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Tag Archives: sewing

I make! Mug rug edition

I got the idea to make mug rugs a long time ago as a way to get rid of some of the scrap cloth I have.  Perhaps you’re wondering what exactly is a mug rug.  It’s something like a really small place mat for your mug of delicious beverage (and maybe a delicious snack), or a really large coaster.  I made a test mug rug awhile back during the week of ALL THE PROJECTS and I was quite pleased with the results.

Front

You’ll note that I was able to get rid of a little more of my never ending supply of Powerpuff Girls cloth.

Back.

I basically followed Jan’s tutorial for the mug rug because of it’s simplicity (but I forwent hand sewing the edging down).  Simplicity is key here, because I also ended up doing this with the girls on a Friday night.  And they turned out quite well.

A creation in flannel and corduroy.

Mixed cotton prints and whatever that PPG stuff is made from (pretty sure it’s synthetic).

So there you go, simple enough that jr high and high schoolers with limited sewing experience can do in a few hours.  One of the girls had to leave early and didn’t get a chance to sew the edging down.  Neither did I manage to get a picture of it.  And do you not think that my mug is such a wonderful model?  I’m sure so many agents will clamor to try and get my mug to sign a contract for modeling after seeing this post.

And I’ll be making one for myself eventually.  It’ll be a different pattern.  I’ll post that when I actually get around to making it.

I make! Mustache pillowcase edition

These

Or alternatively…

These.

I made a set of mustache pillowcases for none other than, Sheri!  Super Secret Robot Agent, Wrist Brace Girl–Adventuress Extraordinaire!!  And Guybrush.  I suppose he’s a pretty important player in this whole thing.  Because, you see, these were a wedding gift.  You need two people in order to get married after all.  And in this case, it was Guybrush and Sheri.

Now, I explained last time why the mustaches.  But why the ridiculously bright and clashy lime green and orange?  Well, because of this.  I should have worked in some magenta and royal blue highlights as well.  I forgot.  Darn.  And incidentally, the post I linked to also explains this “Guybrush” business.  Not Guybrush himself, but why I call him such.

This was indeed another of project from the week of ALL THE PROJECTS.  I made them out of flannel, which I don’t particularly like for pillowcase material because it’s kind of a hot material…in that it makes your face all hot when you sleep on it.  I believe pillows should be cool and refreshing.  Yes, you heard me.  Refreshing.

But anyway!  I really had limited choices at the fabric store since I was dead set on making a lime green and orange side to the pillowcases and I still wanted to make the pillowcases out of a natural fiber (it’s 100% cotton flannel, I checked).  Unnatural fibers don’t feel so pleasant on the face when you’re sleeping.  Definitely not refreshing.  Anyhoo, I guess they can break these pillowcases out for the winter when it’s all snowy and cold and they actually want to sleep with hothead.

Hmm…like I said, the pillowcases are made with flannel.  Mustaches are appliqued (appliquéd? appliquéed??) on.  I drew the mustaches on directly on fusible interfacing with the help of some of my large circle templates and then the ironing and cutting and sewing.  I’m rather pleased that this project help me use up pretty much all of my bright orange thread.  It was left over from the propeller mushroom.  Also, I used up all the bright orange bias tape I had, also from the propeller mushroom.

Why bias tape?  To keep the raw edges from fraying.  Why not use a serger?  I couldn’t find it.  It’s been missing for years.  YEARS.  Why not use some other generic finishing stitch on the sewing machine?  Because I would prefer to do that with the cutting foot and I didn’t feel like changing feet on the sewing machine because the generic foot is forever getting lost when I take it off.  Also, I wanted to get rid of the bias tape.  Also also, I was perfecting my technique with bias tape and I think it’s some of the nicest work I’ve ever done with bias tape.  So there.

Anyway, they’re regular sized pillowcases.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have regular sized pillows available when I took pictures.  Meh.

Here they are unstuffed.