Heart on a String

After the success of my last sewing project I was ready to tackle another one. Well....not exactly ready. It looked as though I may have broken my sewing machine after I was finished the bow tie project. And like any good sewer I had wrestled free the last thing I was trying to make, tossed it out, and stuck the sewing machine in a closet in the hopes it would think about what it had done and correct itself.

But I had this cute heart garland pinned for awhile and thought it would be a perfect project for a low skill sewer like me. I even had everything already on hand so it would be a no cost project. The only problem was that the sewing machine and I haven't talked since December and I was thinking it wouldn't be happy.

I was right.

My problem was threads that were getting pulled down and caught up in the lower bobbin area - which after extensive Googling I found out is called the birds nest. This is appropriate since every time I tried to sew something I ended up with a nest of threads wrapped around this whole area.

So I took everything apart, clean and oiled my machine, and re-threaded.

Same problem.

I adjusted the top and lower tension.

No difference.

I turned it off and left it sitting on the kitchen table to think about what it had done.

I think it laughed at me.

In a last ditch effort the next day I re-threaded it again adjusting how the top thread spool was
secured. And for some reason it worked.

Wrong

Right

 

Once I had everything working this project was unbelievably easy. The instructions here are great so I wont go over them all again.

Because I was working with stuff I already had around the house, and I don't follow instructions exactly, I did make some changes.

1. My strips were 2 inches wide - it worked better with my scrap pieces of felt and the size of felt balls I had (they were 1/4")

2. I didn't have a marking pen - so I just used a scrap of paper as a template to cut my hearts

3. I cut my heart to be 1/2 inch thick (instead on 3/4) - it just worked better with the smaller height and smaller felt balls


As I said before this was a super easy project and required basically no sewing skills. If you want to give this a try I would suggest the following

• Mark with a small dot where you will thread the hearts. When you are marking the cut lines (which would probably result is more uniform sizes then my template method) mark with a small dot where you will thread the hearts. you can mark on the inside - or the outside which will be covered by the felt ball. I eyeballed it and the hearts on my garland are a slightly different heights and depths.
• Using clear fishing line. I lost my fishing line (lost, because since I haven't been fishing in 20years I know I didn't use the enormous spool up) so I used while thread instead. I find this bunches and tangles a lot and is more noticeable.
• Make extra hearts. Since they are so easy to make you might as well make more while you are at it. I would have liked to have a longer garland but I already put everything away when I was stringing the hearts so just left it

I think this would be a great project for kids who are just learning to use a sewing machine. It is also a quick and easy project if you wanted to add some last-minute decorations - and would look great using a variety of colours and would be cute a decoration for a shower or birthday part (not just for Valentines Day).

 

Tie One On

This past Christmas I had 3 new boys in my life that I wanted to give something a little special to. I had saved this pin awhile ago - before any of the boys arrived - and thought it would be perfect!

This idea was too cute and it was something simple that I could make for them myself. And simple was important to me when it comes for sewing since my skills are less than perfect. By less than perfect, I mean that I have a hate-hate relationship with my sewing machine.





The first step was to gather everything I needed.

• 3 sets of onesies in different sizes (I was making 3 set for 3 different boys) so the little guys could grow into them
• Sew-on snaps
• Fabric and coordinating thread

For the fabric I purchased two stacks of coordinated fabric from Walmart.  I think they are meant for quilts - but there were perfect for this project. I went with a puppy theme (what little boy doesn't love puppies?) and a Christmas theme.



To make the bow ties I pretty much followed the instructions int he original pin.
I cut the fabric into a set of bigger strips (approx. 5" x 9") and smaller strips (approx 1"x 2") - in the end I could have made them a little smaller since I trimmed them down a bit after. The actual size can vary and will depend on the size of the shirt on onesie. Since I was  making them to fit on three different sized onesies I settled on a finished size of 4" x 2" and found it worked well.

The larger strips were folded in half length-wise (finished sides together) and sewn down the raw edge.


Fold length-wise and sew down raw edge

Finished bow ties were 4" x 2"

















Then I turned them right-side out and sewed the ends together. The same process is then followed for the smaller strips. These smaller strips need to be large enough to fit over the larger strips but small enough to to gather the material and give the appearance of a knot.


Sew ends together
 

Fold the larger strip to make it easier to slide the "knot" over

The longest part of this project was sewing the snaps onto the bow ties and onesies. If I make these again I would try to find grommet snaps to use instead - though the sew-on snaps will make it easier to move the snaps on the onesie or shirt over to a new one.

 

In the end this project turned out really cute.  And I only got into a few fights with my sewing machine.

 

In conclusion this was a simple and easy project, and everyone who receive one loved them. If you want to give this project a try here are a few tips:

1. As mentioned above I would suggest using grommet snaps if you are making multiple sets like I was
2. It is important for the spacing of the snaps to be the same for all of the bow ties on on the shits/onesies - measure and mark where the snaps will go when you can lie the large piece flat before you put the small "knot" on.
3. I placed the bow ties on the onesies a few inches below the collar so they would not be in the little guys faces and hopefully avoid some drips and spills.

Just Hanging Around

I mentioned before we were putting our house on the market. Well it has sold. It must have shown well, because we had an offer in less than 24 hours!

Getting the house ready to sell took about a month of finishing projects, cleaning, and de-cluttering. As you may know, one of the difficult things with getting a house show ready is making sure everything looks as clean and organised as possible while still trying to live there (i.e. you can't get rid of everything). So after we de-cluttered as much as possible I started to focus on organising.

Our house was not huge but we seemed to have enough for a family of 10 (instead of 2) so organisation has always been a goal and a focus of of some quick projects around the house, such as my pegboard broom closest and backpack storage. After a quick organising once-over through the house I decided to focus on organising the bedrooms and in particular my pile of jewelry that normally sits on top of my dresser. I had saved this pin awhile back and thought it would be a perfect solution.



Via: Tanya on Pinterest

I decided to take advantage of the unused space on the back of my closest door since when it is closed it hides everything away, but when it is open when I am getting ready it provides easy access to my accessories. I also knew people would be looking at the closest when viewing the house so I wanted something that would keep everything looking nice.

Luckily for me I had a small Grundtal bar and hooks in my basement from my last trip to IKEA (this is especially lucky since, as I mentioned before, the nearest IKEA is 3,000 km away). I had purchased it with my shelf that I used as curtain rod/plant stand with plans to attach it under my cabinet and use it to hold mugs for my coffee station similar to this - but never got around to it. If, like me, you do not have an IKEA near by the same look (probably even nicer) can be achieved will a towel bar and shower hooks.

Since this was a temporary solution (as we were planning to move) I decided to use 3-M Velcro mounting strips so I could remove everything when we left without leaving holes in the door.

Everything held up fine until I moved about two months later. I also added another jewelry holder below for some bracelets and other accessories.
Sorry for the poor picture - I only remembered to get this quick pic as I was packing the room.

Jewellery Storage

 I even decided to use it again at my new place.

 

 

This simple solution is great and gives me easy viewing and access to my necklaces and prevents them from getting tangled up or ending up a a pile on top of my dresser.