(no subject)

[pseudonymeter.livejournal.com]

various wire wrapped key pendant necklaces
( larger )

Contest #2 - Recycle/upcycle

[ilea.livejournal.com]

New themed contest! 'til 7/3/12 @11:59 pm central we'll be running a little contest over here. To enter you make a craft that fits the theme of recycle/upcycle, post it and tag it contest#2. Each post will get you one entry and as an added bonus if you post a tutorial with your craft you'll get 2!!! extra entries. I'm going to toss everyones names in a jar and on 7/4 a winner will be randomly chosen by toddler.

What could you win?? $20 gift card to the craft store of the winners choice provided that the card can be bought online.

Don't forget that the craft must fit the theme of recycle/upcycle and the post must be tagged with contest#2 or I won't know to put your name in the jar!

Good luck and happy crafting everyone!

Closed! Our winner is: itrain

Needle holder books and a cross stitch magazine destash.

[lindapendant.livejournal.com]

I stitched these felt needle holder books over the last few days.



Also, I have 10 Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch magazines which include several patterns in each issue that I would like to give away. Many of these are Christmas and Halloween themed, there is one for Easter, one for Valentine's day, and one sort of general edition. If you would like them, I'll send them to you if you pay for shipping from Canada. I would prefer not to have to mail to 10 different locations, so only those who want several issues should contact me.

( Photos of a few of the magazines plus one more needle book are here )

Mason Jar Lanterns

[taleofaredhead.livejournal.com]

( Right this way! )

hand towel bibs

[rubygloomrox.livejournal.com]

I took some hand towels that we rarely use anymore, as well as a couple I found at thrift stores, and I made a bunch of baby bibs.
( Pictures are under a cut )

I also have some I have simply decorated with leftover ribbon. I looked at several different tutorials for towel bibs, and put a few ideas together from each for what works best for me. I kept the work to a minimum where I could, since I ended up embroidering a lot of them. Decorating with ribbon is even easier, though. I took the hand towel, and using a cd, I traced where the hole for the head would go. I made sure the front was longer but that there would be room in the back to go over the shoulders. I then took some old t-shirt scraps I saved, and I made tubed ribbing. I cut the strips about 13" long by 3.5"-4" wide. I wasn't super exact, I just wanted them wide enough that it would be easy to turn them. I then sewed them together lengthwise. After that, I turned them right side out. You can do this with ribbing fabric, but I just happened to have old t-shirts so it was double the recycle for me. Once I had them in a tube, I sewed the edges together to make it easier to work with. Then I pinned them all around the circle (the right side) I'd cut out of the towel. Pin pin pin! You should have to tug the ribbing a little to make it fit all the way around. I don't serge, as some tutorials suggest, nor did I divide mine into fourths, as most of them suggested. I just used the trusty zig zag stitch and went all the way around it. Sew somewhat slowly, as you want to pull the ribbing taut here and there so that you have it fit right once it is sewed on. 

Sorry it's not such a great tutorial. I'd have taken pictures in steps had I known I'd be entering a craft contest. But as I mentioned, I googled the tutorials and took a little information from several different places to see which one worked for me. These are super useful bibs, and long lasting. Even though it's all recycled, (and sometimes because it's all recycled,) people are always really happy to get these as baby shower gifts.