by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 25, 2013
Hello again, It’s great knowing you are out there! Thanks for reading.
Today’s Made by Me Monday is actually leftover from Christmas. This gift was for my Dad. He is a teacher so he highlights and takes notes in all of his books. The standing stocking gift for him in my family is a pack of highlighters. He generally gets enough at Christmas to last all year! I’m not sure if he is using them as much now, because he has an electronic reading device. Either way, I made him this bookmark to hold highlighters,pens and his place in the book at the ready.
I think you could use these for a lot of different purposes. Gifts for Dads (or husbands) who read. Students – maybe make one for each course book! You could attach pens easily to your clipboard when going grocery shopping. (Doesn’t everyone take a clipboard with a list on it grocery shopping? Hmmm… maybe it’s just me!) You could also make it a bit wider with more pockets and use it to hold markers onto a notebook – quick entertainment for your kids when you go out.
Made by Me Monday – the Pocket Bookmark
I used a book that was 8″ x 5.5″. I’ve given some guidelines for changing the size in the materials listing. The elastic is very forgiving, so if in doubt make one smaller rather than larger so it can fit varied sizes of books.
Things you will need:
- 2 pieces – main bookmark, size: 3.5″ wide x height of book less 1″ {mine was 7″}
- 1 piece – stiff craft interfacing, size: same as the bookmark fabric less 1/2″ width and height
- 1 piece – bookmark pocket, size: 4.5″ wide x height of pen/highlighter {mine was 5.5″}
- 1 piece – medium weight fusible interfacing, size: same as the bookmark pocket
- 1 piece – 1″ wide elastic, size: height of book + 1/2″ {mine was 8.5″}
- sewing supplies, water soluble marking pen, pins, thread
Materials List
1) Fuse interfacing to the bookmark pocket on the fabric’s wrong side. Turn down the top 1/4″ and then 1/4″ again to hem, stitch.
2) Mark pocket as indicated (see photo) – first mark is 3/4″ in from the edge, second mark is 1/2″ in from the first mark. Don’t worry about the middle line, you don’t need to mark that one (oops!)
3) Fold the first line to the second line and pin each side.
4) Fuse stiff craft interfacing to the back of 1 piece of the main bookmark fabric, be sure to center it before fusing it. You should now have the pieces below.
5) Pin the pocket to the bottom of the main bookmark fabric piece that you have fused with interfacing. Mark a line down the center of the pocket with your water soluble marker. Stitch on the line to create 2 pockets. Baste around the pocket (1/4″ away from the edge) OR leave the pins until after step 7.
6) Pin your elastic to the center of the bookmark, as shown.
7) Place your 2nd main bookmark fabric piece over the stack you have just pinned together. The right side of the 2nd main bookmark fabric piece should be down, the stack that includes your elastic is up. (Everything is right sides together.) Stitch around the edges with 1/4″ seam allowance leaving a 2.5″ wide opening on one side. (see photo below) Note: The extra line in the photo is from sewing the pocket earlier – you don’t need to sew this again.
8) Clip your corners. Turn the bookmark right side out through the opening. Push out all of the corners and edges. Tuck the edges in and pin the opening shut.
9) Topstitch around the edge of the bookmark about 1/8″ away from the edge. This will also sew the opening closed.
10) Sew a few extra “quilting” lines to finish the top edge.
DONE! Send it off to your favorite human being, or use it yourself. Happy studying!
On an important side note! Dana and Rae are starting up another CELEBRATE THE BOY series today! If you don’t know about this series and you sew for boys, BOY you are in luck (ha!). This time they are going to post boy related sewing and projects for 2 weeks straight. They have archived all of the past series here (MADE) or here (Made by Rae). These archives are a wealth of knowledge and really great projects that I have turned to more than a lot to find sewn gifts and ideas for my 2 nephews. Check them out!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 14, 2013
I had to think really hard for what I was going to make my Father and Brother-In-Law for Christmas. They both love golf, but what to make that was going to actually be useful?
The Golf Towel
The idea for these towels came from a tutorial I found here. From there I basically went my own way. Though I think her idea of the corner is good, my husband – who also likes golf – thought it might not be so useful.
I used an absorbent bath towel with a chevron print for the back and some manly looking prints for the front.
These are super-easy to make in batches of 4 towels, or 2 of each as I did.
Mini Tutorial: 1) Cut your towel into 4 equal pieces (cut once lengthwise and once width-wise). 2) Cut your fabric to match the size of the towel quarters. 3) Place both pieces right sides together and sew, leaving a 3″ opening on one side. 4) Turn right side out, iron, topstitch close to the edge all of the way around (and closing the opening). 5) Add a large grommet in one corner and you are done!
Labeled and ready to gift!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 3, 2013
Since I sew A LOT for my kids, my husband sometimes wonders if I will ever sew anything for him! Even hemming pants is put on the back burner when I have a new project in mind. (I really have to get over that – hemming is so easy!) I was searching through my bin of clothing to fix/re-purpose when I was making the girls’ Christmas shirts and came across two of his zip-up sweaters. They were put aside because the sweaters had shrunk a bit over time and the zipper hadn’t leaving the front seam wavy – isn’t that irritating?!
Evidence Submitted: Item No. 1 “Before Refashion”
I remembered reading a series by Grosgrain called Embellish Knit Month. This series is amazing and left me wanting to tear apart every sweater in our house and remake it. I did make one for myself, which I should really remember to post. Anyhow, she turns sweaters into cardigans etc. and they looked amazing! I did a quick search and it looks like there are a lot of posts on how to refashion a sweater for women, but I couldn’t find one on making a refashioned sweater into a cardigan for a man. Here you go!
This is a quick, not too detailed/photographed tutorial, so I will leave out any “necessary items list”, save the obvious – an old sweater, a sewing machine, a ballpoint needle (used for sewing knits) and possibly some extra bias tape. Here is my disclaimer: Since you can do this with a lot of different types of sweaters, use this a guide and read all of the instructions before going ahead!
1) Remove the collar (if it exists) and the zipper carefully, saving the finished edge on the front of the sweater. Cut the finished edges to almost half (see photo). Of course if you want you could cut a “non-zippered” sweater down the middle front and use the bias tape to finish all of your edges.
2) Draw a line with a water soluble marker from the bottom of the finished edge that you just cut to the corner of the neck. Now cut on the line, remove the pieces and discard them. DO NOT remove or discard the “finished edge” that you have cut partially away from the front. Please take note in the photos.
3) We will be using the finished edge to finish the new v-neck edge, but I needed some extra bias tape to finish the neck and collar edge since the unfinished edges are now a lot longer. Make sure the bias tape is the same width as the width of the finished edge piece you have cut. Take your bias tape (I made mine) and sew it right sides together to the finished edge piece. I roughly measured the length I would need, added extra and then cut it in half and sewed one end of each bias tape to the end of each finished edge piece.
4) Pin the bias and finished edge right sides together with the sweater all the way around the unfinished sweater opening to the middle back of the neck. Sew (using your ballpoint needle) along the edge from both middle-front seams until you get to the middle back-neck. Stop with about 2 inches of opening in the back.
5) You should have two ends of bias tape at the back-neck and you will need to sew them together to make one continuous piece. Cut off any extra and then stitch this (now continuous bias piece) onto the back neck.
6) Fold the edge you have just sewn under to create a fully finished edge. Pin all the way around.
7) Stitch all around the edge. I find I get better results if I put a piece of tissue paper under my knits when I “hem” them. It stops the knit from stretching and it is easy to remove when you are finished sewing the seam.
8) Remove the tissue paper. Place your buttons, mark where you would like them to be with a water soluble pen.
9) Make your button holes and sew on you buttons.
You are done, another piece of clothing destined for the trash averted. Pat yourself on the back!
Now – go ask your husband to put on his new cardigan and take a fancy dining room chair out into the newly snow covered backyard and take some pictures – oh wait, I suppose that’s just what I did… I do think the photos are pretty good though, if not at least fun!
Evidence Submitted: Item No. 2 “After Refashion A”
Evidence Submitted: Item No. 3 “After Refashion B”
Evidence Submitted: Item No. 4 “After Refashion C”
Go crazy – make a ton of sweaters – send me links to your photos! I’d love to see them.
