Portable DIY Mini Ironing Board

I was having a friend come over and we were about to do A LOT of ironing (as I was going to show her how to make a quilt top). We both have 2 kids and they play great with each other but, they are 2 1/2, 2 1/2, 1, and almost 1. So the older ones need to be monitored as they sometimes like to pick on the little ones. In which case, we needed to be down stairs with them and not in my sewing room where I have the ironing board. I didn't want to bring the ironing board down, because I know our kids would knock it over real quick. Instead, I thought "I'll make a small mini portable ironing board and just place it on the table". That way the kids can't knock it over, pull on it, or do anything to hurt anyone or themselves!

I grabbed a long piece of wood about 3 feet long, and about a foot wide. You will need batting, a staple gun, cotton fabric, and elastic.

Heres the board I used (left over from my cutting table, my husband made).

It can be any board, just nothing real flimsy. You need something thick, so it won't bend.

 Grab a few layers of batting. I was using scrap batting from the leftovers of quilts, hence the variations of batting. When you cut them, make sure they are long enough to go over the edge and wrap to the back of the board.

Batting is long enough to wrap over the sides and onto the back (about 4-6 inches extra).

 I then start with all the corners and pull the batting over the edge and staple, with my staple gun.

Then stable to smaller ends, and remember to pull the batting at taunt as possible.

Once you have the two small ends done, work the long sides. I did the center, then the ends and then moved back and forth from left to right, until all of it was stapled down.

The back should look something like this.

I then lay my fabric choice on the ground, right side face down. I place the board top side down. I then cut the fabric with about 4-6 inches on all sides.

Make a mark where the corner of the board meets the fabric. Use a ruler to mark a two lines out to the sides. Then cut that square out of each corner. Like the picture below.

 Place the two cut sides (of ONE corner) RIGHT sides together and sew.

Do that for each corner.

Then make a hem for the elastic. My elastic was about 3/4 of an inch so I needed to make about an inch or larger of a hem.

Fold the fabric over and pin.

 Then sew the hem along the farthest point on the left side. Leave a small hole about 2 inches wide at the start/finish.

Use a safety pin to pin the end of the elastic, and slip it through the opening in the fabric you left.

Push the elastic all the way around until it comes back to where you started. Put the fabric on your board, and pull the elastic taunt. Make sure you can remove and put the fabric on and off the board. Then pin the two pieces of elastic together. Stitch with a zig zag and or several straight stitches along the area where the two elastic pieces meet. Pull the elastic into the fabric, and sew up the hole!

Slip the cover over your board, and get to work!

Ironing away...

Now I have a mini portable ironing board for when I need to iron something down stairs, or work on small projects! Its perfect to use at my sewing table when I just have a lot of little pieces, or small hems I need to iron down. I love this project, and the best part is the cover comes off and you can wash it on gentle and clean off any gunk!

Project Time,
Sarah

A Few Quilts

Once again I had this urge to finish up those old quilts sitting in a box waiting to be finished up. I pulled out the box, dusted it off and realized there were two quilts from back in July 2012! Yikes, its been a year since I have seen these quilt and since I had touched them! Ooopps!

The first quilt I bought; one, because I love the hungry ladybug book, and two, because my sister-in-law wanted to see how I machine bind. So, I just bought the material, busted out a small quilt for tummy time, or playing on here and there (for my newborn/baby), and then showed her how to put the binding on. I started the binding, she then put a few more stitches in to see how it worked and then eventually we both got busy with our little ones. The quilt came with us to NM, and got stuffed in a box when I got interested in other projects. I just never got around to finishing the binding.

Working on the quilt back in July 2012.

Front stitched to the back.

The free motion quilting swirls on the front.

The quilting around the ladybug on the back.

The free motion quilting on the back.

 When I pulled the quilt out I saw that the machine binding was not one I had on my machine here at the house, as we were using out Mother-in-laws machine. So, I sat down, seam ripped the machine binding out (it was only one side and a little on another). Once the thread was removed, about 40-45 minutes later, I began to hand sew the binding on. Something about hand sewing that my mother-in-law said was soothing. I didn't realize it until I started putting it on this quilt! I was finally understanding how calming it really was.

Hand sewing the binding on.

 The front is a panel. You purchase it as its seen. The back is part of the collection. Its a green grass like fabric. Its super cute. I also used it as the binding around the edge. I also stitched around the ladybug to keep the fabric from moving when it gets washed. I did a little motion free swirls along the left and right sides.

Along with the ladybug quilt, I found a pink/blue quilt that my mother-in-law made me. She was making it when her machine broke on her. She had finished the top, the back, and even started the the quilting. I took it in and all I had to do was trim off the extra material and batting and then put the binding on. I purchased some pink fabric for the binding and began stitching that on. I also hand sewed the binding on this quilt as well.

This is the front of the quilt (above), NOTE: I did not sew this top, my mother-in-law did! This is the front with the back (below).

The back of the quilt (below). I love this fabric!

I enjoyed putting the binding on this quilt, and now I have a quilt for myself! I make so many quilts and other items for everyone else and never for myself. Finally, a cute one for myself!

Now on to a quilt thats been sitting piled up in a bin for several years. This time its been several years because I have been collecting shirts from all my travels. From states, places, and countries I have visited and traveled to. I love the shirts because each one has a memory and each one will now be preserved in a t-shirt quilt! Yes, that right, I made a t-shirt quilt. I even took a few photos along the way, so you all can get a small tutorial of how to make one for yourself.

To start I cut all the shirts in squares and rectangles. I also ironed on interface to the back of the shirts once I had the sizes I liked. The interface will keep the shirt still and firm when sewing them. This way you don't have a lot of fabric bunching or shifting on you.

Once you have all the shirts cut out and the interface sewn on I then laid them all out in a pattern I liked. I measured and measured and measured to make sure that both the front and back were roughly the same (I still sucked at that... you will see later).  Once I had rows, I started sewing each row together. I used a half inch seam to give the shirts a strong hold.

One row down, on to the others. Once the rows are done, then I moved on to sewing those rows together. Heres the first two rows sewn together. (Below)

Once I had the three rows sewn together, the front was done!

On to the back. Now I had several tank tops with made the back a little more challenging then the front. I had to fill in the arm areas that were missing. I simply used the backs and bottoms of the tanks to stitch into the holes. Once that was done I again added the interface to the backs of all the shirts.

Pinning all the rows together.

The back/rows are all sewn together (this was a more challenging side due to the tank tops).

I laid the front o the batting to cut out the size I needed. 

The back was too short so I pinned the front to the batting, flipped the quilt over placed the back in the center and measured out what I needed to add to it. The grey fabric is all the extra material for the back to measure up to the front. I struggled to get this centered, but in the end I believe it came out ok!

Once I had everything measured correctly, I pinned the back to the batting and front and began to trim up the extra material around the edges. I then sewed with my machine the one side of the binding. In the image below, I am beginning the one day worth of hand sewing of the binding.I use to hate hand sewing the binding and I could never understand why anyone did it, but now that I am a mom of two I find the hand sewing so calming. I love it.

Heres the front after the binding was on but before I could decide how to quilt it. I know, I was working backwards. 

 After a day of sitting with the quilt I finally figured out which stitch I liked. I then decided how I wanted to place the stitch and finally I was quilting this quilt.

(Above) The stitch I decided on. 

The photos above and below are the finished quilt! I loved how colorful and bright it is. Now I can enjoy those memories for a life time!

I hope to make another t-shirt quilt a few more years down the road. I still have several shirts and hope to add to the pile. I even would like to make a t-shirt/onesie/bibs quilt of my boys clothing. That way I can keep all my favorite baby clothing without it cluttering up my house. It will just simply be a quilt I can keep forever.

Hope you all have a few t-shirts to make a quilt,
Sarah

Appliance Covers

I am one of those woman who has a ton of different kitchen appliances sitting out on my counter. I love the convenience of having my juicer, my coffee machine, my toaster, and so many other appliances all over my counters. I end up putting a lot of them in cupboards and in the pantry to save on kitchen counter space, but I love having the kitchen counter looking clean. Sometimes having the appliances out makes the counters look cluttered and dirty. My simple solution was to make covers and just let the pretty fabric distract your eye from the cluttered appliances on the counter. On top of that, the cover keeps my appliances clean and free of dust while I am not using them. (Here in New Mexico we get a lot of dust storms, and even with double windows, we still get dirt inside the house).

When I was a little girl my mother had a fabric cover for our toaster. I always thought it was so dated and just silly to have such a thing over an appliance you use often. I personally did not get it. Now, as an adult I look back at that cover and it brings back so many childhood memories. The kitchen where I grew up and spent many hours cooking, baking and even crafting with my mother and friends. I hope my children have such memories as I did, and such a small thing (like an appliance cover) that triggers those memories. The cover just brings back so much more for me then it just being an appliance cover. So with that I give you the appliance tutorial:

What you will need for this project:
*fabric (I purchased enough for my 3 appliance covers, and a little extra just in case. Be sure to measure before you purchase.)
*measurements of your appliance(s) (add seam allowance)
*cording (optional)
*interface (thick and iron on)
*your essentials (machine, cutting board, scissors, thread....)

To start I measured all sides of the appliance, and added the seam allowance I needed. I also added about an inch to the bottom of all the fabric pieces that go around the sides (for the hem).

I then cute all 5 pieces with the seam allowance added on.

Once you have them cut out, cut the original sizes (with out the seam allowance) out of the interface.

 Then iron the interface onto each fabric piece, remember it goes onto the back/wrong side of the fabric. Follow the directions on the interface for iron on. 

Once thats done, you will need to cut strips of fabric for the cording. I cut 2 inches of a matching brown fabric.

 You will need to sew all those strips together to make one long strip. First lay the two strips one on top of the other making an L shape.

Then sew them together going from the top right corner to the bottom left corner. 

 Then cut the extra off the square you just sewed. Then open the seam and iron out the seams so they are flat.

I then folded the 2 inch brown fabric around the cording and using your needle setting as far to the left as possible (a zipper foot works well for this as well).

 Then stitch as close to the cording as you can, sealing the cording into the folded inside of the fabric.

Once your cording is done, you can begin to put the box together. I stitched the three center pieces together, leaving the left and right panels unattached.

I then pinned the cording to the three panels that are already sewed together and then added the side panel along with the cording.

Once its pinned, I slowly and carefully stitch all three pieces together. Note: you are now creating a box shape, so the corners will be slightly challenging. When I got to the corners I stopped stitching about 1/4 of an inch from the end, then folded the corners and replaced my needle where I needed to start up again. Continue on and do the same for the other corner.

Once you have one side panel on, do the same thing to the other side panel, until you have your cover assembled.

If you added that extra inch to the bottom of your fabric, this is when you will fold a half inch around the bottom. I ironed mine to help keep it in place.

 I then pinned it, and sewed around the entire bottom at 1/4 inch.

Now you  have a cover and you appliance will look super cute!

 This is the toaster cover!

Heres my other finished appliance covers:

This is for my juicer. (Above)
This is for my coffee maker. (Below)

Now your kitchen can be cute and colorful!

Happy sewing,
Sarah