Craft Instructions

Reversi Purse

10.03.2003 - This is a purse I started several months ago, and just finished today. The purse was made using two pieces of fabric from the remnant bin at JoAnn's; the tan material is some sort of twill (kind of medium weight) and the brown is a lightweight polyester (I think). The pattern is my own; I wanted to make a purse that was completely reversible.

Three quarters of the way through the project, I didn't think that it was going to be successfully reversible. It looked like the brown "inside" was going to be way bigger than the tan "outside", mostly because the nature of the material made it difficult to control going through the machine. When it was all stitched together, it turns out to be (almost) perfect.

This is the first time I've used the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. It works fabulously. All I had to do was put the foot on the machine, insert the button into the foot, and stomp down on the foot pedal. I warned Kris when he left today that when he came back, all of his clothes might have buttonholes. :)

If and when I do another purse/bag like this, I will probably use two fabrics that are medium weight. I love the look of the brown material, but I don't think it will hold up to much wear on the outside of the bag.

I just realized there is no scale in these photos, but I slipped a textbook inside the purse to make it behave for the photo shoot, so it's pretty big, but not huge.

Snowflakes

10.01.2003 - These snowflakes came from a Wrights kit that my mom bought on sale. The kit contained the lace, plastic ring, and cording for the hanger-loop, and so very few instructions that I had a lot of figuring to do. These can be made easily with 12" of 1-1/2" to 2" wide lace, a 1" (outside diameter) plastic ring, glue, fabric stiffener, some fishing line, and a little ingenuity.

Poinsettia Wreath

This wreath is made out of individual poinsettia flowers made from pieces of ribbon. The wreath base is a 14" styrofoam ring wrapped in green sheer ribbon. There are about 50 poinsettias pinned to the wreath base...

I will post instructions for making the poinsettia flowers soon. If you can't wait and want to try to figure it out yourself, start by cutting diamond-shaped pieces of 3" wide ribbon — I used double-faced satin and faux velvet ribbon in several colors. Pleat each diamond across the narrow width, and tack with a piece of thread. Wire together three pleated ribbons to form each six-pointed poinsettia flower.

The trick to making each flower is how you wire the three pleated diamonds together. Start with two pleated diamonds and place them side by side. Wrap thin gauge wire (30 ga.) around the two diamonds. On one side of the wire, fold the two petals apart and squeeze the third pleated diamond in between. Essentially when you're done, you will have the three pleated diamonds in a triangle. This is really difficult to explain (even Martha Stewart's instructions didn't have this part outlined, I had to figure it out myself). I will post some photos of the assembly process soon.

Craft Instructions

Weave-It instructions
Instructions for using the Weave-It Loom. Loom is approximately 3" x 3" with pegs around the sides. Used for weaving yarn squares which can then be assembled into potholders, blankets, or whatever you like. Instructions in PDF format.

Folded-paper Stars (or Folded-Ribbon Stars)
Making star ornaments for your Christmas tree using strips of paper or ribbon and simple folding technique.