T-shirt Quilt

This is a fun and exciting project to do with all those worn out yet priceless T-shirts from various events and memories that you may have.  I did this one with a girlfriend as a gift for her husband.  It turned out great and he loved it!  If I get enough interest on how to do this project, I can post instructions.

Fun with Fondant

So, keeping with the "Angry Birds" theme I made a cake as well.  It was my first time working with a pre-made fondant from Michael's craft store.  I had WAY too much fun making this cake.

Angry Birds Fun

My son's birthday is coming up and he is obsessed with the game Angry Birds on the iPod.  I took it to a whole new level and made an Angry Bird Bean Bag game for him!  I look forward to having some fun with him!

Felt "Angry Bird" bean bags

Mini Ironing Board

I always need a small ironing board to slip in sleeves or pant legs or use for smaller projects and I am too cheap to pay $15-$20 for a board with fabric on it.  So, here is my solution...

Finished mini board

First I started with a scrap piece of 2x4 I got from the hardware store for a few dollars. It is approximately 6" x 18". You need a heavy duty staple gun shown here.  I had a scrap piece of 100% cotton batting and stapled it to one side.

 *Make sure to use 100% cotton both for the batting and for the cover fabric as it will hold up to the heat of the iron.*

Pull the batting around the other side and staple before trimming away.  Notice the one end at the top: the batting is flush with the edge of the wood where the other side the batting is longer.

Trim the batting away close to the staples on the side and approximately 2" longer on the end.  Pull end up and staple then trim batting away to reduce the bulk and staple to cover the corners of the wood.

Once you have chosen the fabric you want, roughly cut it like you are going to wrap a present.  I had an unused bed sheet that already had one end finished (on the right) but if you don't, you will need to stitch or surge the open end for a nice finish. 

I then wrapped it snug and pinned along the pinch.  Slip the cover off and sew along the pinned edge and then along the unfinished edge.  Turn inside out and slip onto the board.  You are finished!

Scissor Sheath

So I needed to make something to protect my $20+ Gingher embroidery scissors. I did not want to spend much and wanted to do it myself.  This is a fun and easy project and the concept can be used for multiple applications!

Scissor sheath

 First I purchased a leather tool belt I found at my local thrift shop that I frequent. I cut the top part that the belt slides through (I also saved the heavy duty strapping and clip for my next travel on an airplane to identify my bag).

Carpenter's tool belt

I then simply laid my scissors down and roughly cut out the length and width that I would need for the pocket and for an extension to cut down for a strap to snap through the handle (see in a further picture).

Rough-cut for sheath

I then estimated and trimmed the leather for the strap to fit through the scissor handle.  This is important because the snap for the strap has to be added before sewing up the sheath.

You will need some sort of snap-setting tool, a marker and a hammer.  You can see I have marked on the leather already where my snaps will be placed.  I positioned the male snap piece on the body of the sheath and the female part on the strap piece of the sheath.

First sew one side of the leather sheath using, ideally, a leather needle for your sewing machine.  I was out of leather needles and used a denim needle and it worked just fine.  Use a longer stitch length as not to just perforate the leather like a notebook to where it will just rip apart (3-4 mm stitch length).

After one side is stitched move the top layer closer to the scissors while leaving the underside longer (as you can see in the above picture) to create a bubble-like effect for ease of inserting the scissors later.  You can mark this with a pen or pencil at the edge and then stitch.  After stitching you will have the over hang that can be trimmed to match the upper layer. 

You are finished!