DIY: Felt Sugar Skull Sachets

October 28, 2014 By Rachel

We’ve officially entered our rainy season here in the Pacific Northwest. The grey and rainy weather has got me in the mood for crafting and watching movies. I’ve been making these little Felt Sugar Skull Sachets and they are so much fun! I can start and finish one in an evening and I love experimenting with different designs, colors and embroidery stitches.

What You Need

• Felt in various colors
• Embroidery floss in various colors
• Needle & scissors
• Free printable template
• Markers or pencils

For The Sachet

• Cinnamon sticks (crushed or broken up in to small pieces)
• Clove
• Allspice
• Cedar shavings

Other Autumn Herbs To Try:
• Orange Peel
• Dried Ginger Root
• Dried Apple
• Rosemary

Instructions

Print out the free template and using the skull drawings, draw your sugar skull design. If you are a beginner at embroidery, I recommend keeping your designs rather simple. Experiment with using both felt and embroidery floss to create your design. You can look up sugar skulls on Pinterest for inspiration.

Use the free template to cut out your felt pieces.

Now it’s time to begin your embroidery. Choose a contrasting color floss and begin sewing the eyes onto the skull shape. I used a hand-applique blanket stitch.

Next sew on the nose. Any simple stitch will work.

To begin the mouth, first use a felt tip marker to draw a line as a guide. Then using black embroidery floss, begin sew the mouth using a backstitch.

Next it’s time to add your embellishments. If you’ve chosen to add any felt elements now is the time to appliqué them into place.

Then using your template drawing, continue to embroider the sugar skull embellishments. You can look up different stitches on Youtube or Pinterest.

Now that you’ve finished your embroidery, it’s time to sew the front and back of the sugar skull together using a blanket stitch. Leave a 2″ opening.

Next create your sachet mix. I used cinnamon stick, clove, allspice and cedar.

Fill your felt sugar skull with your spice mixture and then continue the blanket stitch to close.

I just love how these turned out and can’t wait to gift them to friends and family.

DIY: Owl Plushies + Free Sewing Pattern

September 15, 2014 By Rachel

This was one of those projects that has taken me months to finish, but I’m so glad I finally did! The idea all started when I was coming up with gift ideas for my two nieces. Four months later I’ll finally be able to give these cute little owl dolls to them!

This project was a definite challenge as I made up my own pattern. I hope you give it a try and make some of your own cute owl friends! Don’t forget to send me a photo!

SUPPLIES:

• Owl plushie pattern
• Cotton fabrics (I used 3 different fabrics for the body, belly and wings. Plus yellow for the legs and feet and white for the eyes. I purchased fat quarters of each and had more than enough to work with)
• Black embroidery floss
• Cotton stuffing
• Rice
• Needle & thimble

TOOLS:

• Sewing machine
• Coordinating thread and bobbins
• Iron and ironing board
• Sewing scissors
• Pins and needle
• Craft scissors
• Pencil
• Funnel

Step One: Prep your fabric and cut out the pattern

I always prewash my fabric to avoid shrinkage and bleeding colors.

Print out the pattern provided and cut out with craft scissors. Following the instruction on the pattern, cut out all your fabric pieces using fabric scissors. Iron all your pieces flat.

Step Two: Applique the eyes and belly

Using the pattern as a guide for placement, hand-applique the two eyes (E) and belly (B) to the front body (A) of the owl. This quick tutorial will show you how to make perfect appliqué circles.

Step Three: Embroider the eyes

Cut a length of black embroidery floss, split it into 3 strands and thread it through your needle. Using a Back Stitch, embroider the outline of a small circle inside the white circle of each eye, making a pupil. Satin Stitch to fill in the outline (note: you’ll notice in the video, she uses a split stitch as an outline instead of the back stitch. Feel free to do either).

Next, backstitch around the entire white circle of each eye, adding eyelashes where indicated on pattern.

Step Four: Sew the legs and wings

To sew the wings, put two pattern C pieces together, right sides facing in. Use a few small pins to hold in place. Using your sewing machine (or sew by hand), sew around the wings leaving a ¼” seam allowance, with a 1” opening. Repeat for the second wing. Turn both wings right side out and press with an iron.

Next sew the legs. Put two pattern F pieces together, right sides facing in. Pin in place. Sew around the legs using a 1/4” seam allowance, and make sure to leave an opening at the end to turn right-side out. Repeat for the second leg. Turn both legs right side out (you may need to use a chopstick or pencil to push the fabric completely through). Press with an iron. Use a small funnel to fill legs about halfway with rice (this will give them some weight).

Then lay owl body pieces (body, wings and legs) as show in picture below. Carefully lay the back body piece A, right side facing down, over the top and pin into place (along with front body, legs and wings). Sew around the entire owl body using a ¼” seam allowance. Leave a 1-2” opening at the top of the owl head (in between the ears). Trim notches where indicated on the pattern (be sure not to snip through your stitches) and then turn the entire thing right side out.

Step Five: Fill with rice and cotton stuffing

Fill the bottom of the owl with rice (this will allow it to sit up on it’s own). I used about ¼ cup. Then fill it the rest of the way with cotton stuffing. Once you have it stuffed snuggly and full, carefully hand stitch the opening closed.

Step Six: Make the beak

Place two pattern D pieces together, right sides facing in. Sew along the two arched sides of the triangle (using the pattern as a guide), with a ¼” seam allowance. Turn right side out and loosely hand stitch around the opening of the beak, without tying off the thread. Stuff with cotton stuffing and pull your threads tightly, cinching the fabric into a peak shape. Tie thread securely with a knot. Place the beak in between the eyes and hand-stitch onto the face of the owl.

TA DA! You’ve made a new Owl Friend! I recommend making them in pairs so they have a buddy.

If you try this pattern, be sure to let me know! I’d love any feedback you have and would love to see a photo of your finished project! Email me at rachel@adventures-in-making.com.

DIY: Strawberry Pin Cushions

June 9, 2014 By Rachel

I’ve been having a lot of fun working on little sewing projects lately. I had been eyeing this tutorial by Down Grapevine Lane for so long; I’m excited to finally be able to try it out. I enjoyed the time consuming hand-stitching involved as I have not practiced that in a while and it made for the perfect lap project while watching TV with my boyfriend, James.

All the materials used I found in my grandmother’s sewing room (she has more fabric than most fabric stores!). I chose four different purple toned fabrics and was lucky enough to find a piece of real wool felt perfect for the leaves of the strawberries.

Read full tutorial >>

As I made them, I decided to omit the white felt flower and instead sew a cute oval “thank you” tag into the top of each strawberry. These will make for the perfect thank you gifts and I can’t wait to give them to our first Adventures In Making contributors! You heard me right, we are currently looking for new creative writers. Each month, we plan to send out little thank you gifts to everyone who contributes. Read more about becoming a contributor >>

DIY: Aromatherapy ‘Cat Nap’ Eye Pillows

May 20, 2014 By Rachel

I’ve been struggling with neck and back pain for over a year now. Chiropractic and physical therapy haven’t seemed to be working so I’ve been looking for alternative, DIY treatments to manage my pain and heal. The first thing I’ve started is learning and practicing yoga. I’ve found that the gentle stretching and relaxation techniques that yoga promotes help to calm my nervous system and relax tight muscles. One of my favorite poses that I do every day is called Legs-Up-The-Wall. I try to hold the position for 10-15 minutes at a time and always feel better afterwards!

A prop I like to use while doing the Legs-Up-The-Wall pose is an aromatherapy eye pillow. I find that it really helps me to relax! Rather than going out and buying one, I decided to make my own. Inspired by my own feline pets, I made this cute ‘Cat Nap’ eye pillow. It was such an fun sewing project, I wanted to share my pattern and process.

I ordered my herbs in bulk from the San Francisco Herb Company. Beware that they aren’t joking when they say ‘bulk’! I have A TON of these herbs on hand now. I’m ok with it as I know I’ll find more ways to use them. But you can also look for a local herbal apothecary in your area. Here’s a little info about the herbs I chose:

Lavender: Soothing, relaxing and eases headaches.
Chamomile: Calming, relaxing, and said to keep bad dreams away
Lemon Balm: Relieves stress, anxious and nervous feelings, insomnia, stress, and headaches.

Check out The Mountain Rose Blog for more herbal suggestions and their effects.

‘Cat Nap’ Eye Pillows

Note: This is an intermediate level sewing project. I used my sewing machine, but this project could also be done completely by hand.

Also, I have included links to videos on how to do the basic embroidery stitches I used for the cat face. Another alternative if you don’t want to embroider is to buy fabric markers and simply draw the face on.

Supplies:

• ‘Cat Nap’ Eye Pillow Pattern
• Cotton fabric (I chose fabrics in calming colors like blue, purple and green. Plus some pink for the inside of the cat’s ears)
• Pink and black embroidery floss
• 3 tablespoons of each: dried lavender, chamomile, lemon balm (I ordered in bulk from the SF Herb Company)
• 1 cup flax (purchased from the bulk section at my local grocery store)

Tools:

• Sewing machine & thread
• Fabric scissors
• Pins
• Craft scissors
• Pencil
• Transfer paper
• Iron & ironing board
• Small embroidery hoop
• Needle

Step One: Cut Out Your Pattern

Print out the pattern provided and cut out with craft scissors. Following the instruction on the pattern, cut out all your fabric pieces using fabric scissors. Iron all your pieces flat.

Step Two: Draw the cat face

Pattern piece A is the front of your pillow and also where you will embroider the cat face. Fold your fabric in half and iron. This fold will be your center guide for the face. Lightly sketch the eyes, nose and mouth freehand with a pencil. If drawing freehand isn’t your thing, you can also use transfer paper to trace the cat face directly from the pattern onto the fabric.

Step Three: Embroider the cat face

Cut a length of black embroidery floss and thread it through your needle. Using a Back Stitch, embroider the eyes and mouth of the cat.

Next cut a length of pink embroidery floss and and rethread your needle. Back Stitch the outline of the cat’s nose, then use a Satin Stitch to fill in the outline (note: you’ll notice in the video, she uses a split stitch as an outline instead of the back stitch. Feel free to do either).

Now that your cat face is complete, you can begin sewing your pieces together!

Step Four: Sew the Cat Ears

To sew the cat ears, put two pattern C pieces together, right sides facing in. Use a small pin to hold in place. With your sewing machine (or by hand), sew around the top sides of the ears leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Repeat for the second ear. Turn both ears right side out and press with an iron.

Take pattern piece D and pin to the center of each ear. Sew again along the top sides of each ear, leaving about a ¼” seam allowance.

Step Five: Sew the pillow

Next it’s time to sew all the pillow pieces together. Pin the ears, front side facing down onto the top of the cat face. Be sure to place them equal distance apart from the center. Next place piece B on the top, right side facing down and pin together with piece A.

Sew all the way around, making sure to sew through the edge of the ears, leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Leave about a 2-3” opening at the bottom edge (so we can fill the pillow with the flax and herbs).

Trim notches where indicated on the pattern (be sure not to snip through your stitches) and then turn right side out and press with the iron.

Step Six: Fill the Pillow with Herbs

Add 1 cup of flax plus 3 tablespoons of each herb of your choice. Carefully hand stitch the opening closed.

DIY: Herbal Sachets + Free Sewing Pattern

May 7, 2014 By Rachel

These sachet pillows are a simple sewing project and make gifts or favors for any occasion. The best part is that you can coordinate your fragrant herbs and fabric to match your theme, color palette and season. I chose to use lavender, chamomile and lemon balm for their relaxing effects and fresh spring scent.

Supplies Needed:

• Cotton fabrics (three different colors/patterns of your choice)
• Herbs (I ordered mine in bulk from the San Francisco Herb Co.)
• Tablespoon & funnel
• Sewing machine, thread & pins
• Iron & ironing board
• Sewing scissors
• Kraft scissors
• Free sewing pattern

The first step is to wash and iron your fabric. Then download and print the free sewing pattern. Using kraft scissors, cut out the template pieces. Then pin them to your fabric and cut out with sewing scissors.

Next take your two front triangle pieces and place them together (right sides facing in). Use your sewing machine to sew along the longest side of the triangle leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Iron open to form a square and trim the triangle edges where indicated in photo below.

Place your front and back pieces together, right sides facing in, and sew all the way around with a 1/4” seam allowance. Make sure to leave a 1-inch opening on one side (see photo below for reference).

Trim the corners, making sure not to cut too close to the seam (you don’t want to make a hole in your pillow!)

Turn your pillow right side out using the opening you left and iron flat. I like to use a pencil or pen to push out the corners completely.

Using a funnel, fill your pillow with herbs. I added about 2 tablespoons of each to make a nice plump looking pillow.

The last step is to carefully hand-stitch the opening closed.

DIY: Herbal Sachet Pillow + Free Sewing Pattern #tutorial #spring #craft

Personalized favor tag courtesy of Evermine.com

Note: This DIY was created for Evermine.com. We love collaborating with like-minded companies to create fun DIY projects. Have a product you’d like us to review or share with our readers? Email us at info@adventuresinmaking.com