Quiet Book Cover Tutorial

Materials Needed:  2  11x23 inch pieces of fabric for front and inside (don't have to be same pattern)

1  5x28 inch piece of fabric for strap

1 9x9 inch piece of fabric for inside pocket

1 11x23 inch piece of batting

1 button

sewing machine

thread

scissors or rotary cutter and mat

Step 1:  Cut pieces of fabric to dimensions stated above.

Step 2: Take 5x28 piece of fabric for strap and fold right sides together (hot dog style).  Sew together leaving an opening for turning right side out.  Make sure you don't sew along fold.

Step 3:  Turn right side out and press.  Fold under raw edges of opening and iron down well.

Step 4:  Take 11x23 inch piece of fabric for the front and center strap on it.  Make sure you pin one edge of the strap 1/2 inch in from side edge (that extra piece of fabric is needed for another seam).

The strap on the other side should run off the end.  Mark with a pin 1/2 inch in like you did on the other side of strap.

Measure all along the strap to see if centered on the front piece.  Mine measured about 4 1/2 inches up from the bottom.  I just slid my ruler across the strap to make sure it was consistent.

Step 5:  Sew strap onto front piece by starting on side with excess strap.  **make sure you start 1/2 inch in**.  Sew all the way around the strap stopping at the same side you started at.  **again stopping at the 1/2 inch mark**

Step 6:  Take 9x9 inch piece of fabric for the pocket and press a 1/2 inch fold towards wrong side of fabric on each side.

Step 7:  Stitch along side that you want to be the top of the pocket.

Step 8:  Place pocket on the the 11x23 inch piece of fabric designated for the inside of the cover.  Place it on the right side of inside piece and pin.

Step 9:  Sew around pocket starting at top right.  **Make sure you don't sew top part of fabric.  We don't want the pocket sewn shut!

Step 10:  Pin excess part of strap onto strap that is already sewn on.

Step 11:  Now place front and inside pieces right sides together with pocket and side with excess strap on same side.  Place batting on top of that.

Step 12:  Even pieces up and pin all round.  Double pin an area 6 inches apart designating it as your opening.   Start sewing at one end of opening and sew all around book ending at the other end of the double pined marking.  Turn book inside out and press, make sure you fold raw edges of opening in and press well.

Step 13:  Sew around book one more time sewing opening closed.  When you come to the part with excess strap, lift the strap up and sew underneath it.

Step 14:  Once you have sewn all the way around the book stitch a border around the rest of the excess part of the strip connecting the previous stitches.

Step 15:  Sew button hole on edge of excess strap big enough to fit your button of choice.

Step 16:  Open up button hole with seam picker.

Step 17:  Sew on button to the front edge of book.

Step 18:  Your done!  Now you can start working on the pages to fill the book!!!

Thank you Blog World

My friend and I held a baby shower at my house this past weekend and it turned out really nice.  I need to give credit where credit is due because the gift, prizes, and decor ideas all came from the blogging world.  Here is what we did:

The gift I gave her was Lil Blue Boo's "ABC Beanbags"

Our prize for our game was Bakerella's "Cowgirl Cookie Jars" (we labeled them with a baby girl theme vs. a cowgirl theme).  We also made a patch and they were extremely yummy.

Some of our decor came from Martha's Pom-Pom tutorial.  We made mini pom-pom's and put them in vases.  

And finally we made a couple diaper cake center pieces.  See a video tutorial here:

 Hope these idea's help if anyone is throwing a shower soon.  These projects were fun and simple.  Thanks to all the creative women out there for suppling the tutorials!

Lomography

So I really wanted to find a new hobby because I can't play sports as much as I would like nowadays.  After doing some research I found a new interest called lomography.  Now what is lomography you may ask.  Good question--i'm still not quite sure how to describe it.  It's a type of photography that uses 35mm film.  There is not a screen on the camera to view the photo you've taken so you never know what your going to get.  Some may find that exciting.  Here are some pictures that i've taken with my Diana F+ camera that I really enjoyed.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use my camera and everything but it's a new hobby and that is exactly what I was looking for.  If you want to learn more about lomography click here.

Sincerely,
       "Miss That"

Grandmother's Doily

Good day:) It's Ms. That again with a inspirational vintage design.  My grandmother has given me dozens of old doily's that belonged to her and her sisters that have now passed on and I haven't really decided what I want to do with them yet.  I wanted to do something a little different and I finally found the perfect idea from Urban Outfitters.  So if you have some extra doily's lying around your house and want to create something beautiful, then here is your ticket.  If you don't have any doily's and still want to create this design, then try going to your local dollar store.  I found some there that will work great with my grandmothers. Enjoy!


Sincerely,

     "Ms. That"

We Love Amy Butler!

Well hello.  It's "Ms. That" with an inspirational design from the fabulous Amy Butler.  She has created some gum drop pillows that can go just about anywhere in your home.  They can go in your child's playroom to bounce on or in your living room to rest your hard working feet on.  You can get this wonderful gum drop pillow pattern on Amy's website.  You will also be able to find free patterns on her site as well.  Good luck!

Sincerely,
       "Ms. That"

Sew Love Fabrics

I just received this fabric in the mail today and I can't stop looking at it.  I love the colors and the funky design.  I bought the fabric off of Etsy from Sew Love Fabrics.  Their service was great and I'm sure I'll be purchasing more fabric in the near future.  Now my only wish would be that this project along with this project was complete.

Denyse Schmidt Cards

Denyse Schmidt has changed my views on quilting.  I don't know why but every time I thought of quilts I thought "thats what old ladies do" and just assumed that when I was older I would take up the hobby.  After looking at her book I wanted to start quilting and preferably before I was an old lady!  Her design and color combinations are really inspiring.  This book has some great projects in it one of which this tutorial stemmed from.  I first saw Denyse's quilted cards on MADE and after I looked at Dana's tutorial along with Denyse original project I thought it would be fun to have quilted shaped cards for the different holidays.  So here is my attempt at "this and that's" first tutorial.

Materials Needed:  scraps of fabric
                               cardstock
                               thread
                               sewing machine
                               scissors

Step One:  Create the shape of cards you want to create or just download any of my "egg", "tree", or "heart" shaped card at the bottom of this post.  When cutting out my downloads make sure you cut on the inside of the black lines so they don't show on the finished card.

Step Two:  Pick out your fabric

Step Three:  Place fabric on front of card in the desire you want it arranged.  Cover cards completely and make sure fabric is extended past cardstock.  They will look like this...

                                                    

Step Four:  You have to sew on each piece individually.  I took the bottom piece in my design and carefully slide off the other scraps to the side so my chosen combination wouldn't be lost.  Take that first piece and sew it directly onto the paper forming zig-zags.  Take the next piece and do the same.  Continue to do so until the whole card is covered.  I found that it looks best if you do the zig-zags on each strip then when the whole card is covered stitch an outline of the card shape.  The back should look like this:

Step Five: Cut off excess.

Step 6:  Your done!

Here's a completed Easter egg card with ric-rac

If you want to look at MADE's tutorial click here.  I made these after reading her tutorial

Tips on download:  *you will have to create an account on Scribd to download these files.  It's quick, easy and worth it!
*when you print these files make sure your printer is set on 8 1/2 x 11 paper size.  For some reason my settings would change when I went to print the file.  I'm sure it's an easy fix but I am not computer savvy.

Easter Egg Card

Tree Cards

Heart Cards 1

Sincerely,
"Ms. This"