Button Earrings

I joined in the Craftaholics Anonymous Gift Swap at the very absolute last minute.

Truth be told it was beyond the last minute, but Linda generously let a few of us in after the deadline. The swap was hosted through Elfster. Its a great site for hosting swaps. I've organized a few on there myself.
I sleuthed out my giftee's pinterest account and found a few pins that inspired what I made for her.

Her style boards are full of some fabulous casual wear and accessories. I decided to go with the theme of "Accessorize." I also tried to color coordinate while still fitting the colors in with the colors she pins most often and making them easy to add to other outfits.
I hope I've nailed her personal style.

I went with two necklaces, 4 pairs of earrings, 2 pairs of hair clips and a chevron infinity scarf.
I bought some earrings like these and I love them. Now that I've made them myself I'll be wearing them all the time, and making them to match my clothes.

I want to show you just how easy the earrings were to make.
On a trip to Joann's Fabrics I picked up a bag of buttons and some earring studs.

Initially I figured I would simply hot glue the buttons to the studs. That didn't hold at all. So on a second trip I picked up some Superglue. (Yes, you can buy this at places other than the craft store, but any excuse is a good excuse. )
I read the instructions on the superglue carefully. This was my first experience with superglue. It lives up to the hype. There was a brief moment where one of my fingers was glued to a button, and another moment where two of my fingers were glued together. The instructions suggest acetone if you accidentally glue yourself to something, fortunately the glue hadn't set and I was able to peel myself off without any damage. But make sure you have some acetone handy Just In Case.

Lay a paper down on your table so you don't accidentally glue anything to the table. You don't need a big paper, I just used an index card.
Turn one of your buttons upside down on your paper. Apply a teeny tiny bit of superglue to the flat part of the earring post. Turn it upside down and press it onto the button. I recommend only holding the post of the earring and not touching the button. Press the post down with your finger for a minute to set the glue.

Let it set for a while before you put the back on or put it on a card. You want the glue to be completely set.

I let mine sit for an hour, but I doubt it needs that long. I just got distracted.
I'm planning on making some for my girls with clip on earring bases.

 If you make some from this tutorial I'd love to see them!

Making a Watermark

A friend of mine lamented over twitter this morning that she wants to be able to add a watermark to photos in photoshop. (Actually she wants to learn more about photoshop, so I foresee more of these posts coming as well)
I know how to do this so I thought I'd share.

But first, a disclaimer for Etsians.
A lot of the times when I'm making a treasury I want to feature something but it has a big fat watermark that ruins the photo. Be tasteful in your watermarks. I personally always crop my images for etsy to be 1000 pixels square. Etsy will crop your image to fit 170 x 135 for the front page, as well as for treasury features. (For the finds it's 200 pixels square)
This means that in order for your watermark to not be shown in the treasury it needs to be in the part of the image that gets cropped out.
If you want to just take treasuries and front page into account and not worry about the finds here is the math:
Figure out how tall your watermark is. Mine's 100px. Multiply that number by 2 (thus 200px) Because Etsy crops evenly on the top and bottom, that is how much you need to extend your image.
A 170 x 135 image becomes 1000 x 794 when enlarged to be 1000px wide. Thus to hide my 100px high watermark I need to make my image 1000 x 994. (But I'm just going to make it square because I like it that way)
Here's what the picture above looks like in a treasury.



Onto watermarking!
The easiest way I have found to watermark is to make a layer that you copy onto every image. Unfortunately you can't save layers in jpeg, gif or png, the three formats Etsy accepts. So make sure you save an unwatermarked version of the image before you save it with the watermark. In case you ever want to go back and change your watermark, crop the image etc etc.
So first we create the image we want for our water mark. To do this we want an invisible layer and a layer with our watermark design on it. (I like using white for my watermarks but you can experiment with other colors, it will be translucent when we are done) Because I like mine white, I like to have a temporary black layer so I can see what I'm working on.

Open a new file. (I made mine square so I can play with how it'll fit on my images)


Make a new layer




Fill that layer in with black


The text tool will automatically make a new layer for your text.


Change the opacity of the layer (This might need to be adjusted after you apply it depending on the brightness of the image)


Delete the black layer


Open the image you want to watermark


Make any adjustments (see my curves layer?)


Drag the watermark layer onto the photo and drop it. Make sure the watermark layer is the very top layer. Move it to where you want it on the image and voila!

Tutorial Grading a Pattern Version 2

Ok so now that you've tried the first way to grade a pattern I'm going to show you an even easier way. This way isn't always appropriate. For instance I find it's better for grading up than it is for grading down... It's much better for larger pattern pieces than it is for smaller ones

I managed to do all this AND blog about it during the girl's nap-time!

First you'll need to collect your supplies: Paper, pencil and your pattern. (Good light helps a ton too)


Lay the paper on top of your pattern and trace the largest size. I also like to trace the next size down so I know how much to adjust between sizes. This is going to be a template for you to use in the next step.


Once you're done tracing, lay the pattern on top of the template. Line up the largest size on the pattern with the second largest size on the template so that you can see where the next size up belongs. Trace the template onto the pattern. You'll need to extend it in the same areas where the size goes up between other sizes - this means you have to do this in sections.


Use this template to extend all the edges that need to be extending (again any edges on the fold doesn't need to be extended)



Voila!

Tutorial - Grading a Pattern Version 1

Grading a sewing pattern means resizing it to fit your needs. I have never been taught how to properly grade a pattern, I sort of worked it out on my own. I've got two methods I use, the first works best for small sizes and small pattern pieces. The second is best for larger pieces - but I'll show you that another time. Both of them are really easy to do. Here's the first method. I'm going to use the Popover Sundress we're sewing in our current Sew Along.

Some of the steps are optional and you should be able to figure out which steps they are on your own, but I will mark them with the words optional step. This is more to give you an insight into my personal processes.

Optional Step 1 Set the kids up with something to distract them


Step 1 - Assemble your supplies. You will need the pattern printed out, scissors, tape, a ruler, and a pencil


Step 2 - Tape the pattern together, matching the letters




Optional Step 2 - Realize that the Toddler should not be within arms reach of the baby while playing with markers


Optional Step 3 - Move her


Step 3 - Look at the pattern and notice how the pattern changes with the different sizes, with this pattern the difference betwen sizes is pretty consistent until you look at size 2T to size 3T. Don't worry too much about that. we're going to take 1/2 inch off of the 2T size. Also notice that the line for the fold does not change with each size.


Step 4 - Using what you learned in step 3 we're going to start editing our pattern. Draw the straight lines. You want to make your changes similar to the ones you see between the sizes that have already been graded.


Step 5 - For curves, mark dots the appropriate distance away from the lines.


Step 6 - Connect the dots


Do this for all the edges that need to be graded. Notice, however, that any pieces that are against the fold, the fold does not change. Only grade the edges that are graded for the other sizes.

Optional Step 3 - Clean up the mess

Tutorial - Shirt Front Placket

First photo



plack·et (plāk'ĭt)
n.
A slit in a dress, blouse, or skirt.


In order to fit a shirt over a head there needs to be some extra give to the neckline. Sometimes this happens because the material has a stretch to it - like with T shirts. Sometimes, with dresses in particular, there's a zipper. Recently I've learned how to make a placket that looks really sharp with a collar. It's like having a button down shirt except the buttons don't go all the way down.


First you need a pattern for your placket. You might be using a store bought pattern or you can figure out the size of the pieces you want. First figure out how long you want the placket to be we're going to call this number Y. You want to make sure you've left enough room for several buttons. You want to cut one rectangle 3" x Y.
The next shape is a little bizarre you can see what it looks like in the following picture. Draw this on paper before cutting into the fabric. Draw a rectangle 3" x (Y+1"). Cut it out and lay it facing you with the longer edges on the left and right and the shorter edges on the top and bottom. Draw a line 1/2" in from the left edge. Mark a point 1" up from the bottom along this line. Mark a point along the bottom 1" in from the right edge. Connect these two points. Mark a point 3/4" up from the bottom along the right edge of the rectangle. Connect this point to the one on the bottom. This will form an arrow, a little lopsided but we're taking some seam allowances into account. Draw a line from the left edge to the first line 1.5" up from the bottom.
This is what it will look like (this photo includes the interfacing which we will do in the next step) :


You need two pieces of interfacing. They're both going to be 1" x (Y-1") Iron them on 1/2" away from the left edge on the weird shaped one and 1/2" away from the right edge on the rectangle.


Line them up along the the right side of the front center as in the photo.

Sew the placket pieces to the front of the dress 1/2" away from the center. Stopping a half inch from the bottom of the rectangle and a half inch from the bottom edge of the other side.


Fold the seam allowance away from the center. and mark a dot a half inch up from the bottom of the rectangle, another dot horizontal and another dot 1/2" up from those two dots along the center. Like this:


Cut the front of the dress along the center line to the dot along the center line then cut from the center dot to each of the side dots. Forming an upsidedown Y.


Fold and iron the seam allowances like you see in the photo.


Now we're going to work on the side with the rectangle attached. So fold down the other side so it's out of the way.
Fold the rectangle in half with the right sides together, interfacing out. Sew just above the interfacing to the seam - which is 1/2" then clip the seam allowances like this:


Turn it right side out and iron


Do the same thing on the other side. This will form the point. You will probably need to fiddle with it to get it nice looking.



Edgesew (sew close to the edge) around the rectangle one. Draw a line an inch and a half up from the bottom point. Edgesew around the sides and top of the pointed one starting and stopping just below the line. Layer the pieces bottom layer, the little triangle flap of the front of the dress, then the top layer. Sew these layers together by sewing across the line you drew and then edgsew around the bottom portion of the placket.

Add button holes and buttons if you're using them. Finish the neck line with whatever collar you want to finish it with.

Tutorial - Making Labels

Now that I'm sewing for my shop, I need to label my stuff. I thought I'd share my label making process here.

Materials (all available at a craft store - twill tape is available at fabric stores):
Printable Iron on Transfer Paper
Computer and Printer
Iron
Scissors
Twill tape (I use 1/2" thickness) or satin ribbon

Directions:
1. You will need to create a design to put on your labels. Something simple which includes your shop name is best. (I decided that since googling my shop name does not bring my shop up in the first 3 hits I would also include the shop address on the labels.) This needs to be slightly slimmer than the twill tape, so if you bought 1/2" twill tape make the image about 3/8"


2. The image needs to be mirrored to print as an iron on transfer. I also highly recommend repeating the image to fill the page. This will waste less of the paper.


3. Print. I like to print on regular paper first to make sure that the image isn't too big for the ribbon. If it is make the necessary adjustments and check again. Assuming everything is how you want it, print on the iron on transfer paper and cut out the images to fit.


4. Carefully place the image face down where you want to iron it on. make sure there is no overlap of the transfer beyond the ribbon.

5. Iron. (Follow the directions on the transfer paper you bought.)

6. Once cooled remove the paper backing and your image should be transfered onto the ribbon.


7. Cut the ribbon to the lengths you want the labels to be.

8. Seal the ends from fraying with heat. To do this: hold a lighter in your right hand and the ribbon in your left. Light the lighter and slowly bring the ribbon towards the flame. You will see the ribbon react to the heat. Be careful not to burn the ribbon (or yourself). The ends of the ribbon will melt and seal themselves from fraying. (if you've never done this before practice a bit before you do this to your labels)

(This shows the difference between a sealed end (left) and a freshly cut unsealed end (right)

9. Sew onto your work!