Sewn-up Christmas: Part 3 - Handmade drawstring linen laundry/shoe bags

For the last of my "Sewn-up Christmas" gift ideas, here are some drawstring bags that manage to look pretty impressive notwithstanding that they were really easy to make (remember this is early days for me in the adventures of sewing).

They can be used as laundry bags (especially useful for keeping handwash items separate from the rest of your laundry) or a shoe bag, for taking your nice shoes to work without spoiling them (and your back) on the city streets.

To make each bag, I cut a piece of fabric approximately 90cm by 45cm. I pressed the edges with an iron to form a single hem of about 7mm (ie just folded over once) and machine stitched this hem all the way around the fabric. At each short edge of the fabric, I folded over about an inch of the fabric (this will need to be big enough to fit your ribbon/tape/string) and sewed this down on the wrong side of the fabric, using a zig zag stich for a bit of interest. I then threaded the ribbon through both ends, sewed the ends of the ribbon together (leaving about 20cm on each side of the bag) and then turned the bag to the wrong side and sewed up the sides before turning back to the right side. It was that simple.

For the design, I drew a botanical pattern on a piece of A4 paper, then cut it out using a scalpel and a cutting mat, to leave me with a stencil. Holding it down carefully (and this was quite an intricate stencil, so I must admit, I did use my husbands fingers as extra holding-down tools), I used a sponge to apply white fabric paint over the stencil and then carefully lifted it off the paper to reveal my design.  To fix the paint, I placed an old cloth over the design and ironed over it for a few minutes to fix the paint.  The bag is now ready to use and washable up to 40 degrees!

For Part 1 of my Sewn-up Christmas gift ideas, see Handmade Linen Coasters

For Part 2 of my Sewn-up Christmas gift ideas, see Handmade Pears and Apple Tea Towel

Quick and Easy Stylish Christmas Tags

Loathe to pay 5 euros for a pack of 5 Christmas gifts, I decided to make my own.  I made 30 of these in about 20 minutes at a cost of less than 1 euro. All you need is some coloured paper or card, a pencil, a pair of scissors, a hole punch, some string and a pen.

Step 1: Measure your paper/card and mark into equal rectangles using a ruler (I got 10 rectangles from an A4 sheet of card).

Step 2: Cut along your marked lines so you end up with lots of rectangles.

Step 3: Trim the corners off one end of each rectangle.

Step 4: Hole punch one hole at the same end of the rectangle.

Step 5: Trim string or yarn into 15cm sections, fold each section in half, feed the ends through the hole in the tag and back into the loop of the rest of the string.

Step 6: Decorate as you desire. I just used a brush ink pen, but you could always use silver pen, Christmassy shapes cut out of contrasting coloured paper, a stamp and ink or cut out shapes using a scalpel.

It's snowing outside here in Munich and attaching these pretty tags to the presents I am wrapping is making me feel very Christmassy!

Sewn-up Christmas: Part 2 - Handmade Pears and Apple Tea Towel

I love tea towels. Especially anything colourful and fun or any made from beautiful linen. And, being both pretty and practical, I think they make great gifts.

I made this cute tea towel below by simply hemming the edges of a piece of cotton fabric, sewing a decorative edging along the bottom and then printing the bottom section using halves of an apple and pear and some lime green and bright red fabric paint.

You may recall in your early school days dipping potatoes and fruit into bowls of paint. However, I think a more economical and effective way is to paint the fabric paint onto the fruit using a brush before stamping onto the tea towel. To finish the design, I hand painted on the stems in dark brown. To fix the fabric paint, cover the painted design with a cloth (that you don't mind getting dirty) and iron over for a few minutes.

Be sure to let your apple and pear halves dry out for a few hours before printing with them. Although I did this, I still found that the colour changed the more prints I did (although I quite liked that effect). I think this was to do with the fruit juices mixing with the paint, so if you want to keep your colours consistent, wipe the fruit with a piece of kitchen towel in between each stamp.

This is a great one to get kids involved in during the holidays. And, of course you can experiment with other fruit and veg - pineapple rings or broccoli trees for example. It works well to use a paint colour the same as the fruit/veg that you are printing with.

If you want to skip the sewing bit, just buy a plain or striped tea towel and apply your fruit stamps to that.

Have fun!


p.s. for Part 1 of Sewn-up Christmas, see my post on Hand Painted Linen Coasters

Day 13 "Art Every Day Month" - Handmade Tea Towel

If I was charging the hourly rate I used to charge as a banking lawyer, this might be perhaps the most expensive tea towel every created, since it took me nearly 4 hours to make (that's around $2000 in "lawyer" time then). OK, so I am not an experienced sewer. That's actually an understatement. This is my first sewing effort with my very first sewing machine. So most of those 4 hours were spent working out how to set up and use the thing. But I learnt a lot. As well as learning how to wind my bobbin, insert it correctly, thread the top thread and pick up the bottom thread, I also learnt that I hate sewing. Can't stand it. Really, it's one of the most stressful things I've done since spending 3 hours working on a loan agreement to then have "the system" go down on me and lose all my work. But the biggest surprise of all? I was actually so chuffed with the end result that I'm willing to put myself through it all again! So I shall persevere and see if it gets easier and less frustrating the more I do it.

Anyway, here is the tea towel, complete with (very proudly) mitred corners, a ribbon loop, decorative  edging on the bottom (which I had bought at a cute store in Vienna) and an appliqued strip of contrasting fabric on the top.  I also thought about adding a pear "stamp" with some fabric paint, but I think 4 hours is enough time spent on one tea towel!

As much as I'd like to give you a "how to" guide, I really don't think I'm the person to be giving sewing lessons. Well not just yet, anyway...

From jam jar to make-up brush holder

I'm a firm believer that storage for ordinary things shouldn't have to look ordinary. It's nice to find something pretty in unexpected places. So in a “Blue Peter” moment this morning (maybe only those of you who grew up in the UK will get that reference), I rinsed out this jar and, with a bit of double-sided sticky tape and some wrapping paper I had in the draw, created this cute container for my make-up brushes.

I’m not a particularly “crafty” type, but this was dead easy.  I just measured the circumference and depth of the straight bit of the jar and cut a piece of the wrapping paper to size. Then I stuck small pieces of double-sided sticky tape along one edge of the right side of the wrapping paper and carefully placed it into the jar (sticky side at the top and towards the glass). Voila!

If you wanted to get really creative, you could make your design for the paper (or use your office doodles). You could also use to store pens & pencils or as a tea light holder, but with the paper on the outside (to avoid fire hazard) and some wire bent around the opening so you can hang it up.