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Showing posts from May, 2008

Tutorial---Oriental Traditional Tea Bag Part II

Summer's coming, it's harder and harder to stay inside when it's so beautiful outside. I'm seriously considering setup my "system" outside. Step 4 Fold it, sew along the marked lines. Make sure corner to corner. Fold it like this Repeat on the other side,pin the folded part Step 5 Turn it over to the wrong side Sew small triangles on both sides Turn to the right side, and anchor a few points, repeat on the other side Here's a variation, fold a layer down, and anchor it with a button or a Yoyo Step 6 cut two 18" long cords, Tie the ends together, can also make the tulip buds as showed in the tulip key cozy. Put tea bags inside, pull the cords and tie them up. It's done. :)

Tutorial---Oriental Traditional Tea Bag Part I

Step 1 : Cut two 10"X10" squares (about 25.6X25.6cm). I chose fabrics with nice contract. The navy blue fabric is quilt weight cotton, but the red fabric is heavy weight cotton, it keeps the shape nicely. The finished size is about 3"X2.5" X3.5"(I didn't make it perfect cube), approximately the size of a tea cup, you can see that in http://yimi-handwork.blogspot.com/2008/05/oriental-traditional-tea-bag.html By cutting squares in different sizes, we can get bags in different sizes, for example, using 18"X18" squares, we can get something about 5" cube. Step 2 Sew the two squares together with right sides facing each other, leave a 2" opening (5cm) Turn it over, fold the opening 1/4" seam allowance inside and sew along the whole square with 1/16"(1.5mm) seam allowance, so we don't have to hand stitch when closing the opening. I chose threads with nice contract to the fabrics to make a decorative effect. Step 3 Fold the s...

Oriental Traditional Tea Bag

Making bags is really addictive. Instead making a blanket and several cushions I planed for a long time, I started making bags and purses. After finishing the purse I'm still working on, I'll start that blanket. Although being called a tea bag, it can also be used as a sachet or a storage bag.

A super easily made sewing basket

Being not a very organized person, I always leave things where I use them last time. But on the other hand, I can't tolerate mess either, guess that's why I love bags, boxes, baskets and whatever can be used to hide things. I found the sewing notes pre-quilted fabric square in my remnant bag. It was the leftover of my sewing machine cozy. Looking at it, I found if I made a square basket, the only job I need to do would be adding binding and 8 ribbons. It took me less than half an hour to finish the all thing. BTW, the pin cushion inside the basket is supposed to be an owl. I didn't put eyes on it. If it has eyes and looks like an owl, I can't use it as a pin cushion. "It's just a toy." my husband said. I know I'm weird in that way, but I just can't.

Manly Ipod cozy and cellphone cozy

I made that black & white Ipod cozy for a guy. It turned out to be a bit floral. After I posted it in craftster.org for comments, I got some great ideas on making things for guys. When digging through my fabric stash, I found these two fabric and thought these two would be good for man. It was hard to choose between these two, so I used them both. Making bags is quite addictive. This one was made of a piece of home decor remnant. Brown matches most of his cloth. So I'll send him this one. I've never though I would like camo very much, but I like this one, especially after stitching on that button. And this was claimed by a girl, the size is perfect for her cell phone and she loves it.

Tulip Key Cozy (with Tutorial)Part 3

Step 6 Make a tulip bud Measure a cord, when folded, it should be at least 1 in(2.5cm) longer than the cozy body. Tie the two ends of the cord together to make a loop. Cut a piece of fabric 2inX1.5in(5cmX3.75cm), fold right side together, insert the loop between the two layers, sew two layers together leaving one side as an opening. I draw a black line along the sewing line to make it visible. Turn it over, and fold seam allowance inward, now it looks like a cup. Fill the cup with fiberfill. Stitch 4 points together, following the order A-B-C-D. Pull the thread, anchor it, now we have a tulip bud. Last step Insert the loop into the cozy body, use hidden stitch to narrow the top opening, be careful not to stitch on the cord, we want it to move freely. Tie the keys on,hmm, my friend had a hard time to tie the knot. It's hard to take photo though, I made a video. Viola, here is my first tutorial, hmm, hope it's clear enough to understand. if not let me know

Tulip Key Cozy (with Tutorial)Part 2

Step4 Make Petals Cut 2 pieces of low loft batting, I used fusible fleece. Cut them precisely the pattern shape without seam allowance. Iron a piece of fusible fleece to the wrong side of a top, put the right side of the top and back together, sew along the edge of the fleece, leave an opening, at least 1 inch( about 2.5 cm) Turn it over Use hidden stitch to close the opening. Repeat the process, and now we have two petals. I hand-quilted a few lines to make them look more like petals Step 5. Make the Cozy body Use hidden stitch to sew the two petals together, leaving an 0.5 inch( 1.25 cm) opening at the top.

Tulip Key Cozy (with Tutorial)Part 1

One of my friend loves my key cozy, but she is not a cat person. Last week, we went to the Tulip Festival, I got an idea there, make her a tulip key cozy. Here is how I made it. Dutchquilter likes my kitty key cozy, and wants to know how to make one, so I took photos when doing this one and made my first ever tutorial. If you want to make the kitty one, just need to change the shape, and that one doesn't need tear-away foundation, all sewing lines are straight. Since some of the photos were taken at night with flash on, the color turns out a bit weird, but I can't retake those photos, it's all done. Step 1. Draw a tulip pattern(without seam allowance) , the paper is ruled as 4sq/in. Step 2. Make tops and backs Using tear-away foundation to make the tops, I didn't have to cut precisely. Anchor the fabric to the tear-away foundation, wrong side attach to the foundation sew the trim on,then sew the deep red fabric on. Repeat the process and make another top, ...

Tissue box for Mother's day

It's time for making something for Mother's day. Satin ribbons make the plastic canvas tissue box shining. I think it's going to be a good gift. I stitched white cotton at the back of each piece of plastic canvas, so the inside looks neat too.

Black and white Ipod cozy

It's a gift to a guy, so I pick black and white fabric to try to make it look manly. Is it manly enough? I always find it's harder to make a gift to a guy than to a girl. And I found this red button with his initial on. inside