Coming Monday : "Blooming Blogs" Blog Hop

  So excited to announce that Ashley over at The Latest Find and I here at Pincushion Creations are going to be hosting a "Blooming Blogs" Blog Hop starting on Monday, March 5th---March 12th.    We are trying to keep this blog hop be for the new follower trends...."Link Followers" & "Blog Lovin" since Google Friend Connect will be ending later this month!  We hope a bunch of you will link up!  One of our favorite things about blogging is meeting new friends and fellow crafters!  We would love to meet a bunch more of you!

Ruffled Tin Pincushion

I love to sew!--- gasp, you never knew that right? :) Well, with lots of sewing comes lots of pins. And to hold those pins you need a PINCUSHION!  There are a zillion and one ways you can make a pincushion.  Type in pincushion on Pinterest and you could be busy for hours!  When I make something, I like to be able to use what I already have AND something that can be be used for more than one purpose.  That's why I decided to make a TIN pincushion--it can hold pins on the top and my bobbins or other things in the container part.

Materials:

Tin

Ribbon

Batting (You could use Pillow stuffing too)

You can find these small little tins/containers in almost every craft store.  They come in all different sizes too!

For my ruffled ribbon, I took a long piece of ribbon about 18-24 inches long ( I actually had this piece laying around from a previous project so I'm not exactly sure what the measurements were)

Sew a straight line down the middle of your ribbon. Stop every few inches and fold up your fabric and continue to sew.

When finished, it should look something like this :

I then hot glued my ribbon to the tin.  TIP: Make sure you decide where you want your ribbon AFTER you put the lid back on.  Yep, I started to hot glue and thought "I probably placed it too high," I put the lid on and you guessed it, it was covering the ribbon...and hot glue is not super easy to peel off..UGH!

Continue to hot glue your ribbon around your tin.  I stopped about every 2 inches and added hot glue so the ribbon wouldn't slide around.

Hot glue a ball or pieces of batting to the top of you lid.  Make sure the batting sits high, so when you put your pins in they don't just go straight to the tin.

Cut a piece of fabric that's at least twice as big as your lid

Place your lid on the wrong side of your fabric and begin hot gluing it around the rim.

Trim the excess fabric.  Hot glue a piece of ribbon to the bottom of the lid.

Enjoy your new pincushion!

Happy Crafting!!

This would be a perfect project for you to make to get ready for my new "Sew Simple" series coming soon!

If you have any specific questions, projects or tips you want to learn please either leave a comment or send me an email!

Get ready to link up your blogs to the "Blooming Blogs" Blog Hop coming on Monday March 5th!    Hosted by Me @ Pincushion Creations and Ashley over at The Latest Find

Easy Chic Tote with Wooden Handles

Don't forget to link up your projects at my

{ Homemade By You } link party going on RIGHT NOW.

Spring is coming!  I love spring! I got married in the spring. Two years later, I had our baby boy in the spring.  I love how spring is a symbol of new life/new beginnings.  Out with the snow and in with the flowers!

Now, being the typical girl that I am I couldn't get excited about new beginnings without wanting to have a NEW bright tote to carry around and share my cheerfulness with!  This tote is super simple...( I know, I sound like a broken record, I seem to say that alot, but really--this is simple!)

Material:

Two wooden handles

1/2 yard--3/4 yard Fabric

( I used the Home Decor fabric because its heavier, but cotton fabric would work great too)

Sewing Machine

( I cut a rectangular piece that was about 18 in. x 32 in.--this made a decent size bag/tote.--

Serge/Zig Zag all four sides of your fabric

Fold your fabric right sides together in half, bringing your bottom piece up to meet the top.

Place a pin about 8 inches from the bottom.  Sew up to the pin.        

                             

Press your side seams out.  The top should form a "V" shape

Sew along the "V" Shape

Sew a basting stitch at the top of your bag and gather ( Do this to both sides)

Turn your bag so the wrong side a.k.a. ugly side is facing you and lay your wooden handle down.

Fold your fabric over your wooden handle about 2 inches. Pin in place and sew. ( Before you sew make sure the front and back side are equal)

Enjoy your new bag!!

A NEW BLOG HOP IS COMING ON MONDAY!

A new series is coming soon too! ( If any of you beginner sewers have any specific questions, projects or tips you would like to learn, I would love for you to either leave a comment, or send me an email!)

 

{ Homemade By You } Link Party # 3

YAY!! It's wednesday!  It's the middle of the week and it's time for a new "Homemade By You" party!  Thanks again for all of you wonderful crafters who linked up last week! You are all so talented and I really enjoyed looking at all your projects.

It was so hard to just choose a few, but check out some of these awesome tutorials

and send them some love!

Felt Pom Poms from The Winthrop Chronicles

Doodle Art from Sensible Nonsense

Scrabble Tile Coasters from Pops & Podge

Burlap Wreath from Made In A Day

I am so excited to see what you have all been working on:

Just Three simple rules:

1. Follow my blog and grab my button
2.  Link to a specific tutorial, tip, craft, recipe, etc, not just to your homepage

2. Comment on some of these other bloggers links and follow them... Lets share the love ladies :)

<center><a href="http://www.pincushioncreations.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Pincushion Creations" src="http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh637/pincushioncreations/7243_-_Polka_dot_-_sky_blue_background.jpg"/></a></center>

Featured Guest: Stepha @ Ol' Mother Hyder

Today I want to introduce you to a new friend of mine, Stepha, who blogs over at

Ol' Mother Hyder ( I love meeting new friends through this crazy blogging world!) 

{Family Pic}

Stepha has wonderful talents, if you are totally in love with the new look of my blog, Thank Stepha!  She created the banner and matching background. Isn't she great!!  I asked Stepha if she could tell me a little bit about herself and one of her favorite projects...this was her response:

"I love to crochet and learned to do that via YouTube. I have some examples of what I made free hand under the DIY tab. And, my utmost passion is my photography. I have never had classes and it is DIY too. I do not even use a DSLR camera. And, this passion and my style has got me far in my little community that I live it. ;) I try to bake and make up recipes."

"One of my most favorite projects that I did recently, was the picture frame with felt flowers. I did this as a gift for my aunt and uncle for Christmas. In our family we do not really give gifts. We adopt a family that does not have anything or means to get anything during that season. We provide all three meals for them for a whole week and buy all their gifts so they have something on Christmas morning. When we are with our family on Christmas Eve and morning we hand out what we made for each other. This frame was something I made and they LOVED it!

Here is the link to that post: Flower Felt Fun"

Thanks Stepha for being such a good, new friend!  Isn't it so refreshing to meet someone
who cares more about others during the holiday season rather than themselves! 

I hope you will head over to Stepha's site and follow her and her sweet family!

Lined Zipper Pouch

Don't forget to Link up THIS WEDNESDAY at my "HOMEMADE BY YOU" link party!

 So many people have a sewing machine, but don't sew because they think sewing is too complicated.  Sewing can seem scarey and super tedious, but it's really not.  Once you get started and get a few of the basics down, you will be suprised by how many projects you can do.  To prove to you that sewing can be fun and easy, I am going to show you how to make a lined zipper pouch!  For some reason, zippers seem to scare people, but I promise you this is sooo simple!

Supplies:

Fabric

Lining Fabric

Zipper

*My Zipper was 7 inches long, so I based my measurments around the zipper.  You can adjust your measurements to fit the size zipper you have. *

Cut out two square piece of fabric for the main part of your bag.  I wanted my bag to have a contrasting section in the middle.  So I cut 3 bands that were 8 in. X 3 in. If you don't want the contrasting band in the middle just cut out two square pieces that measure 8 in. X 9 in.

 

Place your contrasting band piece on top of one of your other band pieces. (Right sides together)

Sew as close to the edge as possible.

Press your seam towards the darker fabric.

Repeat the previous steps with the other band piece

When finished you should have two finished pieces.

 Place your zipper facing down on the edge of your fabric.  .

Place one of your lining pieces on top of the zipper.

Make sure the right side (pretty side) of your fabric is facing down.

Unzip the zipper part way down. ( This will make it a little easier when sewing) Pin in place.

Using your zipper foot, sew down the length of your fabric. The edge of your zipper foot will butt up next to your zipper allowing you to get a close stitch.

Sew down a few inches, stop and zip your zipper back up. Continue to sew the length of your pouch.

You should end up with something looking like this....

Put your lining piece behind your main fabric.

Repeat the previous steps with your other main piece and lining piece of fabric.

After your sew on both sides your pouch should look like this...

UNZIP YOUR ZIPPER HALF WAY.....THEN...take your two main pieces and put them right sides together.  Do the same with your lining pieces.

Sew all four sides of your bag. When sewing the bottom lining piece, make sure you leave about a 2 inch opening to pull your bag through in the next step

Turn your bag right side out and sew your opening closed.

Put your lining inside your pouch and your finished. 

 Now seriously, wasn't that soo simple?? I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Thanks so much for reading! Happy Crafting!!!