Crafting | Pure Sugar

Tea-Dying and Tote Bag Adorning

June 27, 2012 9:30 am \ Leave a Comment \ Carol B.

Here’s another craft project I created over the weekend! My mom was visiting (my dad was camping with Drew and the boys at Cub & Partner weekend for Cub Scouts) and I decided to introduce her to the wonder of Hobby Lobby. It’s a good thing the store isn’t that convenient for me to get to, otherwise I’d be in trouble.

We really struck gold with their various clearance sections (and hidden clearance within the aisles). I picked up a black fabric tote for under $3 and a package of 5 doilies for around $3 and immediately had an idea of how I wanted to adorn it. Originally I thought of placing a doily in the corner and spraying bleach. But that was going to be messier than I wanted. Next best thing? Dye the doily to get the antique color I wanted and then just stick it on the bag.

Here’s a quick pic of the doilies before I dyed them:

First, I dunked the doily in tea and let it sit for a few minutes before hanging it up to dry.

Can you tell that they now look a little aged? Then I gathered my supplies (LOL… told you this was easy).

And then I just carefully dotted fabric glue along the back of the doily and then placed in where I wanted it.

And now I have a roomy black tote bag with a little bit of style! I think that between trips to the lake and the park it’ll see a lot of use this summer.

Posted in: Crafting \ Tagged: craft ideas, crafting, crafts, easy projects

Ridiculously Easy Initial Wreath

June 26, 2012 11:57 am \ Leave a Comment \ Carol B.

I have been getting quite a bit of crafting done lately, which has been awesome! It’s a combination of finding just the right items at just the right price, and the fact that Laura is starting to play a little more independently, allowing me bits of time to play Last weekend I completed a project I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: make a new wreath for our front door.

I wish we could have a really cool painted front door, but our house is mahogany and stained a reddish-brown. Honestly, there aren’t a lot of colors besides white or cream that look good with it, so it definitely needs a bit of adornment. When I found a big “B” on clearance at Michael’s, I was totally inspired! Then, when I was at Hobby Lobby and I found burlap ribbon, my life was made much easier.

Basically, I took a straw wreath and wrapped it with the burlap ribbon, securing the back with floral greening pins (like these). I carefully positioned my letter so that I could feed ribbon through the top, allowing me to change it with the seasons. Then I hot-glued the letter to the wreath, arranged my silk flowers (hot-glueing when necessary and hoping it will peel off easily when I decide to change up the wreath), and fed the ribbon between the wreath form and the “B” to create the hanger.

And voila! A new wreath that I made in less than an hour (complete with interruptions). The real genius of this wreath, though, is how it is hung. My mom gets all the credit for this idea. Basically, I created a loop at the top of the ribbon (yep, again with my hot glue), and cut a slit for the wreath hanger to slide into. Here are a couple pictures — hopefully they make it clearer.

This way, the ribbons doesn’t get all twisted and you can use one of those inexpensive wreath hangers from the dollar store. So far it’s holding up great! I am sure you could sew the ribbon in addition to glueing it to make it extra secure.

Anyway, I am really happy with the way it turned out and now my front door is a little more welcoming.

Posted in: Crafting, House & Home \ Tagged: crafting, crafts, decorating, easy projects, wreaths

Super Simple Teacher (and Bus Driver!) Gifts

June 19, 2012 1:38 pm \ 1 Comment \ Carol B.

The end of the school year is upon us! Yes, I realize that much of the country has been out of school for quite a while, but here in the Northeast, many schools still start in September and go until the end of June. I wanted to put together a few thank-you gifts for the teachers and our bus driver, but since (as usual) I don’t plan until the last minute, I came up with a few very simple tokens of appreciation.

According to Jake, his teacher really loves chocolate, so I packaged some super-indulgent chocolate-drizzled chocolate biscotti into a Ball jar and tied it all up with a tag that reads, “Thanks for making me one smart cookie.”

Noah’s teacher loves her coffee. In fact, she sings songs about coffee to her class! Even though we’ve already chipped in to the class gift (she’s retiring this year), I wanted Noah to give her a little something to show our appreciation. So I packaged up a bag of coffee and a biscotti for her. The tag reads (the completely unoriginal, but that’s okay) “Thanks a latté for being a great teacher!”

And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to thank our kids’ bus driver who is just the best! Again, I didn’t want to go crazy — just to thank him for getting Jake & Noah from here to there. He’s getting a big back of Reese’s Pieces and the tag reads, “We are thrilled to pieces that you are our bus driver. Thanks for keeping us safe!”

I am sure my husband will groan when he reads my puns, but hey — that’s just the kind of gal I am Anyway… I’m going to have the boys also write notes to their teachers to round out the gifts. Just a couple more days to go!

Posted in: Crafting \ Tagged: easy projects, gifts, teacher appreciation, teachers gifts

Giraffe Hat and Diaper Cover

April 26, 2012 1:54 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carol B.

Ah, it’s been a while! Well, last week the weather was too beautiful. Earlier this week, Laura wanted nothing more than to rock with mama and cuddle (growth spurt perhaps – her conversational skills seem to have exploded overnight).

At least I had my Apple iPod Touch to keep me connected! I also have been working on some crochet projects.

Every year the Rhinebeck Science Foundation hosts a gala fundraiser with a silent auction. As much as I want to attend the gala, it’s just not in the cards this year. But some of my friends from our craft group decided to put together a basket of baby items for the silent auction.

I offered to whip up a baby set. Originally I intended to make a cute bear hat, figuring it was gender-neutral and come on — who doesn’t like teddy bears? But while looking through my stash of yarn I changed my mind. I was inspired by some buttery yellow yarn and a bit of brown. A giraffe set! Here’s how it came out:

I combined elements from three different patterns to complete this project:

Hat body (or use your own favorite pattern): EZ Earflaps Hat
Horns: I used the horns from this pattern as a guide, but didn’t follow the instructions exactly:
Ears: from this Baby Giraffe Hat pattern
The diaper cover is a pattern I came up with on my own when I was making all those bunny sets. For the tail I just made 5 DC into a magic circle and crocheted around until it was the length I wanted. I stuffed the tail into the opening, and then DC2tog until it was closed up. Then I reinforced everything by hand-sewing. For the spots I just crocheted circles (again, the magic circle is your friend!) and sewed them on.

It was a pretty quick and satisfying project! I hope that whoever wins the basket loves it!

Posted in: Crafting, Knitting & Crochet \ Tagged: crochet

easter softie decoration

April 4, 2012 9:30 am \ Leave a Comment \ Carol B.

I didn’t do much Spring or Easter decorating this year. Terrible, I know. But sometimes the idea of dragging out the boxes, putting out the stuff, and just having to pack it all back up in a few weeks seems like too much effort. But I felt like I should do something.

I had collected a few ideas on my Pinterest boards, and for my inspiration I used these fabric carrots from The Ballard Bunch and these other fabric carrots from Clare’s Craftroom. This is what I came up with:

I’m pretty happy with them, though I don’t think I like the fabric I used to tie the three together. It’s just what I grabbed. Maybe a need a small bow around the top of each individual carrot, too. What do you think?

The carrots were easy enough to make. I just cut long triangles from three different fat quarters and sewed up the side. I sewed a casing at the top, stuffed the carrots with Polyfill, and then cinched the opening together with crochet thread. For the leaves, I used my trusty hot glue gun and some green ribbon. I just made loops that looked about right. I glued the sides of the center loop to each adjoining loop in order to get them to stand up a little bit.

Super easy project and now at least I feel like I did a little something for the holiday!

Posted in: Crafting, Holidays & Entertaining, Sewing \ Tagged: craft ideas, easter, holidays, sewing

getting serious about sewing

March 22, 2012 12:16 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carol B.

I’ll be honest with you. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal when it comes to, well, pretty much anything. Take a class? Pfft. Yeah, right. I tend to just dive in and start something new. Most of the time this has worked in my favor. Knitting and crochet were both successes, but I’m having a little more trouble with sewing. Time to get serious.

Of course, I’m still not taking a class, but I did buy this book called Stitch by Stitch: Learning to Sew, One Project at a Time by Deborah Moebes and I plan to sew my way through it, one project at a time. I also considered 1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projects by Ellen Luckett Baker but the projects didn’t seem as interesting. I mean, I can sew napkins, placements, pillowcase dresses, that kind of stuff. But the Moebes book seemed to go a little further. The final project is a cap sleeve blouse, and honestly that was the clincher. I’m really excited to get it!

Anyone have any other favorite sewing books they’d like to recommend? The first book I bought was Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol and I still love that book!

Posted in: Crafting, Sewing \ Tagged: sewing crafting books

skirting the issue

February 21, 2012 9:55 am \ 4 Comments \ Carol B.

With spring coming, I wanted to finally get around to sewing up some skirts for Laura. I wanted to do this last year, but never actually got around to it, even though I bought the fabric! Yesterday I had extra time in the afternoon so I figured I’d give it a whirl.

I used this simple skirt tutorial from MADE, a fabric remnant I had in my stash, and apparently the wrong bobbin for my machine (I’ll get to that later). Anyway, it really is a simple project. The ironing is the most difficult part of the whole thing! Laura was very excited about it. She immediately put it on over her pants and started running around the house like a crazy girl. You’d think she required a Duracell procell battery or something, but no… She just has a lot of energy!

Now, the bobbin story. As I sewed I noticed that the bottom thread wasn’t sewing a nice line. It was all loose and messy. When I checked my manual, I realized that I’m supposed to use a specific type of bobbin for my machine. Of course. And the bobbins I had been using were just generic bobbins. Of course. That might have something to do with my “bird-nesting” problems as well. So I ordered the correct bobbins, and today I am going to clean the machine and change the needle (because I have never done that, either), and hopefully that will take care of the problem!

But if you’re looking for a cute and quick little girl’s skirt – I recommend this tutorial to get yourself going!

Posted in: Crafting, Sewing \ Tagged: easy projects, sewing