What I Made today

I spent half of the day today on the couch with a horrible headache peppered with queasieness and overall yuck-ness so I brought over the lappy and started clicking here and there until I decided I needed some inspiration and that maybe I might want to drag myself over to my workshop and make something easy and frivolous...So I found this: The flat bottom zipper pouch tutorial by Pin and Paper. It was a great tutorial with clear step by step pictures and directions. It was quick and rewarding, the end result looks really nice!

Thanks, Pin and Paper, thumbs up to you!



This is where it all goes down:


My workshop/craft room

The ElasticThread Dress from Craftzine: Citizen Craft style

The "One hour elastic thread dress" from Craftzine

I made this dress last week- I (of course) had to change it up a bit (just can't help myself!)
It was really fun to learn to work with elastic thread, man do I love that stuff! Especially since I will be cultivating an ever inflating midriff as I grow a new human for the next 7 months...And you know what's awesome for that? Elasticated clothing!!! So I think I will make a few more with different styles...I have to figure out the best way to do it with cotton though...The above dress is a really lightweight fabric and the elastic shirring worked really well but when I tried it with cotton the second time I couldn't get it quite right. Any tips are welcome!
Anyway, I heart you, Craftzine , thanks for another great tutorial!

The adjustments I made: I added straps, trim and a bow....

The finished dress!

Spring Craft tutorials!

L'il Chicks

Yesterday morning, our 5 year old son crawled into our bed at some crazy early hour (as usual) and began his morning ritual of talking incessantly to our still sleep filled ears...But then he excitedly began describing some craft ideas that he had that he wanted to make, some decorations for easter...and I perked up and was dazzled by his genius...Here is my legacy, this boy is certified craft-crazy! I'm so proud. So, inspired by his inspiration and armed with a glue gun and simple kid craft supplies, we set out to make some springy decorations and this is what we came up with! This is super easy and very kid friendly...It's always fun when google eyes are involved! All our l'il chicks ended up with very apparent personalities too... We also made a bunny and a 'Coo-coo' bird and of course some 'interpretive' pieces, too. We're going to decorate our easter table with them which I'll post a picture of after. Have fun!

Here's what you'll need:

pom poms of various sizes
feathers
google eyes
paper
scrap fabric
glue gun
toothpicks

Suggested music:

Hank Williams- Greatest Hits

Raffi - Baby Beluga

Suggested Brunch:

Eggs Benny & Fresh Herb Hashbrowns
(with eggs from your own chickens, naturally! Or at least free range!)
Hazelnut coffee, freshly ground

Here's how we made them:

1- Using the glue gun, attach one smaller pom pom to one larger to make a body and a head, then squeeze a little glue onto a scrap piece of paper and using a toothpick, dab a little onto the back of the eyes and stick them on however you like. Already looking pretty cute!




2-Cut a triangle from scrap fabric about 2" long then run a line of hot glue on the wrong side of the fabric along the longest part. Attach this to the head of your chick. Pat in the corners a bit. This will be your chick's head scarf.




3- Next, fold a small piece of paper and cut a triangle and a heart shape on the fold. These will be your beak and feet. Using the toothpick dipped in glue, attach these as you like. Make sure the feet a positioned slightly to the front.




4- Using the glue, attach a few feathers to make a tail.



Voila!

note: If you are doing this craft with kids, just apply the glue yourself then let them help with the positioning of the details. Caution! Hot glue is, um, HOT!!!















Bonus Craft! Easter Egg Holders

Showcase your favorite easter eggs, decorate for spring or use these holders as place markers by hiding an egg with your guest's name on it!

You'll need:

cardboard paper rolls, cut into 2-3" rounds
scrapbook paper
tissue paper cut into various sizes (I used 2 sizes of circles)
small pom poms
glue gun

1-Fold a piece of scrapbook paper into thirds then cut into three strips. Cut each strip in half so you have a piece big enough to wrap around your roll. Cut thin strips the length of your scissors along one of the long edges of the paper to make a grass like appearance.



2- Attach this by putting glue on the tube then wrapping the paper around it, smoothing it as you go.

3-Make your flower(s) by snipping in toward the center but not too close to it on each round tissue piece that you're using. I used 3-4 pieces of the larger blue tissue and 2-3 of the smaller white. Put a dot of glue in the middle of a larger circle, then another and another, followed by the smaller circles. Layer as many as you like. I used decorative scissors on the edges, too.



4-When you're done adding the layers, glue a little pom pom to the center. Slightly pinch the entire flower together to rumple the petals. Glue the flower to the roll.



5- Make as many flowers as you like, in various sizes and attach to the roll. Done!


Happy Spring!

Tutorial: DIY easy gathered pocket

Wednesday, March 17th, 2009
Today I finished an apron that I have been dying to sew for myself for a long time...The Emmeline apron by Sew Liberated. I bought the pattern in the fall but got too busy sewing aprons and accessories for the show season and just never got around to it...So it was a really satisfying feeling putting it on today...I heart it! Anyway, the pattern does not have pockets but to me, an apron needs pockets so I thought, hey! What a great time to put together the first tutorial for Citizen Craft!
So, here it is: The super easy and fun Gathered Pocket! I hope you like it!


The Gathered Pocket...cute, practical, easy and did I mention CUTE!?

Here's what you'll need for one pocket:

X2 pieces of fabric, one for the outside of your pocket and one contrasting piece for the liner. (inside of your pocket!) These can be in whatever shape or size you like. I used 2 pieces, 7" wide by 7" long.

A piece of bias tape, ribbon, lace or other trim that is about 11/2" longer than the width or your pocket. I used red "dingle balls"...

Corresponding thread, pins, sewing machine (or not if you are sewing by hand), iron

music

(*wine optional, depending on what time of day it is, of course...)

Suggested music:
Jaydiohead- Minty Fresh Beats (A mash up of, you guessed it, Jay-z and Radiohead...sublime!)
David Byrne & Brian Eno- Everything that happens will happen today...Can't stop listening to this!

Ok, now let's get to it!

1- Put on your music.

2- Make a pocket: Trace then Cut out your 2 pieces of fabric in your desired shape. I often run around my house looking for a shape to trace (template) like a book, a plate, a piece of paper...use whatever, just keep in mind that your finished pocket will be a bit smaller than your template.

3- Put your 2 pieces of fabric together, right sides facing, then pin them together. Sew the two pieces together, start at what will be the top of the pocket, about an inch from the middle, heading towards the side edge. Sew all the way around the pocket, back up to the top of the pocket and stop leaving about a 3 "opening.
This opening will allow you to turn your pocket right side out.

4- Trim with pinking shears or if not, trim, then clip any curves by snipping little triangles near to your seam. Careful not to snip too close to the seam. Leave a bit of extra fabric at the opening part so you will have enough fabric to fold it in.

5- Have a sip of wine, if appropriate.

6- Turn your pocket right side out. A pencil helps to gently poke out the corners.

7- Press the pocket with a nice hot iron, take care to fold in the top opening, thereby closing it.

8- Topstitch the top of the pocket.

9- Now it's time to gather!

10- Sew 1/4" -1/2 " from your topstitch line on the top of your pocket, using a gathering stitch

11- Run a second gathering stitch (also known as a basting stitch) under your first gathering stitch line. These should be quite close together, as long as they do not intersect. Make sure you leave a couple inches of thread on at the beginning and end of sewing. You need to be able to pull the thread to get the gathered look. This is how it should look when you are done this step:




12- Now grab the two bottom threads or the two top threads and pull gently. Repeat on the other side. Make sure you only have the two bottom or two top threads otherwise it won't work.


13- When it looks about size you want, place your hand on top to make sure it will fit inside. Leave a bit of space on either side of your hand for wiggle room. Maybe a 1/4"or so.

14- Tie all four threads together on both sides, not too tight. Evenly spread out the gathering. It should look like this:


15- Lay your trim (bias tape, ribbon or whatever) over top of the gathered line, folding the edges underneath the pocket so that they will be tucked under when you sew the pocket onto your garment. Pin if you like.

16- Sew the trim onto the pocket, I used a zigzag stitch but feel free to do any stitch you like. Nice and easy now! You want to keep a straight line.

17- I put a few drops of fray stop on the raw ends of my dingle ball trim to keep it from fraying.


18- Oooh! Have a look! Your pocket looks swell!

19- oops, I forgot about my wine in all the excitement!

20- Now play around with the placement of the pocket onto your garment. When you have settled on the right spot, pin it into place.



21- Start sewing the pocket onto your garment just under the trim, going all around the pocket, keeping close to the edge. Remember to give it a good couple of backstitches at the beginning and end of sewing so that it won't pull when your hand is in it..



22- Voila! That's it! Now go ahead and add pockets to anything and everything!

PS I did a light gathering on the pictured pocket, if you want to make more of a gather, make the top of the pocket wider. Play around with shapes. This is an easy way to get a super snazzy look and is a very forgiving technique.
xoxo

Big Bang!

Kaboom!

It came to my attention that I might want to consider starting a blog... a great way to promote your work so I heard. Yeah! that sounds swell! I want to promote my stuff! What's that? It's free you say?! Perfect! So off I went frolicking through the webosphere to see what was out there...Conduct a little research if you will.
Yikes! It seems other people have heard this little tip and have their own little nooks of shameless self promotion, or what I'll henceforth refer to as "blogs"...
There must be at least a thousand people out there all over the world, writing about all sorts of stuff and apparently actually keeping up with it. Well, I guess that means I too will have to keep up with it, eh? Alrighty then. I will try. I really will. Because I know that there are people out there who will read this. At least 2! And by golly, I will not let them down! So what if they're family, that counts!
Really, I just want to share some ideas and info that I myself would be happy to stumble upon. Also, it's a great means of chronicling the development of our planned craft camp, Citizen Craft... This is a place where I will show you some things that I think are pretty neat, like DIY ideas and tutorials, recipes, neat stuff that you might like, music and books...And of course a little shameless self promotion thrown in for good measure. Mostly though, the gritty confessions of a crafty citizen.