Book Review- Fabric by Fabric One-Yard Wonders

Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders - 101 Sewing Projects Using Cottons, Knits, Violes, Corduroy, Fleece, Flannel, Home Dec, Oilcloth, Wool and Beyond by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins is a compilation of projects that can be sewn using one single yard of fabric. It's spiral bound in a hard cover with box attached on the inside cover which holds pattern pieces. Some of the pattern pieces for some of the projects you'll draft by hand. Those have simple shapes and measurements.

The nice thing about one yard patterns is that it's a great way to use a yard of great fabric. It starts with a basic introduction to the supplies you'll need, and most of the projects are done using just a straight stitch on a standard sewing machine.

The projects are separated by fabric type.

• Lightweight cottons- like voile and lawn
• Quilting weight cotton- one of the easiest to find and inexpensive options for sewing
• Home decorator fabrics- these are heavier woven fabrics
• Flannel
• Woven pile fabrics- things like velvet and corduroy
• Coated fabrics- like oilcloth
• Fleece
• Knits
• Wool

So whatever your favorite fabric type is, there is a project for it. The projects collected are wonderful, there is a lot of variation. Many very cute purses and bags, but also skirts, tops, hats, organizers, home decorating, and accessories. The projects covers a lot of skill levels with clear instructions so if you haven't tried a technique before like ruffling, smocking, pleating or placing zippers, you should be able to follow the instructions to do so.

While there are a lot of projects meant for children, there are also several clothing patterns for adults. My daughter likes the Urban Wabbit Hunting Cap best, my favorite pattern is the quilter airliner bag with it's retro feel and decorative quilt stitching. There are also patterns for adult shirts, skirts, lots of children's clothes and toys.

If you like sewing, and have a stash of fabrics you couldn't resist buying just one yard, or if you're a sewer with a lot for quickly finished projects, you'll enjoy the variety available in here. A lot of the projects can also be done with creative cutting from thrifted items or from items in your own closet.

Published by Storey Publishing. You can pick this up from your local bookstore, or by using the Amazon.com affiliate links below.For U.K. readers- apparently the instructions in the U.K. version do have inch measurements instead of metric.


I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Snails, yarn and other things

This is my entry in the current Spoonflower contest, What is the new owl? What do you think the next animal to be as popular as owls is going to be? The page above can be enlarged and printed to use for paper crafting purposes. There are a lot of great entries if you want to go peek and vote here.

Other than that, Lion Brand is having a story contest, the instructions were to explain about the meaningful handmade gift you ever received or gave in 500 words or less. It was easy to choose mine.

Grandma's Coat Yarn

My family always made things. My grandmother knitted, painted, crocheted and beaded and a lot of my very favorite things are things she made.

The best handmade gift I ever got was from her.

My grandfather passed away in 1977. Before he died, he got Grandma yarn for a coat she wanted to make. He bought entirely too much yarn and after he passed, Grandma couldn’t stand to work with that yarn. It sat in her closet for years. A gift of love and memory.

She developed glaucoma and started losing her vision. Before it was too far gone, she decided to make my brother and I blankets with that yarn. She knit them gorgeously in a wave lace pattern. That blanket would be the best handmade gift except for what came next. 

When the blankets were done, there was a bit of yarn left. Then I found out I was pregnant with my son. 

The very last thing she knitted, before her vision was too bad to knit was a baby blanket, using the white yarn that was bought to use a trim on that coat that never got made. It’s incredibly precious, and it’s packed safely away now until I can give it to my grandchildren. The yarn from my grandfather, the blanket from my grandmother’s so talented hands. It’s a blanket full of love and family memories.

That contest is currently voting on Facebook here. You can vote daily and I would really appreciate your vote. The grand prize is 500 dollars to spend on the Lion Brand site, which would be used partly to make hats for the homeless this summer and partly just for fun by my daughter and I.

In other news, Michael has two job interviews and a job starting this week. Things are still pretty tight for us financially since he's been out of work for so long, but it's looking up!

Coloring Page: Rose Window at Saint Denis- North

This is the North transcept rose window at St. Denis. The photo is from Wikimedia Commons.
One of the things I love about this window is the use of the zodiac in the 5 circle.

Here's my version to color. Click on the images for larger versions.
Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG version:

There is another window from St. Denis to color here.

Recently I was sent some gorgeous vintage glass and a couple beautiful barrettes. I used some of the glass to make this bracelet.

You can find some details about how it was made here.
This is one of the two barrettes-

The barrette is made out of vegetable tan leather, and the wonderful artist who sent it does have an Etsy store, where you can get lots of different hair toys and leather masks- Beadmask. As far as the feather fall goes, that was made by a friend who I'll be setting up an Etsy shop for soon. Another extraordinary beader and artist named Teri Packel. 

Book Review- Reinvention

Reinvention : Sewing with Recycled Materials by Maya Donenfeld is a collection of sewing projects that use thrifted and otherwise scavenged materials and turning them into something new.

If you love sewing, and recycled projects, this is a wonderful book. The author writes engagingly about her experiences and life, and gives tips for finding the materials for the projects. The techniques include patchwork, stamping and printing. The sewing is all fairly simple, no fancy or fussy seam techniques or anything like that.

The chapters are separated by fabric type. Each chapter explains the fabric, a bit about the history, how to take care of it, and where the best places are to find it. She also explains the environmental impact of re-using that particular fabric. The chapters have a few projects each and there is good variety between home decorating projects, clothing, and accessories.

Linen- my favorite projects in this chapter are the Story Scarf ,which is a fashion scarf made in patchwork, and the big handy, Reversible Summer Sling purse. My daughter is wild for the Story Scarf, and the Envelope Portfolio which can be customized easily using fabric paint and stencils.

Burlap- I get burlap bags every few months from one of the local coffee roasters. We use them for all sorts of things, and this chapter inspires more uses. The Onion and Garlic Sacks are my favorite. My daughter likes the Inspiration Board project.

Jersey (tee shirt cotton knit)- My daughter likes the Pillow Pals. My favorite project is a toss up between the simple hand sewn Blossom Band with it's two type of flowers, and the Little Forager Skirt. The reason I love the skirt so much is that even now, it's ideal for my daughter. She's always been a forager, with a sharp eye for anything from washers on a street to use in projects to pretty rocks when we are out on hikes in the summer.

Wool - blankets, suits and coats deconstructed to take advantage of the wonderful properties of wool. Great projects in this section. It's my favorite chapter in the book. The Poufs can be filled with scraps from other sewing projects, the insulated lunch bag is something you could use every day, and the Toadstool Cottage is a whimsical alternative to dollhouses.

Denim- My favorite project is the Double Duty Oven Mitt , simple seams, and it's a great housewarming gift. I also love the roomy Indi-Go Bag for shopping. My daughter's favorite is the hammock project.

Mailers, which uses Tyvek envelopes, is my daughter's favorite chapter. She's been a fan of re-using these for years, and is always really happy when I get mail in them. The insides are canvases ready to be colored, and they can be sewn, glued and taped. I like the Notebook project best as a way to make small memory books. Her favorite is the Banner project.

Vintage uses all sorts of vintage textiles, bed sheets, aprons, kitchen towels and table cloths are all used in this chapter. my favorite project is the Traveling Hamper, my daughter loves the Summer Bolster.

Spiral bound with a hard outer cover and gorgeously photographed, this is a lovely and inspirational collection of things to make using recycled fabrics.

Published by Wiley Books, you can get the book from your local bookstore, or by clicking the Amazon.com affiliate link below.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Eyelet Lace Decorated Printable Boxes

Printable cookie and 2x2x2 inch cube boxes with an eyelet lace theme. If you would like another color, or one of my other templates decorated to match, just let me know! Click for larger versions, print on card stock, cut, score, fold, glue.

Moon Phases Mandala

I love Facebook, especially when people like Samuel and Julie show me things they've done with the mandalas I've drawn. Thank you all for the encouragement and compliments!

I hope you enjoy this mandala. It's based on moon phases. The circle with the crossed lines is the astronomical and astrological symbol for earth. I filled in the quarters of that with the 4 traditional elements. I hope you enjoy it! Click on the images for larger versions.

Small JPG version-

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The last week- with photos!

Yesterday was World Book Night USA, the first one we've had on this side of the Atlantic. I signed up for, and received my first book choice. Stephen King's The Stand. An epic post-apocalyptic story of good vs evil, and my husband's favorite book.

The way it works is that lots of publishers and writers waive their profits for specific books, and also help pay to get special editions printed. The people who signed up to give them were told where to pick up a box of 20 books with bookmarks. The goal is to give them to people who might not normally read, so it's very important to pick a book that you can recommend enthusiastically. William and TG were excited about the idea, and neither of them had read The Stand, so as soon as it was that I was getting my first choice book, they both started and finished it. They both liked it a lot.

We took our books downtown, to an area with lots of traffic of all sorts of people. Then we discovered something none of us had thought of, when you give away books for free, especially big thick books, people think you're trying to convert them. It's drilled into people's minds I guess that free books are things of a religious nature. Which makes me glad I chose a Stephen King book. His name being so well known helped convince people we were just giving away books.

William and TG putting bookmarks into the special edition copies.

I gave away the first copy, approaching a young lady and asking if she wanted a book. She told me that she saw almost all the movies based off his books and accepted happily. Then they started giving away copies. Walking up to people to ask if they wanted a book. We went through them fairly quickly once we found our rhythm. After it was all over, I asked them "So.. do you want to sign up next year?" and both said yes very quickly. It was so much fun!

Also this week, Michael and I went out on a tip from a friend to Potter's Marsh. We were looking for snow geese and didn't see any of them, but we did spot Green-Winged Teals, Canadian Geese and lots of nesting seagulls. I uploaded these pretty large, so click on them for lots of detail. 

Tonight, we had planned to see the aurora, but Michael's fighting a cold so we packed it in early when after 2 hours of sunset, it still wasn't dark enough. The sunset was gorgeous though. If you click through, you'll see the crescent moon over the sunset.

Alaska is even more gorgeous when it's summer properly. So far, the only thing coming up in my yard is my rhubarb. In the less gorgeous side of living in Alaska, there is also a bumper crop of newly revealed moose poop in my yard. Tomorrow I'm going to ask TG and William to  put plastic bags over there shoes and stomp it apart so it can be fertilizer instead of piles of nuggets. 

Fan Boxes

I completely forgot to post the fan boxes! Based on the same art that I drew for these fan coloring pages.

Click for larger versions, print on card stock, cut, score, fold, glue.

Yogurt

Mattel has announced they will be releasing a bald Barbie. At this point, the plans are to donate dolls exclusively to hospitals and the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. MGA Entertainment also said they will be creating Bratz with no hair to sell at ToysRUs, with 1 dollar from every purchase going to cancer research.

I got kind of weepy happy about it.

Chobani posts this photo on their FB page-

It's a wonderfully green idea for lunches! Buying larger containers of yogurt is less waste. You could use berries from your garden, and homemade granola.

I prefer making yogurt from scratch. Some times I use packaged cultures, other times, plain organic yogurt from the grocery store. One small container will inoculate two batches of yogurt. Kefir is essentially reusable for  forever. Yogurt isn't, after the 3rd or 4th generation, it gets pretty icky.

This is the method I use with a popular brand of  freeze dried cultures that's fairly widely available.

Yogurt using Yo'gourmet Freeze Dried Starter
7-8 cups of 1% milk
1/2 cup instant powdered milk
2 5 gm packets of the starter

Dissolve the powdered milk into the milk, and bring to a light boil, turn down heat and keep at a simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool to lukewarm. Pour a little bit of the lukewarm milk into a non-reactive container (glass or ceramic), I use a white ceramic casserole pan I can cover with a plate. Mix the starter into it and stir to get the lumps out and make sure it's dissolved. Pour in the rest of the milk and stir it up well. 
While you're doing that, stop your sink and run very warm water in it. Just about "Nice hot shower" temp does nicely. When it's about 2 inches deep, turn off the water and put the yogurt container into it covered with a plate or lid if your container as a lid. Every so often during the day, stop and check your water temperature, if it's cool, take out the yogurt container without peeking or stirring, and refill the sink up to 2 inches with more warm water,then replace the yogurt container. After about 8 hours, check it by tilting the dish and seeing if it's runny or firm set. Firm set, it won't move but may have some whey on top. That can be poured off or stirred back in. Put it in the fridge.

The warm temperature encourages the cultures to work and multiply. The reason I use the powdered milk is as a natural thickener. 

My son loves homemade vanilla yogurt. I use vanilla extract and honey to sweeten. 

If your yogurt doesn't set as well as you would like, you can use it in smoothies. My mom, who was a yogurt making hippy used pour improperly set yogurt into jam jars with just a bit of jam left in and stir it up really well. Then she would put the mix into ice pop molds and freeze it for a great summer treat. 

The yogurt instructions were previously posted here with more nutritional information.

Happy Earth Day!

One of the best things about being crafty is the ideas for re-using things instead of throwing them away.

Some of my favorite things are:
Old torn jeans for potholders, purses and other tough sewn projects

Plastic milk jugs as structural inserts in embroidered beadwork and other kinds of embroidery

Plastic bags= PLARN!

Old deli containers work well as mini-greenhouses to start seedlings, a lot of them are #6 plastic which is shrinkable as well. Check the recycling number.

My son reuses plastic sushi trays as paint palettes and for small parts.

Cardboard packaging is used for lots of things in my house. It works for small templates for sewing projects, as structure for a purse, or as the armature for a sculpture. Combines with paper mache very well.

Newspapers can be woven to make situpons and baskets. Also one of the best things for paper mache. Gardening uses include seed tape or little seedling pots.

Shampoo bottles can be repurposed to make small watering cans, the tops can be cut off to hold brushes and other craft supplies, or they can be turned into little cases.

Wire coathangers can be used for book ends, blanket pins and all sorts of other things. DON'T use them for toasting marshmallows.

Right now I'm loving aluminum spangles made using punches from soda cans. A lot of hand punches work great with aluminum soda cans.

Popped bicycle innertubes work well cut open and in shorter lengths to help open jars. They also make a wonderful material for things like these rubber bracelets.

Book Review- Vertical Vegetables and Fruit

Vertical Vegatables and Fruit : Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up In Small Spaces by Rhonda Massingham Hart is a nice addition to a gardening library for people who are considering growing a lot more of their own food in limited space.

This is best for people who have at least a small yard, however there are some ideas for people who only have a balcony or a sunny window as well.

It starts with good reasons to think vertically for your garden. How it helps plants take advantage of sunlight better to create more food, it cuts down on weeding since your plants have a smaller footprint, and allows a lot more to be planted.

Then the author explains the best materials to use for building supports and trellises, and how to build some popular structures like trellises, cages and teepees. She gives some suggestions for good container plants with minimum depth and spacing suggestions and a chart about how much soils and soil mixes weigh for hanging planters.

The rest of the chapters are on different types of plants. Each plant has planting and seed recommendations. These helped me a lot with planning my garden. I live in a Zone 3 area, which means that my options are pretty limited. Recommendations for varieties include zone hardiness.

My favorite chapters are the one about sweet potatoes which explains how to make your own slips to plant in following years, strawberries, raspberries and espalier trees. I grow strawberries and raspberries already. Using the methods explained in this book will make it easier to really help them grow more abundantly, and get enough extra to pass some on to friends. My family loves sweet potatoes, and making slips and training the plants will be good practice for my son.

The ideas are shown with lovely full color illustrations that are clear and easy to understand.

If you want to make the most of a small growing area to have the joy and thriftiness of growing some of your own food, you may really enjoy this book.

Published by Storey Publishing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Duct Tape Comic Book Cuff Bracelet

Also from my old blog.

Super easy to make.

Measure your wrist, add 1.5 inches for the overlap where the Velcro dots are, then add two inches, cut a piece of duct tape that long. Fold over one inch on both ends. Cut a picture from a comic book or magazine or print out something nifty to fit, and put it on the sticky side between the folded over ends.
Put clear packing tape or clear duct tape over that.

Use two sets of Velco sticky dots, and the rough side to the soft side so you have them in matched pairs. Peel of the backing from the rough side and position them on the upside (graphic side) of your bracelet, then pull the backing off the soft side, and wrap the bracelet around to place them on the other side. (perfectly placed to match up now!)

Duct tape is generally about 2 inches wide, and I recommend 3M Scotch tape whenever the colors work because it's a thinner tape than the other major brands so it makes a fabric that molds a lot better. It seems like it's more expensive, but if you work it out at price per foot, it's usually about the same or with coupons or BOGO deals, a lot less expensive.

The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day. Look for participating locations in your area. In Anchorage, that's Bosco's, and they will also have a concert that evening with Marian Call. 

Pink Trimmed Socks Pattern

This is another pattern from my old blog. I originally posted it in November 2005.

(and yes! Those are my legs and that's one of my tattoos!)

You will need:

• Size 4 steel crochet hook (1.75 mm)
• Size 10 cotton (bedspread weight)
• A pair of socks- I like the kind that fold down once.

American terminology throughout.
Abbreviations:

• ch= chain
• sc= single crochet
• sl st= slip stitch
• st= stitch
• dc= double crochet
• tr= treble

A treble is yarn over twice, insert hook in stitch, yo, slip two loops off the hook over the yarn over, yarn over, work off next two loops, yo, work off last 2 loops. 

Round 1: The hook is inserted into the socks for the first round. So start the thread as usual on the hook, then insert the hook into the sock, slip stitch, then make a single crochet in the same hole. Ch 3, sc into the top of the sock a little away from the first sc, repeat around for an odd number of ch 3 loops, then after the last sc, ch 1, dc into first sc to make an even number of loops. Mine had 32 loops total.

Round 2: ch 1, sc in top of the loop you're working in, chain 3, sc in next loop, repeat all the way around until the last loop, then ch 1, dc into first sc from rnd 2.

Round 3: Ch1, sc, chain 5, sc in next loop, repeat all the way around until the final loop space, ch 2, tr in first sc

Round 4: repeat rnd 3

Round 5: ch 1, sc, * 4 tr crochet, ch 2, 4 tr crochet in next ch 5 loop, sc in next ch 5 loop* repeat around until the last loop, 4 tr crochet, ch 2, 4 tr, slipstitch in first sc, end off, weave in ends.

Read Something (printable word art)

On 4-23-12, my son, daughter and I are going out for World Book Night to hand out copies of The Stand by Stephen King. World Book Night is a literacy project with a focus on encouraging adults to read fiction for pleasure. They offered a list of 30 books including lots of wonderful titles, you picked 3 that you had read and enjoyed. They tried to give everyone their first picks. I chose The Stand because it's my husband's favorite book. One he picks up time and time again, and knows so well he'll open it at random and start reading from there. It is an "old friend" book.

While working with ideas for a teeshirt to make for my kids and I, one of my rejected ideas was a bunch of quotes about reading. The reason I rejected it is because the quotes are too small for a teeshirt, but I think you might enjoy it to print and hang. PDF format- READ SOMETHING!

Here are some of the quotes in it.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. - Austin Phelps
The ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.- Malcolm X
 He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.-Barrow
Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. - Bell Hooks
 All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.  - Arthur Christopher Benson
The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. - Anthony Trollope

Books are incredibly important to me. I read a lot, both the books reviewed here and fiction.

My favorite writer is Robert Heinlein. His books are my "old friend" books, the ones I grew up with and know so well that I can open them to any page.

My favorite fiction release this year is Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway. It's absurd and clever and I laughed almost all the way through it.

If you have tweens or teens, I recommend Rick Riordan's books, like the Harry Potter books, my whole family read the Percy Jackson books and discussed them. My daughter is a big fan who is very excited he's coming up to do a book signing next month.

If you like fantasy and fairies, you might like Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, set in a small liberal arts college in Minnesota in the early to mid 70s, it's a beautifully written modern retelling of the ballad of Tam Lin, with lots of Shakespearean references.

My family's tastes run strongly to science fiction and fantasy.

Fan Coloring Pages

I'll be using this fan on a box tomorrow! The version above is the 100 dpi jpg. Click on the images for larger versions.
Large transparent PNG-

100 dpi JPG version-

Large transparent PNG-

Thursday did not go as planned. There will be a book review tomorrow and a printable box as long as it doesn't wind up going anything like today!

Snailiad Love Cross Stitch

Snailiad  is a Metroid-like game designed by a friend of mine. It's all very retro, Auriplane likes pixel graphics and 8 bit music. With her kind permission, I snagged some of the graphics from the game to turn into a cross stitch pattern. I adapted her original game graphics into this little piece of pixel art.

Sized at 70 pixels wide by 49 pixels high, it will stitch up to 5 inches wide and 3.5 inches high on 14 count fabric. Click on the image below to print the chart.

I used the RGB DMC chart available here to work out the colors.

Snailiad is free to play, and has gotten good reviews from various game sites. Auriplane is currently working on the sequel. She made the game using all free utilities to prove that a game could be created without buying expensive programs. Her art is used with permission. 

Bat Appreciation Day Box and coloring pages

Today is Bat Appreciation Day! I hope you enjoy this printable box and printable coloring page.
Click on the images for larger versions.

Coloring Page 100 ppi JPG

Large Transparent PNG format

I have no idea what happened.I'm so sorry.

I'm so very, very sorry about that.  SocialSpark has very good reviews, so I don't think that's at all common.

Just absolutely horrified. Wrote to customer service to see if they can figure out what happened.

Designer Decorator Touches with Leviton Renu ®

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Leviton for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Oh the joys of buying a fixer-upper. On the one hand, it was really inexpensive. On the other, well, my home was built in the 70s and decorated in the 80s. Since we are tackling one project at a time as we can spend the time and money, it's taking a while to fix. (oh the horror. My computer room has painted wood panelled walls. I know under the paint is horrible dark 70s wood panels.) My daughter's room has a Miami Iced theme (which is a way to describe mid-80s pastel everything). This photo is a few years old.  She's dealt with the unbelievable pinkness of it all by hanging lots of posters and painting on the walls.

As we tackle the rooms, one thing that has to happen is all the  switches and wall plates need to be replaced. One of the best advantages to the Renu system is that they are easy to change out if color trends for the '10s become dated as quickly as color trends from previous decades did.

The colors were picked by decorators, so you could go safe with a nice neutral, or do something more dramatic that can pick up colors from accents. With 20 colors to choose from, it's easy to find the colors that will work with your decorating scheme.

Leviton is having Twitter events on
Wednesday, April 18th 6pm Pacific
Thursday, April 26th 6pm Pacific
Wednesday, May 2nd 6pm Pacific.
Leviton is offering 2 sets of Broadway tickets as a grand prize for the twitter party on Wednesday night! (May 2nd) Join in on the fun and see if you'll win!
Like Leviton on Facebook and follow @Leviton using hashtag #Renu for the Twitter events to have a chance to win some Home Depot gift cards.

Rose Window at St. Denis to color

This is one of the rose windows at St. Denis Basilica. I drew a version to color or embroider, I hope you enjoy it. I love the geometry of rose windows, especially the older ones which were laid out and planned using straight edges and compasses. Click on the images for larger versions. You have my permission to use them in all sorts of crafty applications.

Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG format-

ETA: Rather then do a whole new blog entry, I'm just editing this one. I'm a huge fan of Recyclebank, it's an educational site for greening your life that allows you to earn points which you can trade in on all sorts of things. I just logged in and found out they added a whole bunch of magazines to the rewards. Right now on Recyclebank is a Passport promotion, in a half hour, you can earn enough points for a subscription to magazines like Popular Mechanics, Car and Driver, Martha Stewart Living or Martha Stewart Weddings. . You can create a new account using your FB account to make it really easy. Check it out! My son is planning to use his points on Car and Driver and Road and Track for his grandfather. :)