Appleton Dance

I attended the American Sewing Expo, Inc. in Novi last month and one of the take-away projects was a very cute cell-phone pouch that uses a clever construction method that I found interesting. I’ve made several of the pouches for relatives and decided to make a few for holiday gifts for friends. The project was made at the Janome overlock site at the expo, but I have been unable to find the pattern online, so I have introduced my own ammendments, rewritten the instructions and taken photos of my own process for this post. Since I’m going to make many pouches, the first thing I decided to do is make-up a kit for each pouch. Here are the contents of each kit. ( Note: I will add more photos, but I decided to put up the directions with incomplete photos for now. LT) Each kit includes: Materials Five (or six) pieces of fabric each 4.5 x 9 inches: One pouch front (or two pieces to make two-tone front using back fabric, or another coordinate or contrast fabric One pouch...

Pyramid Pouch I recently wanted to make a gift bag for some Troll beads I gave to Alisa for her birthday and thought of the Pyramid Pouch I posted in this blog several years ago . When I went to the post I discovered that I had linked to a source for the description of how to make the pouch, but the directions were not very clear, so I thought I’d do the how-to with photos for this blog to make assembly easier. You can make the pouch in whatever size you like, as long as you begin with a piece of fabric twice as long as it is wide and with a zipper that is as long as your fabric width. For example, if your fabric measures 8 x 4 inches, you need a zipper that is 4 inches long. The seaming is very simple, but hard to describe. The pouch has only three seams: bottom, side, and zipper installation.   I’ve done my best to describe the process below, but you may wish to practice with a piece of paper and tape a few times to get the overall picture before beginning to seam...

Handi-book for giftcard presentation There are lots of cute paper books that you can make, but here is one that is fast and easy to fold without needing a lot of knowledge about paper folding. This one uses clear or decorative tape to form the book and hook and loop dots to keep it closed. I got the inspiration for this folded paper book from Whimsey Square Quilts’ Tea Book directions for making a fabric envelope of pockets to hold tea. I thought the little book of four pockets would be perfect for gift-card presentation to include a card or two, a handwritten note or poem, and a small item that coordinates with the gift card, such as a teabag with a card from a tea shop, or a book of needles with a card from a fabric store. You can choose paper or decorate your paper to coordinate with the gift idea. Note: typing paper or butcher paper works better than wrapping paper which tends to be too flimsy. Materials Paper 11 x 17 inches Clear or decorative tape to coordinate w...

A friend at the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild told me about this method for setting the Disappearing Nine Patch block so make a four-patch with sashing and cornerstones ( sample tutorial at Pennylane Patchwork ). To make a Disappearing Nine Patch, sew a nine-patch block and then cut it into four equal pieces and then rearrange the pieces. In this faux-sashing setting, you lay out the original nine patch with a dark square in the center and place the same light-colored squares at the north, south, east and west positions. The corner positions should be filled with fabrics that contrast with each other because these will become a central four-patch after cutting the nine-patch block apart. (My initial choices, above, were not so great because there is not enough contrast between the four-patch blocks that are initially placed at the four corners of the nine-patch.) Lay out the block with the cornerstones in each corner of the block, and you have a ready-made four-patch with sashing. ...

Alisa ordered the "Coffee & Croissant Bag" from the U-Handbag site and I made one using the material from an old sheet. I love this bag! The directions were very good, but inserting the handle was too much for my machine and I had to have the machine adjusted after making two of these bags. (I am interested in learning a technique for sewing multiple layers of fabric by hand instead of ruining my machine.) The handbag how-to directions were clear and included both metric and English measurements. Instead of the "Puffy Padded Calico" required in the materials list, I substituted "Soft & Stable" By Annie . This U-Handbag site is really nice, with lots of patterns, articles, and special materials for making purses and totes, but it only takes PayPal payments for orders.