'Leather' Book Marks--a Last Minute Christmas Gift!

First of all, I would like to wish you all a blessed Christmas!

What a joy to be able to spend a day focused on remembering that Jesus Christ--the Son of God--God Himself became a man so that He could be the ultimate sacrifice--the Savior of those whom God has called.

Amazing Grace!

 

 

We are starting our own family traditions this year in regard to Christmas Eve and such, and our main goal is to focus on Christ.

The gifts are but a small part and in keeping with that, I wanted to make them something that they could use, nothing extravagant, but that was also special.

 

And, if you know my family at all--we are book worms.

Almost all of us.

So, I thought it'd be fitting to whip together some neat book marks or 'mark-books' as the kids call them to bug me!
They'll go well with the books the kids are getting...

 

I took pictures along the way to give you an idea of what I did--a bit of a tutorial, I guess.
Don't mind the quality of the pictures--this was done in 'secret'--most taken in my 'no-natural' light laundry room, at night.

 

What you'll need:

Leather or fake leather

Fabric

Embroidery floss and needle

Wonder Under

Sewing machine and thread

Chalk

 

First, cut strips of leather (or fake leather which I used) into bookmark sized pieces.

Next, I found a font I liked on Word--I can't remember exactly which one, but I only used it for the first letter. If you're artistic, you won't need to do this.

Copy the font onto your leather with chalk so you can rub it off if you need to fix mistakes...

 

Take your embroidery floss and I split it so that I had two threads in at a time.

Trace the chalk lettering with your stitches.

 

 

Cut out a piece of fabric and a piece of Wonder Under to fit each book mark.

 

Attach the Wonder Under to the leather. Remove the paper backing and iron onto the fabric. (Make sure you always have the leather on the bottom so you are not directly ironing the leather!)

This is what the front will look like:

 

This is what you'll have on the back:

 

Find some co-ordinating thread and thread your sewing machine with that. (I did different colors for the top and bobbin thread.)

Stitch 1/4" around all the edges.

And, this is what the front will look like:

And, the back:

 



 

And, you're done.

You can add other embellishments but remember that it has to go in a book--so nothing too thick.

Instead of hand-stitching the name on the front, you could applique something on there as well. Just make sure you remember that a hole made in the leather is not easily hidden and will weaken it, so the less holes, the better!

 

Perfect for the bookworm on your list!

And, it's quick enough to whip one up last minute!

 



Art Smock--Free Pattern and Tutorial

A number of years ago, I made two art smocks--my older boys still use theirs, even though it's been around 2, almost 3 years!

My daughter really needed one, so I thought I'd share the pattern and tutorial with you!

 

This art smock is around a size 2/3 but, my 5 year old is still wearing his. And, if your older child needs one yet, you can just add length and maybe a bit of width, depending on the size of your child.

So, first you'll need to have your basic sewing supplies.
Plus,
1/2 yard of fabric
1 package of pre-made bias tape
An additional 36" of pre-made bias tape in contrasting or same color
And, the pattern, which you can download here.

Alright, lets get started.
Cut the pattern piece around the outside of the black line--I had to make it show up on the scanner, so I made the line on the pattern. Tape them together, matching up the lines and the circled A.

Lay the pattern on the fold of the fabric, and cut out one front piece, pulling the bottom line straight to the fold so there is no curved corner.
Then, fold the fabric in half again and lay the pattern piece on top, not on the fold. Remember to cut the curves this time. This will give you two back pieces, both facing the opposite direction.

 

With right sides facing, stitch the shoulder seams together, finishing the seam as you would normally do--with a zig-zag or a serger.

 

Press seam to front.

 

And, top-stitch.

Encase the arm curves in the bias tape. (NOT the 36")

 

Sew the side seams and finish the seam.

Trim the top corner at the armhole a little, as shown below:

 

Press seam to front and topstitch.

 

Starting at one back top, encase the back and bottom in bias tape (again, NOT the 36"), easing it around the bottom curves.

 

Encase the neck-line with the 36" piece of bias tape, leaving about 10" on each side for tying. Do stitch these ties all the way to the end to finish them neatly.

 

And, you're done! So easy and quick.

And, unless you have boys who like having paint fights, their clothes are safe.

The two for my sons each have the first letter of their name appliqued to the front.

I still plan on doing that for my daughter's...

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

And, if something is unclear, let me know so I can improve this tutorial.

Enjoy!

 

Zippered Book Cover Tutorial

For Christmas I received a lovely ESV Study Bible.

I love it!

My children love to carry it from the van to Church.

But, once in a while (actually only once yet) it gets dropped in the snow.

And, I really do NOT like a wrinkly, messy looking Bible.

I love the crisp, new feel and do not want to lose that to anything other than everyday use.

 

So, a somewhat water proof Bible cover was in order. Or at least one that could be shut so the pages would not all be sprinkled with snow and it had to be faux-leather so that the snow wouldn't make the fabric wet and then seep onto the cover of the Bible anyway.

 

Here is what I did. It is not perfect but I'm happy how it works and have gotten compliments already. (I've been told that the person who makes it always sees the errors where-as it really doesn't look all that bad.)

I did have some difficulties with the zipper but with some patience and many weeks of it lying forlorn on my sewing desk--just waiting to be finished, I plodded through and got it done.

 

Without further ado:

 

The Zippered Book Cover

a tutorial

 

 

 First, take your measurements.

For the Bible, these were my measurements and I added 2" to the 15 3/4" that I measured from the front, around the spine, all the way to the back cover. I also added 1 1/4" to the 9 3/4" which was the length of my Bible, as you can hopefully see in the picture below. The 23" measurement I took, I had to add about 5" to that for the zipper length. (That would be approximately 2x the thickness of the book--2 3/8".)  

 

So, after taking your measurements, cut these pieces:

 

Outer Fabric:

1- 17 3/4" x 11"

1- 2 1/4" x 1 1/2"

2- 1 1/2" x length of zipper (28")

 

Inner Fabric:

1- 17 3/4" x 11"

1- 6 1/2" x 11"

2- 5 1/2" x 11"

2- 1 1/2" x length of zipper (28") 

Make 1/2" double fold bias tape that is approximately 64" long for these measurements.
Tutorial for bias tape here.

 

Take the 6 1/2" x 11" piece of inner fabric, and fold the long sides in by 1/4". Press.

 

 

Position on the center of the outer fabric and edgestitch on. This will be the spine.

 

Take the two (inner and outer) pieces of 17 3/4" x 11" and baste together wrong sides together.



See that little piece of ribbon? One of my sons thought it'd be a good idea to cut Mommy's fabric...

Take the two 5 1/2" x 11" pieces of inner fabric and fold one side on each in by 1/4". Press.

Position these on the inner 17 3/4" x 11" piece to make the pockets where the cover of your book will slip into. Baste into place.

 

This is what the pocket should look like when finished. (Don't mind the out of order picture--this is the finished cover!)

 

 

Take a cup or other round edge and round all the corners.

Like this:

 



 

Take the 2 1/4" x 1 1/2" piece of outer fabric and sew onto the zipper, on the bottom side (where it would separate if you were using a separating zipper to prevent it from separating when you open it.)

 

Take 1 outer and 1 inner 1 1/2" x  zipper length piece and make a sandwich with your zipper in the middle. Sew with a zipper foot, leaving some on each end to be able to flip under.

 

 

This is what the zipper should look like when you open up the sandwich.

 

Press and topstitch, folding in the short sides to finish those edges.

 

 

Repeat for the other side.

You will end up with a zipper like this:

 

 

Open the zipper, and baste onto the cover, having the inner fabrics facing eachother.

This is a tricky, tricky part and I'd recommend that you use a hand sewing needle to baste as you go and to be able to adjust more easily.

 

 

 

At the non-separating end of the zipper, over-lap the edges like this:

Yes, that is a different zipper than I started out with--the other one was not long enough so the book cover would not lay flat, to be able to read. (I told you I had a rough time with that zipper!)

Attach the bias tape around the outer edge of the cover, using a bit of a longer stitch length if using faux-leather or the like to prevent any weakening of the fabric.

 

You may have to hand-stitch this part of the bias tape on as the zipper thing is super difficult to manuevre under the machine!

 

And, you are done! Slip that book or Bible into your cover and enjoy.

 

I know, I didn't add handles, even though that was a  request from my son. I may add some later, I'm not sure but that is an option, for sure.

Let me know if you use this tutorial to make yourself a book cover! And, if you have any ideas for improvement, let me know--this is not an un-improvable project!



Super Simple Snowmen

Yesterday, my kids were very bored. I mean jumping and running and yelling bored.

So, I had to get them to sit down quietly, and what better way than to do a craft.

I came up with this:

 

 

Paper snowmen attached to clothes pins to decorate the tree with.

(sorry about the bad lighting in these pictures--our house is rather dark with not much natural light and I am no expert with my camera.)

So, I thought it'd be fun to share this with you if your kids are getting the 'is-Christmas-here-yet itch.'

Presenting the:

 

 SUPER SIMPLE SNOWMEN

 

Things you'll need:

•  white cardstock
• pencil
• glue sticks
• glue gun
• scrap paper
• clothes pins
• ribbon

 

I folded the white cardstock to make three snowmen. Then, I drew a snowman on the top one.

 

And, cut them out in one shot. 

 

I cut out three top hats from black scraps and as the kids were gluing those, I cut six brown 'twig' arms out of brown scraps. Also, three orange scrap carrot noses were required.

That giraffe there, 'Tip Top' is almost a constant companion of my daughter.

 

They drew the eyes on with pencil and one of them drew buttons as well.

Love how my daughter glued on her nose!

 

I took the ribbon and tied it loosely around the neck and fastened it with a dot or two of hot glue. Then, I also hot glued the clothes pin to the back so the opening is facing up towards the hat.

I got this fake tree for free the other day!
Much less mess than a real one and I can't dry it out!

 

And, here they are finished on the tree.

Very quick and simple--perfect for a last-minute craft to keep the kids quiet!

 

I also have an adult or older child version that I made around 6 years ago:

 

 

Cute, eh?

 



Up-cycled T-Shirt Skirt Tutorial

I had recently gone through my closet and found a stack of tanks and t-shirts that were immodest. So, they were thrown out of my closet onto a pile in the hopes I could salvage the material at least.

 

 

Here are the three I chopped up the other day:

 

 

Notice the grey one has an elastic in there. And, it fits around my waist perfectly. Yes! One less step.

(If yours does not have an elastic in there, you can make a casing by folding it over by a 1/4", press, fold again by 1 1/4" and sew on the edge, leaving a hole to thread the elastic through. Stitch the hole shut  after the elastic has been threaded through, and the ends sewn together using a zig zag stitch.)

 

So, first of all, I cut the two colored tanks so that I had four 8.5" wide pieces.

 

And, I seam-ripped and cut the top off the grey shirt. It ended up being a 15" long 'skirt' on its own--not quite modest enough for me and pretty boring--just grey. I did leave the hem on since I didn't feel like seam ripping that.

 

I cut the four colored pieces open on one seam so I could sew the pieces together into one continuous piece in each color.

 

Now, with right sides together, I sewed the purple onto the grey, using a 1/4" seam allowance.

 

So, I had this:

 

*Skip this step, but this was part of my (ahem) learning process*

Next, I played around and was going to make a layer above the purple so that it would be a sort of layered ruffle skirt. It didn't sit right, so I seam ripped the whole green/blue piece off again.

*Continue here*

And, instead, sewed it to the purple, right sides together, lining up seams and again using a 1/4" seam allowance. Much better. 

 

But, in my seam ripping process, I got a bit of a hole in the grey fabric. That needs to be covered up.

 

 

I had cut the hems off the bottom of the colored shirts just above the stitching. I now cut just below the stitching and stitched a gathering stitch in the fold. This piece was approximately 36" x 1".

And, I gathered it.

 

And, sewed them together to make these ruffled flowers. To do so, you just roll the gathered fabric up into a circle, hand stitching them together.

I now have 1 large green/blue flower and 2 small purple flowers that are actually stuck together. I just rolled them up from opposite ends. 

 

After placing them where I wanted, and cutting all threads off, I hand-stitched them to the skirt, covering the hole.

I had some company while doing so:

 

Voila:

 

A skirt made out of upcycled t-shirts.

I did not hem the bottom or finish it in anyway--the knit fabric will not fray and I *think* I like the unfinished look. If I get annoyed with it later, I can always hem it another day.

 

I really like wearing knit skirts--they're so comfy! And, what better way than to upcycle unused shirts!

 

Whew! I hope that makes sense--this is my first tutorial type post. If you have any questions, just comment and I will try to answer them!