Upcycled Pillowcases

 
About a month ago, I had a weird feeling in the middle of the night that my foot was caught in my sheet. Well, it wasn't a dream. We wore our sheets plum out. When I got up in the morning and looked, there was a 12 inch rip in the fitted sheet. We've had these sheets for maybe 15 years. They were the first flannel sheets that I purchased and here in Wisconsin, I keep flannel sheets on the beds for at least six months.

No doubt about it, the bottom sheet had bit the dust. It was pretty thin all over. I'm surprised I never noticed this while doing laundry. However, the flat sheet still had a lot of life left in it. I hated to throw that away. After looking at it, I decided to make the sheet into pillowcases. We have four pillows on all the beds in the house. So I'm always looking for an extra set of pillowcases. So often when you buy a sheet set, regular sized pillowcases come in the set, even though you're buying queen sized sheets. I was able to make these queen size and I have enough left to make another set.

 

Here's the flat sheet that still has a lot of life left in it.

For the first pair of pillowcases, I'm going to take advantage of that band that's at the top of the sheet. This will save me some time. A nice clean finish all ready for me.

I need to carefully lay the sheet on the cutting mat. There is a lot of width here so I tried to smooth out the wrinkles as best I could. I am cutting slightly larger than I need to so if there are a few wrinkles and the cut is wonky, that's ok. We're going to even this out right away. I'm going to measure down 33 inches and cut. So my piece will measure something like 50 inches by 33 inches.

I take my cut portion and I now fold it the opposite way. This will be along the longer length. I hope your following me! I'm cutting this in half.

You can see the two layers here.

Here is one half, the measurement is 27x33. You can see the band on the left side of the picture and the other end is nice and neat. I retrimmed this.

I was going to do a French seam and kind of forgot. I pinned right sides together. With French seams, you start with wrong sides together. Oh well, this method will work it just won't be a pretty on the inside.

 We are going to take this to the machine and stitch a 1/2 inch seam.

 Now I'm going to trim. Because I was thinking I was doing a French seam, I trimmed a little too close. Otherwise, you should just trim to about 1/4 inch. My seam allowance is more like 1/8 inch.

After I trim the seam allowance, I zig zag down the seam. This will keep the fabric from unraveling. Now all that's left is to turn your pillowcases right side out. Now I need to go back and make two more out of the rest of the sheet.

Burp Cloth Tutorial

My goal was to work on this tutorial last year, but I'm close. I was only a few weeks late.  They're not too difficult. Basically you are making a flannel diaper then adding your embroidery. I prefer making flannel burps instead of using the Gerber birds eye diapers. Flannel gets softer and more absorbent with each wash.

I do want to mention that this is not an original idea from me. I saw a tutorial several years ago over on Sew Forum. My measurements are a little bit larger than the original tutorial. Click the Scribd link to get the PDF file for the burps. Enjoy!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/80040195

 

The haystack boy design if from Lynnie Pinnie.

The "E" is from the Jack and Jill Alphabet from Planet Applique. The font used for Ethan's name is Just Another Serif from 8 Claws and a Paw. Another great font from Julie and Joe.

The barn design is from Applique Alley.

Finally, this tractor is from Applique Chick.

Kindle Cover Tutorial

Supplies:
4 pieces of peltex 8" x 5" (you can also use cardboard)
2 pieces of leather 8" x 11.5"
1 strip of leather 2" x 16.5"
velcro
masking tape

To begin, we are going to mark the center of the inside leather. We will be straight stitching here at the very end.

Take the piece of leather that you will using for the outside cover, place the 2 inch strip of leather at the center of your cover. I'm using masking tape instead of pins to keep my pieces somewhat in place.

We also don't want to put out leather tabs over to far. Notice that I'm using a "blade" foot. It's also called an edging foot. I use this foot a lot for garment sewing, rarely for quilting.I'm placing the end of the leather strip about 1/2 inch past the edge of the cover edge. This eventually will be placed inside a seam.

I set my tension to the "leather" setting. The stitch length is a 3 and I moved the needle to the left of center so I'm stitching about 1/8 inch from the edge. My edging foot help to keep my stitching straight.

Next up, I need to cut the pieces for the inside of my cover. I cut 2 squares 2 1/8 X 2 1/8". These squares are then cut on the diagonal. I originally was going to make the left pocket beige, then changed it to red.


 Use your masking tape to position your pieces on your inside cover.

Now stitch your pieces in place. Remember, we need to slip the Kindle into the holding tabs and we want to use the left sleeve to hold notes. We do not stitch all the way around these pieces.

Take your outside cover and determine where you are going to place your velcro. Stitch in place.

Now we are ready to stitch up three sides of our cover. With wrong sides together, match up all four edges of your outside cover and inside lining. Stitch both sides and the top using your edging foot. For the time being, we are leaving the bottom of the cover unstitched.

Now, time to switch presser feet. I'm placing my teflon foot on the machine. This is what you should use when you are working with leather. Remember when we marked our center of the inside lining. Now we are going to stitch down that marking and about a 1/4 inch or so on both sides of your first row of stitching.

I forgot to take a picture of the next step. Take two pieces of your peltex and slide it into one side of your cover. Take the other two pieces and slide it into the other side. Now stitch up the bottom of your cover.

We're almost finished. Shape the end of you long, narrow strip of leather. You can leave it rectangular or an oval edge like I used. Add your other piece of velcro to the inside of your strip.

Viola! We're done. The measurements that I've given are fairly accurate. I did have to trim the peltex down somewhat to fit inside the cover. I think you'll find that your cover will do a decent job of protecting your e-reader.

Mineral Make up Part One

I'm a mineral makeup convert. I had worn Clinique foundation for years but wasn't happy with it. But, I was even less happy with other brands of makeup. Then about three years ago, I was diagnosed with basal cell skin cancer. The cancer was deep and it was on my face. When I was first told what was going on and the Mohs surgeon told me I would have a scar after surgery, my statement to him was that's fine, I'd rather be well than not well. Well, I didn't quite have the same reaction after surgery. I had a huge scar on my face. My surgeon actually did an excellent job but I was having trouble dealing with it. I kind of went into mid-life crisis mode. No, I didn't have an affair or go drinking on weekends. I hit the internet. I started searching for foundations and scar treatment. I don't mind looking my age but I didn't need to look older than I am. I then discovered mineral makeup. It so happened that my quilting friends and I had seen the Bare Minerals display at Sephora when we were in Chicago. We all came home with a kit. At first, the Bare Minerals had unbelievable performance. But as time went by, I didn't think the coloring was right on me. That is one issue that I have with Bare Minerals. They are very limited on the foundation shades. With more research, I discovered there were tons of small, unknown mineral makeup companies out there. I started ordering samples to test out the formula and coloring. When I'm not wearing my foundation, I use the foundation from Meow Cosmetics.

With so much time on the internet, I then discovered that people were learning how to make makeup at home. My initial thought was "this is so cool, but no way in hell would I be able to do that". Eventually, I decided that I could probably make eye shadow, blush and mineral veil. I'm still thinking "no way in hell am I going to learn to make foundation". The really funny thing was that after I had all my supplies on my counter, I started with the hardest thing first, foundation. I have yet to make eye shadow or blush even though I have lot's of mica colors to mix. So that is the story of how this hobby started. Let me show you how it's done.


I first need to talk to you about the supplies. Later, we will move into the actual making of makeup. Besides your ingredients, a really important item to your success is a good grinder. There are lots of different things to use. Some people use small blenders, tobacco grinders, coffee grinders. My two favorites are my Braun stick blender and the Magic Bullet. In the picture, you can see how discolored the handle is to my Braun mixer. This is from the oxides that I use. Several years ago, my husband got this blender for my for Christmas. After researching what to mix my ingredients with, I came up with this. I can tell you my husband wasn't thrilled with my use of the stick blender. He told me "I bought that for you to make me meals, not to make makeup!" Well, that didn't stop me. I kept using it. After all, it was under my roof and available, why go out and buy something different. Plus it did a good job with the tough task of mixing the red oxides. Well last year for Christmas, the girls and Jeff were at the mall wandering around, trying to figure out what to get me. One of the girls spies the Magic Bullet. They pretty much all agreed that I needed this for my makeup. So I might be the only person in America that has their Magic Bullet in their craft room and not their kitchen!

Let's talk ingredients now. We need a couple of things to happen. We have to have color (oxides). We have to have a way to get that color applied to the face (fillers). We have to keep the makeup on the face (adhesion). We can choose to correct some things, like oily skin, dry skin, mature skin. So what I need to do is to think about the characteristics of the individual's skin when I start to put the recipe together. Some of the ingredients that I don't use are French talc, cornstarch and bismuth oxychloride. Bare Minerals uses the bismuth as one of their fillers. This ingredient is a sharp, heavy mineral. The bismuth is the reason why you need to do so much buffing with a brush. You are actually trying to buff the foundation into your pores to hold it on your face. Many people also have issues with itchiness and sweating with bismuth. There are some concerns about talc and lung issues. I really don't have any issues using this for myself but because I make makeup for my sisters and some others, I decided not to use it. My choices of ingredients aren't superior to others, just my powders of choice. These work well for me and my recipes.


Now for the white powders. I'm sure that if my package ever busted open at the post office, I would probably have some explaining to do. Whitney made a comment one day about all the suspicious bags of white powder appearing in our mailbox.



The colorants that are used are iron oxides. These are heavily pigmented and can stain your clothes, kitchen counter, etc. The oxides can be used in just about all types of makeup, eye shadow, blush, foundation, veil. On their own, they can be kind of blah, but you can add some zing by adding mica's. I'm going to save eye shadow ingredients for another day.

The only other tool I need is a popsicle stick. I use this to cut the oxides and blend them together. Now that we've have our tools assembled, we are ready to make makeup. Onward to part two.