homemaking

If you’re new to the ’12 Days’, you may visit the previous days by clicking on the day you like:

Day 1 Crayon Roll

Day 2 Zippered Pouches

Day 3 Appliqued Placemats

Day 4 Quilted Potholders

Day 5 Camera Strap

Day 6 Embellished Dish Towels

Day 7  Bean Bags

Today’s guest poster needs no introduction to my readers.  It’s a well known fact that I love Meg.  She never ceases to inspire me.   I love her bold use of color everywhere and her very funny sense of humor  and  her love for  the creative life.   I consider it a privilege to  look at the world through her lens and am giddy to have her here with us today.    You’re gonna want to bookmark her blog and her etsy shop, which will be open January-April.   Welcome Meg!

i am so happy that Edie asked me to be a part of her 12 Days!

my name is meg duerksen.
(it’s pronounced dirk-sin…in case you’ve always wondered)

i blog over at whatever.
i do not use capital letters because it’s easier not to.
i am a mom to five goofy kids.
i am a photographer.
i love to do crafts with my kids.
i love to sew.
i love mr. duerksen.
i love movies.

but that’s enough about silly me and all the things i love….lets get crafty.

i am going to show you how i recycle old crayons into really cute alphabet crayons.

normally i would use a big box of old crayons….you know the kind…half used…kind of a mess.
the kind that kids don’t want to use anymore.
but today i used new crayons because i have used up all my old crayons.

i cut the paper off with an exacto knife. just a quick cut down the side is enough and the paper comes right off.

it’s helpful for me to sort them by color.

and happy too.

i use these silicone alphabet silicone ice trays from spoon sisters.

place them on an old cookie sheet because you may spill and you’d hate to ruin a good pan.

fill each letter with broken bits of crayons.

it is ok if some stick out a little but you don’t want to over fill
too much because the wax will melt over into the other letters.

i placed them into my oven at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.
when they are fully melted into liquid they are finished.
take them out of the oven leaving the trays on the cookie sheet and let them cool for several hours.

once they are completely solid you can gently push them out of the molds.
the S and the U of my set broke when taking them out.
next time i will just try to be more careful.

i put them all together in a clear treat bag and tie it with a ribbon.
it makes a really cute a colorful gift!

thanks Edie!
i love your 12 Days of Handmade.

If you’re new to the ’12 Days’, you may visit the previous days by clicking on the day you like:

Day 1 Crayon Roll

Day 2 Zippered Pouches

Day 3 Appliqued Placemats

Day 4 Quilted Potholders

Day 5 Camera Strap

Day 6 Embellished Dish Towels

Blessed Sunday to you friends! I have two treats for you today. First, let me introduce you to my dear friend, whom we affectionately call Kimmie (you can call her Kim, I guess) and whom was our dear nannie when the girls were little and I worked part time. We still miss her terribly and were thrilled to find out that she had opened an etsy shop, called Sweet Baby’s Dressed. I think you’ll love her stuff and it’d be a great way to get a good start on your Christmas shopping while supporting moms who are sharing their talents.  Look at the little baby giraffes 🙂  I want those Ms. Kimmie—-and a little baby to dress in them!

And then we have Mary Jo with us to guest post.   She is a new friend to me who will share her secrets for making adorable bean bags.  Check out the link to her blog for more crafting fun and then tell me if all this baby stuff doesn’t make you wanna have about 10 more.   Welcome Mary Jo!

Step One:
Following the directions on your printable fabric, print the names of the colors on a single page.  If you’re interested in a .pdf of this, e-mail me!  The printable fabric that I used had to dry for a few minutes, so I recommend doing this step first.  Cut your color names apart – be sure to size them so they’ll fit on your bean bags.

Step Two

Step Three:
Lay out 1 side of each “bag”.  Pin the color name to one side of each “bag”.  Sew your color names on! You could use a fusible webbing to help secure it.  The printable fabric that I bought already had the fusible webbing on the back, so it made it a little easier. Be sure to back-stitch to secure it!

It helps if you have a trusty assistant!

Step Eight:
You’re done!  Enjoy your Toss and Learn: Colors bean bags!

If you’re new to the ’12 Days’, you may visit the previous days by clicking on the day you like:

Day 1 Crayon Roll

Day 2 Zippered Pouches

Day 3 Appliqued Placemats

Day 4 Quilted Potholders

Day 5 Camera Strap

Isn’t this waaaayyy too much fun? I made my first project last night, the zippered pouch, in about 40 minutes. I goofed up a little because I glanced over the directions before I started and then didn’t look again until the ‘uh-oh’ moment. It turned out great anyways and I’ve got another one ready to sew up. I’ll follow all the directions this time, I promise. Have you tried any projects yet?    Well, you should. Come on, it’s the weekend and it’s gonna be cold here in East TN. Perfect for hunkering down with your sewing machine which I fully intend to do!  Now, without further adieu, I give you the ever talented Elise from Nest Sweet Nest. Her blog is chock full of crafty adventures so make sure and visit her this weekend!

Hey y’all, I’m Elise from Nest Sweet Nest, where I blog about crafting, decorating, thrifting, dreaming of old farmhouses, baking, and my four sweet kids…Jackson, Lilly, Fisher, and Violet. Stop by for a visit sometime!!     When I read Edie’s post about The Twelve Days of Handmade Christmas, I knew I wanted to join in. I am so excited to be a part of it this year!!     For my part, I am showing y’all how to make some cute tea towels. These make wonderful hostess gifts, teacher gifts, girlfriend gifts…Tie up with a loaf of homemade pumpkin bread and a Starbucks giftcard and you have a perfectly cute, perfectly welcome gift!!
First, gather all the supplies:
*towel
*cute fabric-three different prints
*pompoms
*thread-the color of the towel, pompoms, and fabric{I actually used white here, but you can match the thread with the fabric}
*m&m’s-optional, I suppose 😉

I personally think holiday colored m&m’s are more fun to eat!!
Let’s get started…

You’ll want to cut{or tear} your fabric into strips, roughly 2 inches wide by one and a half to double the width of your towel.

Turn the dial to the longest stitch length. Sew down the middle of each strip.

To gather, you just need to grab one piece of thread and gently slide your fabric down, being careful not to rip the thread.

You will want to make sure your ruffles are the width of the towel and evenly gathered. Play around until you get the placement you like.

Pin the ruffles to the towel.

Next, you will sew the ruffle to the towel, going over the gathering stitch and taking out pins before it goes under the foot. DO NOT LEAVE THE PIN IN!! Ask me how I know…it involves a broken needle and a call to 911. Thankfully, no lasting damage was caused!! I now have safety glasses curtesy of my husband’s co-worker. 😉 Do make sure to turn your stitch length dial back down.

Cut pompoms to size and sew them to the back of the towel. You will want to change your thread to match the pompoms and the bobbin to match the towel.

Voila!! You have a cute, ruffled dishtowel that anyone would love!!

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I also have another towel to share with y’all. I really love the way this one turned out!!

This one I made from a flour sack towel. You will also need three fabrics, pompoms and wonder under for this towel. You can get a four pack of these flour sack towels at Target.

I used a salad plate and a bread and butter plate for the circles. Lay the plate atop your fabric and cut a square just a smidge larger than the plate. Do that for both circles and your image. Once you get that square, you will iron it to the wonder under, being careful not to iron the wonder under itself, or else it will make your iron sticky.

Then you will use a fabric marker or pencil{I think the water soluble markers work best} to trace the plate onto the fabric. Cut out the shape. Do this for all three fabrics. I opted to use a rooster shape{click here for image, copy and save} for the applique, but you could do any animal or even a monogram. I made a Valentine towel, with a heart, for a friend, you can see it here. For the rooster, I just saved the image and opened a word document and enlarged it. I printed it and cut it out. Then I traced it on the fabric and cut it out.

I opened the towel and ironed the creases out. They are folded about four times and once you get your towel all prettied up, it will only be folded into thirds. Determine the middle third and place the biggest circle in it. Iron it on, then sew inside the edge. I used a contrasting thread and around it twice for more whimsy. I then ironed the second circle onto the first one and sewed around it, then did the same with the rooster. Once that was finished, I sewed the pompoms on like the first towel. If you don’t sew, don’t fret, you can totally make this towel. You will just get another wonder under type-they make some that are no sew and use Allene’s craft glue to adhere the pompoms.

Another fun, cute towel for some lucky person on your Christmas list!! You could customize this towel all kinds of ways, using a tree for Christmas, bunny image for Easter, star for the Fourth of July, the options are endless!!

Happy Sewing and Merry Christmas!! Thank you, Edie, for letting me have fun here today!!

If you’re new to the ’12 Days’, you may visit the previous days by clicking on the day you like:

Day 1 Crayon Roll

Day 2 Zippered Pouches

Day 3 Appliqued Placemats

Day 4 Quilted Potholders

And you’re in for a treat today.  You’ll need to carve out some time to visit Cheryl’s blog.  I think I clicked around her blog for an hour when I first found it.   She also has a shop full of beautiful handmades!  Thanks for sharing your craftiness with us Cheryl~

Hi friends of Edie!
I’m Cheryl from a pretty cool life and I’m so exited to be here!

First, a little about me:  Life’s good.  I aspire to be no more than I am right now; the stay at home mom to two little boys, ages 3 and 1. I love the ordinary days I spend with them, and desperately try to enjoy each one until I find a way to freeze time. We spend our days playing, building, chasing, snacking, watching too much tv and trying be creative.   Sewing and crafting are my favorite things, and I spend as much time as I can working on projects.  I share many of them, along with tutorials.  You can check them out here.    Vintage is my other weak spot and I love collecting old linens.  My loves of handmade and vintage meet in my etsy shop, j u s t  p r e t t y., where I list a variety of  items.

Now, without further ado, what I’ll be sharing today: a camera strap tutorial.  You know you’ve seen them everywhere in blogland and etsy.  Here’s  a chance to make one of your own:

I’ll admit I’m just as excited to have a pretty camera strap as I am to have a new camera.  This is an easy project, so you can make a bunch and switch them out when you feel like it!
This is what I did for my standard Nikon strap.  Double check your own strap to see if it’s the same size before you start.  (And if you have a point and shoot, here’s my tute on how to make a wristlet strap for it.)

You’ll need:
2 strips of fabric, each 21″ x 2.5″ long
1 strip of fusible fleece/batting, 20″ x 2.5″
Iron the short ends of each strip down a quarter inch.

Sew two parallel lines to hem the ends (one will catch your fabric, one’s just to make it look more finished).

Iron the fusible fleece to the wrong side of the strip of fabric you want facing inside.  It should be slightly shorter than the fabric, so center it.

Line up your strips of fabric, right sides together, and pin.

Sew.  I serged the seams, too, but it’s not necessary.

Turn your fabric tube right side out.

Topstitch along each edge and you’re all set!

Happy {handmade} holidays and thanks again to Edie for having me!

Cheryl
xoxo

You’re gonna love todays’ guest poster, Alissa. She blogs at 33 Shades of Green and has a creative blog full of fun stuff. She has a great tutorial for a wrapping station, a screen porch that I covet, and many more goodies that you’ll want to see.  I’m so happy introduce you to her talented self!  If you’re just not the sewing type or if you’re interested in purchasing beautiful handmade items this Christmas, check out my friend Maggie Whitley, from Gussy Sews.  She has beautiful handsewn items in her shop and is featuring all sorts of artists and crafters this week on her blog.

Now, tell us how it’s done Alissa 🙂

Thank you Edie for having me over to Life in Grace today.  I got lots of great inspiration from The 12 Days of Handmade Christmas last year, and am so excited to be a part of it this year!

I am going to show you how to make a quilted potholder – a quick and easy project for any beginning sewer.

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Supplies:
– Fabric
– Heat resistant batting (the one I used is called “Insul-Bright”)
– Sewing notions (needles, thread, scissors)
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First, you will need to select coordinating fabric.  Make sure to pre-wash your fabric before use.
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Cut your fabric.  I think it’s easiest to use a rotary cutter and straight edge on a self healing mat.   Here are all the dimensions.

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I used a simple Log cabin pattern for the design.
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The center square is 4″ and all other strips are 2″ wide.
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Start sewing from the center out.  Use a 1/4″ seam allowance when sewing.
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Here are the first two pieces sew together:
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As you attach pieces, make sure to iron or finger press the seams toward the outside.  This way your finished top will be smooth.
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Add the other side…
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Then the next two…
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Keep sewing until all pieces are attached.  Iron the finished top.
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Your finished top will look like this:
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Next, cut a piece of fabric for the back of your potholder.  Also cut a piece of the batting.  Cut both pieces to the same size as your finished top.
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Line up the three layers and pin together.
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Now it’s time to start quilting!
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I decided to quilt squares using the top as a pattern.  Start in the center and work out.
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I used the sewing machine foot as a guide to quilt the squares.  See how the edge of the foot is touching the seam of two of the fabric pieces?
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Here’s the finished quilted top:
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After all three layers are quilted together, you might need to use your rotary cutter and trim the edges.
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Next up is making the seam binding.  Cut a strip of fabric 2-1/2″ wide.  You may need to attach a second strip so that the length is long enough to go around the entire potholder.
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Iron the strip of fabric in half.
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Seam binding can be a bit tricky if you haven’t done it before.  For help, refer to this tutorial.
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Start by attaching your binding somewhere in the middle.
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The folded edge of the binding is toward the left.
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Sew very close to the edge.  Stop when you are 1/4″ away from the corner and remove from the sewing machine.
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Fold the binding at a 45 degree angle like this:
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And then back over on top of itself.
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Continue sewing from the edge.  Repeat at all corners.
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Here’s how the binding will look when it’s all attached:
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After attaching to the front (use the link I listed for a great tutorial) fold binding over to the back.  Create mitered corners (shown in picture) and sew all along the back side of the potholder to attach.

For more information on the binding portion, which can be tricky, check out this YouTube video.

Your potholder is finished!
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Thanks again Edie for having me over!