Runaway October » Tutorial

Crafty Catchup

Katie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:22:13 +0000

I have a really bad habit of doing nothing during the summer. You might have noticed that the heat is a central part of my last couple posts.

It’s really a central part of our lives from Mayish to Augustish. Even in the house it’s just too easy to veg out and keep cool.

BUT! I have done some stuff lately. I swear. I have proof!

I made this clock for my brother a while back, for his birthday.

It’s pretty hard to photograph this, but oh well. I got lucky enough that a local BMX shop gave me the chainring, after I offered to buy one. Funny enough they had a similar clock displayed in their front window.

The tutorial is here. Mine is not nearly as cool, but hey I was working with what I had.

I also made a cover for my sewing machine. I figured that plastic one it came with wasn’t good enough for the new craft room. (More on that soon.) Also, the melted hole in it from the iron didn’t help any.

I just used the dimensions from the old cover, plus seam allowances, and threw together a rectangle with ties on it. I backed it with flannel, because it seemed like the thing to do. Isn’t that fabric gorgeous? I got it on a whim at a local mill end store. Kicking myself for not buying more.

Sewing Machine Cover tutorials:

Sparkle Power! — This is pretty much exactly what I did.
Sew Inspired
Chez Larsson

Last, but not least, a new ironing board cover. I love making these things. It makes me actually want to iron. Yuck.

This is also more fabric I picked up on a whim. This time from IKEA. Their upholstery fabric is the perfect length from regular ironing boards.

I always leave the old covers on, for padding. Sometimes I’ll throw a layer of fleece in between too if I have big enough scraps.

Here are a couple ironing board cover tutorials:

That’s it for now. I hope to have more soon. I ordered some goodies.

What are you working on lately, or do you have any interesting tutorials to share?

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Tutorial: St. Patrick’s Day Wreath

Katie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:59:39 +0000

Today we’re going to make this:

Well, you don’t have to but I’m going to pretend that you’re dying for me to teach you how to make this simple wreath. Ready?

Gather your materials:

A wreath form– I used a 12″ pressboard form, mainly because I had no final idea of what I was making and because they’re so much cheaper than styrofoam.

2 — 3 yds of wire-edged ribbon.

3 — 4 St Patrick’s day decorative thingys. I think they call them floral picks?

A Glue Gun and glue sticks — low temp is probably best if you have one.

Scissors

Whatever doodads you want to add. Here I used mini “beer bottles” and some fake gold coins. Because what better sums up St Pats like beer and bling?

Okay, first step. Unroll your ribbon and fold it in a zigzag pattern, kinda like so. Adjust it to make sure it will cover your whole wreath form.

It should like sorta like this from the front.

Now start to glue it to your wreath form. Tuck the end under for the first fold. You’ll have to adjust here and there to follow the contours. I found it easiest to glue the bottom fold to the wreath and leave the top fold loose. If you look closely, you can see my glue marks here.

Continue around until you’re within one fold from the end.

Now guage how much ribbon you will need to tuck under the first fold and cut it there. Glue the end of the ribbon UNDER the beginning fold and glue in place. Yours should look something like this.

Now flip that sucker over. This is where you pull your floral pick thingies apart. Mine consisted of wired pieces and well, non wired pieces. I cut the wired pieces out of 3 picks and glued it in intervals around the back of the wreath. I chose to do a spiraly type pattern.

Then go back around and add the non-wired pieces.

Not enough bling, Katie. Go around and add more if necessary.

That’s better. Now flip it back over and add your doodads.

Once all my doodads were on, I used the green stem from my floral pick thing and bent it into a hoop and glued it within an inch of its life to the back of the wreath. Just in case. I want my wreath to withstand hurricanes. Ta Da!

Now take down your Valentines Wreath that’s still up and put up your blingity-bling-bling St. Pats wreath.

Now everyone will know what you plan on doing next week. Wearing green underwear, of course.

Speaking of the Valentines Wreath you hadn’t taken down, here’s mine. I used Tatertots and Jello’s tutorial.

So… What are you planning for St. Patricks Day this year? Any good recipes?

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Day late but completely fantastic!

Katie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:42:40 +0000

40 days ago my madre had a birthday. This is what was waiting for her when she got home from work.

I used the Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Tutorial from Oh, Fransson.

While it’s neither vintage nor a pillowcase, I think it’s adorable. So did Mom. Good thing too, because I was finishing up the last step as she walked in the door!

The tutorial provides good instructions for using Iron-On Vinyl. While you can’t see it in the picture, the whole bag is essentially water/spill resistant. I had a heck of a time finding Iron-On vinyl. The girls at the JoAnn’s cutting counter had no idea what I was talking about. Thankfully someone knew the store though. Turns it they keep it in the Home Dec department by the nailhead trim and curtain rods and such. $10 for a prepackaged roll that should be enough for 2 lunchbags.

Also included in the tutorial is this cute little placemat. Which is perfect. We all know how ‘Ick’ lunchrooms can be.

Next time, though, I don’t think I’ll cover the handles in vinyl. Or try to source a thicker vinyl. It already is getting a little ragged from light use. Meaning it’s carried back and forth to the car daily and that’s about it.

If you’re thinking about making one be sure to check out the Flickr Group. There are some cute versions there too.

I’d love to hear what you’ve made lately.

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I added a new page.

Katie — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:08:46 +0000

Sorry, I haven’t posted lately. Things have been more hectic than usual around here and the late winter light is bad for decent pictures.

I did put together a new list of tutorials and inspirations for myself, though. Proud of that.

Check it out here, or in the side bar.

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Chalkcloth Table Topper

Katie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:27:10 +0000

Not too long ago we bought two sets of the Svala table and chairs from IKEA for our “playroom”. I was kinda bummed they came unfinished but then got excited that I could do whatever I wanted with them. I mean, who doesn’t dream of this perfectly coordinated playroom that looks like it came straight out of a Pottery Barn or Montessori guidebook?

Svala from Ikea

The kids had different ideas, as usual. Within a few days they had scribbled all over the top with crayons and who-knows-what. Even the table legs had been colored on. I’m totally psyched with the creativity coming from these two little boys. Psyched. Too bad they didn’t consult me first because their artwork totally didn’t go with my Pottery Barn color schemes.

Daisy Dreams laminated cotton

I recently came across a tutorial for an oilcloth table cover from Twig & Thistle, that I thought was a great idea for the boys’ workspace. I had some oilcloth that I picked up from my favoritest fabric coop but it was very girly.

Then it occured to me that I had a yard of chalkcloth in my stash. That would be perfect! It’s fairly water resistant for spills and such, and I could whip out the chalks when the kids were bored. Score!

Kathleen’s tutorial included adorable little scallops around the edge, which I thought would be okay if done in a nice manly color, like black

: Please ignore the mess.

chalkcloth. But man, chalkcloth is hard to work with. I didn’t have quite enough to cover both tables separately so I did one cover for both tables pushed together.

I ended up just having straight edges with a little bit of decorative stitching. I think it turned out pretty good and the kids have throughly tested it. Heck I even ended up eating on it last night because we had a HUGE crowd to feed last night.

Chalkcloth Table Topper

Pretty Colors

This is serious business…

(Declan was still napping)

So if you’re in need of something similar head on over to Twig & Thistle for the exact instructions. Or you can check out Oilcloth Addict for a no sew custom chalkcloth table topper, also.

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Coin Quilts

Katie — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:29:09 +0000

Did I mention that I was participating in the 2009 Chinese Coin Quilt Piece-along? It’s being hosted by two of my favorite bloggers: Juliette of Chickpea Sewing Studio and Karin of Orange Flower. Basically, the premise is to complete a Coin Quilt sometime within the year of 2009. That’s it. No deadlines, no requirements or restrictions, no partners, no nothing. How much easier can it get?

Here are some of the wonderful coin quilts that have already been finished. Aren’t these ladies amazingly creative, and on the ball to boot?

: Coin Quilts

1. coin top, 2. DSC_6007, 3. Elena’s Quilt, 4. Quilt #4 — Stacked Coins, front

The rest of the 2009 Coin Quilt Piece-Along Flickr pool can be found here.

I am to the sandwiching and quilting stage on my coin quilt. I have to clean a spot on the floor long enough to get everything pinned together. See why it takes me so long? It’s like someone somewhere is bound and determined to make me do housework, no matter how much I avoid it. These sites have been the inspiration for my little quilt.

Here is a great downloadable Coin Quilt tutorial by CluckCluckSew.
A Stacked Coins Baby Quilt tutorial is available at The Moda Bake Shop, provided by CrazyMomQuilts.
Great Coin Quilt inspiration at Handmade by Alissa.
Another Coin Quilt tutorial via Home School Blogger.
MaryQuilts.com has a few Chinese Coin Quilt tutorials in the right sidebar, though there are many many more beautiful tutorials listed as well.
More Chinese Coin Quilt instructions from Field Trips in Fiber

If you feel the urge to participate, please join us!

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Random Friday Randomness

Katie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:40:47 +0000

Some Links:

75 Tips for Leftovers and Ingredients - via The Kitchn
All-Natural Moisturizing Kitchen Hand Scrub — via Good Life {Eats}
Child Creativity Linked with Outdoor Free Time — via Steve-Olsen.com
Your Favorite ‘Natural’ Brands May Not Be What They Seem — via Mercola.com
Nutella Self-Frosting Cake — via Carmen Cooks

Some awesome tutorials:

Funky Quilted Binder Cover — via Moda Bake Shop
AWESOME Dog Bed — via Jezze
Kid’s Teepee — via My Tiny Sweet Cheeks
Hot Pink Cross Quilt Block Tutorial — via Betty Ninja
Alphabet Quilt — via Reese Dixon

And a funny:

New Car via XKCD.com

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Tutorial: Skully from an old T-Shirt

Katie — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:45:16 +0000

Step One: Choose an acceptable shirt — such as the long-sleeved one hiding in the back of your husbands dresser that you’ve seen worn once for 5 minutes. Even then it was obvious that the sleeves were much too short. Make sure it’s stretchy and warm — knits and fleece are great for this.

Step Two: Measure your child’s, or your own, head. Take two measurements — One around the biggest part of the head, where the brim of a hat normally sits. The second measurement is taken from between the eyes over the head to the base of the skull. Don’t worry about being exact, we mainly are making sure that we make it big enough to fit properly on the noggin and isn’t too small.

Then add an inch for seam allowances to both measurements. If you are going to reuse the seam along the bottom of the T-Shirt these are your final measurements. If you need to add your own hem, add an extra 1″ to the eye to nape measurement.

For example:

Reusing hem — Declan’s head circumference is 20″ and the eye-to-nape measurement is 15″, so after adding seam allowances I have a measurement of 21″ x 16″. Now divide that measurement by 2, which equals 10.5″ x 8″.

Not reusing hem — Declan’s head circumference is 20″ and the eye-to-nape measurement is 15″, so after adding seam allowances I have a measurement of 21″ x 16″. Then I add an additional inch to the eye-to-nape measurement which is now 21″ x 17″. Now divide that measurement by 2, which equals 10.5″ x 8.5″.

Step Three: Lay out the shirt you found and cut two rectangles using the size we determined above. If you don’t have the child around to measure, Declan has a pretty standard sized 2yo head. I like to iron the shirt out flat and cut the two pieces at the same time using a rotary cutter. Make sure to feign innocence when your husband finds you shredding his old “paintballing shirt”. You’ve never seen him go paintballing anyway.

Step Four: With wrong sides together, sew together one long side of the rectangle. Now grab a ruler and make a mark 3/4″ in on the unsewn long side of the rectangle. Make another mark 1/4″ in at the top. Connect the marks using a ruler to determine your seams for the short sides of the rectangle. This, along with the standard 1/4″ seam, will ensure that the skully will fit around the head without gapping. Sew up the seams you just drew.

Now your skully should start to take shape.

Step Five: Fold the opening up by 1/4″ or whatever you would like. Press and sew to form the bottom hem. Turn right side out. Viola! It’s seriously as simple as that.

To make the little ears, cut some strips from whatever fabric — I like to use strips of the knit T-Shirt because it will stop unraveling if you stretch it out — and tie them at the corners using a square knot. The size of the ear determines the final shape of the skully, though they all look the same while being worn.

Little adornments are easy to make if you happen to have some HeatNBond laying around. Basically just cut out your shape from a coordinating fabric, iron the HeatNBond to the wrong side, peel the backing and iron it onto the Skully in the desired location. I then go around the edges with a Zigzag stitch just to make sure it stays on and give it a cute little flair.

You can also use one long rectangle and fold it in half so there is no seam in the top.

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