Table Runner.. or centerpiece placemat…

Finished this for a dear friend as a surprise swap gift!!  Hope it arrives promptly and she loves it.  Inside the regular fabrics I snuck in some cute kiddo fabrics for her kids to try to “SPY”

Found an Etsy team…

I am so excited to finally join an Etsy Team, Etsykids!

You can see some of the great items here:  EtsyKids Etsy Items

Cute Ruffle Bottom Pants

Wooden Baby Rattles

Doll Miniature Backpack

OK- I will stop now as I am sure I have lost your attention with the link to a million great handmade childrens items on Etsy by the Etsykids Team!! 😀

“Not your Grandmas Knee Patches” Tutorial

Is it just me or are the jeans these days made with thin, easily wore out denims?  Do the denim manufacturers secretly wear down the knees of jeans or are my kids just especially hard on them??  We dont have a pair of jeans that have outlasted a season without holes somewhere.  While I wouldnt mind an alternative, my husbands suggestion of buying them “TOUGHSKINS” that could stand in the corner by themselves they are so stiff- just didnt sound all that comfortable!

So I finally dove in and decided to do some “Designer Patching” of the knees.  My creative juices were flowing on this while I was piecing together the “Sew n’ Flip” quilt blocks I blogged about last week!

I always like to do a few new tutorials a year and man I havent done one in ages, so here ya go!! 

Grab:

• pair of holey jeans
• fusible fleece *or other usable material suitable for sewing the scraps on that isnt stretchy and is soft on the back*
• bias trim
• seam ripper
• Some scraps

Here are my daughters jeans BEFORE:

FIrst you will need to rough cut your pieces of fusible fleece and scraps to cover your hole.  I cant give you measurements as it will vary for each hole, but I cut my pieces to have a 1.5″ seam allowance at top/bottom and 2″ or so on each side.   Then gather enough scraps to cover each piece of fleece.  I choose to make the patches on both knees pretty much identical but it isnt necessary.  In fact you could just use one single print as well 🙂

 

Then start with the fusible side UP put on piece of scrap in the middle of your fusible fleece at any angle you want them lay another scrap down with right sides together.  sew along the edges of the 2 pieces then FLIP the piece that is right side down over and topstitch the seam.

Repeat until fleece piece is covered making sure your pieces are flat.  Then iron and remove the excess edges.

Attach bias trim to the long top and bottom edges.

Then, let the seam ripping begin.   You want to open the leg of the jean along the seam that is NOT topstitched on the outside.  For this pair it was the outer leg seam and I believe that is industry standard but not sure.  I only seamripped enough (about a foot) to get the knee area to lay flat.  This is so you can get it under the machine easier 😉  This pic is just the outside showing which seam to rip..  I found if you tugged at the seam on both sides the seam ripper went right down the middle pretty fast!  There will be a regular stitched seam and a “serged” edge as well.

Ok, once the seam is open you want to fold under one raw edge of your patch and place just over the other seam of your pants that you didnt rip.  Make sure the patch is centered.  You might want to pin it in place even.  You will sew on the other side of this seam first.

Then  Sew down the top edges of each of the bias trim strips.

Leave the raw edges of the other side of the patch to be stitched into the side seam.   Finish both sides and turn your pants wrong side out.  Match the seams up as they were before so the dark seam allowance doesnt show on the outside seam.   Then sew down this seam to close it up.   I sewed it TWICE making sure to secure the raw edges of the patch in the seam.    Then serge or zig zag the raw edges.

Back side will look like this when done:

Turn the pants right side out and VIOLA!!

I patched these jeans with the intentions of them being her play jeans but alas I was informed they are her new favorite pair and she hopes that some others get holey so I can patch them too, lol.  Enjoy!

Scrap Project Linkage- Giveaway WINNER!!!

Hey all-  Thanks to the few of you that linked me to things I could do with my scraps!! My fave though was from Amy.  It is a cute fabric covered clothespin tutorial!!  Gotta try that one !! 😀

Amy Says:
September 30, 2010 at 10:02 pm | Reply   edit

This is one I have been wanting to do with my kids: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=1587

Amy – I will email you with details and thanks again!

Winners of the Sewing Notions Packages-

Hey all – Sorry later than I promised.

Winners of the 2 packages with sewing notions in them are:

Katt Says:
September 28, 2010 at 2:15 pm | Reply   editoooh, how fun! Count me in

Katrina Klauer Says:
September 30, 2010 at 2:32 pm | Reply   editi poste giveaway on fb

Thank you everyone for participating!!  I love sharing my unused but very usable items with someone that can cherish them!!!  Iwill email you for your mailing addresses!  Thanks again –  and dont forget to comment on the scraps post for a chance to win a yard of Michael Miller Cotton Woven fabric! ***SEW LOVELY***

Scraps.. Scraps… What to do with them all..

So, you have all these beautiful bags/drawers/totes full of the “leftovers”, do you recreate them into something??

Link me to a tutorial, project, ideas, etc. of things you have done, want to do, etc… that uses scraps!!     I will pick a project to try next and whoever posted the project will win a yard of free Michael Miller fabric!! 😀  Winner chosen on Saturday, October 2nd!  One entry/link per person please!

Sewing Cabinet cleanout Giveaway

I have a few packages of sewing notions/trims/scraps, etc. I would love to giveaway.  Would include threads, needles, trims, marking pens, pins, etc.. 😀

Picture is just for fun and is not of the actual items you will receive!! 😀

Just simply post a comment for 1- entry.

Extra Entries: 

1. Then if you will post about it on facebook.  Just like my Facebook page, Apple Tree Boutique and then tag Apple Tree in a Facebook comment! 
2. Post about the giveaway on your blog then link back here 😀

Will pick 2 random winners by random.org on Thursday September 30th.  Make sure you enter your email address when doing your comment so I can get ahold of you!! 😀

Flip n’ What?? :)

I cant tell you how excited I was to hear and see about this method of scrappy quilting called Flip & Sew.   Kinda like paper piecing but without all the work.   This is a great way to get rid of scraps of ALL sizes without tedious cutting of pieces into a pattern.  Such a great quilting method for those that like to creatively “wing-it”.   My friend, Darla, came by today and showed me her block and told me about this method and I had to try it for myself before I could sleep tonight.

You can google it and find several how to’s online if you wanna try it.  Here is my first 12″ block. 

Think I will do 9 blocks and then border them with a cream/ivory solid and then free form quilt them.  So pretty!! 

OK- gotta head to bed now, but just couldnt settle my brain until I tried it!  I have a love/hate relationship with my creative juices 🙂

Finished = :)

Love it when I finally finish the assembly line of something I am working on.  The end picture of all those items together and finished all at once is worth the monotony of doing the same step 12, 50, 100 times before being able to move on.

Finished a dozen wetbags.  1 for a friend that needed one and the other 11 for a wholesale order and being shipped to Green Pixie Baby!

Arent all those zippers pretty??  I am so glad I finally figured out the easy way to put a zipper on something like this.  And now laugh at how hard I used to make it, lol.  <–See there I go again laughing at myself 🙂

Getting school things together..how do you organize?

As summer winds down, we start organizing the things we do for homeschooling.  We are trying a new method called “Charlotte Mason” this year that incorporates multi level learning and lots of togetherness/reading.   Learning by seeing/doing instead of just reading/testing/writing.

The kids are super excited about this year and since my work schedule with Bottombumpers keeps me really busy right now, we went with a “curriculum” this year called “My Fathers World”.   We are already in love with this curriculum and we hope to fall even more in love with it as the days pass and we actually DO it, lol.    This year we will do Geography and study Countries and Cultures.  I really wanted to just jump right in with the Ancient History but they recommended we spend time getting to know the places/people we will study along the way.  

So while I try to figure out how I will work this year as we do 2 separate “plans” for different kids (older 2 are doing MFW together and the younger 6 year old is doing the Kindergarten MFW curriculum but will sit in) I have come across a million ways to organize my day, supplies, plans, books, etc.

So might I ask the giant world of homeschoolers out there.. do you do a “method” of organization like workboxes? Printed Lesson plans? Lapbooks? etc….    TEll me about it.. link me to your blogs, show me your schooling supply areas…   I wanna see!!!