ThriftyFun Crafts - June 13, 2007

This week we have more projects tips, including some tips for resizing sewing patterns. Do you have any sewing tips to share? Submit them here:

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Thanks for reading,

Susan

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Today's newsletter contains:

Photos and Projects:

• Dad, You Rule Ruler
• Pop Bottle Bird Feeder
• Making A "Boppy" Style Pillow For Babies
• Father's Day "Beer" Mug
• Slate That Looks Painted
• Lace Toilet Tank Topper
• Updating an Old Lamp

Tips:

• Mylar Balloons for Scrapbooking
• Kid's Stepping Stones
• Kitchen Window Covering
• Waste Paper Basket
• Jewelry Armoire for Jewelry Crafts
• Using Sewing Patterns Again For Different Sizes
• Sewing Stretchy Fabric
• Inexpensive Doggy Sweater
• Stained Glass Christmas Angels
• Homemade Napkin Rings With Raffia
• Quirky Picture Frame
• Create Attractive Storage Containers With Popcorn Tins

Requests:

• Earring Organizer
• Decorating for a Church Reunion
• Musty Smelling Yarn
• Lamp Shape Ideas
• Candlewicking Instructions
• Stitches Skipping on Sewing Machine
• Uses for Old Phone Books
• Using Wall Glaze on Wallpaper
• Making a Peg Leg for a Pirate Costume

Articles:

• Saving Family Keepsakes for Scrapbooking

Crafting for Fun and Money!

If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish.

More Information:
Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml

Dad, You Rule Ruler

Here is a simple craft that kids can do for their dad for Father's Day that he can use.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf80275073.tip.html

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Pop Bottle Bird Feeder

Here's an easy bird feeder that can be made from a painted 2 litre pop bottle.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf95840131.tip.html

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Making A "Boppy" Style Pillow For Babies

Boppy pillows are so handy for nursing moms or simply for baby to lay on while we Grandmothers rock them to sleep. At the baby stores, they are around $25 but, with the following instructions, you can make your own for half the price.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf71960196.tip.html

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Father's Day "Beer" Mug

Here's a fun, inexpensive and easy to make Father's Day gift.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf12349901.tip.html

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Slate That Looks Painted

If you are like me, I haven't learned how to paint but love the look. Take a slate and go to craft store and find the rub on transfers that you like, I love bears thus my selection.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf94363869.tip.html

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Lace Toilet Tank Topper

Pretty up your powder room with a lace toilet tank topper.

View This Craft: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf70438699.tip.html

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Updating an Old Lamp

I took a lamp I've had since the early 70's that was out of style colorwise, so this is what I did to reinvent a more fashionable
lamp with a pearlized finish.

I bought some wrapping paper with a neutral background that had sparkles. I tore the paper into small pieces and used Plaid Decoupage Glue in glossy finish. I started to paint glue onto the gold colored glass globe base, piece by piece until I covered it.

During this first process, I let some of the glued pieces dry a bit before pasting a new batch of pieces of paper overlapping the others. Continue, pasting until you are happy with the results, then give the covered globe several coats of the Plaid Decoupage gloss finish glue, let dry between coats.

The added bonus, the defused light in the base showed through some of the glued pieces.

The photo shows the before and after!

By Syd from Dunkirk, MD

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Mylar Balloons for Scrapbooking

Re-use old Mylar balloons by cutting out the outer balloon designs; tape next to, and around photos for scrap booking. You can also cut the balloon apart to make a background for the picture in a frame, or as a border around the picture. Use the inside, outside design, or both, for your creations. Many pictures can be decorated from one balloon.

By Marie from Wisconsin

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Kid's Stepping Stones

Materials

• Bag of cement (buy at hardware or home store, about $3.00 for a big bag, get the kind that says premixed - just add water. Nothing fancy, just the end line stuff)
• small, durable momentoes to place in cement (I've used rubber frogs and bugs on one, a pacifier and a rattle in one, and hot wheels cars in one, in the past)
• round 9 inch disposable cake pans (check to make sure children's feet fit in these, if not, use a larger size)

Directions

This project is easier than it sounds :) Do it outside, because it gets messy! Mix cement with water according to directions on bag. Pour in tins. Let it sit until it is firm enough to hold a print. Place child's foot in center of tin and smoosh :) Try to not go all the way to the bottom! Place small knick knacks around foot print like a toy, etc., as listed above. Cement is hard to write in, but we were able to do initials with aquarium rocks. Let set. Cover with water to cure according to package directions. Let these set for a few days before removing from the tins. These can be buried in the garden as stepping stones, left out on the deck, or anywhere outside. Once hard, they are quite durable!

By Barbara from West Union, OH

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Kitchen Window Covering

Drapes can be very expensive, so in covering my window in the kitchen, I took a flowered bathroom shower curtain, with ruffles. Take one rod and slip curtain onto rod. Buy $1.00 hanging tassels, in a colour to accent your walls. Pull back drapes from side to side. You will be pleased at the look.

What a great covering for the window.

By Janet from Toronto, Ontario

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Waste Paper Basket

Have you ever noticed there are some very nice waste paper baskets in the stores. They are so expensive, so I tried to decorate my own:

Materials

• $1.00 store plastic basket in white, or yellow or pink or blue
• $1.00 store doilies
• $1.00 store flowers
• glue gun

Directions

Wrap and glue doily to the top of the basket, glue the fringe of lace around the top then glue the flowers onto the basket, spacing accordingly.

Wow, this is so simple and so cute. I am now going make one for a gift for my baby granddaughter's room: pink, pink dolls, the lace, the doily. What a nice gift, fill with appropriate oils, creams and lotions for the baby. Hope you enjoy this craft, I know that I did.

By Janet from Toronto Ontario

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Jewelry Armoire for Jewelry Crafts

Free standing jewelry armoires make attractive storage units for beads, jewelry findings, and tools. The armoires can be found for reasonable prices at Wal-Mart, thrift stores, and yard sales. Mine has hooks on the main door that are great for hanging bead strands and chains, shallow lined drawers with separate compartments for beads and findings, a large cubby for hand tools, and deeper drawers for other odds and ends. The best part is that the armoire is a small attractive addition to a bedroom for those who do not have their own craft room.

By Tracey from Duluth, MN

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Using Sewing Patterns Again For Different Sizes

Advice for using sewing patterns again for different sizes.

Trace On Tissue

I am the mother of quads. The girls are not the same size. So when I buy a pattern of different sizes, I trace it onto tissue paper. I use these to cut out the material and the original is left intact. I just get white tissue paper from the dollar store. Have fun.

By quads

Tracing a Pattern Instructions

I use one ply of white tissue wrapping paper. Open up the pattern and iron it flat. Put the pattern on a hard surface. A kitchen table works. Iron the tissue paper if need be. Then lay the tissue paper over the original pattern using flat pins if needed and use a soft dull pencil to trace the size pattern you are wanting to use. Do not use to much pressure. Be gentle with the pencil. After you become confident you can even use a large tip pen, but not a marker as it may sometimes run. Laying the tissue over the pattern and the motion of rubbing it gently over the original to straighten it out sometimes causes static electricity and the tissue will stay where you put it. You can put every mark you need on the pattern. The traced pattern will last forever if used properly.

By Jacqueline

Just Fold It

Believe it or not, I just fold it on the cutting line needed. Where it curves, I just fold where I can, and carefully cut the curves. I've done this for years, and I have never had to spend time tracing.

By Laura in NH

Use Brown Paper Bags

When I get a new pattern, I immediately transfer the pieces to brown paper shopping bags. They are cheap and plentiful and durable. Write on each piece the corresponding pattern information right away.

By CHEAPERTHANCHEAP

Lightweight Pelon

I have used lightweight pelon (interfacing purchased by yard) for this purpose for years. Get the thinnest available, place it over the pattern and just trace. This type of pattern is very easy to use and can be used many times over.

By Kathryn

I also trace the pattern onto a piece of lightweight pelon then bond it to a lightweight light colored cotton material and transfer lines and markings to the cotton with a thin sharpie marker. It makes for a much sturdier pattern than you can use over and over without tearing it up. I also bond lightweight pellon to all of the pattern pieces that I'm going to use more than once just to keep them sturdy.

By MsMischf

Tracing Advice

Like the others say, use tissue paper, or go to a office place, Office Depot or Office Max, and get drafting paper in rolls, 36" wide as long as you can see through it. There also is Nancy's Notions that have transfer paper on a roll. Its not as wide as it should be, 24" wide if my memory serves right. So for some patterns you'll have to add on more paper to get more width - this also works with tissue paper Do this by using the iron on rolls of glue:

Overlap your paper (tissue), put the strip of glue between them and iron them together then trace the bigger pattern without having pieces of it. We have a old table which has 3 leaves in, so to make it smooth I put a BIG piece of tag board or poster board on it, and hide it behind a china cabinet when not in use.

For what to trace with, I use a Sharpie fine point permanent marker. Yes it does go through some, yet if you keep the marker moving it won't be that bad. It's going slow or leaving it in one area too long that will really leave the marks. Practice first with tissue paper over an open part of pattern to see what will happen. If you don't care for it - use a DARK PENCIL.

When the tracing of the lines, dots, arrows, diamonds, etc., (all very important things) are in their places. REMOVE your traced pattern, put it over a sheet of paper (which will be thrown away) and with marker, write the necessary things: Pattern name and #, size, what it is, front, back and so on.

I have done this for 25 + years and it works great. I also use a 6"x9" white envelop to hold each pattern size individually. Put the information on front with a picture, if possibe. I've been using the same ones for my Grandchildren now as I used for my own kids!

Hope this is of help to you

By moonbeam

Feel free to share your ideas below.

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Sewing Stretchy Fabric

Tips from the ThriftyFun community for sewing stretchy fabric without warping.

Use Tissue Paper

Have you tried sewing with tissue paper? Sandwich the fabric inside the paper, the feed dogs will not stretch the paper. Once the seam is sewed, you just have to rip the paper off. You only need a narrow strip, maybe 2 inches wide.

By Lois

I made a bathing suit out of stretch fabric. I placed tissue paper on top of and underneath of the wrong sides of the fabric. I sewed through the tissue and fabric along the seam lines. Then I tore off the tissue paper when I was done. It is all on the wrong side and generally doesn't leave any residue from the tissue. Worked like a charm.

Stretch The Fabric While Sewing

Be careful. If you don't stretch the fabric a bit while sewing, you will find that the stitches break when the fabric stretches while being worn.

By sue

Adjust Pressure

You should be able to adjust the presser foot pressure. Check your machine manual. For lightweight fabric - more pressure and for heavy fabric - less pressure. Play with different settings to see what works best. A teflon coated presser foot will also help some fabrics glide through easier. Also try lightly steaming and pressing the seam after sewing to shrink the stretching back to normal. Sometimes this helps with certain fabrics.

By Sew Sew Mitch