A great way of using your fabric remnants while at the same time personalizing your gifts is to make fabric gift pouches. They are simple to make and make use of items you may have around the house. All you need are a few simple supplies:
Start by cutting a template in the cardboard. Ideally it should be double the size of what the finished pouch will be. Draw the outline of the template onto the fabric and cut out. Cut the fabric into a rectangle. Then fold the fabric in three to create flaps that overlap about 1/2 an inch. Cut a small label in contrasting fabric. Sew along one of the shorter sides of the pouch, making sure to hide the knot in a corner. Sew in the label on that same side. Next, sew the other side. Then place the gift inside the pouch and close with a length of yarn. Finally, add the beads to the yarn ends, knot them and you are done.
9" Pinking ShearsLabels: consumer-savvy-carol, fabric-ideas, fabric-remnants, fabric-scraps, gift-ideas, gifts, remnants
A potentially annoying part of working with fabric is having scraps left over and not knowing what to do with them. Often they are too small to seem of much use. Nevertheless, we found a great idea for really small fabric remnants at the blog howaboutorange; this blog suggests making fabric thumbtacks. Here's what you'll need:
(1) Begin by pulling the loops off all the button backing pieces with the pliers. (2) Then cut your fabric into circles about the size of quarters. Don't worry about making perfect circles as the fabric is tucked under the button. (3) Now attach the fabric to the top of the button. (4) Next, glue a tack to the underside of the button and allow time for the glue to dry.
Step 1
Steps 2-3
Step 4
Finished Product
In just a few simple steps you can take scraps that usually end up in the garbage and make something fun and easy!
Labels: fabric-ideas, fabric-remnants, fabric-scraps, money-savers, remnants, scraps
An essential part of the gear of every laptop is the carrying case. You can find some that are bulky and some that are sleek, but one thing they have in common is that they are drab. With this blog J&O offers an economical and stylish alternative to the usual laptop sleeves and cases with a fabric laptop sleeve. Using this idea you can make yourself a laptop sleeve with a velcro flap fit for a 15" laptop. Thanks to designspongeonline.com for the wonderful idea.
First, gather your materials. These include a 3/4 yards each of two colors of felt, 3/4 yards double-sided fusbile interfacing, a package of round sticky Velcro dots, scissors, and iron.
Begin by laying one piece of felt flat and placing your laptop in the middle and cut out corners to creat a cross shape. Trim the flaps of felt so that they overlap each other about 2 inches. Use this piece as a template with which to repeat the process on the other piece of felt and the interfacing. Sandwich the interfacing between the two layers of felt and iron to fuse. After evening up the edegs with scissors you can adhere the Velcro dots where the edges overlap.
Laptop Sleeve Closed
Laptop Sleeve Open
Here are some of the great felt fabrics you can use to bring this project to success:
Labels: discount-fabric, fabric-ideas, felt, jandofabrics, laptop
Bleak economic news dominates the headlines pushing more families to tighten their budgets and reduce spending. With so many people worried about the economy practical ways to stretch a dollar are valued more than ever. Therefore, we at J&O will be putting together some blogs to help you find useful ways of maximizing your fabric without losing sight of the fact that fabric can still be fun.
For instance, say you have a few scraps of fabric left over from a project, often they find their way into a drawer and when you've tired of them they get thrown out. Why not try using your fabric scraps to make something with?
One idea we found online at twelve22.org is to make mouse pad covers. These are so simple they require four ingredients: a mousepad, a small piece of iron-on interfacing, a scrap of fabric, and some craft glue.
The first step is to trace the shape of the mouse pad over the interfacing leaving an inch on each side. My mouse pad measures 8 1/2" wide by 7" long, so the appropriate measurements would be 9 1/2" by 8" for my mouse pad. Next, place the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric and iron it on. Then, trim the fabric around the interfacing leaving enough to fold over. Fold the edges taking special care around the corners. After that, spread a thin layer of glue on top of the mouse pad, lay the cover on top, press it down, and voilà, you have an exclusive mouse pad. You'll also have one less fabric remnant laying around the house. If you don't have a mouse pad you can also use a thick piece of felt.
Try using some of these great fabrics or any scraps you have on hand:
Sea Turtles Bubbles Fabric
Labels: economy, Fabric, fabric-ideas, money-saving