Upcycled Jeans Clothespin Bag

There's nothing like the smell of fresh towels and sheets dried on a clothesline! And here's a cute place to store your clothespins. This little craft will literally take you only 10 minutes to make...I swear!!

What you'll need:

an old pair of jeans

a plastic hanger

Mark where you want to cut the legs off with pins. Leave enough room to hold all your clothespins, then cut both legs off. Turn the jeans inside out, then cut out the crotch seam and sew the sides together on both the front and the back where the crotch had been. Sew a hem along the bottom to close off the bottom of the bag. Turn it right side out.

Now place the hanger in the waist and sew along the top at each side 2 or 3 inches to hold the hanger in place. If you are using larger jeans/larger hanger you may need to sew a bit more to hold it in place. (These were my daughter's "teenie" jeans 😒)

Open the zipper and fill the bag with clothespins. You can even tuck more in the pockets!

Face Mask Sewing Pattern

Well, it looks like we'll be wearing face masks for the foreseeable future because of the Covid19 pandemic. Might as well have some fun, use colours you like while being comfortable and safe.  

The pattern I used can be found here:
https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/

It's a great pattern especially for people who wear glasses. It gives step by step instructions and pictures, with sizes from kids to teens and women and mens. Easy peasy for someone like me who has little experience with sewing. I just wanted to show a couple of things that I did on the masks I made. 

I made this denim one with a channel for the nose wire made of the same material as the liner. And the denim is thick enough that no extra filter is required while still being breathable.

With the cotton mask I used extra wide double fold bias for the channel and I left an opening on the side where a coffee filter or paper towel can be slipped in for added protection.

And here's what I used for the nose wire...the wire band from the top of a  cookie bag. 

That's right! It works great, it's long enough to go across the nose and under the eyes and is easy to slip out when you wash the mask. You could also use pipe cleaner but I didn't have any  (I did however have plenty of cookie bags 😉)

So check out the original pattern, this is just my added two cents 🙂😷

Repurposed Sleep Mask to Face Mask

If you have a sleep mask it can be repurposed to use as a face mask. I'd first off like to say I don't usually sew and am not good at it. So if you do I'm sure you can do a better job than me.
But here's the gist of what I did and sorry I didn't take any in progress pics but you'll get the idea.

I used a piece of cotton 8 X 16" folded in half or you could use 2 - 8 X 8" squares. The thickness of the material really doesn't matter as you have the thickness of the sleep mask as protection.
Sew the raw edges together on 3 sides (inside out if you have a good side/bad side of material) and turn it right side out.
Sew a pocket or channel across the top. This will hold a wire to squeeze over your nose.  Next sew a few pleats so that the finished piece will be about 3.5" deep.

Sew the top onto the top of your sleep mask with just a bit extending over the top. Tack the bottom corners of the mask onto the bottom corners of the sleep mask. Don't sew right across the bottom or the pleats won't open up as easily.

For the nose piece wire I used the top closure of a cookie bag which is ideal, but if you don't have that a pipe cleaner or a large paper clip straightened out could work as well. Slide your wire through the pocket.

And fold the end over the outside edge. You will be able to remove it when you want to wash the mask.

You may need to adjust the sleep mask elastics to fit the mask snuggly on your face.
And there you have it.... sleep mask to face mask. And if you still need to use it as a sleep mask just pull it up over your eyes 😀
Happy sewing!

Handmade Custom Dog Scarves

Choose your favourite patterned materials and start whipping up a bunch of stylish scarves for your best friend!

Sizes:
Small dogs - 14" square
Medium dogs - 18" square
Large dog - 22" square
Ex-large dogs 26" square

A 22 X 22" square folded in half or 2 triangles with 32" on the long side fit my 50 lb boxer/sharpei baby with an almost 20" neck. Remember when deciding on a size you need a little extra for tying.

Fold the square over to form a triangle or place two triangles (with coordinating patterns) good side in and sew along the edges. Leave an opening of about 4" so you can get your hand in and turn it right side out.

Trim extra off the edges and snip the corners so there is less bulk in the corners then turn it out and sew all the way around.

Gotta go make a pile of these!

Upcycled Denim Placemats with Matching Table Napkins

Spring cleaning and finding a pile of jeans you don't/can't wear anymore? Deconstruct them into re-useable parts. Once you start snipping away sort into like piles...pockets, seams, waistbands and lengths of material. Iron before sewing.

This isn't a pattern and I'm in no way a seamstress but I'll just show you what I did. I'm sure you can sew better than I.

I cut the useable pieces of material into squares and rectangles then sewed them together, sometimes leaving a hem or seam for interest. Trimmed them to just a bit larger than the size I wanted the placemats to be.

I sewed a pocket on the right-hand side for the cutlery and napkin because I think it's cute. But there was also a practical reason. When my husband sets the table he can never remember where the knife goes, where the fork goes. Now I just say "stick them in the pocket!"

Once that was done I cut some cotton for the backs and I also cut some old towels (I seem to have alot of those!)  the same size as the denim patchwork.

Sewed them together and trimmed the sides. My poor old sewing machine had some trouble here but we got the job done.

I sewed over each seam throughout the placemat to keep the layers together (sort of like quilting I would imagine)

Next, the bias tape edging.
This is where I had the most difficulty...figuring out how to make the corners with the bias tape. This is what I came up with, don't know if it's the correct way but it worked for me.

Then I made the coordinating table napkins.
Using the same material as the backs of the placemats, I cut 18" squares and folded and pressed a 1/4" hem all around.

Then folded 1/4" again and sewed all around.

So, here are the finished placemats and napkins,

A little puckered and pulled but still cute for very casual dining I think 😕

And everyone knows where the cutlery goes!

Here's a use for those denim seams...

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2018/05/recycled-denim-wrap-bracelets.html

DIY Bolster Pillow in Blue

This is a sturdy bolster ideal for use at the top of the bed in place of a headboard.

Unfortunately, my old sewing machine is in the basement so pics are a bit dark.  This isn't a pattern just how I created this bolster. 

I took a wooden dowel the width of the bed and wrapped it with pillows end to end. I used three of them.  Hand stitch them together with heavy-duty thread if you have it.

I didn't want one solid colour bolster across the top of this queen sized bed so I sewed 3 equal sized pieces of material together with the patterned one in the middle the same as the intended ends.

I wanted the bolster to fit edge to edge on the bed so this finished piece measured the width of the bed.

Added some ribbon for accent over the seam.

I took my contrasting material and cut two pieces for each end the width of half the rolled butt end of the bolster and the length of the short end of the white. Sewed the patterned material to the white. (I hope this is making sense!)

Next, measured 1" and sewed a pocket on each end. That's where it will be cinched closed. 

Sewed up the long edge of the bolster cover, but stopped at the pocket. Didn't want to stitch it closed!

Once it was all sewn up I pulled the cover up over the bolster. It's snug.

I took a piece of ribbon long enough to tie up at the end, and pinned a safety pin to the end making it easier to feed the ribbon through the end pocket.

Then tied the ribbon into a bow...

And that's it!

If you'd like a softer bolster that could be used as a draft stopper pillow check out my post called Red Room Makeover with DIY Bolster Pillow

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2018/01/red-room-makeover-with-diy-bolster.html

Red Room Makeover with DIY Bolster Pillow

We made over a couple of bedrooms last winter. I finally got around to posting what we did.  Here's our red room.

Single mate's bed...some of the knobs on the drawers drooped and wouldn't tighten anymore and the black leatherette upholstered headboard had to go. 

The biggest job was removing that old parquet flooring and replacing it with tongue and groove..... I didn't document that part of the job here but you'll see the end result.

To make the bolster I took an old comforter and rolled it up tightly. I found it wasn't big enough for what I wanted as it was an old and flimsy comforter so I rolled up a couple of old tablecloths inside too. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Anyways, I took a piece of material the length of the intended bolster. This was before I cut the red checkered material even with the end of the comforter.

I took a contrasting material (red here), the width of half the rolled butt end of the comforter and the length of the short end of the checkered. Sewed the red to the checkered.

Next measured 1" and sewed a pocket on the end of the red. That's the pocket where it will be cinched together.

Sewed up the long edge of the bolster cover, but stopped at the pocket so it didn't get stitched closed.

Once it was sewn I gathered it up like you would a long sock or pantyhose, put one end of the bolster in and pulled the cover up.

Took a piece of ribbon, or in this case bias tape long enough to tie up at the end, and pinned a safety pin to the end. Fed the safety pin through the end pocket and tied the ribbon into a bow.

(I know, I should have used red thread, we'll just say I used white so you could see it better in the pics, lol)

I used some of the checkered material to make over the old roller blind.

Here's my link for how I did it:

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2016/01/easy-roller-blind-makeover.html

We had an old brass bed headboard that gave the old mate's bed that daybed look, changed the drawer pulls to brass to match the headboard.

Oh, and there's a peek at the new floor!

This bolster is soft and could also be used as a draft stopper pillow. For a more sturdy type bolster check out my DIY Bolster Pillow in Blue here:

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2018/01/diy-bolster-pillow-in-blue.html