Sunday, June 20, 2010

Guitar Strap Tutorial

I started making my guitar strap by following this tutorial. But I wanted to use only 1 piece of fabric. So I made my own tutorial to share with you!


Supplies:
About ¼ yard of fabric,
Strip of fusible fleece or fusible batting
Thread and sewing machine

Step 1: Measure your guitar strap. Mine was 2" wide and Michael keeps his strap about 45" long. So I decided I wanted my strap to be 3" wide and 43" long. I would recommend going at least an inch wider than your strap. Double that and add ½ inch on both ends for your seam allowance. So, I used a strip of fabric that was 6 ½ inches wide and just went salvage edge to salvage edge. I then cut a strip of fusible fleece 3" wide.
Step 2: Press your fabric. I was trying to follow a pattern, so I ironed along the lines in the fabric, making my pattern 3" wide and ironing the rest under. The fabric should overlap about 1/4inch. This would put the seam going down the middle of the back. You could also just fold it in half and make the seam along the side.


Step 3: Fuse Fleece/Batting to strap. Open the fabric up and fused the fleece to the wrong side of the fabric. The fleece should go down the middle between the two presses. If you were doing a side seam, I would line the fleece up along the fold in the middle and place the fleece ¼ inch from the edge and press.



Step 4: Hem the short ends. Since my ends were both salvage edges, I just folded it up and hemmed. If you wanted any decorative quilting on the top of your strap, this would be the time to do it.



Step 5: Pin along the long side (right sides together) and then sew. Use a 1/4inch seam allowance. Press seam open.


Step 6: Turn. I then sewed along the long side edge to give it some stability so it wouldn't twist. I tried to do mine a little less than 1/4, so it was just slightly shorter than my foot.

Step 7: Slide over guitar strap. This took a little bit of time to jimmy it on, but I wouldn't have made it any wider to make it easier to get on. It fit about perfect!


Ta Da! We're done! Brand new guitar strap! It made a great Father's Day Present!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Bucket Hat

I followed the tutorial provided by Sew Much Ado at U Create and made this! It doesn't take much fabric, and it went quite quickly! I still need some practice sewing a cylindar together... but it turned out cute for our little man!





Here's my cut pieces. Really, all you'll do is sew the sides together to get a tube, sew the top and then the brim. You'll then put the two sides together and sew the edge of the brim together, turn it and top stitch it.




Sewing the top and brim on were probably the hardest. It helps to divide it up and if your fabric and just a little stretch to it. I think I only sewed one pleat into the top.. whoops. I want to make another soon, so this was good practice!


The finished red side --which hubby thinks is to girly-- so maybe I should have added an something to make it more boyish. Oh well.




The finished denim side! So easy to match! It also added structure, so I didn't use any interfacing. If you didn't use a stiff fabric on one side, I would definately recommend using interfacing on all of it!




I did add a step to the instructions. I added a little darn where the seams met to keep the sides from moving around and making it reverse a little bit easier. If you look closely where the seams met at the top, you can see a little more red thread. That's it. Not even noticeable.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Yeah! I finished an afgan!

I started this one with the goals of something very girly, bright and colorful. I wanted some new granny squares with flowers too. I also wanted to experiment with ombre. I should have done those a little more one at a time, but all together it's not to bad! A little busy for my taste I guess.

I have a love-hate relationship with this blanket. Even though the yarns are the same weight and worst- the ombre was thicker. I don't know if this is common. So, the squares with ombre are bigger and this causes some funny stretches. And I'm swearing off small squares for awhile. I forget how much I hate finishing off threads and sewing them together. I do like the scalloped edges and the fun flower squares. They were fun to make, find online and experiement with!

And I'm on a finish projects kick so hopefully some more will come soon!
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Friday, June 4, 2010

New Potatoes and Peas

My Grandma made these creamy potatoes and peas everytime she had fresh peas. Well, my peas sprouted this past week, so I made them. We miss them and need them more than once or twice a year!! (And yes, Landen loaded them up by himself in his truck.)

You will need:

About 4 medium red potatoes. Baby Reds work really well too.
1 cup of peas (fresh or frozen and thawed)
3TBSP butter
3TBSP flour
2 cups of milk
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Peel potatoes and chop. Add about 2 tsp salt and boil in 2 inches of water for about 20 minutes. (just like mashed potatoes!) Drain.

Make a white sauce: In saucepan, melt butter and whisk flour, salt and pepper in- about 1/2 tsp each. Stir until bubbly. Slowly add milk whisking constantly. Continue stirring until sauce comes to a boil.
Mix in potatoes and peas. Heat thoroughly, about 5 minutes.

And you're done!!


This is great with a ham steak, leftover roast, with hamburgers, etc.