Like a lot.

They’re ridiculously addictive.

I was inspired by Rachel’s hexie kit I stumbled upon while Googling hexies and sort of put one of my own together. I thought I had a punch but it appears I have every shape but a hexagon, it figures.

The pouch houses all my hexie worthy scraps, scissors, thread and the paper pieces. Then I keep my other scissors (why two? who knows) in the other container and plunk the finished hexies in there. I had a bunch that I’ve already sewn together but they’ve already moved down to my production area (aka corner of the basement).

You will need:
- a scrap of fabric
- a wooden cut out
- glue gun
- pin back
- scissors
- Modge Podge or white glue

Trace your wood shape on the wrong side of your fabric. If you have a special part of the pattern you want to capture make sure you’ve placed it in the right place.

Spread Modge Podge on the wooden piece. Cut out the fabric and place it on.

Plug in your glue gun and add your pin back with a little blob of hot glue. You may need to trim excess fabric from places with small scissors or an exacto knife.

Next have someone around to take a finished photo for you because propping a camera up on items and hoping for a good shot is very hit and miss.

You get the idea.

I had the idea of doing a giveaway but then I thought maybe other people are having the same problem and we could set up a swap. I’ve got some things that came as freebies with Etsy orders, or items from other swaps, cute sticky notes, stickers and of course ribbon, fabric and buttons that I’ll probably never get to using!

Sooooo anyone want to play along? Sign up below until Wednesday January 11th. I’ll match us up (open internationally unless you tell me otherwise) and email partners so you can work out addresses and such. I suppose the contents should cost about $10-$15 but I’m hoping we can all just share some neglected creative stuff and pass it on to someone who may be inspired. Of course you can also include a handmade by you item, I know I will.

I was also hoping this post will distract from the fact that I haven’t completed a CreateAlong project in a while . . . next week I’ll reveal all my neglected projects, I promise!

So for my cup cozie giveaway the lucky winner is Bryanna!

For a 10 ounce bag of new to you fabric scraps the winner is Meredith!

And because I have a huge bin of fabric scraps and why not share the love I decided to choose a second winner, so congrats also goes out to Heather!

Emails coming in a few moments ladies.

I’m also being totally lazy and skipping on sharing my Create Along for this week, things have been so busy at work and home. I did not have time to crochet up those adorable slippers. However, we are going away for a week over the holidays and I just might take that project with me since it’s more portable than my sewing machine!

But for the next week I’m going to choose something pretty easy since we’re all busy and I’ll be going crazy with a Nate’s turning 3 party to organize, Christmas to organize and a trip to get ready for!  Let’s make one of these handy pincushions. The PDF won’t let me steal an image to put here but click on over and see what it looks like and if you can squeeze it into your busy week play along with me!

One lucky winner will get 10 ounces of fun scraps from my stash! I’m sure I’ll toss in some other fun goodies too. Picture below is just a random scrap photo I had, actual scraps will vary.

Leave a comment and good luck!

Here’s my handmade item my I

Perfect to keep your hand nice and cool while you enjoy your favourite warm beverage.

I’m also giving away 10 ounces of fabric scraps, enter that one here. I have a bit of an addiction and I’m sharing it with you. Here are some of my recent scrap acquisitions, you’ll get a random surprise pack made up of this and that (possibly with bits and pieces of what’s below)

I love the fun rainbow/froggies in the rain print. For the inside I just reached into my scrap stash and grabbed something.

The pouch opens up ridiculously wide, it would be great for lots of little things like make up, art supplies, or crafting stuffs. The zipper goes in really well once you cut the little notches in it and my dumpling is only a little bit wonky on one side.

Just tilt your head a little and it looks like a really good pouch. Now I have no idea what advice to offer to get this side looking good. Maybe “close your eyes”?

I have absolutely no stinking idea how that happened and I’m stumped on how to fix it. I’ve turned the pouch and tried to resew that seam and every time I turn it back right side out that one corner is all stupid. Soooo oh well I’m just going to have to live with it. However, I will be trying again once I had some spare time! But if you don’t look to hard, or need the pouch to stand up on it’s own it looks great!

For my next trick I’m going to be sewing up one of these handy things. I’m usually fumbling for my headphones in the car to use my phone, or they get all tangled up in my purse or gym bag. I’m hoping this little friend will solve all those problems. Plus it’s got no corners so I can’t really mess it up too much!

Sometimes we all need a little nap and this sleep mask will help you have a restful slumber.  All while looking pretty stinking cute!

My husband and I take turns having a ‘sleep in day’ on the weekends.  I have to tell you I count down to that day every week.  I started to use a sleep mask to maximize my sleeping in experience.  It was just a silly freebie one from one of our airplane trips and I’ve already had to repair it a few times so I decided to just make a much lovelier one.

Here’s what you’ll need for this DIY project:

- SleepMask

- batting or fleece

- fabric for the backing (something you won’t mind against your skin while sleeping)

- fabric scraps at least 4 inches in height

- 16 inch piece of elastic

- usual sewing items, thread, machine, scissors

- embroidery floss and needle (optional)

I manged to find some Goldilocks and Three Bears fabric in my stash so I was a bit fussy with the placement of the pattern.

We’re going to use quilting techniques to piece the scraps together.  Think about how you’ll want your pieces positioned if you have a particular pattern you want to highlight and place the next print at the edge of the first print with right sides together.  Sew down the edge, seam allowance isn’t really that important just make sure you have a straight stitch.  My Goldilocks print was uneven so I lined up the brown swirly print to create a straight edge.

Add the next fabric print just like you did before.  Right sides together and sew down in a straight line.  Continue attaching pieces of fabric until you have a piece that measures at least 8 x 5.  My last piece is lower because I was lining up the print in a certain way.  Plus this way I’ll still have some usable scraps left over!

Now take your printed template and trace the mask outline onto your little quilted bits.

Cut along the outline.  Lay your cutout right side up on top of your batting.  It’s not important to trim it down just yet, we’ll do that in a few steps.  Add some stitches just to the right and left of your seams.  This is a fun little decorative detail and will help hold the inner batting in place.  I stuck with my cream coloured thread but you could use matching thread, or something crazy and contrasting.

I decided to get even more creative and stitched ‘Shh!’ onto my mask.  If you’d like to add any embroidery stitches to your mask do it now.  Draw on the design with a water soluble or disappearing fabric marker.  Stitch through the 2 layers.

Now trace the template onto your backing fabric.  Cut it out.  Place your quilted fabric with the batting side on your work surface.  Next put the elastic piece down with about 1/2 inch sticking out over the edge of the mask cutouts.  Place the backing piece on top right side down.  The elastic will be sandwiched between the 2 pieces of fabric.  Pin the elastic ends in place.  Make sure the pin is going through all the layers.

With the wrong side of the backing facing you sew around the entire mask outline with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Backstitch over the elastic bits for some extra stability.  Leave an opening about 1 inch in length for turning.  Trim the excess batting away.  I usually make sure to leave a little bit at the opening just to make sure it will close when topstitching.  You should be left with something like this.  Make sure the elastic wasn’t caught up in any of the stitching.

Turn the mask right side out.  Use something pokey to make sure it’s pushed out all along the edges, I use a chopstick.

Once it’s all turned out you can give it a quick press to get the edges all nice and flat.  Then topstitch all around the entire mask fairyly close to the edge with an even border.  Again, make sure you aren’t catching the elastic while stitching.

And you’re done!  Enjoy the many extra hours of sleep protected from the sun’s evil “I’m here to wake you up!” rays.

It’s really hard to take a picture of yourself pretend sleeping, but that’s authentic bedhead and sleepiness.  Sadly, the sleep mask won’t stop your children from jumping on you and waking you up.

I’m proud of it for many reasons.

1. it’s made entirely of scraps from my ever growing pile.

2. it’s the 7th Keyka Lou pattern I’ve made (I have more of her PDFs, untouched)

3. did I mention I got to use some scraps

I love Michelle’s patterns.  Not only are the designs really nice but the patterns are clear and simple to follow and I usually learn something new.  She’s got great sewing tips on her blog and all sorts of little tricks to make finishing touches easy.

Please let me know if you played along, and I’m sure she’s appreciate if you added your photo to her Flickr group.

Next up!

See Kate Sew is doing this great sweet scalloped tote sew along and so I figured I’d join in and let you know about it too. Plus it’s a free pattern and tutorial! She’s also following it up with a linky party so if you get yours done by the 15th you can even link up on her blog!

If you’ve created along with me lbg also has a Flickr group for sharing things made from her tutorials and patterns. I promise her convertible tote will be in this feature some day soon.

I used my new dying of cuteness fabric, had a hard time cutting into it but hey what else is it for? I paired it with some scraps I have kicking around.

I didn’t have fusible fleece so I just used some scrap fleece i had lying around instead. It feels pretty puffy but I’m not sure that’s the way it should be.

Next challenge a boxy pouch! Perhaps you’ve made one of these, perhaps not. I haven’t and I’ve wanted to for a while. Now that I’ve got zippers and flat pouch making down I’m ready for this twist.

I found 2 tutorials that seem like they’ll work, these first two are lined and the first one will be seamless and the other will have seams on the inside (which means no tricky turning), this one isn’t lined at all and might be good for a thicker fabric. So choose your weapon and come play along!