Fine Craft Guild .com » Sewing, Knitting

PS I Made This

Fine Craft Guild — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:46:00 +0000

great title, great book.

Part designer DIY
Part fashion
Part lifestyle inspiration guide.

I counted 27 projects in this book. All are practical and with easy (obvious) to follow instructions.

Here is a sample of a project:

How to Make a Fancy Ruffle Shirt

(Upcycling a plain boring white t-shirt)

Get Inspired

Not only does the writer Erica Domesek give us great projects to do ourselves, with step-by-step instructions; she also shares where she gets her inspiration from, encouraging us to cross-pollinate ideas and be creative ourselves.

As styles are diverse, surely not all 27 will be according to your taste. However, they don’t need to be. If you are an avid reader of my blog, this book will be a teaser for you to apply your own creativity.

You’ll pick up some techniques, which you can take further and you restyle, refashion or reuse things to represent you, using the book as your initial starting point and how-to guide.

E.g. If you don’t like those bouncy balls in that tied pantyhose necklace, well, use something else instead. You could use some left over foam balls, or even some IKEA packaging materials, chopped up. The pack I opened last night had a great foam cube in it that just screamed ‘craft me’ into something good !! Or, use a could of standard black/white dices instead. All these would make great statement jewelry, riding along the lines of black/white and recycling trends.

See it, like it, buy it:

PAPERBACK VERSION: P.S.– I Made This: I See It. I Like It. I Make It
KINDLE VERSION: P.S.– I Made This

Click Here For Other: Craft, DIY & Interior Design Book Reviews

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Valentine Heart Wreaths

Fine Craft Guild — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Well-illustrated Tutorial
To Make Rag Heart Wreaths
as Valentines Gifts or Decoration

By guest writer Lilana

“Hello, Fine Art Craft Guild readers! I’m the “Lilly” in LOVD, Lilly Of the Valley Designs. I’m a hardly-at-home-stay-at-home wife and mom, retired rocket scientist, jewelry-maker, project seeker, and optimist do-gooder, and daily blogger at FeelLOVDeveryday.

I can’t tell you how over-the-top thrilled I am to have been asked to share a craft project with you, let alone a Valentine’s Day craft project.

Here’s how your end result will look. Like it?

‘Craft’ Materials Needed

The best part about this project: it will cost next to nothing but will yield spectacular results. You probably already have all the items you’ll need just sitting in your closet:

- Dry cleaners wire hanger

- Old t-shirt, color of choice

- Scissors (not shown)

- Wire cutters

- Starch (optional)

Step-by-Step Instructions

♥ STEP 1: MAKING THE WREATH FRAME.

The hardest part of this project is bending of the wire hanger. Carefully unwind the wire hanger at the hook area and shape the hanger into a heart. You’ll have the hook portion at the heart’s center. Wrap the two wires into one. Take wire cutters and cut off the excess wire. You may need stronger wire cutters than those pictured. Be sure not to cut too closely to where the wires come together as you don’t want to break the connection. I actually cut the excess wire off after I tied each rag strip.

♥ STEP 2: CREATING THE HOOK.

Take the old t-shirt and cut the bottom right above the sew line. This strip will act as your hanging strip. The sewed seam will help this strip’s role from unraveling while it hangs your Rag Heart Wreath.

♥ STEP 3: CUTTING RAG STRIPS.

Begin cutting strips starting at the bottom of the t-shirt. I made my strips between a half an inch to an inch in width and between four to five inches in length. It’s not an exact science and the variation adds character to the final result. This width and length worked so well when I tied the knot that I did not need to use the starch to force the rags to lay outwardly.

♥ STEP 4: KNOTTING YOUR WREATH.

Begin knotting each strip to the wire and follow along until the entire wire is covered. It is not a double knot, just a simple basic tie.

TIP:

When you get to the center of the heart where there are two wires coming together, take a rag strip and knot both wires together. Continue along until the entire wire is covered. Push each knotted strip together tightly.

This photo shows the heart’s center and knotting both wires together.

♥ STEP 5: FINISHING YOUR WREATH

Remember that rag strip you cut from the bottom of the t-shirt?

Go ahead and figure out what length you need based on where you’re going to hang your Rag Heart Wreath. Tie each end to the Rag Heart Wreath around the area where the heart begins to curve upwards.

Try to make that knot blend in with the rest of the knots already tied on to the wire by positioning it between the knotted rag strips already there.

HEART RAG WREATH

All done!

Go hang your swoonie Rag Heart Wreath and be proud; a Valentine’s Day craft that cost nothing, nada, zilch! Good for you and Happy Valentine’s Day, you savvy crafter, you!

I hope you enjoyed this simple craft. I’d love for you to visit me at my blog, Feel L.O.V.D. Everyday, for uplifting conversation & beautiful inspiration.”

: ♥ :

And, if you enjoyed Lilly’s bubbly voice in this tutorial here, go visit her on her blog for more! She is clearly a delightful spirit!

Thank you Lilly for this fun,

eco-friendly project!

Happy Valentines Everyone!

: ♥ :

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Sweet Little Crochet Leaves :: Free Pattern

Fine Craft Guild — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:11:00 +0000

They all beg for them: crochet flowers, crochet roses & crochet hearts all want a couple of leaves to come along with them.

Forgo the standard option of making them in green. Try a lovely cream-colored leaf to accompany your peach or pink flower, rose or heart.

Crochet Materials

Yarn: I used the softest of the softest yarn ever, i.e. 100% organic cotton.

(note: if follow this link & you choose to buy from fabric.com, you may receive FREE SHIPPING in the US on order of $35.)

Crochet needle: Recommended Knit Needle Size: US 9 (5.5 mm), however I used 4.5 mm for this leaf.

This is the very yarn I used:

Crochet Leaf Pattern 1

In essence, when making a crochet leaf, one works around a central chain. This is how all leaves are made.

For this particular leaf, make a loop and chain 10 more stitches.

Then vary the width of the leaf, like so:

Row 1: skip 1 st, 2 sc,3 dc, 2 sc, and 1 sl st.

in the first st, 3 sl st

and now start working on the other side of the chain, in reverse order of row 1, like so

Row 2: sl st, 2 sc, 3 dc, 2 sc. Now the leaf should be complete.

Now, create a tiny stem:

Chain 2,

Make 2 sl st along the chain, going back down to the leaf.

cast off. Weave in ends.

Crochet Leaf Pattern 2

cast on, ch 9

in second stitch: sl st, 2 sc, hdc, dc, tc,dc,

in the last stitch: sc, sl st, sc

now on the other side: go in the reverse order: dc, tc,dc, hdc, 2sc, and finish up with a sl st.

cast off. Weave in ends.

Time Required

Takes approximately 2 minutes to crochet a leaf.

Choice of Yarn

Tip 1: Use variate yarn, i.e. yarn which has lots of different colors is ideally suited for crochet leaf, as it closely resembles the variation in nature.

The 100% organic cotton yarn I mention above, and as you can see here, has variate colors as well as full colors. Check out either of these two color combinations shown. When you click on the images, there will be other color combi’s to consider.

Tip 2: if you want to resemble nature a tat further, make one side of the leaf a tiny bit different than the other side. Eg.exchange the 3 dc for 1 dc and 2 tc. Experiment … and before you know it, you can do freeform crochet!

Crochet Patterns

We feature many crochet patterns here at Fine Craft Guild, including:
Kaleidoscope Crochet Scarf
Coffee Cup Crochet Pattern
Crochet Bike Fashion
eBook with Crochet & Knitting Patterns
Market Bag
Crochet Beach Bag with Flowers
Kids Crochet Hat (summer)
Free Crochet Patterns – an Overview page
Free Crochet Pillow Pattern
Gorgeous Scarlet Red Scarf Crochet Lace Pattern with Oversized Flowers
Craft Storage Tips
Fluffly Heart Crochet Pillow
Crochet Monsters
Crochet Flowers
Crochet Water Bottle – beginners tutorial
Crochet Briefcase / iPad case
and more crochet patterns

Curly Grosgrain Ribbons for Valentines Day Wreaths

Fine Craft Guild — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0000

Something nifty today:
Curly grosgrain ribbons!
So cute!

I happen to fancy doing this today. Besides making darling wreaths with them, curled grosgrain ribbons are ideal to embellish a bunch of creative projects I’m working on. You need them too?

How to Curl Grosgrain Ribbons

The traditional recipe of baking curls has been around for ages:

wrap ribbon around long pin & secure,
soak in water,
sprits starch
bake in oven for 1/3 hr.

and VOILA: a mountain of curly grosgrain ribbons.

Doesn’t that look tidy?

Ode to Nikki !!

Nikki, In Stitches, explains how to make curly grosgrain ribbons in some more details on her blog, Nikki in Stitches, and then shows how to make your ribbons into whimsical Valentines Day Wreaths.

In one word: adorable.

Image credit: Nikki’s.

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Make a Recycled Dryer Sheet Envelope

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Great Idea: Make your own envelopes for keepsakes from used dryer sheets.

Jennifer from Sunny Vanilla executed this creative idea that was the brainchild of Paula Spahr. Let me show you her works of art:

How to Make Your Own Envelopes

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Just a few steps to success for this craft project:

she ironed the sheets,
folded them over,
cut the sides of the envelop flap (see picture), and
sew a decorative line at approx. 1/4” of the edge.
Then, she used that same contrast color for the card inside. Love that red-white striped card.

Perfectly Easy, Creative Recycling Project

Make a stack of them at a time, so as to make it worth your while to get the sewing machine out.

Jennifer made the dryer sheet envelops for (Valentine) greeting cards. However, I can see a million other uses for these handmade envelopes, either embellished with lot of decoupage, or plain. Jennifer added a pretty, simple and nice button.

source: sunnyvanilla.blogspot.com

Kaleidoscope Crochet Scarf

Fine Craft Guild — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Remember that freeform crochet bolero I received but which did not fit whatsoever? I modified it into a rather fun and happy scarf that sure stands out.

(I have a few crochet flowers / rosettes left over, one of which is going to be a crochet brooch, which I’ll show you another day.)

Tada: The New Freeform Crochet Scarf …

It fits and it’s beautiful.

It still is the most unusual color combination you can not envision in your wildest dreams (particularly in certain light). I might give it a tea and/or coffee natural yarn coloring bath to tone down all those bright colors. However, for the moment, I like my new scarf on a pair of jeans and a mustard green t-shirt. It’s whimsical.

On a real positive: what is great about this scarf is that it will allow you to mix & match almost any piece of clothing you own, because this scarf has all the colors to pull that outfit together (smile).

Crochet Scarf – Rosette Jewels

Now that the shape of the clothing is no longer ‘jarring’ your attention goes to the beautiful crochet flower rosettes themselves, which is a mixture of granny squares, granny circles, and double layered crochet flowers. Each is like a jewel, and the result is like a kaleidoscope.

Like my new freeform crochet flower scarf?

Crochet Patterns

Want me to make you a pattern to make a scarf like this? I promise I’ll stick to no more than 11 colors. No, just 10. Joy: how about a holy number 7. But, I’ll make sure that all these colors harmonize. How about that!?

How to: Ying-Yang Friendship Bracelets

Fine Craft Guild — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:45:00 +0000

This friendship bracelet video tutorial with Chinese Ying-yang symbols celebrates several holidays together, from Chinese New Year (January 23), to our North American Valentines Day (February 14), to Carnival (March) in Latin America, where friendship bracelets were originally invented.

This is a very happy friendship bracelet with lots of Chinese red for good luck. Makes a fun little gift for your spiritual, yoga, Buddhist friends who wish to live in balance and harmony. And a lover also.

Incidentally, did you know that friendship bracelets were originally given to a friend at which time this friend could make a wish.

The bracelet was/is to be worn all day & night till it would fall of, at which time the wish is supposably being granted by the universe.

Mmm.. reminds me of Tibetan prayer flags, and how they are used.

In terms of difficulty level, I would not make this my first bracelet ever. However, if you’ve made other friendship bracelets before you could give this a try also.

Have fun!

Step-by-step Video Instructions

Make this Bracelet

How to Make a Friendship Bracelet featuring Ying-Yang symbols

Find the Video Tutorial Here Note: the source of the original design is below, however this video explains things a tat faster than the video tutorial featured on the website below.

For knot instructions and more details see Friendship-bracelets.net (image source).

DIY Leather Belts … w Tassels

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:53:00 +0000

Just posted how to make tassels from scratch & from remnants, when I spotted a wonderful tutorial on how to make easy darling leather belts with tassels.

Such a fashion statement!

source photo & how-to:

Organized Living Solutions

Tassels, Fun Handmade Home Accessories

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:15:00 +0000

: shabby chic tassels like these are handmade home accents that transform a house.

This tassel is 100% recycled, and made of remnants of a sheer curtain & a shirt sleeve; a tiny bit of pre-used ribbon; and a broken bead spacer for the top. The white ribbon from which the tassel hangs from an old shopper. The only ‘new’ elements are 5 seed beads for a cheery finishing touch.

Click here for more

Home Decor

AAA t-Shirt Bracelet: Leopard, Knotted, w Gold Chain

Fine Craft Guild — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:55:00 +0000

: HANDMADE JEWELRY EXTRA-ORDINAIRE. Old t-shirt + leopard design print + knot + gold chain = fabo bracelet. Absolutely wonderful. Let’s make some.

This fun tutorial video is long and chatty, so I’ve summarized the steps here for you.

Cutting up a tee is just step 1…. Designer Connie Yu goes a mile further… :

She paints leopard print on the shirt
She knots it into a sailors knot
She weaves in some gold chain,
To finish it off, she glues on some fabric to close the bracelet.

Involved, but easy. You can do it to. Here is the how-to.

Step-by-step Tutorial on How to Make this Bracelet

2- strand knotted bracelet

Step 1: cut a big rectangle from the fabric between the two sleeves at the front or the back of your tshirt. Paint a leopard design on with some black paint. Blow-dry it, or wait a day till dry.

Step 2: Cut 2 long strips of 1 to 1.5” width out of rectangle. Tuck along the whole length of both strips so that the sides curl in and they become tubes.

Step 3: Knot your two strands together into the Josephine knot. (this demo = approx at. 7 min. point in the video)

source knot image: http://www.satincord.com/knots/doublecoinknot.htm (also called the Josephine Knot)

Step 4: Fiddle around with it till it looks like the knot in the picture/video (picture #4). Check if the loop at the top fits around your wrist. If not, adjust the knot so that it fits. Also ensure that the dangling ends together also fit around your wrist (i.e. have the length of 1/2 the loop).

Step 5: Cut the loop exactly in the middle. You should now have 8 pieces dangling from your knot, that are almost even in length; 4 on each side of the knot. Trim ends perfectly even.

Step 6: Weave in the metal chains along the same lines of the knot. Hand-stitch the chain edges onto the fabric.

Step 7: Making the closure: Cut a 1 x 2 “ rectangle from the t-shirt, and cover it lightly in fabric glue. Let the glue dry 1/2 a minute. When the glue gets tacky, take your bracelet and flip it upside down, and lay the 4 ends of one side of your bracelet onto the middle of the glued rectangle. Fold over the other end of the bracelet and glue the other 4 ends onto the other side of that rectangle, next to each other to make the bracelet loop. Press the ends into the glue. As your glued rectangle is bigger than the knot ends, fold the rectangle over them so it covers up all ends nicely. Let it dry for 24 hrs.

Video Tutorial – How to Make a Leopard Print Knotted Gold Chain Bracelet

If you don’t see the video here, click: http://youtu.be/rXw394FAKwo

Source: http://thisolddress.blogspot.com