Handmade Holidays 2015 Archives - Buttons Galore and More Blog

Handmade Holidays | Button Embellished Scarf

By Nancy Nally on November 7, 2015 in Wearable

Welcome to Day 2 of the Handmade Holidays blog hop on Buttons Galore! Today, we’re buttoning up a fashionable accessory that will keep someone you love warm and stylish this winter! This project started with an inexpensive store bought scarf, but some embroidery and buttons turned it into a one of a kind keepsake that is practical too! Supplies:

Scarf
Cricut Explore Machine
Cricut Pens
Tracing Paper
Embroidery Floss & Needle
Buttons Galore Button Bonanza in Pastel

The fun thing about Button Bonanzas is that they are, like your grandmother’s button jar, full of an assortment of random sizes and styles of buttons. I love finding little treasures in them that have sparkles and other special designs. This scarf highlights several”fancy” buttons that I found in my Pastel Button Bonanza bag and turns them into feature elements on the scarf. The design is fairly simple – the flowers are backstitched and the buttons are stitched in the middle of them. But how did I get my flowers the right size and shape? That’s where my secret weapon – my Cricut Explore – came in. First, I created the three flowers in Cricut Design Space, using files from the Cricut library. Then I used one of my Cricut pens to draw them onto some tracing paper. Once the flowers were sketched out onto the tracing paper, I cut them apart. One at a time, I attached them to the scarf with pins. Then I backstitched on the lines, through both the scarf and the paper. Once the stitching is done, the paper needs to be (carefully) removed. I used a combination of delicate tearing and a craft knife to tear the paper away from both sides of the stitching. The stitching holes serve as a sort of perforation that aid in the tearing away of the paper, but some effort is still required.

The final step is to use a few quick stitches through the holes to attach the buttons. And then you are ready to wear – or wrap!

I recommend hand washing for this completed project, no matter what the recommendation is for caring for the scarf that is used for the base.

And now…it wouldn’t be a blog hop without fabulous prizes! We are having a giveaway of over $600 in craft supplies to help you make this holiday handmade! Enter to win using the widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many thanks to all of the sponsors of the hop and giveaway! Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to use the widget below to visit the other hop participants!

And don’t miss our contribution to day one of the hop….a practical and pretty zip pouch for the sewer or traveler in your life!

Handmade Holidays | Zip Pouch

By Nancy Nally on November 6, 2015 in Purses & Totes

Welcome to the Handmade Holidays on Buttons Galore! For the next 3 days, we’ll be joining in by sharing ideas for handmade Christmas gifts using – of course – buttons!

Our handmade gift project today is a handy little zippered notions bag that is perfect for the sewing enthusiast or frequent traveler in your life! It’s made from a pattern called Everyday Zips by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Company that is available online or at a local quilt store (which is where I got mine).

Supplies:

Everyday Zips pattern
4 fabrics (fat quarters of each are sufficient)
- body of bag
- contrast
- lining
- prairie points
9″ minimum zipper for bag top
6″ minimum zipper for side pocket
Buttons Galore Button Basics in Red Hot

One of the most underestimated tasks in the success of a sewing project may be the selection of fabric. Just choose colors you like, right? Not exactly. Color, pattern, and other choices can make the difference between a project you are happy with and one that just isn’t satisfying.

On this project, the pattern called for the body of the bag to be a neutral colored lightweight canvas. But I had found this neutral background vintage sewing themed quilt fabric that I was in love with at my local quilt store. This project seemed like a great excuse to use it! Plus, since this is a “notions tote”, the fabric would reinforce the theme.

I also chose a light color for the interior (not seen here) – an ivory tone on tone chevron design.

For the contrast panel, I chose the black rulers to pull the black out of the background and reinforce the sewing notions theme. That left me the prairie points to decide on. Red, white and black is a classic vintage color scheme, and so it seemed the natural answer here.

But as you can see above during construction, the red is incredibly stark against all that neutral. To me, it made the design look off balance. That’s where the buttons come in! By putting a row of red buttons above the zipper, it balances out the red prairie points and mutes their visual aggressiveness somewhat. And, as a bonus, the buttons add to the sewing theme!

Sometimes color choices make practical sense too. The pattern called for the strap to be the same color as the prairie points but I thought that would be too bold. The best alternative was to use the black ruler fabric, as it is the least likely of the fabrics that I was using to show dirt from while I was handling it.

Even the zipper color choices can make a night and day difference. I really could have used black or natural for either of the zippers. I could have positioned them so the zipper contrasted with the surrounding background, or so that the zipper blended with the background. But I’m well aware that sewing zippers isn’t my most proficient sewing skill. By choosing zipper colors that blend with the fabric around the zipper, I provided a bit of camouflage for any wonky sewing of the zippers. Choosing a contrasting color for the zippers would have the opposite effect: highlighting any errors on the zipper.

One thing that I made sure to avoid on a project like this that had tons of straight seams? Fabric that had stripes or other straight lines in the pattern (such as dots arranged in neat lines) was a no-no. Straight lines in the fabric would only highlight any errors in getting my pieces cut square or sewn straight. The ruler fabric does have straight lines but they are somewhat rough and not continuous so the pattern was workable.

Since the project is mostly just straight seams, sewing the zippers are the most challenging parts of making this tote. While I admit that zippers aren’t my best talent, I do have one secret weapon:

This is the zipper foot on my sewing machine. While it is possible to sew zippers without them, the zipper foot makes it infinitely easier. Having the right tools is often half the battle in producing a quality result. If you are going to sew a zipper, I highly recommend that you invest a few dollars in a zipper foot for your machine. You won’t regret it!

Now, to the blog hop…

Did I mention there are fabulous prizes?

We are having a giveaway of over $600 in craft supplies to help you make this holiday handmade! Enter to win using the widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many thanks to all of the sponsors of the hop and giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to use the widget below to visit the other hop participants!