TV Tray Ironing Board Update

 Here is my new ironing board.  It works great!!!!  I am very happy with the results.

Close-up.  Ironing interfacing to the pacifier holders I am making.

TV Tray Ironing Board

I have some old TV trays and decided to make one into a small ironing board to put next to my sewing machine.

Here is a picture of my finished product.  The ironing board part is removable.



Here are the step by step instructions and pictures.

This is my TV tray.  It has a raised edge around it that angles outward.

I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the green area of the tray.

Next I cut a slightly larger piece of cardboard that went to the outside edge of the tray and hot glued it on top of the small piece of cardboard.

I used my scraps of Warm and Natural batting to pad the cardboard.  I cut three pieces the size of the top cardboard and hot glued them on at the outer edges only.  You can see the shiny spots of hot glue showing through the batting.

I pieced the last of my scraps together by putting the raw edges next to each other and ironing strips of iron-on interfacing to both sides of the batting to hold it together.

The top (4th) layer of batting I rolled to the back side and hot glued it to the back.  I wanted to cover up the hard spots  from the hot glue on the front side.

Then I added a layer of silver ironing board fabric a little larger than the top layer of batting.  I rolled it to the back and hot glued it down also.

Next I cut a piece of fabric (old sheet) a little larger than the cardboard.  I sewed a casing around the edge to put elastic in.

I put the cloth cover on the ironing board and pulled the elastic as tight as I could get it.  I pinned the elastic together, cut off the extra elastic, took the cover off, sewed the elastic ends together and finished sewing the casing closed.

Here is the backside of the TV tray ironing board with the cloth cover on.

Here is the front side of the TV tray ironing board with the cover on.  The hard spots of hot glue can no longer be felt around the edges.

The finished product one more time.

Tooth Fairy Bags

Here are the Tooth Fairy bags I have been making.  I am thinking about making some light green and some lavender ones.  They will be for sale for $3.50 each.

 

 

I Spy Quilt

This quilt is one of my favorites, but it took a long time to make.  It is about lap size.  I wanted it to be bigger, but I wanted it to be finished even more.

I made this quilt several years ago.  I think it took me a year or more to finish it.  It was a quilt that I had thought about making many time.  I keep telling myself to forget it, because I required so many different fabrics or prints with many different things.  It also wasted a lot of fabric, since holes would be cut all over in it.  Then I saw a yard sale advertised that was fabric only.  How could I resist?  When I got there the lady had a big bag of fabric with holes cut out all over the fabric.  She had made an "I Spy" quilt and was giving her cut up pieces away.  No need to tell you where the scraps went.  I would guess about 1/4 of the hexagons came from that bag of scraps.

Each hexagon is individual cut, so that the desired design are centered as best as possible. This is called "fussy cut".  When sewing hexagons together you have to stop 1/4 inch from each corner so the next piece will fit properly.  That is the part that takes so much time.  FYI - all quilts are sewn with 1/4 inch seam allowances.

Here is another close-up of some of the hexagons.  This quilt was stippled with variegated thread on a quilting machine.

T-Shirt Fabric Scarf

This scarf can be made from a T-shirt.  I had fabric given to me, so I used that. Click here to see the video I sort of watched to learn from.

Here is how I made mine.

 Use a 9" plate for your template.  I tried a 12 1/2" plate originally, but there wasn't enough curl at the top when the piece was help up in the air.

 I used a disappearing ink pen to trace around the plate.

I cut the fabric two layers at at time.  Here is the first set of circles.  I then made a dotted line with the same marker.  I marked my cut lines 2" apart.  Make the line from zero to 2" from the edge a very gradual line.  I went almost halfway around the outside edge before I got to the 2" wide mark.  My first one was too sharp of an angle and it didn't hang nicely.

 Here is my circle after it was cut.

I placed the cut circle on the next section of fabric and cut it out.  I followed the cutting lines by slowly moving the cut piece away while I cut along the edge of the piece of fabric still in place.

 Still working my way around the cutting line. You will need Six spiral cut strips.

Here are my six strips cut.

 I cut another piece of fabric 4" wide and 3" long.

Make two stacks with 3 spiral cut pieces together in each stack and place  the pointed edges so they meet together on the fabric rectangle as shown above.

Fold 1/3 of the rectangle up over the stacked pieces.

Fold the top edge of the rectangle down to meet the bottom fold line.

 Pin all pieces together.

Sew around the edge of the rectangle and again in the center to secure all the pieces together.  The scarf is now finished.

 The completed scarf.

Making Infinity/Eternity Scarves

Infinity Scarf Instructions

Here is the one yard piece of wool I had.  I washed and dried my wool before making this scarf, so I can wash it later and not have it shrink.  I trimmed the ends and cut off the selvage edges and fold.  I ended up with 2 pieces of fabric that were 27" x 35".

Put right sides together (no right and wrong sides on this wool) and sew along the 27" edge. I used the edge of my presser foot as my guide along the raw edge.  This made the seam about 3/8 inch wide.  Then sew another seam closer to the raw edge.  A double seam is needed since the fabric ravels.

Do the same thing again down the long edge of the scarf.  Except start two inches from one end and stop two inches before the next end.

 Here is the long edge sewn.

 Now match the remaining 27" ends and sew them together the same as the other seams.

 Press the seams. Press one edge of the now 3 1/2 inch opening under the width of the seam allowance.

 Insert a narrow piece of Stitch Witchery that is cut the length of the opening.

 Spray with water to get the Stitch Witchery damp.  It won't stay stuck if  it doesn't get wet enough.

 Press until the fabric is dry.

 Here is the finished scarf flat.  It is 13 1/2"wide X 69" long.

Here it is how it will be worn.  I made this extra wide so it would keep my neck warm in the winter.  It can also be pulled up around my ears to keep them warm too.

Another Infinity Scarf.

This is the same size piece of fabric as the wool one.  This is some type of silky fabric that I bought about 10 years ago.  I cut it into thirds instead of half like the wool one was cut.

This was sewn the same as the wool one, except that the second seam was a zig-zag stitch since this fabric unravels even more that the wool.

 Here is the finished scarf folded in half.  It is 6 1/2 " wide by 101" long.

This one will be worn with three loops or maybe even four.