Creating my way to Success

Personalised Rag Tags from Jeans - a Tutorial

This year for school I bought my daughters stainless steel water bottles. They are great to use instead of the plastic ones and the girls love the shiny colours!

I needed to find a way to label them - and noticing a small hole in the lid I decided to make small key-chain tags for them - which can also be put on bags, keys, pencil cases, anything really!

I've been wanting to have a go at rag quilting for a while now - and I thought this technique would look good on the little tags!

They're really simple to make - here's how...

First gather your materials.

I used some old jeans, scraps of coloured fabric, fusible webbing and keychains.

Cut the fusible webbing into small rectangles and iron to the back of your coloured fabric.

Cut rectangles of denim from the jeans for your tags. 2 rectangles for each tag. For the loop to hold the keychain, cut the belt loops or the double side seams from the jeans.

To add the letters to your tags. Draw the letter backwards on the paper side of the fusible webbing. Cut the letter out, peel off the paper backing and place centrally on the front of your tag. Then cover with a damp cloth and iron to fix into place.

Then either use the applique setting on your machine, or a tight zigzag stitch to secure the letter in place.

Now for the keyring. Take a piece of belt loop or side seam and loop through a keychain ring. Fold in half, and place between the two rectangles of your tag at the top. Make sure the right sides of the fabric are facing outwards. Machine stitch around all 4 sides.

Run a few lines of extra stitching backwards and forwards over the loop holding the keyring in place - to secure a little stronger!

Now for the rag look for your tag.

Snip all around the edges of the outer seam of your tag.

Then fold, scrunch and rub the tag in your hands.

It's best to do this outside as a lot of fluff will fly off the tag!

To rag the tag even more, place the tag inside a pillowcase in your washing machine - and wash!

Once they're washed, take them out give them a good shake (and the pillowcase too which will be full of fluff!) and dry.

Then your tags are ready to attach to your keys, bags, bottles or whatever you choose!

They will continue to 'rag' more as they are used!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

I hope you liked this tutorial.

There are over 100 more free sewing tutorials for all levels of sewing ability on my tutorials page too - please do take a look!

21 days to form a habit

What I've learnt this week??? I've learnt that..

I've had enough!

I am and have always been quite a messy person, but finally I've reached a point that I just HAVE to do something about it.

Having a messy house sets a bad example for my girls, and it doesn't help them be able to keep their own things tidy - or make it easy for them to help me cook when the kitchen bench is a mess! It affects everything I do - a messy house makes for a messy mind and a messy life!

So, I've decided to take action.

I've said before I'm a big fan of Anthony Robbins - and I do agree with his sentiment that you can change your life in an instant just by changing your mindset. I have tried changing my mindset with regard to tidying, but I think I need a little help.

SO - here's my plan!

It is said that it takes 21 days to form a habit.

So yesterday I tidied all the problem areas in my house, and took before and after photos.

Here they are:

My kitchen bench...

My bedroom table...

Our side buffet...

Our TV Cabinet

Each day for the next 21 days on my facebook page I'm going to post photos of what these four surfaces look like in my house.

I don't want to be posting messy photos again - so the idea is to take boringly tidy photos each day!

Then by the end of 21 days - being tidy in my house will be a habit that I will continue to keep! I'm going to try to get my girls to join me too - in keeping their bedroom tidy too!

What good habit would you like to form?

Would you like to join me in posting something every day for the next 21 days to try to form that habit?

If you want to give this a try - leave a comment here and I'll make a note to come and check out your progress each day for the next 21! Let's see if we can motivate and support each other to improve !

Just do it!

Jill

My creative space and another pencil case!

Earlier this week I made one of my daughters a new twin-zip pencil case. Now since I have two daughters - I thought I'd better make a second case!

Purple was the chosen colour - so with a remnant of velvet left over from over 20 years ago when my mum made me a ball dress for University! and an old pair of cut off black jeans I got from the charity shop from their 'free' section!!

I made this:

The denim helps the case hold its shape, and also will protect the velvet a little from leaking pens!!

After I took these first photos - I decided to add a little zip pull too:

Kids love little accessories - I thought this one was quite cute!

To see the original case I made with the tutorial go here.

Jill

How to make a Giant twin zip pencil case in 5 steps and 15 minutes

My girls can always use a new pencil case. They have lots of different styles, sizes and colours already but still I had a request for another new one - this time with two zips. It was nice and simple to make - so I thought I'd make another of my tutorials that anyone can sew in just 5 steps and 15 minutes! Here it is!

First gather your materials. You will need two long zips - 37cm (14.5") or longer. I generally get my zips from the local charity shops where they sell them for around 20c each!

Then some funky material - I got this lovely bright octopus fabric as a remnant for just $1! There's still plenty of it left over to make something else too!

The size pieces of fabric you will need to cut are:

2 pieces 37 x 27cm (14.5 x 10.5")

1 piece 37 x 10cm (14.5 x 4")

1 piece 37 x 18cm (14.5 x 7")

2 pieces 4 x 8cm (1.5x 3")

Step 1:

Attach the middle front zip. Lay the zip face down at the top of your larger front panel and pin into place:

Using the zipper foot on your machine - stitch into place, then flip the fabric over and top-stitch along the edge of the zip to stop the fabric catching in the zip when the pencil case is opened and closed!

Then repeat this with the top panel of the front of the pencil case. Place the panel face down on the top edge of the zip and pin into place:

Stitch then flip the fabric over again and top-stitch close to the zip again.

Step 2:

Cover the ends of the top zip.

Use your two small pieces of fabric. Fold the edges and pin to either end of the zip so they make the zip a little narrower than the pencil case itself:

Stitch these pieces in place. Make sure you stitch slowly over the zip teeth so your needle doesn't slip or break!

Step 3

Attach the top zip to the front and back panels of your pencil case.

Place one of the larger panels face up, then lay the one you just made with the front zip face up on top of that. Then lay the top zip face down at the top and pin through all 3 layers.

Stitch the zip in place,

then once again flip the fabric over and top-stitch.

Then pin the final back panel face down to the remaining free edge of the top zip:

Stitch and top stitch for the last time!

Step 4

Lay the pencil case out flat and make sure your zips are open! This is very important!!

Now fold the pencil case right sides together and pin all the way around the edges.

Then stitch the 3 sides.

When you stitch over each zip end, run the stitching backwards and forwards a few times to secure!

Step 5

Trim the edges of the zips and the fabric:

If your fabric looks like it might fray - you can finish the 3 edges off either with an overlocker (serger) if you're lucky enough to have one; or just zig zag stitch and trim the edges, or trim with pinking shears!

Turn the case out through the top zip and you're done!!

Fill it up with pens, pencils and drawing books or paper and it's ready to go!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

I hope you liked this tutorial.

There are lots more simple tutorials for useful things to make in just 5 steps and 15 mins ; and also over 100 more free sewing tutorials on my tutorials page.

Make a new ironing board cover!

My ironing board cover was looking a little sad, and desperately in need of a makeover!

So I decided it was time to replace it.

Now lucky for me, my husband does most of the ironing in our house !! But this also meant no fancy, pretty fabrics - I don't want to put him off this job which is one of my pet hates!!

I found some nice plain fabric and set to work!

All I did was take off the old cover - cut the foam part out, use this as the template to cut some new fresh fabric, and attach the foam to this with my overlocker (serger)

Then I added a strip of fabric about 10cm (4") wide all around the main piece, and turned over the outside to make an elastic casing. Fed through some elastic and secured it: