Sunday, November 22, 2009

Crafting In Progress - Do Not Disturb!

I'm SO on a roll here. Seriously, I think I'll be done with Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving! Okay not quite, but I've got a great start on it. I would show pictures, but my family reads this so I must refrain. I have taken pictures though so I can share after the holidays...trust me, I will. I'm totally in the Christmas spirit and I've decided to do mostly homemade gifts. Not just because money is tighter this year, but because I completely enjoy giving gifts that I've made myself. It gives me a sense of pride...I'm very humble, right? Haha!
So here are a couple things that I can share with you. I'm a sewing machine these days. Last year for Christmas I made microwaveable rice bags for everyone in my family. I seriously made 10 of them. And neglected to make one for myself, and I've needed a new one for a couple years now. So I splurged for myself:

Nothing terribly exciting or difficult skill-wise, but I'm personally excited about it.
I saw a tutorial for a plastic bag holder made out of a dishtowel. So Haddie and I made a trip to Dollar Tree and got this dishtowel that matches my kitchen.
I would have hemmed it so it wasn't quite so long but I didn't want to cut off the cute stripes on the bottom. So it will suffice, at least until I find another dishtowel that I like better. For now I love it, though!!
I've made some super cute purses and aprons this last week so those will be in my next post! Watch for them - They are darling! There goes my humility again :)

4 comments:

  1. Hey how do you make the rice bags? I so want one! I cant wait to see your gifts! I am doing alot of homemade gifts too! Like you I cant post them until after Christmas! I am thinking that ideas posted after Christmas will make for great Christmas presents next year! Keep up the great Crafting and Posting!

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  2. The rice bag was really easy! Seriously one of my quickest projects I've done lately. I got a $1 dishtowel and 5 lb bag of plain rice from WalMart. (I have about 1/4 bag of rice leftover)
    I folded the towel in half length-wise to create a crease. Then unfolded it and folded in each long side to the crease & pinned it. Then I sewed right down the center of it to create two long 'tubes.' Make sure to backstitch really well. Then I sewed up one of the ends. I actually did 2 seams - I had problems and ended up breaking a needle where all of the finished edges met up - that's a lot of fabric! So I did a seam right on the edge of the bottom and also next to the end of the hemmed edge of the bottom where there was less fabric. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to worry about rice falling out the end.
    Then I used a funnel and filled up each 'tube' with rice. I didn't completely fill it because I like the rice to be able to move around in there. Plus I don't know if they would heat as well?
    Once I had it filled, I pinned and sewed the top closed using the same method as the bottom for 2 seams.
    *I've seen tutorials to make these online, and some of them used:
    * Uncooked rice
    * Wheat
    * Feed corn
    * Buckwheat hulls
    * Barley
    * Oatmeal
    * Beans
    * Flax seed
    * Cherry pits
    Also, some want to create an aromatherapy-type bag, so they'll add lavender, rose petals, ground cloves, nutmeg, ginger, rosemary, cinnamon, peppermint oil, or crushed mint. They add that to the rice & mix well before filling the bag. There's lots of tutorials out there, so if I'm not making sense just Google it!

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  3. Thanks for visiting my blog! Can't wait to see what you have made for your family!

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  4. This whole being on a 'role' thing is really messing with our 'us' time! I'll be glad for it to soon be done, not that that means I will really have time...but one can hope!! :)

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