Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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.

By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills. Join Mable on Facebook to socialize and share with other crafters!

I love the homey feel of my throw pillows in my living room, almost as much as I enjoy using them. And as you can see, I’m not the only one who does! This is my dog Belle’s favorite nap spot.

I wanted pillows that were comfortable but not too soft that they looked sloppy on the couch. The Fairfield Pillow Forms are 100% polyester, making it soft and also hypoallergenic. Since I have down allergies, this is what sold me!

Since the pillow form has a zippered cover, you just have you add your decorative fabric, trims, buttons and any other pretty embellishments. I choose some Amy Butler printed fabrics that were bold, and a soft suede and a burlap material for my throw pillows.

After I cut out the material, and sewed 3 sides together, (with wrong sides together, but you probably know that) I pressed each of the 4th side seams in twice and used iron-on adhesive to finish the seam without any stitches. I added sticky back velcro to these inside flaps so I can take off the pillow case if I need to wash it. Since Belle uses the pillows so much, its really nice to be able to take off the pillow case to spot clean or use the lint roller on.

I made these a few months ago and wished I would have taken step by step pictures. This project started off simple, but once I found hypoallergenic pillow forms and sticky back velcro, it become much more than pillow cases. I added some large, Blumenthal buttons to the side of two of them, and then added a fabric flower to the other pillow. If you want some other ideas check out Pinterest. If you’re new to Pinterest, read this!

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

Knit fabric is great! At first I was afraid of it, but once I learned cool tricks, I fell in love. I had this great knit fabric sitting in my stash for 2 years so I decided it was time to pull it out and make something I would love.

So, I know this is kind of cheating, but I didn’t want to go through the process of making (or buying) a pattern. Instead, I simply copied a skirt I already knew I loved and fit me. So grab your favorite knit skirt—or technically, it could be any skirt—and get some newsprint or grab paper off your kids’ easel and let’s make a cute skirt/dress. Your skirt will have a roll-down waist. The dress option will be like a tube-top dress.

You need:

• Knit fabric—about 1 ½-2 yds
• Newsprint or pattern paper
• Pen
• Pins
• Scissors
• Thread
• ½” elastic—for dress option only

1. Trace the skirt onto your paper, minus the waistband.

2. Cut it out, then pin the pattern onto your fabric. Remember to add seam allowances: ½” on sides and bottom, and ¾” on the top.

3. Place right sides together and sew and/or serge side seams.

4. Make the waistband. To figure out the waistband, take your fabric, fold it in ½, and stretch it around your waist. Measure and cut a piece of fabric the width you want by about 20″.

5. Take your waistband fabric and fold the WIDTH in ½. Sew side seam.

6. Now, turn the fabric down so that you have a double thick circle. Only right sides should be showing.

You can see the skirt and the waistband in the following picture. The top of our skirt will have a wider circumference than your waistband. IT’S OKAY! It should be that way. You don’t want your skirt to fall off now, do you?!

Next, you are going to pin the unfinished end of your waistband to the top of your skirt by pinning the waistband INSIDE the right side of your skirt. It will look like this:

8. Sew and/or serge 3/4″ seam.

9. Now you have a skirt that with a roll-down waistband. If you want, hem the bottom. I left mine raw. Just because I could!

To Make it into a Dress:

Pull the waistband all the way up over your bust. It should stretch and feel comfortable. I added some ½” elastic around the top to add some extra support!

Ta-da!

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

Need a quick way to add a snap to a shirt or little wallet? Easier than sewing, I decided to try out this little snap fastener kit. I was a bit excited to try it out! Indeed, it was fun, easy, and cheap!

It comes with three different pieces you need to make a snap:

Once you figure out where you want to place your snap by marking your place, you load the clip with your clamp and snap. These are the 2 pieces you need to load for the first part:

Line up your clip with where you want it and hammer it a couple of times. (Actually, I used my rolling pin!)

Repeat the same process with the other part of the snap. This time, you need these 2 pieces:

After you clamp it down and hammer, you have your snap fastener ready to go!

September is National Sewing Month and CreateForLess is celebrating by giving you the chance to win.  Join the celebration of sewing by entering our National Sewing Month Drawing and also save at our National Sewing Month Sale. Save on all things Sewing!

Enter to win Here!

We want to know what you’ve been sewing lately, from adult and kid’s clothes to purses and home decor.  We’re going to have an online fashion show at CreateForLess!  Share your favorite sewing project, what you’re working on right now, a helpful sewing tip, anything you like! Enter here and you could win a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree! 

Enjoy some of the sewing projects from last year’s National Sewing Month Drawing.

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

When I first started out sewing, I was intimidated by every technique. After talking to a friend who is a novice seamstress, she shared that she did not know how to gather fabric. Since gathering is a technique used in so many patterns, it’s important to know how to do it. In addition, ruffles are on so many things! Ruffles are easy to make when you know how to gather fabric.

First, adjust your machine to make a long stitch, like a basting stitch. On my machine, I usually sew at a 2.5 for a regular length stitch; for basting or gathering, I adjust it to a 4 or 5. Longer stitches leave more fabric between each stitch, making it easier to pull the fabric together. It is also easy to pull these kind of stitches out, which is why we use them to temporarily sew fabric.

When you put your fabric under the foot to sew, simply sew a straight, long stitch about ¼” from the top. DO NOT BACK STITCH!

When you get to the end, make sure to leave plenty of thread on the end before cutting it off. Depending on your fabric, you may notice that just stitching it causes the fabric to bunch up. If you have a very light-weight fabric, you may want to gather to your desired length now. Do this by pulling on the bobbin thread. Make sure to even out the gathers all the way across. If you have a medium to heavy-weight fabric, don’t gather the fabric yet.

Now, put your fabric back under the foot—this time sewing about 3/8″ from the top. This is important! Remember how long stitches can pull out easily? They also break easily, which is why it’’ good to have 2 lengths of stitches before gathering. (Trust me: I learned the hard way.)

Take the bobbin thread and pull as you use your other hand to push the fabric together, making gathers.

Once you have gathered your fabric to the desired length, tie the ends of the thread so that it will hold your gathers where you want them temporarily.

Change your stitch on your machine back to its normal length (mine is 2.5).

Sew ½” or 5/8″ from the top. This time, you will want to back-stitch on each side. This will set the gathers where you want them. You will probably want to serge the edge off or zigzag along the top.

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

This is a very easy redo for a tote bag. All you’ll need for it is a t-shirt with a front or back you like, and a tote bag you’d like to dress up a bit. Your t-shirt front needs to be a little larger than the front of the tote.

First, flatten your tote bag so you can either draw around it to make a pattern, or cut around it, if you’re not worried about snipping an edge.

Now, lay your t-shirt out nice and flat. Put the pattern or tote on top of the tee, and cut, leaving ¼” to ½” extra all the way around to turn under. Turn under the edges to make the tee piece exactly the same size as your tote.

Most tote side edges are top-stitched or bound in seam binding. This makes them kind of separate from the body of the tote itself, which is why this is such an easy refurb. Starting at one upper corner of your tote bag, pin the tee piece right to that edge, and do a tight, close zigzag stitch all the way around.

That’s all there is to it–easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

(Note: My tee shirt front, as you may have noticed, was actually a bit short, so I let the hemmed lower edge be the upper edge, and blind stitched it across the top, rather than zigzagging. If you’re going to do that, make sure the shirt’’s design looks okay upside down!)