{How To} Sew a Quick + Easy Headband

Sewing headbands is addictive...

Since I sewed my first headband, I've made a few (ahem; quite a few) more for myself and my daughter. It took me a few tries to get the length and width just right, but once I did, I was off and running. I've sewn these on the machine and by hand; either way they are quick and easy gratification, and they keep my long, unruly (especially in the humidity of summer) hair off my face.

It's been a while since I shared a tutorial, and I thought it would be fun to show how I make these. I scanned in my adult template and child template as a Google doc. The child one is sized to fit my three-year-old daughter's head. The elastic makes it adjustable, but you may want to fiddle with the length or width a bit for an older child. (I aim to get the finished length to run from just behind one ear to just behind the other.) Just remember not to make the end openings any narrower than they are now, or it's just too hard to turn them right-side out. The templates are for half of one side of the headband--print them full size on 8.5x11 paper, but trace the outline against the fold of a larger sheet of paper. (Or you could cut two pieces and tape them in the center.) If this doesn't make sense, it should once you see the pics below. Okay, enough of the small details. Let’s get started!

For an adult headband, you’ll need enough fabric to cut out two pieces. A fat quarter is definitely enough. You could use two different prints and make it reversible. You could embroider your headband like I did with my denim one. Play around! You’ll also need about 5.5 inches of elastic (a little less for a child). I usually use woven, but the scrap I grabbed for this is knit. Take your full-size template and trace it onto your fabric. If you’re not fussy cutting (to get a particular part of the fabric onto your headband, like I did with the dogs here), just fold your fabric right sides together and trace, then cut out both pieces at once.

Sandwich your elastic on the inside. You can leave a little poking out the end.

Then pin your pieces together on three sides. Begin sewing (1/4” seam allowance) at the end without the elastic, but leave yourself a little room--a half inch or so--at the end. Otherwise, it’s really hard to turn it rightside out.

When you get to the end of the first long side, pivot and then sew back and forth over the elastic a couple of times.

Pivot and head down the second long side, being careful not to catch the elastic as you do.

Once you’ve sewn all three sides, turn it rightside out (grab hold of the end of the elastic to help you do this), then iron the seams flat. (You could press a bit before you turn, if you wanted to.) Fold the raw edges of the open side under and press.

Rather stained ironing board cover...

Tuck in the other end of the elastic and fit it to your head so it’s comfortable—not too tight, but not too loose, either. Then sew the opening shut, sandwiching the elastic inside. Again, go back and forth over the elastic a couple of times.

Pinned and ready to be sewn

You could topstitch all around if you want, but I never do. Here's this one all finished.

If you finish and realize the elastic isn’t quite right, no big deal. You can always adjust it. I made one too loose, so I just overlapped it and sewed it securely. I made one for my daughter much too tight, so I cut the elastic and inserted another piece to extend it, again, sewing it securely.

Finished headband--the modeled shot! So quick and easy, pretty and useful. So much to love in one little project.

Goofy self-portrait, so you can see it on.

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How To: Lickety-Split Valentine's Day Napkins

When Valentine's Day falls on a school day, I like to tuck a surprise in my boys' lunches. Last year I wove a little heart out of paper and slipped a note inside. I was wondering what to do this year--and let's face it, I'm running out of time!--when I saw Maya's doily-printed coaster and I thought, Of course! Freezer paper! I love that stuff. I have a stack of white cloth napkins that I bought with embroidery in mind, but the fabric is all wrong for stitching. My kids take a cloth napkin in their lunch every day. Of course!

Materials: Freezer paper, heart hole punches or scissors, cloth napkin, textile paint (I like Speedball Screen Printing Inks), brush to apply

I began by cutting a square of freezer paper to fit in the corner of the napkin. Then I punched hearts into it, more or less dictated by how far the hole punch would reach. You can see that the cut-outs aren't perfect; it's not a very good hole punch, I don't think. (This is what I get for not waiting until I was at the store that carries Fiskars.) I neatened up best I could with an x-acto knife. If you don't have a heart hole punch, you could just cut some hearts the old-fashioned way with scissors.

Iron the freezer paper into the corner of the napkin, then dab on the paint.

I made five of them. Two will go to school with my boys, and the kids will each have one for Valentine's Day dinner. But also, there are five of us in the family, so we have a matching set for all of us, too.

When the paint is dry, heat set it (follow the instructions for your particular paint). And there you go--lickety-split Valentine's Day napkins. I made these after my kids were in bed Friday night.

This will be a sweet surprise in their lunch bag on Tuesday! And I was able to do it quickly and with supplies I already had on hand. Phew!

(How To) Make Quahog (Clam) Shell Candles

(When I had this idea, I assumed others had as well and went looking for tips. I found some good information here, here [PDF link], here, and from the local beekeeper of South County Honey who sold me the beeswax at the farmers' market.)

Materials: Quahog shells (that's what we call clam shells in Rhode Island), beeswax, wick (large cotton braided), hot glue gun, old pan (not used for cooking), and large tin can.

When I looked online for information on how to do this, I found lots of pieces here and there. I've put it all together in case you want to try this too. I'm not only loving the final product here, but I love how it's so very local. The shells were collected at a local beach, and the bees who made the beeswax live down the road.

To start, I rinsed any sand from the shells and boiled them gently, just to make sure they were clean. I used the same pan I later used for the water bath (same water, too). Once again, I borrowed the pan I long ago handed over to my kids' play kitchen. You don't want to use a cooking pan for this, just in case you get wax on it. Once the shells were dry, I used the hot glue gun to attach the lengths of wick to the bottom of the shells.

The beekeeper suggested large cotton braid wick. He said the melting point of beeswax is high and you need a large wick to create a large enough flame--something like that, anyway. I was able to find it locally in a craft store by the spool. I cut the lengths of wick generously; they'll get trimmed later.

Next I needed to hack off some of that big block of beeswax so I could put smaller pieces in a clean tin can and melt them. Easier said then done. Eventually I managed.

This is an old knife and not one I'll ever use for food again, clearly. Here it's holding the tin can down so it doesn't float around in the water bath. The PDF I linked to above had some useful tips for melting beeswax, including the melting point of beeswax (about 145 F). This is far below the boiling point of water (212 F), so I set the burner to medium and kept a close eye, turning it down as necessary. I stirred the wax (with that knife again) once it began to melt, too. Once it was completely melted--and it smelled so nice!--I poured it into the shells. Since the water wasn't boiling, the can wasn't too hot to handle with my bare hands, which made pouring the wax much easier.

So, the first batch of wax that took me soooo long to hack off the block? Yielded two candles. Sigh. Anyway, you can see I propped the shells just a bit to keep them level, and on that back one, I clothes-pinned the wick to keep it straight. On most of them I was able to carefully drape them and it was Good Enough. My oldest was home sick while I was doing this, and we were trying to figure out a way to rig up a wick-holder-upper, but we settled for Good Enough in the end.

I repeated this process until all the shells (13, some larger than others but none huge) were filled.

I have a corner of the original block of wax left. The beekeeper also told me that beeswax burns straight down, so as these burn it probably won't burn all the wax on the edges. He suggested two wicks in a large shell, but I ended up going with one in all of them. I think it'll be fine on the smaller shells; I'm not sure on the slightly bigger ones. There may be some unused wax around the edges--perhaps the recipients will collect it and make new candles?

Here are the candles, wicks not yet trimmed, in boxes on my slightly messy dining room table because it was time to feed the kids lunch and I needed my kitchen counter.

And one last photo, of a candle in hand so you can see the size.

I love these!! I made enough so that we'll have some for us, too. Because these are holiday gifts, of course--a very local handmade Rhode Island gift.

Gratitude Tree

Let me start by saying I don't believe thankfulness should be confined to November or that we should only turn our thoughts to gratitude because Thanksgiving is approaching. I believe an attitude of gratitude is directly linked to the habit of happiness, and that is how I try to live my life. Many many years ago, during a difficult time, I told myself to find something to be happy about every day, no matter how small, and then write it down. When you turn this into practice, it becomes a habit of the very best kind. Thankfulness is there at the core of me; I recognize my life is full of loveliness, both big and small. I no longer need to write it all down.

But because we are hosting Thanksgiving this year, I wanted a centerpiece that visually represented in some way this life full of reasons to be thankful. So I decided upon a tree. I picked up a fallen branch in the yard, stripped it of its dead leaves, and placed it in a clean glass jar, held in place by pebbles and stones. (The bag of pebbles--the only purchase I made for this project--cost about $2 at a craft store. The larger stones at the top are from the beach.)

Using the maple leaf template I traced for the thankful banner, I sized them to fit some tags I already had (bought in an office supply store) and sandwiched the tag inside two leaves.

I had to cut the tag so it tapered, and the leaves are printed on and cut from brown Kraft card stock.

Once the glue dried, they were ready to be written upon and hung on the branches. If you want to make your own, the PDF file with the smaller leaves is here. The left leaves are a mirror image of the ones on the right, so when you cut and sandwich, the cutting lines will be hidden. You also could simplify this by punching a hole in a single leaf to tie a string on.

The tree sits in the middle of our table, with leaves and a metallic Sharpie next to it. Anytime someone is moved to do so, he or she can add a leaf to the tree.

"The house"

I think I'll also be using this leaf template to make our place cards for the dinner table. If our guests want to, they can add their leaves to the tree with something they are thankful for written on it.

For big things and small--the house and Legos, my marriage and coffee, the people in our family and imaginary friends--we are thankful, every day.

How To: Make a Scrappy Recycled Notebook

This whips up so quick, yet it's so cute. The idea of using duct tape to cover the staples comes from Amy Karol's sketchbook tutorial (my kids and I each made one of those, and they're great for travel), and folding paper over so the printed side is on the inside is all over the place, but closest to me, it's in my copy of How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith. I wanted to do something quicker and easier than stab binding though, so I combined the ideas.

Materials: Sheets of 8x11.5" paper printed on one side (stuff you'd be comfortable recycling, not stuff that needs shredding); 8x11.5" card stock printed on one side; metal ruler (to help tear); x-acto knife (if you don't want to tear; also for the duct tape); duct tape--I used sheets because it's neater; stapler; binder clips (not shown); bone folder (also not shown, and optional)

Select 4-5 sheets of the paper (this is going to depend on how strong of a stapler you have) and tear them in half. If you want it neat-neat, cut it along the ruler's edge rather than tearing. You'll end up with 8-10 pieces of paper. Tear or cut a piece of the card stock in half, too.

Fold your sheets of paper in half with the printed side inside, and do the same for the card stock. (If you don't have any card stock to recycle, use new sheets. Perfectly fine.) All the print should be hidden now, so you just see the blank sides. Make sure your folds are nice and crisp. Your fingers should be fine for this with the paper, but a bone folder helps with the card stock. Arrange your folded paper in a pile (if you have some colored sheets, you might want to arrange them in a certain pattern, or maybe that's just me) with all the open edges to the left. Place one piece of folded card stock on the top and one on the bottom, open edges also on the left. All the folded edges should be on the right.

Make sure it's all lined up evenly, then place a binder clip around the side with the folded edges (this is where your book will be open) to hold it in place. Use a piece of scrap paper between the clip and the book so the clip doesn't leave marks. Using your metal ruler and a bone folder, gently score a line about 1/4" in on the raw edge side. This is your mark for the staples.

Staple it three times, one in the middle and one near each end. Just eyeball it; they'll be covered up soon anyway.

Slice off a piece of duct tape to fit. The sheets have a grid on the back, so it's easy to cut a straight line with the ruler and x-acto knife.

(See that little bit of card stock hanging off the bottom? I sliced that off right after I took this photo!) Again, I just eyeballed the width of the duct tape. You want enough to cover the staples plus some; mine are about 3/4" inch or so on each side of the book. Peel off the backing, line it up, and cover your front staples. Then bring it around the edge and cover the back staples.

Voila! Isn't that a cute way to recycle some one-sided paper? We have piles of it. Most of it came home in my sons' backpacks from the school office--I have doubles of a lot of notes, too! Now that you have your cute recycled notebook, you can decorate it any way you'd like.

I decided I wanted a leaf stamped on the second one, so I cut and carved one. I'm thinking these would make good gifts, too, for grocery lists or jotting down ideas. How will you decorate your quick & easy scrappy notebook?

DIY: Bottle Cap Magnets

{This post originally appeared in slightly different form on Kidoinfo.com.}

I had to Photoshop the kid-scribbles off my fridge in this photo.

I made sets of these last year using photos of my kids as Christmas gifts for the grandparents, but you could put anything you want inside of those bottle caps—photos of your cats, letters to spell out a name, whatever you fancy!

Materials:

*Digital photo(s) of your kids: Faces should be head-on, but this doesn’t need to be a close-up, since you’ll be using a 1” diameter circle. I used one photo in which all three of my children were smiling. (Go me!)

*Clean bottle caps, one for each magnet

*Mod Podge Matte and a brush for applying it

*Mod Podge Dimensional Magic: I found this at Joann’s, hanging above the other glues. It replaces the nasty-smelling toxic resin for these sorts of projects.

*Small, strong magnet: You can get a package of these at a craft store

*Strong glue: I’ve had middling success with a hot glue gun. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and then I resort to the really strong smelly glue to show that magnet who’s boss.

*1” diameter hole punch (typically found in the scrapbook section) or scissors

*Pin or toothpick (for piercing wee little air bubbles)

1. Open your photo in the editing program of your choice. Set the crop tool to 1” by 1”, keeping the original resolution so that the photos will be as crisp as possible. Crop around the face, remembering that this will eventually be a circle and the corners won’t be included. If your editing program lets you crop to a 1” circle, even better. Save a version of the cropped photo.

2. Drop the cropped photo into a document program (I used Publisher, but Word will work, too), making sure that it’s sized at 100%. Copy and paste as many as you need. If you don’t have a 1” diameter hole punch, insert a 1” circle shape and position it over your photo. This will be your cutting line. (If you’re not sure how to insert a 1” circle shape, you can trace a quarter onto your printout before cutting.) Print your photo sheet onto regular printer paper, not photo paper.

3. Cut out your photos with either scissors or your hole punch. This one that I’m using lets you position the paper so you can see where you’re cutting. I love it. 

4. Using a brush, apply a light coat of Mod Podge into the bottom of the bottle cap, place your picture, pressing lightly, and then cover it with another coat to “seal” it. Start at the edges, dabbing the glue into the gaps at the ridges, and then fill in the center with a thin but full coat of the glue. You may want to test on a spare photo to decide on the best method; depending on your printer and ink, the paper may need to set for a day first, or you may be better off applying a few thinner coats, letting them dry in between.

5. When the Mod Podge has dried (at least a few hours), carefully pour in the Dimensional Magic. (Do not shake it first! That will cause air bubbles.) Hold the bottle at an angle, and make sure your bottle cap is resting on a flat surface, somewhere it will not be disturbed by children or pets for the next 24 hours. Fill the cap up to about where the crinkly bits begin. Do you see any bubbles? Carefully try to pop them now. Check it periodically as it dries, too, and don’t be surprised if some show up when you go to bed, just to vex you. Your magnet may have some bubbles, but it’s handmade with love and if it were absolutely perfect you may as well just buy a mass-produced boring gift, right?

 

6. When the Dimensional Magic is completely set (at least 24 hours), turn the caps over and attach the magnet. It’s okay at this point to rest them flat, upside down, so the glue can set as well.

7. Put the set you made for yourself (you did make a set for yourself, yes?!) on your fridge and marvel at your craftiness and your cute kids (or cats, or whatever). Go you!

DIY: Recycled Crayons

Really, tutorials for this are all over the Internets, so we hardly need another one. This isn't really a tutorial so much as a "seriously, this is so easy, give it a try!" bit of encouragement. At any rate, recycled crayons in cute shapes were on my holiday gift to-do list, as part of the presents for a four-year-old niece and three-year-old nephew, so here is proof of my successful progress!

I've recycled crayons before, but I used a muffin tin, which could go in the oven. This time, because I wanted cute shapes, I used candy molds (this set; what a bargain!!), and those can't go in the oven. So I needed an interim step--the hot water bath.

After peeling the crayons, we sorted them by color into tin cans and broke them into smaller pieces. The colors are going to blend when they melt, and it ends up as one uniform color, so keep that in mind when sorting. (The two-color ones in the top picture were made by pouring two different colors in the mold.) For the first batch (not shown), we sorted warm (red, orange, yellow) and cool (blue, green, purple)--I only had two tin cans. We ended up with red and blue. This batch yielded purple, brown, and green. Put some water in a pan and place your cans in. I used a pan I no longer use for cooking (it belongs to the kids' play kitchen now), which was smart, because some wax ended up in the water and deposited on the pan, and I don't really have to scrub it off because who cares if the pretend soup gets wax in it?

Boil your water, but keep an eye on your crayons. When your glasses get fogged from taking off the cover and peeking, your helper will go find her sunglasses so they can get fogged because she is still at the age when she wants to be just like her mama.

She's holding a bamboo skewer there. I used that to stir my melting wax so the chunks would all melt. Once the wax is all melted, carefully pour it into the molds. (Not a job for the child helpers, obviously.)

Once they're set, wiggle the molds a bit to pop them out. The helper wanted flowers, so those are for her.

The brown ones look a lot like chocolate, but they are not. Don't eat the crayons.

How cute are these?? And so, so easy. I have a set of numbers for each giftee, plus vehicles, balls, hearts--enough crayons to put together a really cute gift bag, and my kids helped make them. (All the kids helped peel; my daughter was the only one home when I made this batch.)

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DIY: Wool Felt Advent Calendar

This tutorial is now located at http://amyhoodarts.com/2011/07/29/wool-felt-advent-calendar/
Please update your pins, links, and bookmarks. Thank you!

(You Can) Use Scratch Foam to Print a T-Shirt

The kids and I have been decorating lots of t-shirts lately. We started with sun print shirts, but I'd had the idea in the back of my head to try printing with scratch foam and textile paint. Before I tried it with the kids, I stole some time for myself and tried it out. I used a plate that's been knocking around the studio for a couple of months, so it has some extra lines in it. A fresh plate would look even better, although I don't mind the extra texture. We'll call it rustic, or something like that.

What you need: A t-shirt; some textile paint (I used Speedball Water-Based Textile Screen Printing Ink), although I think you could try this with liquid acrylics; some scratch foam; a palette and brayer--although my brayer did not seem to like the screen printing ink and jammed up on me.

What you do: First, scratch a picture or design into the scratch foam. This couldn't be easier. Experiment with different mark-making devices, like the pointy end of a paintbrush, a bone folder, a comb--anything that will indent into the foam. Remember that your image will print in reverse, which is especially important if you're thinking about including text.

This is what my plate looked like (it's still got ink on it) in its just-created, pristine days:

I prewashed my shirt, placed some freezer paper inside so no ink bled through to the back, and taped some guiding marks with painter's tape. Then I mixed my color--I wanted a blue-grey. Ink your plate so you have a nice, even layer, not too thick (or it will squoosh out the edges when you make your print).

I'd planned two prints, so I made the first print. Carefully place your foam plate, ink side down, on your shirt, then gently press all over it. Try not to move it while you're doing this. Lift it straight up when you remove it so you don't smudge. Remember to keep your fingers as clean as possible--wipe or wash your hands as much as necessary in between prints--because you're using textile paint, and if you touch the shirt with inky fingers you'll make permanent fingerprints on it.

And re-inked the plate to make the second.

Meh. I wasn't crazy about the streakiness (darn brayer!!) or the space in the center, although I'd originally thought I wanted it that way. So I mixed up some grey and re-inked the plate.

I slightly offset the second set of prints so they met in the center, getting rid of that space.

Hmm. Still not sure--really, a fresh plate would have been better--so I left it to dry, then set it with the iron according to the directions.

Now this, I like. It's very subtle, but it's definitely recognizable as a plant sort of thing with leaves. (It's just a doodle; I drew it in about 30 seconds while my kids and I were scratch foam printing a couple of months ago.) Here's a closer look.

And a much closer look.

You can see the plate was kind of beat up. I think something must have been on top of it, leaving a slight depression that I couldn't see until I printed with it. The foam really is designed to be easy to scratch into! And the stubborn brayer didn't help matters any. But it's got a certain look about it, with lots of texture, and I'm pleased with it as a first try. I think I'll be experimenting with more scratch foam printing on fabric in the future.

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