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!

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.

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!

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.

New Books!

I'm getting my craft on. I have a few pictures to show of a skirt I made, but it's not all ready yet.

Michael bought me this sewing book for my birthday.... and I finally got it. Seriously, I was lucky because the estimated delivery date was May 26, and he ordered it May 6. Gotta Love Free Shipping on Amazon.

But I love it! The pictures are great! And she has lots of good instruction for basic sewing. Some things I can skip ove and some things, like how to make bias tape, I get all giddy about because I don't know how.

When I made Landen's car tote, I didn't know how to use piping and corner it. She has instructions! Wahoo!

There are some cute patterns I'm going to have to try out too. Like her decorative pillows, but since that's on my list of things to make this summer-- I'm definately on that one!

While I was perusing The Sewing Bible at Barnes and Noble, my mom said she had a sewing book from her college days that she would just give me. Guess what? It's pretty good too. In fact, it's one that homemadebyjill has blogged about before.

It's got great clothes-making, pattern following instructions. While I'm not sure I'm going to dive into making clothes, I think it will come in handy. It also goes into more detail about pressure foots, and types of needles, threads, and other notions and when to use them. Which, I could use a little help one.

And now I'm a sewing encyclopedia.

Which is good, because I want to sew more and better. But it's bad because I can't find my universal pressure foot.... and therefore can't go try some of these out!!

My KitchenAid

So, I made braided bread with my activity day girls. Yes, it was lots of fun and I have extra bread the neighbors are enjoying to prove it.

But my KitchenAid DIED!!

I have the Professional 5 Series, so we're not talking about the whimpy artisan trying to knead some dough. I got the artisan for a wedding present and I upgraded because I wanted the Pro. I wanted it to make bread, cookies, frosting, or whatever else I want to make. I wanted the big bowl to accomodate a big family. I wanted to make bread. I wanted a KA to last forever and by my favorite appliance. I know I don't use it nearly as much today as I plan on using it in the future. I predominatly use my hand mixer by GE that does the trick for my family of 3 size batches. (minus the bread of course)

My KitchenAid has a good life. It gets used, but not aggressively. It gets wiped down really well after every use. It gets used for fun things like meringue, and worked for things like bread. It has the best seat in the kitchen. I follow all the rules, I don't push my luck. But my mixer has always sounded a little funny and had a funny smell, and when I asked about it when it was under warranty, I was assured it was just because it was a Pro series and has all metal parts.

So here we are, in my kitchen. I'm kneading a good size batch of bread- not huge but not small. It's on speed 2 and working on it's 5-7 minutes of kneading. After 5min and 30 seconds, the KitchenAid starts to smoke. And then it came to a complete hault. Just stops.

I felt like weeping. I felt like throwing a temper-tantrum, laying on the grounds and kicking and screaming. I wanted to throw it out the window. Or in the street, and run over it with my big truck. I've kneaded a few time before, but I've never had any problems. Why? Why now? What about my bread-making for my future family?

I'm a little upset. These things are suppose to last FOREVER. I'm just breaking mine in! My daughter was suppose to learn to make cookies with it. My mom's lasted like 10 years before it needed a part fixed-- and it's still going. And she doesn't have the professional model. I have recently been surfing the blogs... and the rumor is no using the dough hook. WHAT? I paid how much for my machine and the dough hook isn't suppose to be used? This is awful. My dream for my KA is ruined. I guess I should have stuck with the cheaper model then!

So, I called Kitchen Aid. The nearest repair center is Boise, Salt Lake or Orem. You have to bring it to them. Or it costs $32 to get a package to ship the 30lb machine. And you have to pay for labor and parts. I felt like screaming... but I didn't I tried to be sweet. It didn't work. I still have to pay for what I feel like is a nearly new machine to get fixed. What happened to warranties? Why do I feel so let down?

Probably because when I usually call about an appliance or other purchase- I get it fixed for free or just shipping. Sometimes, I get really lucky and it's been recalled and I get a new one altogether.

So Michael promised to look at it. I don't know how I feel about it.
Things never go well when he tries to fix things.

There are pages online about fixing it yourself. Mine isn't the obivous fail-safe gear, so I'm a little leary about it. If it was the gear, I'd just do it.

So what to do? My KA is just sitting there on the counter, mocking me, and begging to be fixed.

I started cleaning and ended up baking

How many times do you start on project and end up doing another? I seem to find myself doing this much more often than I'd like. Today, I started out cleaning my laundry area and bedroom. Somehow it got about halfway done -- I slammed my finger in the washing maching lid and that HURT. Anyway, I sat down and the next thing I know a friend is facebooking about her baking and I discover a MADE post about braided bread. Then I'm baking. I made chocolate zucchini bread and the braided bread. You can read MADE's post and get the recipe... we'll just say it was easy and really good! Especially the cinnamon loaf! We will have to make this recipe again.

For the chocolate zucchini bread I used my dad's recipe, with a few modifications.

In a mixing bowl, combine the following:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil (or 1 cup oil and skip the applesauce)
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla

Sift dry ingredients and add to above:
2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Then stir in the following:
2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Place mixture in 2 greased loaf pans.
Bake 350 for 1 hour