Friday, June 10, 2011

Little Gifts

My to-do list is not getting shorter!  These items were on my longer to-do list, planning to do them later in the summer.  They're for my "grandma" as a thank you for letting the kids ride her horse briefly last summer.  I figured I'd make them before we go out there again.  Well, she's dropping by this afternoon to give Hugh his birthday gift, so I got to it!

This is another neck cooler.  After our afternoon there last summer, I looked around for some horsey fabric, but couldn't find any (not even through Freecycle).  A month or so later I found some nice quality horse print at Value Village!  It's a bit larger print than I would have liked, but oh well.  I wanted it a little wider in the tails, and my fabric was about 5" longer than I normally use, but that's okay.  I kept the length for the crystals the same, and centered the width that I normally use and sewed a tunnel (I normally cut it 4" wide, this time it was ...uh...there's just shy of 3/8" on each side...so that's 3/4" wider times 2, so it's a total of 5 1/2" wide?).
Next, I wanted to make a snack bag.  I wanted to use PUL to line it, but worry about the food-safeness of it (some sites say it's NOT food safe, some say it's not TESTED one way or the other), so I got some gold taffeta like fabric.  I sewed the three pieces together, turned right side out, tucked the open ends in and topstitched closed.  I wish I had pressed the seams first.  Then I followed the directions here.

However, the tutorial doesn't mention anything about using one way prints!  LOL!  The seams inside were a little bulky, but at least it's not the raw edges like if I had just held the pieces together.  But if there's a better way to make it double sided, let me know!

This (above) shows the backside, which is rightside up (it's one long piece) and the gold taffeta flap open.
I decided to make another one, without the lining, but this time I cut the front piece separate, and stitched it at the bottom to the back.  Then, as I was sewing the sides, I realized I could have just stitched a U shape around the three sides.
I folded the inside edge over and stitched it down, but for the flap, I fringed it a little and left it for that rustic look.
I've got lots more fabric pulled out to make more!

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