Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

My goal was to create a few simple pieces that would work together to make a cohesive, warm & cozy Thanksgiving table. Each project was designed to take less than an hour. I first made the Wine Glass Charm, then a Holiday Votive, and last week I showed you how to make a Thanksgiving Table Runner. In continuing with our theme, here’s a simple way to add decor and mark your wine bottles.

You need:

• Burlap
• Thread & sewing machine
• Leather cord
• Felt
• Leaf Template (Google “leaf template” and choose 1!)
• Scissors
• Crafter’s Glue or Craft/Button Thread & Needle
• Cut 2: 3 ½ x 3″ pieces of burlap for each wine bottle

Cut 2: 9″ strips of leather cord for each wine bottle.

Sew a seam all the way around your burlap, just to keep it from unraveling.

Fold top over ½” on each piece. Sew a seam close to the edge.

Thread leather cord through top of each piece of burlap.

Cut 1 leaf out of felt. If desired, hand embroider “Merlot” or “Pinot”, etc., as appropriate on leaf.

Attach leaf to outside of burlap by either a) using Crafter’s glue OR b) hand stitch it together.

Tie leather cords together on the sides and slip over wine bottle.

Project 4: Complete! Bring on the food.

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

Day 3:  The Table Runner or Banner

You have table cloths, so why not just use what you already have and make it more special with a handmade runner? You don’t need a sewing machine for this one; all sewing is done by hand.

You Need:

• Felt
• Scissors
• Craft/Button Thread
• Needle
• Pins
• Fabric Pencil (optional)
• Leaf Template or Cookie Cutter (optional)

If you want, google “leaf templates” and you will have plenty of options to print for this project. You will need a bigger leaf and then littler football-shaped leaves. I used a Wilton leaf cookie cutter for my template.

Cut leaves out of felt. I used 10 “big” leaves and 6 “little” leaves. However, you can make as many as you want to make it longer, shorter, or fuller.

If desired, you can hand embroider words that represent what you are thankful for (i.e., family, friends, faith). If may be easiest to use a pencil to draw the word you want, then hand stitch over the top.

Lay out leaves in the order you like and pin together.

Using a running stitch, sew leaves together. It’s helpful to occasionally lay it out to make sure it’s straight!

If you want to make it a banner instead of a table runner, stitch a piece of hemp cord onto the ends and hang.

Project 3: Complete!

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

Day 2:  The Votive Holder

I think it’s really pretty when each setting has its own small candle. There are 2 ways you can make a simple candle really pretty for your table. The first involves a small amount of sewing; the other does not. Choose your favorite, or judge how much time you have a go for it!

You need:

• Burlap
• Felt
• Cheese cloth (or gauze)
• Hemp Cord
• Crafter’s Glue
• Scissors
• Crafting/Button Thread
• Needle
• Thread & sewing machine (for sewing option)
• Votive Holders (I used prefilled votive holders)

Option 1: Sewing option

Measure your votive holder.

Cut a piece of burlap that will fit around the holder, just barely overlapping. Cut for as many votive holder as you have or will need for each place setting

Cut a long piece of gauze that is the same height as the burlap you cut. Cut the number you need for each votive holder.

Using a basting stitch (long stitch), sew down the middle of your long pieces of gauze. It should gather easily. If you need more gathers, pull on the bobbin thread to create more gathers. Repeat for each piece.

Place the gauze on top of the burlap, centering it, making sure they are the same length. Sew a regular-length stitch through the middle to attach the gauze to the burlap.

Using your crafter’s glue, attach your burlap pieces to the votive holder.

Option #2: No-sew option

Measure your votive holder.

Cut a piece of burlap that will fit around the holder, just barely overlapping. Cut for as many votive holder as you have or will need for each place setting

Using the same measurements, cut the same number of pieces of gauze. Fold top of gauze over ½ way down.

Using your crafter’s glue, attach the burlap to the candle holder. After it dries, place the gauze on top of the burlap. To make it stick, use glue sparingly.

For Both Options:

Use the tutorial from the wine glass charms to finish the votive holders. The only difference will be that you will need a little long hemp cords to tie around the votive holders. After you’ve tied your leaf charm on the holders, you’ve completed Day 2!

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

Day 1: The Wine Glass Charm

Let’s be honest: we love crafting. Finding the time to do it all is a challenge. My goal was to create a few simple pieces that would work together to make a cohesive, warm & cozy Thanksgiving table. If you have an hour a day for four days, you should be able to complete them all!

You’ll need:

• Hemp Cord
• Craft/Button Thread
• Needle
• Felt—different colors; I used red, green, dark brown, light brown, and yellow
• Scissors
• Leaf Template, if desired

Cut “football shaped” leaves out of felt. (I just made my own by “eyeing” it. You can also google “Leaf Templates” and there are plenty of options you can print!) You’ll need 2 for each wine charm, so if you want to make 8, then you need 16 leaves. Also, another project will use the leaves, so cut more if you have time!

Cut 6″ pieces of hemp cord, 1 for each glass.

Put 2 leaves together, one over lapping the other. Using your threaded needle, hand stitch the hemp cord onto the back of the leaves. Basically, you only need to make a tight loop around it, and put your need through it a couple of times. This should hold it steady.

Repeat for as many glasses as you will need.

Project #1: Complete!

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog Coffee Pot People.

My daughter firmly believes in aprons, and wears one whenever she cooks. “What is it with people, Mom? Don’t they like their clothes?” she asked me one day. Good question!

So let’s just assume that if you cook, you need an apron. But what if you don’t have the time, inclination, or skill to sew one up? No worries! Just grab a length of ribbon, pair of scissors, and a café curtain, and you’ll have an apron in no time.

All you need to do is thread your ribbon through the loops or casing of a curtain panel and tie it around your waist, and the best thing is, these aprons will stretch out or scrunch up to fit just about anyone.

Now, I will show you one little thing. One of the panels I chose to make an apron from had its casing several inches from the top. If I’d used the casing, it would have created a “paper bag” waist, which would have been very pretty, I think, but the apron would have been too short for me. (Perfect for a child, though!) If you run into that, check to see if the fabric at the top is doubled. If it is, you can just cut a slit through the inside layer for your ribbon, like so:

Here’s that apron, which is gathered very full. I may cut some of the panel off, which is another plus—these aprons are easy to alter.

I really like this last one, which strikes me as pretty enough to wear for company. (Remember “company aprons”? Let’s bring them back!)

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

It’s time to start warming up those extremities.  I made these warmers for my daughter, but you can use the same steps to make them adult sized. This retro cold-weather accessory is a hot trend this fall. Accessorize with these cute warmers!

You Need:

• A pair of long socks
• Thread
• ¼” or ½” elastic
• Embellishment (if desired)

Take your long socks and cut the feet off the socks.

Turn sock inside-out. Fold unfinished ends ½”, then another 1″. Sew a ¼” seam around, leaving about 1″ opening to insert elastic.

Measure the circumference of the top of the sock, and cut a piece of elastic that measures the same. Insert the elastic through the opening using a safety pin to help thread it through the enclosure. Sew the elastic ends together. Sew the opening closed.

Embellish, if desired. I made bows and tacked them on in three places.

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog Coffee Pot People.

This is the time of year for costumes, which is good for me. I never did outgrow loving to play dress-up, and I just love creating costumes. But what do you do when you need a costume in a hurry?

The costume at the top is one solution, and got a lot of laughs at our recent Cousins’ Night Out. We were supposed to dress in “French costumes”. Have you figured Mama and me out yet?

We’re French Fries, complete with the fry baskets!

If you want to go as an order of fries, or let one of the kids do it, these are the “ingredients”:

• A red hat and scarf for “catsup”
• Tan pants and turtleneck for the “fry” part
• A plastic basket from the dollar store, with the bottom cut out. (You’ll be surprised how small a basket “fits”, I bet!) To put it on, just step in and squiggle it up until it hits a comfortable “staying” spot.
• Last step, for extra fun: Get two catsup packets from your local fast food joint, poke holes in the flat edge at the top center of each one, and hang them from earring wires.

This was a fun costume to put together and wear, and we even took first prize–for sheer creativity!

Want a couple more quickie costume ideas?

This one came to me just today, as I was cutting and rolling sheets of bubble wrap to take to a local non-profit: Wear white pants and tee, wrap yourself from head to toe in big-bubble bubble wrap, and go as a bubble bath! Make a cap of the stuff, and “accessorize” with a washcloth or back brush. Just be careful if you sit down, lol!

Another one, a little more time-consuming, but fun, is to go as a Rubik’s cube. I did this for one of my girls when she was about eight. First, get a cardboard box big enough to go from the neck to the top of the thighs. If it’s more or less a cube, that’s great, but it doesn’t have to be. Cut construction paper into rectangles or squares the right size to make three rows of three squares across, in six different colors, then glue them randomly on the sides and top of the box. (Yes, it’s an unsolved cube. Never could put those things back right, myself.) Cover with clear self-stick vinyl (such as Contac paper) to make them shiny. Cut holes for the head and arms.

Another costume I created for one of my girls when she was maybe six was a caterpillar. I took a velour turtleneck she already had and lengthened it with wide bands of velour until it was an ankle-length tube. Then I went to the thrift store and bought six or seven pairs of the teensiest baby shoes (fabric type) that I could find, and safety pinned them in a double row down the front of the tube to be her caterpillar feet. We topped her off with an antennae head-band, and painted her face one of the colors of her costume, with bright lips, and a big polka dot on each cheek.