Just a little catch up

I have not exactly been tackling any major crafts in my life right now but I have done some little ones that make me proud and keep the creativity moving.  I fixed up a thrift store find to dress up my work place for Easter, I found a great way to store my spray paints, and I made a fun pillowcase to match some new sheets I got as a gift for our comic book room.

I found this cute little bunny at a thrift store in Rockford.  She is from the people at Build a Bear and was wearing a dress way too large for her at the time I found her.  I have been updating our holiday decorations at work and I thought she would be perfect for Easter.  I made up a new dress for her and gave her a a little bow in a green check pattern.

My favorite little touch is that the fabric I made her dress out of has little carrots all over it.  They are subtle but cute, with the added bonus that it was in my stash already.

  I found this shoe caddie and thought it would make an excellent spray paint can holder.  I have a thing for spray paint crafts and have thus acquired many different colors.  They were overflowing the shelf in the garage and had threatened to mutiny if I left them out in the cold for another winter.  Now they are safe and warm on the back of the craft room door and my husband can have his space in the garage back.

My awesome husband gave me My Little Pony sheets for our guest bed in the comic book room for Valentine's Day this year.  I needed a MLP cover for the over-sized pillow as the set only came with two standard sized pillowcases.  We were out on a one day vacation to Lake Geneva and found a great sale on MLP fabric.  I nabbed enough for a pillowcase, as well as the matching accent colors, and had it made the next day.  The Star Wars sheets are on the bed right now, but I can't wait to show off my new MLP creation soon!

While not complex, these simple crafts are quick and keep me feeling satisfied until a big job comes along.  I am very excited for Spring to hurry up and come to Illinois as I have a big project outside to tackle and I am desperate to get started.  I can't wait to show you the before and afters!

Have a wonderful day!

Kelly 

Charity dresses

This post is a long time coming but I promise it will be worth the wait.  Every January the Craft Club chooses a charity and bases that month’s craft around the needs of that charity.  We have made quilts and blankets for kids in hospitals, crocheted red and blue scarves to show support for Special Olympics athletes competing in Illinois, and made quilted pet beds for animals in shelters.  It’s a great way to give back to a world that has given us so much.

 

This year we chose to make pillowcase dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World.  This amazing organization is part of Hope 4 Women International.  The objective is to create a simple and easy to care for garment for a little girl in need.  These dresses will travel all over the world to countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and even to young ladies right here in the United States.  “We dream of a world where every girl has at least one new dress” is the mantra this charity is based on and it reverberates in the heart of each person who sews a gown for these little ones.

Every girl deserves the dignity of owning one nice dress.  A garment that fits correctly, gives them a sense of pride, keeps them covered with a renewed feeling of safety.  Some of these young ladies live in societies where woman are not respected as they should be and these dresses show them that each of them is loved and cherished.  Pastors in villages where these dresses have been donated report that these garments give the girls a protected and cared for appearance which may discourage a would-be predator.  Additionally, a Dress a Girl Around the World tag is sewn in a visible location on each dress so that others know that this girl is under the care of an organization, hopefully adding another level of safety for her.  It’s amazing that one dress can add so much beyond what we think of in a garment.

These dresses are made from new pillowcases and can be made in less than an hour by even the most novice sewer.  The website provides you with links and PDFs to walk you through sizing your dress, cutting armholes, sewing the shoulder ties, and even ideas on how to embellish the dress to make it unique.  You can purchase a new pillowcase or make your own using the super simple Sausage Pillowcase technique.  Cotton is the fabric of choice for these dresses for many reasons: it’s strong and durable, soft on the skin, easy to both sew and wash, breathable, and offers coverage for the girls, no see-though fabrics here!

With only a few simple steps the pillowcase is transformed into a cute yet functional dress for a girl to be proud of. We chose bright colors and patterns of cottons to really brighten their days and help them enjoy life as a child.  These are children after all and they deserve a touch of wonder in their world.  We added pockets, ruffles, and buttons, embellished with rick-rack and embroidery, even made our own bias tape for some of the shoulder ties to keep the dresses up-beat and happy.  Along with the colorful fabrics we employed bright threads and stitch patterns, using all of our faculties to show these sometimes forgotten girls that we are thinking of them and are working to improve their lives, even the smallest amount, when they cannot.

I am so proud of these Craft Clubbers I worked with on this craft.  We made 23 beautiful well-made dresses for this charity!  Everyone worked hard as a team: some cut armholes and measured pillowcases for sizing, others sewed in elastic and worked on the shoulder ties, and still others sewed pockets and tags on the dresses finishing them off and getting them ready to be donated.  A few of us were so inspired we made a few extra on our own to add to the growing pile.  Twenty-three dresses were donated yesterday to our Illinois Ambassador to be provided to little girls of all ages.   Pinks, blues, yellows, purples, and greens of every shade, beautiful hues that I hope bring smiles to the faces of these deserving girls.  I wish I could travel with these amazing Ambassadors to these countries to hand deliver a dress to each of these young ladies.  To make even a greater impact, so show them personally that we care about them, that we want them to have the best future there is.  Perhaps someday I will be able to go, to give and receive hugs, but until I do I will sew pillowcase dresses with love sewn in with every stitch I take.

If you have a great idea for a charity we can help through crafts please let us know about it in the comments.  Be happy and healthy out there, always do your best!

Kelly 

Pillowcase love

Over the past two weekends I have had enough free time to get more of those nagging to-do crafts finished and out of the dreaded tub.  One of which was a sausage pillowcase that I bought one of the pieces for last year.  I found a wonderful children's room curtain at the Goodwill for about a dollar and was smitten with the cute.  I fell in love with the simplistic momma and little deer as well as the small squirrel and bird frolicking among the grass and tiny trees.  I worked hard to get this cut just right to get the two deer on one side and the other critters together on the back on the pillow case.  I used the amazing sausage pillowcase pattern with the curtain, strip of the same green, and a brown and tan quilting fabric I bought on sale to make a case I am very happy with!

Here is the you tube for the sausage pillowcase with Judy.

Or here is a tutorial brought to by the Rhinestone Beagle herself.

I also got this pillowcase finished.  This is for another Craft Club project we will be doing in January so it will make another appearance then.  The cute blue fabric was on the clearance rack, for reasons I have no idea of.  The bright accent fabric was some gorgeous stuff that was given to me as a gift from London.  It is so perfect with that blue!! I like that sometimes you have to hold on to something for a little bit and then its reason for being comes forward. How fabric deep!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and all things end of fall!

Kelly   

Just a little dog lip for your Holiday.

The Fantazmarifical Sausage Pillowcase



This my friends is the day you have all been waiting for, the day that the sausage pillowcase entered your life. (Disclaimer: if the sausage pillowcase is already in your life than you had an awesome day sometime in the past. So we can then chalk this one up as the second awesomest and go from there.)  So blow the snoswangers and thump the thumtumpers cause it is time to celebrate! This marvel of modern sewing is brought to us by Judy Woodmansee of of the Quilt of Valor Foundation who serves the both past and present members of the military through donations of handmade quilts, know as Quilts of Valor.  Now Judy, in all her wisdom, made a killer YouTube video of how to make the sausage pillowcase. Seriously folks, go watch this video, it will bring a smile to your face, everyone cheers for her at the end, LOVE IT! Judy, the Rhinestone Beagle sends its thanks out to you as this is possibly the greatest pillowcase recipe ever.  From start to finish, including: ironing, measuring, cutting, picture taking, sewing, dog tempting, and general gussying up, it took me one hour and 15 minutes to make an entire pillowcase.  Not just any pillowcase but one without visible seams done without using a serger machine.  Hold your applause until you see this glorious item, but once you do you will feel a standing ovation coming on as you pop your favorite pillow into its new home.

Materials, for one standard sized pillow:
Fabrics of your choosing, three that go to together is preferred, but hey who can talk smack, they didn't make a pillowcase from scratch now did they?
Thread
Sewing Machine
Pins
Scissors
Tape Measure
Iron

Step one:
Once you have your fabrics washed and ironed you will need to cut three pieces. Your main piece will be 23" by 45".  If your fabric is only 43" wide instead of 45" wide no worries, it will still fit, just have the other 2 fabric lengths match.  The other two pieces will be 13" by 45", which I like to think of as the lapel of the pillowcase, and 2" by 45".  The piece that is 2" wide needs to be ironed in half lengthwise with wrong sides together to form your accent strip. See, dogs like sewing too......ok I just think they get excited by the frequent use of the word "sausage" in this project.

Step two:
Lay your main piece right side up, lengthwise match the cut edge of the accent strip with the top edge of the main piece.  Now lay your lapel piece with right sides together on top of the accent strip and pin. 

Step three:
EEEEEE, this is the fun part! Ok, flip over your pinned piece and roll up the longer main piece like a jelly roll toward the pinned edge.  Now wrap the other edge of the lapel piece around the rolled up part like a sausage casing and re-pin.

Step four

Sew, I used a 3/8" seam allowance here.

Step five:

Pull the guts of the pillowcase out one of the ends of your sausage casing.  Look at that! You have a perfectly sewn pillowcase top with no visible edges, don't you just love it?

Step six:

With right sides out sew a 1/2" seam around the side and bottom of the pillowcase.  Trim close to seam. Now fold inside out, iron that seam to get a crisp edge, this will help with your next sewing bit.  Sew somewhere between a generous 1/4" and 1/2" along the bottom and edge of the pillowcase keeping the already sewn edge tucked inside. This will hide your seam inside a little bead of fabric and your pillowcase will look Wunderbar!

Step seven:

Go grab your self a pillow and admire your work! Hot Damn!



Now you can replace warn pillowcases with fresh new ones, create ones to match a beloved quilt, and get kids to help design their own set.  Who doesn't want awesome homemade Optimus Prime pillowcases!?! You can even use this idea to make personalized Trick-or-Treat pillowcases, you could always tell who hunted the Halloween candy hard core when the pumpkin bucket had been tossed aside for the pillowcase.

Judy Woodmansee you made this all possible and I cannot thank you enough.  I take great pride in the fact that I can make a perfect pillowcase in about an hour.  If you ever meet this maven of sewing creativity give her a shout from the Rhinestone Beagle for me.

Keeping it sleepy and yet fashionable,

Kelly, the origami ninja