Gifts #13-15: Mother's Day

Devin's grandma whipped out this cool roll/muffin/biscuit-serving device while we were visiting and I thought it would be the perfect thing to recreate for Mother's Day.  So we traced hers onto some paper, marked where all the seams go, and I made three roll holders: for my mom, my mother-in-law, and my grandma.


Once again, I forgot to take pictures along the way.  But now I want one for myself, so when I make mine, I can do a whole tutorial.


Basically, the roll holder (anyone have a better name?) is made of three double-sided fabric circles.  I cut out all the circles from two different fabrics, then matched one blue with one pink and serged them together.  Serging in a circle, by the way, was very scary but not actually that hard.


Then I pinned the bottom two circles together and sewed three seams all the way across:

You can see the seams if you really really try, or just picture cutting a pie into six pieces.

Next I pinned the last circle on top and sewed six seams, each half-way in between the bottom seams.  Does that make sense?  These were only about 1/4 across the circle, and only through the top two layers.  If you think it's hard to understand, try actually doing it.  I had to undo a few stitches that accidentally went through all the layers.

These are easier to see.

Last, I sewed on two snaps, as shown above.  And the finished product:

See how that works?  When you snap it together, 12 little roll-hugging pockets pop up.  Pretty slick.

I didn't get to give my grandma hers in person, but I enjoyed both my mom's and my mother-in-law's puzzled faces when they opened their gifts.  "Oh, how cute... what is it?"

Cost:

2 yards each of two fabrics (with leftover): $14

6 snaps (part of a set at the dollar store): $1

Serger thread (given to me by my grandma just in time and in a perfect corresponding color): $0

Total: $15 or $5 each

I'm Back!

Wow.  We've had quite the little dry spell, haven't we?  Sorry about that.  Besides not giving many gifts lately, I've just plain been busy with other stuff.

First of all, I received a gift that was amazing, but made life hectic for a while.  I babysit for my friend who's a painter so this is how I get paid:

Before

After

I love my new kitchen!  I bet I spend twice as much time in there now, and I keep it much cleaner than ever before.  It is incredible what a difference some paint (and someone who knows how to do it right) can make.

Then, I made a little gift for myself.  I come from a family of musicians.  We used to perform together all the time, but now it's been a really long time - like 10 years.  We were invited to do a sort of reunion concert and so I had to wear something formal.  Only problem is, I'm pregnant.  Very pregnant.  So where do you get a formal maternity dress that isn't either a wedding dress or $400 (or both)?  NOWHERE!  Ok, on to Plan B: find a pattern.  Oh wait, those don't exist either.  So my very patient and generous mother, who has sewn many a dress in her day, went to work with me creating our own pattern (a combination of 3 or 4 existing patterns, plus some good ol' guessing).  We made the whole thing out of a sheet first, made easily over 50 changes, and then finally did the real thing.  It turned out great!  I can't believe how hard it was, and I kept saying that I would never sew again, but now that it's done, I feel pretty empowered and even kind of want to sew more stuff.  Anyway, here's what it looks like:

(The best picture of the dress happened to be a really bad one of my face, so I just cut it off.)

Please note that the pleat in the front allowed for me to make the dress ahead of time, not knowing exactly how fat I would be when I actually had to wear it.  I thought that was pretty smart of us.  In theory, this dress could look good at various stages of pregnancy.  Maybe even post-baby?  We'll see.

Anyway, these things, plus some others, have kept me far away from blogging and reading blogs.  My RSS Feed collection totals 508 new posts right now.  Scary.  But I do have a couple gifts to post, so stay tuned...

Gifts #7 & 8: T-Shirt Bows

Alternate Title: I'm in Love!

In 7th grade, I learned three valuable things, all of which came from the same class: Home Ec, or TLC, or whatever they called it.  The one where you do a bit of cooking, typing, sewing, and probably learn how to put together a resume.

1. I became proficient at ten-key, which turned out to be very handy four years ago when I got a job doing reports for a financial planning firm.  I still do those reports, by the way, and the ten-key is still handy.
2. I learned how to use a spreadsheet, that magical chart thing that was absent for so many years of my life.  One day I realized what Excel was and I haven't stopped making spreadsheets since.
3. I learned that the serger is the most incredible machine ever made.  Sergers were also absent from my life until very recently.  My grandma had one she never used, so she gave it to my mom, who didn't use it either.  She said if I could figure out how to thread the thing I was welcome to it.  It's been sitting in my attic for a couple months, just waiting until I had enough down time to try it out.

That down time came last night.  I searched online for a user guide or threading instructions or something, but I found nothing very helpful.  Remember, I hadn't touched one of these since I was twelve.  Just as I was losing hope, I stumbled upon a discussion board where someone mentioned a threading diagram on the machine itself.  Amazing!  Sure enough, it was there, clear as day, and I had the thing up and running in no time.

Once I got over my initial excitement, the motions started coming back to me and my lines got a little straighter.  The machine was even more wondrous than I had remembered.

The point is, I love the serger, and I used it to make these very easy hair bows that I saw on MADE.

I cut strips out of t-shirts in the throw-out pile, serged all the way around, and tied them in bows.  I secured them a bit with needle and thread, then slipped a contour clip in the back of each.

I cut slits in cardstock to hold the bows, stamped the girls' names, and  Ben was ready to go to his cousin Evelyn's birthday party.

We missed his other cousin Maggie's party a few days ago, so we brought her bows too.


Total cost: $0.33 for 4 contour clips ($1 for 12)

Mama Gift: Toddler Sheet and Pillowcase

I wanted Ben to have a boyish pillowcase, so last night I dug out some $2 fabric from a yard sale.  It was cut into two pieces, one of which was about perfect for a pillowcase.  So I just compared it to an existing case and sewed it up (with a 3" hem around the opening).  Piece of cake.  It took about 30 minutes, and I'm not even good at sewing.

When that was done, I thought it'd be a shame not to have a matching sheet, so I measured the other piece of fabric with my fingers crossed, and... well, apparently I had had this idea before.  It was already cut to 45" x 70" so I was ready to sew!  I followed this tutorial and soon had a darling little set.  I'm happy to report that I sewed with elastic all by myself (except while pinning it to the cloth - I borrowed two of Devin's fingers), which I had previously thought to be impossible.

By the way, do you have any ideas for that little dresser behind Ben?  It was a $7 thrift find last year.  I drilled holes and added knobs to the drawers, but it's always been strictly functional and I'd like to doll it up a bit.  Paint, cuter knobs, alphabet letters, ???  I don't know.  Anyone?

Gift #6: Jazz Lap Quilt

Preface: I am married to possibly the biggest Utah Jazz fan who ever lived.


Devin knew he was getting something homemade for Valentine's Day, and he (later) told me he wasn't convinced I could pull it off.  What could I possibly make that he would actually like?  Mostly he wants movies and expensive gadgets.


I was thinking the same thing...until I had the idea of making a quilt with Jazz fabric for him to warm up in while he watches the game.


This was my first time making a quilt, so I went the easy route and just slapped some batting between two pieces of cloth (thin cotton Jazz stuff on top, dark blue flannel on bottom) and sewed around the edges.  I did a second seam all the way around about an inch or so in from the edge to make sure the batting stayed put.  That way, when I tied it (with yarn from my stash), I didn't have to be too careful.  This is not a masterpiece, but it is long enough to cover Devin's always-cold feet, and he does love it.  See?

Ben yells at the ref while a very proud Devin looks on.

Total Cost (I'm not too happy about this): $30.19
I bought expensive thread for some reason, and I just didn't get great prices on the fabric.  The batting was 50% off, though.  If I'd planned better, I think I could have made this for a lot less.  It was a learning experience.

Gift #4: Charlie's I Spy

My son got one of these from his grandma for his 1st birthday.  It had too much filling so I opened it up a bit to take some out, and added a bunch more little things from Hobby Lobby while I was at it.  It's been a great church toy, and I think it will be even better when he gets old enough to keep track of the number of things he finds.


I told my friend Lindsey that I'd make one for her little boy Charlie.  That was probably a year ago.  I've had all these cool little items (tiny metal tools, plastic vegetables, buttons made to look like just about anything) sitting in a box ever since, just waiting for me to get my act together, which I finally did!


The window is a thin sheet of vinyl (hopefully not too thin), which I zig-zag-stitched to the flannel.  After that, I just filled it up with the trinkets and extra filling from last year, sewed the two pieces of fabric together and cut the edges into strips.  Voila!  Totally easy.  Totally not worthy of putting off for a year.  Oh well, at least it's done.  Now let's see how long it takes me to deliver it.


Cost:
Since I bought everything so long ago, I'm guessing here.  Most of the trinkets were from a $5 grab bag of buttons, etc., of which I probably used 5%.  The other, cooler things were doll house accessories, which can be a bit pricey.  Still, I only used a portion of what I bought, so I'm going to say $3 for those.  I did buy the vinyl and flannel, but used so little of it, that I'll just throw in another dollar for both.  So I'm guessing the total cost is about $4.25.  Not bad.  However, I haven't been able to find this filling anywhere, so had I not had extra on hand, I have no idea how much it would have cost.  They are little clear plastic balls, and they're a little bit squishy.  Does anyone know what this stuff is called or where to get it?