Sleep mask tutorial

I am in prep mode for a much needed vacation! London, Mykonos and Athens here I come!!

As I was digging through my travel stuff I remembered how much I hate those icky sleep masks you get on the plane. So I decided to make myself a pretty little one using my Birds on a Wire fabric. It only took about 30 minutes or so and now I'll have a cute little mask for my long, long flight. Here's a quick tutorial:



Materials:
-Cotton fabric for front of mask: 5" x 8"
-Cotton fabric for covering elastic: 21" x 2"
-Flannel (or something soft) for lining and back: 2 pieces 5" x 8"
-16" of 1/4 elastic

1. Here is a link to the pattern.

2. Lay your fabrics down in this order and cut out your pattern.
Back flannel- facing up
Front cotton- facing down
Lining flannel- facing down

3. Take the strip for the elastic and sew using 1/8 seam along the long side. Right sides facing together. To turn the tube right side out, take a safety pin and pin one end. Feed the safety pin back through the tube. Work it through slowly. (It's sort of like putting on panty hose when it's hot and sticky outside...but just shimmy it through there gently and eventually it will pop out the other side.) Iron the tube flat.

4. Put a safety pin on both the ends of your elastic and feed it through the tube. Attach the pins at both ends so your elastic doesn't slip back through. To secure the elastic to the tube, sew a quick seam at each end. Take off your safety pins.

5. Now you are going to attach the tube to your mask. Pin the edges of your mask layers together. Now insert the covered elastic between the lining and the front. (See it all squished in the middle? It's like a little stuffed pie!) Make sure your ends are jutting straight out the sides when you are pinning everything together.



6. Sew 1/4 seam all the way around the mask. Go slow so your seams are straight. Leave an opening along the top so you can turn everything right side out. Make sure you reinforce your seams where the straps attach.

7. Clip your edges all the way around to keep it's shape when you turn it right side out. Make sure you don't accidentally clip your seam though!


8. Turn your mask inside out. Iron everything flat. Do a blind stitch to close. I was in a rush yesterday so I cheated and just stitched it closed on the machine...;)

9. Race to your couch and try it out! Since I couldn't self photograph this last step, Clara graciously offered to help.

Scrap Projects

Things here have been really busy again! But I took an hour this weekend to do a little sewing. I realized that it's been a few weeks since I've been able to just sit down at the machine and work on a project. And I haven't gotten to sew with Pachyderm Parade (I really do love the new name!) yet. So I poked around and found some super simple projects I could finish in an hour.

Itty Bitty Bag
I will admit it. I have a massive phobia about sewing zippers. Even with a zipper foot on my machine, I always end up having problems sewing a simple zipper. But this was my first attempt in a while so I figured perhaps it wasn't as bad as I remembered. And it wasn't! And the zipper even works! So ha! Take that you zipper phobia. The bag is tiny (6x3x3) and will be perfect for storing little sewing notions. And using this tutorial from Three Bears it was ridiculously easy to make! Cute huh?


Bookmarks
I found this link on Anna Maria Horner's blog for a tutorial and they were super simple to make. I *love* the way the button looks but functionaly it is just sort of in the way and it keeps making the bookmark slide out of my book! I guess it's like that gorgeous pair of heels, beauty over function!


Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Yoga Mat Bag Tutorial

My sister asked me to make her a Yoga Mat Bag out of her favorite Scarlet Fig fabric, Wing Chairs...the one with the yellow chairs on the grey background. So while I was sewing, I made myself one out of Comfy Couches in red AND I wrote a tutorial. You can download it here (it's a PDF file):

Yoga Mat Bag Tutorial

The instructions are long, but it is NOT hard. I promise! I just wanted to take lots of pictures along the way. Have fun!

For the love of laminating machines

I've been a busy bee working on new fabric designs and on some consulting projects, but I was able to carve out a few hours this last weekend to make something fun with my fabrics!

Since I moved from NY back to Austin I've been living in this tiny lilliputian sized apartment. And since my dining room table is now cutting/sewing central, I eat a majority of meals sitting on my couch using my ottoman as my dining surface. (I know, very classy!) So I've been meaning to get some of those plastic placemats to keep things neat and tidy. And I have these great lacquered trays that I wanted to line with something pretty. And then I realized...Hey! I can make my own placemats and liners and use my Birdies on Chairs and Comfy Chairs fabric! It was easy peasy!

For 4 placemats:

-Cut (4) pieces of front fabric 11" x 17-1/2"
-Cut (4) pieces of coordinating back fabric 11" x 17-1/2" (I used a Kona cotton in Cactus which is a perfect coordinate for the greens in my fabric
-Cut (4) pieces of fusible webbing 11" x 17-1/2"

Follow the directions on the fusible webbing to attach it to the wrong side of the back fabric. You'll be ironing it to the wrong side of your back fabric.

Then put the front fabric on top of the fusible webbing and iron that down. You should be laying the wrong side of the front fabric ontop of the fusible webbing.

You should now have a 3 layer sandwich that's all fused together. (See...told you it was easy!)

Trim everything to 10-1/2" x 17" so all 3 layers are squared up. When I made mine, I wish I had put some simple decorative stitching around the edge to give a little something extra to the project. And I probably would apply some Fray Check to the edges as well... I had some thread escapees.

Now...carefully transport everything to the laminating store. Make sure you take some little scissors with you so you can trim away any little loose threads.

Feed your fabric sandwiches into the laminating machine. Trim away the excess plastic, leaving a 1/2" edge to make sure everything stays laminated. If you can get access to one of those guillotine cutter things you can cut a nice, neat edge. Ta da! Super cute, super easy! And super tidy!

Tip: Instead of taking your placemats to Kinko's (who charge a few $ for each sheet), find a teacher's supply store. Mine here in Austin only charged $.80 per linear foot. For all 6 of my pieces, I paid less than $6.00. Love that!

And many thanks to Margaret for letting me shoot my placemats on her nice sewing center-free dining table. ;)