Ruby Star Wrapping :: Pillowcase Pouch

One thing I love about sew-alongs such as Ruby Star Wrapping {and Zakka!} is seeing what others do with the same pattern. Case in point: seeing Amy/Diary of a Quilter share her Pillowcase Pouches made me want to run right to my sewing room!

When I finally did get there, I started off with a couple of basic pouches. Great idea Amy had to do French seams, and it barely added any time at all, but made a really nice finish. And for families that like to reuse bags (paper or otherwise) year after year, this simple tip will likely prolong their usefulness.

The first thing I learned making the Pillowcase Pouch was to keep in mind the directional nature of the fabric, which you can see illustrated above and below. 

I discovered that for a very flat gift, you really don't need to fold the top over, and with a festive reindeer accent strip, who really even needs a ribbon?

On my last pouch, I used a companion fabric for the top several inches. And since my fabric wasn't quite wide enough for my gift, I decided to add contrasting side insets. . .

then small gussets at the base helped accommodate the thickness of the gift.

So for the little amount of time spent on these handmade wrappings, I got four presents ready to gift, and enjoyed a much needed dose of sewing room time.

Fabric in picture order: from Riley Blake's "Christmas Candy", Kate Spain's "12 days of Christmas", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Marisa and Creative Thursday (reindeer from Kate Spain's "Flurry" panel), and lastly, "Brrr!" by Laurie Wisbrun. Linking up with Ruby Star Wrap-Along and the Ruby Star Wrapping Contest.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: Simple Drawstring Bag

Well, I learned a few things yesterday. I was attempting to make one of this week's Ruby Star Wrap-Along projects, a drawstring bag gathered with elastic thread. I'm pretty sure I had used this thread before, but ages ago, and definitely not with my current machine. So I thought I was following instructions, but ended up with this - a cute bag that had very little scrunch at the top or any stretch for that matter.

Here I was, using one of my favorite Kaufman Sparkle All the Way reindeer prints, so I really wanted to figure things out. I consulted with Faith of Fresh Lemons, who made some darling bags as part of the wrap-along. She suggested I spritz the gathers and go at them with a hot iron and plenty of steam. I did, but even though that was a great suggestion and proved helpful later on in the process, it wasn't the root of my problem.

After posting my pitiful problem bag on Instagram last night, Jana_Nielson and Busybean came to my rescue. Between their suggestions and a little web searching, I figured out the solution to my issue. See below, my two test samples? The one on the left didn't gather at all, where the one on the right looks great.

It's this post by Simple Analogy that gave me the real clue: check out the second and third picture in her post, where it says 'WRONG' and 'RIGHT'. Seriously - hop on over and check it out while I wait. You need to know this. la la la la la . . .

Ok, see? My elastic thread in the bobbin was not catching in the tension guide!

So I manually pulled it up with the flywheel, but even then, it was a bit tricky. I found that if I held a little tight to both my upper and lower threads, it would catch - something I could easily see if it was right or wrong, once I knew what to look for. And it made all the difference!!

Just for the record, it still took the steam Faith suggested to make it gather, but gather it did. It's darling just as it is, but I though I'd also show you what a contrasting ribbon can do.

Whew! All that for one little bag, but now I know! And now another of these bags will come together in just a few short minutes!

Linking up with Ruby Star Wrap-Along and the Ruby Star Wrapping Contest.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: Little Snack Sack

I was prepping some sewing projects this afternoon, and one thing I wanted to figure out was a gift card holder. There were a few on Pinterest, but I really didn't want to install snaps or buttons. Glancing through my copy of Ruby Star Wrapping, the Little Snack Sack caught my eye, though it was much larger than I needed. I went ahead and made one up, just to familiarize myself with the pattern.

Thirty minutes from choosing fabric, I had a wrapped gift. This little sack measures 6 1/2" wide by 7 1/4" tall, and is definitely a pattern I'll turn to again.

And it was easily adaptable for my purposes! I cut my fabric for this second one down to 4 1/2" by 7". From there, the only change I made to the instructions was in step #4 - to fold only 3/4". Tied up with a bit of baker's twine, it was exactly what I wanted.

I'll be linking up with Ruby Star Wrapping.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: Perfect Wine Wrap

While we were on a wine-tour vacation last summer, we picked up a bottle for friends, who we happened to meet  for dinner last night. So the Perfect Wine Wrap project came along at just the right time. I used Parson Gray's Curious Nature as the main fabric, trying to make the wrap a tad masculine. Where the suggestion in the book was to use a vintage tea towel as the lining, I used some Essex Linen. Though the original idea that this wrap could be re-purposed as a kitchen towel is very clever.

Seriously, this project was done and the bottle wrapped in about 30 minutes. The only change I'd make next time would be to do a better measurement for where I wanted the ribbon casing (which is only on one end, the right-hand one in this photo). In following the guideline of 2" from the top, I wasn't able to place the ties equally at the ends, which would have made me happier.

If you'd like to see another take on this project, Heather of Bolt Neighborhood had her own twist. I loved her idea, though it didn't work for my particular bottle. (I tried!)

Overall though, this was a nice quick way of wrapping up this simple gift.

Linking up with Ruby Star Wrapping.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: The Melody-Didn't-Mean-to-Make-It Tote

Apparently, this Ruby Star Wrapping pattern was an accident, created unexpectedly while designing a different project. But considering my fondness for fabric bags, it was one project in the book I needed to try. I pulled out some pretty special fabrics - my first Anna Maria Horner Field Study for the main bag fabric, Lizzy House jewels for the accent, and a new favorite, Dear Stella Diamond Dots for the lining.

Please don't get me wrong - this bag turned out great, and I very well will be making it again. But I struggled with just a few details. One being the contrasting top - it was shown in the book's photo, and one of the details I really liked about it, but specific directions weren't given, just the measurement of this piece. Because of this, I think, my batting didn't go to the top of the focus fabric. Maybe this was the intent, but it seemed a little odd. Also, adding the circle bottom of the bag was in no way an exact science. It confused me for a bit, but it seemed just fine in the end.

Meanwhile, I loved the suggested random quilting - just some angled lines here and there. And the use of the batt gives the bag a really nice hand. One little warning - I'll tell you up front there are buttonholes involved! I shortcut and only put in one as I was having, uh, issues. But I think it'll work just fine. Oh, and do know that this is a good size bag - 10" wide at the bottom x 18" tall. It'll hold serious stuff!

Check out Lucky Lucille for her take on this project. Linking up with the Ruby Star Wrap-Along,  Finish it Up Friday, and the Ruby Star Wrapping Contest.

W.i.P. Wednesday

So it's W.i.P. Wednesday, and I've got two thoughts about today's post. One, that if you're a regular follower, you've seen most of this before, and two, seriously, how slow can one person piece three quilt tops? Pretty slow, as I've proven. That's just how life's been in the sewing room lately - slow and steady, with mostly little finishes. But these W.i.P. Wednesday posts seem to be my sewing journal of sorts, so I'll post it as it as. OK?

Finished projects
Hurricane Sandy Help! blocks - I managed to get 4 more blocks + 2 bindings done and shipped off to Jennifer, who already has a couple of quilt tops pieced!!

 

UR Priceless Blog Hop - It was fun making these little(3"!) frame purses with a variety of fabrics and techniques.

Ruby Star's Chinese Takeout Box - This little box was the first project in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along - an easy, quick, and practical project that I can see me repeating for a variety of occasions.

Cute Bot Skirt - This little toddler skirt was a birthday gift for grandgirl and was an easy foray back into the realm of making kid clothes. Very fun.

 

Lined Drawstring Bag - My go-to bag pattern by In Color Order came out again this week, which always makes a lovely finish. This one's "The Project Bag", made from Kate Spain's Good Fortune. The lining, which you can't really see, is a perfectly coordinating Free Spirit Designer Solids in Ice.

Ongoing projects

Mod Pop Quilt-along - So I'm piecing these two columns row by row, and then will add the edges. I'm in the home stretch, but taking my time.

Christmas lap quilt - This has been the view of the strips for the remaining blocks for the last week. I hope to get to them soon.

Modern Crosses quilt - Lots of strip piecing going on with this one. Once these strips are trimmed and pieced, I should have another dozen blocks done at least.

Upcoming projects
* October & November bee blocks
* scrappy Metrolink
* more frame purses
* Polaroid block projects
* placemats
* Binary quilt using blocks from Modern Blocks Bee
* Christmas!
* Dresden project - back on the 'sometime' list, and probably no time soon

Linking up with W.i.P. Wednesday.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: Ruby Star's Chinese Takeout Box

After receiving a copy of Melody Miller and Allison Tannery's new book, Ruby Star Wrapping, at Sewing Summit, you can imagine how pleased I was to see Amy start up her Ruby Star Wrap-Along! There are lots of clever and useful project ideas in the book, and while I don't plan on doing every one like I did with the Zakka Sew Along, I do hope to do the ones that especially capture my fancy.

And this first one, shared by Anna of Noodlehead, looked fun. Plus there's someone in my family who really gets a kick out of Chinese takeout boxes, so I figured I might as well try my hand at one.

If you have the book, there's a link mentioned in the techniques section that let's you print the template at 100%. That really helped.

I had just enough Pellon #808 Craft Fuse on hand to use as the directions suggested, but still found my box a tad unwieldy as I tried to glue the bottom, so I put my handy-dandy Wonder Clips into play, and they helped stabilize things just enough to get the job done.

Even though I'm not one to rush the holidays, I did enjoy digging into my stash for some of Robert Kaufman's O Tinsel Tree. And the project, start to end, took under an hour. So there's one little gift box ready for Christmas wrapping.

Linking up with the Ruby Star Wrap-Along.