Simply Scrappy Belt tute

Here's a little tute to make a belt out of your scrap fabrics. These are for my daughter but they could easily be made larger for adult sizes.
Take your scraps of choice and sew them together to make a piece
the length of your belt plus about 6".

I used a belt that already fits for a guide. I also used a Charm Pack (Swanky from Moda) but you don't have to start with a charm pack any small scraps will do. You can even sew them together all wonky if you want to - it would look great that way.

Next you'll want press open the seam allowances.





Trim the strip into pieces that are close to the width of your belt plus 1/2". Mine is going to be about 1.25" wide so i'm cutting my strips to 1.75" wide.



Next I cut a strip of heavyweight fusible interfacing to 1.25" and ironed it onto the center of one strip. To the other strip I ironed on some heat-n-bond. When it's cool pull the backing off the heat-n-bond.




Then I sewed the 2 strips together, right sides facing. Trim the corners off the closed end.


Next turn the belt right-side out and press, then topstitch. Careful here - when you are pressing you are going to fuse the 2 sides of the belt together with the heat-n-bond that we put in between, so you might want to finger press it first so it aligns properly before you make it permanent with the iron




Next sew on the D-rings. You'll need 2 that match the width of your belt



Insert them on the unsewn end, fold over the end and stitch



Use your imagination to make different combos. You could also use ribbons to do the same thing.

Halloween sewing!

Yes it's that time of year again, annual trips to the pumpkin patch, costume planning/sewing and lots and lots (too much really) of tempting little chocolate bars all over the place.

So in the spirit of the season, I crafted up a couple of Halloween shirts for the kids. These are both from Farbenmix. My daughter very much loves this style called Drunter and Druber from Traumschnitt which is german for under and over. Hers is the 'over' version done up in Pumpkin knit print and coordinating solid orange rib knit. She picked out the embroidery for this one (cat embroidery from Bunnycup embroidery)



The shirt in action!










Then the KleinFohr pattern for my son. He's 10 so this one is a little darker



Here there be monsters embroidery from Urban Threads.


And now we move onto the costumes. I have to come up with a brown cloak for the headless horseman? and a jumper for Pippi ~ Stay tuned!


Happy sewing!

Quick little revamp: Fall style

Ok you all saw my patio redo for the summer. Sadly the summer is gone and I thought I needed to make the patio look a little more autumnal. Gone are the comfy pillows ~ but lets face it, no one sits out there when it's 35F and raining. So I added the Fall cheer which doubles as Halloween cheer and just a couple of toss pillows on the swing - those are really more for color than anything else. Et Voila!




My daughter got in on the act and crafted up her own ghoulish decorations.

~Can't imagine where she got that crafty streak from?~


Yes that is a tennis ball and let me tell you the dog knows it too - it's all I can do to keep her from absconding with the spider/tennis ball creation every morning when she goes out the front door.

My first ever wonky quilt square turned throw pillow:
Turns out my wonky isn't really all that wonky after all - I think I should've cut things a little more crooked than I did - but live and learn right? It's still fine for the patio. Here's another little patchwork creation
all out of some leftover Moda charm packs I had from last year and a little coordinating Sandy Gervais. And no, I don't plan to have a stack of different holiday themed pillows. These are just covers over the already existing summer pillows. Now the burning question ~ will I do it again for Christmas? Well we'll just have to wait and see.

Cup of hot apple cider anyone?


Happy Sewing!

No I haven't fallen off the face of the planet!

I really and truly haven't but I did kind of skip September. Things have been crazy busy around here but some sewing did get done.


First off - A new Purse! The Sadie purse ~this is one of my favorite designs - modeled after a purse that I own and love to death, I can't even seem to keep one of these around long enough to call my own.


This one is up for sale in the Trilliumshoppe.

Yes that's Mezzanine fabric and some lime green ultrasuede. ~ And I have to give a big shout-out and a thank-you to Cynthia at Fabricworm for the totally awesome stack of Mezzanine yardage she sent me as a blog win many weeks ago. Love it! I put that Mezzanine to good use! yeah I'm kinda behind but totally thrilled about the fabric win. Thanks Fabricworm! If you get a chance check out her shop - she is stocking all kinds of Australian goodies that I can't seem to stop admiring.

I did finally manage to mail this tote bag off to my Mom as a gift, so now I can show it to you all.
This one uses Drawing room fabric which is one of my all time favorites and works perfectly for this multi-tasker tote.

There are a few other things to show you but they will have to wait until next time.
Happy Sewing!