Lazy sewing mounting

If you do a lot of crafts, you often have little projects that you did fairly quickly.  Whether it is cross stitch or embroidery or some sort of cool hybrid project, the work is finished but what to do with it?

Now the 'proper' way is to sew it to some sort of base or mount.  This often requires first hemming the edge to ensure it doesn't fray under tension.  Or if it is little enough to be a bookmark you could use hemming table to stick it to a base bit of felt.

But what if it isn't bookmark material or you want to put it up on a wall or in a frame?  Or you are like me and are too lazy to do the 'proper' way for something that is little? (I'm better on big stuff that takes years!).

So I have this little embroidery that needs to be mounted lest the fabric be wrinkly.

The first step is to sort the edges of the fabric out so they don't move or fray- particularly since this is two pieces of fabric with wadding in the middle.  So I got my sewing machine out and- just kidding.  This is a lazy job. Masking tape to the rescue!

Now for the board to mount the fabric on. Lots of two dollar/cheap shops now sell craft supplies and painting supplies and they carry canvas boards in a wide range of sizes from the very small (what I need) to very large (useful source if you want thick, non-bendy card for a project).  Even better, the shop near me had 50% off.  Score!

Your board should be at least 2cm smaller around for each edge to be able to fold the material over easily for taping.

Fold and tape over top and bottom.

Then the two sides.

If you are happy with things at this point, leave it be.  I found the edges were showing so I very carefully cut off the excess using scissors.  Don't cut too close to the front of the piece or the fabric will possibly fray on the front.

+

Then apply tape to protect the fabric and to stop anything pulling away.

And here's my finished piece.  It looks so much better than it did at the start!

Now I will say that this is strictly for small, minor projects.  I don't know how well it will hold up over years, nor do I know that the tape will or won't do anything to the material for a while.  A little project like this that only took a day or so (well I did it over a few weeks but that's because I don't get to craft as much as I'd like) is possibly going to end up as part of a card or just stuck in a corner, it's not exactly heirloom work!  If you have spent months or years on a project, it's worth spending the time and/or money to do or to get someone to do things right.

Hope this helps you do something with the pile of finished work- enjoy!

Interchangeable patches

This is not a full project but more of an idea that you can implement into a project.  A few posts ago I showed off my little embroidery that came with a cute bag kit.

It's OK but it's not 100% my style although the bag is cute.  Now I could make the bag without the embroidery or I could put it on anyway and deal but then I got thinking.  What if I could do both?

This is a bit of a 'make it up as you go along' job with the odd ebay purchase to help.  The first step was from the kit- make up the backing border.  This is pretty basic- two pieces of fabric cut to size (allowing for seam allowances) and then sew around the edges, right sides facing.  Then cut a hole in one side to allow you to turn it inside out to make a little pocket thing (this hole is going to be the back when it's attached to the bag).

This is the point where things take a turn.  Jumping on ebay, I found some very thin little powerful magnets- you can see one of them in the photo above.  They are about 1 mm thick but are strong enough to stick to a metal washer through a layer of material (I checked before sewing them in).

Handsew these into place inside the fabric pocket onto the BACK piece of material.  That way the front stays nice and plain.

This is the BACK view of the pocket- you can tell by the rough slit to gain access and the stitch marks holding those magnets into place

Then all you need to do is sew some metal washers onto the back of whatever pieces you want to add to the patch.

Not the most pretty sewing job but shhh, no one else is going to see this bit!

Put the top patch in place and the magnets will hold it in place nicely

With four magnets (plus I bought an extra just in case that I've just stuck in the pocket with the others to add a bit of oomph) it's more than enough to hold the patch in place- holding it up and giving a good shake doesn't move it so it should?  be enough to keep things in place.  At least for something with low interaction- it probably will not work as well as is on a piece of clothing that rubs and catches on other things.  You could boost the strength in the attachments if you used more magnets instead of washers to the embroidery- just make sure you don't sew the magnets the wrong way so they repel rather than attract!

Feel free to leave a comment if you try it!  I realise that I could also have used velcro, but this way you don't see anything if the embroidery isn't put into place.  Plus maaagneeets...

Bunny bags

This is not the most high tech project but it is fun and good to do with the kids (or for the kids as it is in my case).  If you've not been in the shops since Jan 1 when the hot cross buns hit the shelves, Easter is coming.   I have three nibblings (my favourite word discovery recently- the plural of both nieces and nephews) and of course as a doting aunt, I have to get them chocolate.  But there is a bit of a mix of things to give (in part because one needs dairy free chocolate so that has to be different from the other two).  So I needed bags.

However, when I went to the shops, 'Easter bags' were starting from $2 each which seems silly for a bag you can't reuse for the next birthday/Christmas/present giving occasion the way that normal gift bags can.  But plain brown paper bags were only $2 for three.

So I was at home looking at my boring brown bags and decided to try and smarten them up.  Step one, cut out three pairs of ears from white paper and pink paper.  Nothing fancy, but I was sneaky and doubled over the paper prior to cutting so the rough, uneven ear would match the other.  Glue the parts together.

Next step, the tail.  I don't have a pompom stash at home so if you do, you could miss this step if you liked.  I tried two methods- using two discs of card with a slit cut through it to wrap wool around or wrap wool around the four fingers of the other hand (there are tons of pictures and explainations on how to do this on google).  The finger method was far faster than the card method, although the pompom was much neater than using the card method.

Both methods are much easier without certain assistance from George...

Finally glue the ears on the inside of the front of the bag and glue the pompom tail to the back (craft glue was good for this) and let dry.

Have fun and happy Easter!  And if you are one of my nibblings, no you can't find out what is inside until Easter.  Assuming the bunny inside doesn't eat it before then...

Hiding stitching on braids (and a dragon cross stitch)

I have a project that just needed a bit of gold braid sewn on in order to finish it off.  So I stitched it on and sat back to admire THOSE BIG WHITE STITCHES STICKING OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB!

Well OK, it's not that big but it was noticeable.  And there was already a dodgy area where a thread pulled when I sewed it up so I was feeling a bit miffed.  Then it struck me... I just need gold.  Not thread- metallics are often temperamental anyway and besides, I was feeling a little lazy....

So I broke out the gold pens and found the nearest match.  A careful daub on the thread later and...

I mean it is still there if you know where to look, but it is far less in your face.  As a bonus, I also added it to the end of the braid where the white core was showing:

It isn't a perfect match, but it is far less eye catching (and yes, I did go and do the other end after taking this photo!).  A word of warning though- I would be cautious if the object needs to be laundered regularly, you might need to keep the pen handy for touch ups
All that in order to make the final touches of this:
Teresa Wentzler's Delightful Dragon Fob

Those lines in the background are 1cm apart for scale.

 The main change I did with this pattern was to bring out the glow-in-the-dark thread to replace the ecru for the decorative stitches on the back (with the initials) and the background stitching on the dragon.  It is a very subtle effect- I find that the DMC glow in the dark thread is very faint, even when looking at it on the thread bobbin.  But it does glow and I know it glows, which is the main thing as it is stuck as mine now unless I ever met anybody who liked them and who had my initials!

Small monthly desk calendar

At the end of November, there is the annual Hogswatch event for Discworld fans, in the little town of Wincanton, Somerset, England.  But for many fans, including myself, it's a little far to pop in and visit. So instead, several of us got together in a Skype chat and had our own fun.  I wrote* a lovely little quiz and made this little desk calendar as a prize for the winner.  It has a Discworld stamp theme with tear off pages but if you like bookbinding or scrapbooking you should enjoy this and can easily modify it for any theme you like.  It also folds flat which means it is a great present to post.

This post is going up 28th December so if you are sitting around the house, tired from the Boxing Day Sales (or avoiding the shops completly) it's a fun couple of hours (most of that time being design- decision making is hard!)

This small calendar has tear off pages and sits nicely on a desk or table

*well, stole questions from various places online

Materials

• Various scrapbook papers 7.5 cm x 11 cm
• One piece of light card 7.7 cm x 23.5 cm
• Print out of months- I just googled '2015 calendar' and found something that would work for me.  If you are reading this post in a later year, obviously change the year to something suitable!
• Decorative bits (my theme was a Discworld stamp calendar but you could go with anything you like)
• Hole punch- smaller holes would work better but you could probably make do with a holepunch.
• Pretty string (it will be visible and need to hold the calendar together so choose carefully)
• Needle with an eye big enough for the string
• Drill with small drill bit
• Pretty button

Note- all the sizes are based on what I made, with minimal layers on each page.  If you make your pages with lots of layers/thickness you will need to adjust some of these dimensions, particularly for the cover.
Method
Step 1 is the hardest part- deciding what papers to use for what month!

Draw a faint line on the bottom of your calendar, 2 cm from the bottom.  Use this as a guide to make a row of holes for each page using the holepunch.  This is what will let you tear away months as they pass.  Spacing of the holes will depend on what size punch you have.  If you are worried, have a practice on a bit of scrap paper to see what is the best spacing to allow you to tear away later.

Layout and glue down the bits to make your calendar up.  Make sure you keep your work above the row of holes.

Now for the cover.  Take the card and score at the 2.5, 3, 14, 14.5 cm lengths (if your pages are thicker then adjust here accordingly).

Scoring the lines with a knife or a bone folder (note- not actually made of bone these days!) is crucial for crisp folds

Fold at the score marks and check if your pages fit into the cover correctly.

Horray, the pages fit in nicely!

Now to mark out the dots to drill with.  Exact measurements don't matter, provided things look symmetrical.  You want to make three holes in a triangle, with one dot in the middle and further from the bottom than the other two.  See the picture and you'll see what I mean.

Location of holes and numbered so you can follow the next bit.  Note my incredibly useful little hand drill

Use bulldog clips to hold everything together, cover and pages, while you drill the holes.  Another bit of scrap paper is useful to prevent marks being left on your cover.

Appearance after step 1

Now to sew it all together.  Take a long length of string (about a meter.  You won't use it all but it is much better to have too much than too little!) and thread it onto the needle.  To sew, refer to the diagram above to follow along with each hole:

1. Starting from the front, go through hole 2 leaving a length of around 10 cm of string.  
2. Go through hole 2 again from the front and pull tightly.
3. From the back, bring the needle through hole 1 to the front, then loop the thread around the bottom and bring the needle through hole 1 again from back to front.
4. Loop the thread around the left side of the book and through hole 1 again from back to front.
5. Put the needle through hole 2 from the front and bring the thread around the left side to the front before putting the needle through hole 2 again from front to back.
6. On the back, put the needle through hole three to bring it to the front.  Take the thread to the back around the base and back through hole 3 .
7. Take the thread to the back again and through hole three.
8. Bring the needle through hole 2 and you should have the pattern now completed.

Tie the threads off (a drop of clear nail polish is a good way to secure the knot) but leave about 10 cm of length for each.

The threads will be used to wrap around a button to hold the cover closed or open in place on a desk.  Just put the button onto the cover, use a pencil to mark where the holes are and punch out with a needle or holepunch.  Sew the button into place and tie string off at the back.

And you are pretty much done.  I prettied up the cover, just because I could but you could also leave it plain if you preferred.

Magazine Folio holder

This post is a re-write of an article I wrote many years ago for the Discworld stamp journal, The Stanley Howler Stamp Journal.  The purpose of the article and this post is to create a non-damaging folio cover for magazines so they can be neat and sorted, while still just as easy to read, plus can be removed without difficulty if needed.

 

All of the sizes and measurements given here are for A5 magazines (booklets made when an A4 piece of paper is folded in half and stapled in the middle).  If you are dealing with magazines of a different size, you will need to work out your own sizes.  A good rule of thumb is to ensure that the cover is a few millimetres larger than the cover of your magazines to allow for movement and to protect the contents.

Materials

• Thick card (posterboard or similar) NOT corrugated card for the spine in particular as it will not have the necessary compressive strength.  Two larger pieces for the cover (15.1cm by 21.8 cm) and one narrow piece (21.8 cm by the width of your spine- for an 8 journal cover 2.5 cm is good, for a 10 journal cover, I am using a 3 cm width piece)

• A sharp knife (plus bandaids/ first aid kit/ blood bank depending on how clumsy you are!
• A steel ruler
• Cutting mat
• Thick card or chipboard (for best effect the card should be difficult to fold- about the thickness of a hard cover book’s cover.).
• PVA glue
• Pretty paper (It is possible to get creative here if you like- fabric can be used if first stuck onto a plain piece of paper and there is practically an unlimited number of different colours and designs of paper available)
• String or thin cord (this must be STRONG- if you can easily break it with your hands it is too weak)
• Lots of clean, scrap paper and newspaper
• Large flat weights (I use old textbooks)

Method

Take your two large pieces of card and the paper you will use for the cover (green in my case).  Apply an thin, even coat of glue to one side of your card and glue to the paper.

To prevent wrinkles, immediately place this, paper side down, onto a pile of your newspaper with a clean piece of scrap paper in between (so newsprint doesn't get onto your cover).  Then place a heavy book ontop. This draws the moisture of the glue out of the cover paper and the weight stops wrinkles having a chance to form.

Wait until dry, then turn over and glue the sides over.  One neat way to do this is to trim the corners on a 45 degree angle to the card corner, at least one centimetre away from the card.  Fold this over to the card and glue down.  Repeat on all corners.

Then fold and glue each side down.  Leave to dry.

In the meantime, you can also do the same thing with the spine piece, or if you choose to add mock headband affects (see step 7), then you could skip this or just colour/paint the ends.

I just coloured the ends in on my spine as I will be covering it later

Take the spine and use the back of a knife or the steel ruler to place even 'notches' in the ends of the card where the string will go.  This ensures the string stays in place.

Tape one end of the string to the back of the spine and wrap the string TIGHTLY around the spine to create the necessary number of loops for your journal.  

Tape the other end in place, then use craft glue or hot glue along the entire back to secure the string.  

Back of spine after wrapping thread, before adding glue

Front of spine.  Each length of thread will hold one magazine

Optional:  Inbetween the string on the ends, take some contrasting coloured embroidery floss or similar and glue lengths in between.  This gives the appearance of headbands of a book (see Part 3 of my Book binding series to find out what these are in more detail)
Over this, glue a piece of paper, cut to a little narrower and shorter than the spine.  This helps to secure the string and also provides a good surface to glue the book together with later.  Leave to dry.
Take another piece of paper to make the exterior spine.  This paper should be fairly thick and sturdy as it will be under the most long term stress.  The paper should be taller by at least 5 cm and the width of your spine plus 1.5 cm to allow the paper to fold, plus 2-3 cm on each side for the spine paper to be glued to the covered.  In practical terms for me, that meant a piece of paper 28 cm tall by 15 cm wide.

Carefully place the spine card onto the spine and ensure it is centred.  Mark this position, then glue the back of the spine card (the bit with the paper covering the strings) to this spine paper. Let dry.

Now you can glue the covers to the spine paper.  You want to leave room for the paper to fold or your holder will not be able to close.  Try to have a even gap of 0.75-1cm on each side.  One easy way is to use a bit of scrap card cut to size that you can use to align the cover in the correct place.

Here you can see the brown bit of scrap card I used to position the cover in the right place and straight.  You can also see that I have glued green thread between the gold string on the spine prior to gluing it to the spine paper to get a headband effect and to hide the card

Glue both covers into place and let dry.

Optional- if you are using thinner paper or you think it will get a lot of wear, you may wish to add a bit of extra reinforcing paper on the top and bottom parts.  If so, do so now.

Use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife with ruler to cut the spine paper at a slight angle.  You want this cut to be to the corner of each spine card so the paper can be folded over and glued (see the picture below).

Make the cuts at a slight angle.  Note the extra paper I've glued in first to reinforce the ends of the spines

Once the sides are glued in place, use a ruler and a knife to cut the little left over piece off, top and bottom.

Use a ruler and a sharp knife to cut off this extra piece of paper flush with the edge of the book holder

Final step is to cut some endpapers inside to neaten things up.  Either measure up some paper a few millimetres smaller than the journal holder or use one or two pieces of A4 paper.  If you can find a piece of paper long enough great, but otherwise cut both pieces to a length so that one is long enough for one cover to the edge of the other and the other the size of the other cover.  It's your choice if you would like the edge of the paper showing on the back or the front or back, but I do suggest you glue the longer piece of paper (the bit that will cover the spine) down first, then the smaller piece of paper.  Let everything dry.

Before use, lay it flat on a table, outside facing up and run your thumb down the fold lines for the covers.  This helps neatens everything up and ensures the folds look right.

To use, open each magazine in the middle and insert it under a string.  That's it!  If you have any extra bits and bobs, a page protector with with the folder holes trimmed off works well either on an extra string or inserted in or around another magazine.

80's throwback- Soft toy in a car window

When I was a kid I loved Garfield.  I liked lasagne, and so does Garfield.  I wasn't any more thrilled with Mondays then than I am now and while I didn't have a coffee habit when I was a kid, I love my coffee now.  For a while in the 80's having a Garfield in the back window was a popular thing- similar to those nodding dog figures that were a thing for a while or fluffy dice handing of the rear vision mirror.  I always wanted a Garfield in the car as a kid so when I got my first car (1979 Toyota Corona) my sister gave me one for my birthday.

Aside from fulfilling that childhood wish, Garfield has also been brilliant to identify my car in a carpark.  Particularly since Garfield is much rarer to see these days!

This was particularly useful as for my first and second cars, my key could open the door of any similar make and aged car (and vice versa!).  This caught me once on the way home from university when I hopped into my car and noticed that my stuff inside wasn't right.  Moments later the lightbulb dinged and I quickly slunk out of the stranger's car that was the same make, model and colour as mine, and walked up the road several meters to get into MY car to get home!

But my Garfield is getting old.  Years in the sun have bleached his orange fur, while the rubber in the suction cups and the thread holding them on both failed.  So Garfield needs a makeover.  Since the method is ridiculously simple and could be used for any soft toy if you were looking for a car identifier, I thought I'd share it.

Equipment

• A small soft toy (too big and the suction cups may not hold the toy up- not to mention issues blocking a view when driving!)
• Suction cups- I found a set of 9 with hooks built in, in a local $2 shop in the hardware related section although I sometimes see them with bathroom related stuff
• Sharpies of assorted colours (optional if your toy is faded)
• Sewing needle
• Strong cotton thread
• Glue or nail polish for knots (optional)

My Garfield fresh from the car after his previous suction cups died.

The first step is only if you have a faded toy you wish to revive for nostalgic reasons.  I wouldn't do this if it is a treasured childhood toy that is still snuggled, but if the toy is going to sit on a shelf or similarly it should be OK.  Basically, it is to give your toy a dye job using Sharpies (or non-brand name permament markers).  Sharpies these days come in all sorts of colours these days so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with the colours you need.  In my case, an orange, yellow and black.  Just run the side over the toy for the large areas or the point if colouring smaller areas.

As you can see, he looks a little blotchy but that's mainly because the camera lighting, plus that will fade a bit over time and even out.

Then sew the suction cups to each limb.  Ensure you use a good amount of thread there as UV light is going to weaken those joins over time.  If you are paranoid about your knots, add a drop of glue or nail polish to each knot.  And that's it!

Not the most exciting tutorial in the world but if you've ever wandered constantly in a carpark looking for a car in a sea of very similar coloured cars it might be worth a go!