Thursday, March 10, 2011

Look Mom No Hands! Button Hole Magic!


I've been promising Kayla a video of my Juki E-61 and its amazing button-hole abilities.  Here it is!  Enjoy!



Warm Winter Headband

My friend gave me a great crocheted headband for my birthday.  I think it is super cute, and seeing as how I have an abundance of satin flowers hanging around and a healthy scrap pile, I thought I'd give try to make my own version.  I didn't take pictures of the original headband, or of the process.  If anyone wants to make one, let me know and I can make a tutorial.  Here's what I ended up with:




Here's just the headband (and my messy desk):

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Satin Flower Headband

I had a burst of inspiration thanks to Jill at Made it on Monday. I thought I'd make one and I LOVE IT! So, of course, I'm going to make a TON! Here it is!


I made one and it was pretty simple, but I thought I'd put together a tutorial for this.
I bought polyester satin, polyester is good, because it melts when burned.
First, I folded the fabric into 3 or 4 inch folds. 
Then, I cut it into 3 or 4 inch squares.

Then, I folded each square in half and in half again to make a small square, then I folded it diagonally and lined the edges of the squares.  This is the way to fold if you want very circly circles.  I don't think the circles need to be perfect for this, I think it might be better if they aren't.  For the bigger circles, fold it this way.  For the smaller circles, I cut the big square into 4 small squares, and folded it the same way to cut the circles.
 
For the different sizes, I eyeballed it to get the correct sizes. 
I aimed for about 1/4" or 1/2" difference between layers.

Then, I got out my lighter and seared the edges.  The way that worked best for me was to have the shiny side toward the flame.  Otherwise, the fabric might curl out instead of in.  For the smaller circles, you might want to hold the fabric with tweezers.
 
Sear the edges of all the circles and stack them up on each other.
I didn't use glue to hold them together, I just sewed the center together and then sewed on the the button.  If I had any, I would have sewn a little circle of felt on the bottom.  This would make it easier to attach to the headband.
For the headband, I bought 1/4" braided elastic.  I don't have a measuring tape with me here, but I got it to a comfortable size around my head and sewed the ends together.  This is a lot easier than I thought it would be.  After I sewed the ends together I attached  the flower to the seam of the headband. 
Here's the finished product!