gift – Page 3

Mother’s Day Gifts: Zipper Pouch Set

May 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

These cute zipper pouches are a darling gift to give someone special this Mother’s Day. This tutorial is written by my good friend Jennifer. Jennifer is the one who takes me on crazy adventures to find fabric all over Southern California. She is an amazing sewist and writes a blog called Jennifer Sews Again.

Her tutorial for these zipper pouches is great – I followed each step and my pouches turned out perfect! These amazing fabrics are from Blend’s Modern Eclectic line. I love the prints!!!

I love the lining! What’s great about these zipper pouches is they unzip all the way so you can have full access to your items. I always take mine when I travel.

I love that they nest too!

And they make a nice set when paired with a fabric keychain!

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, gift, mother's day, quilt, sewing, tutorial, zipper pouch

Riley Blake Union Jack Quilt Tutorial

April 22, 2014 by 15 Comments

Cheers! I am so excited to be participating in Riley Blake’s Union Jack Blog Hop! I am in love with the fun colors of this Union Jack panel! My friend, Karen, loves all things British: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, the Royal Family, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Fish ‘n Chips, Beef Wellington, The Cure & Adele….her husband served a mission in England, AND here is Harper, their adorable baby girl with a trendy British name! Harper is the cutest baby ever and this quilt is for her.

This quilt is the perfect size for a wallhanging or baby quilt

Finished quilt 38.5″ x 30.5″

Here’s how you can make your own “Harper Girl” quilt.

Supplies:

1 Union Jack print

assorted jelly roll strips of prints and white – or yardage to cut strips

Heat n Bond Lite Printable sheets

batting

1 yard backing fabric

1/3 yard binding

Cut the white fabric and assorted prints into 2.5″ strips x WOF

I used 1 strip of each of the 8 colors, cut 16 white strips

Now cut each WOF strip in half

Sew into strip sets of (5) total. I just picked random colors and didn’t try and lay out the pattern. Make 3 sets with white beginning and ending and 3 sets with prints beginning and ending as pictured:

Press toward the prints.

Cut the strip sets into 2.5″ sub sets:

Make 2 piles: one with the white on the outside and one with the patterned fabric on the outside:

Now comes the fun part – grab and sew! Once again, I didn’t try and lay out a pattern, I just grabbed 2 strip sets and sewed together. Make sure the intersections of the seams sandwich together nicely.

Make 9 of these blocks: 5 blocks with patterned corners, 4 blocks with white corners.

Fussy cut one of the Union Jack blocks, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance around the print.

Find a font you like and print it in reverse on one of these Heat n Bond EZ print sheets – you could also use a silhouette, but I am not that advanced!

Cut out the letters and peel off the backing paper. Cut a piece of white fabric 9.25″ wide (the width of the Union Jack) x 19.5″ Place the letters and iron in place. Straight stitch around each letter twice.

Sew the Union Jack to the white fabric.

Lay out your blocks in this pattern: 2 rows of 3 blocks, then the Union Jack strip, then 1 row of 3 blocks. Square up the white fabric if there is a little excess on the end.

Quilt as desired

Filed Under: gift, quilt, Riley Blake, Therm O Web, tutorial, tutorials

Frozen Sketch Book Case

December 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

My 14 year old and her friends are obsessed with the Frozen movie! They have seen it 3 times, they spend all their time drawing images from the movie and listen to the songs over and over. For Christmas I thought it would be cute to get them each a new sketch book and make a case for it out of Frozen fabric. I am not big into “Character” fabric, but I really liked this print.

I used my Coupon Pouch Tutorial and changed the dimensions to 26″ x 15″. Everything else is exactly the same!

They freaked out when they opened them today!

These are some of Ella’s latest drawings, I think they are so cute!

I kind of want one for myself 🙂

Filed Under: gift, gifts, projects, sewing

Happy 1st Day of School

August 14, 2013 by 2 Comments

Today is our first day of Kindergarten!! I made the teacher a quilted composition book out of apple fabric. I love this fabric! I also made her an apple keychain.

I wrapped it up with 2 containers of sanitizing wipes. I hope she likes it!! I know I would 🙂

Filed Under: gift, gifts

Apple Keychain Tutorial

August 13, 2013 by 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again…..YIKES!!! I can’t believe the children are headed back to school. I am such a summer person!!! I designed this keychain for Therm O Web. They are super cute and easy to make – you can give them to your teachers or clip them on your child’s backpack! Click HERE for the tutorial!

Filed Under: gift, gifts, sewing, tutorial, tutorials

9-Patch Big Block Quilt Tutorial

July 27, 2013 by 13 Comments

This has been such a fun week of quilt tutorials!

I made this quilt with lots and lots of love. It’s for a friend who is battling cancer. Sometimes only a hand-made quilt can express how you truly feel about a person.

I love this pattern because it showcases larger print fabrics which I am always drawn to!

This quilt is made up of 9-patch blocks and plain blocks.
Quilt blocks measure 12″ finished
Make (10) 9-patch blocks
Cut (10) 12.5″ squares of theme print

Select your fabrics and lay them out how you want them in the 9-patch. Cut them in strips of 4.5″x WOF

Sew them together in 3-strip sets: row 1, row 2, and row 3

Press seams so they alternate for easy intersection pinning. Cut in increments of 4.5″

Do this with each of the strip sets until you have stacks that look like this:

Pin at seams

Here you can see how I did my pressing:

Lay out your 9-patch blocks with your 12 1/2″ squares alternating. Sew them in rows and join rows together. This quilt is 4 squares across and 5 squares down.

I put flannel on the back and free-motion quilted it – it’s so cuddly!!

Filed Under: A Week of Quilt Tutorials, gift, gifts, quilt, tutorial, tutorials

Monster Truck Baby Quilt

July 1, 2013 by Amanda 4 Comments

I came up with the idea for this quilt when I was invited to a baby shower for a friend who loves going to Monster Jam. I wanted a cute, modern take on the monster truck and this what I came up with. To begin, select fat quarters of various prints. I choose gray, white, black and green. You can choose any prints or patterns you like. I only had 8 different fabrics, but I would have liked 12.

Next, cut your fabric into 12.5″ strips, then sub-cut into the following measurements:

Do this with each of your fabrics. Now mix up the pieces and sew the following 12″ (finished) block: (quarter inch seams)

You want the top and bottom pieces to be the same fabric, and the center to be different. Press the seams toward the 6.5″ piece.

I love personalizing quilts, especially if they are gifts. To add a name to the quilt block, print the name using your favorite word processing program. I tried several different fonts until I got the one I liked. If you can, reverse the image when you print. Take your Heat N Bond® Lite and trace the reversed name in pencil. Iron the piece of Heat N Bond® with the name to the WRONG side of your fabric. Then, cut the name out. Peel the backing off and arrange the letters how you want on your quilt block. Finally press to attach it.

I outlined the letters using a straight stitch. I went around each letter twice to give it the “sketch” feel….which I love.

After you make 11 of these blocks, lay them out. For the truck applique block, cut a white square 12.5″x 12.5″

Next, follow the same technique using Heat N Bond® Lite to applique the monster truck to the quilt block. Click HERE for the truck pattern.

To finish the quilt, sew the blocks together to form rows and sew the rows together. Quilt as desired

Note: These are big blocks which help make this a fast, easy quilt to put together in a day. If you would like the same look, but with smaller blocks here are the measurements:

For a 10″ finished block: cut pieces 10.5″ x 5.5″, 10.5″ x 2.25″, 10.5″ x 3.75″

For an 8″ finished block: cut pieces 4.5″ x 8.5″, 1.5″ x 8.5″, 3.5″ x 8.5″

Essentially the bottom strip is 1/2 the block size, the top strip is 1/3 the block size and the center strip is 1/6 the block size.

Here is a little peek of the baby shower – we centered the colors and theme around the quilt. We even hung the quilt in the entry way so it was the first thing people saw as the entered.

I love that we were able to get a stack of tires!!

Monster truck cupcakes – complete with “dirt” on the top.

Filed Under: baby shower, gift, gifts, quilt

Summer Hoodie Tutorial

June 29, 2013 by 1 Comment

Today I am a Contributor over at Ginger Snap Crafts! I love Ginger’s blog – she has such great crafts, ideas, and tutorials. I am sharing this fun tutorial for altering a Hoodie Sweatshirt. They are so much fun to make! Click HERE to go to the tutorial.

Filed Under: gift, gifts, sewing, tutorial, tutorials

A few more zipper pouches

June 19, 2013 by 6 Comments

My sister needed a few birthday gifts so I made here these. I just can’t get enough of these little pouches. {tutorial}

Filed Under: gift, gifts, sewing, zipper pouch

My Favorite Zipper Pouch {tutorial}

June 15, 2013 by Amanda 65 Comments

I am excited to share the pattern for my “Favorite Zipper Pouch”.

I needed a few gifts and whipped up some zipper pouches. I have made lots and lots of zipper bags. This is the one I always go back to. It holds a lot but isn’t huge. I have probably made over 50 of these!

Are you ready??

Prepare the bag:

Iron the fusible fleece to the wrong side of the outer bag fabric.

Measure a 1 1/2″ square and cut a notch out of the bottom corners of the outer pieces and the lining pieces. This will create the pleat in the bottom of the bag.

Prepare the zipper:

I like to put little tabs on my zipper so the zipper is not directly sewn into the seam of the bag. It reduces bulk and helps it lay flat. I always measure my tabs larger then cut them down.

As you can see, I like to buy larger zippers than I need. You can always cut them down for smaller projects!

Cut off the metal ends of the zipper.

Sew one of the prepared tabs to the end of the zipper. Backstitch several times over the zipper teeth.

Now measure over and sew the tab on the opposite end of the zipper. There should be 1″ of tab on each side. The excess will be cut off in a minute.

Use your zipper foot and sew along the zipper.

Now you do the same process to the other side of the zipper. Place the zipper face down on the right side of the outer fabric. Line up the edges. Layer the lining on top right side down. (pictured below)