Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

Congratulations to Mary M. from Sinking Spring, PA who was randomly selected as our National Sewing Month Drawing Winner! Mary will receive $100 for an online shopping spree at CreateForLess!

“I made my twin grandson’s christening suits from a Mc Calls’s pattern, #3063, they were christened in February so I used a thin corduroy for the bottom of the romper. Brocade for the vest and a cotton for the shirt. The collar was piped. I adapted the back closure to a zipper. The hats were made from an online pattern and adjusted to fit their little heads. All were sewn on my Pfaff machine.”

Check out some of my favorite entries! Also this month is our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest! 

“My best friend goes to a Witches Party every Halloween. Everyone typically shows up in black. She decided to go as Glinda from Wizard of OZ. She flew up from S. CA to WA so that I could make her the costume. Not that they show up in the photo but there are butterflies on her choker, shoulder, waist and wrists. These were Free Standing Lace butterflies that I made on my Brother Quattro. The pattern was purchased. The hat was made from clear acrylic covered with the sheer fabric used in the dress. A true labor of love!”

By Anne S. from Burley, WA

“This is my nursery for my now 8 mo. old twin granddaughters (Gianna & Phoebe). This is my custom design crib bedding that I made for them. I also made the matching diaper stacker and the mobiles and the wall art that spells out their names.”

By Marcie S. from El Cajon, CA

“Julia’s Little Mermaid quilt – Lots of pink and beachy stuff for a great beach picnic. Machine embroidered white muslin squares set in a snowball quilt pattern, 100% cotton fabric. Machine pieced, machine embroidered and machine quilted. I Used fabric from my stash.”

By Karen C. from Central Falls, RI

“Part of the County 4-H Llama Show is a Costume Competition where both the 4-H exhibitor and the llama dress up in costumes. For my daughter’s costume we just pulled together various items of clothing. However, that doesn’t work for a llama. My daughter wanted the llama to dress as a Royal Llama. The design is my own (since there are no Llama Costume Patterns!!). The ears, head, neck & legs had to be covered as much as possible. I used gold lame for the head & neck. Royal purple velveteen was used for the body. Gold bells were attached to the costume and halter. It took about 8 hours to put the costume together. By the way, they were the Champions for their Division!”

By Marie D. from Poland, In

“My nieces had asked if I could make them book bags for the coming school year. They didn’t want anything fancy, just something to hold a couple of binders and books, so this is what I made. They measure 11″ x 13 1/2″ and have eight pen/pencil pockets plus a calculator/pad pocket in front. These are my own design. I used cotton fabrics, fusible fleece on outer fabric and decor weight interfacing on the lining. My biggest reward in making these bags: my nieces loved them!”

By Rhonda C. from Meadville, PA

Click HERE to see more of our favorite entries on CreateForLess!

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

So I’ll admit it, for the most part I’m one of “those moms” You know, the moms that like to have homemade do-dads for just about every occasion. I like to make my kids birthday cakes every year, sew their clothes, Halloween costumes and even the sandwich wraps for their lunches. I come from a long line of mothers-that-make. But there is one area where I have always fallen sadly short when it comes to having things all organized and set and handmade for my kids – trick or treating bags.

Somehow between the Halloween party that we throw and the costumes that I love to make and the parade that the neighborhood hosts every year, I alway seem to forget that my kids will need some way of carting home all the loot they collect on night of the 31st. It’s terrible, really. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sent my kids out with paper bags or pillow cases, which, for a self professed craft maniac, is pretty sad.

Well not this year!!

This year, before I’ve even started on costumes or party plans or checking that the flashlights have batteries before the kids head out, I’m tackling the trick or treating bag issue. No more pillowcases for us!

And really this project couldn’t be simpler, or more customizable. If you aren’t comfortable with drawing your own image, download some free clipart and enlarge it until you have a picture that is sized for your bag and trace it onto the freezer paper. You can even cut the freezer paper to size and run it right through your printer!

Here’s what you need:

Freezer paper
Craft knife and cutting mat
Pen
Iron
Fabric Paint (I used glitter, but feel free to use whatever color you want!)
Foam paint brush
Plain cotton bag

1. Use your craft knife to carefully cut the image out of your freezer paper. Be sure to save any interior pieces (like the eyes, nose and mouth from my pumpkin!) for when you iron on the stencil.

2. Iron the stencil on with a warm, dry iron. Be sure all the edges are well pressed down so that the plastic has a chance to adhere well.

3. Paint on a coat of fabric paint using your foam brush. For solid color paint you’ll want a thin coat, for glitter paint you will probably want a thicker coat or two coats. Allow the paint to dry before peeling off the stencil.

4. Set the paint according to the manufacturers directions and get ready for the candy!

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

I used to be afraid of my serger.  I mean, I loved it and was so proud to have one (that I bought off Craigslist!)  It took me months before I even figured out how to use it.  I didn’t realize there were different stitch fingers, which changed my stitches from being wide to short or small enough to make a rolled hem.  It’s amazing how important those little manuals are.  I finally took a class because I knew there was so much more to my serger; I just didn’t know what! 

So, in celebration of National Sewing Month, dust off that serger, pull it out, and make this super simple project for a small child you know.  If you don’t have a serger, you can totally still do this project; I recommend that you use a walking foot if you have one to keep your fabric feeding through your machine properly.  As you may know, knit is stretchy, so you just have to be careful when sewing that it isn’t stretching.  Go slower than usual! 

Here’s the project:  recycle an old t-shirt and make pants out of it.  I’ve seen this before here and have always wanted to try it.  I hope you like my “serging” version!  It makes it all a breeze.

Here’s what you need:

Large old t-shirt
Pair of pants you want to make your pattern from
3/4″ non-rolling Elastic
Large safety pin
Ruler or measuring tape
Fabric Pen

1. Lay out your T-shirt flat.  Fold “sample pants” in half and lie on top of fabric, placing the bottom hem of the pants on the bottom hem of the t-shirt.  Trace a 5/8” seam allowance all the way around .  The top you want a 2” seam allowance for the waistband  Personally, I wanted the pants wider legged than my sample pants, so I just drew my line wider at the bottom.  Repeat on other side of t-shirt.

2. Cut out pieces.

3. With right sides together, using you serger or sewing machine, sew from the bottom of the leg to the crotch on both pieces.  DO NOT SEW THE CROTCH YET!!!

4. Now, turn one leg RIGHT SIDE OUT and one leg keep INSIDE OUT.  Put the RIGHT SIDE OUT leg inside of the other leg.  Yes, one leg should be inside the other leg, right sides together.  Make sure you line up the crotch all the way to the waist. 

5. Serge/sew starting at the waistband on one side, down toward the crotch, then up the other side—it looks like a big “U.”

6. Pull the inside leg out and you should see something resembling pants!  Serge all the way around the top of the waistband.  Then, fold the waistband over 2” and sew (I used a sewing machine for this) around, leaving about a 2” opening to insert the elastic.  ***If you do not have a serger do this:  first, fold over the waistband ½” and press, then over 1 ½” and press again.  Sew a seam close to the bottom of your fold, leaving the 2” opening to insert the elastic.  If you want to topstitch around the top of the waistband, now’s your chance!

7. Cut elastic.  General rule of thumb is the waist measurement minus 2”, but I would check it on your little one first!  Attach your very big safety pin to one side of your elastic, then feed the elastic through the waistband.  Sew the elastic back and forth several times to secure it. 

8. Finally, sew your waistband closed and viola! Pants!!

Have you started making your Halloween costume yet?

Congratulations to Lady Lala who was randomly selected as the winner of Free Stuff Friday and  the K&Company Trick or Treat Banner & Treat Bag Kit, Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Transfers and Treat Bags to create spooky home décor and frightfully fun craft projects!

The K&Company Spooktacular Treat Bags contains 12 Black paper bags, 12 die cut printed heads (Frankenstein, his bride, witch, monster, and skull), adhesive squares, “To/From” stickers, and small die-cut bats, pumpkins, candy corn, and stars. The K&Company Trick or Treat Spooktacular Banner makes 1 banner. This kit contains 56 total pieces, 11 background cards, letters for caption “Trick or Treat”, 2 skulls, 6 spiders, and more. It’s easy to make this cute & spooky Halloween banner!

With Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Transfers you can create crisp and festive designs on any number of sturdy surfaces. This set includes a variety of 18 transfers that include mouths, eyes, noses and other spooky icons. No carving required. Use Martha Stewart Mischievous Goodie Treat Bags to package your homemade treats for gifts and bake sales. Includes 12 bags, 12 seals and 2 sticker sheets. The bags are approximately 4 3/8″x 7″.

Lady Lala’s winning answer to “What is the coolest Halloween costume you’ve even seen” was…

“The costume that comes to my mind is actually two. In third grade, our two teachers dressed like a washer and a dryer. It was very creative and I still remember it.”

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

My daughter loves, LOVES a certain very expensive brand of kids shoes that feature sparkles and beading and flowers. She received a pair as a gift last year and wore them until they were so tight they made her feet blue. Alas we finally had to pass them on before her feet were permanently a size two! Ever since she has asked and asked for more “sparkly beady shoes!” and while I’d love to buy her some, they are a little more than I’m willing to pay for shoes for someone who grows several inches a year. Until her feet stop growing so fast, we had to find another solution. And when I ran across these little flowered shoes on the clearance rack the other day, I knew just what to do to satisfy my girls craving for sparkly beady shoes!

Here’s What You Need:

1 pair of tennis shoes  - preferably printed with flowers
Thin, sharp needle
Seed beads
Thread

Decide how you want to decorate your shoes. You can outline flowers, put beads in the centers of flowers or fill in individual petals or shapes. Stitch in and out through the fabric of the shoe at your starting point and tie off the tail. Slip one or two beads at a time onto the needles and stitch into place. Continue until you have enough of the shoe beaded to satisfy your own little sparkle fanatic (or until they can’t wait any longer to wear them!)

Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills.

It’s not quite October yet, but I’m still getting ready for Halloween! I made these very cute and very quick Halloween decorations with my Clover Pom-Pom Maker. Make some spooky spiders, friendly ghosts and Pumpkin decor out of yarn!

The Clover Pom-pom maker is quick and easy to use. Once you start making pom-poms your mind will start running with ideas on how to use them; they are just so fun. Watch the video below to see how to use the Pom-Pom maker.

For the Pumpkin pom-pom decoration, I used the large pom-pom maker with orange yarn. I used a green chenille stem for the pumpkin stem and curled it to make it cute. Lastly glue a small leaf on top.

I think the spiders are my favorite! I plan to hang these around my front door. To make the Spider pom-pom, make a large and a small pom-pom with black yarn. The small pom-pom is the head, and the large is for the body. Glue these together and add legs out of black chenille stems.  Glue wiggle eyes on last.

This blog post was adapted from a Project Sheet from Clover. Click here to see how to make the Friendly Ghosts!