LoLoTute: Sew Yourself a Door Stop (a tutorial!)

First off, a big congratulations to “Andy and Melissa”. You won the pillowcase set! Shoot me your info and I will get your pillowcases off in the mail.

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

When I think of door stops, I generally think of unsightly, and very heavy, pieces of art that you aren’t sure what to do with. It’s kind of a joke, right? Hey! That would make a great door stop!

So, when my father (in all seriousness) requested a pair of door stops for Christmas, I was stumped. He suggested a bean bag, since he knew that a certain little grandson (*ahem*SIUJEUN) would most likely throw them if he could get his hands on them. (And he would be absolutely right.)

 

So, after a little searching online, and a little wracking my brain, and a little sewing (and a little seam ripping and tweaking), I have come up with a doorstop!

(My tutorial is based on the one found here…altered by me to fit my own brand of crazy. Proceed at your own risk.)

Supplies:

Décor-weight cotton fabric

Filler (rice, wheat, beans, etc.)

1 freezer-weight zip-top bag (sandwich or quart size)

fiberfill

 

Tools:

Sewing machine

Iron

Chopstick

Measuring cup with a spout, or a funnel

 

You’re going to start off with two pieces of fabric – one 16.5” x 9.5” (the body of the bag) and one 4” x 9.5” (the handle). (Alternately, the handle could be a 9.5” piece of webbing, or bias tape, or rope or whatever else floats your boat.) Just to make things easy, make sure both of your pieces are pressed flat. I used décor weight cotton, from IKEA. (A thick cotton is necessary to get a really crisp and sturdy cube.)

Working with your larger piece of fabric, fold it in half (right sides together, short ends meeting) and sew up matched short ends with a 1/4” seam allowance. Congratulations – now you have a tube! Add a matching 1/4” seam along the folded edge. (Just trust me on this. It makes your cube more…cubish.)

 

Now, shift your tube around so that the two seams are matched up, and centered.

Now sew two more 1/4” seams, one on either side, along the fold. (You don’t need to worry about backstitching, or trimming your threads neatly. They will all be hidden and sewed inside other seams.)

Now, shift your tube again so that you have two matching, and stacked, sets of seams. Sew a 1/4” seam along one of your open ends. Leave the other end open for now. Now? Your tube is a bag.

And if you stand it up, you’ll see that you’ve made a sweet little grocery-sack type thing. Carefully flatten out the bottom so that the bag will stand up on its own. You will end up with small triangles of fabric sticking off to either side. Finger press those, then mark the fold.

Hold up the bag to make sure that your first triangle is even, centered, pretty, and all that jazz. I like to sew just outside of that seam that runs cross-wise through the triangle. It makes for neater corners. Once you have sewn up the first triangle, you can use it to match up the second triangle. That way, they will be identical. Sew that triangle off as well.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the open end of your sack. You need to leave a gap so that you can turn your bag right side out, and also insert your handle. Following my marks in the picture, sew two seams, each one starting at the pink hatchmark and going out towards the outside corner of the bag. (When I sewed this up, I found that I had made my opening a little TOO small. If you think you might have issues, just make the gap bigger, but don’t OUTSIDE the matched seams. You need that part sewn shut.)

Now, set that aside and pull out your smaller piece of fabric. To make it into a handle, fire up your iron. We’re going to make binding! First, fold your piece of fabric in half, lengthwise, and press. Open it up, and fold each long edge towards the center, wrong sides together, to meet in the middle, right above your pressed crease. Finally, fold it back in half along the original crease and press again. Voila! Head over to your sewing machine and run a seam along the open end, as close to the edge as you can get.  (About 1/8” for me.)

Here’s where it gets a little odd. Grab your (still inside out) bag and (using one of your already-sewn corners as a guide), pinch off a third corner. Holding that corner in one hand, pick up your (freshly made) handle in the other hand and carefully feed it into the gap you left at the top of the bag, and up into the corner. Feel with your pinching fingers to make sure that the handle extends past your intended seam by at least 1/2”.

Stick that baby under the needle before everything falls apart, and sew off that corner.

Repeat the process with the fourth corner, again matching it up to the corner below it to make sure that it is the same size.

 

Now the fun part. Turn it right side out. At some point, it will look like this:

Don’t worry! Keep tugging, prodding, sweating and begging. Eventually, it will right itself. And behold! A cube! With a handle!

Now to fill it! You’ll need a small zip-top bag, filler (I used wheat, but rice or beans would also work) and a chopstick. (My zip-top bag was freezer-weight, quart size. I wanted to make sure 1) that I didn’t puncture it while filling it and 2) that it would be thick enough that it hopefully wouldn’t attract pests to the wheat inside. These were designed to be used at my parents’ cabin…and they have critters out there in the woods!)

Use the chopstick to poke out the corners of your cloth cube, and then stuff your bag into your gap at the top of the door stop. Carefully pour in your filler, pausing often to shake and shift and poke and prod. You want the filler to firmly fill out the bottom four corners. Keep adding your filler until your door stop is about 3/4 of the way full. Carefully squeeze out all the air that you can from your  plastic bag, and zip up the top. Tuck the bag completely inside the gap. (My door stops took about 3 cups of wheat, FYI.)

Fill out the rest of the door stop with fiberfill, and use a blind stitch or a whip stitch to sew your gap shut.

Congratulations! You have a door stop. Now, go forth and stop your doors. (I was surprised, when I took stock, of how many doors in my house needed door stops just to stay put…never mind how many doors would need stops if I were to open the windows!)

If you make one of these, please come back and let me know in the comments! I’d love to see pictures.

LoLo Tute: Easy Pillowcase (and a Giveaway!)

The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Melissa!!

(You might have already seen this post. I tried to get things done ahead of time...and apparently, got things all mixed up, with three or four posts going up in the same hour. Derp. So. Here you go! Giveaway!)


Now, I certainly can’t take sole responsibility for this tutorial. The original directions were found here, from Su at Vively Online. So, if you want a sweet little cheat sheet that you can print out…head over! She’s awesome!

But, if you’ve gone, say, to IKEA and picked up a Fjadrar pillow (because they’re big and filled with feathers and oh-so-cheap), I’m about to show you how to make a case for it. And you don’t have to think about any measurements. Sound good? (This, by the way, makes an envelope style pillow case.)

(This would also work for any square 20x20 pillow. Just so’s you know.)
First, round up your fabric. I’m using a cotton print from IKEA here, that used to be my drapes. Just about anything will work here. Now, cut it to size. You need a rectangle 19.5” x 45”.


Heat up your iron, and find one of the short ends of your rectangle. Fold 1/2” of the raw edge toward the wrong side of the fabric and press. Now, fold it down 1/2” again and press. Do the same thing to the other short side, then head over to your machine and stitch both hems down, close to the open edge so they don’t flap around.

Lay your fabric right side down on a table, and fold up the closest short edge to about the middle of the fabric, like you’re folding a letter. On the wrong side of the fabric, measuring down 5” from the hemmed edge, make a mark on the left and right sides of your fabric.



Now bring down the other hemmed edge to that mark. Pin through the top two layers so that you now have a tube.

Now that your tube is pinned, you can sort of roll it a bit to make sure that the second layer (what will be the outer layer when you turn this thing right side out) is positioned just about in the middle. (Here you can see that my 20” case is laid on my cutting mat, and the second layer edge just about lines up with the 10” mark.)

Making sure everything is flat, even and nice, pin it if you like, then put a seam on both remaining raw edges.

Snip your threads, flip, and you’re done!

Now, here’s the fun part. Just because it’s a new year. And because I have this insane goal to actually put things in my etsy shop this year, despite all the crazy new tax laws, so I need to practice sewing a few things. And because I love you.

Do you happen to have any 20x20 pillows around? Or live close to an IKEA? Or just really need more pillow cases in your life? I’m giving away a set of the pillow cases featured in this tutorial to one lucky reader. So, if your home needs more brown, green and khaki in its life…this is the giveaway for you! Simply leave a comment on this post to be entered. I’ll pull a winner early next week, and announce it…mid week. (See what I did there? This way, if I forget to take any of these actions, I can just tell you that it’s all on schedule. Heh.)

PLEASE make sure to leave an e-mail address in your comment. A winner without contact information…will quickly become that-person-that-could-have-won if they’d only had contact information!

Good luck! And here’s to doing 2011 up right!

Thing 34: Little Boy’s Messenger Bag (a tutorial!)

  (This is my brain turning into licorice….)

 

Any questions?

 

Heh. Just kidding. The idea was to make a bag where the sides went straight up to become the strap…but I totally underestimated how long I needed that strap to be. So…it’s more of a man purse. *sigh*

 

Cut two matching rectangles as wide as you want your bag to be and twice as long (plus 8 inches) as you want your bag to be tall. (That gives it a 4” overlap for the front flap, plus 2” to go over the top of the bag, and 2” to go under the bottom.) Then cut a piece that is 8” wide by the distance from your boy’s knees, across his chest, around and back to his knee. (Obviously, I took the measurement hip to hip…and that gave me a purse. D’oh!)

 

Sew your two big rectangles, right sides together, making sure to leave a gap for turning. Clip the corners, turn and press. Set aside.

 

Take your big strap piece and fold 2” in on either side so that they meet in the middle. Press. Fold in half lengthwise, so that your folded edges meet and right sides are out. Press. Sew along the length, right along the edge where the two folded edges meet.

 

Now, here comes the part that made my brain turn into licorice. At one end of your rectangle, measure in 4”. Mark that. It’s your “flap. Now, measure in another 2”. Mark that. Now you have the two corners for the “top” of your boxy messenger bag. Now, measure down as far as you wanted your bag to be tall…mark that. Go another 2” and mark that. There’s the bottom of your bag. You should be left with a length that is identical to the back of the bag. 

 

Time to attach your strap! Your strap should have ended up 2” wide, and so should just fit into the “bottom” that you measured out for yourself. Carefully pin your strap into place and sew the short ends to the bottom of the bag, right sides together. Then, sew up the sides to close up the sides of your bag.

 

You’re done!

 

(If you want a stiffer bag, use something heavier than the flannel and cotton/poly bed sheet that I used or add interfacing between your layers.)

 

(PS – I obviously sewed the long sides of the strap before the short side. Do whatever doesn’t make your brain turn into licorice!)

Tutorial: Tissue Paper Ghosts

I got it into my head this season that Halloween simply would not be Halloween this year, unless some glue and tissue paper were involved.

 

And so, I invited them to the party. This project was inspired by one I saw in a Martha Stewart magazine when I was in college. And…you know, when I say “inspired” I really mean that I saw it in Martha’s magazine, and then made it from memory using what I could find around the house, and NOW (ten years later), I’m really just stealing the Mod Podge, balloons and tissue paper from the party.

 

Now that we’ve got that all cleared up, let’s move on.

 

  

I had originally intended to make little balls that looked like mummies, using thin strips of white tissue paper. It…well, it didn’t work out that well, since mummies have arms and legs and a neck…and balloons have none of those things. I ended up giving my strips, and some truly tiny balloons, to my daughter to use.

I am simply too cheap to buy real Mod Podge, so I made my own. I found bottles of glue at the office supply store on clearance after all the Back to School sales were over. At only $.20 for a bottle, I figured that even if it didn’t work out, I still wasn’t out too much for my little experiment.

 

Luckily, a squirt of cheap Scholastic glue, with a few drops of water, makes a perfectly acceptable glue spread. (What do you call it if it isn’t real Mod Podge??!)

I decided to move on to ghosts. I used a 6” balloon, and sheets of white tissue paper, cut into three or four wide strips down the long side of the sheet. Paint the top and top sides of the balloon with your glue, and get to work. Lay a strip of paper onto the balloon, centering it on the top, and then paint again lightly with your glue to stick it down. Make sure that the edges are stuck, especially. For clarity’s sake, let’s say that strip is laying down 12-6, if it was a clock. Pick up your next strip of paper and lay it onto the balloon, perpendicular to the first strip , 3-9. Top that with a coat of glue, and lay your next strip down sort of 2-7, and top that with glue.

 

Keep going, alternating directions, until you have at least 2-3 complete layers of paper (about 9 wide strips). It does not take much glue….just enough to moisten the paper and stick it down.

Now go check on your kidlet. She’ll probably declare herself done. (I had her working over a piece of tin foil so that she wouldn’t get drips on the table.) Check out that masterpiece!

She made sure to tell me that the pink one is a girl ghost, and the blue one is a boy ghost. (We bought a few fish this weekend, and she’s sort of on a name/gender/setting up pretend families kick now. She hasn’t named her ghosts. Yet. But I’m sure she will in the morning!)

 

When the glue is all dry (which should happen overnight), carefully dip your finger into some black craft paint and give your ghosts eyes. Then, carefully pop the balloons with a small snip from your scissors. As the air comes out, the balloon should pull away from the tissue paper, leaving you with your ghost! (If it doesn’t pull away, tug it gently, and it should come unstuck.)  I currently have one of these guys set up on my mantle, but once this new flock is dry and eye’d, I might string them up and hang them from the chandelier by the front door. I’ll be sure to get pictures up when the ghosts are all set up!

 

How are you decorating for Halloween this year? Do you have any quick and or cheap crafts to share? Let us know in the comments!

Thing 30: A House Coat (and a Tutorial!)

This is one of those projects that stewed around in my head for MONTHS before I ever sat down to attempt it. Of course, when I sat down…I had only a very, VERY vague plan in mind.

 

Like. Really vague.

I wanted something snuggly and warm, but not something that would be too cumbersome. Something just for the kids to wear around the house to keep them warm. So…cozier than a sweatshirt, but less in-the-way than a traditional robe.

So, here’s how I did it.

Step one – Find a shirt that fits your kid. (This housecoat was for Siu Jeun, my little dude.) Lay it out on your snuggly material (I used fleece, but flannel would work as well. Or minky if you’re crazy. Or stretch velour, for that matter, but I won’t admit here that I have some in my stash. Or that it’s purple. Moving on.)

If your fabric allows, fold it in half so you can cut both pieces at once. If not, just cut the Back Piece out first, and then we’ll fold it in half for the next step.

Step 2 - So, lay it out. You’re going to make a really quick n’ dirty pattern here. Use a fabric marking pen to make your cut line for the top of the coat. Leaving a 1/2” seam allowance, trace around both sleeves and the neck. Be sure to mark where the neck begins and ends!

 

Then, move on to where the armpits are. (I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of this part…but you really can’t mess it up.) You’re going to make an A-line coat, for maximum move-ability. To make this coat (for a 21 month old) I drew a 14” line, angling out from the armpit. Where the line passed the hem of the shirt, it was 2” away. (With those two measurements, you can easily make both sides identical without any tricky folding.)

 

Step 3 - Now, cut it out! (If you didn’t have a square of fabric big enough to fold in half and still fit your whole coat, take the piece you just cut out and fold it in half, stem to stern. Or neck to hem. Whatever. Fit that piece somewhere on your fabric and trace it out, exactly. Fit it one more spot and trace THAT out, exactly. Cut those two pieces out, and you’ve got your Front Right and Front Left pieces! Make sure to flip it over for the second Front so that you end up with the Right Side of the fabric…on the right side, when you put them together.)

(If you cut out Front and Back together, on folded fabric, take your Front piece and fold it in half, stem to stern, and cut it along the fold. Now you’ve got your Front Right and Front Left. Nice, yes?)

 

Step 4 – Take a look at your neck line. Do you see where it ends? Now figure out where, on your Front pieces, mid-way down the chest would be. Fold the top corners of the pieces away from the chest, from the edge of the neck to mid-way down the chest. Sew those down. (I like them on the outside, but folding them to the inside, hemming it 1/2” from the edge, and trimming it off works, too!)

 

Step 5 – Sew it together!! Sew your top seams. Sew your side seams. (Right sides together, please.) Hem up the bottom if you like, and the opening in the middle. Or don’t. Whatever. It’s a housecoat! It’s made of fleece! It’s all good.

Step 6 – Stick it on your kid. For extra fun, get the kid to run away from you after you put it on them. They look like some sort of rich Super Villain. Excellent.

 

(Step 7 (optional) – make one for big sister.