Hot Pad First Aid Kit

 Tuesday Tutorial: Hot Pad First Aid Kit

I am sure you have seen these around.  I made one at church about a billion years ago, but no longer have it. So, I thought I would recreate one from memory.

Supplies:

*Hot Pad (got a 2 pack at the $1 store for...$1)

*Scrap of decorative fabric

*Button

*Snack size ziploc bags

*twill tape or bias tape

WARNING: This tutorial has about a billion pictures...not because it is hard though. Only because I took a lot hoping that it would be more clear. Sometimes a picture is just easier to follow!

 Take your ziploc bags and lay them on top of each other alternating which side the zipper part is on each time.  Pin them so that they are secure while sewing them.

 Sew them together by just sewing down the middle...just eyeball it! :)

 This is what it should look like now...hopefully your sewing is a little straighter than mine!

Now carefully cut off the excess of each bag. (that would be the bottom part of the bags) Then set the baggies aside for now.

 Get your decorative fabric and pin it to the top of your hot pad. You could iron the edges under and make it more precise, I just happen to be a little lazy when it comes to ironing if my iron is not out.

 Sew around your fabric. 

 This is what it should look like now.

 Flip your hot pad over.

 Put your baggies in the middle of the hot pad.

 I did not use pins. I thought it was easier to just hold it in place while I sewed through the layers of bags and hot pad.  Obviously, I want you to sew the bags to the hot pad now.

 You can skip this step if you want. I just did it to reenforce the seam where the bags are attached.  Fold under one end of the bias or twill tape and line up with the edge of the hot pad and over the seam where you just sewed the baggies on.

 I started by sewing over the edge of the bias/twill tape that I had folded under. Continue to sew until you get about an inch from the other end.

 Fold this end under...it doesn't have to be perfect!!

 This is what it should look like now. Almost done.

 Flip your hot pad over and this is what it looks like now.

 Fold your baggies down like this, so that when you sew your button on you don't sew your baggies to...that would be sad :( !

 Place your button in the middle on the opposite side of the loop.

 Sew the button on.

 This is what it should look like folded in half.

 This is what it looks like all buttoned up!

 These are some of the things I put in the first aid kits I made.

 Opps, how'd my little assistant make his way into my tutorial!? Oh well, I couldn't take him out! (and yes I know he has a wonky eye and he is getting it fixed with surgery in the next month or so)

 These are what my first aid kits look like all filled up with their "goodies".  

I realize I do things a little bit in excess, but I made these for Christmas gifts and I have a big family!!

Let me know if you have any questions. I know I can be as clear as mud sometimes!!

Leggings Pants to Capris w/ ruffles tutorial

Leggings Pants turned to Capris w/ Ruffles

***Edited: pic added of Noel in her new short leggings...I thought they would be capris but, I cut a little too much off and they ended up shorts!

Don't know why she is holding a tape measure around her waist...sometimes kids are just weird. Of course she couldn't just smile at the camera she had to be a little poser!

Supplies:

One pair of pant leggings

Sewing machine, thread, scissors, etc...

Cut the leggings off where you would like them to be. I cut them a little below the knee. I used the extra fabric on the bottom to make to strips of fabric that are 1" by 6".

I serged the bottom of the leggings but, you don't have to knit won't unravel.
I then turned them inside out and folded them up 1/2" and sewed all the way around each leg.

Here is what they look like after you have sewn each leg up. They should look like a pair of capris or shorts now depending on where you cut them.Take the strips of fabric and using your longest stitch length sew down the middle of each strip and then pull the thread to gather each strip.Here are the strips all gathered.Pin the gathered fabric down on the outside seam of the capri.

Sew ruffle in place. I just follow the seam on the side of the pants. After the ruffle is sewn down I pull out the gathering stitch.

One ruffle on!

TaDa!!! All finished and they look adorable on.

As usual if you have any questions just ask!!! :)

Ruffled Curtain Tutorial

Ruffled Curtain Tutorial

Supplies:

**Fabric in your choice of color (I purchased 4yds. I have long windows though) The amount you purchase is going to be based on your measurements for your particular window. I used the width of the fabric 45" for my window and then a little over 2 yds for the length. So basically you will just add 6" to the width of your window and then just measure where the curtain will stop down to where you want it to stop and add 4" to that measurement. (clear as mud!)

You are also going to want to cut (I cut 22 and had some extra) strips of 2 1/2" fabric by the width of the fabric (45").

You are going to take your fabric and fold it in half length wise.

Then fold it in half again.

And again. Now you are going to iron the heck out of it so that you have creases where it is folded.

This is what it should look like after you have ironed it.

I serged the edge of my strips of fabric and then attached them all together to make one long strip. Once you have done that you are going to want to put your sewing machine on its longest stitch and put your tension setting on the highest it will go. Then sew down the middle of the strip until it is all ruffled. (it should ruffle itself by doing those 2 things to your machine)

Here is what it looks like as it starts to ruffle itself.

Here is my big pile of ruffles. Oh, and Gracie!

The lines I had you iron into your curtain are for ruffle placement. I placed my ruffles on there to see if I had enough to do every line I had ironed onto the curtain. Obviously, I didn't cut it to try this out I just swagged it back and forth. I didn't have enough so I decided to do a pattern of 3 lines then skip 1. Start pinning your ruffles down, when you get to the end of a line cut the ruffle and start on the next line. This part took a little while.

This is what mine looked like all pinned up.

Now you want to sew them down. I sewed down the middle right next to the ruffling stitch. After I sewed down the middle I did pull out the ruffling stitch which was no biggie because it is such a large stitch.

You want to iron the top and bottom of the curtain down by 1/2" each. Do not turn them down again because we are going to do the sides first.

Iron down the sides of the curtain 1/2". Do this on both sides of the curtain.

Then, repeat the last step and iron down the edge again by 5/8"-3/4". You should have a nice edge now. Do this on both sides of the curtain.

Sew about a 5/8" from the edge on both sides of the curtain. Make sure you keep your ruffles flat as you sew them.

Next you will iron the bottom up 5/8".

Sew about 5/8" from the bottom of the curtain.

Measure down about 2" maybe a smidge more. This will be the "sleeve" for the curtain rod.

I sewed about a 2" seam here so that the curtain rod would fit through the opening.

Here is the before picture of my bathroom w/out any curtains, but it did have broken blinds and a roman shade (which is a total piece).

Here is my beautiful curtain. I love it, I wish you could see it in person it is much lovelier in person than in a pic. That is partly because it is such a small area for me to try and get a good pic. Oh well, you get the idea.