sewing

I love cute retro tea towels, aprons, and pot holders at Anthropoligie, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Crate and Barrel….and all those other cool stores.  But Zowie!  That stuff can be expensive.  But that’s just a challenge for me to recreate them a bit cheaper.

How cute are these?

And I plan to make some matching pot holders–but that’s next week’s DIY!

Whenever I’m starting on a new project I always do a lot of research on Pinterest.  I found many tutorials but nothing quite what I wanted–I didn’t want any open seams on the back that might fray–so I just made my own instructions.  I also looked for a cute applique to add and what could be better than tea-related items for a tea towel?  Got the graphics from Sew4Home.  One of my favorite sewing websites.  I’m always amazed that I can get this stuff for free!

INSTRUCTIONS

I’ve made tea towels in the past and just used finished towels that I bought at Jo-ann’s. 

But this time I wanted to use Moda Woven Toweling.  It comes in yards and is finished on both selvedge edges so it can be cut to any length.   I bought the toweling from www.fabric.com and I also bought 3 different Moda prints from our local quilt shop, Tomorrow’s Treasures. 

Always wash and dry fabric, toweling, and rick rack for shrinkage. (Tip– wash and dry small items like rick rack in a lingerie bag so it doesn’t get tangled.)  The toweling started out as 16” but shrunk to 15 ¼”. I’m using a ½” seam.  Any size towel can be used, just make sure to adjust the width to be 1″ wider than the towel.

For each tea towel cut:

20 ½” length of toweling

2 strips of print A, 16 1/4” x 4”

1 strip print B, 16 1/4” x 7”

Cut 2 pieces of rick rack, 16 ¼” long

Pin the two strips from A to the large strip B. Right sides together.  Sew.

Press seams open.

Center the color strip on towel fabric, right sides together, the color strip should be ½” wider on each side than the towel.  Stitch, press seam down.  Press raw edge of strip under ½”

Time for the rick rack.  Center it on the right side of the top two seams of the color strip.  Stitch.

Fold color strip right sides together up to meet seam on towel.  The ½ “ pressed edge will meet the seam.  Line the seams up on the color strip.  Sew ½ “ seams along edges making sure not to catch in the towel sides.

Turn color strip right side out.  Pressed edge of color strip should be on seam of towel.  Stitch edge.

Now finish the other edge of the towel, turn under ¼” and stitch.  Then turn under ½” and stitch.

Make appliqués and attach.  I use Heat n Bond Lite for my appliqués.  I buy it at Walmart and it’s easy to use.  Just follow the instructions on the package.  I also use a satin stitch on my machine to sew around the appliqué.  Every machine is different so just look it up in your manual.  This was probably the hardest part because I made those little handles.  Next time I’ll pick something easier! Like hearts!

If you like these tea towels, check out my other posts:   Geo-Heart Tea Towel and More DIY Tea Towels.

So does everyone love Expedit shelves from Ikea?  If you don’t know what they are, just do a search on Expedit on Pinterest.  There are so many good ways to use these shelves.  Terry has an Expedit shelf and desk, I have two in my laundry room, and two in the second guestroom–aka grandkids’ room.  And that’s what this post is about.  Making boxes for the lovely Expedit.

Here’s the expedit in the guestroom.

But while I’m in the guestroom, I thought I’d give you a little tour…

 

So back to the Expedit Boxes.  I had a wee bit too much fabric left after sewing the pillows and bed skirt.  So made a bear.  Then a tote.  Then an iPad cover.  Still had some left.  Time to make storage containers.  And that is the end of that fabric!

Now, all you that don’t sew can go check out another blog, because here are the instructions!

First, I used Pellon Peltex 71F.  It’s “single-sided fusible ultra firm stabilizer”.  And it’s expensive.  $8.99/ yard and I needed two yards per box because it’s only 22″ wide.  What is this stuff made of?  I used a 50% off coupon plus another coupon that took 10% off my entire purchase.  I probably wouldn’t have bought it except I wanted to try something new.  Plus I already had the fabric and the muslin that I lined it with.  Using the stabilizer also made the project difficult because it was just so stiff.

The finished box is 13” high and 12” wide on front and back, the sides are 13” high and 13” wide.

Cut from fabric

3          13″ x 14″

2          14″ x 14″

1          10” x 3” for handle

Cut from lining (muslin)

3          13″ x 14″

2          14″ x 14″

Cut from Pellon Peltex 71F Single-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer

3          12″ x 13″

2          13″ x 13″

Center Peltex on wrong sides of side and bottom pieces and attach per instructions that come with the Peltex.  There should be ½” open on each side.

All seams are 1/2″

 Create Handle 

Fold wrong long sides together, press, stitch ¼” from edege on 2 sides—leaving one narrow end open.  Turn right sides out.  Tuck in raw edges of open end.  Topstitch close to all edges 

Pin handles 2” from top, 2” from each side.  Attach each end by sewing a one inch square then end with an X to make handle secure.

Attach sides to bottom, leaving seam allowance (1/2”) open on all ends.

It will now look like a giant plus sign.

Fold the plus sign, and sew two sides…

Open up and sew other two sides.  Turn right side out.

Now sew the lining together using the same method.

Put the lining inside of the box, wrong sides together.  Stitch together along top, ½” seam. Trim close to top seam.  Attach matching bias tape along top.  Stitch down. 

Done!

I have recently created a BETTER and less expensive way to create Ikea boxes.  Check it out:  DIY Expedit Box–Part II.

I wanted to give something special as a wedding gift for a special couple.  They weren’t registered for gifts at any stores so I decided to create a picnic tote and blanket.

My first consideration was the fabric, I wanted to use a traditional picnic print for parts of the tote and blanket but I wanted it paired with a more modern look.    I also wanted the underside of the blanket to be water resistant so needed either a laminated fabric, oil cloth or vinyl.  The tote had to be roomy, durable, and have a lot of pockets to hold wine, flatware, plates, cups, napkins and anything else that might be needed at a picnic.

I waited for Fabric.com to have a sale on laminated fabric and did some searching, matching, and designing and decided on the Moda Glamping series.  What’s more traditional than red and white gingham for a picnic? And I thought the matching “Miss Polka Dance” was perfect along with a nice blue denim and cotton webbing for the handles.  I also used insul-bright sandwiched between the layers to provide a little bit of insulation for the bag and wine bottle pockets.

Then to make it even better, I found the perfect matching picnicware at Target.  Love Target!

I also picked up a couple bottles of wine that had cute labels at ABC Liquor in Crystal River.  Love that store, too.  I especially appreciate that they always have someone on staff to help me pick out a good wine at a good price.  They’ve never steered me wrong.

I personalized the blanket with an appliqued heart and the tote with a hand-written appliqued patch.  (My handwriting is so bad that the newlyweds will definitely know it’s handmade!)

I think it turned out really nice. And now I should be telling you how to make it but that’s going to be another day!  I had some issues–like working with laminated fabric is kind of tricky.  And the new design for the tote was a little off.  So I’m planning to make another set to work the bugs out–as soon as Fabric.com puts laminated fabric on sale again!  That stuff is pricey!  And then I’ll have to decide who to give it to!  Decisions, decisions.

But just in case you want to start your own picnic set before I get the next one finished,  here are some websites that I did check out. I also did a search on Pinterest for picnic totes and picnic blankets and there’s a lot of tutorials out there.  I didn’t actually follow any of the instructions exactly, but everything I read did help with the final design.

Amy Butler’s Picnic Blanket

Tips for working with vinyl fabric from Amy Butler

Some help from Sew4home for the blanket

Also from Sew4home, instructions for an insulated tote