

lore
x

Ok so not officially a Christmas gift - Peg bag tutorial

I had friends moving house and my traditional housewarming gift has lately been a peg bag for their new washing line.

I documented the process this time in case you feel compelled to make one yourself.  So here is the (lite) peg bag tutorial:

You need a bit of fabric and one child's coathanger.

 Make a pattern by drawing the shape of the hanger and then drop down the sides.  Figure out where the pocket should go.   Add half an inch seam allowance all round.   Cut squares in the corners so its got a boxed shape.

Interface the front pieces (back too if you can be bothered).  I didnt have enough of this particular interfacing so not the entire front piece got done, but the main bit that needs to be sturdy is the pocket.

With right sides together draw the pocket on the interfacing.   Sew around with a 1/2 inch allowance.

Turn, clip curves and stay stitch.

Now just sandwich the whole lot together so you have wrong sides together for the back pieces and lay your completed front on top.   Sew the sides and top - leaving about 1.5 inches for the coathanger hook.  Sew the bottom seam.  Box the corners.   Tidy seams up on overlocker and voila.

Add a couple of bags of the best pegs in the entire WORLD.

And you have a pretty great housewarming present.  Or christmas gift ?!

And because I wanted one for myself too, I picked up some op shop fabric.   $2 each for each of these 3 pieces.

And I made myself a pink one.  With the boxed corners reduced in size.

Just watch out when you're clipping those curves!

Lucky this one's for me!

lore
x

Papercuts and Postcards

Hello everyone, I'm Lauren from Sewing Me, Sewing You. I thought I'd drop by to post some ideas I want to work on for Christmas prezzies - so far they are only ideas and I haven't actually got round to starting any of them.

The first one is papercutting. I saw an article in the Guardian about Rob Ryan and fell in love with what he does. I'd like to try my hand at paper cutting, though with a much simpler design than his which are like this...



I also like this from Green Chair Press blog...



The second idea was to create a set of personalised postcards, by buying plain blank ones and drawing, stencilling or decorating the postcards while leaving the address/message side blank for the recipient of the present to use, thus spreading the joy to others!

I'll post some pics if I manage to do either!

Stitched Coasters

Hi everyone! I'm Suzie from Modern Suzie and this year I've been making mostly embroidered gifts. I had a bunch of smaller fabric scaps around the house, so I decided to make some stitched coasters for one of my friends. This project was fast and easy.

I started out by embroidering a pattern in the middle of a 4.5" square piece of broadcloth (approx. that size). Nicley patterned fabric would work great for this too if you don't have the time for embroidery.

Cut out a square of backing fabric (in this case lovely blue fleese) and some thin quilting batting (the cotton-y type). I used quilting rulers and cutters since I can't seem to cut a straight line.



Stitch the three pieces together, making sure the two good sides were facing each other and the batting was on the bottom, and left a large hole so that I could turn the coasters right side out.



From there, fold the open edges in and do a top stitch all along the edges so that the fabric lies flat.

Here's how my coasters turned out: