Saving the universe one project at a time!
The August/September 2014 edition of Sew News is out – check out page 70 🙂
My zippered composition notebook cover pattern is inside! I came up with a way to combine my 2 favorite sewing projects: zipper pouch + composition book cover!! I love being able to tuck my pens and small items inside my book cover so nothing gets lost!!
These would make great back-to-school gifts as well……I better whip up a few more 🙂
If you know me at all, you aren’t surprised that a whale zipper pouch would be apart of “Whale Week”! I have gotten so much use out of my 1/2 yard of True Blue Whales fabric by Blend!!! I love the little anchor charm I found to use as the zipper pull. The lining of the bag is super cute with lifesavers and anchors on it!!
This tutorial is more of an overview, if you want extra details and you are new to making zipper pouches, check out My favorite zipper pouch tutorial.
Supplies:
Fat quarters or large scraps for the outer bag and lining
scraps for zipper tabs
Medium or light weight fusible stabilizer
Heat n Bond LIte
zipper
scrap of ric arc
Cut the denim outer bag, bag lining and stabilizer 8″ x 11″ (2) of each. Fuse the stabilizer to the wrong side of the lining fabric.
Iron the heat n bond lite to the wrong side of the desired whale. Fuse and cut the whale out. Position the whale as pictured below. Sew an accent piece of ric rac.
Cut 2 zipper tabs 1.5″ x 4″. Pres the ends under 1/4″ and then press in half.
Here you can see the 2 zipper tabs. (Sorry about the lighting, it was 11:00 pm).
Measure the zipper and the tabs so you have 1″ on each side of tabs (there will be extra). Sew the tabs to the ends of the zipper. Again, click HERE for more details on this process. Cut the folded piece of the tab and cut out the excess zipper. The goal with this is to reduce bulk in the seams.
Flip the zipper over and match with the top edge of the whale piece. Place one of the lining pieces right side down and align all the edges. Don’t worry about the zipper tabs, we will even them up in a minute.
Sew using a zipper foot. Press and do the same thing to the other side of the zipper so it looks like this:
Top stitch 1/8″ along the zipper. Trim the excess tab fabric. Match right sides with right sides and pin all the way around. MAKE SURE ZIPPER IS OPEN Sew using 1/4″ seam leaving a 2.5″ opening on the side of the lining fabric.
After you’ve sewn all the way around cut a 1.5″ notch out of each corner of the bag.
Match bottom seams and sew a 1/4″ seam:
Turn right side out and top stitch side opening. Yea! It’s done!
It’s the perfect little pouch to tuck inside a beach bag with all the little stuff that might get lost.
Welcome to the Jedi Craft Girl Blog! I’m Amanda and this is my submission for the Sew-Vivor Sewing Competition over at Family Ever After. Thanks Rach H for putting so much time and personality into this fun online sewing competition!! I have been quilting for 16 years and I love quilts in any shape and size . I couldn’t decide on a quilt to enter so I thought a quilted pillow would be fun and mix things up in the competition. Meet my Modern Pumpkin Throw Pillow. This is an original design. October is a super busy time of year, so to get my fall quilting fix I came up with this 18″ 18″ pillow. I love it because it has my 2 favorite colors, it involves half square triangle piecing, and uses machine appliqué.
I love the tightly quilted meanders in the background and the black “loop de loo” accents on the pumpkins…..loop de loo is a real word, right?
I had some fun with the back by adding an appliqué spider below the zipper.
I can’t believe fall is just around the corner – yikes!!! Thanks so much for stopping by – this is such a fun competition!!!
I love composition books and I have written several tutorials for them. I use these cute covered books for everything: journals, notes, reminders, etc. Do you use a sewing journal? I am always writing patterns or changing existing patterns and I take notes as I go. This has totally saved me as I have all the notes in one place. Here is my current sewing journal – with only a few pages left in it:
This is an example of how fabulous my notes and sketches are 🙂 After I have all my notes and the project is finished, I type it up as a tutorial or pattern online. It’s time for a new composition and I’m feeling “whale-y!
This is the composition book I am using – make sure you measurements are 9 3/4″ x 7 1/2″
Supplies:
composition book
scraps of fabric
1/3 yard fabric for lining and flaps
batting
spray n bond basting spray
hair elastic
button
You can create any design as long as it measures 16/5″ x 11″ when you are finished
Anchor fabric 3″ x 16.5″
pink accent fabric (2) 1.25″ x 16.5″
whale fabric 4.5″ x 16.5″
flower fabric 3″ x 16.5″
Piece them together in this order using 1/4″ seams:
Press the seams in one direction. Using basting spray or pins, baste the top to the batting. Quilt as desired. I quilted 1/4″ lines on both sides of the seams. Square up the batting after quilting.
Take the hair elastic and baste it 1/8″ in the center on the left side of the book cover. Like this:
For the lining, cut a piece 16.5″ x 11″
For the flaps cut (2) 11″ x 10″ and press in half
Lay them out like this:
Lay right sides together and pin all the way around. Sew using 1/2″ seam allowance leaving a 3″ opening at the bottom to turn.
Turn right side out and press. Top-stitch the opening closed.
Insert the composition book and mark where you want the button. Remove the book and sew the button on with a needle and thread – inside the flap. It’s hard to see my button because it is blue.
And you’re done!! Perfect gift for just about anyone!!
After I ironed the whale to the T-shirt, I top-stitched around the whale twice. Sally needed a complete whale outfit (I am pretty sure if I had enough fabric I would have sewn myself a whale skirt!!)
I used skirt “A” from the pattern book Little Sassy Skirts.
I have made these skirts over and over. The patterns are easy to follow and everything is done with rotary cutter measurements (a quilters dream!). This skirt is fun because you don’t have to have a lot of yardage, I only had half yards of the True Blue prints and I love the 4 prints all pieced together!
We had such a fun day at the beach! It was beautiful! I love summer and I love whales 🙂
Isn’t this the cutest fabric? It’s from the True Blue fabric line by Blend. Everyeday this week I will be featuring a project using fabrics from this fabric line – all with a whale theme!!
I totally LOVE whales and I have loved them since I was like 4 years old 🙂 I thought this pillow was super fun and I love the colors! My tutorial is over at the Therm O Web blog – so hop over there if you want the instructions to make your own!!
When I came home from our Young Women’s Camp (which I was the director of) I literally hit a wall and wend into hiding. I was completely exhausted spiritually and physically. I turned 40 that next week. My children were all away at my parents. My good friend and her family moved away. I think I had some kind of break down or something. It was the hardest week of my life!!!! I am writing to say I am getting back to my usual self – but it’s been hard. Has anyone else freaked out when they turned 40? I really didn’t see it coming!!
Here is a little recap….
My friend invited my husband and I to the Kenny Loggins concert on my birthday. It was super fun and we got to meet Kenny afterwards. It was a good place to turn 40 – I was the youngest person there!!!
My friend and her family moving away from Southern California to Utah – not a good day at all.
I finally made it up to my parents house to for a family reunion. They surprised me with another birthday party. 40 – really?
We had fun at the beach:
Lots of swimming!
Peach Picking
and fun dinners!!
I hope everyone is having a great summer. Summer is my favorite for sure!! It’s good to be back 🙂
I am happy to share with you my Nautical Quilt tutorial. One of my good friends is expecting a baby and her nursery has a nautical theme. I came up with this quilt to give her at her baby shower. I love how it turned out!
The quilt starts with a simple square in a square block. (1/4″ seams throughout)
Cut the center piece is 3.5″ square.
Cut the side pieces (2) 3.5″ x 2.5″
Cut the top and bottom pieces 7.5″ x 2.5″
Sew the side pieces on and press toward the dark. Sew the top and bottom pieces on and press toward the dark.
Now that you have the basic block down, make 9 like this with red or navy borders and a white center. Then make 9 the reverse, white sides and a red or navy center.
Assemble the blocks in rows like this:
For the large white pieces, cut”
15″ x WOF
4.5″ x WOF
Sew these to the sides of the block portion. Square up the edges.
For the appliqué, I just googled “anchor clip art” and found this anchor – there are hundreds to choose from. Trace the anchor onto Therm O Web Heat n Bond Lite. Iron the heat n bond to the wrong side of the navy fabric. Cut out the anchor, peel off the back and press into place. Top stitch in matching thread. I toyed with the idea of adding rope, ribbon, or ric arc along the length connecting to the anchor, but ultimately I decided to leave it as is.
I quilted it with straight lines. I measured the lines so they would cross the squares in equal portions. I love the navy & white polkadot binding. Now it’s time to throw a Nautical themed baby shower!
This is me and the mommy-to-be. The shower was super fun!!
Do the men in your life LOVE bacon? The ones in my life do 🙂 Bacon themed items are super popular and what I love most about the bacon trend is Jim Gaffigan’s comedy bit about bacon – if you haven’t heard it -click HERE … you will laugh so hard!! This week at Jedi Craft Girl has been all about the fabric line Ribs & Bibs and Father’s Day
. I love this zipper pouch because it is “manly”. I used a light weight black denim on the outside, a chunky metal zipper, and the taupe utensil fabric on the inside. I used white house paint to stencil the word “Bacon” on the bag. Therm o Web fusible stabilizer gives the bag more stability. This zipper pouch is my new FAVORITE!!!
Here’s how you can make one:
Supplies
fat quarters of outer lightweight denim fabric
fat quarters of lining – I used taupe “grill master”
fat quarter “open pit” for pig motif
Therm O Web Fusible interfacing, medium weight
Heat n Bond Lite fusible applique
White paint
Zipper
Letter stencils or cutting machine
Cut (2) lining pieces (2) denim pieces and (4) interfacing pieces 8″ x 11″
Begin by preparing the stencil I used some extra vinyl I had laying around (that’s why it’s pink) and ran it through my Cricut. I used the font “Playbill”, weed the letters to leave the outline.
Using a masking strip to adhere the stencil, place the Bacon word on the center of the denim piece.
Using a stencil brush, stencil with white paint. I literally used the trim paint from my house.
Let it dry then peel off the stencil. I love how it turned out!
Here are the pieces you should have cut 8″ x 11″
Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of both the lining pieces and both the outer bag pieces – 4 total. Iron a piece of Heat n Bond to the wrong side of the pig fabric. I liked the red pig the best. Cut out around the pig leaving a little white boarder. Stitch around the pig in white thread. Press the front of the bag, heat setting the painted letters.
Now you are ready to construct the bag. Follow this tutorial here. A word of advice if you are using a chunky metal zipper…..It was my goal to not break my needle. I was super careful to hand move the needle when near the zipper – that way the needle can find it’s way around the zipper teeth. I thought I was in the clear and then resumed with the pedal and snap – the needle broke – darn! I bet you can do it without breaking the needle 🙂
I just love this project to pieces! I might need one for myself – my kids all want one too!!
